Nintendo Okie

Check out this trailer for ShootMania: Storm.  I have been on the fence on how well a first-person shooter based on user generated levels could work but this stuff look crazy!  Granted you can make anything look good in a trailer but this bumped ShootMania way up in my mind.  The dubstep music helps too. 

NPD numbers are used to track the sale of games across retailers throughout North America.  They’re supposed to gauge how well a game is doing and find any trends in the industry.  Many people have criticized those numbers as not being the complete picture because they don’t include all retailers, including some of the biggest ones like Walmart.  That’s all about to change.

An NPD staff member has said that beginning with the May sales numbers, Walmart will be included.  That should give a much more complete idea of how well a game is selling.  Walmart is a huge part of the game sales business and without their numbers people really have to make an educated guess as to how well different titles are performing.

The demo for Supervillain Studios’ game Order Up! was supposed to hit the eShop today.  If you visited the eShop looking for the demo you might have noticed that it wasn’t available.  It was pushed back to next week with no mention by Nintendo.  The guys over at Supervillian have now officially said why it was delayed.

“We have just received word that the demo is being pushed back a week on the eShop, as Nintendo is apparently going to get behind it for a bit of a push, which would be awesome! No specifics, but either way, expect the demo next week, and the game is now approved, so it should be hitting the eShop in early June.”

It looks like Nintendo wants to get the word out about the game.  That’s something I can get behind.  I really like this renewed focus by Nintendo on their digital markets.  The WiiWare and DSiWare stores lacked a lot of features and were really a mess more than anything else.  The eShop shows Nintendo is really changing the way that they look at their digital markets and I like that they’re going to possibly be putting some marketing muscle behind some of these digital games.

All you Mighty Switch Force fans rejoice as the new content will be available this Thursday, May 24th. It will include five new levels, enhancements to the 3D and a new, fast-restart button.

I’ve played all the levels currently available in the game and set par times on a handful of them. I’m really looking forward to seeing the new content and I’ll be downloading it as soon as it’s available.

E3 takes place June 5th through the 7th this year and there will be coverage all over the internet. Heck, even we’re going to have impressions and trailers posted all over the site for many of the games shown at the event. Nintendo’s press conference takes place at 9:00am PST and will be available for viewing at Nintendo’s E3 site. If you prefer TV then both Spike TV and MTV2 will be showing the event commercial free. There will also be a stream of the press conference on Facebook.

“We don’t want anyone to miss the energy and excitement of this year’s E3 Expo.  By offering different ways to tune in and follow all the Nintendo news, we aim to make fans all over the world feel like they’re right there with us at the show.” – Cindy Gordon, Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs

Here is a list of all the ways that you’ll be able to view Nintendo’s Press Conference that day.

The Official Nintendo E3 Page (http://e3.nintendo.com)
Live on Television via Spike TV and MTV2
Nintendo’s Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/Nintendo)
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/nintendo)
Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/NintendoAmerica) will be live-tweeting the event.

We’ll have plenty of coverage of many of the games shown off that day beginning in the early afternoon through the evening along with our thoughts of the games as we see them. Of course we’ll have plenty of pre-E3 coverage with a round table on Monday from the crew talking about what they hope to see at the event, followed by another round table on Friday with our thoughts as we wrap up coverage of E3 this year.

The internet has been all ablaze over the last few days because of the image above. It apparently was an image leaked by a TT Games employee through his Twitter account. It shows what is rumored to be the redesigned Wii U Controller that Nintendo will be showing off next month at E3.

The picture shows the new analog sticks replacing the Circle Pads that were present on the device last year. Some of the buttons, like the + and – buttons being moved over to the right side of the screen and two mysterious squares on the face now. What these are is only speculation, but it’s rumored (and in no way confirmed) that the one by the Home button is to sync the controller and the one under the d-pad is the Near Field Communication area.  It also appears that the controller will charge using the same cable as the DSi and the 3DS.  Convenient that.

System Development Consultant Erlend Wollan confirmed today that the employee who leaked the image has been fired and there could be court action taken against him for breaking the NDA with Nintendo. Does the serious action taken against this employee confirm that this is the final design of the Wii U controller? I think it does, but that’s just my opinion.

Club Nintendo coins are familiar to anyone that buys Nintendo games. The insert comes in every first-party game, and some third-party titles. You enter the code in Club Nintendo and you earn coins that can be used to purchase rewards from an online catalog. Well, a patent that was made back in 2010 reveals Nintendo is thinking of some interesting ways to track those coins.

The little inserts that are in the cases would be removed and instead the code would be on the package itself. When the cashier at a store scans your game, the information automatically goes to Club Nintendo and the coins are added to your account. Accounts that have several duplicate registrations would be flagged and potentially removed.

The most interesting part of the patent could potentially be a way for Nintendo to discourage trade-ins and help them combat used game sales. Should you decide that you don’t like the game and you return it to the store, those coins would be removed from your account. If you decided to actually spend the coins from that purchase through Club Nintendo, you would not be allowed to return the game to the store.

Is this a way for Nintendo to combat used games and piracy? Would any of this discourage you from returning games to the store in any way?

Fresh off the heels of their hugely anticipated RPG Xenoblade Chronicles, developer Monolith Soft has another project on their hands.  According to a report from Andriasang they are the team that is behind the development of Project X Zone.  The game is a collaboration between Namco Bandai, SEGA, and Capcom, but the actual development work is being handled by the Nintendo subsidiary.  This isn’t the first time the studio has handled another company’s project.  They were actually the ones responsible for games like Namco X Capcom a few years ago.

If you don’t know what Project X Zone is, it’s a strategy RPG that stars characters from the rosters of stars of the different companies.  We’re not even sure the game will make it over to North America, but I would wager it probably will.  Stranger things have happened.

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I’m one of those people that doesn’t like to play Mario Kart 7 online.  People found shortcuts to exploit and continually pick those same tracks over and over again in order to win every race.  Previously, this meant the online experience for a Nintendo game was one that would last a short period of time and then be ruined for the people that just wanted to have fun.  Well, Nintendo has realized the internet exists and that games can be fixed when these exploits are found.

If you log on to the eShop you can download the patch for Mario Kart 7, which will remove the shortcuts from tracks like Maka Wuhu, Wuhu Mountain Loop and Bowser’s Castle 1.  These glitches would allow people to jump off the track and be returned at a point considerably further ahead than they were.  The patch will only remove the exploit from online play, but they will remain in the offline modes like Time Trials.  I assume because Nintendo didn’t want to have to erase the times of people who earned them legitimately.

Download the patch and get to playing online with the knowledge that people can’t cheat their way to victory anymore.  I played around with it last night and tried using the exploits only to lose horribly.

Well, in reality it’s one new title and an update to a current one. During a recent Nintendo Direct video, Nintendo of Japan announced they will be bringing an AR Pokemon game to the 3DS and they would be updating the Pokedex to feature all of the Pokemon currently available.

Today, Nintendo of America announced those games would be coming over here to celebrate the launch of Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2. Sometime this fall Pokemon Dream Radar and Pokedex 3D Pro will be hitting the eShop. The former uses the Nintendo 3DS cameras and allows you to catch Pokemon in real world environments. Those captured monsters can then be transferred into the RPG series. You’ll use the 3D camera and the gyroscope controls to shoot beams at pokemon in order to catch them. Nintendo even says there will be some very hard to find creatures so you’ll have plenty of incentive to capture them.

Pokedex 3D Pro is a paid update to the currently free Pokedex that will update it to include all 600+ pokemon that are currently available making it even easier to access the useful information. This pokedex will feature all of the characters in full 3D and will have comprehensive entries that will give you information on what they can learn, their strenghts and weaknesses. Best of all, every pokemon will be unlocked from the start with no need to revisit the software everyday to unlock more.

The release date and pricing of these titles have not yet been announced for North America.