ShareThis
Welcome to another episode of Industry Chatter. With Gamescom been and gone there have been several new announcements to wade through over the past couple of weeks. But even though Nintendo didn’t make a particularly big splash at Gamescom, we still have game announcements galore for you this week, so let’s see what the big N has in store for us over the coming months.
Two More 3DS Games Delayed
With the recent cancellations of Mega Man Legends 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Lost Legacy still fresh in the minds of many 3DS owners, it would seem that third party support for 3DS is waning. But while there’s no news of any more cancellations this week (yet), the slow sales of Nintendo’s new handheld is certainly putting pressure on developers.
As reported by Nintendo World Report, developer Natsume (best known for Harvest Moon and Rune Factory) has had to delay two of its upcoming games for 3DS until October. The titles in question are Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns and Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove. This is primarily due to the poor performance of the handheld since its launch earlier this year, but Natsume has also stated that it thought it would be more fitting for Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove in particular to coincide with Halloween given its spooky premise.
Hideo Kojima Teases Zone of the Enders 3DS
It’s not all doom and gloom on the 3DS front though. Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise, tweeted recently that he “found this on Omori-kun’s desk”:
While no official announcement has been made regarding the development of a new Z.O.E game, you’ll be able to see in the background of this picture what appears to be “Z.O.E 3DS”. As 1up.com reported back in 2009, Kojima has promised fans that he will make Zone of the Enders 3 someday, so perhaps the wait might finally be over!
Super Mario Land 2 and Metroid II Coming to 3DS eShop
If you’ve already run-and-jumped your way through the first Super Mario Land when the eShop first launched on 3DS at the beginning of June then you’re in luck. Before the year is out you’ll be able to download the second game in the SML series, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. The same goes for Metroid II: Return of Samus, the only Metroid game to be released for Game Boy, but we’ll have to wait a little longer for specific release dates.
Mega Man X2 Receives Rating for Wii Virtual Console
The ESRB has given an E rating to Mega Man X2, meaning that North American gamers may well be seeing it appear on their Wii’s Virtual Console at some point in the near future. Again, no official release date has been announced yet, but it’s highly likely it’s on its way.
Little King’s Story Jumps Ship to PlayStation Vita
It has been announced that Little King’s Story, a rather underappreciated Wii RPG from 2009, will be coming to PlayStation Vita. At its pre-Tokyo Games Show press conference, Konami revealed that it will be publishing an entirely new installment for the series.
Developed by Marvellous Entertainment, the new Little King’s Story will make use of Vita’s unique specifications and graphical capabilities, and it also looks as though it will feature a decidedly older “little King.”
Pokémon Trading Card Game Goes Online
It’s no secret that we’re all huge Pokémon fans here at Nintendojo– in fact, just a few weeks ago fellow staffers James and Noah were discussing the closed beta of Pokemon Trading Card Game Online in Episode 155 of Dojo-Show-Go!, and August 25th marked the day this closed beta was officially declared open.
This means that you’ll now be able to join in card-based battles with people all over the world when you sign up for an account. The open beta also coincides with the launch of the Black & White Emerging Powers theme decks and booster packs, and these feature special codes you can use to gain hidden cards in the online beta.
To check out the beta for yourself, head on over to pokemontcg.com.
And that about wraps it up for this week’s Industry Chatter. Are you excited about any of these releases? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below. Of course, there are also rumours flying back and forth regarding Nintendo’s mysterious September press conference right before the Tokyo Game Show with speculation ranging from a 3DS redesign to the possibility of a new additional circle pad for 3DS, but my fellow staffers have already beaten me to it in Episode 157 of Dojo-Show-Go!, so be sure to join in the debate over in the comments section.
I’ve been playing the TCG Online game for the past couple of days, and it’s been surprisingly fun, aside from some lag issues when the gates first open. It even makes me want to buy Pokémon cards to import, which I guess is the point … Though nothing will fill the gap in my soul that is Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color.
Also, it’s too bad more people didn’t play Little King’s Story. It was really a charming game.
I quite liked Little King’s Story, but whenever I played it I couldn’t help but think I’d rather be playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King instead… I didn’t like not being able to plan where my buildings went (and the amount of times I accidentally sent expensive hunters into the farmer hut was ridiculous), but I did like being able to explore the world alongside my party of citizens. In fact, if Little King’s Story and My Life as a King combined Captain Planet style, it would probably be the best ‘little king’ sim ever made.