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Kid Icarus Lands on eShop
It’s week 3 of Nintendo’s 8-Bit Summer, which means another pair of gaming classics has been added to the eShop. This time, players can download Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and Tumble Pop, two old-school platformers first released on the original Game Boy, for $3.99 and $2.99, respectively. The former in particular is notable for being Pit’s last starring role in a Nintendo game until Kid Icarus: Uprising some twenty years (!!) later, so what better way to rediscover the angel’s roots than with this lost title?
In addition to that, a new “game of the weekend” has also been designated. Starting Friday, players can download the popular Game Boy title Mario’s Picross for the (comparatively) low price of $2.99. This deal is only good through Sunday, so if you’ve had your eye on the game, now would be the perfect time to take the plunge.
Source: Nintendo
New Super Mario Bros. 2 Site Opens, Reveals New Feature
With New Super Mario Bros. 2 due to hit store shelves (and the eShop) in about a month from now, Nintendo has begun preparing for its release by opening up the game’s official website.
The site itself is what you’ve come to expect from a typical Nintendo game site, with some brief new footage of the game (including its opening cutscene) interspersed among its pages, but what’s particularly interesting about this one is that it reveals a hitherto-unknown feature of New Super Mario Bros. 2. It seems that in addition to allowing you to exchange data with other players via StreetPass, you can also use SpotPass to add your coins to the “Worldwide Coin Total.” Just what this means will likely be made clear in the weeks leading up to the game’s release, but it’s interesting to think that Nintendo will be keeping a running tally of all the coins collected by people around the world. They certainly weren’t kidding when they said it was all about the coins.
Source: Official site
New DLC Announced for Fire Emblem
The latest installment of Fire Emblem (known as Fire Emblem: Awakening in Japan and Europe) is quickly turning into a “who’s who” of series heroes: first Marth made his unexpected appearance in the title, then a whole host of other characters (including his Smash Bros. compatriot, Roy) followed suit. Now it seems Ike will also be joining the fray, as he is the latest add-on hero that Japanese fans can download to their games.
Like each previous character, Ike costs 400 yen (roughly $5 USD) to purchase and comes with his own character-specific mission to play through (as well as a new battle skill). There’s no word on which, if any, of the current heroes will brought over to other territories, but given Ike’s familiarity to American audiences (he starred in both GameCube and Wii iterations of the series, not to mention was one of the newcomers added to Super Smash Bros. Brawl), it seems likely that at least he will be making his way stateside when the game is released early next year.
Source: Nintendo (via Operation Rainfall)
It’s pretty upsetting that Nintendo has decided to join the “downloadable content” phase that has left a bad taste in so many a gamer mouth across the globe.
Of all companies, I really didn’t expect Nintendo to join in on the fray. I mean – it’s Fire Emblem. Why not give everyone all the characters for the price of the game? It would serve as much more sincere promotion that would result in a lot more sincere hype for the title.
I’ve never seen Ike cross paths with Marth and Roy in the previous Fire Emblem games – but hey – what the hell – we can make five bucks.
For me, supporting games like this is just bad form. Soon, it’ll be $60 for the disc the game comes on, and then, throughout your playing experience, if you want to advance to the next chapter (and collect all the chapters in the game) it’ll cost you another $60 – but – you know – in $5 increments.
Again, really sad to see Nintendo jump on this bandwagon. Just like the “let’s make a new 2D Mario game every year – and change only the most trivial of details every time around!” I thought Nintendo was smarter than this. They seemed to get it right after the video game crash – that making a concentrated and distinct effort each time around was key on building a franchise. What is this now? Cash in time?