Tiny Cartridge

Tag Results

**Iwata Attorney and Monster Hunter 4 XLs**

The highlights from this morning’s Ace Attorney 5 and Monster Hunter 4-centered Nintendo Direct in Japan! As you can probably tell from the limited edition hardware release date, Monster Hunter 4 will ship to Japanese stores on September 14 (with a demo coming out on July 25). You can watch a new trailer for the game below:

Yakuza Direct

I was watching the US Nintendo Direct yesterday, so I missed this significant development in Nintendo Direct Gesture Semiotics over in the Japanese stream, with Satoru Iwata and Sega CCO Toshihiro Nagoshi revealing the Yakuza-themed Ring Flash Direct. GIF via HN3DS, because I tried and failed to make one of my own. :(

It’s to signify the announcement of the Yakuza 1&2 HD Collection coming to Wii U, an announcement that somehow manages to be both totally minor and totally desperate. Like, Yakuza’s a big deal in Japan, but these are old games, and even the HD versions came out on PS3 back in December…

The good news is that since Nintendo of America is also desperate for Wii U games, maybe we’ll get the collection over here! Both have been translated, after all (and Yakuza 1 fully localized with English voices).

I love the Yakuza games. Part RPG, part soap opera, part tourism, part brawler, part absolute nonsense…

PREORDER upcoming releases

Nintendo Direct’s 3DS highlights

There was a minimal amount of 3DS news in this morning’s Nintendo Direct (you could say the same about interesting Wii U announcements), but I was happy to hear a couple minor but nice items about the eShop.

First, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons will sell for only $4.99 each during its first three weeks on the storefront (starting May 30). After that, the Game Boy Color releases will go for $5.99 each.

And there’s over a dozen more Game Gear titles coming to 3DS Virtual Console:

Columns
Crystal Warriors
Defenders of Oasis
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
G-LOC: Air Battles
Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya
Sonic Blast
Sonic Drift 2
Sonic Labyrinth
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Tails Adventure
Vampire: Master of Darkness

The other 3DS announcements today:

**Nintendo Direct, Black Boxes, & New Leaf 3DSes**

Nintendo will stream two presentations for North America and Europe tomorrow at 10AM ET, focusing on the 3DS. I expect the company will go over previously discussed items like the upcoming Miiverse 3DS update, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Pokémon X and Y, etc.

Hints of other potential announcements have popped up in the past two days, too, like UK retailer ShopTo listing a limited edition Animal Crossing: New Leaf 3DS XL bundle, and the re-appearance of Level-5’s mystery black box (Guild02? Fantasy Life?! Time Travelers?!!!).

Who knows, maybe Square Enix will swoop in to steal the show with a Bravely Default localization reveal. Anything is possible if you believe.

PREORDER Animal Crossing: New Leaf ($5 OFF, June 9), upcoming games

Satoru Iwata in a fried shrimp hat

Here’s the key takeaway from this morning’s special Nintendo Direct presentation for Tomodachi Collection 3DS.

The Nintendo CEO and president didn’t actually put on a shrimp hat — this was a virtual overlay that popped up after some kind of fashion show in the game that showed off an “Ebi Fried Kaburimono” outfit. I’ve no idea what’s going on in this game, but it sounds like something that I would be down to play, or at least spend weeks sharing Tumblr-posted screenshots from.

BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming releases

Tomodachi Collection 3DS XL & Mint x White 3DS XL

Announced during a special mini Nintendo Direct tonight, both of these come out on April 18, concurrent with the Japanese release date of Tomodachi Collection.

Also! A Tomodachi Collection-themed Nintendo Direct means…

Mii Direct Gesture returns!

BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming releases

Nintendo livestreamed a Japanese presentation this morning dedicated to third-party 3DS releases, and while we didn’t receive any new game announcements, we did get to see a Tomodachi Collection version of company boss Satoru Iwata doing the illuminati/”Direct” gesture.

Other small news items from this morning’s Nintendo Direct:

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color) coming to Japanese 3DS Virtual Console on 2/27
Tomodachi Collection: New Life hits Japan on April 18
Youkai Watch looks pretty neat
We got to hear Iwata say “Kamehameha” while showing Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission
Guild02 will be released as three separate downloadable games on eShop instead of as a retail cart
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for 3DS can play online through Wii Us that have a wired connection to the Internet via the LAN adapter (and a free downloadable Wii U app)

So, we didn’t get any megatons, but at least the 3DS is already at a point where it has a very strong slate of upcoming games, so it’s not in a PS Vita-like situation after Monday’s lackluster Vita Heaven event.

PREORDER Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for 3DS/Wii U (save $20 when you buy both)

eShop Direct

Tons of eShop stuff came out of Nintendo Direct this morning in North America/Europe. The 1.5 “Direct” gestures came out of Japan’s (thanks for the GIFs, Herro Nintendo 3DS).

Videos and dates and stuff:

Nintendo Direct this morning

Nintendo will deliver three regional Nintendo Direct presentations today simultaneously at 9AM ET, which you can watch at the following links:

The planned topics include 3DS and Wii U games, and based on private video thumbnails on Nintendo’s Youtube account found by JosiahB, we know Fire Emblem: Awakening, LEGO City Undercover, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (!!!) will likely be discussed.

We also know that Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata will wear a Luigi hat during the presentation, which makes sense considering Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon releases soon. But the company might have more announcements for the tall brother, considering it’s previously said that “2013 is going to be the year of Luigi.”

The Michelangelo painting above comes from Fighting Freak Knuckles with this excerpt from the Bible:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not go without Animal Crossing.”

- Reggie 3:16

PREORDER Animal Crossing: New Leaf, upcoming games

Wind Waker HD, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, more

So both of us were out during this morning’s Nintendo Direct, so I’m going to link to Joystiq’s rad writeups of the Nintendo Direct that was, in objective terms, cray cray.

Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem for Wii U, what
New Monolith Soft game for Wii U
Yoshi Wii U game by Good-Feel
New Wii U Zelda game and Wind Waker remake
New Mario Kart, new 3D Mario
Wii U Virtual Console coming with spring update (won’t include full lineup, you can re-buy your Wii VC games for $1-$1.50 each…)

Those of you hoping for a Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon release date came away from this morning’s Nintendo Direct disappointed, but the livestream did give us this look at the game’s new U.S. cover. So, there’s that.

And in the presentation held across the pond, Nintendo of Europe president Satoru Shibata had the following to say:

“[Mario] maybe needs a little holiday in 2013. And maybe he will have the chance now as Luigi is finally ready to step out of Mario’s shadow in 2013. 2013 is going to be the year of Luigi. It’s going to start with Luigi’s Mansion 2.”

I wonder what plans the company has in mind?

PREORDER Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon

Fire Emblem Awakening releases February 4

Yay, this is coming much sooner than I expected, and it almost makes up for the lack of concrete release dates for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (Spring 2013) and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (second quarter of 2013). Europe, unfortunately, will have to wait until April for the new Fire Emblem.

This afternoon’s Nintendo Direct was light on 3DS news, but we did hear that Rhythm Hunter: HarmoKnight, the latest game from Pokemon studio Game Freak, is headed to the U.S. eShop. There are also two new premium Coin Rush packs for New Super Mario Bros. 2.

Don’t forget that you can check up on upcoming game releases on this convenient page we set up.

BUY Fire Emblem games
IMAGE VIA Kazerai