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Breaking news from hamburger stationary
I’m considering setting up some kind of newsletter service in my Animal Crossing: New Leaf town to deliver Tiny Cartridge articles, kind of like how our Twitter and Facebook auto-post stuff from the site. Not really, but that’s the dream.
@ErrorJustin sent this note to Mint, who Nookipedia tells me is a snooty, squirrel villager. I wonder what she thinks of the news. I wonder if anyone playing New Leaf cares, or if we’re all too busy having fun with our cute portable game to worry about whatever’s going on with next-generation home consoles.
BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Xbox One, upcoming games
Get New Leaf’s Best Buy DLC without leaving home
Best Buy has a set of exclusive Animal Crossing: New Leaf items you can grab via StreetPass if you visit the retailer’s locations. Not everyone has a Best Buy nearby (and not everyone wants to visit the store), though, so here’s a workaround posted by Link.
You’ll need to do some fiddling with your router:
- Change the SSID on your router to “Bestbuy” — this is case sensitive, so make sure it looks just like that without the quotes (you can also use tethering on your cell phone)
- Make sure you can connect to it via your wifi settings
- You should get an indicator on your 3DS homescreen signaling that you’re connected to a Nintendo Zone
- You do NOT need to load up Nintendo Zone; simply boot up New Leaf, go to the post office, and ask Pelly for your present to grab the DLC
And repeat every other week until August! Thanks to Animekatt for the screenshot of the Raccoon Wall-clock.
BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, AC:NL guide, upcoming games
Masayuki Doi, art director for Shin Megami Tensei IV
You might have read about this shirt if you spotted USgamer’s chat with Doi. Before our own E3 interview with him (expect notes from that soon!), a fellow from Nintendo stopped by to take a photo of the artist for social media promotion purposes. I don’t think the shot ever went online — maybe that’s still in the queue, or perhaps the tee was too hot to handle for the family-friendly company.
If you’d like to rock this Monica Bellucci design yourself, Dolce & Gabbana is selling the shirt for $275. There are much cheaper prices on eBay, but I presume those are counterfeits.
Speaking of replicas and wearing other people’s designs, I showed Doi my Animal Crossing: New Leaf character wearing one of his SMTIV samurai outfits, and he was absolutely delighted with the whole thing. Maybe I’ll have my character wear this Monica shirt too, since it will be cheaper to get it from the Able Sisters than Dolce & Gabbana.
PREORDER Shin Megami Tensei IV, upcoming games
Ecco the Dolphin, Galaxy Force II coming to 3DS
Two more classics coming to Sega’s line of 3D-enhanced eShop games! Ecco the Dolphin releases in Japan next week with the usual additions (button remapping, Japanese and international ROM options, various screen, and multiple screen/audio settings), along with mid-level saving and a “Super Dolphin” invincibility mode. Galaxy Force II will hit the eShop at a later date.
Sega is expected to eventually bring its 3D eShop releases to the West eventually, though no dates have been announced. There’s already a PEGI rating in Europe for 3D Ecco the Dolphin.
Anamanaguchi on Fallon/Late Night
I finally had a chance to catch these guys live at the Echoplex in LA last week, and dudes tore it up. Seriously, it was unreal. See these guys live. I thought I liked Endless Fantasy just a bit, but then I lost my mind when they performed “Prom Night”.
Much thanks to Adam from Attract Mode/LA Game Space for hooking me up with last-minute tickets (and for a billion other things).
Oh, and video might take half a minute to load because Hulu.
BUY Endless Fantasy and other Anamanaguchi albums
Free-to-play Steel Diver in the works
Nintendo has floated around the idea of testing a free-to-play game for a while now — though it’s hesitant to try it out with Mario or Pokemon, due to fears of devaluing those franchises — but it’s finally revealed the unlikely series it’s tinkering with: 3DS launch title (and DS tech demo) Steel Diver.
I’m actually happy this is the game the company picked, as it seems like a throwaway series, and I actually really enjoyed Steel Diver when it came out. Check out these GIFs from H3DS — doesn’t that look fun? The problem was it’s hella short and doesn’t feel worth the $40 Nintendo initially asked for it. Even when it was discounted to $20, that still seemed too expensive. You can now get it for like $5 if you look around.
And soon, you’ll be able to get it for nothing! Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN, “We’re exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint - it’s going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting.”
The company hopes to show off the free-to-play submarine game “really soon”, though it’s still trying to figure out a pricing model for the project. Apparently there will be a packaged version of the new Steel Diver, though it’s unclear how that would work out. We still don’t know if this is for 3DS or Wii U or Sega Saturn or what.
BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming games
![How PS Vita’s indie games kicked 3DS’s butt at E3
As I roamed the halls of E3 last week, searching out obscure gems and an elusive Umihara Kawase 3DS demo, I kept returning to a particular section of the expo: Sony’s PS Vita booth.
I didn’t care that Sony’s press conference did little to convince worried PS Vita owners that big hits are on the way, or that Phantasy Star Online 2 was a no-show, or that one of the primary reasons why I checked out so many of the handheld’s games was the lack of lines to try them out (it’s not like Killzone Mercenary or Dragon’s Crown draw the kind of crowds Nintendo’s major franchises bring in). Really, the booth was just that great.
Dozens of PS Vita demo stations filled the space, hosting rows and rows of big-budget and indie titles. I believe more than 30 PS Vita games were available to try out on the show floor, a stark contrast from Nintendo’s booth mere steps away, where the 3DS zone offered a scant selection of playable first-party titles (The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and Yoshi’s New Island) on a limited number of units.
People often criticize Nintendo consoles for offering nothing beyond their first-party hits, and though it’s an assessment I don’t agree with, 3DS’s showing at E3 this year lent those arguments credence. Where were the upcoming Japanese RPGs? What about the quirky eShop games? Why didn’t we see even one of Square Enix’s three Japan-only Dragon Quest 3DS games at the expo? Maybe Nintendo put all of its focus on Wii U software for this E3, and purposely wanted to keep its 3DS offerings light?
While Sony packed its booth with almost every PS Vita game coming out in the near future, if you wanted to play the few third-party 3DS titles companies brought to the show, you had to seek out their demo stations scattered across the Los Angeles Convention Center. It didn’t help that big publishers tend to deemphasize their handheld titles, sticking a demo unit or two in a corner (there were several exceptions, like Atlus with Shin Megami Tensei IV, and Capcom with Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies).
My point is that Sony made an effort to demonstrate that PS Vita has plenty of games on the way — it’s due to receive up to 85 new titles by the end of the year. And the company also made the argument that PS Vita might have the strongest line-up of indies bringing their games to the system. I mean, just picking out a few ports that were available to play at E3, you have Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Runner2, Luftrausers, and Aban Hawkins & the 1,001 Spikes.
And Sony made a point to have the developers behind these titles available to talk to you about their PS Vita games. Derek Yu peeked over my shoulder to tell me how awful I was at his Spelunky port when I couldn’t make it past the first three stages. Then the fellows from Curve Studios guided me through Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark (formerly Stealth Bastard) whenever I got stuck in one of the puzzle-platformer’s obstacles.
Never mind that many of the games are brought over from other platforms; that didn’t make them any less fun to someone who hadn’t played them, or played them very little, before. And its not like there weren’t new and original PS Vita titles to play — Media Molecule’s Tearaway was charming, PlayStation C.A.M.P.’s Open Me curious, Richard Hogg and Honeyslug’s Hohokum intriguing, Ys: Memories of Celceta promising, and Roll7’s OlliOlli super fun.
The message from Sony and its booth was clear: if you don’t want to miss out on unique portable games, and if you want to play the best indie games on a handheld, you will need to own a PS Vita. I didn’t really have any takeaways from the 3DS side, unless you consider me enjoying the Zelda: A Link Between Worlds demo a strong declaration.
I talked to several developers about how Sony managed to bring so many indies to its portable, and they all mentioned the platform holder’s increased efforts in the last year to court smaller studios, whether it’s making it easy for them to create games on the system, or just showing them that PS Vita is the right ecosystem they want to release their titles to. They also told me that a big part of it is Sony has recruited key people who are passionate about games and about bringing quality releases to PS Vita.
That’s not to say there aren’t people like that at Nintendo of America — the company has actually come a long way in making its consoles more approachable to indies, doing away with archaic restrictions that prevented them from even creating games on its consoles, letting developers adjust prices and release updates, and making the eShop more friendly to people looking to discover new experiences.
Nintendo’s 3DS section at E3
I was also pleased to spot the company’s business development head Dan Adelman, who seems to have driven so many of those positive changes (or at least been the face for them), last week at Horizon, the “alternative E3 press conference” that featured announcements from indie developers like Capy (Sword & Sworcery, Below) and Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy). I don’t think he was there to secure exclusives or anything, but it’s nice that Nintendo is keeping an interested eye on the indie scene.
Still, if I was to base the status of these competing handhelds from what I saw at E3, ignorant of their hardware/software sales, I’d argue that Nintendo has a long way to go to catch up to what PS Vita is doing with indies.
When I visited Sony’s booth the first time, I thought, “Wow, it’s a shame few people are buying a PS Vita and will be able to play these games on a portable.” By my fifth visit (I only checked out the 3DS booth twice), I came away thinking, “I wish so many of these games would come to 3DS. Why aren’t they?”
[All E3 photos courtesy of JasonTheGamer]
Additional E3 3DS notes:
I never did find that rumored Umihara Kawase 3DS demo, presumably shown in a closed meeting room
Aksys didn’t bring Hakuouki: Memories of the Shinsengumi because visual novels don’t make for great E3 demos
Seriously, no Dragon Quest announcements?
No Level-5 announcements either
Style Savvy fans might want to check out Rising Star’s Girls’ Fashion Shoot (Nicola Kanshuu: Model * Oshare Audition 2 in Japan)
I wish I had time to try out Rune Factory 4’s non-combat portions
Beyblade: Evolution was fun surprisingly; I’d never played any games in the series previously
I might have to buy Shin Megami Tensei IV for the localization
Hometown Story really does have that Harvest Moon feel — looking forward to this
D3P wasn’t ready to show the new Regular Show or Adventure Time 3DS games yet
BUY PS Vita, upcoming games](http://25.media.tumblr.com/0ab0f222f54230acbcb36d3be7cdd1bd/tumblr_molknfHDQy1qzp9weo1_1280.jpg)
How PS Vita’s indie games kicked 3DS’s butt at E3
As I roamed the halls of E3 last week, searching out obscure gems and an elusive Umihara Kawase 3DS demo, I kept returning to a particular section of the expo: Sony’s PS Vita booth.
I didn’t care that Sony’s press conference did little to convince worried PS Vita owners that big hits are on the way, or that Phantasy Star Online 2 was a no-show, or that one of the primary reasons why I checked out so many of the handheld’s games was the lack of lines to try them out (it’s not like Killzone Mercenary or Dragon’s Crown draw the kind of crowds Nintendo’s major franchises bring in). Really, the booth was just that great.
Dozens of PS Vita demo stations filled the space, hosting rows and rows of big-budget and indie titles. I believe more than 30 PS Vita games were available to try out on the show floor, a stark contrast from Nintendo’s booth mere steps away, where the 3DS zone offered a scant selection of playable first-party titles (The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and Yoshi’s New Island) on a limited number of units.
♫ I want to take you far from the cynics in this town ♫
I love writing silly, personal notes to my Animal Crossing: New Leaf neighbors, like this one Yas sent to her friend Chas. I hope you write these kind of letters too, so I can see them when I visit your town and your neighbors show off their favorite correspondences.
There have been a lot of thoughtful Animal Crossing articles posted online lately, here and on other sites. I collected a few of them for those of you who wanted to give them a read. There’s a bunch of race/gender stuff, which I hear you guys love leaving comments about:
- Me, On The Screen: Race in Animal Crossing: New Leaf
- The courtesy of being misgendered in Animal Crossing
- Crossing a Line: Gender Identity in Animal Crossing
- The Animal Crossing: New Leaf experience
- A special Animal Crossing podcast from Tiny Cartridge
I feel like our Animal Crossing tag has been killing it, but I dunno, maybe that’s just me.
BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, AC:NL guide, upcoming games
Mother of God, new StreetPass games and Mii outfits
You should be able to download a firmware update to your 3DS (v6.0.0-11) today — along with the usual stability fixes and flashcart blocking, it allows you to now back up saves for digital games and 3DS Virtual Console titles from the main menu. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are supported.
But the big news is that, at least in Europe and Japan right now, the new firmware allows you to update Mii Plaza with a shop that sells four games for €5 (around $7) each, or €15 ($20) for all of them:
- StreetPass Squad (Shoot’em up-style game using Miis as upgrades)
- StreetPass Garden (Move into a house, grow flowers, and decorate a garden)
- StreetPass Battle (Strategy game, build a StreetPass army and conquer the world)
- StreetPass Mansion (Solve a paranormal mystery in a haunted house)
You can get new hats (like a Pixel Mario cap) and even outfits as rewards from the game, according to Cosmonaut X’s notes. The app appears to be crashing a bit, according to a few reports — hopefully that’s fixed for when this releases in the U.S.?
BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming games
Yes, you are, Wii Fit Trainer
I’m not sure about the original source for this. And I don’t know why there’s a hashtag here, or why this is a blinking GIF instead of a straight-up JPG. But I do know that when I play as the Wii Fit Trainer, I’m going to be yelling out “Bitch I’m fabulous!” whenever I dodge attacks.
PREORDER Super Smash Bros. for Wii U & Nintendo 3DS, upcoming games
Important Game Center CX news!
So Arino and the Game Center CX staff held a 10th anniversary press conference, which you can see translated above. They announced a number of items, including a GCCX feature film, a soundtrack release for July, and an upcoming visit to Paris’s Japan Expo next month (which will be used for another overseas episode!).
I wouldn’t be surprised if this video is taken down soon, so I’ll go over the two big items from the video here.
New details about GCCX/Retro Game Challenge 3DS:
- Bandai Namco aims to publish it this winter in Japan, though there’s no guarantee it will release this year.
- It’s developed by G.Rev — yes, that G.Rev (Senke no Ronde) — not by IndiesZero, which made the last two GCCX games.
- This won’t be a strict shoot’em up! The concept should stay the same, “featuring the kind of Famicom-style games” past GCCX releases have offered.
- GCCX for 3DS will include shoot’em ups, though, of course, since that’s what G.Rev is known for.
The Game Center CX movie:
- This will debut in Japan in early spring 2014.
- There are few details about the plot, though Arino is expected to take on the role of the Kacho, taking on game-related challenges as he does on the show, along with other elements mixed in.
- “We really want to make a movie for the fans of our show, the people in their 30s-40s who love the Famicom.”
- “If I had to make a catch phrase for the movie, now, it would be ‘We want to make a movie like Always - Sunset on Third Street’ for Famicom fans.”
Amazing things are happening in the world right now.
BUY Retro Game Challenge, Retro Game Master DVD set ($10 off!)
“You had a 50/50 chance. You weren’t even close.”*
[Including the Animal Crossing series’ “Villager” in the next Smash Bros. seems perfect, but Daniel Feit argues that Nintendo bungled a key aspect with the character in this reprinted opinion piece.]
I spoke out about this on Twitter, but I want to elaborate on how much it bothers me that Nintendo elected to include a generic male villager from its mega-hit Animal Crossing franchise in the next Smash Bros game.
The first objection is the most obvious: this is a game chock full of male characters. Obviously a fighting game based on a video game company’s legacy is going to skew male; Nintendo doesn’t have a time machine to undo decades of sexist choices. But just look at this list of Smash Bros. characters; you can count the number of women on one hand. This was an easy way to offset that M/F ratio, and Nintendo blew it.
