Europe hogs all the good stuff: Wii redesign, The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower, & more

Lots of news for Europe’s Nintendo fans! The biggest item: Wii is getting a slight redesign in that region, which cuts GameCube support but features a reduced price. Designed to sit horizontally, the system is packed in a new bundle shipping this October with Wii Party and Wii Sports.

Most European gamers likely won’t miss GC compatibility, as they have plenty of new titles coming up; along with Xenoblade hitting this week, they’ll get well-received RPGs The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower some time next year — none of those are announced for North America.

Europe even gets The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword two days earlier than us (U.S. release date: November 20). Oh well, at least we can drown our sorrows in the new $19.99 Nintendo Selects games: Super Paper Mario, Mario Strikers Charged, Punch-Out!!, and Super Mario Galaxy.

Here’s the full fall/winter lineup of EU releases for Nintendo platforms, including some eShop highlights:

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tags / imports / europe / gamescom / wii / eshop / dsiware / ec / xenoblade / pandoras tower / the last story

Nintendo Video hits the West this week

Nintendo Video, the 3DS app that delivers 2D and 3D video content (e.g. cartoons, documentaries, movie trailers, TV shows, etc.) to your system will release in Europe this Wednesday — there’s no word yet on whether it will hit North America’s eShop then, too.

When the service releases in the U.S., it will have country-specific content, like Japan’s Game Center CX episodes or Germany’s ZDF.Archive library. I’m crossing my fingers for something more than just Nintendo Week updates!

And if we’re really lucky, maybe we’ll get the 3DS Netflix app this week, too. It’s due some time this summer…

Buy: Nintendo 3DS console (Cosmo Black, Aqua Blue)

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More eShop news

[Via Shiggy, Home of the Koops]

tags / nintendo video / nintendo 3ds / gaming / 3ds / eshop / netflix / europe

Vote on Xenoblade’s Euro alternate boxart

Nintendo of Europe is already cool for localizing Monolith Soft’s Wii RPG Xenoblade Chronicles; it’s showing further coolness by printing a reversible boxart image. Even coolerer, it’s giving fans the chance to vote on that alternate boxart. Option 1 is at the top of the post; head past the break for the other three.

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tags / xenoblade / boxart / xenoblade chronicles / europe / jc / gaming

Nintendo bringing Solatorobo to Europe

Solatorobo, the promising action-RPG and spiritual sequel to Tail Concerto has been formally announced for a release in Europe (and Russia, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand), courtesy of a co-publishing agreement between Nintendo and Namco Bandai.

Should we hold out hope for a U.S. announcement at E3? Or will this be yet another Nintendo-published DS release that only Japan and Europe gets to enjoy, joining a list that so far includes Last Window, Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland, Jam with the Band, Face Training, and Inazuma Eleven (I think we’ll hear about this one soon).

If this does end up as a Japan/Europe-only release, what will really suck is that it’s DSi-enhanced, so importers will only be able to play the game on older DS Phat/Lite systems or on DSi/3DS systems from those territories.

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Solatorobo posts, Region-locking

tags / solatorobo / europe / imports / gaming / namco bandai / ec / cyberconnect2

More Cave Story for DSi owners, Europeans

Cave Story DSiWare is out! It doesn’t have the option to play with updated graphics and music like the WiiWare version, but this is portable, uses the second screen for map/weapons, offers a modified Sanctuary Time Attack mode, and has the new unlockable music player. Also, this is 200 points cheaper than its console counterpart.

From the early impressions I’ve read, Cave Story DSiWare doesn’t seem to have any audio or framerate issues. Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer, however, isn’t happy about the button assignment and wishes players could customize this.

Check out a vid of some guy playing the game on his DSi, as well as Cave Story Europe news after the break!

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tags / cave story / dsiware / nicalis / wiiware / europe / ec

Hotel Dusk sequel coming to the West

I was worried that we wouldn’t see Last Window, CING’s sequel to Hotel Dusk, released in English after the DS adventure game failed to appear at E3 last month, but Nintendo just announced its release for Europe this September 2010. Unfortunately, the localized edition forgoes the Japanese subtitle Midnight Promise in favor of the tremendously boring The Secret of Cape West. :o/

Oh, and Nintendo also revealed that it’s releasing Face Training, its face exercise software, across the Atlantic next September, minus the camera attachment. Sorry, this is a DSi and DSi XL-only title!

There’s no guarantee we’ll also see either of these in North America — don’t forget that Trace Memory/Another Code’s Wii sequel only shipped in Europe and Japan — but hopefully we’ll hear some announcements soon. In the meantime, let’s celebrate with this fanart of the series’ protagonist Kyle Hyde in his briefs underwear, taking a nap beside a tiny cup of coffee.

Buy: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ($19.99)

[Image via zkmn]

tags / last window / hotel dusk / cing / face training / zkmn / europe / imports