Fire Emblem: Awakening’s character editor, which you’ll use to create one of two protagonists in the upcoming 3DS game — the other hero is Kingdom of Iris prince Krom, the blue-haired, Lord-class chap we’ve shown before.
Your custom character crossing Krom’s path is a critical part of the story, according to this text published by Japanese magazine Jump and posted by Andriasang:
“Two sleeping dragons — one a sacred ally of mankind, the other its sworn destroyer. Two heroes marked with symbols of the dragons. Their meeting heralds the dragons’ awakening — and the world’s ending.”
Basically it’s the video game version of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg’s “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted”. Like, “Ahh shit, you done fucked up now. You done put two of America’s most wanted in the same motherfuckin’ place at the same motherfuckin’ time?”
That’s exactly what this is, guys. Fire Emblem: Awakening is nothing but a gangsta party.
New footage of Fire Emblem: Awakenings shown off during Nintendo Direct last night. As shown here, the 3DS game brings back the world map (last seen in FE: Sacred Stones), as well as skills. I don’t believe there’s any talk here about the reported paid DLC coming with the title when it releases in Japan on April 19, though.
If Pushmo’s 252 puzzles aren’t enough of you, there’s an unofficial Daily Pushmo Twitter account curating user-created stages for the eShop game, sharing a new one every day. So far, all the stages posted are based on game sprites, like the one above of Contact’s lovable pup Mochi.
And if even that isn’t enough, you can fill your custom level slots with these dozens of awesome stages at NeoGAF.
Pushmo (or if you’re going by its more appropriate European title, Pullblox) is a fantastic and addictive puzzler, one of the best I’ve played in a long time, that’s available on 3DS’s eShop right now for $7 — much more expensive than the prices people have grown used to for little games like this on the App Store or other similar services, but this is a Nintendo-quality production.
English trailer for Pushmo, the colorful puzzle platformer coming to the U.S. eShop next month.
Lots of quality on the 3DS’s download service lately! Two weeks ago, there was Freakyforms, then 3D Classic: Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid II: Return of Samus on portable Virtual Console today, and Zen Pinball 3D next week (in Europe at least).
And before you know it, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword will hit the eShop in January! Here’s a trailer in case you’ve already forgotten how awesome that game looks.
A couple sprite stages from Hiku-Osu, or Pull-Push, which released in the Japanese eShop this week.
I don’t think I’ve seen this puzzle-platforming concept before, and I’ve seen hundreds of puzzle platformers. I wonder if Intelligent Systems came up with this while trying to think of a new and fun way to take advantage of the system’s stereoscopic 3D? Yay for unique hardware features encouraging new and interesting ideas!
My only complaint is that you apparently cannot share the custom stages you create with other people online.
Title screen from For the Frog the Bell Tolls, the recently fantranslated action RPG from Intelligent Systems. As covered earlier in the week, if you’ve an interest at all in Link’s Awakening or Game Boy imports, seek this out!
Select Button forumer L posted this image and described how For the Frog the Bell Tolls captivates you before this title screen even pops up:
“There is an opening crawl before the title screen. It begins with the words ‘Once upon a time, there lived two princes’, and ends with ‘This is the story of their adventure’. Simple storybook phrases, suggesting a humble tale, one untethered to a burdensome canon or greater library of fantasy concepts.
I am reminded of [Auntie Pixelante]’s observation that the Game Boy’s LCD display, encouraging a black-on-white graphical style, and a graphical style based solely on four shades of gray, gives its games an appearance reminiscent of storybook illustrations.
Moreover, it suggests an interpersonal story — one about two people and their relationship. The majority of single-player games are expected to be the tale of one person — either the player, or the player’s antagonist. It’s uncommon that a single-player game self-describes itself as being about two people. This game, then, has already won my interest before its title appears.”
Paper Mario and Vivian trick or treating. Either that or they stole some family’s pumpkins like a bunch of jerks.
So, either your Halloween’s all over or you’re getting ready to celebrate the holiday — what did you dress up as? Did you get to do anything fun in costume?
My wife and I dressed up as Ash and Kristofferson (in bandit masks) from Wes Anderson’s interpretation of Fantastic Mr. Fox, and spent a few hours at a metal concert filled with other dressed-up hooligans. It rocked!
IS-NITRO-CAPTURE unit explained and opened up by ASSEMblergames. This neat but expensive device from Nintendo’s Intelligent Systems team is used for capturing screenshots/videos from GBA and DS games, and also for outputting video to televisions — DS videos are displayed on either two TVs or on a single TV rotated on its side.
I’ve seen these lurking in the background of photos at expos and developer offices, but this is the first in-depth look and semi-taking-apart of the tool I’ve come across. They’re quite expensive, costing studios around $3,000 to purchase (some game review outlets also have them), but you might be able to pick one up second-hand for half the price. Apparently this guy hacked together a similar capture device with parts that only cost him about $170.
Intelligent Systems has also produced IS-TWL-CAPTURE, a newer model of this box for DSi handhelds, so this unit is obsolete. Presumably, it’s already created an IS-CTR-CAPTURE version for the upcoming 3DS, too.
“Wind” from BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia Senki (Satellaview). You might have heard the astounding news that the upcoming Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem DS remake will include this Satellaview chapter from the series.
As far as I can tell, this is the first time Nintendo has re-released anySatellaview-related content in the past decade; this is a nice way to mark the Japan-only system’s 15th anniversary this year!
For those unfamiliar with the Satellaview, it’s a satellite modem add-on for the Super Famicom that allowed owners to stream broadcasted games and other material. It was kind of like our Sega Channel, except with special/exclusive Nintendo titles like Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium and BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets.
One really interesting thing the Satellaview offered was its SoundLink games, which allowed for fully voice acted scenes and narrators guiding you through different titles. It gave games a real “radio play” feel, especially since you could play these SoundLink-enabled releases only during certain hours of the day.
You can see/hear SoundLink in action in this gameplay clip from BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia Senki:
Pretty amazing for its time (this title released in 1997), right? That’s how Intelligent Systems was able to embed a song like “Wind”, the first lyrical song for the Fire Emblem series, in the end credits of Akaneia Senki.
Now, the big question is will this DS remake include the original music/voice acting/narrator? And if Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem releases in the U.S., will the localized version offer an English dub? … Probably not.
Gameplay clip for Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - Hero of Light and Shadow. As far as I can tell, this clip doesn’t show anything unexpected or the remake’s new features — such as the new Casual mode that makes permadeath optional — but if you’re desperate for media of the upcoming strategy RPG, here you go!
This comes out in just a month in Japan, and Nintendo hasn’t done much to excite fans about its release. Perhaps it will give us more reasons to anticipate Mystery of the Emblem (and announce a U.S date) at E3 next week?
