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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:

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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

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
  • Source twitter.com
Satoru Iwata’s killer Mother 2/Earthbound jacket Before we get into this amazing piece, here’s a real quick follow-up to yesterday’s Japanese Mother 2 interview — someone’s translating it! They’re translating the interview, that is, not localizing the Wii U Virtual Console release. Just want to make that clear. Anyway, Nintendo’s CEO and president tweeted this photo last night of a special gift he (and the rest of the Mother 2 team) received after working on the RPG. As you can imagine, this is an extremely rare item, but one actually showed up in an online auction a few years ago! I’m envisioning Iwata spending the evening cruising through Shinjuku streets, wearing this jacket and a pair of leather gloves to complete the Ryan Gosling/Drive image. Iwata’s giving you a night call to tell you how he feels. BUY Mother 3/Earthbound, Hobonichi Techo 2013

Satoru Iwata’s killer Mother 2/Earthbound jacket

Before we get into this amazing piece, here’s a real quick follow-up to yesterday’s Japanese Mother 2 interview — someone’s translating it! They’re translating the interview, that is, not localizing the Wii U Virtual Console release. Just want to make that clear.

Anyway, Nintendo’s CEO and president tweeted this photo last night of a special gift he (and the rest of the Mother 2 team) received after working on the RPG. As you can imagine, this is an extremely rare item, but one actually showed up in an online auction a few years ago!

I’m envisioning Iwata spending the evening cruising through Shinjuku streets, wearing this jacket and a pair of leather gloves to complete the Ryan Gosling/Drive image. Iwata’s giving you a night call to tell you how he feels.

BUY Mother 3/Earthbound, Hobonichi Techo 2013
  • Source earthboundcentral.com
Shigesato Itoi + Satoru Iwata I know that a number of you have crushes on these middle-aged Japanese men, so I’m sure you’re squealing over this photo of them together, thumbs barely touching, two hearts becoming one. Mother 2 releases on Japan’s Wii U Virtual Console this week, which means we get this great photo of Nintendo’s boss and Mother’s creator introducing a conversation between the two today (hoping for a translation soon). Wii U’s Miiverse has also kicked off a special Mother 2 community that’s filled with Western fans begging for a Virtual Console release outside of Japan, and endearing comments from Itoi like these: “Ahh Ahh Can you hear me? This is Shigesato Itoi. Please give me something. Please give me Test Test” “I’m about to eat a banana that’s been sitting in 50 degree celsius water for 15 minutes straight. ….Yum! Mother 2 is nice, but so is this banana.” On a related note, awesome Japanese design site PingMag is back — here’s a great interview they had with Itoi about advertising and t-shirts from seven years ago. BUY Mother 3/Earthbound, Hobonichi Techo 2013

Shigesato Itoi + Satoru Iwata

I know that a number of you have crushes on these middle-aged Japanese men, so I’m sure you’re squealing over this photo of them together, thumbs barely touching, two hearts becoming one.

Mother 2 releases on Japan’s Wii U Virtual Console this week, which means we get this great photo of Nintendo’s boss and Mother’s creator introducing a conversation between the two today (hoping for a translation soon).

Wii U’s Miiverse has also kicked off a special Mother 2 community that’s filled with Western fans begging for a Virtual Console release outside of Japan, and endearing comments from Itoi like these:

“Ahh Ahh Can you hear me? This is Shigesato Itoi. Please give me something. Please give me Test Test”

“I’m about to eat a banana that’s been sitting in 50 degree celsius water for 15 minutes straight. ….Yum! Mother 2 is nice, but so is this banana.”

On a related note, awesome Japanese design site PingMag is back — here’s a great interview they had with Itoi about advertising and t-shirts from seven years ago.

BUY Mother 3/Earthbound, Hobonichi Techo 2013
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 2/27Tomodachi Collection: New Life hits Japan on April 18Youkai Watch looks pretty neatWe got to hear Iwata say “Kamehameha” while showing Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate MissionGuild02 will be released as three separate downloadable games on eShop instead of as a retail cartMonster 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)

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)

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

Stop it, Iwata. Stop being so adorable.

I don’t care if the Wii U never takes off, if Nintendo never returns to the financial glory it enjoyed during the Wii and DS era — the company can’t get rid of this man. The game (industry) needs him.

These pics come from the Nintendo president and CEO’s latest session of Iwata Asks for the Google-powered Wii Street U app coming to Wii U:

Kawai: It has fifteen cameras of five megapixels each, and if you put the images together into a panorama later, you get a Street View photo with 75 megapixels. … Would you like to try carrying it on your back?

Iwata: Huh? Can I? Okay, I’ll put it on. (laughs) (standing up) How much does this weigh?

Kawai: It’s about 40 pounds, so about 18 kilograms.

Iwata: If you’ll pardon me… Umph! …This is now “Iwata Carrys”. Like this?

What is this life. Here’s Wii Street U in action.

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Wallpaper faces for Animal Crossing 3DS and… Satoru Iwata!

If you’ve ever wanted the smiling face of Nintendo’s president and CEO as your desktop background, we are making that dream of yours a reality today. Here are a couple wallpapers for Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s Brewster and Shizue, too, all courtesy of Liblu.

While we’re featuring one executive, did you see this Christmas message by Nintendo of Europe president Satoru Shibata? It is so frickin’ adorable. I wish our Nintendo Directs were as charming as Europe’s presentations.

PREORDER Animal Crossing: New Leaf, more upcoming games

The official Nintendo Direct gesture. You may have seen Satoru Iwata put both hands in front of his face and point outward with them this morning, in the NSMB2 “Nintendo Direct Mini,” when saying the word “Direct.”

I did, and it reminded me of a similar gesture made by Bill Trinen in the WaraWara Plaza/Miiverse Direct video, emphasizing the same word. It shows up in Japanese Nintendo Direct videos as well, on the word “chokusetsu,” which is, of course, translated to “direct.” Even when Iwata isn’t really there to do it!

While the gesture doesn’t appear in every Nintendo Direct, it’s in the majority of Japanese presentations, including… the very first one. Reggie kind of does it too, but I think he just makes that gesture a lot.

Do let me know if you happen to be watching an old Nintendo Direct and you see the Nintendo Direct Gesture from Reggie or from Satoru Shibata! Let’s crack this secret society wide open.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles
See also: More Satoru Iwata posts

Here’s how Wii U accounts — or Nintendo Network IDs — will work when the console launches in just a couple weeks. Nothing too surprising here, but it’s nice to see this all finally outlined for those curious about the accounts.

The note at the end of the video about Wii U owners needing to download a Network Update on launch day to enable online services sounds worrisome — all those launch day buyers trying to grab the update at the same time sounds like a recipe for trouble.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recorded a couple more clips that were streamed to Japanese viewers this morning, covering the video chat function and showing an unboxing, which you can watch after the break:

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Iwata and Arino playing video games and reacting just like kids after one of them dies. In this GIF, the 40-year-old Arino is playing Balloon Fight, which his 52-year-old companion here helped develop way back in the day. If you missed it, this Iwata Asks/Game Center CX episode was fan-subbed and posted online last weekend! Buy: Retro Game Challenge, Retro Game Master DVD setImport: Game Center CX 2 See also: More Game Center CX posts

Iwata and Arino playing video games and reacting just like kids after one of them dies. In this GIF, the 40-year-old Arino is playing Balloon Fight, which his 52-year-old companion here helped develop way back in the day.

If you missed it, this Iwata Asks/Game Center CX episode was fan-subbed and posted online last weekend!

Buy: Retro Game Challenge, Retro Game Master DVD set
Import: Game Center CX 2 
See also: More Game Center CX posts

“I do not know when people will become bored with an average man in his fifties talking at length about games, but at the moment it appears that many people are enjoying and paying attention to our Nintendo Direct broadcasts, and while this is the case, we will continue to air them.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata promises to keep filming Nintendo Direct presentations until people get fed up with watching an old dude talking about video games.

See also: More Satoru Iwata posts
[Via Nintendo's investors briefing]