Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, appeared on a Nintendo Direct video stream on Feb. 14 wearing a Luigi hat. He shocked gamers everywhere by claiming that 2013 is the year of Luigi, as Nintendo has been prone to pushing Mario as Nintendo’s Mascot.
We saw hints of the year of Luigi with the announcement of “Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon,” which is the sequel to the cult classic Nintendo GameCube title. The game was just revealed to have a multiplayer component, which looks highly promising. The game will be released on March 24.
But now, we have even more things to look forward to that include Luigi. “New Super Mario Bros. U,” a game that originally featured Mario as the main character is getting downloadable content called “New Super Luigi U,” that will have new levels that feature only Luigi.
Another newly announced game that puts Luigi in the spotlight is “Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.” While this is the fourth entry in the “Mario & Luigi” role-playing series, the mechanics of the game appear to be totally different. In this game, Mario jumps inside Luigi’s dreams to perform various tasks while being aided by Luigi’s super dream powers. The concept itself seems pretty unique and compelling, while still focusing on Luigi as the main character.
These are three solid pushes to make a name for Luigi as a character instead of Mario. Luigi also has a smaller appearance as a playable character in the new “Mario Golf: World Tour.” This game has “Mario Golf” fans excited, as there hasn’t been an entry in the series for 10 years.
However, the event wasn’t solely focused on games with Luigi in them. Nintendo also announced a port of “Donkey Kong Country Returns” for the 3DS. The beautiful background visuals of the game should work well with the system’s glasses free 3-D technology.
The other big announcements primarily dealt with the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS. One exciting announcement is “Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Lost Ranger,” which is a sequel to the sleeper hit original that launched as early software on the eShop. The game adds to tower defense strategy elements it established previously by adding recruited team members and a train that goes through each level that the player must defend. The game will be available in the eShop on April 11.
Another eShop game to keep a lookout for is “HarmoKnight.” Created by the makers of Pokémon, known as Game Freak, this game sets out to do something different from their prior monster catching games. The game is all about attacking your enemies and collecting notes within a specific rhythm that goes along with the game’s soundtrack. The game will be released in the eShop on March 28.
Nintendo is also starting to focus more on adding downloadable content into their games. For example, Nintendo talked about the recently available “Champions of Yore 3” and “The Golden Gaffe” downloadable levels for “Fire Emblem: Awakening,” which gives new characters, story elements, gear and skills to the player.
Sophomore Jon Mangel said, “It’s good to see Nintendo making online services available. Sony and Microsoft have been doing it for years, so it’s about time that they caught up.”
