Nintendo Announces Upcoming Releases for Various Systems

Nintendo Direct, a regular web presentation created for advertising new Nintendo products, revealed new information to gamers last week. Here are some of the biggest reveals during Nintendo’s conference:

While new information was released for a lot of Nintendo games that will be made availabe in the near future, the unofficially titled “3DS Kirby”  was the only new game to be announced during the presentation. A full gameplay trailer was shown at the very end of the Nintendo Direct, featuring the pink puffball jumping back and forth on multiple planes, a new ability that greatly enhances Kirby’s sucking power and obstacles that seemingly come out of the screen through the system’s glasses free 3D.

Another big reveal was the return of Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo’s newest entry to it’s extremely popular fighting game series, “Super Smash Bros.” The new fighter will be released for both the Wii U and the 3DS next year. The confirmed roster for the game is currently Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Sonic, Mega Man, The Villager, Kirby, Link, Toon Link, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Samus, Fox, Pit, Wii Fit Trainer and Captain Olimar. This is not the final list of playable characters, as more will be revealed over time.

Nintendo also announced that there will be new downloadable content for “Pikmin 3,” a Wii U game currently in stores. The new content will pertain to the game’s mission mode, which is a competitive mode in which players try to finish certain objectives as fast as possible. The first new level will be given to players for free, and the rest will be released as paid content sometime in the future. “Pikmin 3″ will also receive a software update, which will allow players to see global record times whenever they desire.

 

Gamers were given new information on the previously revealed “Super Mario 3D World” through a new trailer released during Nintendo’s presentation. The newest addition to the series is the cherry power-up, which allows a playable character to be cloned, meaning that if Mario picks up a cherry power-up, there will be two Mario characters on screen. The more cherries picked up, the more clones the player will have at their disposal. The levels also appear to be a lot more interactive, as the trailer showcased players carrying piranha plants, throwable baseballs, explosive soccer balls, missile launchers, a wearable goomba mask for stealth and a ton more. The game will launch on Nov. 22 for $59.99.

 

The Legend of Zelda series is known for maintaining similar gameplay in each title, in which you get an item from a dungeon and use it to gain entry to the next dungeon. This means that the player will always go through dungeons in the same order. However, the newest entry in the series, “The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds,” will innovate the Zelda formula by allowing players to go to an in-game shop to rent or buy whatever items they want. This will allow players to play dungeons in any order they desire. The game will launch on Nov. 22 for $39.99.

 

Furthermore, Nintendo announced two new Wii Remote Plus designs, which are based off of Mario and Luigi respectively. One is a red controller with Mario’s signature “M” from his hat on it, while the other is a green controller with Luigi’s signature “L” from his cap. Both of these controllers will be released on Nov. 1 this year for $39.99 each. 

 

 

avigna@ramapo.edu