Despite the insatiable fever surrounding the Nintendo 3DS during the Japanese launch recent sales figures indicate that the Nintendo 3DS is doing as well as the Bandai WonderSwan.
It would appear that Japanese consumers are holding back purchasing the console until Nintendo release some high profile titles for the system. Thankfully they have Ocarina of Time 3D, StarFox 64 3D and Kid Icarus: Uprising coming in the summer which should hopefully boost sales figures.
British gaming emporium GameStation have announced that they’re already asking customers to register their interest in Nintendo’s next home console which is currently being referred to internally as Project Cafe.
Whilst nothing has been officially confirmed by Nintendo regarding the consoles capabilities we know that Nintendo are already hard at work on the console which is currently scheduled to be released sometime during 2012
Japanese online gaming publication Andriasang are reporting that initial shipments for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will be “extremely small.”
Why Nintendo have chosen to distribute small quantities of the game in Japan is undisclosed but the most logical explanation is that the Nintendo are choosing to avoid the bargain bin sales that took place for the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in Japan.
Amazon Germany have revealed that consumers looking to pre-order the fantastic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will also receive a special Ocarina of Time 3DS carrying case. No word as yet as to what customers in the United States or the United Kingdom will receive as a pre-order bonus but it’s only a matter of time until we find out.
A blatant rip-off of the Super Mario franchise appeared on Apples App Store under the guise of ‘Monino’ but was promptly removed due to obvious copyright infringement.
Monino was an iPhone remake of the classic Super Mario World complete with the basic plot, settings and graphical style of the revered Super Nintendo title. Here’s the amusing product description:
“You’re going to LOVE this: “The protagonist of this game named Monino, in the story of this game, Monino’s brother was captured by a monster named Bowler, he is on the road to Bowler’s castle to rescue his brother, a lot of monsters in different levels are waiting for him, would you like to join Monino’s rescue action? Go!”.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has reassured investors that the control pad for Nintendo’s next home console dubbed Project Cafe will feature traditional buttons such as an analogue stick and d-pad and won’t resemble a common tablet device.
“Whenever we make a new game console, we’ve done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad… The reason for that it’s better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response… Taking this into account… Nintendo isn’t planning on completely ditching buttons, nor is Nintendo thinking of taking tablets as they are today and implementing them in a game console.”
- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata
Nintendo claim that the Nintendo Wii Vitality Sensor will only work on approximately 80% of people, and that it’s difficult to get it to work for 99% of people.
Nintendo have reconfirmed that the Nintendo Wii Vitality Sensor is in the works but they’re not too sure if everyone will reap its benefits, which is presumably the reason why we haven’t heard so much about it lately. Hopefully we will be given more information on the device at this E3 along with some exemplary software to début along with it.
Team Ninja producer Yosuke Hayashi has blamed the lack of compelling software for the Nintendo 3DS as the reasoning behind the slow sales of the 3D console in Japan.
It’s been revealed that Sony’s PSP has regained the top spot in the Japanese hardware charts knocking the Nintendo 3DS into second place. Team Ninja’s Yosuke Hayashi believes this is because there’s more variety of software available on the PlayStation Portable.
“I believe the 3DS is a powerful console and it’s only been a short amount of time since it has been released,” the Dead or Alive Dimensions producer told us during a recent interview.
“In Japan, I feel that there isn’t enough software that can drive up the sales of the console. There’s a flow where people are looking towards the PSP where there is much more variety.”
“We see the potential in the 3DS and believe that once there are more games that can satisfy customers more people will start to realise the full potential of the console, so it’s still early days and we’re not worried about the future at the moment.”
- Yosuke Hayashi , Team Ninja
Nintendo UK have just announced that the forthcoming Wii Play Motion will be coming to Europe on the 24th June 2011 and will come bundled with a Red Wii Remote Plus Controller.
Wii Play Motion includes twelve innovative, fun mini-games that specifically show off the special capabilities of the Wii Remote Plus. The twelve games on offer include Wind Runner, Treasure Twirl, Cone Zone and Spooky Search amongst others.
Press Release
Nintendo have announced that its employees will be taking to the streets during Japan’s Golden Week, to distribute special Mii characters that have golden pants via the Nintendo 3DS Street Pass feature.
Nintendo have teamed up with Japanese talent agency Yoshimoto for this promotion. Any celebrities who are currently employed by Yoshimoto will have their Mii character distributed during the campaign. Nintendo employees will be placed at numerous train stations scattered around Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo but won’t be wearing any clothing that will identify them.
