Category Archives: Wii

Nintendo Sends Message To Wii Owners To ‘Discover’ Wii U

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wii message marketingNintendo has really started to get the ball rolling on their Wii U marketing campaign as they have begun targeting current Wii owners and giving them a larger than life hint that the Wii U is ‘an entirely new system’. Wii owners were struck by the message pictured above to find that Nintendo is really hammering it home by implying that their system is out of date. With many of the Wii’s online channels going dark in June, is it time to let your Wii system hibernate too?

Monster Hunter Tri Wii Servers Shutting Down Today

Nintendo, Wii, , ,

monster hunter triCapcom confirmed it would be shutting down its Wii servers for the popular series Monster Hunter Tri earlier this month. Today, the online servers will cease to exist after launching in 2010.  Though many fans may have updated to the 3DS and Wii U versions of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, it will be the last day to wave goodbye to the online predecessor.

LEGO City 3DS Enters UK Individual Formats Chart At Number Six

3DS, Nintendo, Wii, Wii U

lego_city_chase_begins

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins for Nintendo 3DS had a good opening week in the UK charts. The game entered the individual formats chart at number six. Luigi’s Mansion 2 slipped from number seven to number nine this week. Fire Emblem: Awakening also slipped a few places from number three to number thirteen this week. Surprisingly,  Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed for Wii U re-entered the charts at number thirty-six. You can view the UK individual formats charts, right here.

Tomodachi Collection And Nintendo 3DS Dominate Japan

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nintendo_3ds_xl_animal_crossing

This week’s Media Create sales figures are in from Japan. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has been knocked off the top spot by Tomodachi Collection: New Life which sold around 405,000 copies. Tomodachi Collection: New Life gave the Nintendo 3DS XL a significant sales boost this week as the handheld sold 57,000 units, which is more than double what it sold the previous week. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.

  1. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection: New Life
  2. [PS3] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
  3. [PSP] Seven Dragon 2020 II
  4. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
  5. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  6. [PSP] Amnesia Crowd
  7. [3DS] Card Fight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!!
  8. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2
  9. [3DS] Run For Money: Flee From the Strongest Hunters in History
  10. [360] Monster Hunter Frontier G1 Premium Package
  1. Nintendo 3DS XL – 57,089 (28,139)
  2. Nintendo 3DS – 18,833 (18,584)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 15,011 (14,112)
  4. PlayStation 3 – 13,915 (14,039)
  5. Wii U – 8,798 (9,984)
  6. PSP – 7,816 (7,566)
  7. Wii – 1,379 (1,383)
  8. Xbox 360 – 515 (492)

There’s A Game-Freezing Bug In Pandora’s Tower; Here’s A Solution For It

Wii, , , ,

pandora's_towerWii role-playing game Pandora’s Tower was released a couple days ago, on April 16th, in North America. The North American copy of the game apparently has a game-freezing bug, which, if encountered, forces players to shut down their Wii consoles. Courtesy of Destructoid, below you’ll find an explanation of the bug and what you can do to avoid it.

The Bug:

After Tower 13 opens, you’ll be unable to return to Towers 11 or 12. When you choose either level from the stage select menu, the game will lock up at the loading screen and you will have to hold the power button on the console to force shutdown. The game will also freeze if you try to enter 11 or 12 from the side doors at the base of Tower 13 rather than from the stage select menu.

The Solution:

The game will refuse to load Towers 11 or 12 until you visit Tower 13 at least once, but as I said above, simply entering 11 or 12 via the Tower 13 base is not enough. You have to step through one of the doors leading to the Tower 13 outer wall staircase first; once outside, you can use the Shard of Divinity item to teleport back to the Observatory. Now you should be able to enter 11 or 12 from the stage select menu without locking the game.

To confirm if your visit to Tower 13 was registered, highlight its entry on the stage select menu. If a preview image of the Tower 13 environment appears, it means you’ve been there at least once. Conversely, if no preview image appears, it means you have not.

Again, here are the steps:

  1. Choose Tower 13 from the stage select menu.
  2. Enter one of the doors leading to the Tower 13 outer wall staircase.
  3. Use a Shard of Divinity to teleport back to the Observatory.
  4. Towers 11 and 12 should be accessible from the stage select menu now.

There may be other methods, though I haven’t tested anything else yet. One other possible method is stepping out to the outer wall, going back inside via the same door, then trying to open either side door leading to 12 or 13. This alternative would be useful if you don’t have a Shard of Divinity in your inventory, but again, I’ve yet to confirm its effectiveness.

Once you’ve visited Tower 13, you can enter 12 or 13 at your leisure. However, should you have completed the game once already and chosen to reload a past chapter instead of reloading from a save point, you’ll have to repeat these steps.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 And Nintendo 3DS Continue To Rule Japan

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luigi's_mansion_dark_moon_ghost_chase

This weeks Japanese hardware and software sales are now in. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon continues to be the best-selling software and the Nintendo 3DS remains the best-selling hardware. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is number one for the fourth week running and it sold another 56,000 units. Wii U continues to struggle as it only managed to sell 9,984 units this week compared to 14,783 units the previous week. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.

  1. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
  2. [3DS] Card Fight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!!
  3. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  4. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2
  5. [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  6. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition
  7. [PSV] Muramasa Rebirth
  8. [PSP] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  9. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2
  10. [PSP] Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
  1. Nintendo 3DS XL – 28,139 (34,180)
  2. 3DS – 18,584 (22,684)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 14,112 (19,328)
  4. PlayStation 3 – 14,039 (16,807)
  5. Wii U – 9,984 (14,783)
  6. PSP – 7,566 (8,876)
  7. Wii – 1,383 (1,718)
  8. Xbox 360 – 492 (536)

NPD: Analysts Expect Wii U Sales Decline During March In The US

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Despite several high-profile games having been released, industry analyst Michael Pachter and research firm EEDAR believe that the Wii U under performed last month in the United States. The news comes ahead of the March NPD figures for hardware and software sold in the United States. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter and fellow analyst firm EEDAR believe that the Wii U only managed to outsell the PlayStation Vita, PSP and the PlayStation 2 last month. Here’s their estimations.

  • 360 – 290,000 (-22%) / 330,000 (-11%)
  • PS3 – 260,000 (-22) / 270,000 (-19%)
  • 3DS – 190,000 (-16%) / 190,000 (-16%)
  • DS – 85,000 (-20%) / 100,000 (-5%)
  • Wii – 85,000 (-51%) / 80,000 (-54%)
  • Wii U – 55,000 (n/a) / 65,000 (n/a)
  • Vita – 42,500 (-80%) / 45,000 (n/a)
  • PSP – 10,000 (-67%) / n/a (n/a)
  • PS2 – 100 (-99%) / n/a (n/a)
  • Total – 1,017,600 (-30%) / 1,080,000 (-26%)

“We expect hardware sales of 55,000 Wii U units in its fifth month (down 17% month-over-month).

“Last month… the only key hardware device to underperform our expectations was the Wii U, and its fortunes appear unlikely to improve for several months, even if Nintendo decides to drop price, as there are an insufficient number of core titles that are generating interest in the console.”

“We think that core gamers are far more likely to turn their attention to the PS4 (due in the holiday season) and the next Xbox, which we believe will be unveiled before E3 and have a launch alongside that of the PS4, and believe that the long-term appeal of the Wii U will be severely limited by the perception that the PS4 and next Xbox will be much more powerful with greater online integration and multimedia functionality. Should the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft be price competitive, we think that Wii U sales may continue to stagnate.”

UK Charts: Luigi’s Mansion 2 Remains In Top Five, Lego City Slips Again

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luigis_mansion_dark_moon_dog

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon remains the best-selling Nintendo 3DS title this week as it remains at number five in the UK individual formats charts. Wii U exclusive LEGO City: Undercover didn’t fare quite as well as it slipped from number twenty-five to number thirty-five this week. Bioshock Infinite remains the best-selling game in the United Kingdom. You can view the entire charts, right here.

Michael Pachter: ‘I Don’t Get Japanese Developers’

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wii-u-blueRenowned Wedbush research analyst Michael Pachter has admitted he doesn’t understand Japanese companies or their motivation for releasing games. The latest Pach-Attack comes after he defended Nintendo’s software strategy, but in a question submitted about a Final Fantasy VII remake from Square Enix, he appears to have slipped back into his age-old ways. Pachter said: “I don’t think Nintendo is unique in being inscrutable. I don’t get any Japanese developer, I don’t know what motivates them, especially in how they release games into the West. Final Fantasy is just one of those franchises I just don’t get.”

Moving on from Final Fantasy, Pachter answers a question deliberating whether it is a riskier option to become an ‘everyone’ console, or a specific ‘hardcore’ software. Turning a comparison from the Wii’s everyone and non-traditional market to the Wii U’s ‘traditional games market’, Pachter said it was a mistake made by Nintendo.

He continued: “Nintendo had a huge success in expanding into the non-traditional market – that’s 25-year-old women who play Guitar Hero, 45-year-old women who play Wii Fit, 65-year-old women who play bowling – that worked and they sold a lot of consoles, but those people didn’t really embrace other software titles [...] so I think that you can make money if it resonates with everyone but ultimately it causes you to make mistakes like the Wii U.

“Nintendo thought all these same people would line up and play the Wii U [...] and those non-traditional people didn’t embrace it. I think Nintendo is going to be lucky to sell 30-40 million Wii U’s, they might sell 20-25 miliion which makes it more like a GameCube, but we’ll see.”

Nintendo Of America Also Discontinuing Select Online Services For Wii

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wii_logo_large

Nintendo of America has announced that it plans to discontinue a number of select online services for the original Wii in North America. The news comes after Nintendo Australia, Nintendo Europe and Nintendo Japan announced that they were doing the exact same thing. Here are the channels which Nintendo will be closing down, effective from June 28th.

• Forecast Channel

• News Channel

• Everybody Votes Channel

• Nintendo Channel

• Check Mii Out Channel

• Data exchange between Wii friends on WiiConnect24*

*Wii message exchanges via Wii Message Board, Mii exchanges via Mii Channel, and exchanges of messages or data in some game titles will no longer be possible.

Following the discontinuation, the above services will not be available even if they are started up on the Wii menu. However, services other than those mentioned above, such as the automatic receipt of “Today’s Accomplishments” on the Wii Message Board and the Wii Shop Channel are unaffected and can continue to be used.

Thanks, Ahmad