Data has become available showing worldwide shipment figures for Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Mario Kart from Nintendo Japan. The shipment figures for each of Nintendo’s key franchises span across multiple Nintendo systems from the NES to the Nintendo 3DS. Just remember these are shipment figures, rather than sales figures.
In an exciting Nintendo 3DS exclusive, a massive Yoshi hunt will soon become available ahead of the upcoming Mario Tennis Open launch on 25th May. The hunt, entitled The Yoshi Chase, will involve tracking down a series of different-coloured Yoshis, playable in Mario Tennis Open, through corresponding QR codes released over the coming weeks through various channels. The Black Yoshi will be the first to be released but there are many more in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled.
Each Yoshi QR code will be released in a variety of different ways and at different times, so you will have to stay alert to find them – the Black Yoshi will be distributed first exclusively through 30 Asda stores on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th May, between the hours of 9.30AM and 5.30PM. White, Blue and Red Yoshi will follow at a later date. These characters can only be activated with the QR code held by in-store sampling teams, so be sure to come down with your Nintendo 3DS so you don’t miss out.
Update: Sorry, this is currently UK only. My mistake!
Nintendo of America is adding two great games to the Nintendo Selects value collection for the Wii console on June 10 with Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin 2, a Nintendo GameCube classic making its U.S. debut on Wii. Nintendo Selects games are available at a suggested retail price of $19.99.
Separately, two of the best-selling Wii games of all time will be getting new prices: Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Donkey Kong Country Returns each will be available at a suggested retail price of $29.99. The value pricing provides shoppers with a great way to expand their game collections with some of the hottest Wii games around.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is discouraged by the fact that Mario titles don’t seem to be selling as well in the UK as they do in the rest of the world. Iwata says Nintendo need to “greatly improve this situation” though he wouldn’t reveal exactly how Nintendo plans to do this.
“Although there are six titles for the Nintendo platforms, the two Mario titles for the Nintendo 3DS have the smallest presence in the world. We need to promptly improve this situation.”
Nintendo UK and Nintendo Europe have announced that the recently revealed New Super Mario Bros 2 will be coming to Europe sometime during August. New Super Mario Bros 2, a new, yet traditional side-scrolling Mario adventure game featuring Mario, Luigi and lots of other favourite characters from the Mario universe. The game was created specifically as a pick-up-and-play experience that can be instantly enjoyed by players of all skill levels on the Nintendo 3DS system.
Nintendo UK has uploaded a fresh new trailer for the super-fun Mario Tennis Open for the Nintendo 3DS. The video gives fans a taster of the characters on offer as well as some of the special unlockable features you’ll find scattered throughout the game. Mario Tennis Open is due for release May 25th in Europe and May 20th in North America.
Nintendo of America has just issued a press release stating that New Super Mario Bros 2 for the Nintendo 3DS will be coming to North America in August. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a traditional side-scrolling adventure game featuring Mario, Luigi and loads of other favorite characters from the popular Mario series.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the cute-but-powerful Kirby character, Nintendo will release a special anniversary software disc for Wii later this year. The disc will contain a variety of previously released, fan-favorite Kirby games. Additional Kirby anniversary activities will be revealed at a later date.
“A new Mario game and a big Kirby celebration will help make 2012 an especially great year for Nintendo fans. Whether they’re playing at home on Wii or using Nintendo 3DS to have fun on the go, players can look forward to experiencing some of our biggest franchises in exciting ways.”
- Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing.
Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed to Korean website Betanews that Super Mario 4 is a project that his team over at Nintendo are working on. The translation is a little rough as expected as it’s not absolutely apparent whether Super Mario 4 is the Nintendo 3DS game Nintendo confirmed it’s working on or Super Mario Wii U.
“We have Mario team in company, so we are making Super Mario 4. But only I can say is, we just announced that game. More details will be revealed later.”
- Shigeru Miyamoto
A Nintendo spokesperson has confirmed that the long-awaited Pikmin Wii U will be joining the recently announced Super Mario Wii U at this years E3 event in June. We’ve known about Pikmin Wii U for a while so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we will be seeing it at E3. Still, it’s extremely exciting to know that we will finally see the game in a few months time.
“In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Pikmin game will be shown at the E3 Expo in June. He believes that anyone who has played Pikmin games in the past will enjoy playing.”
- Nintendo spokesperson
Legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed to Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the company is planning to show off a brand new Super Mario game for the Wii U. Sadly there’s no real details, other than the game will combine the TV screen and the Wii U tablet screen, but thankfully we haven’t got too long to wait until E3 to find out.
