Information Update // Noticias Nuevas - Nintendo 3DS & PSVita

Information Update - Nintendo 3DS

1.- The official French Nintendo magazine claims that Disney will announce Epic Mickey 2: Power of Illusion for the Nintendo 3DS. Warren Spector, the creator behind Epic Mickey, has already revealed that he will be announcing a ‘epic game’ on March 27th. Epic Mickey 2 is meant to be a multi-platform game, so it sounds as though the 3DS game will be a spin-off. Epic Mickey 2: Power of Illusion is rumoured by the magazine to be a 2D title.

 

More After the Break...

Assassins Creed 3 creative director Alex Hutchinson has told the Official PlayStation Magazine that the combat system in Assassins Creed 3 has been completely redone, and that the main protagonist Connor will be able to wield 2 weapons at once to dish out maximum damage to his adversaries. Assassins Creed 3 will be heading to the Wii U sometime later this year.

“The combat system in Assassin’s Creed III has been completely redone. We burned it to the ground and we’re building it back up”.
“At its base it’s a two-handed combat system, so all of the weapons are two-handed. Some of the cool new combinations include a tomahawk and knife. Connor also has a bow.”
“At first our research said basically that bows had been replaced by guns, but what we found was that a lot of the different tribes were still using them to hunt from horseback because the guns were so inaccurate. We thought it was a cool weapon, and still historically accurate”.

 

We all know that GAME is on the brink of collapse, but it seems they’ve found a way to recover. GAME will be closing its GameStation stores throughout the UK, but it will be keeping those that have performed well. However, MCV understands that GAME will form a new company, which will be funded by current bank lenders through GAME. This will only happen if the company can get support from key publishers. The new retail chain could open as soon as Monday.


Update: GAME has contacted MCV to say that its story isn’t correct.


2.- A bill has been proposed in North America that would require violent games to carry a warning label similar to those that are currently seen on packets of tobacco. The two congressmen who have proposed the bill want a message that reads “Warning: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior” on video game packaging.

 

“Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents — and children — about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behaviour.”

- Virginia Representative and the bill’s co-sponsor Frank Wolf

Mesut from Nintendomination has rather kindly uploaded the first sixteen minutes of the forthcoming Pokemon + Nobunga’s Ambition for your viewing pleasure. Nintendo has yet to confirm whether or not we will be seeing the game over here in the West. Pokemon + Nobunga’s Ambition went on sale for the Nintendo DS earlier this week in Japan.


Ubisoft Annecy, the development studio behind Assassins Creed Revelations andAssassins Creed Brotherhood multiplayer mode, has been confirmed as the developer for the multiplayer component of the forthcoming Assassins Creed 3 for Wii U. The multiplayer for Assassins Creed is now an integral part of the Assassins Creed franchise, so it’s good to hear that Ubisoft Annecy is once again at the helm.

GAME is busy selling off some of its stock for ridiculous prices and you can now pick up a pre-owned Wii console for the super-cheap price of £39.99. That’s roughly the price of a brand new game, so if you’ve yet to pick one up then this is the ideal opportunity. Don’t forget to pick up Skyward Sword, Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

3.- Japanese monthly comic magazine Coro Coro will be commemorating its thirty-fifth anniversary by teaming up with Nintendo to produce this special Nintendo 3DS system. Details on how consumers can get this special edition Nintendo 3DS console will be announced in the magazine’s May issue, which is due on April 14th.

 

It’s been revealed that famed developer Hideo Kojima managed to get Snake into Smash Bros purely because his son desperately wanted to see him in the game. Kojima’s son was disappointed that Snake wasn’t featured in the previous Smash Bros games, so Hideo Kojima had a word with Masahiro Sakurai to ask if he could include him in Smash Brother Brawl. Thankfully Sakurai thought that this was an excellent idea and included him.

“My child likes Super Smash Bros., so we play it a lot together. And he told me that there’s no character that you made in that game.”
“As you know, we did make Twin Snakes, but generally speaking, there hasn’t been a lot of Metal Gear on Nintendo platforms. So from that perspective, I thought it was a good way to expose younger people to this character, Snake,”

Development studio Crystal Dynamics is apparently hard at work on a full reboot of vampire series Legacy of Kain according to VG247. Details are understandably scarce but the game is a full reworking of the vampire action classic, and includes a new art direction. Crystal Dynamics hasn’t revealed which platforms the game will be appearing on, but we should hear more about the game at E3 in June.

 

David Braben, the developer behind the retro classic Elite and Lost Winds on Wii, believes that the second-hand market has killed what he claims to be ‘core games’. Braben saysthat he knows publishers who have scrapped games because stores won’t restock their title after release, as the retailers rely on pre-owned games to make their profits.

“The real problem when you think about it brutally, if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games,” he said. ”In some cases, it’s killed them dead. I know publishers who have stopped games in development because most shops won’t reorder stock after initial release, because they rely on the churn from the re-sales.”
“I mean, the idea of a game selling out used to be a good thing, but nowadays, those people who buy it on day one may well finish it and return it,”
“Developers and publishers need that revenue to be able to keep doing high production value games, and so we keep seeing fewer and fewer of them.”

4.- Gaijin Games co-director Mike Roush has expressed his love for Nintendo and says that a Wii U version of Runner2 is something the company is thinking long and hard about. Gaijin Games say that the announcement for Runner2 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was made before they were made aware of the Wii U by Nintendo. Expect them to confirm something at E3 in June.

“When we made these decisions we never knew about Wii U. So rather than us ‘leaving Nintendo’, it’s that these decisions were made a year ago. We would never leave Nintendo, we love them to death.”


Take this completely with a grain of salt but online publication Dual Pixels is under the impression that a source close to Nintendo has told them the games that will be available on the Wii U eShop when it launches alongside the console later this year. Among the games on offer are World of Warcraft and Counter Strike. Here’s the full list:

 

Nintendo Wii U eShop Titles In Development:

Level 5
Professor Layton Chronicles (Level 5)

Activision
Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD-Complete (Activision) (Launch)
Goldeneye 007: Reloaded (Activison) (Launch)
World of Warcraft (Activison) (Launch)

Capcom
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries Bio Ops (Capcom)
Okamiden HD (Capcom) (Launch)

Electronic Arts (EA)
Boom Blox Wii U (EA)
NFL Blitz Touchdown (EA)
Burnout: Rush Hour (EA) (Launch)
Shank 2 (EA) (Launch)
Crysis (EA) (Launch)

Gaijan Games
Bit Trip Runner 2 (Gaijan Games) (Launch)

Namco Bandai
Tank! Tank! Tank! (Namco Bandai)
Meteos (Namco Bandai)
Pac-Man Battle Royal (Namco Bandai) (Launch)

Nexon
Dragon Nest (Nexon)

Nintendo
Big Brain University (Nintendo) (Launch)
Super Mario Strikers Unlimited (Nintendo) (Launch)
Fluidity: Toxic (Nintendo) (Launch)

Sabarasa
Protocol (Sabarasa) (Launch)

SEGA
Rodea the Sky Soldier (SEGA)
Renegade Ops 2 (SEGA)
Phantasy Star Online 2 (SEGA) (Launch)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (SEGA) (Launch)

Spicy Horse
Big Head Bash (Spicy Horse) (Launch)

Square Enix
Demon’s Score (Square Enix/Epic)
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Wii U (Square Enix)

Telltale Games
The Walking Dead (Telltale Games) (Launch)

Ubisoft
UbiArt Presents: Sketchtarium
Red Steel 2: Locked a Reloaded (Ubisoft)
I Am Alive (Ubisoft) (Launch)

Valve
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve) (Launch)
DotA 2 (Valve)

5.- Kojima Productions studio head Hideo Kojima has stated that if he makes a Wii U game then it will have to be specifically tailored to the device, rather than a straightforward port of a forthcoming Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game. Kojima did note that his spectacular Fox Engine will be compatible with all formats including the Wii U.

 

“Wii U is kind of a special case. The way the player interacts with the device is very different than any other device out there. So if I were to make a game for the Wii U, it would have to be a unique game.”
“I don’t want any misconceptions that [the Fox Engine] is specific to a certain hardware platform, because it’s not. The way we envision it, it’s more this platform that isn’t mounted to a particular hardware.”
- Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima

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Mister Gaga