Let's Talk More About Nintendo

[Loyal]

So we have the Fire Emblem/SMT crossover game coming out at some point, and that's cool. But there was a whole lot more than just that talked about via Nintendo Direct, on January 23. Let's go into it a bit more, shall we?

The first eight minutes or so are dedicated to talking about the Miiverse. You can post comments about things, talk about games, draw pictures and post them up as comments. Honestly I kinda glossed over this part since I still haven't gotten a WiiU yet. So let's skip that part.

• Virtual Console Release!

Nintendo will be launching the Virtual Console for the WiiU following the Spring system update. The entire Wii VC will be available on the WiiU as well, but not immediately since there are so many titles to prepare. They'll begin with a selection of NES and SNES games and release more as time goes on. They'll also be releasing games from other platforms that weren't previously available. In particular, we can expect to see games from the Gameboy Advance library on there on some point.

In addition to this, VC titles released on the WiiU will take advantage of the hardware. You can save a backup of your game progress and play via the gamepad. There's also some Miiverse functionality.

A nice thing is that if you had games purchased for the Wii VC, you can transfer them to the WiiU (when available) at a sharp discount. NES games transferred in this way will be $1, whereas SNES games will be $1.50.

To commemorate the coming 30th anniversary of the release of the original Famicom, they'll be holding a trial campaign for the VC, in which they release a new NES or SNES title each month on the WiiU VC till the actual anniversary in July. For thirty cents a pop. Note that this offer lasts only for the month of the actual release (30 days, see a pattern here?), so act fast.

• Jan: Balloon Fight
• Feb: F-Zero
• March: Punch Out!
• April: Kirby's Adventure
• May: Super Metroid
• June: Yoshi
• July: Donkey Kong

• Titles From March Onward!

Of course there'd be something wrong if there were no new titles coming out, so let's get into that. Between Spring and Summer, WiiSportsU, Pikmin 3, Game and Wario, Lego City Undercover, and The Wonderful 101 are expected to be released. In particular, we have a new trailer for The Wonderful 101, which looks like it should be pretty sweet.

Bayonetta 2 is still in development. Unfortunately, no further details about the actual gameplay are available at this time, but we do have some video.

New Smash Bros, 3D Mario, and Mario Kart titles are confirmed to be under development for the WiiU, but Nintendo is waiting till E3 before they make any formal announcements.

A new Yoshi title is in development, directed by Takeshi Tazuka, the director of Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story, so I'm sure we can expect great things. It's made by the dev team behind Kirby's Epic Yarn, and it shows.

You already know about the Fire Emblem x SMT game, so I'll spare you the nonexistent details. Nintendo does promise that more collaboration titles should be expected in the future, however, so keep an eye out for that.

There's two bits of news for Zelda. A brand new title is in development for the WiiU, and though no details have been shared, it promises to break some paradigms of the series to deliver a new experience. Because it's expected to take so long to develop, however, we are, in the meantime, getting a rerelease of Wind Waker in the fall. This will have updated, HD graphics and some minor gameplay updates. Maybe they'll do something about the Triforce quest.
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Finally, a new WiiU title is in development from Monolith Soft. We don't have so much as a title for this game other than possibly "X", but it's gorgeous. A bit of digging would suggest that it's related to Xenoblade.

All in all, pretty exciting news all around.