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Nintendo’s Top People Are Discussing Ways To Make Their New Games More Like Their Old Ones

There was something magical about Nintendo’s earliest Mario and Zelda games. Something simple. Something pure. Something Nintendo has gotten away from. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who led the creation of those first games and is still the chief game design force at Nintendo knows this. He’s noticed that Nintendo’s big games have been slow-starters, that…

By Stephen Totilo Published June 14, 2012

Microsoft Not Attending Tokyo Game Show or Gamescom

Today, Microsoft announced that it will not be appearing at either Gamescom or the Tokyo Game Show. Instead, it will rely on its partners and, in Japan’s case, its own events. In an interview with Famitsu, Microsoft stated that it was not abandoning Japan and is planning end of the year promotions. Microsoft did say…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 14, 2012

Kotaku East

New Super Mario Bros. 2 Features The Midas Touch And Co-op Play

It looks like Nintendo’s latest Mario game, New Super Mario Bros 2, which is scheduled for release in August, is going for the gold. Literally. The Mario series has always been adding new costumes for the mustached plumber with every game. The previous announcement that New Super Mario Bros. 2 would include a variation of…

By Toshi Nakamura Published June 14, 2012

Kotaku East

Why Nintendo Almost Dumped the Wii U’s Biggest Feature

Each Nintendo hardware has its thing: For the Wii, it’s motion controls; for the 3DS, it’s 3D; and for the Wii U, it’s a tablet-like controller. Dubbed the Wii U GamePad, that controller was almost killed off. “Sometime during that final discussion we almost gave up on the idea of the additional screen,” Iwata recently…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 14, 2012

Kotaku East

“Kirb” Your Enthusiasm With These 6 Classic Kirby Games In One

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Kirby first appeared on the Nintendo Gameboy. I still remember the first time I saw that cute pink (Well, sort of cream-colored with black outlines on the Gameboy) innocent-looking little marshmallow suck a bird down his gullet and swallow it whole. Since then, the Kirby series…

By Toshi Nakamura Published June 14, 2012

Kotaku East

How Nintendo Created a Sex Symbol

Dressed in smart business attire and glasses, she takes her seat behind a desk. She’s here to explain a turn-based strategy game. Yet, online forums are buzzing in Japan that she is “way too erotic”. She is Cepko Culd, Japanese gaming’s newest sex symbol. With Culdcept for 3DS, Nintendo is bringing Omiya Soft’s classic fantasy…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 14, 2012

You’ve Probably Never Seen These Smash Bros. Challengers Before

You can modify the Wii’s Smash Bros. to play differently, sure, but you can also mod it to look differently, using existing models as templates to introduce a whole range of new characters to the game. Samba Di Amigo? He’s there. Woody and Buzz from Toy Story? They’re there. Carl from Up? Yup. There’s even…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 14, 2012

Nintendo Handhelds Given a Very Sexy Sega Makeoever

It doesn’t matter that Sega hasn’t made hardware for over a decade. Let’s pretend that, in addition to teaming up for Olympics sporting games, the company also partners with Nintendo to make handheld game consoles. These customised pieces show a 3DS and DSi with a very Sega makeoever, both given the livery of a Mega…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 14, 2012

Nintendo’s Not Worried About SmartGlass, Because You Only Have Two Hands

While E3 was occupying everyone’s attention last week, Nintendo held an analyst event for their investors. During the Q&A, one meeting participant honed in on something many of us have been wondering since Microsoft unveiled their SmartGlass, and posed the question: “Are you worried about SmartGlass? How does Nintendo intend to differentiate its hardware system?”…

By Kate Cox Published June 13, 2012

Nintendo Isn’t Scared of Apple’s Rumored TV

Nintendo isn’t worried about Apple wresting dominance in the battle for your living room. Even if the iPhone maker could announce its long-rumored television at some point this year, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says he isn’t worried about Apple’s new device taking attention away from the Wii U. In response to a question during an…

By Jason Schreier Published June 13, 2012

Oh, The Pageantry! My Unofficial E3 Awards

I’ll admit, after watching the E3 2012 press conferences at home on my couch while drinking Heineken and using a spray bottle on my 8-week-old kittens every time they used my scalp as a scratching post, I didn’t have high hopes for the show floor. No Fable 4? No God of War 4? No Dreamcast…

Lisa Foiles Published June 13, 2012

The Creator of Mario and Zelda Wants to Make a First-Person Shooter

Can someone at Nintendo please step up and take over some of Shigeru Miyamoto’s work assignments. Can someone make his coffee for him? Answer his phonecalls? Zero out his inbox? The most successful game designer of all time, the chief creative mind behind Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and a slew…

By Stephen Totilo Published June 13, 2012

Nintendo Has a Plan to Deal With Its Wii U Calibration Problem

The most significant flaw I found with the otherwise-sturdy Wii U last week was the new screen controller’s inability to “remember” its position vis a vis your TV. This proved to be a problem for games that required the GamePad to be aimed at the TV, since the GamePad’s internal motion sensors would gradually lose…

By Stephen Totilo Published June 13, 2012

Kotaku East

Nintendo Isn’t Making a New 3DS. It’s Making a New Handheld Generation.

Remember all those rumors about a 3DS redesign? According to Nintendo, the company isn’t concentrating on a tweaked 3DS. Instead, it’s working on what will probably be a totally new handheld. Earlier this month, respected Japanese newspaper the Nikkei ran a story, which stated that Nintendo was going to reveal a new 3DS at E3.…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012

Kotaku East

Watch Two Scared Girls Play a Horror Game for Six Minutes

Those Fatal Frame games sure are frightening. Don’t believe me? Check out this six minute clip of the new Wii remake of Fatal Frame II, known as Fatal Frame: Deep Crimson Butterfly. The clip is in Japanese, but the language of scary is universal. The game is out in Japan and Europe this month. It…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012

Kotaku East

Wrong About Japan’s Coolness

A recent issue of the Japanese edition of Newsweek poses this question: Is Cool Japan going cold? The cover reads “Cool Japan Is Running Out of Steam” (息切れクールジャパン). The article centers on “Cool Japan”, which was adopted by the Japanese government and trade organizations that hoped to tap into the country’s soft power status. Cool…

By Brian Ashcraft Published June 13, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Nintendo’s Early DRM Was Simple (And Didn’t Work)

DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is in many ways the great scourge of modern gaming. Designed to limit the effects of piracy, it’s often more of a pain in the ass for paying customers than it is a hindrance to pirates. It’s usually associated with PC games, but Nintendo is no stranger to it either.…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012

Can Nintendo Convince Us To Care About The Wii U?

For this week’s Burning Questions, Jason and Kirk return from E3 to talk about their impressions of Nintendo’s next big console. What kinds of new games will the Wii U make possible? What will it take for the Wii U to be a success for gamers? Why can’t any company but Microsoft make an easy-to-use…

Kirk Hamilton & Jason Schreier Published June 12, 2012

Final Fantasy Creator’s Next Game Is Just The Kind Of Complex, Meaty JRPG I’ve Been Waiting For

A long time ago, the combat in Japanese role-playing games was extraordinarily simple. Classic turn-based RPGs would hit you with a deluge of random and scripted battles. To beat them, you’d select options like “fight” or “magic” from a series of dropdown menus. You’d usually only die if you were under-leveled, in which case the…

By Jason Schreier Published June 12, 2012

This Is How Nintendo Prefers You To See Their Games

Nintendo likes to prioritize their screenshots by what they consider to be the best images to use when discussing their games. Last year we looked at what Nintendo’s favorite and least favorite screenshots post-E3 were, according to the notes in their batch of press kits. It seemed like angle-choice, depth of background action and color…

By Tina Amini Published June 12, 2012