[January 23, 2013] |
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Two Zelda Games, Mario, Mario Kart and Other Fan-Favorite Franchises Planned for Wii U
REDMOND, Wash. --(Business Wire)--
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unleashed Wii
U news in an installment of Nintendo
Direct today as he outlined Nintendo's future plans for the console.
Iwata revealed how the Wii U launch lineup will be bolstered by a long
list of top game franchises headed for the new console. These are games
that longtime players and newcomers alike will love to play, and
everyone will be experiencing them in new ways, thanks to the integrated
second-screen experiences enabled by the Wii U GamePad controller. Iwata
also detailed a number of enhancements designed to make the Wii U game
experience more social, even if people are not playing in the same room.
Wii U_Yoshi1 (Photo: Business Wire)
"The fun of video games is not only just playing games, but also sharing
experiences together with people - even though they live far away, their
skill levels are different or their experience does not happen at the
same time," Iwata said. "We want Wii U to be the system that brings
everyone together."
To view the Nintendo Direct in its entirety, visit http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct.
The many announcements included:
Game News
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Two Zelda Games: Eiji Aonuma, the producer of The Legend of
Zelda series, revealed two entries in the series for Wii U.
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Super Mario is on His Way: The Nintendo EAD Tokyo Software
Development team that created the Super Mario Galaxy games for Wii
and Super Mario 3D Land for Nintendo
3DS is working on a new 3D Mario action game for Wii U. The game
is scheduled to be playable at this year's E3.
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Buckle Up!: Nintendo is also working on a new installment of
the hit Mario Kart franchise. This game is also planned to be
playable at E3.
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Yarn Yoshi: The team that created Kirby's Epic Yarn is
hard at work on the first console game to feature Yoshi as the main
character since 1998's Yoshi's Story for Nintendo 64. Takashi
Tezuka, director of Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story, is
supervising the development of the new game, which is set in a
fanciful world of yarn and textiles
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Wii Fit U Communities: New features coming to Wii
Fit U include letting players create user communities on Miiverse
from within the game. Community members can discuss exercises, BMI or
weight changes and other health topics with other players as a way to
encourage one another to reach their fitness goals. Similar
functionality for other games is also planned.
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Pikmin 3 Photos: The upcoming Pikmin 3
game includes a feature that lets players use the Wii U GamePad as a
camera to share the same perspective as Pikmin and take close-up
pictures of landscapes and creatures in the game and share them in
Miiverse.
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The Party Continues: A new installment in the Wii Party
franchise is planned to launch this summer. The game features various
play styles, including one that lets both players compete head-to-head
using just the GamePad.
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RPG Mashup: Nintendo has begun many collaborations with outside
development partners to bring the best franchises and experiences to
Wii U. In one such partnership, Nintendo and Atlus are working on a
collaboration that features the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami
Tensei franchises. A video trailer for the game was shown in the
Nintendo Direct.
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A New Game from Monolith Soft: Tetsuya Takahashi and the team
at Monolith Soft that worked on Xenoblade for Wii are working
on a new game. A video trailer for the game was shown in the Nintendo
Direct.
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More on the Way: Iwata shared a new trailer for The
Wonderful 101. That game and GAME & WARIO are scheduled
to launch in the first half of 2013. Iwata also showed a new video for Bayonetta
2. That game and the new Super Smash Bros. installment are
still on the way, but will need more development time before details
can be revealed.
Virtual Console
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Virtual Console for Wii U: A spring system update will add
Virtual Console software to the Nintendo eShop for Wii U. The service
will launch right after the spring update and will include a selection
of NES and Super NES games, with Game Boy Advance games to be added in
the future. The prices for NES and Super NES Virtual Console games for
Wii U will be the same as they were for the Virtual Console on Wii.
People who have already purchased the Wii version of a certain NES or
Super NES Virtual Console game and transferred it to their Wii U
console can buy the enhanced Wii U version of the same game for the
reduced price of $1 for NES games and $1.50 for Super NES games.
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Classic Games for 30 Cents! To celebrate the 30th
anniversary of the release of the Famicom in Japan (which was known as
the NES in the United States), Nintendo is making one NES or Super NES
game available each month now through July at the anniversary price of
just 30 cents. Each game will be available at that price for 30 days,
and the first is the NES game Balloon Fight, which is now
available in the Nintendo eShop for Wii U.
Social and System Enhancements
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Miiverse Expands to Smartphones: Starting this spring, people
will be able to browse Miiverse from their smartphones. Initially the
experience will be browser-based, but Nintendo plans to create a
dedicated Miiverse app in the future.
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System Updates: Two major updates are on the way, one in the
spring and one in the summer. The updates will introduce a wide range
of functionality, such as Virtual Console capabilities and shortening
the time it takes users to launch software or return to the menu
screen.
Remember that Wii U features parental controls that let adults manage
the content their children can access. For more information about this
and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu.
Standalone versions of the trailers for The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta
2, the new game from Monolith Soft and the collaboration featuring
the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei franchises can be
found at http://www.youtube.com/nintendo.
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of
interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan,
manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™
and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and
Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when
it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has
sold more than 4 billion video games and more than 637 million hardware
units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and
Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance,
Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™,
Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™
and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons that have become
well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™,
Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly
owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash.,
serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western
Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the
company's website at http://www.nintendo.com.
Note to editors: Nintendo press materials are available at http://press.nintendo.com,
a password-protected site. To obtain a login, please contact Deanna
Avila at 213-438-8742 or [email protected].
Users can receive instant Nintendo information by subscribing to the
site's RSS feed.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130123005925/en/
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