Nintendo took the world to Direct town again today with another livestreaming video show filled with information. This time the publisher put the spotlight primarily on its Wii U software lineup for the spring and summer.

You can see all of the detailed coverage of today’s event here, and check out all of the major trailers below:

Sonic & Mario at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games

Game & Wario

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Pikmin 3

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On Wednesday, Nintendo announced that they will no longer be holding large press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the game industry’s biggest trade show, instead opting to use Nintendo Direct to reach out to fans and journalists.

This is heartbreaking.

I do enjoy the Nintendo Directs. They’re easy, they offer a steady stream of first-hand news throughout the year, and they’re fun. They are one of the better ideas to surface out of Nintendo recently. But the company’s departure from years of memorable E3 presentations also feels eerily bittersweet. It’s akin to the emotions you feel when moving away from home — there’s that optimistic look to the future, but it’s simultaneously offset by a melancholic awareness that a significant part of your life is about to end.

But while I and other old Nintendo fans continue to sob over Nintendo’s announcement, it’s still a good choice for the company. Yes, it’s isolating itself from the standard console market and culture to which we have all grown accustomed. Yes, it is choosing to blaze its own path. Hell, it might even be doing this because it thinks its announcements won’t compare to Sony and Microsoft’s.  But you know what? Isolation is exactly what Nintendo should do.

Nintendo took a huge risk with the Wii. The company bypassed the standard upgrade in hardware to focus on a low-price point and a unique experience, and it subsequently isolated itself from third-party developers and a major portion of the gaming population. Despite this isolation, Nintendo has still sold more Wii systems than any other game console on the market.

The Wii U, though, won’t have the same league of soccer moms and casual gamers to support it as the Wii did. Much of that demographic has moved on to smartphones and tablets, so Nintendo will need to do something else. But what?

Well Nintendo has already done it, and that’s happening now with the 3DS handheld.

The 3DS is kind of an enigma. It — along with its predecessor, the DS — is unlike anything else in the market. Many of its features sound like gimmicks. Like the Wii U, the 3DS doesn’t even match the competition’s hardware. But that still hasn’t stopped the 3DS from selling nearly 26 million more units than its big black counterpart, the PlayStation Vita, on top of gaining leagues of third-party support and basically defying everything that we would usually expect. In other words, the 3DS is an isolated anomaly of success. Would it be as popular if it conformed to the hardware and controls present in the Vita? No.

Of course, nobody buys a 3DS because it has a novel 3D effect, and, of course, no one buys it because it has two screens, and so on. People buy it to play new Zelda, Pokémon, Mario, and Metroid games. They buy it to play the unique third-party games. It’s the Nintendo experience they are after, which is something you can’t find anywhere else. But the Nintendo experience has now evolved to include these innovations that have changed the games we know and love in new and exciting ways. It is now an experience defined by isolation and its effects.

The problem the Wii U faces is that Nintendo is isolating itself but isn’t producing this unique experience. Or if Nintendo is, it’s not doing a very good job. Yes, the Wii U’s lack of success is largely due to the console’s newness, but I fear that it may actually be part of a larger trend from what I saw on the Wii. That console didn’t offer the Nintendo experience as much or as well as it should have, with Nintendo releasing too many underwhelming games (Wii Music, anyone?) as well as iterations of its in-house games that haven’t really advanced much (Skyward Sword is excellent , but it’s not radically different from the more-than-a-decade-old Ocarina of Time).

Source: Nintendo

Hm, this looks familiar … .

Maybe E3 will change this. I certainly hope it does. But so far, Nintendo hasn’t taken advantage of its isolation as it does with its handhelds. It needs to refocus on developing games that don’t just employ the innovations of its system alone as gimmicks but also are fun and deep games by themselves. This means developing more games like Super Mario 3D Land — a platformer that uses the 3DS’s 3D in a way that enhances an already-fun experience full of depth (pun intended) — and less like Nintendo Land, which, though fun, focuses too much on showcasing the Wii U’s features and lacks the magical experiences found in primary Nintendo titles.

The Wii U could not realistically use a secondary tablet-screen with a console that matched Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming hardware and still sell for a reasonable price. Nintendo knew this. It also should know that by isolating itself, the company will in effect bypass the hardware-intensive games that other next-generation consoles will have, such as future open-world games. But the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox will also have near-identical experiences, providing Nintendo with the opportunity to distinguish itself in a way that only its isolation can.

So come on Nintendo, you have the talent and the resources. You’ve even done it with the 3DS already. Show us why isolation is your trump card.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo has tolerated the sale of used Nintendo hardware for years by retail chains such as GameStop. There seemed little it could do about it. But Nintendo is apparently cutting in on the action in the lucrative used hardware market by selling its own refurbished versions of its 3DS and DSi XL handheld game systems.

Other hardware makers, such as Dell and Apple, do this as well, according to Techland. Nintendo appears to be selling the refurbished systems at aggressive prices, undercutting GameStop’s prices. Nintendo is selling 3DS for $130, while GameStop sells it for $160. A new 3DS sells for $170. Nintendo is selling the DSi XL for $100, while GameStop is selling it for $110.

A spokesperson confirmed that Nintendo is selling the units. The Japanese publisher says the products are authentic and have been cleaned, tested, and inspected to meet its high standards. Nintendo is offering a one-year warranty on the products.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo pushed out an update for its 3D portable today that improves stability and adds a few small features.

System version 5.0.0-11U is available now to download. With this patch, players no longer must exit the eShop digital-download store to make sure that the “Download Later” feature works. Additionally, the 3DS can now download software updates in the background.

There’s a system update for the Nintendo #3DS that adds new features. Update your system today! nintendo.com/3ds—
Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 26, 2013

The 3DS’s “Download Later” grabs software online after closing the system. Before this update, the handheld wouldn’t initiate the download until you exited the eShop.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Pokémon may be Game Freak’s flagship title, but the developer has made other games, too, like Drill Dozer and Yoshi. Its latest is HarmoKnight, a rhythm-action game releasing Thursday, March 28 on the 3DS eShop. Before you dive in, here are a few pointers as well as everything you need to know about unlocking and surviving the secret eighth world.

Before you begin

HarmoKnight is essentially a runner where you swing a musical staff to hit enemies or jump over gaps and obstacles to progress safely. It’s a nice cross between Pokémon and Rhythm Heaven. It’s a lot harder than it looks, though, and careful timing is key to attaining “good” or “great” status at the end of levels, which earns you the Royal Notes you need to continue forward. Some even require a perfect score. Listen to the beat and watch for any patterns.

After the credits roll, you should have obtained almost all the Royal Notes, but the “pinklefs” your buddy Tappy the Rabbit tells you about early on in Symphony City are more of a mystery. Five of them are necessary to unlock the barred path that leads to a tough eighth world called “Sky Roost,” which contains seven trials that incorporate the toughest enemies and trickiest elements from across the land of Melodia. Waiting at the end is the “Final Trial,” which could take you nearly as long to beat as it did to finish most of the game.

Collecting the pinklefs

“Pinklefs” are actually pink birds that resemble the musical symbol the treble clef. One is hidden in every major world, and these special stages are marked by feathers on the overworld map. Once you figure this out, the rest is easy.

The first pinklef is located in World 1 in “Springtime Stroll.” Advance through the level until Tappy says, “I sense a secret path …” and then spring off the next drum. (Hint: If you have trouble bouncing successfully, try waiting a little longer to push the B button.)

White and pink platforms indicate the location of the giant pinklef eggs in every one of these areas. Break the shell with your staff like you would a normal heart-containing egg and reach the end, and the first pinklef is yours. At this point, it’ll be called “a bird,” but the resemblance should tip you off.

Next up is World 2. Head to “Rockin’ Dragorn” and take the higher path as soon as Tappy instructs you to. Veering away from the trail of music notes is how you’ll find most of these birds; don’t worry about missing points.

Another pinklef resides in World 3. Enter “Revisiting the Shore” and take the lower path (after passing the dragon and the normal egg).

You’ll need to hold off until the very end for this next one. In World 5, go to “Looking for Birds.” After the second drum, keep to the middle path whenever possible until you find the signature white platforms.

Finally, “Crossing the Crater” in World 7 conceals the fifth pinklef. At the second set of pillars (before the dragon appears), climb and jump across them and hop up again to reach your goal.

Now venture back to Symphony City and unlock the eighth world.

‘Sky Roost’

None of the trials in “Sky Roost” contain any health boosts, so you’ll have to collect as many music notes as possible without taking more than five hits total. All of them involve frequent and often tricky leaps over pits and obstructions like flames, and unexpected shifts in the  perspective — from side-scrolling to a rear view or a close-up zoom — or the path that the hero Tempo runs along mean that you’ll need to listen carefully for telltale cues.

For example, before open flames sprout from the ground, they audibly ignite. And the ghost-like enemies cast a moving shadow prior to popping up and making a whooshing sound. Memorizing these signals will help you learn when and how to react. It’s the same with other perils. Master the pattern and you’ll make it through unharmed.

The “Baroque Trial” is one of the most rigorous and intense, as is the “Clock Tower Trial,” which slows down and speeds up the pace more dramatically than in any other level. A couple trials put the playable side characters Lyla and Tyko to work.

But the “Final Trial” is the most difficult of all, demanding near-perfection. Master Woodwin shares a story with you after you finish.

If you conquer those challenges and want more, try aiming for a “great” performance in every level, including the boss and miniboss stages.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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A federal jury in New York on Wednesday decided that Nintendo infringed an inventor’s patent on glasses-free 3D displays on the Japanese company’s handheld 3DS game system.

The jury awarded $30.2 million in compensatory damages to Seijiro Tomita, a Japanese inventor who patented a system for producing 3D images on a screen with requiring the user to wear cumbersome 3D glasses.

Last month, Tomita’s attorney Joe Diamante told the jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Nintendo infringed the technology created by Tomita, a former Sony employee. Nintendo’s attorney argued otherwise. Tomita sued Nintendo in 2011.

Nintendo said the patent did not related to 3D games playable on the 3DS. In statement, the company said, “Nintendo is confident that the result will be set aside.  The jury’s verdict will not impact Nintendo’s continued sales in the United States of its highly acclaimed line of video game hardware, software and accessories, including the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Every few weeks, Nintendo digs out enough downloadable content from its virtual warehouse to put something new on all four of its online-enabled systems. Of course, that usually means something cool for the 3DS and Wii U and something weird/dumb/boring for the Wii and DSi, but not this week! Yes, for the first time (and let’s be honest, probably last time), one of the more high-profile releases is for WiiWare, but you can still find the usual cool stuff on the Wii U and 3DS and a game with a weird title on the DSi. So not everything is different.

First up is the Wii U, which gets full and demo versions of Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, the sequel to autoscrolling platformer Bit.Trip Runner. Like the rest of the Bit.Trip series from developer Gaijin Games, Runner 2 boasts a hip techno soundtrack timed with your actions that makes it feel more like a rhythm game than a straight platformer.

History has shown us that, prior to 2010′s Lords of Shadow at least, the 2D side-scrolling Castlevania games are usually the only ones worth paying attention to. Will Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate carry on that legacy? You can find out for yourself today in its new demo, or next Tuesday (March 5) when the full title is available on stores and on the eShop.

If whipping vampires to death isn’t your thing, you can get a pair of new eShop games: Coaster Creator 3D, which lets you design and enjoy your own thrill rides, and Mahjong Mysteries: Ancient Athena, a mahjong game. Also, two-screen action title Fractured Soul is on sale for $7.99 (down from $11.99), and this week is your last chance to download the Champions of Yore 1 DLC for Fire Emblem: Awakening. So, get on that.

Thankfully, the much-hyped (by me) new Wii release is not a Virtual Console port of a game you forgot about 10 years ago, but it is a WiiWare port of a game you might have played a few months ago: Retro City Rampage. The faux 8-bit Grand Theft Auto-style shooter is essentially “References To Things You Like: The Game,” and the WiiWare version includes the new ROM City Rampage mode, which envisions how it would work if played on a Nintendo Entertainment System. For now, ROM City Rampage is exclusive to the Wii and PC versions, so you can hold that over anyone who bought it on Xbox 360, PS3, or Vita.

Finally, on the DSi, Easter Eggztravaganza takes hidden-object and spot-the-difference games to their logical conclusion with an actual Easter egg hunt. It’s not the same as the real thing, but at $4.99, it is certainly cheaper.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo has gone demo-crazy this week as the company is devoting almost half of its weekly eShop update to letting you try things out before you buy them.

First up is the Wii U, which is getting demos of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Trine 2: Director’s Cut. Both are available now in addition to a classic Super Nintendo racing game that is way better than Mario Kart (despite what everyone I’ve ever met thinks): F-Zero. As you may recall, Nintendo announced last month that Captain Falcon’s debut would be part of the company’s anniversary celebration. That means for 30 days (starting yesterday), you can download F-Zero for only 30 cents and play it offscreen with the Wii U’s tablet controller.

Not to be outdone by its big brother, the 3DS is also getting a demo of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate this week, along with a demo of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, both of which are downloadable now. Also, if you’re jealous of the Wii U’s Nintendo classic this week, the 3DS eShop has something for you as well: the slightly less fondly remembered Nintendo Entertainment System puzzler Yoshi.

Fans of very descriptive titles can check out Viking Invasion 2: Tower Defense, which is a tower-defense game about invading vikings, while those of you looking to scratch your first-person-dungeon-crawler itch can download Picdun 2: Witch’s Curse. Of course, you could also wait until Sunday, which is when the full version of Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan comes to the 3DS eShop.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s Valentine’s Day, and you foolishly spent all of your money on a fancy new video game console instead of a romantic getaway for your significant other. Now what? Well, Nintendo has your back with this week’s Wii U eShop update. But if you’d rather spend the day alone and hunched over a handheld, it has you covered for that as well.

First up is the Wii U, which is getting its own version of Google Street View today with the Wii Street U app. While it may seem like a straight port of the global satellite imaging service, the twist in this is that you’re able to use the GamePad to view full 360-degree panoramic views of whatever exciting destination you couldn’t afford to visit in real life.

Meanwhile, the 3DS eShop won’t let you go on imaginary vacations, but you can download a demo of animé side-scroller Naruto: Powerful Shippuden and the full versions of Rabbids Travel in Time 3D (which ditches the former Rayman-vehicle’s minigame roots in favor of an action-focused platformer) and Petz Fantasy 3D (in which you dress up fantastical creatures and learn to love them as if they were real pets). Wrapping things up for the 3Ds is a port of the arcade classic Dig Dug, a title that upholds the classic gaming tradition of killing cute enemies in the most brutal way possible (this time by inflating them until they explode).

The only update for the DSi this week is Moke Moke, which, according to this YouTube video posted by the developers at G-Style, appears mildly Balloon Fight-esque in the way that it has wacky characters flapping their arms in order to fly around and grab things.

Finally, the lone update for the original Wii’s Virtual Console is World Heroes 2 Jet, the sequel to World Heroes 2 (which Nintendo added to the service early last month).

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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People have been talking about video game violence a lot lately, and Nintendo’s eShop update manages to hit both sides of the debate.

First up is the Wii U, which (at least for this week) is the place to go if you want video games about kicking people so hard that they explode. That’s because the only new item coming to the Wii U today is the full version of Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, based on the long-running manga and animé series. While it’s on a disc in Japan, Ken’s Rage 2 is exclusive to the eShop in the United States and Europe.

Things get a little more highbrow for the 3DS this week. Well, it’s technically next week, because you’ll have to wait until then before you can download the full versions of Brain Age: Concentration Training (Sunday) and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D (Tuesday).

Of course, if you’re Veruca Salt and want your new eShop games now, Nintendo also has a few things for you. Starting today, you can download the full versions of Splinter Cell 3D and Rayman 3D, as well as a demo of the upcoming Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan and the Nintendo Entertainment System classic Mega Man II.

Wrapping things up is the DSi, which only gets one new game this week: A vertical-scrolling platformer (think Doodle Jump) called Ah! Heaven. According to Nintendo’s page for the game, you play as a soul trying to get up to heaven, and while God is willing to open the gates for you, he is forcing you to reach them on your own. I’m not sure, but this sounds like a rather literal metaphor for something.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo may not be planning on cutting the Wii U’s price anytime soon, but if it wants to get more crazy tablet controllers into people’s homes it’ll have to do it by continuing to support the system with extremely exciting eShop updates. Of course, the more exciting updates are almost always on the 3DS, but at least the Wii U is getting some new content this week.

The main addition to the Wii U’s eShop this week is liquid-based puzzle game Puddle (previously available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Vita, and PC), which comes with some new enhancements specific to the console’s touchscreen capabilities. You can also get a demo version of Double Fine and Ron Gilbert’s newest adventure title, The Cave, the full version of which came out last week.

As stated above, the end of January (and beginning of February) are a bit more exciting on Nintendo’s latest handheld. Starting today, the 3DS eShop gets a port of Ikachan (a formerly PC-exclusive underwater action game from the creator of Cave Story), Ice Climbers (the NES classic that you only remember because its characters are in Smash Bros.), and two more full retail games: Witch’s Cat and Bloody Vampire, the latter of which is a platformer with role-playing game elements about someone who is half-human and half-vampire, so it’s basically Symphony of the Night. Basically.

“But enough talk. Have at you!”

Also, Sparkle Snapshots 3D gets a pair of DLC packs that might interest you more than you think, so don’t just ignore this paragraph because you’re “too cool” for Sparkle Snapshots 3D. Both sets, “Mario Core” and “Mario Kart 7,” allow you to pretty up your 3DS photos with Mario decorations, which is cool. So there.

The final 3DS update is surely the one that most people are excited about, even if they’ll have to wait a few extra days for it: Fire Emblem: Awakening, which GamesBeat’s own Mike Minotti referred to as “one of the best games Nintendo’s released for the 3DS yet” in his review. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until Monday before you can download it from the eShop.

On the DSi, the only new thing for its stalwarts to download this week is 99 Moves, a game in which you must escape areas using only, you guessed it, 99 moves. It boasts “incredible enemy patterns” on Nintendo’s official site, so that’s something.

Wrapping things up is the original Wii, which gets one measly Virtual Console title: Metal Slug 4.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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“We are already offering it at a good price,” he reportedly said while speaking to investors and reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.

During a third-quarter financial results briefing, Iwata said the company has taken a resolute stance in pricing the console below its manufacturing cost and is not planning to perform a markdown.

“I would like to make this point absolutely clear,” he said. “We are putting our lessons from [the] Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated. However, given that it has now become clear that we have not yet fully communicated the value of our product, we will try to do so before the software lineup is enhanced, and at the same time work to enrich the software lineup, which could make consumers understand the appeal of Wii U.”

Although the company has sold 3 million Wii U units since its November 18 launch, Iwata admits sales of the console and of the Nintendo 3DS handheld ran out of steam during the holiday shopping season. Yesterday, Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 4 million consoles. It previously forecasted sales of 5.5 million. It also cut its 3DS sales estimate to 15 million units, down from 17.5 million.

The Wii U is Nintendo’s first new home console in six years. The basic version retails for $299.99 in the U.S.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Whether you’re new to the Fire Emblem series or just need a refresher (it’s been several years since the last game and nearly a decade since the last handheld iteration), GamesBeat’s spoiler-free starter guide should help you hit the ground running when Awakening releases for the Nintendo 3DS on February 4.

To die or not to die

Awakening’s Casual Mode enables new players (or possibly those who become a little too emotionally attached to their virtual soldiers) to forgo the franchise’s iconic permadeath and allow defeated characters to return after the battle in which they were injured.

For those seeking the authentic Fire Emblem experience, you can choose Classic Mode to ensure that any character who gets caught slippin’ is dead for good. Classic also prevents you from loading previous save games, so once you make a bad decision in-game, there’s no going back.

Note that Classic or Casual Mode are not difficulty settings, so you can still choose Normal, Hard, and eventually Lunatic regardless of the mode you select.

Avoid ‘trap’ characters

Every Fire Emblem game starts you off with some badass character that seems to swat away enemies like flies, and Awakening is no different. The problem is, those characters are usually advanced classes (as is the case with Frederick in Awakening), so while they may tank and attack like beasts, they’ll also eat up a ton of experience that could be going to your other, less-powerful characters.

If you let Frederick, for example, tear through the early missions, you’ll find that your party as a whole will be woefully overwhelmed by enemies later on. If you do bring Frederick, you may want to use him strictly as a meatshield. There will be instances where you can’t reach an enemy without being attacked first, often by multiple opponents, so you can send Frederick in first to take one for the team and probably thin the herd just with counterattacks alone.

Enemies will target the squishies first

So you’ve got a ton of characters near an enemy and figure there’s no way he’s going to go running into the middle of them just to bitch-slap your healer, right? Wrong. The A.I. is designed to take down whomever is easiest to kill, starting with your armorless healers. Keep them out of range at all times.

Skirmishes

Skirmishes are optional battles that appear on the world map. You’ll see an enemy just standing there, waiting for you to come over and slap it with your glove, or how ever people initiated conflicts in medieval times. Sometimes, though, you may encounter unique scenarios where two enemies will fight you at the same time. You’ll reap additional rewards (a random item and $3,000), but make sure you’re prepared.

If you enter a battle with a traveling merchant, he will appear as a nonplayable character. See that no harm comes to him, and he’ll gift you a random item (usually something good). Lastly, you can come across StreetPass or SpotPass characters engaged with the enemy. Those NPC characters will aid you in battle, but be aware that you won’t get any items they take.

Frequent fliers

Although they may start out weak, flying units can become your greatest asset. They’re able to travel further and over terrain types that other units cannot. Just be careful that you don’t let them go too far on their own (best to pair a couple of fliers together); otherwise, they may get stranded and ganged up on.

The only real weakness airborne units have is archer enemies, but since you can view the map before you choose your squad, you’ll know what you’re up against.

Support and pairing up

Unlike many other strategy-role-playing games, the direction in which you attack an enemy and your placement on the map have no effect on combat. So you can’t deal critical back attacks or have an archer deal bonus damage by taking the high ground. Instead, you’ll need to rely on the Support* and Pair Up systems.

One character will support another anytime the two units are positioned next to each other. This automatically provides a stat boost for the lead character in battle (the one attacking or being attacked). The higher the Support Rank between the two characters, the better the stat boost will be.

Support units can also execute a Dual Strike, attacking the enemy for additional damage, or a Support Block, where they dive in front of the enemy’s attack and nullify the damage. Again, the higher the Support Rank, the better the chance you’ll gain these benefits, so make sure your characters are all nice and friendly with each other.

Pairing up works a little differently in that two characters combine to act as one unit. The lead character will gain a bonus Pair Up boost based on the partner’s class (a magic class boosts your magic, for example), as well as still being able to activate Dual Strikes and Support Blocks. Keep in mind that the character who initiates Pair Up will actually become the support unit, but you may switch roles or separate at any time (as long as you still have a turn to take).

*Support Rank is gained by fighting next to each other or pairing up. It starts at a D Rank and can go all the way up to S Rank if the two characters are marriage compatible.

Marriage and children (really)

At a certain point in the game, male and female characters with an S Support Rank will marry each other. This includes Chrom, the main character, as well your own custom character, known as “My Unit.”

Once married, almost every female character has a corresponding child character that you can recruit toward the end of the game. Unfortunately, to further explain this system would spoil the story, but you can check out this incredibly robust FAQ if you’d like to know more.

Infinite Divine Weapons

Expect a downloadable-content episode titled “Infinite Divine Weapons” to be released eventually. This map has three treasure chests, each containing a random weapon, and can be replayed limitlessly. This is the most straightforward way to collect every Divine weapon in the game.

Lunatic-Plus

Veteran strategy-RPG players may find Awakening’s Normal difficulty to be a little too forgiving. The harder difficulties can provide a more appropriate challenge, and finishing the game on Lunatic (the highest difficulty setting) will unlock Lunatic+. The key difference here is that enemies may come equipped with insane skills unique to Lunatic-Plus. Good luck!

Additional tips: Kat Bailey, Serenesforest.com, GameFAQs

Check out GamesBeat’s Fire Emblem: Awakening review.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo reported a third-fiscal-quarter profit today for the three months ending on Dec. 31, 2012 as it struggled to regain its footing in a difficult gaming market. But it sold a respectable 3 million units of its Wii U video game console that launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. and shortly thereafter worldwide. The Wii U sales pale in comparison to sales of Apple’s latest iPads, but the numbers are quite respectable for a video game console launch, which is typically held back by a shortage of components.

The results are very mixed. In terms of the outlook, Nintendo slashed its forecast for sales dramatically but said that its profit would actually be higher than it forecast previously on Oct. 24. Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 4 million consoles from a previous forecast of 5.5 million. It also cut its 3DS sales estimate to 15 million units compared with the 17.5 million it had predicted earlier. And it cut its DS sales expectations to 2.3 million from 2.5 million. None of that was good news.

Nintendo said its portable 3DS gaming hardware sales were up 11 percent and 3DS software sales were up 41 percent. But those gains were not enough to offset lower sales of Wii and Nintendo DS hardware and software. The yen’s value against the euro was contributed to a 2.4 percent decrease in overall sales in the first nine months of Nintendo’s fiscal year.

A favorable foreign currency exchange rate enabled Nintendo to report a profit in the third fiscal quarter. Nintendo did not break out its third-quarter results. But for the nine-month period, it reported net income of 14.545 billion yen, or $159.9 million, compared with a loss of 48.351 billion yen, or $531.62 million a year earlier. Revenues for the nine months were $5.970 billion, compared with $6.115 billion a year earlier. Nintendo’s operating loss was narrower at $64.4 million for the nine months, compared to an operating loss of $180.4 million a year earlier.

Nintendo said that its sales for the full fiscal year ending March 31 will be 670 billion yen, or $7.366 billion, down from its earlier forecast of 810 billion yen, or $8.905 billion. Nintendo now forecasts an operating loss of $219 million, compared to a forecast of an operating profit of $219 million earlier. Net income is expected to be $153.9 million, compared with an earlier forecast of $65 million.

Nintendo said that it will release “a cavalcade of strong, fan-favorite software titles for both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS” starting in March and continuing through 2014. Nintendo will release games based on well-known franchises including Mario Kart, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, LEGO City, Wii Fit, and Pikmin. Those games “will help Nintendo regain momentum for Wii U,” the company said.

During the nine months ending on Dec. 31, Nintendo shipped 21.45 million hardware units and 126.57 million units of software. During those nine months, the Nintendo DS sold 2.15 million units, reaching lifetime sales of 153.67 million. Software sales on the DS were 30.24 million, reaching lifetime sales of 930.55 million. Nintendo 3DS sold 12.71 million units, reaching lifetime sales of 29.84 million. 3DS software sold 39.56 million units, reaching a total of 84.99 million units. Wii hardware sold 3.53 million units, reaching a total of 99.38 million units. Wii software sold 45.08 million units, reaching a total of 863.53 million units. Will U hardware sold 3.06 million units and 11.69 million units of software. That means Nintendo sold 3.82 games per Wii U console.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo leaves its last-generation systems behind this week — with no new content coming to the original Wii or the DSi — but at least you will soon be able to play your Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Virtual Console purchases on the Wii U’s fancy tablet controller. At this point, Wii and DSi owners should probably just take what they can get (which, odds are, will be an old SNK game or something that is barely a game at all).

Moving on to more relevant platforms: Nintendo announced yesterday that it plans to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the NES by offering a big discount on a Wii U-optimized download of a different classic title every month until July. The party officially starts this week with the latex-themed air-combat sim Balloon Fight, which you can get now for only 30 cents. Wii U owners can also download the Double Fine adventure game (no, not that one) The Cave and the full retail version of wacky strategy/puzzler Funky Barn.

On the 3DS’s eShop, you can now download the retail version of strategy-focused shooter Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, a demo of Brain Age: Concentration Training, and a variation on the classic Breakout arcade game called Cocoto Alien Brick Breaker. Also, just in case you need more ways to play NES titles, you can get Contra sequel Super C, which is already available on the Wii’s Virtual Console. So once you transfer it to the Wii U, you can play it on three systems at once. Technology!

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Piracy is a sensitive issue in video games, and it’s not going anywhere. Early this month, hacker Neimod found a way to enable custom code on the Nintendo 3DS, which could make the nearly 2-year-old handheld victim to homebrew software and the illegal copying of games. Developers are in a huff, but the mindset of pirates hasn’t changed: If they can hack it, it’s theirs to play with.

Jools Watsham of Renegade Kid, the developer of Mutant Mudds on 3DS, responded with a threat of his own: “If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games,” he wrote on his blog.

Could piracy really ruin the 3DS’s future? What is the full scope of consequences? And if it is dangerous, what can we — gamers, developers, and publishers — do to prevent it?

Piracy harms sales, which can cripple developers

Watsham argues that piracy has a clear negative impact. In the same blog post, he cited the success of his studio’s mature-rated DS game Dementium: The Ward — which sold over 100,000 copies worldwide — but pointed to rampant piracy as a reason why sales of Dementium II fell to half that.

“Some say that piracy leads to more game sales, claiming that it enables players to try before they buy,” he wrote. “Bullshit. The percentage of people who will spend money on a game that they already got for free is surely very small — especially with so many ‘free’ games already in the market.”

For a small developer, that kind of effect on sales can be crippling. Watsham is hoping that Nintendo can fight pirates with its system updates for the 3DS, but the more developers lose sales to piracy, the harder it is for them to thrive.

“Game developers and publishers, particularly the smaller ones, may suffer the most as they depend on the legitimate sales of their games in order to survive,” Nintendo told GamesBeat. It’s legitimate sales, not theoretical sales when piracy is accounted for, that matter to a company’s health.

It’s not just about sales — it’s about diversity

“Many developers rely on funding from publishers,” Watsham told us. “If publishers are worried about piracy, they will limit the number of original games they release.”

That’s not the case with licensed games, which are based on movie tie-ins or brands that appeal to a large audience mostly consisting of casual players, who wouldn’t typically pirate games, says Watsham.

“Original games, on the other hand, are riskier as they cannot rely on avid fans of an existing brand for the majority of their sales,” he said.

If we want the industry landscape to be creatively diverse, gamers need to support the developers of new intellectual properties by purchasing copies of their games, not resorting to piracy. Sales matter — that’s why we have so many Assassin’s Creeds and Halos — and bigger, proven franchises are safer bets for publishers. But piracy is a much bigger issue for publishers when dealing with games from smaller studios, where the guaranteed return is already much less significant.

“The issue is with the publisher’s perception of how piracy will affect sales and where they want to invest their money,” said Watsham.

Neil Sorens, the creative director at Zen Studios (the maker of 3DS games like Zen Pinball 3D and 3D Solitaire), agreed that a big downside of piracy is seeing less of the games people like to play.

“Before Steam came along, PC role-playing games and turn-based strategy games had become almost extinct because the threat of piracy rightly or wrongly led publishers to conclude that these games were not worth the investment,” Sorens told GamesBeat. “Now we see a similar shift in investment into essentially piracy-free mobile and social games that rely on in-app purchases for revenue. Unfortunately, it’s very rare that one of these games will provide the game experience I am looking for.”

Peter Ong, the cofounder and creative director at DreamRift (Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for 3DS), expanded on this concept — where companies might favor the popularity of a game’s license or previously successful designs over “the risk of innovation and experimentation”:

“If a publisher or developer thinks that a certain type of audience is most likely to forgo purchasing in favor of piracy, it only makes business sense to tailor the game’s design away from that group,” he told us.

So casual and mainstream buyers, for example, might be less in touch with gaming and wouldn’t typically know how to go about acquiring pirated games.

“This translates to a situation where the type of game that is [made will be the one] perceived to be best received by nonenthusiast gamers,” he said, echoing what Watsham said. “It doesn’t matter whether the theoretical example of mainstream buyers being less likely to pirate games is true” as long as the perception exists.

Publishers respond negatively to piracy in other ways

French publisher Ubisoft instituted aggressive digital rights management (DRM) policies in 2010 that forced gamers to connect to an online service. You couldn’t play games like Assassin’s Creed II for PC offline, and you couldn’t sell them used, either. Disconnect while playing and you would even lose saved progress.

Ubisoft altered this policy in 2011 because its stance hurt fans more than it hurt pirates. The people who had bought the games were the ones suffering.

Tyrone Rodriguez, the founder of developer Nicalis (Cave Story on WiiWare, DSiWare, and 3DS), believes that developers are just as responsible for their fans as publishers are. He disagrees with Watsham that piracy could put an end to support of the 3DS.

“Regardless of piracy, we plan to continue supporting the 3DS and other major consoles,” he told GamesBeat. “The 3DS hacking so early in the lifecycle is disappointing, but it’s an issue that’s not going away. Why punish players who actually support us by buying, playing, and enjoying the games we develop by giving up?

“We as developers shouldn’t allow the concept of digital theft [to] distract or deter us from making more games. How do I know someone who illegally downloads a game would actually ever purchase it? I don’t. It’s a problem that is difficult to quantify.”

That doesn’t mean Rodriguez believes piracy isn’t a real problem. “Is it harmful for the game industry? Of course. However, piracy is probably less damaging to our industry than selling games for 99 cents and expecting to subsist.”

But Ong pointed out a potential hitch — that piracy forces developers’ and publishers’ hands when it comes to their freedom in choosing how to distribute a game, depending on what price they think would be most effective.

“Piracy is indefensible,” he said, “because it means that the maker doesn’t have [the] opportunity to choose the distribution price/strategy — even giving it away for free — and instead is forced to deliver their product into a market where distribution has to occur to some extent for free, regardless of what the maker thinks.”

Customers need ‘to have faith in their purchases’

Watsham suggested that while developers and publishers might not be able to do anything to reduce piracy, a good way of restoring gamers’ loyalty would be to take advantage of modern technologies and implement better digital stores and other conveniences.

“Regarding digitally downloaded games, which seems to be the inevitable future of all video games,” said Watsham, “digital stores need to offer a service to players that make them feel comfortable and confident that the games they have purchased can be easily transferred to different devices and/or redownloaded if their device has been lost, damaged, or stolen. Again, it comes down to providing a service that is at least as good if not better than those offered of illegal ROM or torrent sites.

“I realize this creates a new set of issues and complexities in order for the stores to handle such a service, but in the end, this is what the customer wants and needs — to have faith in their purchases.”

Some, like Sorens, think that publishers and developers have already shown as much goodwill and generosity as possible.

“I think that the industry has already done basically everything it can in terms of improving convenience,” he said. “Offering steep discounts, making DRM more palatable by offering compelling online-only features behind that DRM, going after the real hackers and criminals rather than the downloaders, and so on.”

He added, “I don’t see any common ground or motivations that would allow pirates and developers to work together. If we make something free, pirates have no reason to touch it. If we charge money for something, then it’s obviously necessary to make our business model work, and pirates undermine that model by making it free.”

Is a better future possible?

Maybe the answer to how we can end piracy for good is to seek a way to work together as developers, publishers, and gamers. In 2009, Carlos Bordeu of ACE Team appealed to file-sharers of its first-person fighting game Zeno Clash, asking torrenters to consider buying the game so it could “continue making games like this.”

He wrote, “We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game — and honestly don’t intend to do so — but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game, and support the independent game development scene, if you enjoy it. We plan on updating Zeno Clash with [downloadable content] and continuing support for the game long after it’s [sic] release.”

Bordeu also promised that a demo would be available soon so that prospective buyers could try the game legally and for free, and ACE Team delivered. And interestingly, responses were positive.

“We honestly think that ‘converting’ the people who download the game into buyers is a much better strategy than trying to fight them,” Bordeu told TorrentFreak. “We are also improving the original game, so it will include features and content that people who download the game will probably miss.”

But not everyone wants to chance piracy, and it remains a serious issue.

“If piracy becomes as rampant on 3DS as it was on the DS, we won’t be making 3DS games,” said Sorens of behalf of Zen Studios. “Our games are relatively niche and low-margin, and even a relatively small percentage of sales lost to piracy would make the opportunity cost of developing 3DS games too steep.”

DreamRift’s Peter Ong dismissed the often-used rationale that piracy is a fair way to evaluate a game before purchasing it.

“There was in fact a time when information and access to games one had not yet purchased — or that hadn’t been released yet — was quite limited,” he said. “However, as modern methods of information-sharing have developed, the ways in which we can access a game prior to purchase have greatly increased and continue to do so.”

Ong mentioned the abundance of high-resolution screenshots and direct-feed videos that you can stream through your computer as well as developer interviews, social media, behind-the-scenes footage, media events, demos, open and closed betas, and — perhaps most damning of all — prompt review coverage.

“Our options for researching games before buying them is only getting better and better,” he said. “With the plethora of modern methods for experiencing games prepurchase, the question begging to be asked of piracy advocates is, how much more do you need to make fully informed decision to buy a game? Will it ever be enough, short of playing through the whole game without buying it?”

We attempted to contact Neimod and another 3DS hacker, Yellows8, about these issues but received no response.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This is one of those weeks when Nintendo is going to have to sit down with all of its consoles and remind them that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it doesn’t have a “favorite.” Just because the Wii U and DSi aren’t getting any new content this week on their respective digital download services doesn’t mean they’re not special in their own way. It’s just that they’re not as special as the 3DS (or even the original Wii, to a lesser extent).

The headliner for this week’s 3DS-centric eShop update is the demo of Fire Emblem Awakening, the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running turn-based strategy series. You can also get the full retail versions of kid-friendly minigame collection Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue and Deer Drive Legends (which is unfortunately not an animal-driving sim but a hunting game).

Wrapping things up for the 3DS is a port of the Game Boy puzzler Kirby’s Star Stacker and Tokyo Crash Mobs, a game that proves that the DSi isn’t the only place to find totally weird things that are hard to explain. Basically, it’s a Zuma-style puzzle game where you throw people at other people in order to knock them out of line that uses a mix of live-action video and “wacky digital graphics” (according to the official site).

Finally, the original Wii finally gets an Amazon Instant Video app, so you can stream content from the online retail giant’s Netflix competitor. Hey, it’s something at least.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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For the first time in nine years, Nintendo is enacting a major reorganization of its corporate structure.

The hardware manufacturer will combine its home console and handheld divisions into one unit, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Nintendo is investing over $340 million in a Kyoto-based office that will house this newly unified team.

The Mario developer plans to use this new structuring to promote the sharing of technology between the console and handheld groups, which have operated very independently of one another in the past.

Nintendo’s latest hardware releases, the Wii U and 3DS, have found some success, but they face a tougher landscape than ever before. Competition includes classic rivals like Sony and Microsoft, but Apple, Valve, and a slew of Android-based home consoles could eat up a major chunk of the market.

A major criticism of Nintendo in the last few years is its lack of a unified vision for its online components. You can purchase Super Mario Bros. on the 3DS, but that download doesn’t transfer to the Wii or Wii U. Hopefully, that’s the kind of thing this move will resolve.

Via The Verge

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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So what does this mean for us? Well, one major benefit some gamers are happy about is the ability to finally remove the 3DS’s pesky region locking, which prevents us from playing imported copies of Japanese games, for example. And while that is definitely something to be excited about (Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, anyone?), many gamers won’t stop there.

Whether we like to admit it or not, piracy hurts the industry, and smaller game devs and publishers suffer more than their billion-dollar-budget big brothers. Renegade Kid’s Jools Watsham, the developer of the very cool Mutant Mudds on the 3DS eShop, had this to say about it:

Piracy on the Nintendo DS crippled the DS retail market, especially in Europe. We’ll never know how/if Dementium II landed in as many hands as the first game, Dementium: The Ward, due to the rampant piracy at the time. Dementium: The Ward sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide, which is a great success for an original mature-rated title on the DS. Recorded sales of Dementium II are less than half that. We’ll never truly know why that was so, but many seem to believe that piracy had a lot to do with it.

If piracy gets bad on the 3DS, we will have no choice but to stop supporting the platform with new games. Some say that piracy leads to more game sales, claiming that it enables players to try before they buy. Bullshit. The percentage of people who will spend money on a game that they already got for free is surely very small — especially with so many “free” games already in the market. The line between what should/should not be free is getting very blurry.

While many gamers who pirate games will take up a “damn the man” stance, convincing themselves that they are getting back at big-name companies that charge an arm and a leg for on-disc downloadable content and such, this statement gives us an idea about how piracy affects the little guys.

Let me just climb down from my high horse here for a moment. Years ago, a friend and I hacked our PSPs in order to play Japanese titles before they came out in the U.S. Yes, I pirated a few games, but in all honesty, they were games I eventually purchased once they released overseas. My friend, on the other hand, would download ISOs as they were made available — gigs and gigs of games that he never finished. I didn’t see why he had created such a huge backlog for himself. I hate to use anecdotal evidence to support my argument here, but I’ve read about publishers and developers who choose not to release games in the U.S. because theirs have been pirated too much.

So where does that leave us? Piracy can prevent some great games from being localized, and it can hurt small game devs and publishers. Sure, lots of gamers like to try before they buy, which speaks to the importance of demos. I for one think that for a handheld like the 3DS, which is in a constant battle to keep third-party developers as it is, would likely suffer from its hardware being hacked. Sure, more 3DS units might sell, but what about software? Especially that of smaller developers?

What do you think?

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This spring, the 3DS will transform you into a Pokémon and let you play together with others.

Nintendo announced the newest Pokémon game for its 3DS handheld today. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity — more a roguelike than a regular role-playing game like this year’s Black 2 and White 2 — releases on March 24 and features more than 20 randomized, continuously changing dungeons.

Players can turn into one of five fan-favorite monsters: Pikachu, Snivy, Oshawott, Tepig, or Axew. From there, you can befriend or battle other Pokémon and discover treasure, all moving to a different location every time you enter the dungeon. The number of floors and type of terrain also change when you reenter an area.

Additionally, you can access dungeons called “Magnagates” by scanning circular objects in the real world with the 3DS’s built-in camera, which should provide some post-game content for players who want the adventure to continue.

Gates to Infinity introduces four-player wireless multiplayer to the series, according to the Pokémon website. You can play as any member of your team this way, not just your main character.

This is the first Mystery Dungeon game to release since Explorers of Sky came to the DS in 2009. The series began in 2006. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity will be available in stores and on the 3DS eShop.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Zelda II: The Adventure of Link arrives in the Nintendo eShop today — no longer exclusive to the Ambassador Program. Now’s your chance to play one of the oddest games in the series.

Trust me, Zelda II is tough. My experience with it dates back to childhood, when I swore to beat it after the Nintendo Entertainment System wiped my save file and my sisters “forgot” what happened at the end. (Dear sisters: Bite me.) This is a quest that will probably continue until my death.

But The Adventure of Link is one of my favorites, and I’ve played it on the NES, Game Boy Advance, and now the 3DS. (It’s available on the GameCube and Virtual Console, too.) Yet no matter what system I play it on, the controls remain as stubborn and unintuitive as ever, particularly when it comes to saving your game. Unless you record your progress when you die, saving midgame on the 3DS is a six-step process. Seriously, check the virtual manual.

Below is a look at how some of the weirdest parts of Zelda II compare to other games in the series.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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You may be sleeping off a tryptophan-induced coma later, but Nintendo isn’t taking a break from updating its various digital download services. This week, it’s even getting into the Thanksgiving spirit by offering something new for everyone. Well, everyone who owns a 3DS, DSi, Wii, or Wii U at least.

First off is the Wii U, since literally everything on its eShop is new this week. Most of the system’s launch games are available digitally, like ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, but you could also download the Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, or ESPN Sports Connection apps if you need to entertain any family members that haven’t left yet. Here’s the full list of Wii U eShop items:

• Amazon Instant Video
• Chasing Aurora
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
• ESPN Sports Connection
• Hulu Plus
• Little Inferno
• Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition
• NBA 2K13
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Nintendo Land
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
• Assassin’s Creed III
• Darksiders II
• FIFA Soccer 2013
• Game Party Champions
• Just Dance 4
• Madden NFL 2013
• Nano Assault NEO
• Netflix
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• Rabbids Land
• Sing Party
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition
• Warriors Orochi 3
• ZombiU

The 3DS is hosting a few new titles as well. The big names this week are Crashmo and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The former is the sequel to Pushmo, which our own Jeff Grubb referred to as “the secret best 3DS eShop game,” while the latter is best remembered as one of the few times Nintendo did anything radically different with the Zelda franchise. Both are available now, Crashmo for $8.99 and Zelda II for $4.99. Also new today is 3D Mahjongg, which is pretty self-descriptive, and a new episode of the Meat or Die video series.

The DSi brings a pair of new titles this week as well, though they’re technically just different versions of the same one: Spirit Hunters Inc., which comes in Light and Shadow variants, is a Pokémon-style augmented-reality game in which you capture and battle hidden spirits. Both types have a few exclusive monsters that you can’t find in the other, so you could buy both if you’re a completionist, but keep in mind that they are $7.99 each.

Finally, the Wii refuses to die, as yet another old SNK game comes to the Virtual Console. This week, it’s a Neo Geo fighter called Ninja Master’s, which includes an oddly placed apostrophe and a special move called the “Super Death Blow,” which sounds awesome.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you think Nintendo’s 3DS eShop is boring, then a few of the publisher’s big mascot characters are coming to the rescue.

Beginning Oct. 18, Nintendo plans on releasing Super Mario 3D Land, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, and Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS eShop for $39.99 each. For those keeping score, each of these games are full retail releases.

The eShop, the 3DS handheld’s digital-download service, is flooded with scores of weird $5 to $10 games. Titles like Mutant Mudds, Freakyforms, and Dillon’s Rolling Western have received decent reviews, but they don’t elicit much of a response from most Nintendo fans. These smaller downloads could benefit if these popular releases bring more people into the eShop.

This new lineup joins New Super Mario Bros. 2 as the most expensive games on the service. Full retail games Cross Words Plus and Art Academy: Lessons For Everyone are also available on the eShop now for $29.99. Those latter two are also part of a free-game promotion that includes Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Style Savvy: Trendsetters.

First-party Nintendo developer Intelligent Systems unleashed Pushmo, the secret best 3DS eShop game, in December 2011. Now the devilish little puzzler is getting a sequel.

Crashmo should hit your 3DS’s digital-download service on Nov. 22, and it won’t just be a “Pushmo 2.” In Pushmo, players save village children by pushing and pulling blocks to ascend a structure. Crashmo features new gravity-based mechanics and new gameplay gadgets like floating blocks.

Of course, Crashmo will also include the beloved puzzle-creation tool that was so popular in the original game. A quick Google Image search for “Pushmo” reveals endless creative puzzles based on other games and popular-culture icons.

Players created all kinds of crazy levels and used the game’s QR-code feature to share them across the web.

Intelligent Systems is the Nintendo team responsible for a number of the publisher’s most critically acclaimed titles. It’s best known for developing the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem franchises across the company’s multiple handheld and home consoles. Nintendo is releasing Paper Mario Sticker Star, the studio’s next role-playing game, on Nov. 11 for the 3DS.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo began a new promotional campaign Monday, and some fans are upset about the company’s new, unofficial tagline:

“I am not a gamer.”

That’s what Olympic gold medalist gymnast Gabrielle Douglas says in a commercial for Nintendo’s handheld 3DS console. It’s part of Nintendo’s “Play As You Are” promotion, although most focus on the “I am not a gamer” quote that appears in one of the other ads as well. Some self-professed “hardcore gamers” are taking that as an insult.

Here’s the ad spot:

If you watch the video, you’ll see Douglas sitting on a gym mat, playing her purple 3DS and collecting coins in New Super Mario Bros. 2. She brags about her in-game coin totals before making the “I am not a gamer” declaration followed by: “With my 3DS, I’m a coin-collecting champion.”

Writer Rex Wolff of Twinfinite.net summed up much of the criticism in a blog post:

Every bit of progress, every hint of reconciliation, all of it thrown out the window. Nintendo of America doesn’t want to be associated with “gamers.” What exactly is Nintendo trying to say with this horribly misguided campaign? At best, the message can be interpreted as, “You don’t need to be an intense enthusiast to enjoy Mario,” but at worst, it comes out as, “Nintendo games and the 3DS are for normal people like you and me, not those troglodytic basement-dwellers.”

“Poor Nintendo,” Michael Pachter, a software analyst for Wedbush Morgan told GamesBeat. “I don’t understand why core gamers care if a nongamer owns a device.”

GamesBeat contacted Nintendo to see if it would like to comment on this story, but it hasn’t responded at the time of this post. Although, it’s clear that the company wants to appeal to people outside of the gaming echo chamber. That is not new for Nintendo.

“I also don’t understand who core gamers think bought 90 million Wiis,” Pachter said. “It’s pretty obvious that the Wii and the DS penetrated [casual audiences], and it should not offend the core if Nintendo attempts to appeal to casuals with a mainstream ad campaign. There is a lot of content, both hardcore and casual, for every Nintendo device, and always will be.”

It’s true, anyone who feels persecuted by this is probably being too sensitive, but Nintendo’s wording isn’t helping. I like to think gamers, journalists, and publishers are all in the business of promoting gaming as a positive hobby that is equally valid to watching movies and reading books.

And I can’t imagine an ad campaign for Harry Potter that features the words: “I am not a reader.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Call Tom Nook and tell him that I’m going to be a few bells short on my rent this month ’cause I gotta get me one of these new Animal Crossing Nintendo 3DSes.

In an announcement on the company’s official Japanese website, Nintendo gave fans a deeper look into its plans for the holiday. One of those includes a 3DS with a paint job inspired by the open-world social-simulating Animal Crossing 3DS. Both the game and the system are set to debut November 8.

The system’s designers dotted a handful of simple Animal Crossing icons onto a white unit. It looks very clean and fun and should be a hit with the fans of the beloved title.

I asked Nintendo of America about the possibility of this 3DS making it to North America, but a response is unlikely before tomorrow morning. Even if NOA is planning to bring this adorable unit stateside, it won’t do so before Animal Crossing’s tentative first-half of 2013 release date.

Nintendo also announced special-edition 3DSes for Monster Hunter Tri G and New Super Mario Bros. 2. Each bundle will include their respective game digitally on the packed-in SD card.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Those who purchase Pokémon Black/White Version 2 from launch until Nov. 12 can receive Genesect for free through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Back for a second time, Team Plasma has resurrected and modified the Pokémon from a 300-million-year-old fossil. Players who own this Bug/Steel-type can use the move Techno Blast, which is unique to Genesect.

This Pokémon is part of the fifth generation that began with last year’s Black and White, which gave early buyers access to Victini. The Mythical Water/Fighting-type Keldeo was available for Black and White last month via a distribution event.

Genesect appears as No. 300 in the updated Unova Pokédex. Also new to the region are Black Tower and White Treehollow, randomly generated additions to Black City and White Forest that allow players to battle high-level Pokémon for experience points and items.

The upcoming games are for the Nintendo DS, 3DS, and 3DS XL.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Zynga is in hot water after allegations of insider trading, Diablo III players top 10 million, and a Konami employee won an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.

You’ll also find game reviews for Deadlight and the Dark Knight Rises.

Game news:

The DeanBeat: How fast will the shift to huge growth for mobile games happen?

Papo & Yo and 10 other games that feature graffiti

As Sanctuary beckons, Diablo III players top 10M

Konami employee wins Olympic gold medal in gymnastics

Saban Brands buys Zombie Farm iOS gamemaker The Playforge

New online game from Schell lets fans contribute story lines, artwork, music, and more

Twin Engine Labs launches Pentakill app to not suck at League of Legends

Working on generations of game consoles: a developer’s perspective

Bing Rewards earns you Microsoft Points, but not when you use it on an Xbox 360

Why you’re likely to be playing Grand Theft Auto V by March

For Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, success is measured in DeLoreans and geeked-out fans

Spy vs Spy game creator tells the story of a rerelease nearly 30 years in the making

Oculus launches Kickstarter campaign for virtual reality gaming headset

Leaked pictures of the next Xbox’s developmental kit, codenamed Durango

Nintendo’s Japanese servers struggle to keep up with New Super Mario Bros. 2 digital sales

MMO news:

World of Warcraft loses over one million subscribers in second quarter

Tracking Star Wars: The Old Republic’s declining subscribers

How to engage 200M users: The secrets of MMO storytelling success (exclusive)

With subscribers below 1M, Star Wars: The Old Republic will go free-to-play this fall

Dragons, dinosaurs, and Transformers: RuneScape’s CEO on the future of free to play

Lawsuits:

Nintendo wins Wii patent lawsuit

Zynga stuck in real-life BadNewsVille: more lawsuits, COO demoted

First Zynga insider trading lawsuit filed

SeeYouInCourtVille: law firms investigating Zynga for possible insider trading

End of the quarter news:

As blockbusters keep selling, Activision Blizzard beats Wall Street’s expectations

Sony slashes Vita sales forecast after slow Q1 sales

Despite Star Wars slowdown, analysts aren’t in despair over EA’s performance

EA hits on earnings but misses on revenue target for June quarter

EA hires new CFO as it prepares to announce earnings

Previews:

Pokémon Black and White 2 looks to the past for inspiration (preview)

The Nintendo 3DS XL is the bigger, wiser brother of the 3DS (hands-on impressions)

Reviews:

Deadlight sets a poetic survival-horror tone but stumbles with melodramatic writing (review)

The Dark Knight Rises fails to soar above the mediocrity of licensed games (review)

Interviews: 

Death Rally paves a developer’s path into brave new world of games (interview)

Gamers at Work reveals the risks and emotional complications in entrepreneurship (interview)

Papaya Mobile’s new ad-exchange program could lure new developers to the platform (interview)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Mike Suprovici, the head of mobile app developer Explorence, has one simple mission: to make playing outside fun again.

“I grew really frustrated with my friends taking to video games instead of going outside,” Suprovici told GamesBeat via email. “At the same time, I noticed that mobile sensors were becoming just as powerful as those in Nintendo’s Wii, if not more so.

“What if there was a way to bring the video game outside and into the real world using sensor-based play? Could we make these experiences as engaging as the Wii and Kinect? If so, we have the potential to make outdoor recreational activities as fun as popular video games.”

Suprovici cofounded Explorence in 2010 with Bill Gleim and Mark Thompson. The company launched its first two free iOS apps this summer: StreetDash and BullDash. Both use location services on a player’s phone, like Google Places and Foursquare, to present goals and track a player’s progress during a run, but the second game takes the idea a step further.

BullDash draws inspiration from the annual Running of the Bulls event in Pamplona, Spain. “You push start and before you know it, virtual bulls [are] chasing you,” Suprovici said. “Hurry, or you risk being trampled or gored. The longer you survive, the more coins you earn.”

You may be wondering whether BullDash requires you to keep looking at your iPhone to make sure you’re not about to get the horns — which would make your runs way more entertaining for anyone who sees you going by — but Suprovici explained that the game also includes sound cues: ”Once you plug in your headphones, the app surrounds you with immersive sound effects. You can hear the bulls as they get closer, crowd cheers, and people yelling.”

Explorence’s titles are the latest entries in the emerging augmented reality (AR) market. Sony and Nintendo include AR cards with their 3DS and PlayStation Vita handheld systems, and games like developer Tecmo’s Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the 3DS have built longer experiences around altering the player’s environment. But Suprovici believes that AR has a major flaw: “In its current form, AR changes behavior rather then complimenting it,” he says. “Most of the AR applications today are cool but not that useful.”

Suprovici believes that wearable interfaces like Google Glass will help AR transition from fad to functionality. In the meantime, Explorence has two or three more games coming out this year, and he hopes that apps like BullDash get people off of their couches.

“We want to educate people on the notion of outdoor video games,” he says. “Your smartphone has very sophisticated sensors that enable a wide array of interactive play in the real world. This is just the beginning. Also, as a byproduct, we hope the game will encourage people to exercise. One of the complaints is that running is boring. Running for your life? Not so boring.”

Does this mean that TheMostDangerousGameDash is headed to the App Store? To be honest, I’d probably try that.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Nintendo took a few minutes during its Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) event in Los Angeles, Calif. to talk about 3DS games. The Kyoto-based company showed new gameplay for New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. Additionally, the company introduced a handful of high-profile, third-party software that will hit the 3DS in the coming months.

Scott Moffitt, a Nintendo executive vice president, didn’t speak at great length about any of the games, but he announced a extended look at all of the software that will broadcast from Nintendo’s E3 website on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT.

New Super Mario Bros. 2
August 19

This handheld platformer is wholly separate from the Wii U’s New Super Mario Bros. U that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime showed during the Wii U presentation. This version focuses on collecting gold coins. Throughout the video, Mario and his enemies were turning into gold. Powerups included a golden (surprise) Fire Flower that produces powerful fireballs, a blockhead that spits out coins while Mario wears it, and the return of the Super Mario Bros. 3 raccoon tail.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Holiday 2012

Super Mario’s role-playing game series is returning with a new strategic “sticker” mechanic. Stickers will be placed around the world. Mario can peel them off and collect them to use as battle commands. The decals appear to be limited use and include jump commands, fire power, and the hammer attack from Donkey Kong. Paper Mario will be available at retail and in Nintendo’s 3DS eShop this holiday.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
Holiday 2012

Mario’s often neglected little brother, Luigi, returns to the starring role he first held in Luigi’s Mansion for the GameCube. This adventure title pits Luigi against the things that go bump in the night as he tries to solve puzzles and trap ghouls. Dark Moon will feature multiple mansions for Mario’s frightened sibling to explore and a heavier emphasis on catching ghosts with the vacuum.

Nintendo also showed a quick montage of third-party software that will be further detailed on its webcast tomorrow.

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate
• Disney’s Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Castlevania is a 3D-looking side-scrolling adventure set in the same world as the recent console games. Epic Mickey is also a side-scroller that channels the feel of the classic Sega Genesis titles. Scribblenauts Unlimited is the sequel to the Nintendo DS titles that allowed users to create almost anything simply by writing the word. Kingdom Hearts 3D is the return of the RPG collaboration between SquareEnix and Disney.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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