September’s Nintendo Direct carefully outlined the next several months of 3DS software with the kind of goofy-yet-loveable charm that sets Nintendo apart from its competitors. But between the skits about Reggie’s lost 3DS XL and bearded Bill Trinen, Nintendo’s video presentation had surprise game announcements, and some games we weren’t quite expecting side-by-side with some we barely had enough time to really grasp.
In total, Nintendo talked about 18 games plus five new mini games for StreetPass Plaza, and that’s not counting Skyward Sword’s release on Wii U Virtual Console. Here’s the full scoop:
The festivities kicked off with an ultra-brief update on the highly-anticipated seventh generation of the Pokemon series. We learned that anyone who buys Pokemon Sun or Pokemon Moon before January 11, 2017 will receive a special Muchlax, the Pokemon that evolves in Snorlax, as a bonus. We also got confirmation of Ratatta’s Alola-region form, and saw more footage of Pokemon’s Z-moves.
Super Mario Maker is coming to 3DS, and that’s a good thing. Since launching last September, the Wii U version sold 3.65 million units worldwide, so Nintendo wants to sell its charming level creator to a bigger audience on 3DS. But the announcement came with a weird set of caveats.
First, the good news: Players can go online to download and play select courses from the Wii U version (not every course is compatible) and it has every asset in the game except for the Mystery Mushroom power up -- an item that essentially let Mario masquerade as characters from other Nintendo games and some from other corners of entertainment. Nintendo said the package would include 100 stages made by the company, and each one has special medal objectives for players to clear.
But the limitations of Mario Maker 3DS are a bit of a head scratcher. Players can’t search for courses on the portable version using course IDs, and levels created on it cannot be shared online - only locally or through StreetPass. It’s understandable that Super Mario Maker on 3DS would be a little different than its big brother console version, but creating and sharing levels through the internet was a major part of the original game’s appeal. Nintendo said players can share levels locally or via StreetPass, but that isn’t enough for people who don’t have large StreetPass communities to tap into.
Could Nintendo intend to add support for Super Mario Maker Bookmark, a dedicated site the company launched earlier this year to help people find user-made levels? Maybe. Unfortunately, it chose not to announce that today.
Nintendo isn’t just bringing Super Mario Maker to 3DS. The company also revealed Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World, a feature-complete port of the Wii U version coming to 3DS. It has exclusive Poochy stages and some adorable stop-motion shorts made by made by Japanese animation studio Dwarf. The game launches on February 3, 2017.
Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World looks good based on the footage we saw, but it's also a sign of a new way of thinking at Nintendo. The upcoming Wii U port is the third game in two years to shift over to both of Nintendo’s current platforms.
- Hyrule Warriors (2014)/ Hyrule Warriors Legends (2016)
- Super Mario Maker (2015)/ Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (2016)
- Yoshi’s Wooly World (2015)/ Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World (2017)
Of course, Smash Bros. sort of started the trend, but it was developed for both platforms from the beginning. And in the end, the decision to release it on both platforms made sense. Just look at the sales data: Smash Bros. for Wii U sold 4.90 million units compared to 8.23 million on 3DS. A majority of the 3DS audience did not buy a Wii U. Giving these games a second chance is smart, but Nintendo needs to be careful. Since Hyrule Warriors Legends wasn’t optimized for regular 3DS owners, in that instance the strategy backfired and gave players an inferior version of an OK port.
Nintendo reminded us that Animal Crossing New Leaf has an update that will introduce amiibo support along with some new features, but it quickly moved on since it wasn’t ready to outline specifics just yet.
The Animal Crossing New Leaf Update adds support for amiibo cards and figures.
What Nintendo did say is that it will release a new set of 50 amiibo cards. Each card features a villager not seen previously in New Leaf and an interior design of that villager’s mobile home. The company also announced Animal Crossing Welcome amiibo, a new version of New Leaf with the update and one amiibo card from the new set, for release on December 2.
We won’t more about what’s in the update until an Animal Crossing Mini-Direct at a later unannounced date, but maybe this is a larger sign of how the smartphone game will work? After all, Nintendo said the app will “be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems” back in April and that it will be released this Fall.
Could Animal Crossing villagers show up in mobile homes via everyone’s mobile phones?
The Legend of Zelda celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and Nintendo used this 3DS-focused Direct to make a few announcements. First, Nintendo revealed four amiibo figures for the die-hard Zelda fan: 8-bit Link, Ocarina of Time Link, and a special two-pack featuring Toon Link and Zelda from the Wind Waker. The mini-set will be available at stores on December 2. The figures will all register as common Link or Zelda amiibo respectively, but they have special functionality in next year’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo also released Skyward Sword for the Wii U Virtual Console and promoted a special partnership with publisher Dark Horse Comics that will bring a series of three books about the series to the West.
The Zelda-focused announcements were exciting for fans, but it was also a reminder of the almost non-existent fanfare for the other Nintendo series that turned 30 in 2016: Metroid. Despite the 2016 release of Metroid spin-off Federation Force, the lack of any acknowledgement by Nintendo here still stings.
The 3DS StreetPass community got five new mini games to play and an important update -- one that makes the process of greeting and playing games with visiting Mii characters a much faster experience. And the idea is certainly a welcome one: As the 3DS has aged, the time lost in this process made playing the handful of StreetPass games on the system unattractive.
The new games are pretty good, too. In Slot Car Rivals, you play tense racing game with just one button. In Market Crashers, you try to become a wealthy fat cat by buying and selling on a virtual stock market. Nintendo is offering one of these two games for free. The other four are $2.99 USD each or available in a special discounted bundle. Additionally, Mii Plaza Premium owners can encounter up to 100 Miis at their Plaza Gate instead of the standard 10.
Nintendo showed a lot of footage and features for upcoming games. And the rush of announcements moved at a brisk pace during the 33-minute presentation. The company dropped Picross 3D Round 2 on the eShop yesterday (along with a free demo). The rest of September’s lineup is full of RPGs like Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse, and Yokai Watch 2: Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls at the end of the month. In October, the pace slows down until Mario Party Star Rush picks up the 3DS baton again in November.
But Tank Troopers is the one 3DS game that had a lame showing. This action shown from this 6v6 multiplayer game did not look as good as Nintendo’s other offerings. Conversely, Ever Oasis got just the right amount of screen time, and it showed us why trekking through the desert to solve puzzles and conquer dungeons could be worth our time.
Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World and Ever Oasis weren’t the only 2017 games Nintendo talked about. The company announced Mario Sports Superstars, a Mario sports game with full versions of baseball, tennis, golf, 11-on-11 soccer, and horse racing games. While that last sport wasn’t what we expected, the game itself if an interesting approach that rolls all the separate Mario sports games (Mario Golf, Mario Tennis,...etc) into one value play.
Finally, there’s a Pikmin game for 3DS. All signs appear to point to this as the Pikmin game Nintendo’s most famous game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, outed in an interview last year, and it had a good showing. Nintendo described the 2D side-scroller as an action game, but it still appears to retain the strategy element the series is known for. The terrifying giant Bulborb, the separate pathways and puzzles that put Pikmin up on the top screen all looked like smart compromises to make Pikmin work on a smaller screen.
Looking at the presentation as a whole, Nintendo did a good job of showing 3DS owners all of the exciting games they’ll be playing in the next six to eight months. It had its share of weird moments (like what was up with that Disney Magical Princess montage?!) but these appear to be a symptom of how Nintendo leverages it opportunities with Nintendo Direct. The company has trained its fans to tune in and get updates and new product announcements via the format. And, while Nintendo has your attention, it wants to show you everything it possibly can. Sometimes these video vignettes hit it out of the park (see Pikmin, Ever Oasis, and Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World) and sometimes they fall flat (Tank Troopers and the lack of new info for Animal Crossing’s new update).
Our last big takeaway from this event is more promising: Nintendo has said everything it needs to about the state of affairs for 3DS and, barring the upcoming Animal Crossing Mini-Direct, the stage is set for the big reveal of its next gaming platform, codename NX.
Jose Otero is an Editor at IGN and host of Nintendo Voice Chat. You can follow him on Twitter.
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