3DS 8bit Summer Virtual Console NES, Game Boy, Game Gear Hits Coming. Release Dates From July 1-August 1 2012 For The Legend of Zelda 1 (NES), Kirby’s Pinball Land, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

Get ready for some great retro gaming on 3DS eShop with 8bit Summer!

The 3DS 8bit Summer Virtual Console eShop initiative starts on July 5th and runs through August 1st, giving 3DS eShop fans a number of high-profile titles to enjoy from the retro vaults of Nintendo.

Here is the trailer for the 3DS 8bit Summer of hit Virtual Console titles.

These include much-desired 8bit NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Gear games that players will be very happy to add to their 3DS Virtual Console collections.

Starting in July and running the whole stretch of the month, Nintendo will be releasing TWO new retro Virtual Console titles each and every week!

There will be some more surprises in addition to the games that have already been announced, which include the following:

The Legend of Zelda is coming to 3DS eShop on July 5 2012!

July 5, 2012
The Legend of Zelda (NES)

The Game Boy classic Kirby’s Pinball Land is coming to 3DS eShop on July 12 2012.

July 12th 2012
Kirby’s Pinball Land (Game Boy), The Sword of Hope 2 (Game Boy)

The long-awaited Kid Icarus Game Boy hits 3DS eShop on July 19 2012!

July 19th 2012
Kid Icarus: Of Myth & Monsters (Game Boy), TumblePop (Game Boy)

Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land finally hits 3DS eShop Virtual Console on July 26th!

July 26th
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

Undated
Sonic Blast (Game Gear), Sonic Labyrinth (Game Gear)

Last but not least, Nintendo has announced that certain titles each week will go on sale on the eShop, and get their prices slashed. The first title to get this treatment will be the Game Boy Virtual Console hit Super Mario Land, which will only cost $3 during the sale. Be sure to pick it up!

3DS early adopters will notice that at least one of these games (Zelda 1) is already owned by them, as it was released as part of the 3DS Ambassador’s project for those who paid full price ($250) for a 3DS system before it got its major price-drop.

What 8bit Summer Virtual Console eShop games are you most excited about?

While these fans may be a bit disappointed, Nintendo is giving the world at large the chance to purchase these beloved hits (Like the original The Legend of Zelda), that early adopting 3DS owners have gotten to enjoy for a whole year now. And there will be many much-requested releases like Kid Icarus: Of Myth and Monsters, the Game Boy sequel to the NES original, and the third and final entry in the Super Mario Land Game Boy series, that introduced the world to Wario.

Both titles have been oft-requested, and have already been released in other territories, so it’s great that Nintendo of America is finally bringing these highly anticipated games to 3DS owners.

Skip to 16:06 in this Nintendo Direct June Conference Video to see Nintendo of America President Reggie discuss the Summer of 8bit initiative.

 

The Legend of Zelda Deku Tree Wallet

Here is the awesome face of the Deku Tree on this amazing leather Zelda wallet!

A The Legend of Zelda Wallet of the Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time?! HECK YES!

Say hello, Zelda fans, to this must-have, hand-made, genuine leather item! You can purchase one yourself from the Zelda Wallet Etsy for a measly THREE DOLLARS! What are you waiting for?! COP THIS! The wallet is made by JakeV (Jacob Vadnais) who has done an amazing job!

As you can see, the Wallet has the Face of the Deku Tree on one side, along with the Deku Tree symbol on the other side (the symbol that appears on Link’s wooden Fairy Shield). It has room to hold bills as well as credit cards and the like. The Zelda Deku Tree Wallet is approximately 4 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches closed.

Here is what the inside of the Zelda Deku Tree Wallet looks like.

Here’s the official description:

“This is a hand tooled leather wallet with the face of the great deku tree and the symbol from the wooden shield from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The design was hand tooled onto the leather and then certain areas were dyed for contrast. The wallet was then dyed with Fiebings light brown professional oil dye and antiqued with Angelus Mahogany acrylic antique. I then applied Eco-flo Super Shene to give it a nice gloss finish. I hand punched the holes with an awl and then saddle stitched with black waxed thread. It has two bill pocket, two interior pockets, and six card slots. This wallet should last a lifetime and bring a smile to any Zelda fan, young or old alike. It should be water resistant but I would not submerge it in water as with any other leather product. This is an individually made hand crafted item so there may be imperfections.”

 

New 3DS XL System Redesign Release Date Is August 19 2012. Extra Large Screens, Improved Battery Life. Includes 4GB SD Card. Coincides With New Super Mario Bros. 2 Launch

As you can see, the 3DS XL is HUGE compared to the original 3DS model!

3DS XL is an all-new redesigned, streamlined but extra-large jumbo 3DS system that Nintendo just announced. It will be released in America on August 19th at a cost of $200!

The all-new system is what Nintendo is banking on to spur system sales even higher as the holidays approach, and the new extra-large 3DS with it’s awesome large screens will be sure to attract whole new audiences and interest in Nintendo’s next-gen handheld. Making things even better, the 3DS XL will be launching on the same day as the new 3DS Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. 2. A game that sees Nintendo on a quest to collect as many Coins as possible.

Nintendo claims that the 3DS XL offers handheld gamers a 90% increase in screen space! The top, stereoscopic 3D screen has got a huge increase from a paltry 3.58 inches to a huge 4.88 inches. While the lower non-stereoscopic 3D touchscreen has gotten an increase from 3.02 inches to a gigantic 4.18 inches! All in all, both screens look HUGE in comparison to the original 3DS.

The entire system itself is 46% larger than the original 3DS system. It’s specs are 93x156x22mm compared to 74x134x21mm and its weight is 336 grams compared to the 235 grams of the original 3DS.

Here’s a picture of the 3DS XL open with the screen on, compared to the regular 3DS.

Thankfully there are even more improvements where those came from. Battery life for the 3DS XL has been greatly improved from 3 hours to 6.5 hours! That’s for 3DS games, it will last 8 hours (from 5) for original DS games. Quite the improvement!

The system will also get its own Circle Pad Pro XL Accessory, which adds another control stick on the right, along with extra trigger buttons to make playing games like Resident Evil: Revelations, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and the upcoming Monster Hunter Tri 3G much easier. No word on when the new Circle Pad Pro XL will be released or through what retailers.

The system will ship in Black, Blue and White colors, and will be released in North America on August 19th and in Europe next month on July 28th.

Here is the reveal of the 3DS XL announced at the Nintendo Direct 3DS Nintendo Video Conference on June 22nd.

 

Geno Joins US Military… Super Mario RPG ftw!

Amazingly skilled Geno art!

So THAT is where Super Mario RPG’s Geno went off too! He headed for the Stars and then joined the U.S. Military! Huzzah!

“Pfc. Sean Robertson and Pvt. Geno Romero practice climbing rubble with an iRobot Packbot 510 during a robotics class at Fort Irwin, Calif.”

My Geno… How you’ve changed!

Quote caption from 100 Great Pics of Military Tech In Action Slideshow (Fox News)

 

Videogame TV End of Consoles Next Generation? So Says God of War Creator David Jaffe. Imagine A Future Where Playing New Games Is As Easy As Changing A TV Channel

Imagine a future where videogames were streamed into your TV. Kinda like OnLive.

Imagine if playing videogames was as easy as changing the TV channel? What if there were no videogame consoles, and instead of a dedicated videogame console from one of the big-three manufacturers (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony), games were streamed to your device?

Does this sound like an exciting future to you? Do you think we’ll reach that point within ten years? God of War creator David Jaffe does, and he recently spoke out about this future in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

To quote:

“Look, consoles are going away. I think in 10 years – probably sooner, but 10 years is always the safe thing to say so you don’t sound like an idiot – but here’s what I’ll say: I’ll go on the record and say that the next generation of hardware will be the last consoles. And they should be. It doesn’t mean you won’t buy a piece of hardware from Sony, but you’ll probably buy a television that streams the stuff. And you’ll still have Sony, loud and proud and strong making these great, big, epic games like God of War and Uncharted, and they’ll be making great little games like Sound Shapes, but they’ll become more like movie studios for video games. I’ll be able to stream in the next Uncharted and Plants vs Zombies and you won’t even think about it. It’ll just be like I can watch a public access show on my TV or I can watch Avatar.”

You can kind of get this already with OnLive, which allows you to purchase new videogames to play using the OnLive Console or your PC; but OnLive has in no way replaced the current crop of consoles…

In this future that David Jaffe is talking about, videogames have not gone away in the slightest, to the contrary they are bigger than ever, but the medium and the way you get them has changed. Imagine if you will, that every videogame was like a movie studio, and everyone’s device, like a TV, can get all the same movies from these same studios. So the focus would be on the brandname of said entertainment (just like the brand name from movies like The Expendibles or TV shows like King of Queens) and its content, and not on the delivery device….

I am not sure that I agree at all with David Jaffe. In fact, I think half the fun of videogames is the console itself… which is probably why I am not in any way much of a big PC gamer… But this is definitely an interesting idea.

It’s also worth noting that 10 years will arguably be the next systems after the next-generation, as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are doing their best to push the current-generation to last a whole 10 years. I don’t think they’ll quite make it, but they got hella close, as the current crop of consoles launched in 2006, 2005 for the Xbox 360.

What are your thoughts?

 

Question of the Day Poll – Is Wii U Price $300 Too Much To Pay? (Rumor) – June 13 2012

Would you pay $300 for the device this cute Asian girl is playing? Yes or no? VOTE BELOW!

Is a Wii U Pricepoint of $300 too much to pay for Nintendo’s next-generation console? This rumored price is floating around, and was given some credence thanks to a Best Buy deal that featured the price and made the rounds on the Internets.

So the question of the day for June 13, 2012 is a simple one.

Would you pay $300 for the Wii U, or is that price too high?

 

Shigeru Miyamoto FPS First-Person Shooter Game? The Nintendo Mastermind Wants To Make One

A Miyamoto FPS making use of the Wii U GamePad could be a reality in the future. HECK YES!

Shigeru Miyamoto making a first-person shooter? THAT’S RIGHT. The Nintendo mastermind has revealed that an FPS is a genre of videogame that he is really interested in pursuing.

It isn’t too hard to imagine actually, because it has, in some ways, ALREADY BEEN DONE. Miyamoto was behind many of the decisions in the Metroid Prime franchise developed by Retro Studios, including the decision to turn it into first-person from a third-person viewpoint; early on in the development of the very first Metroid Prime game. And the rest is history.

Although technically Nintendo dubbed the Metroid Prime series a “First-Person Adventure” and NOT a First-Person Shooter.

So… that leads to today. Miyamoto says he specifically wants to create a first-person shooter game that utilizes the Wii U and it’s Wii U GamePad Tablet Controller to its fullest. One can only imagine the possibilities. And if Miyamoto were to do an FPS, you know it’d be much different, very creative, innovative, and unique from the girth of gritty, FPS games that saturate the market. And it is very likely that it would be a family-friendly game.

Sadly, this project idea only exists in the mind of the Nintendo master, and is not something he is yet working on. As he is currently to busy with other projects. But it is a very interesting prospect!

To quote:

“I actually do kind of want to make a first-person shooter, but I don’t have time. Rather than necessarily the question of ‘What kind of weapon do I have?’ in a first person shooter or ‘What kind of effect does that have on an enemy?’, I think that the structure of a first-person shooter is something that’s very interesting. Having that 3D space that in theory you are in and being able to look around and explore that—particularly being able to do that in conjunction with another person—is very interesting.”

Miyamoto also discussed how the Wii U GamePad Tablet Controller could be used as a new “window” into the game, allowing you to see aspects around you that aren’t presented on the screen; and how interesting it’d be to have two players doing this at once within a first-person shooter world. *the mind wobbles*

Here is a video of the Wii U Panorama View Demo, which shows off how you can look away from the TV and see another window into the action, in this case with a real-life actual video! IMPRESSIVE.

All of this was revealed in an interview with Kotaku, be sure to read the full interview. It’s very interesting!

 

Zelda: Link to the Past Wii U Remake Possible? Shigeru Miyamoto Mentions Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3DS and/or Wii U Remake Alongside the Beloved SNES Classic

…. Is this some incredible A Link to the Past remake fan art OR WHAT! Please Nintendo let the game look like this!

Does a Wii U Zelda: A Link to the Past remake sound awesome to you? What if you had to choose between it and a 3DS Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D remake similar to the Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS remake? Which would you choose?

That seems to be the dilemma facing Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who revealed in an indepth interview with IGN that he is in the difficult position of experimenting with both Zelda titles and deciding which should be remade and, possibly more importantly, on which system they should be remade.

Here is what a Zelda: Link to the Past Minecraft Remake looks like!

To quote:

“We haven’t quite decided yet, whether we’re going to do A Link to the Past, because there’s also the possibility of doing a remake of Majora’s Mask. This is something we’ve certainly been talking about and doing a little bit of experimenting with, to figure out which way we’re going to go.” – Shigeru Miyamoto in interview with IGN. He went into namedrop the Wii U as being “in the cards” for a Zelda remake, in addition to the 3DS.

Which would you choose?

I am honestly VERY TORN on this one. I think Nintendo should go with a FULL-ON REMAKE of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Wii U with High-Definition graphics and all-new additions to the game, including an online-version of Four Swords. However, I think Nintendo should also, later if they must, pursue the much-desired The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D remake that fans and groups like Operation Moonfall have been clamoring for.

There should be NO REASON that Nintendo can’t do BOTH. But which do you want to see more?

Will The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D for 3DS become a reality?!

 

WatchMePlayGames: Professor Layton and the Last Specter Let’s Play Part 3

Part 3 of my WatchMePlay Professor Layton and the Last Specter Let’s Play on the Nintendo DS! Originally posted for VideoGamesBlogger.

In this video, we solve a few puzzles, and eventually reach an impassable bridge! With a story-related puzzle to solve in order to get through it. Brilliant!

Other WatchMePlayGames Installments:
* Professor Layton and the Last Specter Part 1
* Professor Layton and the Last Specter Part 2
* Kid Icarus: Uprising Part 1
* Kid Icarus Uprising Part 2
* Kid Icarus Uprising Part 3
* The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX Part 1
* The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX Part 2
* The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX Part 3
* Elite Beat Agents Part 1
* Elite Beat Agents Part 2

 

Wii U Achievements System Called Super Play In New Super Mario Bros. U For Wii U Via MiiVerse (Screenshots and Video). Online Social Networking Features Detailed

Die here in New Super Mario Bros. U and message pop-up from other MiiVerse players.

Achievements in New Super Mario Bros. U and Wii U will come by way of MiiVerse revealed Nintendo at E3 2012 during their Developer Discussion.

How the Achievements work will be specific to that individual game, at least in the case of New Super Mario Bros. U for Wii U. However Nintendo has confirmed that MiiVerse features are innate to the Wii U itself, and thus every game will feature MiiVerse features. That means its very plausible that this Achievement system I will detail here will be THE Achievement system built into all Wii U games.

The Wii U Achievement system works like this. While playing New Super Mario Bros. U, you can gain Achievements by completing certain conditions as you make your way through a level. Conditions explained include collecting all the Star Coins hidden on a level in one go, completing the level without being hit by a single enemy. If you manage one of these conditions, called a “Super Play” by the developers (tentative term I imagine), then you will be prompted to leave a message regarding your awesome performance, that will then be shared with other players online via the MiiVerse, as well as with your own friends who own the game. Nintendo was adamant that there are “A LOT” of different conditions, or Achievements, that players can strive for.

You can hear Nintendo discuss this in the E3 2012 Wii U Developer Discussion Video. Skip to around 6:30.

Messages from other players on the MiiVerse will then be spread throughout the actual game as you are playing, and revealed when you meet or fail to meet these Achievements; alerting you to the fact that these Achievements exist, or dropping hints as to what it may take to fulfill a Super Play.

It is easy to imagine this same Achievements system being applied to other games, in the same manner that it is applied to New Super Mario Bros. U. Will this be the bonafide Achievements system for the Wii U? Seems to me like it will be, but we’ll have to wait and see what else Nintendo reveals regarding an Achievements system for Wii U, and whether or not these games will have Badges or Emblems or Points or Trophies associated with earning these Super Play or Achievement conditions and how they are shared with your online friends and the world at large via MiiVerse.

You can get an idea of how this works in the screenshots above and below.

Fail to earn a Super Play in New Super Mario Bros. U and you’ll see comments from other players.