Latest Updates

It’s no secret that Nintendo has been working closely with third-party developers to prefect the Wii U’s online system for launch. Nintendo has been dissatisfied with their online efforts in the past, and, from what we’ve heard so far, they’re really stepping up their game this time around. By working with other gaming companies they hope to deliver exactly what developers want and need from an online system to improve the quality of the online gaming experience.

EA Sports vice president Andrew Wilson recently discussed Wii U online,  saying it can do anything that the Playstation and XBox 360 can do. Full quote inside.

Level-5, the company behind the Professor Layton series, were among a handful of companies that participated in a discussion, conducted by Famitsu, about the Wii U.

After expressing their general excitement for the game, the Level-5 developers talked about the possibility bringing Professor Layton to the Wii U.

More inside.

It seems like Nintendo decided to announce a bunch of their first-party title’s release date during ZI’s downtime. But fret not; we have collected them all here in one convenient post.

We now have exact and rough release dates for Mario and Sonic at the Olympics 2012, Super Mario 3DS, and Mario Kart 3DS.

Jump inside for all the dates, and the bad news for Euro-fans waiting for Kid Icarus.

Bill Trinen’s really making the media rounds lately. A few days ago we reported on his interview with GameSpot over at Zelda Informer, but now he’s got a much longer, much beefier discussion over at GameTrailers. This interview’s so large it’s broken up into three parts, which go into details about the game’s localization process, timeline placement, as well as features like new and old races and locations.

Like Miyamoto and Aonuma, Bill’s reporting that even he hasn’t quite finished the game yet – and this interview’s definitely coming straight out of Comic Con so he’s had a couple months to do so since E3. Real testament to the game’s scale – which is refreshing since previously we’d heard it described as dense and compact.

Want to know more and get a good look at the interviews for yourself? You’re only a few clicks and mouse scrolls away…

For those involved in the movement to get Mega Man Legends 3 back in development, we have some good news today. The games program director Yoshiyuki Fujikawa made an update on his twitter about the situation.

For the first time in the company’s history, Nintendo will be selling a handheld system at a price point that incurs a loss for every system sold. That’s right: the 3DS’s new lower price point doesn’t cover the manufacturing and distribution costs. This means Nintendo’s banking on strong software sales this holiday season and in the coming years in order to help boost their fiscal performance and shouldering the burden of lower hardware costs to drive the install base so this hope can actually come to fruition.

How did a handheld that the entire industry adored so poorly underperform in its early life? Jump inside for my projections.

Nintendo’s been referring to it as simply Super Mario, we’ve been calling it Super Mario 3D, but now there’s a new title on the block: Super Mario 3DS is now called Super Mario 3D Land. While it’s not 100% certain if this is the final retail title, it’s definitely the first unique one we’ve heard out of any Nintendo rep’s mouth (er, press release), so it’s what we’ll be running with from now on. The recent press release regarding the upcoming 3DS price drop also revealed a release month for the long-anticipated change to the 3D Mario formula, with Mario Kart 3D (or should I say Mario Kart 7) given a launch window as well.

Don’t believe me? Check out the full article for a snippet from the press release.

Nintendo’s reaction to PS Vita and struggling 3DS is about to kick into high gear, as Nintendo has sliced the NA price to 169.99$ and the Japan price from 25,000 yen to 15,000 yen – over a 30% price cut in both regions. Europe and Australia will be receiving price cuts also – a specific European cut will probably be up to retailers, while Australians get 100$ shaved off the 350$ price tag.

REDMOND, Wash., July 28, 2011 – Nintendo of America today announced plans to drop the suggested retail price of its portable Nintendo 3DS™ system to $169.99 in the United States, as new games based on some of the world’s most beloved video game franchises head to the system. The new price, down from the suggested launch price of $249.99 and effective Aug. 12, makes an outstanding value even better and sets up a strong holiday season for the system.

Wait, did we mention free games? That’s right – Nintendo’s offering free game downloads to early adopters as compensation for the much higher price point they paid in order to maintain customer confidence. Want to find out what those games are? Read on.

We’re back, folks! After a few days offline due to unpaid revenue, we’ve finally revived the beast and are ready to jump right back on the Zelda and Nintendo news train. Of course, yesterday we managed to break all of the exciting news anyway via social networking and New Nintendo, our old hub for everything Nintendo, and we’ll be migrating it all over to the home base soon.

If you thought we’ve been sitting on our hands during the downtime, think again. We’re going to be diving headfirst into the weekend with all kinds of exclusive content. Tomorrow you’ll see another entry in the Two Sides to the Story as well as another “Tribes” edition of the Skyward Sword Speculation Series in celebration of a Particular Made-Up Zelda holiday.

But enough about us. We know what you want (“Nintendo News!”) and we know when you want it (“Now!”). Let’s get started.

The Legend of Zelda series has, for most of its lifespan, been viewed as a franchise with a quality story. Nowadays, we have rich lore to draw from, to formulate complex theories about multiple timelines and Hyrules, multiple versions of the main characters and side characters. But things weren’t always like that. The original Legend of Zelda was straightforward. The story was simply a quest from point A to point B, and the gamer was left to fill in the…