All Articles: 3DS

13 Nintendo-published games for the Switch have sold more than 1 million copies

Posted on February 1, 2019 by John Scalzo

Nintendo-branded products have always taken up a hefty portion of Santa’s sack, and 2018 was no different as Switch sales were huge during the holiday season.

Nintendo sold 15.05 million Switch consoles during the last quarter of 2018, bringing the platform’s total install base to 32.27 million. Consumers also spent the last three months stocking up on software, purchasing 63.51 million games from October through December.

Two games stood out last quarter on the sales charts, as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 12.08 million copies and the combined might of Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! sold 10 million copies. All told, 13 Nintendo-published Switch games have joined the vaunted “Million-Seller” club during this fiscal year (April 2018 – December 2018):

Title Apr 18 – Dec 18 Sales Total Sales
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 12.08 Million 12.08 Million
Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee!
Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu!		 10 Million 10 Million
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 5.8 Million 15.02 Million
Super Mario Party 5.3 Million 5.3 Million
Super Mario Odyssey 3.35 Million 13.76 Million
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 3.21 Million 11.68 Million
Mario Tennis Aces 2.53 Million 2.53 Million
Splatoon 2 2.25 Million 8.27 Million
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 2.08 Million 2.08 Million
Kirby Star Allies 1.16 Million 2.42 Million
Octopath Traveler
(US + Europe Only)		 1.08 Million 1.08 Million
Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit 1.06 Million 1.06 Million
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 1.05 Million 1.05 Million

Even Nintendo’s dedicated handheld was still kicking along in 2018 (albeit slower than before). 3DS owners scooped up 1.07 million copies of Mario Kart 7 during the April through December period, bringing its total to 18.11 million copies sold.

Nintendo’s current fiscal year will end on March 31, and the consolemaker will announce their full-year sales figures sometime in April or May.

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Nintendo will drop the price of Super Mario Maker 3DS, Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, and Star Fox 64 3D on February 4

Posted on January 15, 2019 by John Scalzo

Nintendo has announced that three games for the 3DS will be getting a price cut on February 4. Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, and Star Fox 64 3D will all get a more wallet-friendly price of $19.99 as part of the consolemaker’s Nintendo Selects program:

In Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS, build, play and share your own side-scrolling Super Mario levels using a wide variety of tools. Want to make your cannons shoot coins or have Bowser fly? With the intuitive touch-screen controls of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, creating levels is easy and fun. Plus, you can take on 100 built-in courses as you tackle the Super Mario Challenge.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D brings Link’s classic adventure to Nintendo 3DS. This remastered and enhanced version features a cast of memorable characters, unforgettable gameplay and a dark and mysterious story. With control of time itself, Link must save the world of Termina from destruction by helping citizens, battling bosses and solving challenging puzzles.

Join ace pilot Fox McCloud in Star Fox 64 3D, an action-packed space shooter that puts you in the control of the classic Arwing ship as you blast, warp and barrel roll across space. Each mission in the game takes you through a different planet of the Lylat system as you face off against enemies, collect power-ups and fight powerful bosses on the way to the final battle against the evil Dr. Andross.

More than a dozen 3DS games are currently available through the Nintendo Selects program. You can find the full list at Nintendo’s official website.

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Kirby’s Epic Yarn will make its way to the 3DS on March 8

Posted on January 9, 2019 by John Scalzo

Kirby’s Epic Yarn was originally released for the Wii in the waning days of 2010… but it’s about to get a whole bigger (and slightly shrink down) this Spring. Nintendo has announced that they’ll bring Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn to the 3DS on March 8.

The enhanced re-release retains the original game’s unique yarn-based graphical style, but now Kirby will be able to use Ravel Abilities to complete the game’s challenges and tackle an even harder version of the game known as Devilish Mode:

In this enhanced version of the acclaimed Kirby’s Epic Yarn game that originally launched for the Wii system, Kirby is transported into a world made of cloth and yarn to unravel enemies, unzip secret passageways and transform into powerful vehicles. Every stage in the original Wii version is stitched in, but this Nintendo 3DS version has some new features, like Ravel Abilities that power up Kirby in fun ways, new mini-games featuring familiar faces King Dedede and Meta Knight, new furniture to personalize and decorate Kirby’s Pad, and a new Devilish Mode that adds an extra layer of challenge to each stage.

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn will also include Amiibo support, giving players the chance to tap compatible Kirby Series figures to unlock a variety of hats and abilities.

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Fitness Boxing, Catastronauts, KoF 2002, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week

Posted on January 3, 2019 by John Scalzo

It’s January 3, have you already broken your New Year’s Resolutions? If not, Nintendo has a perfect new game for the Switch for you in this week’s Nintendo eShop update.

Like Wii Fit, Fitness Boxing is a game that wants to get you active. Players will be able to workout with a variety of routines in Fitness Boxing, all of which feature “boxing-based rhythmic exercises set to the instrumental beats of songs by popular artists.”

Also available to download for the Switch this week is Catastronauts, a fast-paced party game that asks players to “repair systems, extinguish fires, arm the torpedoes, avoid deadly solar flares, destroy your friends, and clone them back again.”

Finally this week, Hamster Corporation will bring The King of Fighters 2002, a classic from SNK’s NeoGeo days, to the Switch eShop

You can read more about these three games, and the rest of the new releases now available to download through the Nintendo eShop, after the break. (more…)

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The first Detective Pikachu: The Movie trailer is here… and it is appropriately nuts

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Scalzo

I still can’t believe we live in a world where there’s going to be a live-action Pokemon movie, but that world moved a bit closer to reality today with the release of the first trailer for Detective Pikachu.

Based on the 3DS game of the same name, Detective Pikachu stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokemon, and Justice Smith as the only human being who can understand him (everyone else hears the customary “Pika Pika!”). They’re teaming up to find a missing private eye who also happens to be Smith’s father:

The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokemon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokemon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokemon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokemon universe.

The hyper-realistic style is not at all what I was expecting from a Pokemon movie, nor was I expecting to see Pikachu threaten to murder someone… and that happens twice! Also, what is Ken Watanabe doing in this trailer? He’s gotta be the bad guy, right?

I’ve never played a Pokemon game before, so I’m not the target audience for Detective Pikachu at all, but it actually looks kind of fun.

Detective Pikachu will open in theaters on May 11, 2019. I’m still as baffled by that as you are.

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Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Scalzo

Excelsior!

From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.

Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.

After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.

Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”

As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”

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The Video Game Canon: 2018’s “Version 2.0” Update

Posted on January 31, 2018 by John Scalzo

The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…

The Video Game Canon has been upgraded to “Version 2.0” thanks to the addition of four new lists that were published throughout the last year. Edge Magazine’s “100 Greatest Videogames” issue, Jeux Video’s “Top 100 Best Games of All Time,” Polygon’s massive “500 Best Games of All Time,” and Stuff UK’s “50 Greatest Games of All Time” have reshuffled the ranking in a big way.

Let’s take a look…

Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.

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Detective Pikachu will be released in the US in March 2018

Posted on January 12, 2018 by John Scalzo

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have announced that Detective Pikachu will finally make its way to North America in 2018. The adventure game stars a “tough-talking, coffee-drinking, one-of-a-kind Pikachu” and players will team up with him to solve a series of cases and save Ryme City:

Detective Pikachu finds the hero of the title… a unique Pikachu in the Pokemon world… partnering with Tim Goodman and searching for evidence and clues to solve a series of cases, while also investigating the disappearance of Tim’s father, Harry Goodman.

When he arrives in Ryme City looking for his missing father, little does Tim know he would meet a Pikachu, but more amazingly a Pikachu who he could communicate with. There’s more to this Pikachu than a detective hat… he’s one lovably gruff, tough-talking sleuth, with a taste for good coffee.

This Pikachu claims that he worked with Tim’s father, and the two pair up to discover his whereabouts. Together, Tim and Detective Pikachu will encounter a number of mysteries in Ryme City and will need to talk to witnesses and gather their testimony in order to discover the truth. Cases that would be impossible for Tim to solve alone can be cracked with the help of this Pikachu, because he is able to obtain vital clues and information from other Pokemon.

Detective Pikachu was originally released in Japan in 2016, but this new version of the game will be greatly expanded with new locations to explore and new cases to solve. Nintendo will also add an Easy Mode for players who’ve been stumped by the game’s mysteries.

Detective Pikachu will be available for the 3DS on March 23, alongside a larger-than-average Amiibo figure of the Poke-Sleuth that’ll allow players to view short video clips known as Pika Prompts. These clips will feature quips and antics from Pikachu… and also hints about where to go next.

The first trailer for Detective Pikachu has been embedded above.

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