Macabre indie puzzler ‘Year Walk’ coming to Wii U this year
While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One get most of the attention when it comes to indie games, Nintendo’s Wii U has quietly built a solid stable of them as well. The latest? Creepy puzzler Year Walk from Swedish studio Simogo. Yeah, it’s appeared on a number of other platforms before, but the company promises that the version coming to the Wii U is no lazy port — it’s been entirely rebuilt with the console’s unique characteristics in mind by the folks at Dakko Dakko. For instance, the GamePad is used extensively throughout be it for note taking or accessing the game’s encyclopedia and map. You can use motion controls in conjunction with analog sticks to look around, and Simogo says that while that might scare some folks off, it’s actually pretty chill and the required input movements are subtle.
“It’s very reminiscent of using the Wii Remote to point at the TV, or mouse controls, but perhaps even more relaxed, as you don’t have to point it towards the TV,” the studio’s blog post says. “You can rest the GamePad neatly in your lap.” Perhaps best of all, it doesn’t sound like we’ll have long to wait: The game should be out either late this summer or early in the fall.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Nintendo
Via: Eurogamer
Source: Simogo
ICYMI: Surprise volcanoes, jetpacks and new Nike shoes
Today on In Case You Missed It: Marine biologists in Australia discovered an enormous, 12-mile long chain of (happily extinct) volcanoes under the sea that no one knew about. Controlling a jetpack is looking easier and easier, and I don’t care if flight only lasts 30 seconds y’all, this stuff is happening! And Nike unveiled a new line of shoes for people with disabilities and it’s the best use case for a non-gym basketball shoe that we’ve ever seen. Good job guys.
From the cutting room floor: Disney is cutting its DisneyQuest exhibit, which at first made our video team wonder if that meant visitors to the happiest place on Earth weren’t embracing virtual reality. But then we watched this video from the Orlando Sentinel and realized: Oh, it’s lookin’ rough. Carry on.
If you come across any interesting videos, we’d love to see them! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Filed under: Misc, Household, Peripherals, Transportation, Wearables, Science, Internet, Nintendo
A sad day for the games industry: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has passed away
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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55 in a statement made by the company earlier today.
Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.
Iwata had to miss E3 2014 due to a presumably related ailment, and unfortunately it appears he’s succumbed to the illness. Iwata has been the face of Nintendo for as long as most people can remember, taking the Japanese games company through many highs, including the Nintendo Wii and DS platforms, and many lows, namely the Nintendo Wii-U and GameCube. Iwatu first started at Nintendo in 1983 and worked on developing iconic games such as Earthbound and parts of the Kirby series, but went on to become director in 2000. He became president of Nintendo in 2002, the first president not to come from the founder’s Yamauchi family and fourth president overall. From there, Iwata became a very well known figure within the Nintendo franchise primarily due to his involvement in the Nintendo Direct program.
Unfortunately, Iwatu won’t be able see how Nintendo’s first foray into the mobile industry goes, but we thank him for how much he’s done to enlighten the lives of children and adults all over the world for the past few decades. Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata.
The post A sad day for the games industry: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has passed away appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata dies
It’s a sad, sad day in the video game world. Nintendo reports that President Satoru Iwata has died at the age of 55 due to a bile duct growth. The executive had been forced to skip E3 2014 due to health issues and had surgery to remove a growth later that year, but it’s unfortunately clear that this wasn’t enough. The company isn’t saying much about succession at this point, but it looks like Genyo Takeda and company legend Shigeru Miyamoto are taking the reins for now.
Iwata had a profound effect at Nintendo. He came to the company in 1983 and helped create some of the developer’s legendary titles, such as EarthBound and the early Kirby titles. He took charge of the firm’s corporate planning in 2000, and in 2002 became the first person to lead Nintendo that wasn’t part of the founding Yamauchi family.
His track record as the head of the firm is mixed, but memorable. He presided over most of the GameCube’s less-than-stellar history and, of course, the struggling Wii U. However, he also led the company through the Wii’s glory days, ushering in the era of motion-controlled gaming. Also, he helped cement Nintendo’s dominance in dedicated handhelds through the DS and 3DS. Moreover, his company was also gradually adapting to the reality of a smartphone-dominated world, with plans to develop mobile games.
Developing…
Via: Kotaku
Source: Nintendo (PDF)
Someone made real life ‘Splatoon’ weapons
Sure, they’re basically portable pressure-washer guns but they’re still strong enough to knock a grown man on his ass.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Via: Siliconera
Source: YouTube
DeNA West CEO thinks Nintendo partnership will “completely change the market”
When Nintendo and DeNA announced they would enter into a partnership for mobile game publishing, the news was big. Arguably even larger was the intense scrutiny that went into the very nature of the deal, something that was – apparently – wide-spread enough that Nintendo’s CEO felt the need to clarify things. The story the two sought to tell would basically amount to Nintendo creating the games and DeNA handling the distribution. Logically it makes sense, as Nintendo has no experience with mobile game development and given the sheer amount of complications associated with it (fragementation alone is a major one) means that expertise is needed to succeed.
Nintendo revealed it would release five new mobile titles by 2017, with the first one coming later this year. But what can we expect from these games?
At a recent gaming event, DeNA West’s CEO, Shintaro Asako, made a very bold statement: “I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market.” He cites the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game as an example of just how successful a working partnership can be, presumably referring to reports that the app pulls in over $200 million in revenue.
In some ways, his cheerful optimism echos that which Sony Mobile’s CEO offered just days ago (albeit for a different topic) though just as with Sony’s case, things aren’t so cut-and-dry. Nintendo is supplying the IP which means it will presumably have control over what products are developed. Nintendo has clear, long-reaching vested interests in its own hardware portfolio, and as such there has been a large amount of discussion and speculation as to just what kind of games it will be creating for the mobile ecosystem.
I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market.
While many had initially taken for granted any decision made by Nintendo would entail endless adventures with Mario, Zelda, Link, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and a host of other cherished franchises coming along for the ride, it’s no longer assured that will be getting the full blown mobile games we were dreaming about.
In somewhat of a paradox, the more promising the Nintendo mobile apps are, the more damaging they will be for the sales of current – or future – dedicated portable hardware like the 3DS or its eventual successor. If gamers can get “full-blown” experiences on their existing mobile devices, how many would then go out and buy Nintendo’s hardware, especially with many established players migrating towards mobile as is.
The idea of “completely changing the market” seems rather ironic given that the very emergency of mobile apps has done just that: why else would Nintendo even be doing this?
While there is absolutely nothing to suggest Nintendo will create sub-par experiences for the mobile marketplace, given the more niche, IAP-centered nature of its own, existing 3DS freemium software, it could just as well follow suit down that avenue. Then again, perhaps Nintendo has finally realized that its old ways are no longer sustainable, and actually planning to put its best foot forward when it comes to mobile titles. On a final note, the idea of “completely changing the market” seems rather ironic given that the very emergency of mobile apps has done just that: why else would Nintendo even be doing this?
These were E3 2015’s best games
E3 is (thankfully) over, and that means the press that cover the event have recently cast their votes for what they thought were the best games from the show. You know those blurbs on box art saying “winner of over 90 awards” and the like? This is partly where they come from. Collectively known as The Game Critics Awards, the governing body for them is made up of staff from over 30 editorial outlets, including Engadget, that attended gaming’s Paris Fashion Week. For a game to even be up for consideration though, it has to be playable — a stage demo or non-interactive trailer won’t cut it. What’s it mean for you? In the end, a better idea about what it’s like to actually play the biggest games from E3, because we got to go hands-on with them. Without further adieu, the winners are in the gallery below. Spoiler: Fallout 4 was pretty successful.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
Source: Game Critics Awards
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida reacts to the ‘Nintendo PlayStation’
Not long after our last intimate chat with Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios at E3, a Redditor managed to dig up a prototype of the never-released “Nintendo PlayStation” that eventually led to the birth of Sony’s very own gaming console. Naturally, when we caught up with Shuhei-san again at a Project Morpheus event in Hong Kong, we showed him our article on the priceless gem and asked for his thoughts. After some reminiscent giggles, the exec gave a brief account on the time he spent with a device with matching description, as you can see in our interview video after the break.
“When I joined Ken Kutaragi’s team [in 1993], there was a system called ‘Play Station’ that had both Super Nintendo cartridge support and some disc game support. Actually, I played some games [on it] as well.”
It’s worth pointing out that Shuhei joined Sony back in 1986, which was five years before Kutaragi’s division unveiled — and pretty much instantly canned — the SNES-CD add-on.
Alas, the exec made it very clear that he couldn’t confirm whether the recently surfaced “Nintendo PlayStation” device was legit, but he did give a cool reason.
“Somehow, I think it’s more fun to keep it kind of a mystery.”
Fair play, Shuhei-san, fair play.
The untold story of a failed Nintendo game 6 years in the making
Nintendo has had a number of high-profile flops (Virtual Boy, anyone?). However, one of its biggest failures may have been one you heard almost nothing about — at least, until now. Unseen64 has published a documentary detailing the largely unknown story of Project H.A.M.M.E.R (aka MachineX), a Wii game from Nintendo Software Technology that died after nearly six years of painful development that began in 2003. The hammer-swinging sci-fi brawler was supposed to be mostly finished by the time it was first acknowledged in 2005, but a culture clash between the Japanese management and American staff all but killed progress. The two sides had differing ideas about what would fix the mediocre gameplay. The top brass thought better environments would improve things, for example, while the rank-and-file wanted to overhaul the core gameplay mechanics.
That deadlock was never resolved. Eventually, the management’s requests (which included revamping the game for a “casual” take) led to numerous departures and an attempt to blame the head designer for what was ultimately a problem with the higher-ups. The game was quietly cancelled in 2009, and saw NST fall from its top-tier status to become a smaller, digital-only studio. It’s a bleak story, to put it mildly, but it’ll hopefully teach other game companies about the value of trusting creative leaders.
Via: NeoGAF
Source: Unseen64 (YouTube)
This is the Nintendo PlayStation that almost was
It might seem crazy today, but in the early ’90s Nintendo and Sony were working together on a video game accessory that’d add CD capabilities to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. There would also be a separate Sony console that’d play SNES cartridge games and titles for the SNES CD system dubbed the PlayStation. As legend tells it, the deal went sour when Nintendo instead announced a partnership with Sony’s competitor Philips for the optical add-on at the same CES that Sony unveiled its Nintendo-centric PlayStation. The rest is history. What you see above might as well be a unicorn, then.
Reddit user Analogueboy recently posted pictures of what looks like a prototype of the original PlayStation, saying that it was in a box of his dad’s junk. Apparently his pops had worked with someone named Olaf who was employed by the Mario company, who then left the console behind in a box of rummage.
As many have reported, this Olaf could possibly be the founder of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. That may or may not be true, but as far as we can tell this device isn’t a fake. There’s video evidence below and many more photos at the source link if you want to play detective for yourself.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony, Nintendo
Via: Reddit
Source: Assembler Games
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