Mario Maker, Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U game that lets players create their own Mario levels using the GamePad and share them if they want to, will launch in September, the publisher has announced.
In a statement, Nintendo also teased that “various activities” surrounding the 30th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. series are planned throughout the year.
Mario Maker was originally scheduled to launch in the first half of 2015, a release window that fell into question in January after its release date shifted to “2015.”
Are you looking forward to Mario Maker? Let us know in the comments! And for lots more on this week’s Nintendo Direct, check out GameSpot’s video feature below.
Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U shooter Splatoon finally has an official release date. The game will launch exclusively for Wii U on May 29, Nintendo has announced.
A family-friendly twist on the classic arena deathmatch formula, Splatoon challenges players not to shoot their opponents directly, but to cover as much of the level’s walls and floor in your team’s own paint color.
The game also boasts some unique and interesting movement abilities and of course contains some of Nintendo’s trademark charm. Check out the video above to see Splatoon in action.
You can also read GameSpot’s recent preview here and check out some screenshots in the gallery below.
Today’s Nintendo Direct presentation brought plenty of surprises, including lots of information on the next Nintendo 3DS Fire Emblem, which will arrive in 2016.
For the first time in a Fire Emblem game, your player created character won’t just be a side player in the greater story. The game will revolve around you and the choices you make.
Fire Emblem on 3DS will present two conflicting factions for you to side with: the peaceful Hoshido or the war-like Nohr. The characters you meet and big events will stay the same, but your choice will have a major impact on the overall story and how you play. Nintendo recommends Hoshido for newcomers to the series and for players who want a traditional Fire Emblem experience. The Nohr campaign will be more complex and challenging, as you seek to start a revolution from within your kingdom.
Watch the trailer above to see the game in action, and our gallery of images below give you an even closer look at the characters and setting.
Mario Kart will get faster than ever with a free update to Mario Kart 8 that adds a 200cc mode.
Previously, Mario Kart games only had the beginners’ 50cc mode, the faster 100cc mode that requires some skill, and the fastest, challenging 150cc mode. With the 200cc mode, which will work both on the new tracks included in the game’s second DLC pack and all the previously released tracks, Mario Kart 8 will be even faster.
Nintendo also announced that Mario Kart 8’s second DLC pack will release in April 23 instead of May, as was originally planned. For $8, the DLC pack will get you three new racers (Isabelle, Villager, and Dry Bowser), four vehicles, and eight courses, including the Animal Crossing course that changes seasons each time you play it.
Alongside the new DLC, Mario Kart 8 is getting nine Amiibo compatible Mii racing suits, including one for Mega Man and Pac-Man.
You can watch the Animal Crossing course and the new customs in the videos below.
During today’s Nintendo Direct Presentation, we saw a little bit more of the intriguing crossover game Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem.
First announced back in 2013, this is the first we’ve seen of the game in a long time. Check out the trailer above and the gallery below for an even closer look at the game in action.
Sony is getting into the April Fools’ Day spirit. The company on Wednesday released a bogus product announcement video for “PlayStation Flow,” the game-maker’s latest PlayStation 4 wearable device designed to help you play games underwater.
“We’re taking gaming out of the living room and into the swimming pool,” a Sony spokesperson says.
PlayStation Flow comes with goggles, arm bands, and even a special body dryer. Best of all, you don’t even need to be in a pool to use PlayStation Flow. Make sure you watch through to the end for the big finish.
The video is really well-made and might be the April Fools’ Day gaming prank to beat so far.
Check out GameSpot’s roundup of video game-themed gaming pranks here.
In a fascinating new interview with GamesIndustry International, Oddworld creator and industry veteran Lorne Lanning reveals that Microsoft considered offering the original Xbox for free back in 2001.
This move, Lanning said, was an attempt to reach “casual” gamers, which he claimed Microsoft saw–at least during one stage of development–as they key demographic for the console.
“At the time, Xbox thought that the core market was going to be casual,” Lanning said. They were going to be the casual gamers’ machine. Now, that’s why they approached us because they said ‘we think you’ve got something that competes in that Mario space and we think Mario’s the thing to kill … We see that space. We want that audience. We love Oddworld so why don’t you get on this bandwagon? And we might give the box away,’” Lanning explained.
“So now you’re like, ‘Look, if you’re going to give the box away, you’re going to win. If you’re going to win, we want to be on board.’”
Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley is also featured in the report. He said conversations about the direction the original Xbox should go were shooting in all directions, including offering it for free. Of course, Microsoft did not end up going down this path, launching the console as a paid device in November 2001.
“In the early days of Xbox, especially before we had figured out how to get greenlit for the project as a pure game console, everybody and their brother who saw the new project starting tried to come in and say it should be free, say it should be forced to run Windows after some period of time,” Blackley said.
Other ideas floated inside of Microsoft were wild to think about now. According to the report, some said the Xbox should be a console focused on playing movies or that all games would need to be developed by Microsoft. Others even suggested that Microsoft should make a dramatic move and buy Nintendo.
“Just name it, name a bad idea and it was something we had to deal with,” Blackley said.
Of course, the Xbox has gone on to become a juggernaut brand in gaming. The original Xbox helped popularize the console FPS with Halo and its online infrastructure, Xbox Live, was revolutionary.
Battlefield developer DICE’s upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront multiplayer shooter is making “so much progress,” according to one of its developers. Battlefront designer Viktor Lundberg shared a new status update for the game recently on Twitter, adding that he’s looking forward to time off for the Easter holidays.
“So much progress over the last couple of weeks,” Lundberg said. “Looking forward to us all getting Thursday-Monday off.”
Those who attend the Star Wars Celebration “will have a chance to see gameplay behind closed doors during the show at our official booth along with a few other activities starting that Friday,” according to EA.
Microsoft’s upcoming Gears of War game will launch exclusively for Xbox One–an Xbox 360 version of the untitled project is not in development. That’s according to Black Tusk’s Jack Felling, who revealed the (albeit unsurprising) news on Twitter recently.
@Clayton_117 No sorry, it won’t be available on the 360 but it will be available for the Xbox One!
This rules out any possibility that the new Gears of War game will be a cross-generation title. Such games are becoming increasingly rare, as studios shift to development exclusively for new consoles.
A PC version of the upcoming Gears of War game has not been announced, though it also has not been ruled out.
Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise in January 2014, buying the action series from creator Epic Games for an undisclosed sum. As part of the deal, Microsoft put its new Black Tusk development team to work on a brand-new Gears of War game for Xbox One.
The Gears of War franchise is one of the Xbox platform’s leading series. It has spanned four titles so far:Gears of War (2006), Gears of War 2 (2008), Gears of War 3 (2011), and Gears of War: Judgment (2013). Together, the games have sold more than 22 million copies and generated over $1 billion. Gears of War Exile, rumored to be a Kinect-enabled spinoff, was canceled.
As part of its annual April Fools’ Day pranks, ThinkGeek today announced its first game console, the “Steam-Powered Gaming Cabinet.” Clearly, this is a joke, but that’s what today is all about anyway.
“While harkening back to a simpler time when steam powered the world, the console utilizes its coalfired boiler to play all of the modern games on Valve’s streaming service, Steam,” ThinkGeek explains. “All that a user needs to do to play games from their Steam library is begin shoveling coal to get the boiler stoked.”
Here’s some bulletpoints for ThinkGeek’s Steam-Powered Gaming Cabinet:
Multiple panels to access main controls and adjustment knobs
Boiler viewing window and thermometer (to make sure your fire is burning at the optimum temperature)
Wired controller features ball-jointed thumb-sticks and typewriter-feel keys
Controllers and Steam-Powered Gaming Cabinet have warm vacuum-tube glow
Viewable piston with steam venting valve for easy maintenance
SteamOS pre-installed (can also be configured to run Linux, FLOW-MATIC, Fortran, and others)
Side chute opens for additional coal to be added
Check out some more images of ThinkGeek’s totally fake Steam Machine in the gallery below.
It’s April Fools’ Day, so be careful out there. See a roundup of all the day’s best gaming-related pranks here.
