Highlights From Nintendo Direct For April 1, 2015 Brings Amiibos, Crossovers, And 200cc ‘Mario Kart 8’


Every few months, Nintendo hosts a live stream called Nintendo Direct. This stream showcases news, trailers, and announcements about upcoming games directly to the players, and this month’s Nintendo Direct had a great deal of content centering around Amiibos, RPGs, and updates to Mario Kart 8, along with a bevy of indie titles coming to the eShop for the Wii U and 3DS. There is a great deal of content featured in the Nintendo Direct stream and you can watch it in its entirety here. Below we will briefly touch on everything that the video contained. Enjoy!

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is receiving two new characters from the Nintendo stables, according to Nintendo Life: Lucas (Earthbound) and MewTwo (Pokémon) will be joining the ranks of fighters as DLC characters. MewTwo will be available first on April 28 for $3.99 or $4.99 bundle for both the Wii U and 3DS versions. If you registered the game before March 31, you get MewTwo for free. Lucas will be available later in June.

Update 1.0.6 is also on the way and will feature balancing issues and sharing improvements. It will also feature crossover costumes as DLC for $0.75 each or $1.15 altogether. These packs will also release on April 15.

Amiibo Tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Hits is a free downloadable game which allow players to tap their amiibo action figures onto the Wii U GamePad to unlock three-minute clips of classic Nintendo games at random. A Mario Amiibo may unlock clips for Super Metroid, for example, in a system that Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata called “like a box of chocolates.” While you will be able to play three-minute segments of the unlocked NES or SNES games, another tap of the amiibo will unlock another section of the game for you to play through. This is either a challenge for speed runners or a sample pack for people who may want to purchase the Virtual Console version of the game they are playing. The app will be free to download this Spring for the Wii U.

Mario Maker was next up in the stream on Nintendo Direct, and a custom level was shown off celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the original Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Apart from making people like me feel really old for remembering the game’s launch, the purpose of the game is not dissimilar to Little Big Planet, where you can build your levels and try them out in real time. The Mario Maker will allow you to create levels with assets from the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. up to the latest New Super Mario Bros. U. It will launch in September of 2015.

Yoshi’s Woolly World was the next featured Nintendo Direct title. A release date window was given as this Fall, disappointing many who were hoping for a Spring release date. The game will feature two play modes: Classic and Mellow. Classic mode retains the challenging platforming aspect of prior Yoshi titles belying the cute, yarn presentation of the game. Mellow mode is essentially an “easy” mode where the player is given unlimited access to a winged version of Yoshi as well as some of the cutest sounds to ever emirate from the joyful dinosaur.

If this wasn’t enough cuteness for you, Nintendo is bent on capitalizing on the success of the amiibo by offering three variations of a yarn Yoshi amiibo in green, pink, and light blue.

Splatoon, a new IP from Nintendo that is built around competitive play, is also receiving amiibo love in the form of a Splatoon amiibo pack, which contains a Boy and girl Inkling as well as the Squid amiibo. While you can purchase the boy and girl separately, you have to buy the three pack in order to get the Squid. They will unlock special missions, which in turn unlock equipment and gear that is exclusive to those missions. It is not clear if that equipment will give players an advantage in competitive multiplayer as of yet.

The Nintendo Direct stream also shed light on two new play modes for Splatoon, which included a ranked four-versus-four mode as well as a one-versus-one local competitive mode, where one player uses the GamePad and the other uses the TV to see who can pop the most balloons in a set amount of time.

If this amount of information hasn’t blown your mind yet, the Nintendo Direct had much more, and the next section dealt with the Virtual Console. Nintendo 64 games and Nintendo DS games will be coming to the Wii U Virtual Console.

The DS titles will feature a plethora of layout options depending on the player’s preference. Since some DS games used the top or bottom screen for the action, players will be able to assign which screen they want on the GamePad or TV. Both screens can also be on the GamePad or TV if desired. The Nintendo 64 games will feature three preset control schemes that can be customized by the player for ease of use. The N64 games will retail for $9.99 to $11.99 and DS games will retail from $6.99 to $9.99. Players who purchased the games on the original Wii can receive a $2 discount on the games.

Next up on the Nintendo Direct was a bevy of indie titles coming on the eShop for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U over the next year. There are too many to go into detail on each one so here is the list.

Adventures of Pip, Octodad: Deadliest Quest, Mutant Mudds Super Challenge, Don’t Starve: Giant Edition, forma.8, Dementium: Remastered, Affordable Space Adventures, STARWHAL, Never Alone, Ninja Pizza Girl, Antipole DX, Life of Pixel, BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition, Slain!, Runbow, Back to Bed, Space Hulk, RACE THE SUN, DOOORS, Dot Arcade, Swords & Soldiers II, Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails, Toto Temple Deluxe, The Bridge, Shutshimi, Nova-111, and Windup Knight 2.

The Nintendo Direct kept rolling with a new trailer for the Atlus Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem cross-over title. Though no new information was given, the trailer shows that there is progress being made on the title, and we hope to hear something either at E3 or in the next Nintendo Direct.

The biggest surprise of the Nintendo Direct stream was arguably the announcement of a new Fatal Frame title coming for the Wii U. The popular horror franchise is making its first western debut since the PlayStation 2 in North America. It was not clear if this is the previously announced localized versions of Fatal Frame: Oracle of the Sodden Raven that has released on the Wii U in Japan, but more should be revealed at E3.

The remainder of the Nintendo Direct contained announcements of DLC, more amiibos, and a new 200cc mode in Mario Kart 8 due out in April.

You can watch the entirety of the Nintendo Direct for April 1, 2015 here.

[Image Source | Nintendo]

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