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Though many Americans are still at home and relaxing with time off from work for the Christmas holiday, Nintendo is still just as active as ever. Today the company aired its second "Nintendo Direct" pre-recorded video presentation, and just like the first time this kind of thing happened back in October we've received an array of new announcements.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata primarily focused the 45 minute running time of this latest video discussing upcoming game software scheduled to hit the Wii and 3DS in the first quarter of 2012 -- so pretty much anything hitting store shelves in January, February or March got a mention from him, while some of the more important titles also received air time for promotional trailers. Almost all of this release date information was targeted specifically for Nintendo's Japanese audience, though, so there's no point in reiterating most of it here for our American and European readers -- especially since we expect that we'll be getting a follow-up English-language version of this broadcast within the next 24 hours to offer appropriately equivalent information for our regions.
What is pertanent, though, are some details dropped regarding Kid Icarus: Uprising, Fire Emblem 3DS and the 3DS eShop.
First up, Kid Icarus. Mr. Iwata spent some time showing off the game's three-on-three multiplayer mode, and confirmed that Kid Icarus: Uprising will support online multiplayer. Nintendo fans in America and Europe have just started to get a taste for worldwide 3DS competition through the recently released Mario Kart 7, and it seems Kid Icarus will be the next place to use your portable to assert your dominance against friends and foes a world away. The multiplayer is in final testing right now, Iwata said, and we already knew that the game is set to ship in America and Europe in March of 2012. (Just a few months away.)
Next, Fire Emblem 3DS -- which was given an official Japanese name of "Fire Emblem: Kakuse" and a Japanese release date of April 19, 2012. This will be an all-new entry in the on-going Fire Emblem franchise and will support two-player co-op play for the first time in series history -- some footage was shown off of the game's new two-on-one battle scenes.
Interestingly, though, President Iwata did not address a story that Japanese press broke about a day ago -- that this Fire Emblem will be the first first-party Nintendo game to support paid DLC. If it's true, it would make sense -- the Fire Emblem games' storylines are naturally separated into distinct chapters, and so selling additional side stories after the main plot is finished seems reasonable. But we'll apparently still have to wait a while to see if Nintendo is going to confirm that this is actually happening.
Lastly, some eShop news. Nintendo previously announced that downloadable demos for retail software would become available soon in the Shop, and today the company made good on that promise -- President Iwata announced that retail software demos will go live today in the eShop. This is still just in Japan, mind you, but America and Europe may very well be getting the demos delivered too within the next 24 hours -- and the first four titles to get the demo treatment are major names, including:
- Resident Evil: Revelations
- Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
- Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure
source
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata primarily focused the 45 minute running time of this latest video discussing upcoming game software scheduled to hit the Wii and 3DS in the first quarter of 2012 -- so pretty much anything hitting store shelves in January, February or March got a mention from him, while some of the more important titles also received air time for promotional trailers. Almost all of this release date information was targeted specifically for Nintendo's Japanese audience, though, so there's no point in reiterating most of it here for our American and European readers -- especially since we expect that we'll be getting a follow-up English-language version of this broadcast within the next 24 hours to offer appropriately equivalent information for our regions.
What is pertanent, though, are some details dropped regarding Kid Icarus: Uprising, Fire Emblem 3DS and the 3DS eShop.
First up, Kid Icarus. Mr. Iwata spent some time showing off the game's three-on-three multiplayer mode, and confirmed that Kid Icarus: Uprising will support online multiplayer. Nintendo fans in America and Europe have just started to get a taste for worldwide 3DS competition through the recently released Mario Kart 7, and it seems Kid Icarus will be the next place to use your portable to assert your dominance against friends and foes a world away. The multiplayer is in final testing right now, Iwata said, and we already knew that the game is set to ship in America and Europe in March of 2012. (Just a few months away.)
Next, Fire Emblem 3DS -- which was given an official Japanese name of "Fire Emblem: Kakuse" and a Japanese release date of April 19, 2012. This will be an all-new entry in the on-going Fire Emblem franchise and will support two-player co-op play for the first time in series history -- some footage was shown off of the game's new two-on-one battle scenes.
Interestingly, though, President Iwata did not address a story that Japanese press broke about a day ago -- that this Fire Emblem will be the first first-party Nintendo game to support paid DLC. If it's true, it would make sense -- the Fire Emblem games' storylines are naturally separated into distinct chapters, and so selling additional side stories after the main plot is finished seems reasonable. But we'll apparently still have to wait a while to see if Nintendo is going to confirm that this is actually happening.
Lastly, some eShop news. Nintendo previously announced that downloadable demos for retail software would become available soon in the Shop, and today the company made good on that promise -- President Iwata announced that retail software demos will go live today in the eShop. This is still just in Japan, mind you, but America and Europe may very well be getting the demos delivered too within the next 24 hours -- and the first four titles to get the demo treatment are major names, including:
- Resident Evil: Revelations
- Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
- Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure
source
