@tinycartridge / tinycartridge.com
TinyCast 69! Come listen to adults react to E3 -- we managed to go over all the notable 3DS and Wii U items from last week's big expo, while also sharing a few disappointments. There's lots of raving over Super Mario Maker too!
Direct download (MP3, 33.1 MB) / RSS Follow us on iTunes! Leave a nice review! :o)
Nintendo’s upcoming co-op spin-off for The Legend of Zelda won’t feature voice chat -- not a surprise considering Nintendo-published games rarely do (see Splatoon), but it’s nice to see that the team actually considered including it and had a reason for not implementing the feature.
Tri Force Heroes‘ director told The Verge that voice chat can create a negative play experience, in which experienced players boss others around as they try to work together to solve a puzzle. Instead, the game offers eight different panels on the touchscreen allowing you to convey feelings or suggestions.
"I believe it might be a little bit stressful for players to try to figure out how to communicate what they want to do, but I think that because of that feeling, when you're able to do it successfully there's a level of satisfaction that you don't find in other games,” explained director Hiromasa Shikata.
Other things we've learned --via Game Informer -- since the game's unveiling: you can either play solo or co-op with three players (no two-player co-op), there's a versus"Colosseum" battle mode for 2-3 players, and you can play with two friends locally using a single copy of the game thanks to download play.
That seems to be the gimmick in Wii U’s Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (holiday 2015). You are Mario characters playing tennis, and occasionally someone is very big. I may sound dismissive, but I actually do trust Camelot and Nintendo to make that fun!
PREORDER Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
I was kind of suspicious that Nintendo would stealth-release LBX on the eShop right after Tuesday’s Digital Event, Inazuma Eleven style. But no, it’s out August 21 -- and as a retail game (probably eShop too, of course)!
Here’s a great Treehouse Live video featuring lots of live gameplay! It really does look like a lil’ Virtual-On, with cute robots dashing all around the diorama-like arenas.
PREORDER Little Battler eXperience, LBX toys
Good sign for a horror game, maybe, if its E3 trailer opens with a death?
How did I miss that this game uses the Wii U GamePad for the camera? This is great and smart. Spirit Camera could arguably be said to handle it the same way, but it was only sorta Fatal Frame. This comes out in the fall!
Showing its appreciation for the fans who helped make SteamWorld Dig a hit on the 3DS, Image & Form announced that its multi-platform follow-up Heist will debut on the portable first. Awesome!
You can see the turn-based, side-scrolling strategy game in action in this E3 trailer. SteamWorld Heist will eventually launch as a digital release for Wii U, PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One, Steam, and iOS this fall too.
SUPPORT TINY CARTRIDGE Join Club Tiny!
Happy Home Designer, the upcoming Animal Crossing spin-off for 3DS, will allow you to pick a darker skin color for your characters, according to Nintendo product marketing specialist Alison Rapp. That’s a first for the series -- previously, for people of color who wanted their villager’s skin tone to match theirs, they had to settle for a temporary tan.
While the feature is limited to Happy Home Designer for now, hopefully Nintendo has heard fans’ complaints about this missing option in previous entries, and the company will make sure to include it in future Animal Crossing games. Thanks to Animal Crossing World and @Megmar for spotting this!
I’m inclined to love everything Chibi-Robo, and I want an excuse to own the Chibi amiibo, but I’m still not sure about the non-cleaning-based gameplay.
But! The weird corner-grappling in this looks like my absolute jam. This is out October 9.
BUY Chibi-Robo games
It’s nice to have a vacation or break from school or just a couple days off work to dig into a giant RPG -- that’s basically the only time I can ever get into one -- and Xenoblade Chronicles X is out in North America December 4.
Here are more characters that, like Wii Fit Trainer, are playable in Super Mario Maker with the corresponding amiibo. In addition, according to the fact sheet, you’ll be able to unlock more characters by “completing 100 Mario Challenge mode.” Hallelujah, maybe a way to see Marth for the 99.99999999999% of Earth’s population without that rare amiibo!
Surprisingly, this is the first game to make me want to collect all these amiibo. Tell me you don’t want to play Super Mario levels with a tiny Isabelle sprite.
Something I just realized: you can play these characters in the game, and you can change the style of the levels to Super Mario 3, World, or New Super Mario Bros... so does Super Mario Maker have different versions of all these character skins too? Is there a 16-bit Isabelle? (edit: these only show up in Super Mario Bros.-style levels; thanks for letting us know about this, RavenWorks!)
PREORDER Super Mario Maker, Amiibo
The Walker vehicle from the cancelled Star Fox 2! It looks really silly and birdlike, and I love it! Also, a cool cockpit view on Wii U’s GamePad for aiming!
The biggest surprise for this holiday release, though, is the developer: Platinum Games, who really seems to be getting out there and trying new stuff. Like following up its Legend of Korra brawler with a Transformers one for Activision!
By the way, this epic tweet saga between Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya and Star Fox fans, spanning five years, is magical.
Preorder the game here! After the break, gameplay from Treehouse Live:
With Takashi Tezuka and Shigeru Miyamoto. I guess I can deal with watching this incredible thing.
I’d been AFK all day yesterday -- during the Nintendo Digital Event, I know! -- and I’m catching up starting right here. In case you were similarly unable to sit and watch streams all day, join me!
PREORDER Super Mario Maker, Amiibo
It’s not as big as your Marios and your Yoshis, but SteamWorld Heist, as the followup to confirmed Cool Game SteamWorld Dig, deserves attention too.
Even if it looks totally different from Dig! The sorta-turn-based combat in this looks interesting, like something I’d expect from a AAA console RPG, not usually a side scroller.
SUPPORT TINY CARTRIDGE Join Club Tiny!
Dude doesn’t seem to be taking his absence from the Smash Bros. roster too well, as the Fire Emblem Awakening hero showed up in Genei Ibun Roku #FE (the Shin Megami Tensei/Fire Emblem game coming to Wii U next year) having done some retail therapy over at the Final Fantasy Boutique.
Trailer is after the break, featuring lots of cute people whose lives are not pain.
Nintendo’s Treehouse team didn’t seem to think this was as notable a spoiler as you’d presume, but don’t watch this if you’re trying to avoid Fire Emblem Fates spoilers! This is the scene right before you’ll pick which family/side you’ll fight for in the game -- though I guess that should already be picked for you, since you’ll have purchased one of two versions of the game? (unless Nintendo releases the downloadable version with both sides as unlockable paths)
Amazon has opened preorders for the game (releasing in North America next year), but it’s not clear how this will work since there will be two releases.
PREORDER Fire Emblem Fates
After taking over the lives of children in Japan for years, Yo-Kai Watch will finally make its debut in the West this holiday season on the Nintendo 3DS. I’ve dropped an E3 trailer and more details about the Level-5 RPG after the break, but you can also preorder it at Amazon here.
All of the sudden, this is the Wii U game I’m most excited about getting? It releases on September 11 and will come with a ~100-page booklet "that illustrates the boundless possibilities in Super Mario Maker."
The bottom product shots are from the European release! Here’s a wild two-minute trailer for Super Mario Maker if you missed it earlier.
PREORDER Super Mario Maker
