April 1st’s new Nintendo Direct is pretty hefty, and Nintendo has made some pretty sizable announcements throughout the showcase.

Join us as we take a look at the most exciting reveals and highlights from the coverage, including Nintendo 64 and DS games coming to Wii U’s Virtual Console (finally!) along with new Amiibo waves, a standalone NFC scanner for 3DS and 2DS handhelds, a brand new Animal Crossing and footage from the Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover.

Other goodies include a confirmed Mario Maker release date, a poll for future Super Smash Bros. characters, a Splatoon Amiibo three-pack, new portable “Amiibo cards”, an amazing new trailer for the 3DS Fire Emblem game, and more.

Without further adieu, let’s jump right in starting with the Wii U Virtual Console news.

The Wii U’s Virtual Console presence is getting a much needed expansion with N64 and Nintendo DS games.

Wii U Virtual Console News

One of the biggest announcements during the showcase was that Nintnedo 64 and DS games are officially coming to the Wii U Virtual Console.

This represents a huge opportunity for the company to expand its beleaguered cross-platform digital service, which is actually quite underwhelming in its current state.

The Wii U will have a variety of different layout options for both N64 and DS games.

But how will Nintendo 64 and DS emulation work with the Wii U Gamepad?

Nintendo will provide a host of dual-screen options for both platforms, so the same screen is mirrored across both the TV and Gamepad. But some games will be different and use your TV as the main screen, allowing the Gamepad or Pro controller to be used as the controller.

Other games will use “both screens as one connected screen”, meaning the Gamepad will be an accessory screen rather than simply mirrored.  As for Nintendo DS emulation, users can flip the Wii U Gamepad vertically to simulate the handheld’s dual-screen layout.

Custom button mapping is supported across N64 Virtual Console games.

Also Nintendo 64 games on the Virtual Console will let you map your own buttons for customized control schemes, which is a great option considering how different the Gamepad is from the original N64 controller.

The first Virtual Console games will be Super Mario 64 and Yoshi’s Island DS both priced at $10 and are available now on the Wii U’s Virtual Console shop.

Nintendo 64 games will be priced at $10-12 whereas Nintendo DS games will cost $7-10. But if you already own the games on the Wii’s Virtual Console and transfer them over to your Wii U, each game will be reduced to $2.

Other Wii U VC games include:

• Yoshi Touch & Go (DS) - April 9 – $9.99

• WarioWare Touched! (DS)- April 9 – $9.9

• Donkey Kong 64 (N64) - April 16 – $9.99

• Mario Kart DS (DS) - April 23 – $9.99

• Paper Mario (DS) - April 30 – $9.99

The post Nintendo Direct Wii U And 3DS Announcement Wrap-Up appeared first on VR World.

Just yesterday Nintendo made a confirmation announcement that their new line of 3DS handhelds would release early next month across North America and Europe.

The two new handheld variants were showcased during the company’s Nintendo Direct simulcast, the generic New 3DS and the larger New 3DS XL, leading to an exciting new chapter in the Japanese console-maker’s history of handhelds.

But one announcement quickly stifled that excitement, leading to an entire region of Nintendo fans to call out in dismay: the smaller New 3DS model won’t be making its way overseas to North America.

Only the bigger New 3DS XL model will be available in the region.

The basic New 3DS model (left) won’t be coming to North America upon launch, instead users will get the New 3DS XL model (right).

The basic model sets itself apart from its larger counterpart in many ways besides being more compact: it has interchangable faceplates that allow owners to fully customize its appearance, sports a Super Famicom-style color scheme to boot.

But why is Nintendo holding out? Why won’t North American Nintendo aficionados not be getting the New 3DS when it launches in February?

Speaking with Kotaku on the matter, Nintendo of America delivered the following PR-speak “responses”:

“Different territories make their own business decisions regarding individual products and timing. We think New Nintendo 3DS XL makes the most sense for our market.

“Nintendo makes different systems at different price points for a whole range of consumers, and New Nintendo 3DS XL simply expands those choices even further.”

New 3DS handhelds will no longer come with an AC adapter in North America, and will be sold separately from now on.

If that wasn’t enough, Nintendo revealed that the New 3DS XL won’t be packaged with an AC adapter in North America.

Huh. You’d think Nintendo would want to pack in the very thing that’s needed to power your handheld, considering the devices don’t have swappable batteries.

Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime confirms that any previous adapter from the Nintendo DS line is compatible with the New 3DS systems, but still, this move adds insult to injury.

Why did Nintendo opt out of this incredibly necessary inclusion? It’s simple: they just wanted to save money, and avoid “raising the cost of the hardware”.

“New Nintendo 3DS XL uses the same AC adapter as any Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo DSi system. Rather than raise cost of New Nintendo 3DS XL by charging consumers for a component they may already own, we are giving them the option to only buy if they need an AC adapter.”

For $199, you’d think Nintendo could at least include an AC adapter.

Sadly this trend has already been instituted in Japan and Europe for quite some time. Nintendo is just now phasing these inclusions out for North America, and I doubt they’ll ever be included again.

In any case, the company hasn’t outright said that the regular New 3DS variant won’t ever show up on North American shores, but for now, it’s missing in action.

The New 3DS XL will be available starting Feb. 13, 2015 for a price point of $199.

The post Nintendo Reveals Why The New 3DS Isn't Coming To The U.S. appeared first on VR World.

According to sales numbers compiled for 2013, Sony has overtaken Nintendo to be the #1 game console seller in the world, combining both mobile and stationary consoles. Considering the PlayStation 4’s wild success this comes as little surprise. According to Nikkei’s numbers, Sony beat Nintendo out by selling 18.7 million units of their consoles, which include the PS4, PS Vita and PS3 globally in fiscal 2013. That’s even with a huge 20% decline in PS Vita sales primarily due to the staleness of the platform and mobile gaming taking more market share.

This is in contrast to Nintendo’s 16.3 million, which can almost entirely be attributed to the company’s Nintendo DS platform, because their WiiU sales have more than tanked, to very few people’s surprise. Their 70% projection cut alone should have been a major indicator of Nintendo’s complete ignorance of the real situation. However, there is still no denying the success of the various Nintendo DS lines of products that they continue to sell in the many millions. This will likely mean we should see a console announcement from Nintendo relatively soon in order to burn the WiiU from the collective consciousness as fast as possible.

Sony’s other competitor, Microsoft even though they fell to #3 still had a fairly strong year considering that they don’t have much in terms of mobile gaming platforms. That fact is both a blessing and a curse for the company because they are now in third place in terms of shipping consoles with 11.6 million consoles, even though they grew 16% as a whole year over year. This fact alone indicates how absolutely gangbusters Sony’s PS4 sales have been in order to relegate Microsoft to 3rd place after growing 16% year on year. While plans of an Xbox One mobile console are possible, but unlikely, there is still a good chance we could see Microsoft do something like they did with Surface or a gaming surface.

Ultimately, the companies with mobile consoles suffered some pretty significant losses, but Sony’s PS4 lifted them above the rest and resulted in a record year for the company. In fact, this year marks the first time in 8 years that Sony has been in 1st place in terms of console sales, which should indicate how strong Sony’s PS4 sales really have been.

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