Just when everyone had ruled them out, last week’s Nintendo Direct announcement showed the company still has the fiery fighting spirit that has kept them going since the days of the NES, showing their plans for the remainder of 2013 and beyond.
The biggest knockout blow was the new trailer for Super Mario 3D World (which you can view above). While Nintendo had already teased one new power-up, the Cat Suit, during its E3 video presentation, it turns out this was just the tip of the ice-berg. As well as the welcome return of the Tanooki suit from Super Mario Bros 3, Mario now has access to a Hammer Bros. Suit, a Bullet Bill Suit, and uses items like soccer balls and baseballs to strike enemies. He can ever carry knocked out enemies, such as Pete the Piranha Plant. But the most interesting of these new suits was the Cherry Clone item, which made a duplicate Mario. Later in the trailer, there are three Marios, all moving in sync. How this will work in the game remains to be seen, but it seems Nintendo may have another sterling system seller on its hands.
In more Mario news, the company unveiled two new Wii remote Plus designs based on the infamous Bros. One will be Mario Red and sport an ‘M’ on the central speaker, while the other will be Luigi Green and have a similar ‘L’ adorning it. The company also announced new downloadable content and mission mode stages for Pikmin 3 for the reasonable price of $1.99, although the British and European prices are almost double at £1.99 and €1.99 respectively. Finally, Nintendo unveiled ambitious plans for the online multiplayer elements of Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. While the majority of events will focused on localised multiplayer, four of these will be playable against gamers around the globe, with points going towards that player’s country tally if they win. In essence, players will be able to compete for their contry online.
Looking forward to 2014, it was also announced that Nintendo’s bubblegum pink mascot Kirby will be getting a new platformer game on 3DS. And games will be able to enjoy the Square Enix RPG Bravely Default in early 2014. However, European 3DS owners will see the game on this side of Christmas when its released on December 6 across the Atlantic.
