This past week was chalk full of Nintendo news after it held not one, but two Nintendo Direct online presentations for August 2013.
Nintendo Direct presentations are monthly videos produced by Nintendo that offer updates on its hardware and games, information given during the presentations differ from region to region.
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s Global President, predominately hosts the presentations but presidents from respective regions also host presentations together, such as, Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, Satoru Shibata , President of Nintendo of Europe.
The Nintendo Direct held on August 7 focused on updating information on existing titles that were already known about. One major surprise was the announcement of PROFESSOR LAYTON VS. ACE ATTORNEY getting a Western release in both North America and Europe. The expected release of the game is 2014.
The game was exclusively a Japanese release before now, so that’s great news for fans of both franchises.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: WIND WAKER HD also got a European release date, October 4, but there’s no word yet on a North American release date. I think it would be safe to say, though, that North America would see a release date around that same time frame.
In other Zelda news, more details emerged about THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS and what people can expect when they re-enter Hyrule. The most notable news is that the game takes place several generations after THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST and that we are dealing with a new Link.
Unlike the Dark World in LINK TO THE PAST, Link will be able to venture into a new alternate world which is dubbed the overworld. This is done by Link’s ability to becoming a painting on walls, once on the wall, Link can find cracks on surfaces that transport him to the overworld.
August 9‘s Nintendo Direct was dedicated to the upcoming game, THE WONDERFUL 101.
This 20 minute Direct video was focused on selling this third-party title as a game that makes the Wii U more attractive to own as well as giving more background to THE WONDERFUL 101’s narrative.
President Iwata was quoted by CVG addressing the fact that the lack of software on the Wii U has been the reason for its lack luster performance in the market place.
“I understand that the real issue is the lack of software, and the only solution is to provide the mass-market with a number of quality software titles,” Iwata said.
With THE WONDERFUL 101 slated for a September 15 release it’s no wonder they dedicated a whole Direct presentation to this game. The Wii U needs games and both Nintendo Direct presentations last week didn’t address that issue.
Both presentations focused on games supporting the Nintendo 3DS, which has some good games slated for it, or existing games that we already knew about that are upcoming titles for the Wii U.
The bottom line is that Nintendo needs to support their next-generation console with titles that entice people to buy their product. They have failed to do that which has resulted in poor sales of the console and has lead to Iwata’s comments today concerning the lack of games support.
With another possible Nintendo Direct presentation coming out soon, and more presentations set to be release in the months to comes, we can only hope that Nintendo decides to step it up and show that it’s willing to support the Wii U and make it the console it should be.
Check out BOTH presentation in their entirety below courtesy of NINTENDO:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dONco32sHxo&list=TLylUrx6Ai62o[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyKR-myMjZU&list=TLHpDggKeva7g[/youtube]
