WiiU News

Today's Nintendo Direct shed a lot of light on the newest wave of amiibo, as well as other amiibo that will be launching later this year in conjunction with a number of games. Here are the highlights (courtesy of my viewing, and Nintendo of Canada's Press Release):

If you are platinum, own a Wii U, and have never played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, I believe that is a no brainer. On 3DS for Platinum members, Animal Crossing New Leaf is attractive, as is Mario Golf: World Tour. Gold members also get some interesting offers; although they are not all on the level of the Platinum offerings (for obvious reasons), there are still a ton of great options. What will you be getting?

I was promised in the email from Nintendo of Canada that tomorrows Nintendo Direct was not an April Fools joke. The direct is aimed at updating games that Nintendo is working on, particularly those coming in 2015. A Nintendo Treehouse presentation is to follow outlining a 2015 Spring title.

During a video posted on Facebook, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma announced that the newest Legend of Zelda game would be delayed. Although no release date was initially given when first announced, it was hoped that the game would get released during holiday 2015.

Nintendo has update their wildly popular puzzle title, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker game to work with the new, and hard to find, Toad amiibo. Scanning Toad into the game will offer an extra challenge on each level throughout the game. A pixel Toad will appear on a wall somewhere in the level, and players are challenged with rotating the level, finding the Toad, and tapping on him using the stylus to complete the challenge.

Before you jump all over me for this opinion, hear me out. Nintendo cannot release a dedicated amiibo title without replenishing stock on almost all of their amiibo line up. No one will buy a game - or, they will and inevitably will be disappointed in their experience - if they cannot be guaranteed that content won't be locked behind impossible to find amiibos.

A new wave of developers is taking over the consoles and they are releasing polished and interesting games. Some companies do it from a central office - Image and Form Games is based in Sweden, and are best known for SteamWorld Dig and the upcoming SteamWorld Heist - while others are pulling from the best talent around the planets, such as Moon Studios, the company behind Ori and the Blind Forest.

Nintendo was busy today with two big announcements at a press conference. First, Nintendo is partnering with Japanese mobile developer DeNa to release games and apps that feature Nintendo IP. Nintendo's CEO was quick to explain that this would not simply be ports of games already available on other Nintendo platforms, but new and original games and apps.

Unless you have been living under a rock, it's fairly obvious that amiibos appear to be the must have 'toy' since late November. Within my Nintendo circle of gamers, I've heard far less about Skylanders and Disney Infinity and more about amiibos. So, has Nintendo done well with amiibo by making them collectible, or are they losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because of supply issues?

Michael Pachter, popular video game industry critic, had some harsh words to say about Nintendo and the Wii U. According to Pachter, "I think that they are still in denial about the Wii U failure. You keep seeing this stat so we're up 82 percent – yeah, 40,000 units went to 70,000 units. Who cares? You're still trailing the other guys by a mile."