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Nintendo Confirms Mario, Smash Bros. Coming This Year

Posted by Zonk on from the everything-looks-wiilee-good dept.

Some excellent news for Nintendo fans: two of the 'big three' games are coming out this year. At an event held in Washington state Reggie Fils-Aime was able to confirm that Smash Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy will be released before the end of the year. Excellent to hear such news, of course ... but other people had different priorities. For Metroid fans, it does indeed look like Samus will have to wait until 2008. Other than that, the company was all good news in general: "Typically, about half of home consoles in Japan are placed in the living room -- with Wii that figure is 75%. In France, 15 of the top 15 games recently were Nintendo. In the US, Fils-Aime says they are seeing 'early signs of significant market change.' The number of female purchasers of hardware are up 42%. The number of people over age of 30 purchasing Nintendo DS is up 127%. Tighten that age range to people over 35, and the number is up 212%. 40% of Wii owners have connected to the internet. 3.3 million plus Virtual Console downloads." Game|Life has hands-on impressions of Brain Age 2 and Mario Strikers Charged , two of the new games shown off at the event.

12 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Metroid Prime 3 by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's the original text of the summary before Zonk changed it:

    For Metroid fans, it does indeed look like Samus will have to wait until 2007.

    Oh noes! Not 2007! I don't think I can wait that long! Wait, 2007?

    Oh! Zonk changed it...

    For Metroid fans, it does indeed look like Samus will have to wait until 2008.

    Oh noes! Not 2008! That's even longer!

    Wait, the article he links to says...

    Thus far, Nintendo hasn't announced an official release date for Metroid Prime 3, so we're thinking that it's going to slip into 2007, particularly because the company doesn't want to release too many franchise games during the Wii's 2006 launch.

    Poor confused Zonk. Business Week republished a GameDaily preview of Metroid Prime 3 from 2006. so the date stamp on Business week says 2007, even thought the real date stamp is November 07, 2006. (In late 2006, the MP3 date was pushed to March of 2007 before being pushed again in Feburary.) As amusing as it is, that wasn't a very nice prank by BW.

    The real release dates can be found over here. Here are a few of interest:

    • July 30 - Mario Strikers Charged Nintendo
    • Aug. 20 - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
    • September - Battalion Wars 2


    Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are both listed as a "To Be Determined" date in 2007. The expectation is that they will be fall or holiday releases. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the official Super Smash Bros. website is up here:

    http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/index.html

    (Yes, there was a Slashdot story on that.)
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Metroid Prime 3 by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thank you, I was CERTAIN Metroid Prime 3 was going to be released this year. The summary scared me for a minute there.

    2. Re:Metroid Prime 3 by RockMFR · · Score: 2, Funny

      For Duke Nukem fans, it does indeed look like Forever will have to wait until 1998.

  2. My killer app by moderatorrater · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For me, the killer app for the wii will definitely be smash brothers, so I find it very discouraging that they won't even give a release date.

    Right now the wii suffers from a lack of good games, especially games that are sequels to earlier blockbusters. Paper mario was good, but it wasn't the level of smash brothers, any super mario brothers or metroid. The Wii's sale numbers are spectacular, but it's still not getting the respect it deserves. Nintendo needs to put out a few serious, long titles exclusively for the Wii and shut the critics up.

  3. For European Slashdot readers... by iapetus · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...simply add 2-3 years onto each release date for your local version.

    Why is it that the console manufacturer that most needs to provide region-free games is the last to do so?

    --
    ++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
    Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
    1. Re:For European Slashdot readers... by Applekid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How is this Offtopic? Europeans keep getting shafted when it comes to release dates, so "Mario, Smash Bros. Coming This Year" isn't true for them.

      Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all seem to consider Europe as a minor, nagging detail with delayed releases and arbitrary price increases. Seems to me the market might need a major European console player to step up and call their region their #1 priority before the other three will stop dragging their feet.

      Full disclosure: I'm in the US. I care because, well, I don't know. Call it empathy. Call it dreaming of a future where I won't have to hear complaints like the above (not that they aren't warranted).

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    2. Re:For European Slashdot readers... by BosstonesOwn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It was explained to me by some one I know who is a developer inside the MS XBOX division.

      They do so because in Europe there is such a huge sector of languages. The games are usually rushed to market anyway and the time it takes them to translate every portion of text is very time consuming. Also the majority of games are written in English , Chinese , or Japanese. Not many in other languages.

      He also went on to say that if they were to produce the volume of discs needed to fill that demand for a global launch it could be a disaster if it launched with a critical bug.

      Personally I agree we should see global launches. They should be developed and translated in the same pass , however I feel they may never be able to meet global demand for a true blockbuster game.

      The Wii is hot and very hard to get right now. And they are pushing the manufacturer for more. I don't think anything could have prepared them for the response they are getting with the wii itself either.

      --
      This package Does Not Contain a Winner
    3. Re:For European Slashdot readers... by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yet it works for PC games and they even come with translated voices, quite unlike Nintendo's games.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. need consoles before games by easyEmu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Awesome! Now, if only Nintendo could supply my city with a single Wii console, that would help in terms of selling games...

  5. Re:Wii needs strong third party games too by Rycross · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nintendo has to be willing to share the spotlight with it's third party developers.

    I don't see any evidence that Nintendo is unwilling to share the spotlight. Instead, it seems like third party developers just like to shovel crap games onto Nintendo systems. If they made good games, then they'd get acclaim. Look at Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube for example.

  6. Re:Wii needs strong third party games too by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. Super Paper Mario has sold over a million copies as has Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Red Steel. (source) Two of those are third party titles.

    2. Nintendo is perfectly willing to share the spotlight. It's the third parties that bet on the PS3 and XBox. Up until recently they've been decrying the Wii as "two gamecubes duct taped together" or "gamecube 1.5". They kind of screwed themselves over.

    3. One Word: NiGHTS

    4. Three Words: Guitar Hero III

    5. 26 Words: Geometry Wars: Galaxies, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, Tomb Raider: Anniversary :-P

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  7. Metroid Prime 3 by Shabadage · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, nice linking to an old article there.

    Anyway, once Prime comes out, I'm fairly certain it's control scheme will becomce the defacto standard for FPS WII games. It's be nice to play an FPS (Ok, Ok, so MP3 is technically an FPA) on the Wii with a decent control scheme; this bounding box crap just isn't cutting it.

    Also, I think that half the reason they haven't shown anyone anything about Prime 3 in the last 6 months or so is because they're doing a graphical overhaul. If there's one thing that Nintendo deserately needs, it's a game that takes full advantage of the increased graphical power of the Wii. It only makes sense to do this with Prime 3; which isn't a casual game by any means. Also, at no point in Metroid Prime 3 do I want to have to "waggle" the Wii-Mote. Waggle != Gameplay