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    May 2014 Week 4 Nintendo News
    Topic Started: May 25 2014, 02:14 AM (1,215 Views)
    Brendan
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    Pokémon Trainer
    Photos With Mario Available for Free Now in North American eShop

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    Photos With Mario, previously released in Japan alongside AR cards sold at retail, has dropped onto the 3DS eShop in North America; it's free, so no complaints here.

    This is rather like a dedicated and improved version of the original AR card app, as you simply pose and snap pics of various characters for your viewing pleasure. I suspect most will simply find images of the original AR cards — a selection is below — on monitors and produce the effects that way, though Target will reportedly sell three official cards for $10, for collection fans.

    There's no release date — or product page on the 3DS eShop — for Europe as yet, so this is a new free treat just for North Americans at this point. Below are links where you can find images of these AR Cards to print out:

    Mario AR Card

    Goomba AR Card

    Princess Peach AR Card

    Luigi AR Card

    Koopa AR Card

    Bowser AR Card

    Wacky Physics-Based Puzzler Gravity Badgers Releasing 29th May

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    Wales Interactive's utterly zany physics-based puzzler Gravity Badgers will be making its way to the Wii U eShop on 29th May. Wales Interactive, excited by the possibilities offered by the GamePad, is also working on a Wii U version of dsytopian sci-fi adventure Master Reboot.

    Gravity Badgers was largely inspired by 1980's-era animation; from the music to the designs of the titular heroes, there's no doubt the development team sat through a few episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their day. Besides all that, what better soundtrack could a gamer ask for while controlling rocket-propelled space Mustelidae than the self-proclaimed "thumping mullet rock" theme actually performed by a local Welsh band called City Circus? The answer: there is no better soundtrack. Check out the video below to get a taste of this delectably deliberate camp creation:

    GRAVITY BADGERS

    Nintendo Overcomes Patent Dispute With Non-Practicing Entity

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    Way back in February 2009, Wall Wireless LLC – a company whose primary focus is to enforce patents – took Nintendo to court claiming that it had infringed a patent with the DS and DSi hardware systems. Finally, however, after the United States Patent and Trademark Office cancelled all of the patent claims that Wall Wireless was relying on for its argument, the case was dismissed in a U.S. District court in Texas on 19th May 2014. This follows the decision of the Japanese Patent office, which also found that Nintendo’s products had not violated any of Wall Wireless' Japanese patents.

    Nintendo of America’s vice president and deputy general counsel, Richard Medway, had this to say on the matter:

    "We are very pleased to see the U.S. case dismissed, and also to have the Japanese Patent Office confirm that Nintendo does not infringe Wall’s Japanese patents. Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits and other proceedings when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patents. It does not matter where such cases are filed or if it takes more than five years to vindicate our position. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others."

    Patent disputes are common for Nintendo, of course, with the Kyoto company succeeding in the majority of reported cases, though its defeat to Tomita Technologies was a relatively rare and expensive loss. No doubt Nintendo's legal team will remain busy, with Dutch technology giant Philips recently opening proceedings.

    Book Series Will Take In-Depth Look at Original Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack

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    The 33 1/3 book series offers individual, journalistic studies of influential albums by performers ranging from James Brown to Radiohead. In a departure from their standard venues, an upcoming book is going to focus on a smaller but no less memorable collection of work.

    Super Mario Bros. - Koji Kondo has been announced as an upcoming 33 1/3 entry. Planned for a May 2015 release, the announcement bills the book as an examination of the contexts surrounding the soundtrack's creation in addition to a study of the music itself:

    "Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. (1985) score redefined the video game music genre. With under 3 minutes of music, Kondo put to rest an era of bleeps and bloops—the sterile products of a lab environment—replacing it with one in which game sounds constituted a legitimate form of artistic expression. Author Andrew Schartmann takes us through the various external factors (e.g., advances in technology, Nintendo’s marketing tactics) that coalesced into a ripe environment in which Kondo’s musical experiments could thrive. He then delves into the music itself, searching for reasons why our hearts still dance to the “primitive” 8-bit tunes of a bygone era."

    Schartmann, who holds degrees in music theory from Yale and McGill Universities, is also the author of Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music Into an Art. Sounds like this upcoming piece will be in good hands.

    Nintendo Confirms Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version, Two Gift Codes With Each Retail Copy

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    Arriving on 6th June, Tomodachi Life is undoubtedly Nintendo's big hope for a viral hit on 3DS this coming Summer. The Mii-sim's goal is to draw you into its wacky world, exactly the sort of approach that can create buzz on social networks and achieve long-term sales.

    Nintendo is keen for plenty of gamers to at least try the title, of course, and just recently distributed Tomodachi Life: Move-In Version, a demo, to selected Platinum members of Club Nintendo in North America. Nintendo of Europe has now announced its own promotion to get game samples into the hands of 3DS / 2DS owners on the fence — Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version.

    In what could be a smart move, every retail copy of Tomodachi Life — either physical or eShop — will come with two codes for the Welcome version, which can then be distributed to friends, family or random people on the internet. These codes are redeemed on the eShop and introduce players to the game, with a rare panda item — also an unlockable in the main game — and transferable save data then tempting these players into a full purchase. An excerpt from the press release is below.

    "Nintendo reveals that every full version of Tomodachi Life, launching on 6th June exclusively to Nintendo 3DS and 2DS, will come with two free download codes for the Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version for Nintendo eShop. The Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version offers the chance to sample the unique slice of Tomodachi Life with friends or family that have a Nintendo 3DS or 2DS system. Two lucky friends or family members will be able to try their hand at creating Mii characters, all with their own unique voices and personality traits, and once the Mii characters have moved onto the island they will start to interact and players can try to solve their problems. When the Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version is completed, players can unlock a rare panda suit item, which can be worn in the full game which can be purchased at retail or on Nintendo eShop.

    ...Two download codes for Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version are included with every full version of Tomodachi Life, which allows you to invite two friends to download it onto their Nintendo 3DS and 2DS system for free from Nintendo eShop. The Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version enables your chosen friends to sample the beginning of Tomodachi Life, and allows the creation of up to three Mii characters, where the new voice settings and personality traits can be experienced. It will then be possible to explore the gameplay, such as feeding Mii characters and gifting items such as new interiors and clothing or performing in a group.

    If your friends like the taste of Tomodachi Life after completing the Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version, they can move all the residents of their newly-founded island to the full game which can be purchased on Nintendo eShop or at retail and keep their progress. In addition, players who complete the Tomodachi Life: Welcome Version can unlock a rare panda suit in one of eight colours to dress their Mii characters up with, and also use it in the full version."

    It's unclear whether a similar promotion will also be implemented outside of Europe — I'd expect it to be confirmed for Australia too — but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

    Fresh Nintendo Wii U Patent Looks Like a Wii Music Game

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    It seems that last week was a week of potential E3 leaks, and this one will likely divide Nintendo gamers.

    When motion control was dominating the world Wii Music attempted to incorporate a fun, musical learning experience into the system using its controllers and accessories. If a freshly discovered patent is anything to go by, Nintendo may be working on a follow-up project — filed in late April but made available to the public last week, it shows the GamePad being utilized for a musical game with an uncanny resemblance to the Wii title.

    The inventors are named as Takehiko Hosokawa (Rhthm Heaven Fever and others) and Goro Abe (most recently Game & Wario) — the patent primarily revolves around software to capture data for multiple sounds, incorporating interactions with the GamePad.

    [0003] Conventionally, there is a game apparatus that outputs the sound of performing one composition as an ensemble using a plurality of instruments. In the game apparatus, a user selects a part to be assigned to the user themselves. When the selection of the assigned part is completed, the ensemble is started. Then, the user can participate in the ensemble by performing an input operation based on the assigned part.

    [0004] The game apparatus, however, can merely provide the audio output of the composition performed as an ensemble from, for example, a pair of loudspeakers provided in a monitor. Thus, even a composition performed as an ensemble may lack variety, as compared to other types of sound outputs.

    [0005] Therefore, it is an object of an exemplary embodiment to provide a storage medium having stored therein an information processing program capable of a wide variety of sound outputs, and an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method that are capable of a wide variety of sound outputs.


    Though the images below focus on the GamePad, various charts showing the processes of the software refer to multiple instruments and input devices — controllers, in other words. The idea seems to be playing in a band much like Wii Music, but with the GamePad featured in its own way.

    There are some key points to make. A patent arriving this late before E3 can either mean it's in preparation for the event, is too early in development to be shown, or it could be a patent like many others that'll never see the light of day. While it undoubtedly looks like Wii Music, meanwhile, the named Nintendo staff are particularly experienced in the WarioWare series, and this may be just a part of a different project.

    We may see more soon enough.

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    Digital Foundry Pins Down Mario Kart 8's Resolution and Framerate

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    After a lengthy build-up, Mario Kart 8 is almost here, the latest entry in the hugely popular franchise. It's been critically acclaimed on multiple fronts, with plenty also lavishing praise on the visuals and performance of the title.

    For one thing, and to end debates and inaccurate rumours, it's confirmed that the title runs at a native 720p, as is typically expected on Wii U. Of course you can display in 1080p if your TV allows, but this confirms the reality of the situation. While some technical shortcomings are also highlighted with the engine and visuals, DF is quite clear in emphasizing that the tricks Nintendo does employ deliver an attractive overall result.

    "This is all enhanced by a convincing combination of real-time and pre-baked shadows that even take occluded edges into account. Complimenting this is a vast array of dynamic light sources, such as headlights, item boxes, and special effects, made possible by what we suspect is a shift to a deferred rendering solution. Even in four-player split-screen we see dynamic lighting play a large role in defining the visual design while simultaneously highlighting detail in the texture work. It's really quite a treat for the eyes."

    Now to the framerate. I've been referring to single and two-player splitscreen as 60 frames-per-second (fps) and further splits as running at 30fps. This is certainly true in terms of what most will perceive, but as is its way Digital Founding has discovered a hidden detail that drops a frame when CPU opponents are in action.

    "When it comes to performance, Nintendo has always aimed to deliver a rock-solid 60 frames per second with each home console Mario Kart and, aside from Mario Kart 64, it has always managed to achieve just that. There was never any doubt that Mario Kart 8 would fall right in line with the rest of the series but upon seeing it for ourselves we immediately noticed that something was amiss. During gameplay we experienced the regular appearance of duplicate frames manifesting as a constant but subtle stuttering effect. Upon analysis we determined that the game suffers from extended clusters in which a duplicate frame is displayed every 64 frames. What this ultimately means is that, during normal gameplay, Mario Kart 8 continually drops down to 59fps. This may not seem like a big deal - most will probably not notice it at all, and it has zero affect on playability - but it has a noticeable impact on image fluidity that mars what would otherwise be a perfectly consistent frame-rate. And for us at least, once it is seen, it can't really be unseen."

    I'm not sure a drop to 59fps will be noticed by any but the very pickiest of players, as the article states, while it's suggested that the issue could potentially be resolved in a patch. For my money, at least, this issue is an irrelevance.

    It's always intriguing to see the technical details behind a game, however, and Digital Foundry does conclude with a positive assessment.

    "By most standards, Mario Kart 8 is an incredibly polished game with beautiful visuals, a high frame-rate, magical playability and an excellent menu system. By Nintendo's stratospheric standards, however, we dare say that it falls just a bit short. When a Nintendo game goes gold you better believe the final product will be complete and polished to perfection. In the case of Mario Kart 8, the issues we encountered with performance and image quality do detract just a little from an otherwise totally solid experience - and bearing in mind its previous, relentless push for gaming perfection, it leaves us wondering just how the stutter in particular managed to slip past Nintendo QA. Thankfully, the issue should only really stick out to those most sensitive to frame-rate and shouldn't impact the experience for most people, while the sheer fun and imagination injected into this title clearly trump the technical limitations in the image make-up.

    With that in mind, don't let these minor polish issues keep you away from the game - this is Mario Kart at its best and brightest.

    Racing has been refined to near perfection and its visuals are among the best on the platform. While we were a tad disappointed in the lack of a more robust single-player mode, the overall experience we had with the game was excellent. Old-school fans and newcomers alike will find a lot to love here. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some races to win..."

    I suggest checking out the full article if these details fascinate you, and it could be a mini-game in itself actually trying to spot these issues yourself, as a drop to 59fps isn't easily perceived. Ultimately, the overall assessment is another positive one for the upcoming Wii U blockbuster.
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    My 3DS friend code: 1134-7907-6403

    Please PM me your 3DS friend code so I can add you.
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    Togeshroob
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    (Temporarily closed. ...Gwaargh!) *doo wee doo wee doo*

    Brendan, if you compile and write these up every week, you should look into getting a video game journalist job. At least for some kind of news site, you know?
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    Brendan
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    Truth be told, these aren't originally written by me :/
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    My 3DS friend code: 1134-7907-6403

    Please PM me your 3DS friend code so I can add you.
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    Togeshroob
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    (Temporarily closed. ...Gwaargh!) *doo wee doo wee doo*

    Yeah, but... don't you add some of your own commentary/analysis into them?

    I took at least the first person sections to have been written by you, although I wasn't sure about the other parts.
    Edited by Togeshroob, May 25 2014, 03:46 PM.
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    Brendan
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    Yes, the majority of it is my own commentary. I like expressing my own personal views on these types of things.
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    My 3DS friend code: 1134-7907-6403

    Please PM me your 3DS friend code so I can add you.
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    Togeshroob
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    (Temporarily closed. ...Gwaargh!) *doo wee doo wee doo*

    Okay, yeah, that's kind of what I was referring to. And you compile most if it, right?
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    Brendan
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    Yes.
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