Pokemon

Nintendo Direct E3 2018 Summary

Nintendo’s presentation focused mainly on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but there was a lot of other information to digest. With many fast-paced trailers, release dates for known games were revealed, including lots of games that were available to download today. The presentation started with a trailer for the new robot action game Daemon X Machina, which will be available at some point in 2019. Next up was a trailer for the new DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and an announcement that it will be released in September this year.

Reggie was then introduced, and he talked a little more about the already announced Pokémon: Lets Go Pikachu and Pokémon: Lets Go Eevee, which will be available on November 16th this year. Reggie presented the Pokeball Plus, a new type of controller for the game that will come exclusively with Mew and will be compatible with the popular mobile game Pokémon Go. Super Mario Party was the next game to be showcased, with an announcement that it will be available on October 5th.  Fire Emblems: Three Houses was then shown, with a release date of sometime next year. The big news was revealed that not only is Fortnite coming to Switch, but that it will also be available to download today.

Reggie appeared again to talk about the importance of indie games to Nintendo, including a trailer for Overcooked 2 (available August 7th), a Killer Queen Black remake (available later this year), and a game called Hollow Knight that is another game available today. Reggie continued by giving us a release date and a little more information on Octopath Traveler, by Square Enix, which is exclusive to Switch July 13th.  Next up were lots of very short, fast paced trailers and release date reveals. Some of the games were brand new exclusives to the Switch, whilst others included ports of older games that were previously available elsewhere. The extensive list included:

Starlink (available October 16th), Arena of Valor (coming this Autumn), Minecraft (available June 21st), Sushi Striker (available now), Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure (available June 26th), Pixark (coming this fall), Just Dance 2019 (available October 23rd), Dragon Ball Fighter Z (available later this year), Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion (available this summer), Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (available July 13th), Crash Bandicoot N Sane Triology (available on the Switch June 29th),  Ninjala (available spring next year), Carcassonne (available holiday 2018), FIFA 18 (available now), FIFA 19 (available September 28th), ARK: Survival Evolved (available on the Switch in the fall), Wasteland 2: Directors Cut (available on the Switch in the fall), Paladins: Champions of the Realm (free to download today), Fallout Shelter (free to download today), Dark Souls Remastered (available on the Switch in the summer this year), SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (available September 7th), Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (ported to the Switch for August 28th), Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (available on the Switch June 29th), The World Ends With You: Final Remix (available on the Switch this fall), Megaman II (available October 2nd), and finally Mario Tennis Aces (available June 22nd).

Shinya Takahashi and Masahiro Sakurai then arrived to present the main event of the Nintendo Direct, which was more information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai announced that every single character that has ever been a part of the Smash Bros. franchise will be included in the new games, including Snake, who hasn’t been in a Smash game for ten years. Inklings, Princess Daisy and Ridley have also been added to the game to complete the roster. As well as new additions, you can now play as a female version of Pokémon Trainer or Pikachu. Sakurai mentioned how there would be a lot of new animations for the fighters and showed an expressive Donkey Kong as an example.

Although all the characters are returning, many of them have been tweaked or changed to fit in with the new game. Link and Mario have been redesigned to appeal to fans of Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Zelda has also been given a different look for the game. Instead of going for the Twilight Princess variation of Zelda, designers chose her costume from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds to tie in with her Triforce of Wisdom ability.

There will be more than 50 assist characters in the game, including the addition of the Squid Sisters to help out the Inklings. The multiple stages of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will include:
Green Greens, Spear Pilar, Midgar, Kongo Falls, Lylat Cruise, Princess Peach’s Castle, Spirit Train, Frigate Orpheon, Green Hill Zone, New Pork City, Wrecking Crew, Tortimer Island, Moray Towers, and the introduction of Great Plateau Tower from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

News that delighted fans was that the game will be compatible with GameCube controllers and all previous amiibos. Player data from amiibos from the older Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS games will carry over, as well as there being some yet to be announced new amiibos.

The Nintendo Direct then ended after the release date for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced as December 7th this year, and the stream then went straight to Treehouse on the Show floor. Fans were disappointed that they didn’t get a glimpse Metroid Prime 4 or of more exclusive games, but that will have to wait until the next Nintendo Direct.

The Evolution of Pokémon

Today Pokémon celebrated its 20th birthday. It has been a world-wide phenomenon since the 90s, and has gone from the original 150, to over 700 different types of Pokémon. Whilst hugely popular in both Japan and in the West, there are vast differences between the games, merchandise and availability in each country. Whilst the West is mainly games and television series orientated, Japan has its own ‘real-life’ Pokémon gym and giant Pokémon stores throughout the country.

Pokémon started out in Japan in 1996 as video games created for the Game Boy by Satoshi Tajiri and Game Freak. eThe idea came about due to the Game Boys ability to be able to link together, and the opportunity for people to be able to trade Pokémon via the link connection. However, it took so long to create the two games, known as Pokémon Red and Green in Japan, that the company Tajiri was a part of almost went bankrupt. When the games did eventually come out, they were not expected to do very well due to the decline in the Game Boy’s popularity and a lack of media interest. Luckily for Tajiri and Nintendo, the franchise was a huge success.

To create extra interest in the game a secret Pokémon known as Mew, was added in. Mew was only available originally at Nintendo events, so people travelled from all over the world to get the character installed onto their Game Boy cartridges. Later on, Mew was found to be a glitch in the game, making it then available to everyone who knew about it.

Whilst in Japan the first games were Red and Green, they were released as Red and Blue elsewhere in the world a few years later due to the games having to be re-programmed and updated. Pokémon Blue was also an updated game in Japan that came out one year after the release of Red and Green, but Pokémon Green was never released outside of Japan. A slightly different version of the game, Pokémon Yellow, also came out later that year.

aWith the success of the video games, next came the trading card game. It is no surprise that a game like Pokémon branched out into card games, as that is what Nintendo originally started out as. There are now major tournaments all over the world just for the top players in the Pokémon card game.

The Pokémon television series started out as a Japanese show and was adapted for international audiences. It was basced around the original games, but differed slightly in the fact that Pikachu was Ash’s first Pokémon, not the traditional choices of Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. For a while Pokémon in the UK was a prime time Saturday morning children’s TV show on SMTV live, with the presenters having various Pokémon themed games and competitions surrounding it. The various series have been aired across multiple channels around the world, and the new shows are still running today. As well as TV shows, there have been multiple successful Pokémon films, with the first being Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back in 1998.

In October, Japan opened the world’s first ‘real-life’ Pokémon gym in Osaka as part of the new Expo City, and I was lucky enough to visit it. It features a range of paid games across two floors, where you DSCN0919can digitally interact with a wide variety of Pokémon, as well as there being a Pokémon themed café, multiple wall paintings and a giant Pokémon store.

Despite the differences within the Pokemon world around the globe, the popularity of the franchise still continues today.  New games are released every year, with the newly announced Sun and Moon being the seventh generation of the games. The older games are now available to digitally download, something fans have been waiting a long time for. Pokémon continues to be one of the best-selling video games franchises of all time, falling second only to Nintendo’s own Mario.

Nintendo Direct delivers once again

The November Nintendo Direct was the first since Satoru Iwata’s passing. It opened with Reggie paying tribute to him before they moved onto Bill and the news that Nintendo had to share. For the European broadcast there was also a tribute to Satoru Iwata from Satoru Shibata. They announced games to be released for both the Wii U and 3DS in 2016, as well as plans they had for the rest of the year. Below is a summary of the massive amount of announcements that Nintendo Direct had to offer us.

For the Wii U:

  • Twilight Princess HD remake and Wolf Link Amiibo – Out March 2016
  • New Zelda for the Wii U confirmed for next year, where it will mark 30 years of Zelda games
  • Continuing updates for Splatoon including new levels and content
  • Videos showcasing upcoming games Animal crossing Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, and Xenoblade Chronicles X
  • Starfox Zero – A new trailer and April release date announced
  • Pokken Tournament – A Pokemon fighting game already popular in Japanese arcades will be coming to the Wii U in 2016

For the 3DS:

  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam trailer – Released January in America and December elsewhere
  • Tri-Force Heroes getting new free content, including a new area ‘Den of Trials’
  • Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow are coming to the Virtual Console, with trading available via WiFi and available on February 27th
  • Fire Emblems Fate – Comes in various packages and will be out in February
  • Megaman Legacy Collection – Includes all 6 games, original art and sketches, challenges and special Megaman Amiibos
  • Hyrule Warriors Legends – Includes some extra Windwaker characters, Skull Kid and a new character known as Linkle aka female Link. Her specialties are having a dual crossbow and spinning kick. The game will be release march 25th
  • Dragon Quest VII and VIII both coming out in 2016 in the West

A big announcement available for both consoles:

  • Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud is coming to both the 3DS and Wii U Smash Brothers game as a playable character. There will be a Smash Bros specific Nintendo Direct in December.

The full video can be seen on their YouTube channel here

Why the choice of the new Nintendo president is a good thing

Recently, Nintendo announced that their new president will be Tatsumi Kimishima. He has big boots to fill following the death of the much-loved Satoru Iwata, but he is a good choice by Nintendo. He will be the 5th president of the company, and only the second to not be from the Yamauchi family.

Nintendo's New President Has Been Named

There was a lot of scepticism following the announcement, but what some people didn’t realise is the history that Tatsumi Kimishima has with Nintendo; he has played a big part in the company since 2002, and even before that he had a history with Nintendo being involved with the Pokemon company both in Japan and America. In 2002, he was appointed as the president of Nintendo America before Reggie Fils-Aimé took over in 2006, due to Kimishima being promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Before being appointed as the new president, he was the head of HR and managing director of Nintendo.

Kimishima is not well-known outside of the Nintendo offices, and not much is known about what will happen to things like Iwata asks and Nintendo Directs, but what is known is that he has a good financial head on him. Before getting involved in the games industry, he worked for the Sanwa Bank of Japan for 27 years. He also foresaw the Wii U not being a great success, having said it was too similar to the Wii. With Satoru Iwata’s success with Nintendo, people have wondered will his plans he had for Nintendo continue or will things go in a completely different direction, but a translation of a an article had Kimishima saying that sticking to Iwata’s visions is the plan for now.

With Tatsumi Kimishima being given the role as the new president of the company, it gives the former acting presidents Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda the chance to focus on what they are good at, making games and the technology behind them. This is reflected in their new titles, with Miyamoto being appointed as ‘Creative Fellow’ and Takeda the new ‘Technology Fellow’. As great as Miyamoto would be as the president, with him frequently having taken part in the Nintendo Directs over the years and him being a well-known face for the fans, not being the president of the company means he will still be able to have creative direction over the games Nintendo makes.