Category: Nintendo

DDelicious.

The Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) is one of the company’s most interesting releases. A long-delayed, quickly discontinued, infamous flop, the 64’s bulky expansion was supposed to provide the console with an additional ‘middle-ground’ between cartridge and CD. Instead, it ended up being a black mark on an otherwise pretty spotless record (hey, we said “pretty“) with only 10 games and a handful of sales to its name.

In short, it’s a pretty rare bit of kit. Even more so is the 64DD Development Kit — the console Nintendo sent to studios before release so design teams could play to its unique features.

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Hey! Broom heads!

With the original Double Dragon, Yoshihisa Kishimoto realised a dramatic, violent expedition to save a kidnapped girl from a miscreant petrol gang. Although the genre had already been established by Irem’s Kung-Fu Master several years earlier, the scores of enemies, weapons, multi-plane scenery, two-player functionality, and broad range of attacks made it the biggest arcade smash of 1987. Although its direct sequels were lacklustre, 1995’s Double Dragon for the Neo Geo (a fighting game spin-off often known as Double Dragon ’95 to differentiate) was notable. Designed to tie in with the questionable US-produced Double Dragon movie, it remains a very good game. Difficult, perhaps, with thankless AI, but the mechanics and balancing saw it played competitively far and wide. Sadly, the series didn’t revisit the fighting game format until 2002, when Rage of the Dragons surfaced as a late Neo Geo contender.

Originally meant to be a sequel to the aforementioned 1995 release, licensing issues had Rage of the Dragons end up outside of canon despite featuring two brothers named Billy and Jimmy… Lewis. Its roots, however, are obvious, and it’s still recognised by many as being part of the overall Double Dragon universe.

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While the PS5 Pro arrives in style.

Famitsu has shared the latest look at the Japanese charts and Super Mario Party Jamboree has finally been kicked off the top spot by… more Mario.

Yes, Nintendo’s latest, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, hasn’t been troubled by its somewhat mixed reception as the new RPG sold a sweet 63,441 copies and sailed to pole position in its debut week. Jamboree is still on the podium, naturally, this time taking the silver while Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven continues to sell well and claims third place.

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Don’t expect anything soon, though.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has confirmed that the firm is looking into potentially producing a handheld device for its Xbox platform.

In speaking with Bloomberg (thanks, Pure Xbox), the executive stated that the “expectation is that we would do something” in the handheld space, but was also seemingly keen to set expectations. He said that the company is producing prototypes and considering what it might do with a portable device, but he has also requested that his teams look at the current market and apply its learnings.

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Trading arrives but it will be “gradually” expanded upon.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has got off to a flying start on mobile devices, but one feature trainers have been unable to access at launch is trading.

It was previously mentioned trading would not be available on release, and now in an update, The Pokémon Company has confirmed it will arrive early next year in January 2025.

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But it’s reportedly too early to make a call on Halo.

Last month, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella spoke about how Xbox was extending its gaming content to other platforms including the Nintendo Switch.

It’s unsurprisingly reignited a lot of debate about how far Xbox could go with this new strategy, and now Phil Spencer has elaborated on this during a recent interview with Bloomberg – mentioning how he doesn’t really “see sort of red lines” stopping certain franchises from making the jump to other platforms.

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The producer thinks it would be “kind of difficult” to reverse.

Legend of Zelda’s longtime producer Eiji Aonuma has recently been doing the press rounds to promote the new entry Echoes of Wisdom, but he’s also been discussing the design philosophy of the Zelda series in general.

Speaking to Washington Post reporter Gene Park recently, Aonuma shared one rather interesting fact, mentioning how his teams always prioritise the gameplay with stories then used as a vessel. Here’s exactly what he had to say:

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The Scores of Salvation.

If you’re looking to capture the magic of those halcyon days of sitting in front of the CRT with a classic RPG, then Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, which launches tomorrow — 14th November 2024 — on Switch and other systems, might be just the tonic you need.

Reviews for the HD-2D remake of the NES’s Dragon Warrior III have dropped today, and they’re very positive across the board. It manages to recreate the feel of the original game while adding some beautiful visuals, music, and a handful of quality-of-life features to the experience.

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2004 sequel introduced multiplayer.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week after an initial Gamecube launch on 15th November 2004. In a new interview with developers Jack Mathews and Zoid Kirsch from Kiwi Talkz, it’s been revealed that the game’s multiplayer mode nearly featured playable Space Pirates.

The Space Pirates are an iconic, recurring enemy type within the Metroid franchise, and their similar stature to Samus would no doubt lend itself well to the first-person gameplay in the Prime trilogy, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Like many things in the tricky world of game development, playable Space Pirates simply fell by the wayside and weren’t implemented into the final game.

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The wait is finally over.

A few years ago, Square Enix announced it would be doing a remake of Dragon Quest III in its popular HD-2D engine, but this was then followed by a lengthy period of radio silence where its development status seemed uncertain. While they were at it, the developers decided to go ahead and remake the first and second Dragon Quests, too. Now that Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is finally here, we’re happy to report that the wait has been well worth it. Though it isn’t without drawbacks, this is easily the most feature-rich and enjoyable version of Dragon Quest III available.

Released in Japan in 1988, Dragon Quest III hails from a much simpler era, so the narrative is considerably less detailed than one you may find in a title from subsequent decades. You begin as a nameless warrior, the child of a once-legendary hero, now called upon to take up your father’s mantle and save the world from the threat of an evil dark lord. There’s not much character development to speak of, nor narrative depth—your character is essentially a blank slate and your party members are basically animated cardboard cutouts with some stats and gear attached. Though there are ultimately some clever tie-ins to other releases in the series and some new cutscenes to flesh out your father’s role, the plot amounts to little more than ‘there’s a bad dude out there; go get him!’

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