Nintendo Announces Upcoming Wii U Titles & Features

Nintendo hosted another one of it’s Direct events, revealing several new games and features coming to the system in the near future. Among these are not one, but two Zelda games, a Fire Emblem/Shin Megami Tensei crossover title, and a new game from the team behind Xenoblade. If you’d like to check out the full feature (which includes clips of many of the announced titles), you can watch online here, or check it out below:

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Here’s what you can expect in the near future for Wii U:

  • Two Zelda Games: Eiji Aonuma, the producer of The Legend of Zelda series, revealed two entries in the series for Wii U.
  • Super Mario is on His Way: The Nintendo EAD Tokyo Software Development team that created the Super Mario Galaxy games for Wii and Super Mario 3D Land for Nintendo 3DS is working on a new 3D Mario action game for Wii U. The game is scheduled to be playable at this year’s E3.
  • Buckle Up!: Nintendo is also working on a new installment of the hit Mario Kart franchise. This game is also planned to be playable at E3.
  • Yarn Yoshi: The team that created Kirby’s Epic Yarn is hard at work on the first console game to feature Yoshi as the main character since 1998’s Yoshi’s Story for Nintendo 64. Takashi Tezuka, director of Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Story, is supervising the development of the new game, which is set in a fanciful world of yarn and textiles.
  • Wii Fit U Communities: New features coming to Wii Fit U include letting players create user communities on Miiverse from within the game. Community members can discuss exercises, BMI or weight changes and other health topics with other players as a way to encourage one another to reach their fitness goals. Similar functionality for other games is also planned.
  • Pikmin 3 Photos: The upcoming Pikmin 3 game includes a feature that lets players use the Wii U GamePad as a camera to share the same perspective as Pikmin and take close-up pictures of landscapes and creatures in the game and share them in Miiverse.
  • The Party Continues: A new installment in the Wii Party franchise is planned to launch this summer. The game features various play styles, including one that lets both players compete head-to-head using just the GamePad.
  • RPG Mashup: Nintendo has begun many collaborations with outside development partners to bring the best franchises and experiences to Wii U. In one such partnership, Nintendo and Atlus are working on a collaboration that features the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei franchises. A video trailer for the game was shown in the Nintendo Direct.
  • A New Game from Monolith Soft: Tetsuya Takahashi and the team at Monolith Soft that worked on Xenoblade for Wii are working on a new game. A video trailer for the game was shown in the Nintendo Direct.
  • More on the Way: Iwata shared a new trailer for The Wonderful 101. That game and GAME & WARIO are scheduled to launch in the first half of 2013. Iwata also showed a new video for Bayonetta 2. That game and the new Super Smash Bros. installment are still on the way, but will need more development time before details can be revealed.

In addition, Virtual Console will finally be coming to Wii U with a “spring system update” (whenever this may be). However, the shop will be limited to NES, SNES, and GBA titles for now. If you already own NES and SNES games (from your Wii), you can “import” them (and get the “enhanced” Wii U version”) for $1 for NES games or $1.50 for SNES titles. In addition, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Famicom (NES), one game per month (through July) will be available for only $0.30, starting with Balloon Fight.

MiiVerse will also be expanding to smartphones this spring. Initially, it will be a browser-based experience, but will ultimately become a dedicated app.

A summer update is also planned, which should add even more features.

Does this make you guys more excited about the Wii U?

[Source: Nintendo]

 

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