Meet Linkle (screencaps via Nintendo)
The first Nintendo Direct to be broadcast since the sad passing of company president Satoru Iwata in July hasn’t disappointed, with a handful of exciting announcements.
The 45-minute show, streamed simultaneously around the world and presented by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime and Treehouse’s Bill Trinen, revealed an official female Link, called Linkle, for the 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors, releasing in early 2016. VICE might just have called that, back in the summer. Linkle wields two crossbows and looks entirely bad ass.
Videos by VICE
Also confirmed was the introduction of Final Fantasy VII‘s Cloud Strife as a playable character in the current iteration of Super Smash Bros., for both Wii U and 3DS, complete with the classic battle music from Square’s legendary RPG. More information on Cloud’s appearance will follow in a special Smash Bros. broadcast in December.
You bet he does
As well as confirming an HD version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for a March 4th Wii U release – a new amiibo of Wolf Link comes out at the same time, naturally, while pre-orders are rewarded with a copy of the game’s soundtrack – Nintendo teased us again with the next properly new Zelda title, stating that it would be “heading to Wii U”.
What if, and bear with me here, but what if the Linkle reveal is warming us up for the Wii U Zelda offering selectable male or female heroes, eh? What about that? Wouldn’t that be rad? Yes. Yes it would. Very rad indeed.
A Splatoon update – new stages, new gear, new reasons to play what’s probably the best multiplayer shooter of 2015 in its own special way – is imminent, with Nintendo promising to support the game into 2016. We also discovered that there are now 3.3 million courses available to play in Super Mario Maker. I’ve uploaded a whole three of those, so accept my apologies for slacking.
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Several donuts were harmed in the making of this Nintendo Direct
In Pokémon news, old-school Game Boy titles Blue, Red and Yellow are headed to the 3DS via Virtual Console, a new free-to-play game called Pokémon Picross is also bound for the handheld early next month, and arcade brawler Pokken Tournament will make the leap from the coin-op world to the home console market in spring 2016.
There was news of a shedload of indie titles coming to the eShop, Star Fox Zero‘s release date is set as April 22nd, there was a really detailed thing about Fire Emblem Fates that I sort of got baffled by, and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash got a minute or two of attention. I’ve been playing it a fair bit recently – it comes out on November 20th and will be reviewed on VICE Gaming soon. Assuming I’ve not been entirely consumed by Xenoblade Chronicles X, given it’s meant to be set in a bigger open world than The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 combined.
Watch the November 12th Nintendo Direct in full here.
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