Caption contest: Luigi puts the ‘L’ in Chicago’s public transit system

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Has Nintendo of America fallen on hard times? Why else would the company make one of its most beloved characters (or, at the very least, the brother of one of its most beloved characters) take Windy City public transit? Oh, that’s right, the gaming giant has decked out the “L” train with ads for its new Super Luigi U title. The mustachioed plumber is riding the Brown Line in this Twitter shot, so be sure to be on the lookout for suspicious looking dinosaurs in the area (if you see something, say something). No word on whether he’ll be making house calls today.

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Source: Twitter

Wii U speed update delayed to fall, Nintendo placates users with minor stability fixes

Major Wii U summer update delayed to fall, Nintendo placates users with minor stability fixes

Looking forward to that second Wii U speed update? Take a seat, son: Nintendo says it won’t be here until fall. According to a statement given to The Verge, Nintendo has pushed it back to the end of the year, promising delivery sometime “between the end of September and beginning of October.” Instead, Wii U owners are being offered a smaller patch, bringing the console’s system menu to version 3.1 while providing minor stability fixes and tweaking the machine’s standby download function. Good things, of course, but a small comfort to gamers who have been eagerly awaiting the performance update Nintendo president Satoru Iwata promised back in January. Then again, Nintendo fans are getting used to waiting.

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Via: The Verge, Joystiq

Source: Nintendo

Mario Kart 8 launching on Wii U in spring 2014 (video)

Mario Kart 8 launching on Wii U in spring 2014 (video)

At Nintendo’s E3 presentation that’s not actually happening at E3, we’ve heard the next installment of the Mario Kart series is coming to the Wii U sometime in spring 2014. Mario Kart 8 doesn’t stray too far from what fans expect of the casual racer, but there is one new twist. Courses now have 3D aspects to them, allowing you to “defy gravity, racing up vertical walls and upside down.” Features like air gliding, underwater racing and the option to ride motorcycles have been included from previous games, but apart from that, it’s standard red-shelling carnage. We didn’t hear much about online multiplayer, but we’re told it “will have deep integration with Miiverse.” Head past the break for the E3 trailer.

Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.

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Source: Nintendo, Nintendo UK (Twitter)

Six months out, Nintendo’s Wii U is a harder sell than ever

Nintendo’s Wii U launched at retail just over six months ago to a lukewarm reception from critics. An even more tepid response from consumers followed, with week-one sales trailing behind those of its predecessor. A massive day-one patch, missing functionality (Nintendo TVii, anyone?) and an ever-expanding launch window for games, some of which still aren’t available (Pikmin 3, anyone?) are just a few of the many issues that overwhelmed the discussion last November. Company head Satoru Iwata even publicly apologized.

In the past six months, things have only gotten worse, with slumping sales, next-gen competition and a lack of Wii U-centric games on the horizon.

As E3 2013 nears — where Nintendo usually has a big press conference and won’t this year — we’re revisiting the Wii U for an update, six months out. We’re not delving back into how the hardware works (surprise, it’s identical to last year!) so much as looking at the console’s early promise in contrast with its current predicament. Join us after the break.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts is this year’s CoD entry, headed to 360, PS3, PC and ‘next-gen consoles’ on November 5 (video)

STUB 'Call of Duty Ghosts' is this year's CoD entry, headed to 360, PS3, PC, and nextgen consoles

Like Punxsutawney Phil’s shadowgazing, we can rightfully expect a new Call of Duty game to be announced annually and available at the holidays. Also like our groundhog friend, the only annual questions we must ask are in the details — what is this year’s Call of Duty about, and who’s making it? It turns out that this year’s Duty development, unsurprisingly, falls on Infinity Ward’s shoulders — the folks who created the much lauded Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — and it’s named “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” The first-person shooter is arriving on a whole mess of platforms this November 5th, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, but also PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox — given that we don’t know release dates for the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox, it stands to reason that Ghosts will arrive on a different date for those platforms. It’s also likely we’ll see a handheld version on Nintendo’s 3DS made by someone other than Infinity Ward, but we’ve got no direct word on that just yet. More ambiguous, Nintendo’s Wii U isn’t listed, but it stands to reason it’ll head that way as well (the last series entry, Black Ops 2, got a Wii U version).

The “Ghosts” in the title references … well, we’re not entirely sure. Previous CoD games featured a character named “Ghost” fairly prominently, though the plurality indicates a game about more than one individual. Infinity Ward head Mark Rubin calls Ghosts “a new sub-brand” in the CoD franchise, and it’s getting a new (unnamed) game engine to boot — another indicator that previous characters aren’t involved. We’re holding out hope that the often overserious, dramatic tone of previous CoD games is being completely thrown out in favor of a goofy game about hunting ghosts. The bullets pass right through their ethereal form! Run for your life! We’ll hear more about Call of Duty: Ghosts at Microsoft’s big next-gen console unveiling on May 21st, so hold tight. The first teaser video is just below the jump.

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Source: YouTube

Call of Duty: Ghosts is this year’s CoD entry, headed to 360, PS3, Wii U, PC and next-gen consoles on November 6

STUB 'Call of Duty Ghosts' is this year's CoD entry, headed to 360, PS3, PC, and nextgen consoles

Like Punxsutawney Phil’s shadowgazing, we can rightfully expect a new Call of Duty game to be announced annually and available at the holidays. Also like our groundhog friend, the only annual questions we must ask are in the details — what is this year’s Call of Duty about, and who’s making it? It turns out that this year’s Duty development, unsurprisingly, falls on Infinity Ward’s shoulders — the folks who created the much lauded Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — and it’s named “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” It’s arriving on a whole mess of platforms this November 6th, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC, but also PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox — given that we don’t know release dates for the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox, it stands to reason that Ghosts could arrive on a different date for those platforms. It’s also likely we’ll see a handheld version on Nintendo’s 3DS made by someone other than Infinity Ward, but we’ve got no direct word on that just yet.

The “Ghosts” in the title references … well, we’re not entirely sure just yet. Previous CoD games featured a character named “Ghost” fairly prominently, though the plurality indicates a game about more than one individual. We’re holding out hope that the often overserious, dramatic tone of previous CoD games is being completely thrown out in favor of a goofy game about hunting ghosts. The bullets pass right through their ethereal form! Run for your life!

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Wii U spring update now live, promises to speed up software load times

Wii U spring update now live, promises to speed up software load times

Owning a Wii U can feel like an exercise in patience: games and apps can take up to 30 seconds to load, and downloaded software needs to be manually installed. Thankfully, Nintendo heard its fans lamentations, and has issued the first of two major updates designed to mitigate the problem. In addition to dramatically speeding up software load times, the update revises how the Wii U handles downloads and installs. Rather than manually having to install software, the system will automatically update, download and unwrap patches in the background, even if the console is powered down. The system update also puts the finishing touches on the Wii U Virtual Console, which is promised to launch officially in the coming days. Nintendo’s old VC can be accessed a little quicker now, too, as the update now allows users to jump directly into the sandboxed Wii ecosystem by holding the B button during start up. All in all, a pretty solid update to a system that needs a little fixing. Check out the full list of changes after the break.

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Nintendo Wii U’s spring update, Panorama View arrive next week

Nintendo Wii U's spring update arrives next week

Nintendo’s Wii U game console is getting its promised spring update next week, said company president Satoru Iwata in a Luigi-filled video presentation this morning. The update is said to launch software dramatically faster than before, as Nintendo demonstrated in a video last month. Iwata also said the update adds continuable downloads while the console is off, and that Virtual Console won’t arrive until the following week — should you wish to directly launch into the Wii menu, you’ll be able to hold down the B button as the console is starting up.

That said, if you wanna play those VC games directly from the Wii U menu, you’ll need to re-buy them for $1 apiece for NES games and $1.50 for SNES games. A variety of games were shown off as available at the Virtual Console’s launch, including classics like Super Mario World and Punch-Out! Apparently GameBoy Advance and Nintendo 64 games are planned for inclusion on the VC in the coming months, but no definitive date was given. He also said Panorama View will arrive next week for free, and it sounds like it’ll be a separate download from the software update.

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Source: Nintendo Direct

Nintendo European eShop restriction lifted, get your 18+ games at any hour

Nintendo’s European arm worked out a deal with Germany’s video game regulation body, USK, and its 18+ eShop games are now available at any hour on the 3DS and Wii U. In a missive issued to European Nintendo console users, the company said “adults can browse and buy all games at any time of day” from now on. Said agreement was only reached after “analysis of the Parental Controls system on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS” by USK, which found the parental control systems “in practice” with standards.

The bizarre restriction, which originally allowed sales of 18+ games through the European eShop only between 11PM and 3AM, was caused by USK’s decency and violence standards. As Nintendo’s European branch is based out of Germany, the German laws impacted the entire region’s eShop access. But no longer! Assassin’s Creed 3 at 10AM? You bet! ZombiU at 2:13PM? Why not! Of course, with download / install times topping four hours, you may wanna get started sooner than later on downloading the bigger games.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Twitter – @NintenDaan

Re-watch this morning’s Nintendo Direct right here, right now

Rewatch this morning's Nintendo Direct right here, right now

Nothing says, “Nintendo news” quite like watching Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gesticulate in a featureless white room for nearly an hour. This morning’s Nintendo Direct presentation didn’t disappoint in that respect, with Iwata moving his hands this way and that, all the while detailing upcoming system updates to the Wii U, new features and mobile access for the Miiverse social network, and Virtual Console finally heading to Nintendo’s latest console. That’s to say nothing of a new yarn-based game starring Yoshi and the HD remake of Wind Waker. But you’re not here for that, are you? You just wanna watch Iwata make silly arm movements? Done and done — head past the break for your fix.

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Source: Nintendo