Nintendo was planning on bringing the big guns to a conference called just before the Tokyo Game Show at the end of the week. With crazy rumors swirling about boat-shaped peripherals and new hit games, what could Nintendo possibly bring the Japan crowd?
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata took the stage with a very clear message, the 3DS can only move forward, and he brought plenty of heavy hitters to prove it.
The event started slow. Iwata mentioned that they wish to take more of an approach to capture female gamers with the 3DS. He promptly announced several style and fashion focused games including the Japanese version of North America’s Style Savvy. Iwata even mentioned that a pink 3DS console will be hitting Japanese (and probably our own) shelves in October.
However, things quickly picked up. In addition to showing brand new footage for Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Mario And Sonic at the London Olympic Games, many new game announcements were made.
The first was a brand new version of Mario Tennis for 3DS, which was shown a brief gameplay trailer, and announced that it would be released sometime in 2012.
Next up was new footage of the rumored new Fire Emblem game for 3DS. The footage showed classic tactical screens that Fire Emblem fans should be instantly familiar with, but the game looked much more impressive than the last game to be released, and that was for the Wii. That’s coming in 2012 as well.
To wrap up, Iwata formally announced that Monster Hunter Tri, one of the most popular games on the Wii, is indeed being ported to the 3DS as Monster Hunter 3G with added features and co-op quests. That will be coming in 2012.
But perhaps the biggest announcement was the trailer for the brand new Monster Hunter 4, which showed much bigger monsters that could even be mistaken for titan-toppling game Shadow of the Colossus.
Now, for those of you that aren’t aware, Monster Hunter is one of the single most popular games ever released in Japan. The PSP was considered successful in Japan simply because millions picked it up once the first Monster Hunter game came out for it. The fact that a real sequel was released, let alone for the 3DS, is absolutely huge news. No launch info was mentioned.
Oddly enough, the 3DS boat 3DS Extension Slide Pad was not seen at all during the event. Not even mentioned. It’s almost as if Nintendo is slightly embarrassed.
Lots of Japan-centered announcements, but a few cool things for the North American audience as well. We can expect to see a lot more during Tokyo Game Show, starting on Thursday, September 15.
What say you, gamers?