Nintendo is usually known for keeping mum on major game releases until events like E3 (June of this year), but it randomly revealed two new games on Saturday. Joining the Pikmin and Mario games Miyamoto confirmed for Wii U last week, a collection of older Kirby games will be released for Wii later this year along with New Super Mario Bros. 2, a sequel to the popular Mario revival series.
“A new Mario game and a big Kirby celebration will help make 2012 an especially great year for Nintendo fans,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Whether they’re playing at home on Wii or using Nintendo 3DS to have fun on the go, players can look forward to experiencing some of our biggest franchises in exciting ways.”
Kirby: Nintendo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Kirby. This is a bit odd, since it’s been celebrating 25th anniversaries with other core franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario. Regardless, the new game will contain a “variety of previously released, fan-favorite Kirby games.” We don’t know which games will be included, but we are certainly hoping that Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby Super Star are among the picks. With the large number of strange games Kirby has appeared in throughout the years (remember the minigolf game Kirby’s Dream Course?), it’s hard to say what titles will make the final cut. Hopefully the game will be deeply discounted as well, since many Kirby games are already available on Wii through Nintendo’s Virtual Console download service.
New Super Mario Bros. 2: Nintendo’s third New Super Mario Bros. game will hit shelves on the 3DS sometime this summer. Like other “New” Mario games, it will be a 2D sidescroller with 3D elements. We don’t know what actual new elements will be in the game, but from the screenshots compiled above, we can see that Mario’s Raccoon cap will return as well as some kind of gold metal cap. Some enemies are also curiously gold. We’ll likely learn more at E3 in June.
Mario Tennis Open: It’s coming out May 20 for 3DS and allows players to use their Mii characters and choose from a large number of items. If you’ve played a Mario Tennis game before, this is nothing new.
3DS System Update: Finally, Nintendo has announced that 3DS owners will get a system update scheduled for April 25, which will add a few new features to the handheld. The update will allow players to create folders in the HOME Menu to organize things. In addition, the eShop will now offer better recommendations and the update will pave the way for another update to those who own Mario Kart 7, fixing a shortcut exploit in the game.
That’s it for now. Nintendo sure is cashing in on old-style games lately.
