Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Nintendo announces new games in most of its franchises for Wii U, including Zelda, Yoshi, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, and more

Anthony John Agnello
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nintendo is nothing if not unpredictable. Everyone from its most diehard fans to financial analysts know that when a new Nintendo console comes out, Nintendo is going to release new entries in its core series even if it hasn’t announced them. There will be a new Legend of Zelda, a new 3D Mario, a Super Smash Bros., a Mario Kart. When the company will announce those games and when they’ll actually come out in the life cycle of a console is always up in the air. Will Nintendo put out all the new major franchise entries within a year of each other as it did on GameCube? Will it space them out over five years as on Wii?

With Nintendo Wii U, the company seems to want it all up front. Nintendo announced a veritable torrent of first-party games for the Wii U on Wednesday morning during a new Nintendo Direct event, with brand new games, remakes, and teases for more on the horizon.

Recommended Videos

First, the wholly new: Developer Good-Feel is making a brand new Yoshi platformer for Nintendo Wii U, scheduled for release this year. Unlike the painterly Yoshi’s Island, this new untitled game borrows the crafts-store presentation of Good-Feel’s Wii hit Kirby’s Epic Yarn. The soothing pastel look of Kirby’s Epic Yarn is maintained here, but the HD model of Nintendo’s little green dinosaur looks surprisingly physical, like it was just sewn up.

Related

Yoshi wasn’t the only untitled game on display. Nintendo also teased a new sequel to 2012’s surprise RPG hit Xenoblade Chronicles. A brief trailer for the game of a character running though a field, flying with a jetpack, and fighting scads of giant monsters was shown followed by a large painted “X” on the screen that looks similar to the one used in Xenoblade. Tetsuya Takahashi, creator of Xenoblade, Xenosaga and Xenogears, will be the executive director while Kunihiko Tanaka, his long time collaborator, will direct alongside him.

Nintendo also announced a new entry in its long-running strategy RPG series Fire Emblem, which isn’t too shocking as studio Intelligent Systems typically makes home console entries in the series. This one will be very different, though. Intelligent Systems is collaborating with Atlus on a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover game. A brief teaser trailer showing characters from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei IV alongside characters from February’s Fire Emblem: Awakening was shown. Hardcore Atlus fans will be disappointed to hear that characters from SMT spinoff Persona weren’t featured.

That’s just for starters. Nintendo also showed a new trailer for Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101 and a brief video where the studio discussed making Wii U exclusive Bayonetta 2.

Nintendo teased even more for E3 2013, promising previews of a brand new Mario Kart and a new 3D Mario title to follow up 2010’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well as the reveal of Super Smash Bros. 4. Series director Eiji Aonuma also briefly discussed plans for a new The Legend of Zelda that will feature some kind of co-operative play.

The whole Nintendo Direct presentation can be viewed here.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $120
A 2TB WD Black

When the PlayStation 5 was originally released, it had the option to expand its internal memory, which was quite small at the time at a little under 900GBs. Of course, the issue is that there weren't any SSDs that worked on the new standard the PS5 was using, so even if you wanted to upgrade, you couldn't. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great SSDs for the PS5 that have been released, and upgrading its storage is pretty easy and can be done by pretty much anybody, provided they have a screwdriver. So, whether you picked up a PS5 from one of the PS5 deals or already have a PS5 and want to upgrade, be sure to check out the SSDs that will work great for your PS5 below.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $120 from Best Buy, thereby saving $45 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Read more
The Sims 5: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more
sims 4 for rent expansion pack shared living the 6

It's time to brush up on your Simlish if it's rusty because the long-awaited The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, is officially on the way. This has been the longest gap between main entries since the series began, and while we did get tons of expansions for The Sims 4 to hold us over, plus the change to it becoming free to play, we're more than ready for a new entry. Each time a new game in the franchise comes out, die-hard fans always need to have a bit of skepticism about what features will be there -- both new and returning.

We can't answer all your questions yet, but here's everything we know about The Sims 5.
Release date speculation

Read more
VR headset deals: Meta Quest 2 and VIVE XR
htc vive vs pro headphones

While VR may not be as big as was predicted back in the early 2000s when the original Oculus Go was released, there is still a considerable market these days, and some great VR games like Half-Life: Alyx that you can have fun with. Of course, VR headsets remain expensive, and while options like the Meta Quest don't necessarily require a high-end gaming PC, they can still be a bit pricey for those who just want to put a foot in the hobby. Luckily, there are some good deals you can take advantage of, even on some of the best VR headsets, so be sure to check out all your options below.
Meta Quest 2 -- $199, was $200

Even though the Meta Quest 3 came out quite recently, the Meta Quest 2 is still a pretty powerful contender, especially since it has a wider library and app support than the Quest 3 currently has. Even more so, the Quest 2 is a lot cheaper than the Quest 3, and with the latest permanent discount down to just $200, that's a whole $300 or so difference from the Quest 3. Of course, the Quest 3 does have more advanced AR and slightly better performance with software and Wi-Fi, but that may not be worth the extra cost for some. Either way, be sure to check out the breakdown between Quest 2 and Quest 3 to get a better sense of what you should pick up.

Read more