Here we go again. As if the run up to Christmas hadn't made us busy enough, Nintendo have decided it's an excellent time to give us yet more excitement and distraction with a ton of game-related news, in another one of their Nintendo Direct broadcasts. Brimming with updates on both the 3DS and Wii U, as well as a few surprises, Nintendo are lucky we love them so much - otherwise we could have quite easily taken out our festive stresses on them. So without further ado, here's what's in store for Nintendo's handheld in 2014:
Kirby Triple Deluxe
In a game that we're more than just a little bit excited for, Kirby's first 3DS outing sees the little pink puffball returning to what he does best - platforming. This time round though, he has a new trick up his, er, non-existent sleeves, with the ability to leap between the background and the foreground as he wanders through each of the brightly coloured levels. With enemies also able to switch between planes at will, giant rocks flying from the background to the foreground, and even a giant Waddle Dee-themed rollercoaster to dodge, it may be a fairly minor tweak, but it's one that seems to have a major effect on the gameplay. Known for his ability to swallow enemies and steal their powers - be it a sword, a laser or the ability to transform into a stone statue - the Kirbster's new 'Hyper Nova Ability' lets him inhale anything and everything on the screen, often revealing a path through the level in it's wake as he unravels a giant scroll, bashes his way through a fragile wall with a wrecking ball and munches on a humongous sea monster. You can read more on this one in our first look here.
Yoshi's New Island
Nintendo's other famous eater also made an appearance, in his upcoming crayon-coloured platformer Yoshi's New Island. Shaping up to be a fairly traditional Yoshi's Island-style game, the idea here is that your Yoshi carries a baby Mario on his back, escorting him through the levels, whilst swallowing the bad guys and turning them into eggs. Eggs can then be thrown at bad guys or chucked at switches and the like to open up new routes through the level - and when Yoshi swallows a specific super-sized enemy, he gets a massive egg to hurl around instead. Such huge eggs come in handy for breaking your way into some hard to reach areas too, as they seem sturdy enough to smash through solid pipes - and when each level is littered with secrets to find and special red coins to collect, every massive shy guy helps. Yoshi's New Island is due out in the spring, although when exactly that is is still a mystery.
Pokemon Bank & Poke Transporter
First announced a while ago and due to hit the eShop on the 27th December, Pokemon Bank is a downloadable tool for storing your Pokemon - much like the PC boxes on the games, except with the ability to hold a whopping 3,000 critters. For an annual fee of £4.49, you also get the Poke Transporter too, which lets you transfer across your Pokemon from the older DS games, and while they only mentioned Black/White and Black 2/White 2, we imagine it'll work for other ones too. While we personally think almost a fiver is a bit steep for something we effectively already have built into Pokemon X and Y, Nintendo are offering free 30 day trials until the 31st January - as well as a free Celebi Pokemon for using the service, apparently regardless of whether you decide to pay or not.
Join Nintendo Network Promotion
You may have had a system update on your 3DS around a week ago - one which added a Miiverse option to the menu. But along as adding Nintendo's take on Twitter to their handheld, the update also meant that those of us with Wii Us can now use the same account across both consoles, with any eShop credit working over the two devices. To encourage people to create themselves an account - a Nintendo Network ID - they're offering a little incentive in the form of a free download of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe if you register before the end of January. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is a port of the classic Super Mario Bros. game originally released on the GameBoy Colour many years ago - with some extra challenge modes thrown in for good measure. As a freebie, it's certainly not to be sniffed at.
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Released in Japan over a year ago, we'd pretty much given up hope of ever seeing a localisation of the puzzling Professor and loopy lawyer cross-over - but it seems finally our prayers have been answered. Coming to the UK on the 28th March, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney somewhat illogically sees the professor team up with the ace lawyer to solve the greatest case of all. Beginning in London, the game opens as Layton and Luke are visited by a young woman called Espella, who claims to be being hunted by witches. Never one to say no to a lady in trouble, no sooner have they started investigating, than the gang get transported to another world, where they find Espella on trial for witchcraft - which is where Phoenix Wright comes in. With a mix of brain-teaser puzzles and cross-examining courtroom scenes, this is one story-driven adventure we don't want to miss.
Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder
While technically not announced for Europe yet, this one was shown off during the USA-specific part of the show, and is looking rather interesting indeed. Effectively another Augmented Reality-type game, your job here is to take photos of specific objects in the real world with your 3DS camera, which then find themselves transported into the game and added to the cutesy Chibi Robo's 'NostalJunk' collection. Whether it's a toilet roll, an important sushi ingredient or a plug socket, someone in the world of Chibi Robo will need one, giving you missions to complete as you concentrate on filling out all of the exhibits in the friendly curator's museum. Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder is hitting the USA in just a few weeks time, on the 9th January, and while we have no idea if it'll come out over here at all, given that we got some of the earlier Chibi Robo games, we wouldn't rule it out completely.
