August 26, 2014

Nintendo and the Pokémon company released a teaser video today of a new collaboration between the companies and Bandai Namco Games. In the unlikliest of games, Pokémon will be made into an arcade fighting game to be called Pokkén Tournament.

Not a lot of information has been released about the game aside from the title and tentative release date. The game will be released in arcades in Japan in 2015, but I haven’t seen any information about if the game will be released in North American arcades OR on the Nintendo Wii U.

The game is the second recent collaboration between Nintendo and outside developers, with the most recent being Hyrule Warriors with Koei Tecmo Games. Personally it’s nice to see Nintendo branching out a little bit with different genre twists to their existing catalog of properties. Perhaps next we’ll see an MMORPG with the Pokémon license to be produced alongside Square Enix?

The DLC additions to Mario Kart 8 keep coming!

Two new downloadable content packs coming to Mario Kart 8, which launch this fall and in spring of 2015, and are available for advance purchase starting August 27th at $7.99 each (or $11.99 for both). Included in the packs are crossover characters like Link from The Legend of Zelda franchise and both Isabelle and the Villager from the Animal Crossing series.

In addition to these two new downloadable content packs, a previously announced game update goes live August 27th that adds a variety of new features, including three free Mercedes-Benz cars that players can race.

“More than 1 million Wii U owners in the United States alone are already enjoying the fun of Mario Kart 8,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Mario Kart 8 already includes the largest number of characters, karts and options of any Mario Kart game to date, and these amazing expansion packs give players even more choices.”

Nintendo Unveils Pokémon Arcade Fighting Game

Link and Animal Crossing Latest Expansions Coming to Mario Kart