Nintendo's Valentine's Day Special--A Love Letter For Game-Starved Gamers

Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
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Nintendo's Valentine's Day Special--A Love Letter For Game-Starved Gamers

While Valentine's Day isn't commonly thought of as a day for solving big problems outside of the romantic comedy community, it saw one major problem get solved--or at least get closer to solved--for Nintendo gamers who are looking at Big N's lineup and asking, in the words of a popular advertising gimmick from the eighties, where precisely the beef is.

Nintendo took to its Nintendo Direct platform once again to run down a selection of actual games that would be coming--and soon, too--to the Nintendo 3DS. Games like "Mario Golf: World Tour" and "Mario & Luigi: Dream Team" would be landing this summer on the 3DS, and the eagerly-anticipated "Animal Crossing: New Leaf" would hit United States stores on June 9.

The eShop would also get a passel of titles in its own right. A sequel to "Dillon's Rolling Western," "The Last Ranger", would be landing, along with "Mario & Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move" as well as a souped-up version of "Donkey Kong Country Returns."

Game Boy Color titles "Harvest Moon" and "Legend of the River King" would also get their swings in on the Virtual Console.

But, potentially sensing a darker undercurrent in which a whole bunch of Wii U owners are wondering when they're actually going to get something playable for their system, the Nintendo Direct conversation turned to Wii U, and a few new announcements on that front.  There will actually be downloadable content for "New Super Mario Brothers U" called "New Super Luigi U", that will provide new versions of each level just for Luigi. "Wii Street U" also made its appearance, and "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" would be bringing Miiverse tools directly into the game itself.

It's just the kind of announcement that Nintendo gamers needed to hear, especially given the overall weakness of the upcoming release loadout. It's safe to say that Nintendo is not exactly making the most of the Wii U launch, and so far, the "next generation" of gaming is looking a little on the lackluster side. This likely isn't sitting well at all with those who made purchases, and though Nintendo is certainly going all out to keep gamers apprised of the situation, it's the kind of situation that never should have happened in the first place. Nintendo needs games, and in rapid fashion. The sooner the better, because the longer they wait, the more likely they are to lose ground to the other next-gen offerings coming in from Sony and Microsoft. With Sony likely to announce the next PlayStation this Wednesday--it's the first special meeting they've had in two years, and at last report they've even rented a pretty impressive hall for it--that's going to put Nintendo's back to the wall.

Nintendo needs games, plain and simple. The faster it can get them out the door and in gamers' hands, the better the chances it will weather the upcoming storm fronts represented by Sony and Microsoft.
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