Earlier this week Nintendo introduced what could be considered as SpotPass for Nintendo Switch. As part of the update for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild there were posts in the 'News' tab for the game that promised tips and free items to come; the first of these is now live.
You simply access the News tab and, if you're not already doing so, make sure you 'follow' the Breath of the Wild page. The news articles pop up in your feed and now there's one explaining how you can befriend dogs in the game. You open it up, scroll down and hit 'Start Software', at which point the game will boot up as normal. When you load your save a piece of raw meat and two apples will fall from the sky and land at Link's feet, and this also applies to Master Mode. You humble scribe was a bit unlucky, though, as the apples rolled off down a hill after landing.
So, yeah, try and stand on a flat area when you quit the game...
The good thing is you can do this as many times as you want, so there's nothing stopping you claiming the gifts multiple times.
Not thrilling first freebies, admittedly, but it's a nice idea that could certainly be used in cool ways in the future.
Comments 77
I'd gather this was a test by Nintendo to see if the feature would work on a large scale?
As really, if they want people to actually use it, they're going to need to offer up goodies far greater than what can be easily attained within the first 30 minutes of the game.
@Folkloner With all due respect, I have to disagree with you, not 30 minutes, 15 minutes I believe
They'd better not screw us Wii U owners over with good items eventually.
"a piece of raw meat and two apples"
Is that some sort of implied joke that could refer to a part of the male anatomy?
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Dude, its a piece of meat and two apples, i dont think this really impacts the game
At least give a dragon part. Something valuable. Meat. Come on. I hope they will develop this feature. Could end up interesting
Don't expect anything huge from these update. Nintendo are not going to upset Wii U owners over this. The update even suggests things like recipe news flashes may come with a couple of ingredients to start you off. So don't expect anything massive, it's just a pleasant thing they are doing
Hahahah well at least I'm glad that they didn't ask 20 gold points for this wonderful gift. It almost looks like Nintendo just wants to insult loyal gamers xD
@doomgc I honestly wouldn't even think about them overstating this. It's not a feature!
The only freebie you've had and it rolls off a cliff lol
Only a piece of meat and two apples?
Well I am so glad I didn't overreact... much... to this on the comment section of the update post yesterday... cough
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Sometimes a piece of raw meat is just a piece of raw meat.
LOL! I don't think they could have given us a more lame introduction to the free gift system.
Oh my god, this is such an insult to Wii U owners who waited so patiently for this game and now we're just getting slapped in the face like second rate citizens, Nintendo have forgotten all about the loyal fans who got them where they are today, this is a travesty?, I'm going to boycott all of their products for the rest of eternity.
Oh what? 2 apples and some meat? Oh, okay... (reaches for randomly selected amiibo that achieves the same thing)
Ahahahahaha how helpful...
Shoots himself on the foot
What the hell??? How are we supposed to live with a friggin' 2 apples and a piece of regular friggin' meat! What if we finished the whole arceusdamn game with all the best ingredients, then what will we get???
Rant over, severely disappointed. I don't see this escalating to a better position even if this was the first attempt.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You're the only one with your mind in the gutter here.
@SaKo Excuse me. Never heard the slang term: meat and 2 veg?
<a rel="nofollow" class="external" href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=meat and two veg">http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=meat and two veg
If any wii u owners feel left out, I can provide you one....perhaps even two locations where you can find the rare items apples and a slice of tier 1 meat.
Eventually Nintendo will work up from random ingredients to the fabled "Traveler item set", but I'll be here to guide you to the same items. I don't want anyone to feel like Nintendo has stabbed them in the back for choosing the Zelda with a comfy gamepad controller.
I genuinely laughed out loud when I saw the items.
I mean, quite handy for people just starting the game. Not so handy for the people who have been playing since March.
Let's hope we get something a little more exciting further down the line.
The meat saves you an arrow, or a swing of the Master Sword, so it's something, right? Right?!? I stopped scanning Amiibo pretty early on as rewards like these weren't worth the time it took to pull them off the shelf and return them when done.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Hahahah now that you're saying it, I wouldn't be surprised if we get two hydromelons next time.
@Pluto14 - ...and a sneaky river snail?
Edit: I really didn't want to post that, but just couldn't help myself.
@gaga64 You guys seriously need to stop complaining about Wii U not getting all BOTW features that Switch is getting. I am still waiting for BOTW to come to 3DS. Still nothing
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You're thinking way too deeply into it. Although there is a level on Kirby Dream Land 2 which is designed in the shape of a women, so who knows if it was intentional.
Free stuff is ...free stuff
Wonder how long it'll take peta to complain about how inaccurate it is to depict that meat comes from the sky.
If they started giving away "Royal" weapons with maxed augments, then I'd be concerned. lol
It's a nice gesture of good will regarding news updates. Some folk need to quit being crass about it.
I think its a pretty cool feature. Hopefully they'll expand upon it, as I'm sure they fully intend to do
Do you get a piece of meat and 2 apples because these are the exact ingredients you need to befriend a dog - which is what the article was about??
If the freebie links to the news article that's kinda cool... so long as the news articles are better than how to befriend a dog!
"You humble scribe was a bit unlucky, though, as the apples rolled off down a hill after landing" I feel so sorry for you
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You Wii U players, think you're so hot? Well WE get free meat and apples!
@SLIGEACH_EIRE There's always time to Switch to a better system
BREAKING NEWS: Aonuma and his dastardly gang have been reported breaking into the houses of loyal Wii U owners and stealing their supplies of apples and meat, just to spite them. They've also been writing threatening messages on the walls. Stay alert.
@gaga64 "Nintendo have forgotten all about the loyal fans who got them where they are today"
Ironically, this much is actually true.
@TheLZdragon cool let me know when Nintendo releases one.
Wii U players: "but... ma apples!"
@gatorboi352 Its called the switch.. By next years end..
Mmm... Steak...
Good. It's fine if it's stuff easily obtainable by all owners of the game.
@gaga64 Add it to the long list of slaps.
Could be worse, could of been a letter Link recieves asking the player "Have you brought the DLC yet?".
Making fun of wii u owners is a new trend or something?
@Neferupitou it's what all salty switch owners do. It's a lashing out mechanism.
I swear my Switch updated the game automatically - I went to do it cuz of this article and it was already updated?
@Neferupitou @gatorboi352 In my case, I've got both consoles, I just bought BotW (and the DLC) for the Wii U before I got the Switch (unexpected present), and, um, may have overreacted somewhat in the comments section for yesterday's article on this subject... So I'm personally poking fun at myself.
Wii U persecution complex continues...
I'd rather a balloon carrying a wrapped gift, like Animal Crossing, and I have to shoot it to get...maybe a new wallpaper for my house? Or a gyroid? Just not raw meat and apples...
The Wii U owners of this game complaining are forgetting a few things:
1. The free gifts are accessed via subscriptions on the Switch's news channel, something the Wii U doesn't have. Short of changing the Wii U's OS to include a brand new channel, which would require not only some R&D but also constant updates and a dedicated newsfeed (i.e. constant work to support a practically otherwise worthless feature on a console they're not supporting anymore), such a thing isn't possible on Wii U.
2. You've already received a fantastically complete version of the game, complete with every feature the Switch version has, including the DLC packs. Note that the game released the same day as the Switch version and wasn't delayed, unlike how Twilight Princess on the GameCube released a month or so after the Wii version. Nintendo kept its promise to deliver the game to Wii U owners and delivered completely on that promise. Whatever happens from here on out doesn't erase that fact.
3. It's a piece of meat and two apples. You could literally find these items in a matter of minutes. Let's also not forget that at this point, dedicated players of the game are finished with it, meaning such trivial gifts are worthless altogether. Nothing of any real value is going to be distributed via this feature.
I hate to break it to you all, but console developers eventually move on to new hardware. Expecting indefinite parity between the Wii U and Switch versions of the game is unrealistic, especially given the fact that the Wii U was a commercial disaster and Nintendo doesn't need to waste any additional time and resources on a console that nearly sank the company financially.
Or, I could just jump on your bandwagon and complain that my N64 Ocarina of Time cartridge doesn't support stereoscopic 3D like the 3DS remake. I call shenanigans!
Ah, I needed a good laugh to brighten my day.
My food inventory was full I think. Not sure, I haven't played BOTW in a while as I have been distracted by mario kart then arms then splatoon. I really want to get back into it and play the master sword trials but I can't stop chasing that next level in splatoon.
@CptProtonX Is it game by game? Because I manually updated Bomberman last night
@gaga64 I noticed that this seems like it's just a random Amiibo scan of materials, and I guess they're going to just keep doing that....? Maybe so that they'll be able to give something to the people without Amiibo...?
Wait....people were complaining about this when initially revealed? lol!
Would be neat if these eventually get to dropping ancient materials.
I expected as much!
Does anyone know if this works when you are in the Trial of the Sword? The amiibo rune doesn't exist in the trial, but if items are just spawned, this could work. If so, it could be useful, no? I've read you can do it multiple times.
AKA you get slightly less than what an unsupported Amiibo will give you.
Hmm... i don't have the article.
I had to load up the Japanese article to get that one.
@gatorboi352 one day you might grow up and realise that the only salty one here is you and your annoying constant childish trolling
This is a feature to encourage less hardcore players to keep returning to the game. That is all, and I think it's a great idea. Notice it gives an interactive hint.
If you post comments here you are not likely the primary audience for this feature.
I feel like they give you special stuff on holidays like Halloween!?
Couldn't this work from miiverse or Wii U notifications too?
I play regular mode on Wii U and Master Mode on Switch. Sure it's inconsequential rewards but I don't see what's stopping them from doing this on Wii U too. I know the Wii U version updated too.
@ddudek Haven't tried it myself but the first post on the channel states it won't work in Shrines or on certain terrain, so I doubt it will spawn the items in the Master Trials.
Cook up and guzzle one of these just before entering the trials:
30 mins x3 Attack boost - 3 mighty bananas, 1 mighty thistle, 1 dragon horn
30 mins x3 Defence boost - 3 ironshrooms, 1 armoranth, 1 dragon horn
Kind of a super-silly first run at an otherwise neat concept, I think! This will be a really great way to push content for games like Splatoon, Arms, and anything else they wanted to. Kind of like how they pushed content via constant updates in Mario Maker and Splatoon on WiiU.
@BustedUpBiker You're right, it doesn't work. It forces the software to close and then reopens. This will only work in areas you can save progress.
@aesc Thanks, though the people to whom that post was directed won't acknowledge it and will just complain all over again next time there is a Breath of the Wild update that doesn't support Wii U. But why should I expect reason and understanding? This is the internet, after all...
Almost as useless as My Nintendo!
Anybody expecting much from Nintendo when it comes to free stuff hasn't been watching properly.
For some reason this reminds me of when I was playing this a few weeks ago. I was in the Hebra region running up the side of a mountain looking for Koroks.
All of a sudden a treasure chest fell down the mountain and hit me. I went running back down the mountain to look for it, but it was gone. I started making my way back up the mountain and another chest came falling down, but it missed me. I finally made my way to the top of the mountain and found that they were falling out of the sky. They were just spawning in the air and falling.
I managed to catch one with the Stasis rune and when I opened it I just got an average weapon and the chests stopped dropping.
Before you guys say anything, I have absolutely zero amiibo. I'm try to find that mountain again to see if it's still doing it.
For this time (apples) it doesn't make much difference but it turns out that you can get the items twice if you have both the Japanese and the English version of the news channel. Might be handy if there's ever a good weapon
It wasn't even worth starting Breath of the Meh for this.
Most assuredly, Reggie the Speaker of Falsehoods is gnashing his teeth, devoting all thought to ruining this for everyone.
Article is misleading you do need a paraglider in your inventory and certain terrains will not give you those bonus gifts. Once you get deeper into the game you can get those apples and meat. Try not to be near a hill otherwise your gifts will roll off!
Who needs this when you have 100+ amiibo?
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Nah that's meat and two veg, not meat and two fruit.
I'd finally stopped playing this but some cool gifts might get me playing again.
@Maxz Thanks for the laugh!
@thesilverbrick You've nailed it. I get that people don't want discrepancy between the two versions, but it's also pretty obvious why consistency in this regard is literally impossible; there's no analogous News Service on the Wii U, which is how the 'meat & two veg (okay fruit)' are accessed.
"Why don't you install in-game functionality to a News Service that doesn't exist on a discontinued console that therefore doesn't have any news to receive anyway? I only have 439 apples and 132 pieces of raw meat, and I'm hungering reach that milestone 441/133 apple/meat target."
@Maxz I'm actually fairly impressed that the game even released on Wii U at all, never mind with every single feature the Switch version got and even full DLC support. I finally got a chance to try out the Wii U version the other day, and though the framerate is glaringly worse than it is on Switch, I was quite impressed to see it running there.
What's kind of funny, though, is that the people complaining that the Switch version gets a bonus feature are the same people who berate the Switch because its flagship title was a Wii U port with no differences. Go figure, they add something to this one that makes it slightly different and the same people are now up in arms about it. Which is it? Is Breath of the Wild on the Switch lame because it's no different from the Wii U version or is it outrageously unfair because now it is? Or did you just want to complain, trolling either way, because you are too immature to know the difference between positive and negative attention? I think we all know what the answer is.
I'm really not expecting much from these little updates. The greed has got so bad when it comes to DLC. To be honest the first Zelda DLC was weak at best. There should have been a secondary story added to the DLC but really all we got is the same game with harder play. So we payed for a difficulty setting.
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