Tag: Japan - Page 16
News Switch Online Subscribers Can Play Pokkén Tournament DX For Free Next Week (Japan)
With workarounds for western players
Next week, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in Japan will have the opportunity to check out Pokkén Tournament DX for free for a limited time. The Pokémon brawler is the latest game to be offered as a free experience for subscribers, with the likes of Fire Emblem Warriors,
Video Every Switch Trailer From Japan's Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase
The full round-up
As you've no doubt heard by now, the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase for Japanese viewers was slightly longer. It ran for about four extra minutes and featured additional games and information. For your convenience, we've grouped all of this together on the one page. Enjoy! Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster Shin...
News Kirby Studio HAL Laboratory Relocates Its Tokyo Base To Nintendo's New Building
Joins Game Freak and Nintendo EPD Tokyo
Kirby studio HAL Laboratory has relocated its main Tokyo office to Nintendo's new building in the city, it has been revealed. The company – which remains independent but has strong ties with Nintendo (referred to in Japan as "keiretsu") – has also taken on more staff, bringing its headcount up from 169 to...
News Waifu Uncovered Temporarily Pulled From Japanese eShop Due To Explicit Scene
Naughty, naughty
This week saw the release of One-Hand-Free Studios' Waifu Uncovered on the Nintendo Switch eShop. As you might recall, it mixes bullet-hell shoot 'em up action with "a light-hearted story" in which you de-robe one of eight "beautiful females" by blasting away their virus-infected clothing. It even comes with a "one finger mode" for...
News You Can Now Pre-Order The Amazing SEGA Astro City Mini
Update: Play Asia pre-orders now live, $150 price tag
We recently reported on Sega's upcoming new micro-console, the Astro City Mini which comes packed with 36 classic arcade games. Originally launched in 1993, the Astro City cabinet is still one of the most recognisable features in Japanese arcades, and is beloved by collectors. Here are all the...
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Loses Top Spot To eBaseball Powerful Pro 2020
Switch hardware sales up week-on-week
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 6th - 12th July, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been knocked off top spot. The game has been dominating the chart for the majority of its time on sale, but this week's new entry eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020 managed to debut in number one...
News Nintendo Locks In Release Dates For Its Joker And Hero Smash Bros. amiibo
Update: European release date also confirmed
Update: The release dates for both amiibo have now also been confirmed for Europe. Joker and Hero will both launch in Europe on 25th September, the same day as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Original Article: One of the highlights during the most recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation was...
News Nintendo Is Offering Real-Life Super Smash Bros. Invitations To My Nintendo Users (Japan)
Get your hands on the iconic envelope!
If you've ever dreamt of receiving your very own Super Smash Bros. invitation, or perhaps staging your own character reveal video at home, this new gift set from My Nintendo would come in super handy. As you'd expect, the items you see below are sadly exclusive to the Japanese site, but if you happen to have...
News Here Are Japan's Top Ten Best-Selling Games Of 2020 So Far
And hardware sales, too
With June now well and truly behind us, we find ourselves in the second half of 2020. In that time, we might not have had quite as many top tier Nintendo releases as we might have expected, but the Switch continues to sell well and one title in particular has been smashing records all over the place. Newly compiled data from...
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Still Reigns Supreme As Nintendo Takes Nine Of Top Ten
Catherine: Full Body enters in ninth
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 29th June - 5th July, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still sitting pretty at the very top of the table. The game sold an estimated 53.506 physical copies in the region this week, comfortably distancing itself from the closest competition as it has...
News Atlus Says Persona 5 Scramble's Sales Exceeded Its Expectations
Still no word on localisation
Ever since Joker joined the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, there have been calls for Atlus to release the mainline Persona series on the Nintendo Switch. While there's still no sign of it happening, the spin-off Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers has already made its way across to the hybrid system in Japan...
News Here Are The Switch eShop's Best-Selling Games Of June 2020 (Japan)
Animal Crossing loses top spot
Earlier this week, we shared a list of the top 15 most-downloaded Switch games in Europe for the month of June, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons had once again returned to the top spot. Things are a little different over in Japan, however, as you're about to find out. Below, you'll find a list of the 20...
News Sega's New Astro City Micro-Console Is Packed With 36 Arcade Gems
Update: Trailer and official site are live!
Update: Sega has just released the trailer shown above, as well as the official Japanese site. Original Story [Tue 7th Jul, 2020 10:15 BST]: You may have assumed that, with the release of the Mega Drive Mini and the upcoming
News Shin Megami Tensei Is Being Added To Japan's NSO Super Famicom Collection
Gun-Dec is also on the way
We know Donkey Kong Country was just confirmed for the Nintendo Switch Online here in the west, but once again, Japan's monthly line-up seems to be slightly better. Instead of Natsume Championship Wrestling, in its place is the 1992 Super Famicom RPG Shin Megami Tensei by Atlus. Here's the rundown, courtesy of
News New Video Shows Super Nintendo World's Thwomp With Red Glowing Eyes
Watch out, Yoshi
Although Super Nintendo World's launch in Japan has been officially delayed, there's still new footage of the park surfacing on social media on a daily basis. Last weekend, we got a look at Mario's enemy Thwomp in action and now, in the latest update, someone has captured footage of it at night-time. While it might not sound all...
News New Video Shows Thwomp In Action At Super Nintendo World
Run for your life
Super Nintendo World's opening in Japan might have been delayed, but that hasn't stopped enthusiastic members of the public from uploading new footage of the park to various social media platforms. Earlier in the week, we got a fantastic close-up shot, and while characters like Yoshi were moving and even coins and Koopa shells...
News Crowdfunding Drive For Go-Karting Firm Previously Known As MariCar Fails Spectacularly
Raises less than 1 percent of its target goal
Remember MariCar? It's a company which offers go-kart tours around Tokyo, with participants famously dressing up as characters from the Super Mario series. As you can imagine, this annoyed Nintendo, which took MariCar to court for copyright infringement case against the karting firm in 2017. It was...
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Returns To Number One And Smashes A New Switch Sales Record
Nintendo takes eight of top ten
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 22nd - 28th June, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has returned to its usual spot at the top of the chart. With last week's number one, The Last of Us Part II, dropping down to fourth, several of Nintendo's current, popular titles were able to jump back into...
News Namcot Collection: Series 1 Pulled From Japanese eShop After Customers Receive Wrong Games
Update: DLC returns on July 8th
Update: It has been confirmed that the DLC for Namcot Collection Series 1 will be returning to the Japanese eShop on July 8th. Phew! Original Story [Thu 18th Jun, 2020 15:30 BST]: Well, here's a strange one. Namcot Collection: Series 1, a free-to-start bundle available in Japan, has been removed from the Switch...
Feature Missile Dancer Dev Terarin Games On Shmup Design, Future Plans And Embracing Western Players
"Shmups have a simple mechanism, but making good shmups is difficult"
Like so many Japanese gamers, Terarin Games' Junichi Terayama grew up with Nintendo. "The first video game I played was Xevious on the Famicom. However, I didn't have a Famicom as a kid; I was playing it at my friend's house." Despite the lack of unrestricted access to the...
News New Video Gives Us Our Best Ever Look At Super Nintendo World
What a sight to behold
If you've been keeping an eye on our coverage of Super Nintendo World over the past few weeks, you'll have seen a number of aerial photographs, shots from the ground, and even a video of Y
News 16-Year-Old Student Arrested For Allegedly Threatening To "Blow Up Konami’s Headquarters"
Individual was upset by connectivity problems with Konami's PES mobile game
A 16-year-old student has been arrested in Japan for allegedly threatening to blow up Konami's Tokyo headquarters. According to Yomiuri, the suspect made the threats between June 16th and June 18th on the review section of an online app store. Another Japanese outlet,
A huge achievement
According to Famitsu's Japanese chart estimates, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now surpassed five million physical sales in Nintendo's home region. The game is the first on Switch to reach the impressive milestone. The five million sales total has been achieved in just over three months and leaves New Horizons comfortably...
News Nintendo's Directors Receive New Approval Ratings - Here's How Shareholders Voted
Furukawa, Miyamoto and more
Every time Nintendo holds one of its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, its directors are faced with a new series of votes from shareholders to assess their approval ratings. Today, the day of the 80th annual meeting, is no different, and we have a record of how the votes went down below. Shareholders were asked to...
Deals Pokémon Fan? Check Out This New Line Of Pikachu-COOL & Pikachu-POP Gear For Your Switch
Tough to 'chus a fave
Ask a random stranger on the street to name a Pocket Monster and there's a good chance that a certain yellow mouse will be the Pokémon that passes their lips (assuming they can name one at all). Sure, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Eevee have their fans – and there are a handful of post-Gen I Pokémon that might pop up...
News Universal Studios Japan Postpones Opening Of Super Nintendo World
Mario fans might have to wait until 2021
There have already been many delays this year, and now to add to this, Universal Studios in Japan has officially postponed the launch of Super Nintendo World. Sorry folks, but the park will no longer open this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's not exactly a surprise after the 2020 Summer Olympics...
Japanese Charts Nintendo Takes Nine Of Top Ten As The Last Of Us 2 Topples Animal Crossing
But New Horizons is still selling strong
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 15th - 21st June, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been knocked off top spot by The Last of Us Part II. The new PS4 exclusive sold an estimated 178,696 boxed copies in its opening week in Japan, beating Animal Crossing's total of 73,680. Still,...
News New Video Shows Yoshi In Action At Super Nintendo World
Another glimpse
Super Nintendo World in Japan appears to be coming along nicely. Just last week, we got our first look at spinning coins, and now we've got an even more exciting tease of Mario's sidekick Yoshi. The following clip has been uploaded by Twitter user @ywki_woo. It shows a life-size Yoshi model walking around a tree and then slowly...
Japanese Charts Ring Fit Adventure Surpasses One Million Sales, Nintendo Takes Entire Top Ten
Animal Crossing's still on top, of course
Remember these guys? Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 8th - 14th June, revealing that Ring Fit Adventure has now surpassed one million boxed sales in Nintendo's home region alone. The game has found itself regularly occupying the top ten since launch and this week's no different. It sold...
News Japan Is Getting A Medabot Collection On Nintendo Switch
Medarot Classics Plus contains eight titles
In the wake of Pokémon's astonishing success in Japan in 1996, many other developers attempted to ape the formula with their own RPG-style adventures. One of the more memorable was Imagineer's Medabot (or "Medarot" as it's known in Japan) series, which spawned a manga and anime and was focused on the...
News Nintendo, Creatures And Game Freak Apply For PokéToon Trademark In Japan
That might not be all, folks
Remember the new 'PokéToon' cartoon The Pokémon Company released earlier this month on its Kids TV channel? It was an animated short inspired by cartoons of America's Golden Age, where series such as Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes rose to fame. The episode itself was called 'Chase The Beans' and starred Scraggy - who is...
Animal trafficking
The incredible popularity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons – and the fact that many of the characters and items in the game are hard to come by during normal gameplay – has resulted in the establishment of websites which sell content in the game for real-world money. In Japan, it is reported that one of these organisation –...
News The Super Game Boy Is Now 26 Years Old
Only for Super Nintendo
If you're as old as some of us here are at Nintendo Life, you might have fond memories of the Super Game Boy. It was an adapter cartridge for the Super Nintendo that allowed you to play Game Boy and dual-mode Game Boy Color cartridges on the big screen - aka your television. Some games, like the Pokémon titles, even had...
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Keeps Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics From Top Spot
Nintendo takes nine of top ten
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 1st - 7th June, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still sitting comfortably at number one. The game shifted another 97,810 copies last week, keeping new release Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics in second place in its first week on sale. Nintendo's new...
News Konami Pulls The Plug On Nintendo Switch Exclusive Hyper Sports R
Track and failed
When Konami first shared the multitude of screenshots from its upcoming game Hyper Sports R back in 2018, it's fair to say that it didn't generate too much interest. The cartooney character models in this sports sim did seem a bit unusual, and perhaps this upcoming Switch exclusive was never going to capture the imagination of...
News New Video Shows Super Nintendo World's Spinning Coins In Action
What other secrets will be hidden inside?
We've been treated to a number of cheeky glimpses at the upcoming Super Nintendo World over the past couple of weeks, but this latest tease is arguably the most exciting of the lot. A new video has been shared online by Twitter user @thrillgeek, giving us a look at the park's coins. 'How can coins possibly...
News That 3D Crab Fighting Game Appears To Be Surfacing On Switch This August
The first rule of Fight Crab...
One game we've been keeping an eye on for some time now here at Nintendo Life is the utterly ridiculous Fight Crab. The premise is quite simple - two crustaceans enter an arena and only one comes out the victor. So, when will it be released? According to a listing on Play-Asia, it'll be surfacing in Japan on 20th...
News Bandai To Hold Super Mario Lottery In Japan With Really Cool Prizes To Be Won
We'll take them all
We often find ourselves feeling incredibly jealous of any lucky Nintendo fans who live in Japan and today's no different, as Bandai Spirits has revealed a brand new Super Mario lottery. Kicking off on 27th June, the lottery will be held at various stores across Japan including 7-Eleven, Ito-Yokado, and even Nintendo's very own...
News Here Are The Switch eShop's Best-Selling Games Of May 2020 (Japan)
Number one is a familiar sight
Yesterday, we shared a list of the top 15 most-downloaded Switch games in Europe for the month of May, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons had finally been knocked off top spot. But how are things looking in Nintendo's home country of Japan? Below, you'll find a list of the 20 best-selling games on the...
That's one impressive list
Nintendo recently applied for multiple trademarks on 12th May 2020 and each one has now been published. First up, is a trademark for the upcoming Switch release, Paper Mario: The Origami King, which is due out on 17th July. The other game mentioned is the much older 2006 Wii title, Excite Truck. It doesn't end there,...
News New Super Nintendo World Images Give Us Another Sneak Peek At The Park
Bowser's Castle, Mario flagpole and more
Just last week, we shared some intriguing aerial photographs of Super Nintendo World, the new theme park currently in the works at Universal Studios Japan. The images gave us a good look at the general layout of the park and its components, but now we have several more images taken from the ground. The park...
Review Space Invaders Invincible Collection - 40 Years Of History In One Package
Invaders Must Die
Considering we have been shooting them out of our virtual skies for entertainment over the past forty-two years, any sentient extra-terrestrial life form might not be too keen to drop in to say “Hello!” these days, and with good reason – Tomohiro Nishikado's original 1978 Space Invaders didn't just kickstart a cultural...
How to buy games from any region
One of the most exciting features of the Nintendo Switch is the fact that it's region free, a welcome move for a Nintendo home console. While it's a much-lauded feature, Nintendo won't be publishing any tutorials on how to set up multiple accounts any time soon, so this guide is here to help you out. After all, why...
News Yes, Sega's "Revolutionary" Announcement Is To Use Its Arcades As Cloud Gaming Data Centers
But is that a big enough scoop for you?
Last week, a Famitsu reporter teased a "revolutionary scoop" in this week's issue of the magazine. Initial reports stated that this could be related to a "fog gaming" system in Japan, and now the issue is available and has been properly translated, we're seeing more solid information appear. According to
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Denies Xenoblade Chronicles A Debut Week At Number One
With another 100,000+ copies sold
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 25th - 31st May, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still standing strong at number one. The game sold an estimated 102,749 copies last week - an almost identical figure to the week before - leaving this week's new Switch title Xenoblade Chronicles:...
News Sega's Game Gear Micro Might Not Be The "Revolutionary" Scoop Famitsu Has Been Teasing
Update: First details about the big scoop surface
Update (Wed 3rd Jun, 2020 09:30 BST): It's believed the big Famitsu scoop is a new arcade service/platform from Sega known as 'Fog Gaming'. It will supposedly allow game centers to make money outside of regular business hours At this point, it sounds like it'll be a Japan-only thing. Sorry folks!...
News Impressive Aerial Shot Of Super Nintendo World's Construction Surfaces Online
Update: Second photo shows park's entrance
Update (Mon 1st Jun, 2020 12:30 BST): A second aerial shot of Super Nintendo World has now been shared online, this time giving us a look at the entrance to the park. It looks like visitors will walk in via a giant green Warp Pipe, and there's even an adorable Super Star on the ground. Lovely stuff...
News Nintendo's Latest Patent Protects IC Tags Within Soft Toys
Like plush amiibo
Nintendo recently filed a patent that intends to prevent damage to IC tags within soft toys. As weird as this may sound, it seems to actually refer to the NFC feature contained within plush amiibo. One example of this is the Yarn Yoshi amiibo which was released in 2015. A similar patent dating back to 31st March of the same year...
Japanese Charts Animal Crossing Still Dominates As Switch Takes Nine Of Top Ten
Another mighty week
Famitsu's Japanese chart figures are now in for 18th - 24th May, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still leading the way for Nintendo. The game shifted another estimated 102,553 copies last week, bumping its grand total of physical sales in Japan to 4.5 million. The second best-selling physical Switch game in the...
Platforms still unconfirmed at this point
To mark the 34th birthday of the Dragon Quest series, Square Enix has announced a new trio of Dragon Quest games, all of which are based on the manga Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, which ran in Japanese magazine Shonen Jump between the years of 1989 and 1996. The biggest game of the three games is...
