Can You Become a True Knight in The Last Story?

Nintendo announces the upcoming release of The Last Story, the action-packed RPG from Final Fantasy developer Hironobu Sakaguchi.

The Last Story™ is the latest action-packed RPG to come from Hironobu Sakaguchi, available in Europe exclusively on Wii from February 24th 2012. The Last Story features time-honoured RPG gameplay and story elements but also adds modern twists to the traditional RPG formula. Customise your items and character and master the innovative combat system to succeed in this epic new RPG universe.

During The Last Story you take control of Zael and from time to time his partners, a band of mercenaries in search of their fortune. You undertake a series of missions and explore Lazulis Island and its sprawling medieval capital Lazulis City, while trying to help Zael achieve his ultimate goal of leaving his life as a mercenary behind and becoming a true knight.

The Last Story features a high level of customisation for both items and characters appearance. There are two main ways of customising your party’s equipment including visiting blacksmiths to increase their abilities and using dyes to change their colour. By visiting the various blacksmiths who are situated within Lazulis City and within some dungeons gamers can upgrade weapons and armour.

Unlike many other RPGs, The Last Story not only features a thrilling single player campaign with an engaging story, but also Online Multiplayer options including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Co-Op modes. Now you can battle against or alongside up to five other RPG fans from across Europe using your own customised character from the Single Player game.

Master the innovative combat system, customise characters and gather items discovered throughout the game, and by utilising new features in The Last Story take on the many enemies and bosses that can be found across Lazulis Island. Combat mixes traditional melee, ranged and magic attacks that are often found in RPGs with an innovative cover system and unique magical abilities. Gamers will have to master a mysterious ability called The Gathering to help Zael and his band of mercenaries complete their missions and battle vast bosses by discovering their weak spots, picking a suitable strategy and using team work to bring them down.

The Last Story, the latest action based RPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi launches across Europe exclusively for Wii on 24th February 2012.

For further information, please visit:

Nintendo UK: http://www.nintendo.co.uk
Club Nintendo: http://www.club-nintendo.com
Iwata Asks: http://www.iwataasks.co.uk

New Super Mario game for 3DS

SUPER MARIO 3D LAND™ launches across Europe on 18th November only for Nintendo 3DS™ and both fans and critics are already excited. The latest instalment in the Super Mario™ series has also sold well in Japan after launching earlier this month. After being on sale for only four days, 343,492 units of the game were sold making it the number 1 game in the country. In addition, sales of the Nintendo 3DS console more than doubled in Japan from 65,041 last week to 145,271 more than every other console combined.

Super Mario 3D Land marks the return of the timeless platforming fun of the Super Mario series and mixes classic 2D Mario action with the newer 3D style that fans of the Super Mario series will be sure to enjoy. SUPER MARIO 3D LAND has been made exclusively for Nintendo 3DS and fans can expect familiar yet challenging platforming action when the game launches across Europe later this week. The anticipation has been high and leading critics of Nintendo 3DS games have already been enjoying the new Courses and features:

IGN, 95% - “With an expertly balanced difficulty progression, dazzling level design and masterful Power-Ups, this is the ideal 3DS experience... As a whole, 3D Land is brilliant and addictive, and should do for 3D-enhanced platforming what the original Super Mario Bros. did for 2D platforming. If you own a 3DS system, you have no choice - you simply must own this game.”

Game Informer 95% - “It lives up to the level of quality set by previous entries and is easily the best reason to own a 3DS.”

Daily Telegraph, five stars - “SUPER MARIO 3D LAND is a sublime, precise platformer that presents Nintendo's remarkable level design skill in a new perspective”. “The charm, inventiveness and knowing nods to Mario heritage bring constant smiles, and it's not only a superb Mario game but a fantastic advert for the hardware it appears on”.

Get ready to master a mixture of new and classic abilities on your quest through the Mushroom Kingdom, as the fan-favourite Tanooki Mario returns in SUPER MARIO 3D LAND along with new guises such as Boomerang Mario and Statue Mario. By collecting a Super Leaf, Mario turns into Tanooki Mario giving him the ability to glide in mid-air as well as perform a tail attack; and the new Boomerang Flower gives Mario the power of a Boomerang Bro. and allows him to hurl boomerangs at enemies. You will also have fun mastering the many other abilities from the Propeller Box which makes Mario fly high in the air to the classic Fire Flower that allows Mario to throw fireballs at enemies.

During a recent Iwata Asks interview with the producers of SUPER MARIO 3D LAND, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata spoke to Takashi Tezuka, one of the leading producers behind the game, and asked him what drew him to the new game, he replied – “Tanooki Mario, I think. I was the one who made Tanooki Mario for Super Mario Bros. 3, but I think this game displays Tanooki Mario's features much better than in 2D. When you flip enemies, the tail spins right around, but in Super Mario Bros. 3, all you could do was smack left and right. This time you can wipe them out in a full 360-degree circle!”

Try out Tanooki Mario for yourself and many other guises as you explore the Mushroom Kingdom in SUPER MARIO 3D LAND, available exclusively for Nintendo 3DS across Europe from 18th November.

For more information about this and other features, visit www.nintendo.co.uk

A New Desert Adventure Awaits Link in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii

Nintendo has revealed more details about the captivating areas, items and gameplay in the The Legend of Zelda™: Skyward Sword, launching across Europe exclusively for Wii™ on 18th November 2011. This week, Link journeys through the Lanayru Desert where he must find his way through the puzzles in the Lanayru Mining Facility, sail across a sea of sand and discover new items to add to his collection. Newly revealed game elements include the following:

• Lanayru Desert and the Lanayru Mining Facility: In this vast area, surrounded in all directions by a sea of sand, Link must search for the Lanayru Mining Facility. As strange a place as this is, Link will encounter characters both new and familiar, such as Gorons. Inside the Lanayru Mining Facility, Link will encounter mine carts which contain Timeshift Stones through this expansive area, experiencing new puzzles and challenges. He must also face the dungeon boss Moldarach, a fearsome giant scorpion.

•Sandship: Later in his quest, Link returns to a different area of the Lanayru Desert as he sails across a sea of sand in search of a ship.

• New Items: In the desert, Link will receive two new items – the Clawshots and the Gust Bellows. The Clawshots allow players to grapple and pull themselves towards otherwise unreachable areas. The Gust Bellows can blow out a burst of air which can stun enemies and clear paths through piles of sand. Players will find the Gust Bellows essential to solving the puzzles in the Lanayru Mining Facility.

Nintendo will continue to provide fans with select details and information about the Wii game prior to its launch across Europe on 18th November.

This week Nintendo 3DS owners will also have the chance to receive via SpotPass™ a special 3D video of The Legend of Zelda Main Theme Melody which was performed as part of tThe Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony performances. Keep an eye out as additional special clips will be made available via SpotPass in the near future.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be available as a limited edition bundle, featuring a copy of the game, a CD featuring selected orchestral arrangements from the The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony performance and a rare gold-coloured Wii Remote™ Plus controller bearing the Hylian Crest. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment and to secure your copy.

For more information and videos about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword visit http://www.nintendo.co.uk/skywardsword

For more information about The Legend of Zelda™ visit http://www.thelegendofzelda.co.uk

For more information on The Legend of Zelda 25thAnniversary visit http://www.zelda25th.co.uk

See a full 3D video of the Berliner Philharmoniker with Nintendo!

Nintendo is giving you the chance to receive a 3D performance by the world famous Berliner Philharmoniker through Spotpass.

Available now via Nintendo Video™, the video shows an orchestral rehearsal of the “Russian Dance” from Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka filmed in full 3D. The Berlin Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute recorded the performance using their state of the art 3D equipment to showcase the classic performance more vividly and realistically than ever before.

The Berliner Philharmoniker has been at the forefront of introducing new audio visual technology for almost one hundred years; from taking part in the first audio recording of a symphony in 1913, to the first audio CD recording in 1981 and in 2010 the first recording of a classical performance in 3D..

The launch of the Berliner Philharmoniker 3D performance via Nintendo 3DS is the latest affiliation with a number of organisations that will deliver content to Nintendo Video users across Europe.

The exciting 3D download of the Berliner Philharmoniker is available on Nintendo Video for a limited time.

The SpotPass feature on the Nintendo 3DS console allows you to automatically receive a host of exciting content such as 3D videos for Nintendo Video, notifications, add-on data for your software and system updates without lifting a finger. SpotPass content can be received automatically and free of charge from thousands of supported public Wi-Fi access points across Europe and through wireless broadband internet connections at home. It works even if the system is in Sleep Mode.

For more information, please visit http://www.nintendo.co.uk/