Archives: 3DS

News… Finally!

I should have posted this yesterday, but i’ve been a little addicted to the adoption agency myself… whopps.

Ok, so first up, Pokemon Rumble Blast has a European Release date… sort of. Only listed as December in the 4th Quater Release Schedule, the Re-named (again) Super Pokemon Rumble is a 3DS title that features toy Pokemon which you collect and then battle. They’ve changed the name of it again so its more like the Japanese title and nothing like the US title, probably just to confuse all of us down the line (another Trozi/link fiasco)

Next item, Remember that Online Program on found on the official Pokemon site which allowed you to learn the Trading Card Game, along with playing against AI controled opponents? Well that’s due to go full version which allows you to collect cards, build your own deck and play against other, real people online. Well the program has entered the open beta stage. What this means is that anybody can now play against other people online, as well as get cards and build decks… BUT since its still in beta stages, it may not work 100% and there may be still bugs to work out. Still, if you dont think the AI opponents were challenging enough, or you want a bit more customised deck than the pre-constructed decks, then you may want to start using it now.

Speaking of Pre-constructed decks, the latest TCG, Emerging Powers, set has had their theme decks this week, with the booster packs being sold in a couple of weeks time. Both Toxic Tricks (a psychic/fire deck) and Power Play (a Fighting/Water deck) have online codes which will allow you to play those decks in the Trading Card Online… see, its all connected!

Incidently, the next English TCG set has been announced as Noble Victories and will be based around Victini (well not the whole set, but Victini will feature in it, and probably be in both Theme Decks as there are different types of Victini cards, it could work (theme deck wise anyway) like Arceus did in the Arceus set, where there was a different Arceus in each Theme deck. Noble Victories will be out sometime in november.

And that’s all the news we have for you at the moment – more when we learn it

Not Unexpected At All…

Sorry for the lack of updates, but to be honest its been a bit of a news lull around here… and we’re busy behind the scenes on various things relating to and not relating to the website.

News comes out of America today that was completly expected eventually. The new 3DS game IS getting an english port. Now renamed Pokemon Rumble Blast, the 3DS game will be out on October 24th in America.

An updated version of the Wiiware game, Pokemon Rumble Blast features all Pokemon from Black and White as well as those of the older games, all in toy form. It also has a few new modes, including Charge Mode (where you take control of a team and charge into battle like 2 armies) and Team Battle (Where you control 3 Pokemon at once) as well as having Street Pass functionality.

No details on a European Release (yet, expect one in the next couple of months), but there IS a trailer available, which you can see below.

We’ll bring you more news when we learn it

New Game

Sorry we’re late on this news, we’ve been having a bit of technical difficulties in posting the news. The good news is that there has really only been one piece of news that’s been released during our problems, the downside (for us) is that it was a big piece of news

The big N kept this quiet but in a couple of weeks on July 28th, Japan will have a brand new Pokémon game released on the 3DS. Dont worry, its not a 3D version of Black and white, and the chances we’ll get it over into the West is fairly high as well.

Super Pokémon Scramble is a successor to the Wiiware game which was renamed Pokémon Rumble over in English Speaking Countries. The game saw you controling a toy version of a Pokémon, battling other Pokémon and, of course, collecting other toy Pokémon to use as well. Being a full game rather than a download title, the 3DS version will have new additional modes, along with more Pokémon to obtain. To start off with, Many of the new Pokémon from Black and White will be in the game along with Pokémon from the older generations.

Along with the standard mode and the battle royal mode from the original game (although they are both enhanced and improved upon), the game features a Collection Battle mode, where you’ll constantly battle all of the pokemon you’ve collected so far and a Charge mode, where you obtain an entire army of pokemon and charge them into battle against an opposing army. There will most likely be other modes unknown to us until the game launches

Super Pokémon Scramble also comes with Street pass capabilities, allowing you to Exchange team info with anybody you pass by as you walk around with your 3DS in sleep mode. Once you’ve got a street pass from someone, you’ll be able to fight thier chosen pokemon as a boss battle.

Super Pokémon Scramble is released for 3DS in Japan on July 28th. A Western Release is unknown at this time.

That’s all we have for you now, we’ll bring you more when we learn it (as long as our technology will allow it)

New News… and sort of new old news…

Wow, I am really behind on the news front – sorry. I’ve been very busy, and ill and very busy again… not neccessarily in that order.

Ok, first up, if you didnt know already, the Dream World Eeveelutions are available now. If you played the special game on pokemon.com that was available for a limited time and managed to link a befriended Eeveelution to your Trainer ID account, you can now claim this Eeveelution to download to your black or white game. Head on over to the Global Link and log in, then head to the promotions section. Click on the Eeveelution promotion and then the Submit button – if you’ve done everything right with the mini-game, you’ll head to a special section of the Island of dreams where clicking on the shaking section will reveal your special Eeveelution – the next time you sync up your Game cart to allow things from the Dream World back to your game, this Eeveelution will head there too. For more details on the dream world and how to recive your pokemon from the dream world in your Black/White game, head to our guide on the Global Link, which can be found hotlinked on the left. Be quick though, the Eeveelution promotion will only last until July 19th, if you dont claim your Pokemon by then, you wont be getting your hands on it ever

Thankfully not a lot of news has been released while i’ve been on hiatus – but the Japanese Movie Giveaway has been given more details. While Pre-ordering your tickets will get you a Victini, the pokemon you get for actually seeing the movie itself actually depends on your game. Black players can get Zekrom while White players will be able to get Reshiram. Since this is the other legendary beast that you capture normally during your game, this will allow all those japanese players to complete the set.

And now for the latest, and in my opinion greatest news from the Pokemon camp. On Monday evening the 6th of June for the US and Tuesday Morning the 7th June for the UK/Europe, an update for the Nintendo 3DS will be made available, allowing the Internet Explorer to be used along with giving us access to the new eShop. One of the first programs being made available will be a Pokedex ‘app’ that will not only allow you to view stats, move lists, breeding groups and other usefull information on all Unova Dex Pokemon, but allow you to see all these pokemon in Full 3D, Take pictures in both Pre-rendered backgrounds and in real life (with the use of Augmented Reality). And best of all, this Pokedex will be completly free!

But of course, it would be too easy just to give you details on all 156 pokemon straight away from the get go, so like any pokemon trainer your going to have to work for your completed pokedex. You start of with 16 profiles unlocked. Each day you can use the Spotpass (by connecting to Wi-Fi) to download 3 random profiles. You can also trade profiles with friends (although street pass would be awesome for this, I’ve been reading reports that this doesnt have Street pass capability and you can only trade with people via wireless). QR codes (you know, those square barcode things) can be scanned into the game to give you access to stickers that get placed in a sticker album. Having these stickers greatly increasses your chances of getting that pokemon randomly via Spotpass. Considering this little program is free, it is a must for all 3DS owning Pokemon Fans

Thankfully that’s all the news I’ve missed, and I promise to be more on top of things from now on – we’ll bring you more news when we learn it

Black and White… in 3D???

So here’s an interesting piece of news that was kind of dropped on everybody. According to a ‘buying guide’ for the Nintendo 3DS by gaming website IGN, Pokemon Black and White might have some kind of 3D support on the forthcoming handheld system

While it wont be in Full 3D like games made specifically for the system, IGN said that the 3DS will be backward compatible with DS games, which will play as normal – but some recent releases, including (and specifically naming) Pokemon Black and White will have “some enhanced functionality”

What that means, we dont know… we’re not even sure if its a genuine comment, or if IGN accidently mistaken the DSi extras (like the face to face conversation mode – Xtransceiver) as only available on a 3DS (which they will be, but not only)

It’s also not unheard of that a game having enhanced features on the next ‘console’ – upon the release of the Gameboy Colour, lots of remakes of classic Gameboy games came out with a DX after the name (Super Mario Land and Zelda: Links Awakening to name 2) – the games worked on normal Gameboys, but were in colour on a GBC, while Links Awakening had a whole new dungeon available only on the Gameboy Colour. Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages, while being Gameboy Colour games, had additional features available to you if you were playing the games on a Gameboy Advance

Pokemon is no stranger to this action either. The original Gold and Silver were built for the original Gameboy, but were available in Colour when played on a Gameboy Colour… could the same happen again. Could Black and White, when played on a 3DS, have some sort of 3D effect over the battles – it would be perfectly made for it.

We’ll find out more about the enhancements later this month when Japan gets its 3DS released/

On a side note, following up yesterday’s Mammoth amout of translated names, there’s another one revealed on the official website, Karakusa town, the first town you travel through (which, as standard, doesnt have a gym), is now called Accumula Town

We’ll bring you more news when we learn it!

News, News, More News and Even More News

Lot to get through today, so lets start off with:

NEW BLACK AND WHITE ENGLISH NAMES

The official nintendo magazine from the UK has annouced a couple more new English pokemon names, they are as follows:

From Doryuuzu, this guy’s name is now Excadrill

This used to be Kurumiru, now its Sewaddle

Lastly, this was Mamanbou and now its Alomomola

Also revealed in the article… the move Bug Opposition is now Struggle Bug, while Drill liner now becomes Drill Run. The Highlink feature (which allows you to head to other players games for some quests and fun) is being called Entralink. The DSi feature that allows for video communication between players (which is also used somewhat during the main story) is now known as Xtransceiver (which should techically be called the cross transceiver – but who will honestly call it that)

US TOYS ‘R’ US PIKACHU DOWNLOAD

News the second: So while the legendary dogs are being made available gamestop (and celebi will be available soon there as well), Toys ‘R’ Us are about to hold thier own download event. From Jan 30th from Feb 13th, you’ll be able to get Ash’s Pikachu. Being the same one that Japanese players were able to download a few months back, it will be level 50, holding a light ball and know the moves Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Volt Tackle and Iron Tail (the main 4 moves Ash’s Pikachu uses in the anime) – the OT will even be Ash!

NEW ANIME SERIES HEADING TO USA
As expected, the latest series of the Anime following Ash’s adventures in the Unnova Region is heading to the US. In Japan, this series is cleverly titled Pokemon Best Wishes – which initials, BW is the same as Black and White – Clever huh? In America this series will also be cleverly titled as Pokemon Black & White… oh well, maybe being straight forward is the new ‘in’ thing.

BIG NINTENDO ANNOUNCEMENT
So, today was a big announcement day today for Nintendo – the big N held Simultanious press confrences on either side of the Atlantic today anouncing the one thing we all want to know…

Also available in blue

When does the Nintendo 3DS come out over here and how much will it cost?

Ok, so that was 2 things… But we got the answers to both along with a preview of a few of the games coming to the system (that any future Pokemon games will most likely be made for) and a few peices of technical info about the console

Between the launch day and E3 in eary June, Nintendo expect 30 games to be released, and that’s both first and 3rd party games. The launch day line up however is a bit vague, with no exact details on what games will be available on either side of the pond.

As for the console itself, there’s some pretty impressive stuff announced. Along with the stuff we already knew of (anolgue stick like controler, 3D slider to adjust/turn off 3D effect, SD card reader (with a 2GB SD card coming with the console) 3 cameras (one on the inside, 2 on the outside, allowing you to take 3D pictures) and an inbuilt tag mode, allowing you to transfer tag mode data even if the game is not in the console) we also lernt that the system will have inbuilt AR games, allowing you to play with the enviroment as you view it and an inbuilt game which allows you to shoot and a funny depiction of your face (or anybody else you’ve taken photo’s of), a Mii creater will allow you to make Mii’s again, although this time you can take a photo of yourself and it will then use that to make a base (which you can edit afterwards, dont worry) – Mii’s can be traded via the tag mode automatically… the 3DS will also have a pedometer, so you can see how far your walking when your trying to pick up new mii’s and swap tag mode data for various games.

Later on in the consoles life, an update will release a Web Browser and open up an eShop, with old Gameboy and Gameboy colour games, plus original stuff as well – will it also carry on the DSi’s Demo service, we can only hope.

The most exciting news about the console (after release date and price, obviously) is the new Friend Codes system – working more like Xbox and PS3’s internet systems, your console will have a Friends Code you can pass to other people – again, you’ll both need to register each other’s code before you can play with each other… but unlike the Wii – each game will not require another friends code. That’s right, only 1 code per customer. Upon registering each other code, not only will you be able to play with each other on any game you’ve (each) got – but its said that you’ll also be able to browes a list of all the games your friends have been playing – its how the big consoles currently work anyway, so it shouldnt be too much of a worry.

If you are worried about what your child is doing on the console, there will be parent controls that will limit the time playing on the web or completly turn off the 3D effect (amongst others, probably) -just make sure that the pin code you use to program these doesnt fall into your childs hands… that would defy the point!

But when is the console coming out? Well Americans can buy this new console on Sunday, March 27th (3 weeks after Black and White is released). It will be priced at $249.99 (save now and save quick). Us Europeans however also get the system 3 weeks after Black and white, on Friday March 25th. The price wasnt announced at the confrence, instead they said it will be up to retailers. Most European contries seem to be setting the console at €249.99 while the major UK Games shops are pricing at around £229.99 – which seems around standard compared to the other prices set.

Well – that was a lot of news… and we’ll bring you more when we find it out!

More CoroCoro Info

Several new scans have been released from this month’s CoroCoro magazine revealing a wealth of new features for Black and White. First of all, we’ll cover something we missed in the last batch of scanns. In the first 2 pictures after the jump in our last article, one showed the Black City while the second showed the White Forest. These two areas are version exclusive, although we don’t know which area will appear in which version. They should, however, appear in the same place.

An amendment has been made to 2 Pokémon names. the error occurred due to the placement of the name in one of the scans, but it turns out that Rankurusu is the Green Cell like Pokémon, not the Black Purple Humanoid one, which is Gochiruzeru, we (and everyone else in the Pokémon fan community) apologise for any confusion from this.

Right, onto the next bacth of scans. First of all we have a new move announced, Magic Room. This can be learnt by Rankurusu (the green one, remember), and basically negates all effect by held items (both yours and your opponents).

We know a bit more about 3 on 3 battles. Apparently, placement will play a big part in these battles, making them even more strategic. It looks like who ever is in the front of your party will be in the middle of the battle, and that damage from attacks can be different depending on where the Pokémon is positioned in a battle. You should be able to change the positions of the Pokémon around during a battle (but that’s not confirmed yet)

There’s a big building in the middle of the Isshu region where something called ‘High Link’ will be available. This option seems more like something from the Mystery Dungeon games, allowing you to take missions to help out other players, although exactly how this works is unknown.

Want to know what the DSi exclusive feature is? Well this month’s CoroCoro reveals that an item called a TV Transceiver will allow you to use a function called ‘Live Caster’ – this will use the DSi (and 3DS) camera to do video chat with other users. Over Wi-Fi you’ll only be able to do 2 player, but over local wireless you’ll be able to do up to 4 people in a video chat.

Interestingly, it looks like there will be a 3DS exclusive feature as well, using the 3DS’s internal version of the Tag Mode communication method. Dubbed ‘Passing By’ in Black and White, it will allow you to help other people as you pass by them once you advance on your journey. Exactly how is unknown, and its not 100% confirmed this is using the 3DS version of tag mode (meaning you don’t need the game in the console) or if its the standard version requiring the game to be put into sleep mode which is used in various DS games currently (such as Nintendogs, where it was first introduced).

That’s all we have now, check out the latest batch of CoroCoro scans after the jump (they’re not much to look at unless you read Japanese)

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Nintendo Revals New Handheld System

Today (or yesterday if you’re in Japan) Nintendo revealed some details about a new Handheld system they plan to have released in Japan by this time next year (or end of March 2011 if you want a specific time frame).

Currently known as the Nintendo 3DS, the system will allow the player to experiance games in 3D (do you see what they’ve done with the name there). While not much is known about the console yet, it is said that the games will be in 3D without the player needing to wear any special glasses, and that it will be fully backwards compatible with the DS and DSi games (although are there any actual DSi games out there, cause I’ve never seen one).

The current rumour is that the system will be able to create an illusion of depth based on the position of your head, which it picks up via a special sensor detecting head movement. This rumour has come about based on an interveiw from Satoru Iwata who said the next DS should be able to “read the movement of people playing”

Nintendo is due to unvaile the console and more details at E3 in June. We’ll bring you more news when we know it. In the meantime, dont forget to swing by the Forums and post, especially if you wish to discuss Heart Gold and Soul Silver