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If you're a fan of the Nintendo DS and 3DS and the digital games that came to it, you may want to take some time to bulk up your collection. It seems that some DSiWare games have been removed from the eShop on those platforms. According to Twitter Come Out Punching, DSiWare titles like Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Mighty Flip Champs are no longer available to purchase on the Nintendo DSi and 3DS eShops. [Thanks, Come Out Punching!]

The issue is mainly affecting games released before mid-May 2011. At least in the case of Shantae: Risky's Revenge, the loss was news to Shantae's co-creator, WayForward CCO Matt Bozon.

https://twitter.com/MrBozon/status/1345913383657226245

Other affected DSiWare titles include racing game Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop, and even native Nintendo titles like Dr. Mario Express.

DSiWare games were first released in 2008 to accompany the Nintendo DSi, the company's first handheld platform with native internet connectivity. At the time, digital game stores, especially on consoles and handhelds, were new and untested. Publishers used the DSiWare and eShop platforms as a space for smaller titles. Nevertheless, the platform eventually hosted over 360 games. The DSiWare line was discontinued in early 2017, but the games were still available on the eShop and playable on a Nintendo 3DS.

Fans of Shantae, at least those with access to newer hardware, need not worry too much, though. Shantae: Risky's Revenge received ports on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

This DSiWare incident isn't the first time in recent memory that digital storefronts have proven less than reliable. Late in 2020, Sony dropped the ability to buy PS Vita, PS3, and PSP titles from the web and mobile editions of the PlayStation Network storefront, as part of its update to the store just before the PS5 launch. The move, coupled with the deteriorating technical state of store access on the older hardware (the PSP store was already inaccessible, and the Vita/PS3 stores increasingly unstable), meant that for many, digital versions of those games became almost impossible to buy legitimately.

The post Shantae and Other Classic DSiWare Games Deactivated From eShop appeared first on Siliconera.

The last call for the Nintendo DSi Shop is upon us. On March 31, 2017, people with Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL systems will no longer be able to purchase DSiWare from the handhelds’ online store.

This follows an announcement Nintendo made last year. On March 31, 2016, the company announced the digital distribution service’s closure. On September 30, 2016, the ability to add Nintendo DSi Points to an was removed. People can use any remaining points in their in the next few days to acquire applications and games, which could later be transferred to a Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 3DS system.

The Nintendo DSi originally launched in Japan in November 2008 and in the rest of the world in April 2009.

The post Reminder: Nintendo DSi Shop Closes March 31, 2017 appeared first on Siliconera.

Nintendo has put out a notice concerning the Nintendo DSi Shop. The European branch of the company says the handheld’s digital storefront will close in 2017. On September 30, 2016, people will lose the ability to add Nintendo DSi Points to their s, and on March 31, 2017, people won’t be able to purchase DSi Shop games. Nintendo hasn’t said when people will lose the ability to re purchased DSiWare games to their Nintendo DSi systems.

In the update announcing the DSi Shop’s closure, Nintendo confirmed that Nintendo DSi Points will not be refunded and can not be added to a Nintendo eShop balance. It also reminded people that DSiWare games can be transferred to a Nintendo 3DS if people the Nintendo 3DS Transfer Tool from the Nintendo DSi Shop and begin a System Transfer on the target Nintendo 3DS system.

The Nintendo DSi Shop launched in 2009, alongside the Nintendo DSi.

The post The Nintendo DSi Shop Will Be Closing In 2017 appeared first on Siliconera.

Circle Entertainment are among the publishers still releasing games for Nintendo DSiWare, despite the Nintendo 3DS having been available for a couple of years. The latest DSi game they’re publishing isn’t a game at all, but an app or sorts.

I am in the Movie is an app where you can alter the camera feed of the Nintendo DSi or Nintendo 3DS in realtime, adding special effects to it, such as thermal vision, cloaking, morphing, Matrix codes and more. You can also replace the background behind the actor with an image or motion video without the use of a greenscreen. Videos up to 10 seconds can be saved to the SD card as .AVI files.

If you already have a YouTube-ready video, you can import it into the app, and add effects to that. You can also record your own custom sound effects and use them in your videos, as well as add text, change the speed of your video and more. Screenshots can be taken from videos and saved to the SD card as well, as .BMP images.

I am in the Movie will be available on March 27th in the U.S.

The post Circle Entertainment’s DSiWare App Lets You Add Movie Effects To Your Videos appeared first on Siliconera.

The Nintendo DSi might be well past its glory days, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped publishing games for it. Heading Out Octopus is a new DSiware game that bills itself in the “Going out and Collecting” genre. In the game, players control Takorin, an octopus exploring the world. He’ll be able to go to more places as the story advances and he collects more items. All to be hoarded in his home, apparently.

It’s mostly a time-waster game, aimed right at getting kids to settle down, so don’t worry about the MS Paint-ish graphics. Takorin can be given a task to set out on a travel journey and it seems you will pretty much watch the slow journey as he gets there. There are apparently plenty of items to collect even post-story. You can also speed him up by cheering him on if you can’t wait the real-world minutes it will take him to get there, though you can also put the DSi to sleep and let him keep walkin’ on down.

Heading Out Octopus will be published for the Nintendo DSi on its eStore February 12th.

The post People Are Still Publishing DSiWare Games appeared first on Siliconera.

Circle Entertainment have a game on the Nintendo DSiWare service, titled Bookstore Dream. This is a simulation game that lets you manage your own bookstore. You deal with publishers, stock up on the most popular books, sell them to customers, and try to spread awareness of your store in the process.

A follow-up of sorts to this game is currently under development, and is titled Publisher Dream. This one’s more ambitious in that it involves the player running a videogame development studio. You manage different aspects of running a studio like income, what genres you work on, team sizes and so on, similar to the iOS title Game Dev Story.

The most interesting aspect of Publisher Dream, though, is that it’s based on Circle Entertainment’s own experiences.

“In this game, you play a role of the Triangle company, which sells game on the cShop,” Circle Entertainment CEO, Chris Chau, shared with Siliconera. “Every staff member in the game is real, and we also invited a few CEOs from other videogame developers to be part of it, such as Julio Moruno (Enjoy Up), Ivo Wubbels (Engine Software), Roderick Franklin (SDGT), Kou (FHW Japan), Peter Moraliyski (Moragami), and Hugo Smits (Goodbye galaxy games). They all get special abilities in the game.”

Game projects that your studio works on can be in different genres, and you’ll be able to choose what genre a project is in and the scope of the game as well. Smaller games can be completed quicker with relatively fewer staff assigned to them. While you work on your titles, you’ll also need to manage your studio’s finances in Publisher Dream. Income for your studio comes in every 12 weeks—ie; at the end of every financial quarter—so you need to figure out a strategy to consistently have enough money on hand to last you until your studio receives its next payment.

So, where does the money go? The main costs come from paying your staff their salary and keeping the studio running. Just like real life, delaying the development of your game or not asg your staff to projects during working hours will burn through your capital very quickly. Also, when you delay the development of a game, you’ll need to watch your staff’s stress level. One of the ways to help them release their stress is to allow for a break at the end of a project, instead of rushing them into another. You can also improve the office environment by implementing facilities like a coffee machine or adopting a cat.

As you go through the game, you’ll be given the opportunity to expand your studio, recruit more staff , and develop more games at a time. Of course, this also means having to pay more developer salaries, which means keeping a close eye on your finances, lest you run out of them.

As your studio grows, more of Publisher Dream’s features will start to show themselves. Indie developers will begin to you to see if you’re interested in their proposals, and you’ll have a chance to invest in and publish their games. Additionally, you’ll also receive e-mail from people who have played your games. These can be both positive and negative. A few examples of these include:

Subject: Keep working!

I wish I could play more games from Triangle!

 

Subject: Stop!

Congrats! Yet another boring waste of my time, your company has now been added to my blacklist!

 

Subject: Long time no hear

Wow! It’s been quite a while since we’ve received any news from you guys, when can we expect a new title?

The goal, Chau says, is to express how fun and stressful game development can be. Circle Entertainment are currently in the process of finalizing the game, and expect another month or so of development time.

The post Publisher Dream, The Game Where You Run A Videogame Studio appeared first on Siliconera.

Castle Conqueror – Heroes 2 is the second game in the Heroes subseries of Circle Entertainment’s Castle Conqueror series. The game takes place two years after the first one, although this is hardly an important detail as the game pays relatively little attention to story and characters. Heroes 2 focuses on strategic gameplay, which is simple yet challenging at the best of times and downright brutal at others.

The gameplay system for Heroes 2 is simple to the point that it is completely possible to play the game without reading what meager information the in-game manual provides. The battles are turn-based, and you basically choose and click the unit you want to move, where you want to move it, and what you want it to attack. That’s more or less it.

OK, so there are a couple more things to keep track of. For example, there are several kinds of units, but rather than having a rock-paper-scissor relationship like in many other games (from what I can tell), the units each only have one attack that differ in attack strength and range. Units with a firearm can attack others two boxes away on the grid, while those with a sword can only attack adjacent units. Some units are better for carrying out single attacks, while others are more powerful in sieges.

A siege attack is the game’s answer to combos. After you have at least one two units stationed around the same enemy, the siege attack allows all your units surrounding that one unit to attack once. This means that essentially, you can have every unit attacking twice if both your units use siege attacks.

In addition, if your units stand on certain areas with a line running through them (representing a supply route from one building to the next), they will be healed a small amount every turn. This is the only way to replenish HP for units, as thus far I haven’t seen any healing units.

In fact, the game practically encourages sacrificing your units. Every one of your units (and I keep using that word because they really are that generic) other than Commander units are completely expendable. Their loss won’t affect your story any, and in fact you can create another unit immediately in your base.

Unfortunately, this also means that the opponent plays by the same rules, and if you’re not careful, you can find yourself against a viciously regenerating army as you complete the objectives for the mission.

The Commanders are story-important characters and the missions usually revolve around them—keep your Commanders alive, defeat all the enemy Commanders, etc. They are often the most powerful characters, but more importantly, they each allow a certain number of characters to remain on the field. For example, if the opponent has two Commanders, they may be able to keep 6 units (including nameless units) on the field, but if you kill one, then they can only keep 3 on the field.

This makes Commanders natural targets. However, they often hang out in the back, and they have relatively large HP. (If you’re familiar with Starcraft, you can think of the Commanders as Overlords and the other units as Zerglings, haha.)

The same goes for the bases, which you can ‘defeat’ to capture. The buildings are where the units are churned out for a measly SP price, which can be accumulated through defeating enemies or opening chests on the battlefield, and each building can create as many units as you want in one turn. However, they also have enormous HP; plus, every time you attack them, they strike right back automatically.

All of these factors—the large HP of your two main targets and the easy regeneration of opponents—make for either a very challenging or a very tedious game, depending on your mileage. However, what it does for sure is change up your strategy from your average SRPG, which I feel is where Heroes 2 shines.

Despite the extremely simple system, the game kept me on my toes and forced me to think differently than just, “Overpower unit A. Move on to unit B. Repeat.” With Heroes 2, I had to be careful of defeating too many grunts because they’d just return immediately. However, I can’t ignore them because they can still pack a punch with their attack and especially with their siege attacks if they surround my units. In addition, the Commanders, who stay in the back, may suddenly charge forward and pick off my weakened units with their superior attack.

On top of this, the game loves to throw loops halfway through missions. Objectives may change, or reinforcements may appear right behind you as you’re just this close to winning. This means that if you kept your Commander in the back ranks, they’ll get wailed on by the newcomers with no hope of retaliation until next turn, by which your unit will be very well surrounded and assaulted by siege attack after siege attack. Good luck surviving that.

Castle Conqueror – Heroes 2 definitely stretched my strategy skills (almost nonexistent) and patience to the limit. Each of the 11 chapters (1 chapter per mission) is like a long boss battle with carefully planned moves and precisely-executed attacks, as sometimes, a mistake can destroy your chances of victory. In a way, Heroes 2 is like a puzzle game—or perhaps a chess game—that focuses heavily on the strategy and the challenge and has little care for story or characters.

Food for Thought:

1. The music ranges from able to elevator music style.

2. The graphics remind me of Legos, for some reason. For some reason, the disparity between the art style and the onscreen sprites—and especially the generality of all the sprites—was a big mark down in my book.

3. The first chapter took me 3 tries to complete. The game has a tough learning curve, I think.

The post Castle Conqueror – Heroes 2 Playtest: You vs. a Regenerating Army appeared first on Siliconera.

You’ve probably never heard of Circle Entertainment. They’re a small videogame developer based in Hong Kong, and their focus is on developing games for Nintendo DSiWare and the Nintendo eShop. So far, they’ve published over 20 games across the two services, with more on their way in the future. One of these is a Nintendo 3DS version of Ronimo Games’ Swords & Soldiers.

A developer with such a heavy focus on DSiWare isn’t something you see everyday, given the limitations of the Nintendo DSi’s online functionality. Out of curiosity, we caught up with Circle Entertainment CEO, Chris Chau, to find out how the company is run, what makes them tick, how successful they’ve been on DSiWare, and their future plans.

Circle Entertainment was founded in 2006. Since then, you’ve developed a lot of Nintendo DSiWare games. What do you think it takes to be successful on DSiWare?

Chris Chau, CEO: I don't think we can define our DSiWare games as “successful”. There’s definitely room for improvement with the titles that we've already released on there. Maybe someday in the future, once we’re making the best games we can possibly make, I would call it a success.

Many developers prefer to develop games that you play in short bursts for portable services, but Circle’s games aren’t necessarily like that. Bookstore Dream is a simulation game about running a bookstore; Castle Conquerer is a realtime strategy series; The Lost Town is an action-RPG series. Is there any particular reason you do genres that require more of a time investment, as opposed to games played in short spurts?

When we first started making able games, we had a lot of discussions internally [among our staff]. We knew the DS was a portable gaming device, and not a smart phone, so I believe players who chose a DS would want new gameplay experiences [that they couldn't get from mobile games].

We just want to try something new, regardless of the chances of it being successful or not. We don't want to get stuck and limit ourselves [to follow what everyone else is doing], so we decided to do something different.

Circle Entertainment has 21 employees, and you’ve developed a lot of different games these past six years. How do you divide responsibility among your staff?

The Chinese games industry is almost 15 years behind the western and Japanese markets. Most Chinese developers made games based on their short-term visions, which ultimately caused them a lot of piracy problems.

Six years ago, we devoted our ion to setting up Circle in Hong Kong. We tried to break into the Chinese market but we were sad to find that there was just no room for game developers [due to piracy problems and lack of from the authorities]. We got no technical , no human resources, no funding, no government that promotes game development or protects your intellectual properties. Nobody cared.

For the first four years, we failed miserably, until we got a chance to develop our first DSiWare title, Animal Puzzle Adventure, and released it on the Japanese DSiWare store. It showed us the potential advantages of releasing games via DSiWare.

By this, I don't mean that we saw huge success in of sales on our first DSiWare title, but DSiWare has generally been a better platform to help us achieve our dreams as a publisher.

For the first two years, we only had two employees. I’m the one that’s still around. Over the last two years, we’ve created 30 titles, some of which are still a work-in-progress.

This is how we assign our staff on each project: 1 + 1/3 + 1/3. That is, one programmer who works full-time on a single project, along with one artist and one planner who both handle three projects simultaneously. Additionally, we outsource our work whenever necessary.

Last month, we've welcomed our twenty-first staff member. Our staff understands their responsibilities and schedules very well. We’ve taught them to work independently and focus on their work, so they’re always keeping themselves busy. In fact, some of the games we’re developing now are based on ideas that originated two years ago.

Where do the ideas come from?

With regard to game ideas, we like being able to have idea discussion meetings at any time. Usually, we’ll come up with three or four ideas with our production teams for our next title. If one doesn’t work, we simply jump to the next, so we don’t waste time during production, which is why these meetings are very effective.

Meetings usually consist of discussion topics like “a new genre we want to work on,” following which we’ll try brainstorm a theme for it. For example [in the case of Bookstore Dream], you can imagine one of our staff walking through a bookstore, and us having discussed a simulation game the very same day.

That said, there’s no idea that can match up with what players want 100%. With that in mind, we need to make sure that once we’ve committed to an idea, we go through with it to the end, try to deal with any problems that arise during development, and put out the best product we can, regardless.

Once the game is out, we have review meetings where our staff pores over player that we’ve collected. These often serve as good teaching courses  for all of us.

Which of your games has been the most successful so far on DSiWare, and why do you think it was as successful as it was?

I’d see Bookstore Dream as a success, in the sense that it gave us the experience of making a simulation game. It’s a milestone for us. I think the fact that there are no other similar simulation games available on DSiWare or the Nintendo eShop gave us an advantage. It caught people’s attention.

I also think The Lost Town could qualify as a success. We tried to match up different ideas for this game such as zombies, tower defense, exploring a map, finding survivors and helpers, completing quests, Japanese game characters, and so on. We managed to compress all of that into 2-3 hours of gameplay, so it comes off as a “colourful” experience. The end result was that both Japanese and Western players were interested in the game.

Again, I should clarify that by “success,” I don’t mean we saw a lot of profit from those titles. Creating a new series is a painstaking process. Some developers have it easier in that they already own a famous brand and port it over from iOS to DSiWare, which is actually a very typical practice. We don’t care to do that. We just want to try out different things and try to get 5-star ratings out of our players.

21 employees is quite a bit, but the company seems to be doing well for itself. Are you finding DSiWare to be profitable?

Actually, we only have 11 staff working on digital games, and one retail game on multiple platforms. The rest work on iOS software for other industries and also do local translation work.

As far as I know, the revenue of games [from DSiWare] has shrunk of late, but the Nintendo eShop platform is very encouraging, so we want to invest more effort in that.

I’m also thankful to Nintendo. They’ve helped us many times in different ways. It’s not easy to start up Nintendo DS development with no in China.

One of the challenges of developing -only games is getting exposure and making sure that people know your games exist. How did you go about doing this with your DSiWare titles?

The good news is, Nintendo platforms are very well-established, which means they have promotional value due to the media being interested in them. We also send press releases to gaming sites and videos for public viewing before launch. But what really works for promotion is the votes you get from players. When people get on the eShop, if your game is inexpensive enough, they might give it a shot based on the player ratings.

You’re still developing DSiWare game, even though the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo eShop are now available. I spotted Publisher Dream and Ah! Heaven on your website, both of which have interesting titles. Could you tell us a little bit about those? I know Publisher Dream is about running a videogame company.

Ah! Heaven is a simple jumping game. As you know, people go to heaven after they die, but there’s no free lunch in this world, not even after you die. You have to find a way to reach heaven before it closes, and avoid devils who’ll try to send you to hell along the way. We’re using Ink Wash Painting, a Chinese art style, for the game’s artwork design. We currently in the process of tweaking it before the QA process.

Regarding Publisher Dream, that’s a simulation game about running a able games studio. The story is based on Circle Entertainment. Your goal is to work your way up to becoming a great game developer and publisher. We had a lot of fun testing the game ourselves, but we still need another month to finalize it.

I noticed you’re working on a version of Swords & Soldiers for the Nintendo eShop, titled Swords & Soldiers 3D. How did that happen? Did you approach Ronimo or did they come to you?

We reached out to Ronimo a few months ago. They’re very nice and they’re happy to do a 3DS version of Swords & Soldiers. Circle always wants to take on new projects in different genres, so Swords & Soldiers 3D can be a first step [to making more 3DS titles]. We’re still discussing with Ronimo the possibility of offering free DLC and a demo to players. I believe people will be able to see this title in a few months—perhaps next Spring.

Sweet Memories Blackjack was your first Nintendo eShop game. It was interesting that it’s a card game but also has slight dating-sim elements to it, like getting to know the girl you play with. Are dating-sims a genre you’re interested in investigating further?

Sweet Memories Blackjack is a port of a Japanese iOS title. The gameplay works well for the Japanese market and the original designer is Japanese. Some Americans like Japanese culture and manga, though, so this combination of Japanese characters and Blackjack was well accepted. It was a pleasant surprise. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, so we’ve discussed the idea of more content for the sequel, Poker Night, with the original designer.

What are your thoughts on the Nintendo eShop and the 3DS? Based on what you’ve seen of them so far, do you think they’re different from DSiWare and the DSi in any way that will change how you develop games for them?

I think every new platform such as 3DS, Wii U, and PlayStation Vita has its perks, but the time we have to work on each one is limited. Now that there are more able games for 3DS available on eShop, we need to react to the trend, and invest our time and money on exploring different options.

The other good reason for us to 3DS is because it allows players to games to their SD cards. I know a lot of DSi owners want to more games off DSiWare, but can’t, because their system memory is full. In the future, I believe the eShop can be a strong platform that offers incredible value to s, but for that to happen, it must provide good games, and not shovelware.

Do you have plans for expansion in the near future?

In the future, we want to focus on the strategy genre—that includes simulation, strategy RPGs, real-time strategy games and so on. Maybe you could call simulation a genre for “hardcore” gamers, but we believe we can come up with new ideas that make it fun for everyone. Aside from that, we’d also like to keep trying our hand at other genres like action games or platformers.

This year, we released a few more DSiWare titles, and we’re now getting a smaller partnership company in Tokyo. It’s very small, but they’ll be focusing on Japanese marketing and translation work. This will give us a chance to bring games from our western partners to Japan.

We also want to help more indie developers, and to provide basic funding to them to start up their own Nintendo DS or 3DS titles, since they remind us where we came from. They could use the help and we’re honoured to be their friends.

Lastly, I’d like to be able to release 15 to 20 games in 2013.

Anything else you’d like to say to your followers?

Ishaan, I’ve got to say, Circle is ambitious. It’s a new experience for us to try different genres. We want to explore more opportunities to create new titles and the possibility to develop sequels if we make a good game. In the future, we’ll keep working on games for portable devices, especially digital games. I’d like to invite every player, including you, to comment on our games, and even challenge us. We’d like to learn from that experience.

The post Circle Entertainment: The Indie Nintendo er You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on Siliconera.

Japanese developer, SilverStar, and publisher Agetec, have a series of able platformers titled Rabi Laby (Rabbit x Labyrinth), where you control Alice and a talking rabbit named Rabi to coordinate and make your way through the games’ stages.

The Rabi Laby games started out on Nintendo DSiWare, and in January, Rabi Laby 3 brought the series to the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS—in Japan, that is.

In North America, the first game was released in early 2011, after which Agetec went quiet on the Rabi Laby front. Since we hadn’t heard from them about the series in an entire year, we assumed we wouldn’t be getting any more of the games.

That changed last week, when Rabi Laby 2 quietly slipped out onto DSiWare in North America. The game costs $2, and it finally turning up probably means we’ll get to see Rabi Laby 3 at some point, too. In fact, Agetec have actually been quite busy on the U.S. DSiWare—just look at all the games they’ve published on the service so far, many of which are from SilverStar as well.

The post Rabi Laby 2 Finally Comes Out Of Hiding And Onto Nintendo DSiWare appeared first on Siliconera.

Club Nintendo in the U.S. have a new able game reward available today—Starship Defense for Nintendo DSiWare. This is a sci-fi-themed tower defense game developed by Q Games (PixelJunk series, StarFox 64 3D). The difference is that, instead of defending an actual tower, you’re defending a starship.

In Starship Defense, you move from area to area on the starship, which is displayed on the lower screen. Turrets can be created using energy gained from defeating enemies, and you can place these all over your starship.

Starship Defense has 30 stages and you can it for the Nintendo 3DS in exchange for 150 coins.

The post New Club Nintendo Reward: Sci-Fi Tower Defense Title, Starship Defense appeared first on Siliconera.

No Virtual Console releases this week, but vertical shooter, 3D Classics: TwinBee, is being released on the eShop instead. Similar to Xevious (also available as a 3D Classic), in TwinBee, one button fires while another drops bombs.

In TwinBee, you can shoot clouds in the sky to uncover bells, which grant extra points or power-ups. Unfortunately, the game’s 2-player mode has been taken out for the 3D Classics release. The game costs $4.99 on the eShop.

Another game on the eShop (and DSiWare) this week is Escape Trick –Ninja Castle-, a puzzle game where you play as Raiko, a ninja trapped inside a castle sprawling with trips. You have to solve puzzles in order to escape alive.

Escape Trick –Ninja Castle- costs $4.99, too.

The post 3D Classics: TwinBee Buzzes To The Nintendo eShop This Week appeared first on Siliconera.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition for DSiWare adds a bunch of new features to the Game Boy Advance version. The last time we covered it, we reported it would have a new single player mode and unlockable stages and abilities after you beat the game. Now, we know a little more about these.

When you play Four Swords Anniversary Edition in single player mode, an additional Link will appear beside the one you’re in control of. You’ll be able to independently control each one by selecting them with the L and R buttons.

Four Swords Anniversary Edition has two new areas to play, each with three levels, and you can complete them to get access to new skills.

“Hero’s Trial” gets you the Hurricane Spin, while “Realm of Memories” unlocks the Master Sword. Hero’s trial is a mix of elements from stages already in the game, while Realm of Memories is made up of famous locations from other Zelda games.

You can grab The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition for free from September 28th onwards on DSiWare.

The post The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords On DSi Adds Two New Areas To The Game appeared first on Siliconera.

While last night’s Nintendo press conference was primarily focused on the Nintendo 3DS, we also got a few details on The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition for DSiWare, which will be made available as a free on September 28th.

Four Swords Anniversary Edition will include a new singleplayer mode and will unlock new stages and abilities after you’ve beaten the game. Here’s screenshots of what it looks like:

The post Take A Good Look At The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition appeared first on Siliconera.

Nintendo of Europe just shot out a release list for the remainder of the year. Note that the list isn’t exhaustive and appears to be missing games like Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar and Rune Factory 3, which were due out in September, last we heard.

Oh, and I suppose we should mention that The Last Story and Pandora's Tower are officially confirmed for a 2012 European release as well. They're at the very bottom of the list.

The post These Games Will Hit Nintendo Systems In Europe This Year appeared first on Siliconera.

This week’s notable Nintendo s see the release of three new DSiWare games and one 3DS Virtual Console title. Leading the charge is a name that should be familiar to some of our readers -- Pro Jumper! Guilty Gear Tangent!?, the Chimaki-starring platformer. This will set you back 500 Points (or $4.99).

Alongside it are Stratego: Next Edition (pictured to right; game page here), and a puzzle game, Delbo (game page here). Finally, bringing up the rear on the 3DS Virtual Console front is Tennis, originally released on the Game Boy in 1989.

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