Nintendo announces 3DS versions of Pikmin, Super Mario Maker

Nintendo Direct, September 1, 2016.

Nintendo hosted another of its YouTube-only press conferences on Thursday, but if you came expecting news about the forthcoming Nintendo NX console, too bad; that’s coming later this year (possibly this month). This presentation instead focused on the Nintendo 3DS system, and its announcements of early-2017 software may mark the portable console’s last hurrah before the launch of the NX, which is rumored to be a home/portable hybrid.

Leading off the news was a still-unnamed, side-scrolling version of Pikmin. The long-running “garden strategy” series has been reimagined as a puzzle-platformer with Lemming-like elements—meaning that your main character, Olimar, will throw different-colored Pikmin to solve small puzzles and progress through linear levels. The brief demo footage looked pretty rough, with simple puzzles, low-poly characters, and a rough frame rate, so we imagine there’s a lot to be done on this game before its “spring 2017” launch. This may very well be the upcoming Pikmin game that series creator Shigeru Miyamoto has been teasing for some time—unless there’s another Pikmin coming to NX, at any rate.

Also launching in that vague “spring” window is Mario Sports Superstars, which looks like a last-gasp mash-up of other Mario-branded “action sports” games. At least it won’t be small, as the game appears set to feature full takes on the Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Mario Sluggers games—along with the first 11-on-11 Mario soccer mode and Mario’s first-ever horse-racing game. Sadly, this release won’t include a refresh of the three-on-three, arcade-minded Mario Strikers soccer game, but it will at least feature online multiplayer. Still, this looks mostly like a “greatest hits” bundle of older 3DS games to prolong the aging 3DS’ lifespan a few more months.

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Source: Ars Technica – Nintendo announces 3DS versions of Pikmin, Super Mario Maker