Handheld Gaming News with Coffee week 50

Almost ready for the most festive time of year. Although, looking out the window while I’m typing this, you wouldn’t think it’s almost Christmas. The sun is shining, streaming into the house. Reminding me I shouldn’t be sitting here writing, but I should be cleaning that window. But then, this handheld gaming news has to be told! And there’s lots of it this week:

Have you found Pickachu wearing a Santa Hat?

Part of last weeks update in Pokémon Go has been the chance to find a limited edition Pickachu in a cute Santa Hat. You’ll have a chance to find him until December 29th. If you manage to evolve this Santa Pickachu, you will get Santa Raichu!
Some generation 2 Pokémon are appearing in the game too, hatching from eggs. You might find a Togepi or a Pichu in your eggs, or some special other little monsters. Think Elekid, Magby and Smoochum!

Pokémon Chat Palls in iOS

To stay in the realm of Pokémon: there’s this cool sticker feature you can use in iMessage ever since the update to iOS 10. Now you can also use Pokémon stickers in your messages. Looks good, not for free though. Over here in Europe it’s EUR 1,99.

 

Localisation of Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns

XSeed is hard at work translating the latest Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns for a Western release. A humongous task, as the Japanese text for the game is around 2 million Japanese characters (as compared to the first Story of Seasons, that was 1,7 million Japanese characters.) There are three towns that are featured in this game, but you won’t have to choose one of them. As it says on XSeeds’ blog:

Your farm is a hub area at the bottom of the map, from which you can access the three towns. While you cannot move your farm to any of the towns, the game features an astounding number of decorations and additions to give your farm a “Western,” “Eastern,” or “Tropical” flair. You can also choose costumes, crops, and even pets that will give your farm a consistent theme, or you can mix everything together. Each town has festivals, but in most cases, you won’t be forced to choose between festivals. There are also competitions in which all three towns participate.

Want to read more about this new game is coming along? You will find the blog here.
By the way, the latest update for the game in Japan brought them Russian iconic furry character, Cheburashka. This fictional animal with large ears that are as big as his head, is celebrating his 50th birthday. Sweet huh? Cheburashka, gaming news

Super Mario Run has hit the iOS App Store

Even if you are not really into gaming, it can hardly have escaped your attention: Super Mario Run was released yesterday in the AppStore. For now it’s just available for iPhone (or on your iPad), sadly not yet on Android devices. Nintendo says it will come to Android somewhere in 2017 (which is a wide margin, isn’t it?). In an interview, Shigeru Miyamoto gave us this reason:

“The security element is one of the reasons that we decided to go with iPhone and iOS first,” he said. “So this is just — based on the current development environment — a requirement that’s been built into the game to support security and the fact that the three different modes are connecting to the network and interacting with one another.”

Have you been able to play it? And what’s your first reaction? I played the first stages and as expected: me and Mario don’t go well together. I’m really, really awful, even a the first stage of the tour. The wall kicking is absolutely beyond my capacity. But I must say, the game looks amazing! For a one time pay of EUR 9,99 you can buy all six worlds to play in. No micro-transactions needed anymore, just unlock the entire game. Oh, and don’t forget to link the game to your MyNintendo Account. You’ll be able to play as Toad!

Choosing the Handheld Game of the Year 2016

In the past week I’ve put up polls for the three handheld gaming categories. Let’s choose our Vita Game of 2016, the favourite game for mobile and the 3DS Game of the Year! While I’m writing this, I’m seeing some clear favourites!

Mobile game of the Year 2016: Pokémon Go is in the lead, but this may change now that Super Mario Run has been released.

 

Best Vita game 2016Vita game of the Year 2016: much more of a close call for now. Dragon Quest Builders and World of Final Fantasy are in the lead.

 

3DS Game of the Year 20163DS game of the Year 2016: the poll has only been up for a couple of days, but there’ve been quite a few voters already. Pokémon Sun and Moon take the lead, but YoKai Watch 2 is doing well too!

 

Want to vote too? Just click on the image of your device of choice!
For now, I want to thank you for the chat, and wish you a lot of happy gaming this weekend!

 

4 comments

  1. I think they did a really good job at mario run!
    Looks great and lots of stuff to collect.
    After i don’t know how many tries i collected all purple coins in stage 1. Then the purple coins are placed in different places for a new challenge.
    It’s not my kind of game though, i’m not really good and get frustrated quickly.
    But well done Nintendo!

    I voted for Pokemon Sun in the 3DS game of the year poll. I really like it!

    1. I agree, well done Nintendo. And I don’t understand the moaning about the price. This one payment is better then constant little micro transaction for new levels!
      I’m awful at it, can’t even get past the second level..

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