Retro Weekly Roundup – 18th September
It’s time for another Retro Weekly Roundup here at Rings & Coins, and it’s been a big week for one company in particular.
Despite the start of the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, the biggest news of this past week has to be the announcement regarding the next President of Nintendo. This is something I have detailed in its own specific post which can be found here. Needless to say though the appointment of Tatsumi Kimishima seems to be a good choice by Nintendo, and Rings & Coins is looking forward to all the future announcements and releases from the iconic company.
Speaking of Nintendo, the Pokémon Company made a really interesting and exciting announcement this week in the form of Pokémon Go. However, Pokémon Go is a very different prospect all together, one that looks very enticing for any child of the 90s who dreamed of hunting for their very own Pokémon for real. You see Pokémon Go is actually an augmented reality game which will allow trainers to hunt, train, battle and even trade virtual Pokémon that will appear in real life locations. Being developed in conjunction with Niantic, Pokémon Go will be released for iOS and Android next year. President and CEO of The Pokémon Company Tsunekazu Ishihara stated the following about the announcement of the game:
Our challenge was to develop a great game for smart phone devices that expressed the core values of Pokémon. Pokémon GO is the answer to that challenge.
The game will also be released alongside a Bluetooth-powered device called Pokémon Go Plus. This device that players can wear on their wrists, like the trainers in the main Pokémon games and Anime, will alert players that something important is happening within their game. Despite making the game more streamlined and easier for players to manage, it has been stressed that the device will not be required to play the game. This may be a slightly different prospect for the Pokémon series, but as a title to complement the main series, this certainly is one exciting project.
In other news that coincidentally is connected to Nintendo, Game and Watch enthusiasts Gerard Meyer and David Gschmeidler have this week released an Unofficial Game & Watch Collector’s Guide Book. Available in both English and German, this guide book features photography, history, and rarity ratings concerning all things Game and Watch across 208 pages. The book isn’t cheap at €39.95 for the standard edition, and €59.95 for a limited edition copy, but for any fan of the handheld devices, or Nintendo’s history in general, then this quite possibly is a must buy.
Next up, and in what may seem like a slightly silly but nonetheless awesome piece of news, a range of shoes dedicated to SEGA’s consoles is coming to Japan. Created by Japanese sneaker brand ANIPPON, each pair of shows will be dedicated to one of SEGA’s consoles. From Mega Drive to Dreamcast, each pair features imagery based on the console’s Japanese appearance. What’s more, the boxes these shoes come in also pay homage to the iconic consoles, replicating the original Japanese boxes for the consoles as well. Each pair will cost 7500円 ($62), and are currently on sale at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show.
And finally, this week saw the announcement that the 1991 Game Boy title Final Fantasy Adventure (titled Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden in Japan) will getting another re-release. Despite being titled Final Fantasy, the game is not strictly a Final Fantasy title, instead acting as the predecessor to 1993 Super Nintendo title Secret of Mana. This was as such corrected in the game’s 2003 re-release and reconstruction for the Game Boy Advance, whereby it’s name was changed to Sword of Mana, alongside many other changes. Now the game will be released once more, this time for iOS, Android and the PlayStation Vita, although we don’t yet know what the game will be titled in the west just yet.
Once again that’s it for another Retro Weekly Roundup, but make sure to keep it Rings & Coins for all your Retro gaming needs. As always check back next week for all the latest going-ons from the world of retro gaming.
Pingback: RetroVision - The Many Names of Seiken Densetsu Part 2 - Rings & Coins
Pingback: News - Pokémon Go Takes The World By Storm - Rings & Coins