Last year, Niantic held their first outdoor event festival dedicated to Pokemon Go in June. It was held in Chicago Grant Park and the idea was for players to meet, catch the rare Pokemon, Lugia, and create an event that people have been asking for since the creation of Pokemon Go. It didn’t go as planned.
Huge issues occured such as failed cellar connectivity, huge lines, sign in issues, and the inability to play the game frustrations and led to lawsuits. People were understandably frustrated and Niantic responded by offering to refund the 20,000 attendees the ticket price of the Chicago event and offer $100 of in-game currency. Niantic was involved in a class action lawsuit and will be paying $1,575,000 to refund the attendee’s ticket prices along with airfare, hotel fees, parking, car rent and fuel, and toll fees.
According to documentation in the Chicago court, the settlement should be solve by May 25th and victims will receive emails regarding the payment. There are check systems to ensure people aren’t lying about attending the event. You’ll need proof that you checked in at the Go Festival in Chicago and anybody who has spent over $107 must provide receipts to receive full reimbursement. If there is any leftover money, the remaining balance will be split evenly and donated to the Illinois Bar foundation and the nonprofit organization Chicago Run. Niantic will not receive any money for the event.
Business View:
From a business POV, its great to hear a company apologizing to their users. Recently, gaming companies have been closely inspected for poor business practices. Niantic has been working to create smaller, focused events such as raids for Pokemon Go and has clearly learned from their mistakes from the Chicago Go Fest. They have continuously improved and updated on the game and still remains as one the most downloaded app.
Nintendo will be hosting a tournament at E3 for Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch. The tournaments will be hosted at E3 2018 in Los Angeles on June 11th and 12th. There will be two different formats for both games. Nintendo has announced they will continue to release E3 announcements next month.
Splatoon 2:
Splatoon 2 will be 4 way round robin tournament with 4 teams at E3. One form Japan, the U.S./Can, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Winning the Splatoon 2US/Canada Inkling Open 2018 online qualifiers will qualify your team for a spot. Qualifiers begin April 21, 11 a.m. PT, and finals will take place on April 28 at 8 a.m. This will be Splatoon 2‘s first World Championship. There is no entry fee and rules are in the link below. You can register online via this link http://e3.nintendo.com/splatoon-2-inkling-open
Super Smash Bros:
Nintendo has announced that the Smash game will be for Nintendo Switch. It will be a invitational with a non-disclosed amount of players invited by Nintendo. Details on whether its a new Smash game or a port of Smash 4for the Wii U is still undetermined. The tournament will appeal to casual and competitive Smash players. Bill Trinen, Nintendo’s senior product marketing manager, said it will be similar in structure to the E3 2014 Super Smash Bros.invitational. Top players from the Smash community such as Mango, Hungrybox and ZeRo won in E3 2014 for the Super Smash Bros for Wii U.
While there are not huge features added to Patch 5.0 for the Switch, there are new features and fixes that are important for the system.
Playtime reset bug has been fixed. Many people who noticed that after a year’s worth of playtime on their games, the timer would state how many days since last played rather than how many hours played. Nintendo of America acknowledges it as an error before the fix.
You can now add friends through Facebook and Twitter. A useful feature that most the PS4 and the Xbox One have. It makes adding friends more convenient rather than adding them via codes.
Parents control have been changed. Instead of using a number pad, your parental control is done via the controller for privacy.
Purchasing and downloading games from your PC to the Nintendo Switch will start faster.
I’m trying a new format for TLDW by adding bullet points to keep it short and sweet. Let me know if you like this format.
Nintendo 3DS Games
WarioWare Gold: Releases August 3rd.
300 mini-games for 3DS involving Wario-Ware games.
Some returning characters have been redesigned
Games involve motion controls, your voice, touch screen and button presses
Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breaker: Demo available May 10th. Releases May 24
Partner with your Mii animal characters.
Your friends Miis can join
Tower defense+racing and some arena fighting
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story 3DS+Bowser Junior’s Journey: Launches 2019
Fight as Mario and Luigi and Bowser.
Re-release from Nintendo DS
Comes with additional Bowser Junior story where you play from his point of view during the main story
Detective Pikachu: releases March 23rd
Play as Detective Pikachu and solve the mystery of attacking Pokemon
A different form of gameplay that focuses on solving mysteries and less on battling Pokemon
Amibo is 5.3 inches. 2x bigger than normal
This Aimpom is dead
Luigi Mansion Remake: Releases this year.
The map is on the bottom screen
Fans of the Luigi Mansiongame returns!
You suck up the ghost with your trusty vacuum to save Mario
Nintendo Switch
Kirby Star Allies: releases March 16th. Free update releases March 28th.
Demo currently out
Can have fan favorite allies such as King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee…
More dream friends will be added after launch such as Rick, Kine, and Coo from Kirby Dream Land 2, Markx from Super Star Ultra, Gooey from Kirby Dream Land 3
If you pre-order, you get a special bag
Okami:Available this summer
HD remake of the game that is currently out for other consoles
Touch screen or motion control to use paint brushes
Classic Capcom game with an amazing cast of characters as you play as Amatarsu.
Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido: Available June 8th for Switch and 3DS
Raised in a war where sushi is forbidden
Ear more sushi with matching and match them such as a puzzle game. You can activate sushi sprites abilities after combining enough sushi. Think of it like Tsum Tsums
You fight against the emperor and their sushi monopoly!
Multiplayer mode. 1v1 sushi fighting
New IP from Nintendo
Octopath Traveler: Releases July 13, 2018. Demo currently available
Two new characters. Tressa the Merchant. Can purchase special items from town folks.
Apothacery Alfyn: inquire and gain special features when talking to town folk.
Job system: everyone starts with one but gain an additional one for battle. Combining jobs give you unique abilities. Game launches July 13, 2018.
The special edition comes with pop-up book, a map, CD, and in-game currency coin.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes:Releases later this year
Multiple game modes as Travis enters game worlds. 7 different worlds with different
Exterminate all bugs in your way with the beam katana
Tons of new bosses that aren’t trying to be number one Assassin
Co-op multiplayer where your partner plays as Bad-man!
Beam katanas, toilet save points, and suplexes are all returning
The game is much more colorful with the different game themes
Dark Souls Remaster:Releases May 25th
Solaire of Astora amiibo releases the same time as the game
Network test to try out the game if you haven’t played Dark Souls before
Details on Network test coming soon
Mario Tennis Aces: Releases June 22nd
The biggest focus of the direct
More than 15 players including chomp chomp.
Tennis refined and more ways to play tennis.
Multiple shots. Zone shot lets you pinpoint moves with motion action.
Rackets take damage and break. If you lose all your tennis rockets you’re out.
You can block the Zone shot if you hit it just right. Otherwise, your racket takes damage
Zone speed, time moves slowly so you can hit back the Zone shots with better timing
Zone depends on energy gauge. Fills up as the rally continues.
Trick shots give you special movements. If you hit the ball back you gain more energy but its a specific movement for each character.
Max energy can give you a special shot.
Play with simple rules if you hate fun.
4 player multiplayer online mode. Tournaments are based on ranking. If you win, you get in-game shirts and additional characters.
Swing mode is motion control if you prefer something like Wii Tennis
A pre-launch online tournament is a 1v1 online tournament. Details for a later date.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Releases July 13th
port from Nintendo Wii U.
Includes super Mario Odyssey game levels.
Can play multiplayer where your friend will shoot tomatoes to protect you
Nintendo 3DS port too!
Toad loves adventure
Undertale: Unknown release date
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy: Releases July 10th
Also out for Xbox One and Steam.
First time on a Nintendo console
Little Nightmare: Complete Edition: Releases May 18th
A puzzle platformer with horror influence.
Comes with 2 DLC stories and all previous content.
In-game Pacu Mask if you use the Pac-Man amiibo.
South Park: Fracture but Whole: Releases April 24th
South Park RPG with that classic South Park humor from the show
DLC isn’t included
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition: releases May 18th
Arms update:
Us and Canada open tournament: March 8 – 18th. Top 8 on March 31st.
Top winners get unique art piece. More updates in the future.
March 31st 3 -day event to play for free
March 21: GDC Developers will speak on Arms and Splatoon
Splatoon 3.0update: Late April.
100+ pieces of new gear. New stages.
Rank X is an extreme rank that will come soon. More conditions to meet where you meet Callie where you can climb to Rank X. Making the game more competitive.
New Singleplayer mode focusing on a new character called Agent 8. An Octoling w/o memory. Your adventure is through shady underground test facility. Its all one connected huge subway. Variety of mission that will expand on the characters and lore.
If you finish it, you can play multiplayer as an Octoling.
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The Gaming News Corner 