Category: Nintendo News

Fans of retro gaming who will accept nothing but original hardware are in a difficult spot in 2019. Systems from the ’80s and ’90s aren’t getting any younger, and as time goes on, failure rates are only heading in one direction: up. These classic systems are robust, but they weren’t built to last forever, and it’s par for the course to expect a little bit of clean-up and maintenance if you’re serious about vintage gaming in the modern era. At the low end, this might involve sanitising a well-used controller that’s covered in more than 20 years of accumulated gunk, to the more extreme, which could be replacing failed capacitors on the main board or bleaching the console’s casing to turn it from that sickly yellow to its original white.

Even then, there are times when even the most dedicated fix-up will only take you so far, and the element of the console which is in constant use – the controller – is at high risk. Again, these pads were designed to withstand years rather than decades of torment, and it’s not unusual to find controllers from the ’80s and ’90s in particularly poor states today. These are products which have been subjected to untold hours of battering and we’ve all no doubt seen the effects that constant usage can have on these devices. As a result, pads for classic systems that are in good working order are becoming more and more desirable, especially as they’re no longer in active production and can’t easily be replaced, like you can with a broken Switch Joy-Con or PlayStation 4 DualShock.

This is where Retro-Bit comes in. You might remember the name from its range of clone systems which play a wide range of retro games, or from its ‘new’ SNES and NES releases. Retro-Bit has signed an official licencing deal with Sega to create controllers for its Genesis / Mega Drive and Saturn home consoles, and these come in both ‘original’ and USB flavours. Bluetooth versions are also expected later this year which will be bundled with receivers that allow them to be used with original hardware, and they’ll naturally work ‘out of the box’ with any device capable of Bluetooth controller support.

Retro-Bit has made a big deal of the fact that the pads have been constructed to the same standard as the real thing, and that Sega has been involved every step of the way; this isn’t just some lazy attempt by Sega to gain a bit more coinage via a sloppy licence (which has been guilty of in the past, on more than one occasion). The upshot for fans is that they now have a renewed supply chain when it comes to classic controllers, meaning that it’s no longer the luck of the draw when it comes to sourcing second-hand pads online.

At first glance, Retro-Bit certainly seems to have done Sega fans proud here. Both pads (which are available in plain black or in a transparent edition) look almost indistinguishable from the originals; it’s only the embossed Retro-Bit logo on the back of the controller that gives the game away. When you pick them up, this sensation is maintained; they feel fantastic and possess the same kind of heft as the real thing. The plastics used are also such a close match we struggled to tell them apart at one point. It’s also worth noting that both controllers come with a generous 10ft cable, which means you can play on the couch in even the most spacious of living rooms. So far, so good.

However, as any seasoned gamer will tell you, the proof is in how a pad controls. No two controllers have ever been alike in the history of gaming, and even pads which appear on the surface to look the same often have massive differences when it comes to how the buttons react to a firm press and how the D-Pad performs under pressure. The good news is that Retro-Bit has been doing its homework and both the Genesis and Saturn controllers feel like the genuine equivalents – for the most part, at least.

First things first, the rolling D-Pad on both pads is utterly, utterly superb. It’s responsive and comfortable to use and is arguably the dream interface for games like Street Fighter. Because it rolls smoothly, executing those quarter and half-circle inputs is a breeze. This is perhaps one of the hardest aspects of a controller to properly nail, and Retro-Bit has passed with flying colours.

The buttons are equally agreeable, although we do have some reservations – at least when it comes to the Saturn pad, anyway. The Genesis controller’s buttons are perfect, and even have the same dull ‘click’ that the ones on the original Sega version do. No complaints as far as the 16-bit pad goes, at least not from us. While few Genesis games support the six button layout, the pad is a million times more comfortable than the 3-button controller the console launched with in 1988, and Retro-Bit’s USB version (which, unlike the standard model, comes with shoulder buttons as well) is the perfect MAME controller for your PC.

With the Saturn pad, the buttons feel great, but there’s something we can’t quite put our finger on (no pun intended) when compared to the original pad. The buttons are responsive but possess a sponginess that we don’t recall feeling back in the day. We say ‘recall’ because the only original Saturn pad we have in the office has definitely seen better days; its buttons have been mashed almost to the point of being totally useless thanks to countless angry games of X-Men vs. Street Fighter. It could well be that our memory has betrayed us and this is how our Saturn controller felt way back in 1994, but it’s certainly… different. Not that this has any impact on the pad’s performance when it comes to gameplay; the buttons are responsive and easy to press. The shoulder buttons, however, aren’t micro-switched like they were on the original, so they don’t click when you press them. This doesn’t affect their responsiveness but might displease some hardcore Sega purists.

One issue we did have with the black Saturn pad is that the Start button kept sticking to the sides of the case, leading to ‘phantom’ button presses. When pushed hard, the button actually stayed down, and wouldn’t return to its ‘off’ position without a second press to loosen it. We’re assuming this is a production issue (these are pre-release samples) and this will be addressed when the final product hits store shelves, but it’s disappointing that such an issue should even exist on a controller that was, let’s face it, designed and tested 25 years ago. The ‘Slate Grey’ pad – based on the ‘Skeleton’ controller that was exclusive to Japan back in the day – worked without issue, and the black USB version we were sent was also fine, so we’re willing to chalk this one down to bad luck rather than an issue with all of the black Retro-Bit Saturn pads.

Retro-Bit has come under fire in the past for cutting corners on some of its products, but it’s clear that this collaboration with Sega is a matter of pride for the firm; both of these controllers have been designed and manufactured to the same specification as the pads on which they are based, and offer Sega fans a viable means of replacing their ageing controllers without having to pay through the nose on the secondary market. The slightly different feel to the Saturn controller’s buttons – and the (hopefully) limited issue we had with the black Saturn pad’s Start button – count against it, but in practice, these are a dream to use and well worth a look if your existing pads have seen better days.

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Earlier today, we shared the news that Nintendo’s mobile RPG Dragalia Lost has finally launched in the UK, Australia, Canada, and more. It definitely makes sense for Nintendo to bring the game to more and more territories, as estimated revenue totals suggest that the game has now surpassed both Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

According to data collected by Sensor Tower, Dragalia Lost has now surpassed $75 million in revenue; it had already reached $50 million by December last year. This puts it narrowly ahead of Super Mario Run’s estimated $68.6 million in revenue, and the $70.8 million estimated for Animal Crossing from the same source.

The numbers are seriously impressive; with Super Mario Run and Pocket Camp featuring already established and much-loved characters, it’s surprising to see a new franchise overtake them so quickly. Dragalia Lost only launched last September and has only been available in a select few countries until today.

Having said that, it still has a long way to go to catch up with Nintendo’s current mobile frontrunner, Fire Emblem Heroes. Sensor Tower reports that Heroes has already amassed more than $500 million in total revenue, so it’ll take some beating.

Have you picked up Dragalia Lost for the first time today? Are you still desperately hoping to see it arrive in your region? Tell us below.

As you’re probably already aware by now, a Pokémon Direct is coming tomorrow. It’s exciting, it’s intriguing, and it’ll hopefully be wonderful, but there’s no way of knowing exactly what will be shown. Or is there?

Twitter user @pokexperto has discovered that the YouTube uploads already present on the site, which are currently counting down to the big show itself, contain some interesting keywords in their source data.

We’ve double checked this ourselves to be certain and, sure enough, the US upload features “nintendo”, “play”, “play nintendo”, “game”, “gameplay”, “fun”, “video game”, “kids”, “action”, “adventure”, and “rpg” hidden away as video tags. The Japanese video has fewer tags attached, but those present importantly include “switch”.

So, an action-adventure RPG on Switch featuring “fun gameplay”? We were already hopeful before, but this certainly provides more evidence that the new Generation 8 Switch game(s) could well be being premiered tomorrow.

Naturally, we’ll find out for sure tomorrow when the Direct airs once and for all. Make sure to join us here at Nintendo Life to watch the show live and join in with the chat. See you there!

The whispers that Microsoft is preparing to launch games and services on Switch are, in some ways, too fantastical to believe; a dream-come-true for fanboys-and-girls of a certain age. The rumoured deal suggests that the company is planning not only to launch Xbox Live and Game Pass integration, but also to publish ‘native’ games (including, it has been reported, Ori and the Blind Forest and Cuphead) and stream others via the company’s much-hyped Project xCloud platform. It all seems so suspiciously pie-in-the-sky that every sliver of new information has us reaching for huge fistfuls of salt. The idea that two of video gaming’s giants could come together and collaborate in such a way feels unprecedented, yet you need only glance at the history books to realise it’s really not as outlandish as it first sounds.

A quick search of this very site yields various complimentary comments about Nintendo from Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Executive Vice-President of Gaming, and how he’s eager to reach gamers on ‘rival systems’. The companies’ US headquarters are just down the road from each other in Redmond, Washington, and Spencer always has warm words whenever the topic of Nintendo comes up.

This arms-open approach is very different to the previous regime, which designed the original Xbox One and bungled its launch through terrible messaging and a fundamental misread of its audience. While the company’s ‘always-online’ vision of the future is slowly but surely coming to pass, Microsoft’s effort to position the Xbox once again as a multimedia centre came too soon and involved too many compromises from the point of view of their gaming audience. Consequently, the incredible goodwill the company managed to salvage after the 360’s ‘red ring of death’ debacle was squandered through its always-online, Kinect-enabled, secondhand game-foiling foibles.

Conversely, Sony – humbled by the mauling it received after launching the PS3 for $599 – took advantage and raced ahead with PS4. Microsoft stopped officially reporting sales back in 2014, which probably tells you all you need to know, but Sony boasted in January of having sold 91.6 million PS4s to date. While Switch sits at around 32.27 million, it launched less than two years ago and shows year-on-year growth while sales of the ageing home consoles are rapidly declining. VGChartz estimate that Xbox One has sold over 40 million of its various SKUs, less than half of Sony’s figure. The point is clear; Microsoft has lost this war against Sony.

It’s also worth remembering that while Xbox 360 ‘beat’ PS3 last generation, the actual numbers are closer than you might imagine. While hearts and minds were won by that console’s incredible catalogue of third-party games coupled with some strong first-party offerings, the final worldwide sales for 360 and PS3 put them within 4.4 million units of each other.

So, while we tend to look back and laugh at Sony’s incredible hubris, PS3 worked its way back to relative sales parity by the end of the seventh generation. While Phil Spencer has been fighting tooth-and-nail to get Microsoft back to those days – refocusing on core gamers and making an effort to humanise the corporation with a personable style that acknowledges the strengths of the competition – even the halcyon days of the 360 aren’t the all-conquering benchmark they’re remembered as.

It’s also worth remembering that the Xbox brand has always been a total non-starter in Japan. Its brashness and boldness make it a hard sell in Japan where, thanks to the perception that it’s a big American product clearly not designed with the Japanese in mind, it has always struggled. In fact, ‘struggle’ is too generous a word – sales are abysmal. According to Famitsu, just 15,339 Xbox Ones were sold in the country in 2018, bringing its estimated lifetime sales to a paltry 102,931 after five years. Microsoft barely even registers in Japan, one of the world’s most important gaming markets.

This puts Microsoft in an unenviable position: on the one hand, there’s little incentive to even launch in Japan – the expense of shipping, marketing, and the associated costs of supporting the Xbox infrastructure in the country (where, according to Media Create, just 68 Xboxes were sold the week ending 17^th February, compared to 65,958 Switches) means the company is losing money by simply being there. However, if it ever hopes to win over Japanese gamers, Microsoft can’t be seen to abandon the territory, either. Rocks to the left, hard places to the right.

What if there was a way to make inroads into that market that would eliminate much of the expense of selling a big physical box to an audience who historically view it as the physical manifestation of the ignorant, foreign interloper? What if Microsoft could sell its games on hardware that isn’t in direct competition with its own product and that’s already been accepted by that audience, not to mention millions of others around the world? Framed in this way, collaboration rumours make more sense.

Getting games on the lower-spec devices also aligns with Microsoft’s stated intentions. We’ve heard a lot about its plans to branch the Xbox brand out into the cloud and onto a multitude of devices via Project xCloud rather than confining it to the physical box under the telly; indeed, Microsoft is already eyeing a future where we no longer buy gaming hardware, but instead pay a monthly subscription, Netflix-style, and play on pretty much anything that has a screen and a connected wireless pad. With all the processing being done server side, lag is a significant hurdle to overcome, especially with certain games and genres, but Microsoft must be relatively confident they can solve this to the satisfaction of a general audience. Control-wise, Switch is virtually 1:1 with Xbox One (analogue shoulder triggers aside), so no problems there, but streaming relies on one factor above all else: a robust internet connection.

In Japan, we’ve seen streaming-only games on Switch from both Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey) and Capcom (Resident Evil 7). The country’s digital infrastructure is lightyears ahead of most other nations, mainly thanks to its smaller footprint on the map, and while North American audiences might be eager for it, the infrastructure in that vast continent is either not fit for purpose or, in some areas, completely non-existent.

With 5G slowly rolling out, perhaps Microsoft is betting people won’t be reliant on physical networks for lightning-fast connection speeds, but if it’s putting all its eggs in the streaming basket, Japan is the place to be while the rest of the world slowly catches up.

There’s also another disconnect Microsoft addresses by publishing on Nintendo hardware. When it purchased British developer Rare back in 2002 for $375 million, its intentions were obvious: hijack some of that lucrative younger demographic from Nintendo to compliment the hardcore crowd it had attracted with the likes of Halo: Combat Evolved. The studio behind huge hits like GoldenEye 007 and family-friendly titles like Banjo-Kazooie sounded like just the ticket to expand the Xbox userbase.

That plan never really worked, though; at least not to the extent Microsoft wanted. After the hey-day of the ‘90s, where Rare seemed to be utterly in sync with Nintendo and its audience, the developer arguably struggled to find its groove with Microsoft and the studio’s madcap, irreverent and inescapably British sensibilities have never truly shone on the Xbox platform. The endearing quirks seem to get polished away and, despite glimpses of its former character, there’s still a perception that the studio doesn’t quite fit into Microsoft’s X-shaped box.

Microsoft knows this; it knows it’s sitting on a gold mine of IP that the majority of its customers simply aren’t very interested in. That isn’t to say no-one buys them, but the Venn diagram of Halo, Gears and Forza fans simply doesn’t have enough crossover with gamers who can recite the entire Great Mighty Poo song. There’s a rich vein of nostalgia for the company’s retro output which it attempted to mine with the wonderful Rare Replay compilation but, again, it’s all for nought if the audience for your product is on another console.

Nintendo gamers skew younger, of course, but there are also the thirty/forty-something gamers who miss Rare who’ve embraced the convenience of Switch and would jump at the chance to replay Perfect Dark on a handheld or share Banjo with their kids. Nostalgia for those early polygonal games of the PlayStation/N64 era is peaking; Rare games would sell by the bucketload on Switch.

And if Microsoft and Nintendo can work things out, they’re only a hop-and-a-jump away from – whisper it – GoldenEye 007 escaping from its N64-shaped licensing prison. Whether that dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War, could flourish in the modern gaming world is a conversation for another day, but it’s a tantalising possibility.

Let’s also remember that Microsoft already publishes on rival consoles to tap into a different audience; Minecraft is the perfect example where cross-platform partnerships make financial sense, and a deal with Nintendo is similarly logical. Certain signature series already address the Xbox’s audience perfectly, so there’s far less incentive to put Halo on Switch, for example, and even less likelihood of a ‘proper’ Mario game appearing on a non-Nintendo system. The Rare angle, though, would seem to be profitable for both companies, and that’s why it makes so much sense.

And money is always the bottom line. If there’s an opportunity to access a market a company isn’t hitting, principles can go out of the window very quickly – that’s business. Exclusivity deals that seemed watertight can suddenly be bent or broken completely. Think back to illustrious ‘Capcom Five’, five GameCube exclusives announced back in 2002. Of those games, only P.N.03 remained GameCube-only; one was cancelled outright, while Killer7, Viewtiful Joe and Resident Evil 4 hopped over to other platforms. Game director Shinji Mikami famously stated he would quit his job, or “cut off his own head” as the loosely-translated Japanese colloquialism goes, if the latter ever made it to another platform. Within nine months of the GameCube release, RE4 was on PlayStation 2 and with the game coming to Switch in May this year, it’s still with us even now; more to the point, so is Mikami-san.

Even the most unlikely, unholy unions can quickly come to pass. If you’d asked a Sega fan at the turn of the millennium if Sonic could ever appear on a Nintendo console, they’d have likely thrown a VMU at you in disgust. By December 2001, though, Sonic Adventure 2 was on GameCube and Sonic Advance on Game Boy Advance. In the shortest of turnarounds, the greatest of rivals became super pals and the unthinkable was a reality.

While we doubt we’ll be seeing Microsoft’s top-tier franchises on Switch, or vice versa, stranger things have happened and there’s a lot of exciting crossover potential in the future. Who knows – a Banjo or Master Chief amiibo might not be as crazy an idea as we thought at the start of the year.

Charlotte Sutherland, solo Developer at Cave Monsters, has revealed that her first release, Lord Winklebottom Investigates, is heading to Nintendo Switch next year. If you haven’t already watched the trailer above, get on it pronto.

The game features classic point-and-click adventure gameplay, all wrapped up in a world full of humour and particularly comical characters. It’s set in the roaring ’20s, where a giraffe detective is all set to embark on a new case upon a mysterious, isolated island. The game’s press release promises “a grisly murder and a race against time to track down the killer”, as well as the following description:

“Join Lord Winklebottom and his steadfast companion, Dr Frumple as they investigate the murder of their old friend. Uncover clues, interrogate suspects and solve puzzles to crack the case. Our daring detective will put his neck on the line to capture the killer and uncover the horrifying dark secret at the heart of the Isle of Barghest!”

Cave Monsters has actually placed the game on Kickstarter, with a crowdfunding campaign hoping to generate £25,000 to “get the game fully voice acted to a high standard, collaborate with a composer to create a unique, 1920’s inspired soundtrack”, and also to help with “programming assistance and additional localisation”.

The game is currently scheduled to launch for Nintendo Switch in Q2 2020.

Will you be keeping an eye out for this one? How do you feel about the barmy characters in the trailer above? Tell us below.

A Pokémon Direct has been officially confirmed, scheduled to air tomorrow, 27th February.

Pokémon fans all around the world have been eagerly anticipating news for the promised, upcoming Generation 8 games for some time, with many believing that news would drop tomorrow on ‘Pokémon Day’. Now, Nintendo has confirmed that a Pokémon-specific Direct is indeed happening. Surely this is it?

As you can see, the message states that “roughly seven minutes of new information” will be shown, although nothing more specific than that has been shared. Naturally, this means we can’t be certain that the new Switch games will be featured, but we can certainly dream about it.

The presentation will start at 2pm GMT, so that’s 6am PT / 9am ET / 3pm CET.

So, go on then. Share your wildest fantasies for what you want to see in the comments below, and make sure to pop right back here to Nintendo Life tomorrow to watch the Direct live!

Pokémon anime fans, rejoice! Twitch’s mega-marathon of movie madness is set to return tomorrow, giving fans the chance to sit back and join the chat as viewers simultaneously watch the show.

Returning for a third run, the Twitch Pokémon marathon has previously aired numerous episodes from the TV show as well as some of the franchise’s movies, sometimes letting viewers interact with the scenes on screen. While not available during every showing, a Pokémon Badge Collector extension has previously allowed viewers to catch Pokémon on-screen to earn stream points.

This third run will reportedly feature episodes from the Diamond & Pearl, Best Wishes, and XY series, kicking off tomorrow, 27th February, from 10am PT (6pm GMT). It’ll air from tomorrow until 5th May, so you’ll have just over two months of Pokémon content being beamed into your eyeballs. There are definitely worse ways to spend your time.

You can join in and watch the stream on the Twitch Presents channel. Make sure to let us know if you’ll be tuning in by leaving a comment below.

You’ll have to forgive us for revisiting this project for a third time, but God of War Art Director, Raf Grassetti, is still working on his collection of realistic Super Smash Bros. Ultimate designs and we can’t help but share them for you to see.

Last time, we shared Grassetti’s takes on the likes of Diddy Kong, King K. Rool and Mewtwo amongst others, with the original batch featuring favourites like Link, Samus and Sonic. We’d urge you to go back and check out all of those pieces if you haven’t seen them already, but here are the latest efforts that have been uploaded since then.

With news that Reggie Fils-Aimé is to step down from his role as President of Nintendo of America, his successor – Mr Doug Bowser – was probably prepared for the deluge of familiar headlines to flood the web.

He’s been on the radar of Nintendo fans for a while now – with that surname it would be difficult to hold a senior position at the company and go unnoticed for long – but beyond the circus, Nintendo’s current Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing is something of an enigma to fans. Despite being in the spotlight alongside Reggie for the past four years, the gravity of the big man’s ever-ready body is such that he draws attention from those around him, even from the man who’s been shadowing him since joining the company in 2015.

Well, Reggie’s surprise retirement means we’ve got some catching up to do. Bowser makes for a fun headline, sure, but we know very little else about the man. So, let’s see what we can discover about the man behind the meme. What kind of a President is he going to be? Is he a fan of Mother 3?

Time for some research…

What we know…

He’s a Self-Described ‘Original Donkey Kong Arcade Master’

According to his Twitter bio, he fancies himself as something of a demon on a Donkey Kong cabinet. While it’s unlikely he could knock Billy Mitchell, the former King of Kong, down a peg, it shows he’s keen to demonstrate his knowledge of Nintendo’s long history, right back to the company’s very first arcade games.

Bowser obviously embraced his famous namesake years ago and, from the off, he’s able to back up his executive CV with all-important nerd credentials:

He’s a family man and seems to be in touch with the broad demographic Nintendo courts – he’s happy talking to a younger audience. We’ve all seen cringe-worthy attempts of video game execs to ‘get down with the kids’ while promoting some hot new release they’re not intimately acquainted with. While it can sometimes produce gold, it’s very easy to spot inauthenticity; much better an executive admit they’re out of their depth than insist “No, really! I play Style Savvy on the daily commute.”

Bowser appears to have a well-rounded approach, balancing playfulness and seriousness in a way that suggests he’s learned from the master. Speaking of which…

He’s Been Shadowing Reggie For a While

It’s easy to look back now and realise that Bowser has been in training for this for the past few years – we just didn’t recognise the signs due to Reggie’s imposing presence. After joining NoA in 2015, it appears he’s been sponging up the knowledge and experience of the outgoing President.

In his statement, he said, “It has been my great fortune to work with and be mentored by Reggie for four years at Nintendo of America”, and while this is a carefully scripted nugget to calm investors and assure everyone involved that this isn’t a last minute scramble – “Reggie’s leaving?!? Quick, grab that Bowser dude!” – it’s unthinkable that he hasn’t had his eye on the position since the beginning; a logical end point to a career that’s taken him all over the world.

He’s a Football Fan

Whichever side of the pond you’re on, it seems Doug Bowser has sports fans covered – he’s partial to football of both the American and European varieties. A scroll through his Twitter feed reveals a passion for the Utah Utes (his former college team), and a silly video he did with Reggie revealed not only a penchant for FIFA (skip to 1:20), but also just how simpatico the two execs really are.

We’re uncertain whether this was a little marketing fib or not – Bowser spent eight years working at Electronic Arts before joining NoA, with his last role being Vice President of Global Business Planning. We’ll be sure to grill him on the pros and cons of 4-4-2 the first opportunity we get.

Before his tenure with EA, Bowser worked for Procter & Gamble, the multinational corporation behind such varied household and healthcare brands as Fairy Liquid, Gilette shaving products and Vicks VapoRub. He spent an impressive 23 years with the firm, working across the globe in various sales positions.

Curiously enough, a certain Reggie Fils-Aimé reportedly worked for the company from 1983 to 1991, too, so it seems not only do P&G do a fine line in razors, but they also knock out future Nintendo of America presidents. Who knew, right?

By all accounts, he’s athletic and a keen cyclist. When was the last time you placed second in a 45.6 mile road race?

Bowser’s also a golf man, which seems to be a prerequisite for executive positions.

He’s 53 Years Old

When Reggie took over the role of Chief Operating Officer from Tatsumi Kimishima in 2006, he was 45. Mr Bowser, then, has a few years on his predecessor in relative terms, although it appears he’s still game for a laugh – a world away from the straight-laced executives from eras past.

He also looks dapper in a matching two-piece:

Nintendo’s approach to PR has evolved significantly over the past fifteen years. The Direct broadcasts gave the company a more ‘intimate’ connection to its audience, but demand that the personnel presenting them be as comfortable on a soundstage as in the boardroom. While there might be some overlap between the two skillsets, YouTube is full of clips of stiff, awkward presentations, proving it’s tough to be proficient in both arenas.

While Bowser doesn’t quite present the youthful vigour Reggie did when he first commanded the stage with his mission statement, he’s certainly continuing on that trajectory; a far cry from the straight-faced, stiff ‘suits’ of the pre-Reggie era. Going backwards was never an option, of course, but Doug Bowser looks comfortable speaking in a language a global audience expects and can relate to. Speaking of languages…

He Speaks Spanish

He spent six years of his Procter & Gamble career as Director of Customer Marketing for Latin America, and you can see evidence of that in his Twitter feed. There’s an ‘R’ missing from perro there, but we won’t hold that against him – typos happen to the very best of us.

We’re not sure how his Japanese is coming along, but his regular trips to Nintendo’s Kyoto HQ give him ample opportunity to practice.

…And What We Don’t Know

The big block hovering above the new COO poses the following question: How can Bowser follow Reggie Fils-Aimé? Reggie has been a larger-than-life character from the very beginning. Sure, the outgoing big man could be a little 2D at times, sticking to the company script about the ‘great upcoming Nintendo products’ and the like. He would frequently lapse into corporate marketing-speak, but somehow managed to endear himself to fans regardless.

Bowser’s biggest obstacle is the cult of personality surrounding his predecessor; the fact that Reggie has become a figurehead for Nintendo fans. He’s up there with Miyamoto and Iwata in the Triforce of personality that took the company into the Wii era. Even in the lean Wii U years with exciting software thin on the ground, we still look back with incredible fondness at those E3 Directs and Reggie was a huge part of that.

Can you imagine how a global audience – not to mention the press – would take a Jim Henson-style muppet of PlayStation gaming boss Shawn Layden? The sort of affection needed to make something like that work takes many, many years and a tremendous amount of skill to foster. It’ll take time for Doug Bowser to build up that genuine relationship with fans. It’ll be a while before he’s worthy of being a muppet.

And as you can see from this very article, we’re all on a first-name basis with the outgoing President. ‘Mr Fils-Aimé’ would sound ridiculous; he’s Reggie, the Regginator, our Fils-Amigo, the Big Man, the Top Dog.

Even Nintendo’s worldwide President, Shuntaro Furukawa, used his first name to thank him in a statement:

I really appreciate everything Reggie has done for Nintendo. Inside and outside our company, Reggie is known as an exceptional leader.

Yes, it’s likely mandated by Reggie himself and the PR department who’s spent years turning him into your friendly neighbourhood President of NoA, but for the Japanese side of the company, the informality is still unprecedented. Can you imagine Miyamoto-san getting a ‘Thanks Shigsy’ message on the day when – god forbid – he announces his retirement?

Reggie’s carefully-crafted personality is something that Doug (see, it sounds weird) obviously hasn’t had time to build just yet. Hopefully he recognises this and won’t dive head first into zany, meme-friendly territory. That’ll surely come, but being too familiar initially probably won’t go down well while his predecessor lingers in the minds of gamers.

Odd as it may be, that surname is incredibly helpful in endearing him to fans very quickly, as well as giving reporters on news sites the world over an easy ‘in’ for their story. This year’s Nintendo Direct at E3 will be the first big PR test for Bowser. Everything until now indicates he’s got the skills to succeed in front of an audience, although there’s still a long way to go before we can imagine Furukawa-san thanking ‘Dougie’ for his long years of devoted service, and longer still until writing sentences like ‘E3 will be the first big PR test for Bowser’ doesn’t elicit the tiniest grin.

In the meantime? It’s memetime…

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What are your impressions of Doug Bowser? Is he a good choice to step into Reggie’s considerable shoes? Share your thoughts with a comment below.

If you’re a Pokémon fan, and you just so happen to like fluffy, customisable toys based on your favourite characters, you’re definitely in luck today. A new Build-A-Bear sale has just launched taking 30% off almost the entire collection.

The online-exclusive bundles for Piplup, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Eevee, Charmander, Squirtle, and Meowth – as well as some extra accessories – have all been reduced by 30%. The sale has been introduced to coincide with Pokémon Day on 27th February, with all discounts available from now until that date.

You can check out the full sale right here if you’re interested; you’ll find most bundles come with the character itself along with all sorts of other goodies such as costumes, accessories, and exclusive trading cards. Alternatively, you can also buy those individual components separately, and even these product listings have seen price reductions, too.

Do you own any of the Pokémon Build-A-Bears? Will you be snapping one up in the sale? Let us know in the comments.