This year’s two Smash Bros. games will have separate release windows, Nintendo just announced. 3DS this summer (Winter here in Australia); Wii U this winter (the coming summer for Australians). No specific release dates just yet.
See Games Differently
Now you can get the top stories from Kotaku delivered to your inbox. Enter your email below.
By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Comments
23 responses to “Smash Bros. 3DS Out This Australian Winter, Wii U Next Summer”
I guess they are trying to capture the Christmas market for the wii U release? Still seems like a bonehead move to me – this could have shifted consoles.
I don’t think it’s a boneheaded move. It give’s enough time for customers to justify buying both versions and actually playing them. And if they nail the gameplay and get good hype on the 3DS version it’ll create even more thirst for the HD Wii-U version, plus it’s Christmas, that’s a console mover.
You sir, get it.
Nintendo realise people will get one or the other if they are released simultaneously… a few months apart = bigger sales figures.
I think that’s their logic. It might work. The problem is, I can’t think of many examples where that strategy has worked. In fact, the PC alone is littered with counter examples. To be honest, I would have given the wii u the exclusivity for a while to drive console sales, and then given it to the 3DS , in much the same way MS seems to have done with Titanfall.
First off, awesome. I’m getting both versions, so I’m glad I don’t have to fork out twice as much in the same small window of time.
Second off, can I just point out that FUCKING GRENINJA IS IN THIS GAME. NINTENDO WINS.
Couldn’t agree more, ill get my smash bros fix, and they’ll be polishing the wii u version like crazy before an xmas release.
Greninja was the icing on the cake!
I do believe I screamed like a little girl when I saw that Water Shuriken fly onto the screen. Goosebumps all over!
Hopefully the 3DS version turns out to be as awesome as it looks. People have said for years that Smash Bros can’t be on a handheld console because of the smaller screens, so I’m curious to see just how well the 3DS handles it.
I am 100% getting a WiiU when this comes out.
you should own one already. It’s a great console!
As someone with a WiiU and no 3DS, this is so disappointing. “Thanks for supporting our struggling console! Enjoy waiting 6 months more than everyone else!”
go get a 3DS then! 🙂
Can’t afford it, and it’s a waste of money if I’m only going to play it for 6 months.
I was looking forward to a big launch party playing on the couch with friends. So much for that.
I can’t imagine I’d enjoy playing Smash Bros on a handheld. It will be interesting to see how this sells.
You can’t play online unless you’ve got a wifi connection and it’s not like there’s a lot of time when people who aren’t at school are going to be in a situation where they can play wifi with a few mates.
I mean at least with Mario Kart you can have a great match with just 2 humans over wifi or even if you play online any lag isn’t completely fatal (you don’t NEED to interact with lagging characters to play the game, you can just race your own race and try not to collide with them).
I think the WiiU version will be great though.
…you mean like how no friends play any online games together at all once they’ve left school?
HAHA! It is definitely an issue these days.
Seriously though, Nintendo’s 3DS online systems aren’t exactly the kind of wonderful all inclusive systems that allow online play to be quick and easy like it is on a home console. I turn my Xbox on its automatically online and I have a large pool of friends I can see if they are playing no matter what they are doing and I can invite them to start a game of anything we all have a copy of.
The 3DS you have to be at a wifi point to start with, that automatically rules out a lot of peoples handheld gaming time, then you have to be in the same game, you have to have each other’s friends codes or whatever and you have to actively log into a game together at the same time.
Basically it’s closer to the old dial-up days when you had to get on the phone to three different mates and organise a time when you can set up a game together. “I’ll log into your game at 3pm, if it doesn’t work I’ll call you on your mobile”. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m just saying it not exactly easy.
It seems strange for Nintendo particularly, they’re normally the masters of knowing what games should be mobile and what games should be on a console. It’s the biggest difference between them and Sony in my mind. Sony has too often gone “You know what gamers want? Killzone and Uncharted in their hands on a train” and then try to shoehorn the experience into a mobile game.
I might well be wrong, but it seems to me that Smash Bros is a MUCH better fit for a console.
Admittedly I don’t really play much online at all, or if I do I’m generally fine with the playing with strangers thing. But I don’t get some of your points.
3DS you have to be at a WiFi point – this isn’t any different to having to have your Xbox connected to your router. Both of them you just sit on your lounge and turn it on, and you’re online. And you can look at your friends list and see who’s online and who’s playing what game. And if it’s one from since the update for it, you can click from there to join them in the game. Invitations, yeah there’s still none of that though. But generally I’m at my computer anyway talking to them on skype, so contact isn’t much of an issue. Although I guess they have Miiverse on there now, I haven’t used my 3DS since that update came out so I don’t know how it compares to the Wii U version, but I guess that could possibly work as a communication system. I dunno.
But yeah. I just don’t see how it being a handheld vs a console makes much difference at all.
Basically one of them is always online for most people.
The other is a handheld which is designed to be played places where you don’t have wifi.
The 3DS has no cross game chat, no internal invite to join option from other games, you often have friends who are playing offline.
It works, it’s just far from ideal- and as a game which thrives off 4 player with mates it’s not going to be much good for me and I’d imagine a lot of other people.
If I was at school though…. Getting four mates together for a game at lunch would be simple and awesome. I just don’t know how big that market is.
The 3DS has more great games than I have time to play which are better suited to a handheld, I’ll be sticking to them and waiting for the WiiU version.
My 3DS isn’t always online, but it is online for the same amount of time as a console. It just gets more playtime overall because it can be taken to other places, the periods of time where it isn’t online are times when the console isn’t online either because it’s turned off. Eg when I’m not home.
And Wii U doesn’t have the cross-game chat etc features either…
I dunno. Comparing the two, they seem to be on pretty even footing except one of them you can also take with you. Whereas most of your issues seem to be from comparing it to the infrastructure of other consoles, which makes them issues for this game regardless of which version you choose.
Oh god. *This* Summer.
The title had me thinking it got delayed til next year.
You know random thing. I’ve followed Kotaku for so long and I’ve noticed that out of all the writers on the Kotaku US team that has their articles published also on the Kotaku AU site, Jason Schreier seems to be the one that also manages to cater to the Australian audience as well in many of his articles. I say this because I notice at times he deliberately states the Australian release dates for us even though his main article is based in US.
Props to this fellow!
I’m not certain, but I think that’s not dependant on the author of the article. I don’t think any of the US team pay any attention to the AU site at all except Plunkett (since he is Australian).
I think the localisation of Kotaku AU content is done by the AU team.
Yeah, US version of it doesn’t have that.
http://kotaku.com/smash-bros-3ds-out-this-summer-wii-u-this-winter-1561012819
oh, didn’t check the US edition. my mistake (>_<)