Nintendo Announces New Zelda, Donkey and Yoshi’s Island for 3DS

Nintendo has announced new Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Yoshi's Island games for the 3DS, as well as new downloadable games for the Nintendo eShop and several updates for the Wii U.

As part of the company's regular Nintendo Direct presentation, global president Satoru Iwata revealed a third instalment in the Yoshi's Island series, which is set to launch later in 2013. Though it currently lacks even a specific title, Iwata said that more information would be revealed in the near future.

Satoru Shibata, president of Nintendo Europe, also appeared as part of Direct, showing off a new Legend of Zelda title scheduled to launch in the Christmas period of 2013. A mix of old and new Zelda, this new game will be a sequel of sorts to Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past which launched in 1992. It will be set in the same game world as Link to the Past, using the same maps and levels, but feature an entirely new plotline. Shibata said that a 3D video of this new Zelda would be available to watch on the Nintendo eShop shortly after the Direct presentation had finished.

Shibata also announced that Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a former Japanese exclusive, would be launching for the 3DS in Europe in 2013. A spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, a European launch of Bravely Default has been long anticipated by Nintendo fans, with petitions launched to secure the game a Western release.

Shin Megami Tensei IV, a dragon killing adventure game exclusively for the 3DS, will also be heading for Europe in 2013 though no precise release date has been given.

Several other 3DS games were trailed by Nintendo. First was Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bro, a standard looking Mario platformer for the 3DS which is due out on 12 July. There was also Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, a 3DS remake of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the original Wii. That launches on 24 May and features a new game mode "optimised" for handheld play, giving players a bigger health bar and eight new levels.

There was also Mario Golf World Tour which allows players to connect to play competitively online, and Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, a new game in the bestselling puzzle franchise which is slated for release in late 2013.

Nintendo eShop

Several new games will also be coming to the Nintendo eShop. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, which originally launched on the Game Boy Colour in 2001, will both be available to download from 30 May.

A downloadable pack for New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U will also be available. New Super Luigi U replaces Mario as the game's central character and updates 82 of the levels to better suit Luigi's abilities, such as his longer jump.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, an eShop exclusive, will also launch on 9 May. A puzzle game, similar to Pipe Mania, it sees players arranging tiles to navigate characters from one end of a level to the other and will feature more than 180 stages.

The Nintendo eShop will also host a trio of games from independent developer Level 5. Horror game The Starship Damrey, role-playing game Attack of the Friday Monsters! and Bugs vs. Tanks, which is being designed by Mega-Man creator Keiji Inafune, will all launch exclusively on the eShop in 2013 though no exact release dates have been announced.

A long awaited port of the SNES classic Earthbound will also launch later this year as part of the new Virtual Console being introduced to the Wii U. The Virtual Console will allow Wii U users to play old games from the NES and SNES consoles, including the original F-Zero and Punch Out games.

The Virtual Console will arrive as part of the Wii U's spring software update which will begin rolling out next week starting in North America. The spring update will also add improved functionality to the Wii U, reducing loading times between the console's home page and main menu apps and allowing players to hold down the B button when turning the console on to automatically set it to Wii Mode.