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Nintendo Gets A Face lift — New York Store And New ‘Zelda’ Rumors Marquees The Beginning Of A Big Year In 2016

By Christopher Brown
Published on: 11:55 PST, Feb 20, 2016

Nintendo has remodeled and rebranded their flagship New York Store at Rockefeller Center. Some Nintendo fans in New York were faithfully camped outside since 6:30 a.m. to be among the first to enter the “1UP’d” Nintendo store.

Polygon reports that the New York-based Nintendo store was formerly known as “Nintendo World.” Nintendo World closed its doors in January for a month-long remodeling phase.

Upon its reopening, Nintendo delivered their promise of offering an up-to-date Rockefeller Center mainstay and the crowd seemed pleased.

Even the man behind the mustache, Mario voice actor Charles Martinent, made an appearance at the revamped Nintendo store

But is the flagship reopening truly a pivotal moment for Mario and friends at Nintendo?

Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales, Scott Moffit, seems to think so. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Nintendo New York, Moffit said that the international draw of New York City itself, will naturally usher in an impassioned fan base from all over the world.

And passionate fans of Nintendo is what keeps the Japanese gaming company running — because it isn’t overall sales, at least according to the estimated sales report calculated by arstechnica.com.

projected sales of three major consoles last year [graph created via onlinecharttool.com]
projected sales of three major consoles last year [graph created via onlinecharttool.com]
Therefore, it is the loyal fans of Nintendo’s staple characters, i.e. Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, etc., that keeps the company afloat because third party developers are wary of developing for Nintendo.

This has has been extremely detrimental for Nintendo in a gaming era where popular third-person shooters like Call of Duty and Fallout reign over the market and are exclusive to PS4 and Xbox One.

But perhaps, Nintendo fans will be rewarded for their patience this year. Maybe 2016 could very well be the year of Nintendo, with the incumbent of the remodeled Nintendo store in New York kicking off the revolution.

And in the upcoming months, Nintendo appears to have even more significant changes to give their brand a facelift.

According to Engadget, the highly anticipated Tekken vs. Pokemon fusion, respectively titled, Pokken Tournament will take an innovative spin the already popular Pokemon series.

Since Nintendo announced their new fighter series, fans have increasingly grown more excited about the title as more revealing trailers emerge.

Pokken will be on for the Wii U, Nintendo confirmed, but the title is already going to be made a part of the Pokemon Championship series, which are held at the Nintendo New York store.

Many are already registered for early tryouts and will fight their way to the regional finals the day before the game is even released, March 17.

The Hyrule Hero returns in 2016

And then of course there’s The Legend of Zelda. Perhaps Nintendo’s most successful franchise, Mario aside. There’s been debate on whether the title will come out this year and if it will even be on the Wii U.

This also begs the question of when the NX will be released, if that is indeed what Nintendo is waiting for.

But rest assured Nintendo faithful, because the Christian Post has discovered that the new Zelda title will most likely be released for the Wii U this year.

Sources say that Nintendo has confirmed that the game is included in its 2016 roster.

Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto said himself that even though The Legend of Zelda on Wii U was not featured at E3 last year, the game is still on the 2016 roster.

Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime also confirmed what Miyamoto said. This discovery can also be used to imply that the Nintendo NX will be released this year as well, as the title is expected to run on the new console.

In addition, Neuro Gadget reports that Nintendo sources have confirmed a 2016 release.

The reason for the delays and Nintendo’s wary approach in fine-tuning the game for release could be due to the ever increasing expectations for a stellar Zelda game, as fans — deservingly so — demand it.

Nintendo fans will argue over what the best Zelda game of all time is, and these battles usually end with a stalemate as the fandom may never be able to come to a consensus.

However, the new Zelda absolutely has to be the one Nintendo has ever put out in order to begin making a comeback this year. And fans already think that it could just happen in 2016.

A Nintendo App?

Nintendo is already the champion of the mobile gaming market to the dismay of PlayStation with their seemingly neglected Playstation Vita handheld, and Microsoft — who knew better than to even attempt at competing with the Nintendo DS and gameboy consoles.

Now Nintendo will launch their first-ever mobile app for iOS and Android called Miitomo. The Inquisitr found that the new Nintendo App features the popular Mii characters for individual user accounts, akin to the consoles. Miitomo will also be released in March — which is starting to look like a huge month for Nintendo.

[Image via Nintendo]
[Image via Nintendo]
Last year was a rough year for Nintendo altogether, with low sales and the unfortunate passing of their president, Satoru Iwata, but fans can be optimistic with the announcement and release of

  • A remodeled New York Store
  • Pokken Tournament
  • A new Zelda
  • Nintendo NX — which will be launched with some third party support and will be equipped with the powerful Unreal and Unity gaming engines, Neuro Gadget reports — elements for a successful console which were painfully lacking from previous Nintendo platforms.

Are you looking forward to what Nintendo has in store for this year? Can they really turn their sales around in 2016?

[Image via YouTube]

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