Shovel Knight Gets His Own amiibo! First Indie Game with amiibo Compatibility
One of Several Indie Announcements Made During Nintendo’s
Nindies@Night Event
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–During a presentation at Nintendo’s Nindies@Night event at EMP Museum in
Seattle, Nintendo made several announcements about the future of
independent games on the Wii
U and Nintendo
3DS systems. These announcements included the reveal of a Shovel
Knight amiibo figure from Yacht Club Games that unlocks
exclusive features for the hit game on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, making it
the first indie game to support amiibo technology. Other reveals at the
event include the upcoming launch of Kerbal Space Program for Wii
U early next year with exclusive features and functionality, first-look
Wii U debuts for Hive Jump and FAST Racing Neo multiplayer
game play, along with exciting details concerning each of these
anticipated Nindies.
“Not only do we have a robust slate of indie games launching in the
Nintendo eShop, but these games also contain features that can only be
found on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS,” said Damon Baker, Nintendo of
America’s Senior Marketing Manager of Publisher and Developer Relations.
“Creating an amiibo that’s compatible with all current and future Shovel
Knight games shows that our strong relationship with independent
developers is constantly evolving.”
“It’s been a great honor to work directly with Nintendo, creating a
Shovel Knight amiibo that sits beside their most beloved characters,”
said Yacht Club Games. “We are elated to expand the world of Shovel
Knight, and to keep developing unique game-play experiences on
Nintendo’s platforms.”
For the first time, exclusive to the Wii U version of the game, players
can scan the Shovel Knight amiibo and take on Shovel Knight’s
quest cooperatively with a friend. On Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, the amiibo
can be used to level up and customize Shovel Knight with new visual
enhancements, relics and abilities. These abilities can then be used in
new, exclusive amiibo challenge levels. To top it off, the amiibo figure
will be supported in future Shovel Knight games.
Yacht Club Games also revealed that the free DLC for Shovel Knight
that lets players play as fan-favorite enemy Plague Knight will launch
in September. Shovel Knight can be purchased in the Nintendo
eShop on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS for $14.99. Packaged retail versions of
the game for both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS will also be available in North
America this October.
Graphite Lab and Black Lantern Studios showcased the first playable
version of Wii U-exclusive Hive Jump, demonstrating exclusive
features for the platform. Hive Jump is a fast-paced multiplayer
action platformer for up to four players. Players engage in run ’n’ gun
combat with swarms of aliens, all the while avoiding traps and
collecting resources. The developers discussed how the Wii U Game Pad
would be used in the game, as well as plans for amiibo support, which
will be included when it launches in the Nintendo eShop on Wii U in
early 2016.
To talk about FAST Racing Neo, Shin’en Multimedia joined the
presentation to discuss multiplayer game play. FAST Racing Neo
earns the title “Fast” by throwing players into a futuristic racer with
hyper-fast anti-gravity vehicles. Up to four players can race against
each other in split-screen local multiplayer, with up to eight racers
able to participate in online multiplayer. (Additional controllers are
required for local multiplayer.) FAST Racing Neo will launch
exclusively in the Nintendo eShop on Wii U before the end of the year.
Squad’s Kerbal Space Program, with the help of Flying Tiger, was
announced for Wii U and will launch early next year. A physics-based
space flight simulator, Kerbal Space Program allows players to
manage their own space program by building and flying spacecraft. In the
Wii U version of the game, players can control their ship from inside
the cockpit using the Wii U GamePad controller, as well as create flight
plans with the touch screen and steer with motion controls. The
critically acclaimed Kerbal Space Program will launch in the
Nintendo eShop on Wii U.
Nintendo also announced the latest content refresh to the Indie Game
Revolution exhibition hosted by EMP. Visitors to the Seattle museum are
now able to experience new award-winning Wii U games, including upcoming
and recently released content like Typoman
(Headup Games / Brainseed), Year
Walk (Simogo / Dakko Dakko) and The
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Nicalis, Inc).
In all, 19 games were available to play at the Nindies@Night event at
EMP Museum, showcasing a variety of content for all attendees. All these
upcoming games and updates coupled with recent efforts like Nindies@Home
further reinforce the growing support Nintendo has shown for independent
developers. With numerous other indie games launching on Wii U and
Nintendo 3DS in the near future, fans will always find a wide variety of
Nindies to play on Nintendo systems.
Remember that Wii U and Nintendo 3DS feature parental controls that let
adults manage the content their children can access. For more
information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu
or http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of
interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan,
manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii U™
and Wii™ home consoles, and Nintendo 3DS™ and
Nintendo DS™ families of portable systems. Since 1983, when
it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has
sold more than 4.3 billion video games and more than 680 million
hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U,
Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy™,
Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi
XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo
GameCube™ and Wii systems. It has also created industry icons
that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™,
Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and
Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America
Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s
operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about
Nintendo, please visit the company’s website at http://www.nintendo.com.
Note to editors: Nintendo press materials are available at http://press.nintendo.com,
a password-protected site. To obtain a login, please register on the
site.
Contacts
GOLIN
Rich George, 415-318-4342
rgeorge@golin.com
or
Kathryn
Green, 415-318-4308
kgreen@golin.com
