It’s time for the third part of our look at the games coming out from now until the end of the year. Today, we’ll look at Nintendo’s systems, the portable 3DS and the Wii U console. Both have a healthy amount of exclusives coming out for the holiday season.
You can learn more about them in our list, or you can check out our previous early holiday gaming guides below:
Part 1: PlayStation 4, PS3, and Vita
Part 2: Xbox One and 360
Part 3: Wii U and Nintendo 3DS
Part 4: PC
Part 5: Multiplatform
Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appetit!
Above: No one does it better than Mama.
Platform: 3DS
Release date. Sept. 16
The Cooking Mama series lets players become virtual chefs by using the touch screen to chop vegetables, flip pans, and do all that other stuff that merits an apron. This is the second entry in the series to come out on the 3DS.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Sept. 16
Curtain Call is a sequel to 2012’s Theatrhythm. Like its predecessor, it’s a music-based game that allows players to tap their way through a large song selection that includes tunes from multiple games in the Final Fantasy series.
Hyrule Warriors
Platform: Wii U
Release date: Sept. 26
Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda game that plays like an entry in the Dynasty Warriors franchise. You can play as one of many heroes and villains from the Zelda series and battle gigantic armies, capture bases, and lead your own troops.
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Oct. 3
This is the first portable entry in Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series, which brings together characters from different Nintendo games and some third-party guest stars into a four-player fighting experience. The 3DS version has the same roster coming to the Wii U game later this year, which includes new characters like Mega Man, Pac-Man, and the Wii Fit Trainer.
Bayonetta 2
Platform: Wii U
Release date: Oct. 24
The first Bayonetta was an action title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that featured the sort of brutality and titillation you wouldn’t expect to see in a Nintendo exclusive. However, this sequel, which promises even more ultraviolence and hair-based combat, will only be available for the Wii U. It will come packaged with a port of the original game.
Fantasy Life
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Oct. 24
Fantasy Life is a role-playing game with a heavy emphasis on gathering and crafting. It comes from Level 5, the same studio responsible for the Professor Layton series and the PlayStation 3 RPG Ni no Kuni.
Jeez, one page down and we’re not even out of October yet. Let’s keep looking at all of those 3DS and Wii U exclusives coming out until the end of the year.
Pokémon Art Academy
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Oct. 24
Pokémon Art Academy teaches users how to draw Pokémon like Pikachu and Eevee. It lets you use the 3DS’s bottom touch screen as the canvas for your masterpieces (or stick figures. We’re not judging.)
Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Nov. 11
The Sonic Boom franchise will attempt to re-invent Sega’s mascot and his friends with new character designs. The 3DS game is a 2D platformer, like the original entries back on the Sega Genesis, but its levels are less linear and encourage exploration.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Platform: Wii U
Release date: Nov. 18
The Wii U Sonic Boom game is a bit more of a departure from the series’ norm. Rise of Lyric takes place in a 3D world that, like Shattered Crystal, also welcomes you to have a look around, but it focuses more on combat than most Sonic games.
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Nov. 21
These are remakes of Pokémon Sapphire and Ruby, which originally appeared on the Game Boy Advance back in 2003. These updates make the games look and feel more like the X and Y versions of Pokémon, which game out for the 3DS last year.
Persona Q
Platform: 3DS
Release date: Nov. 25
Persona Q combines the characters from the Japanese role-playing games Persona 3 and 4 with the gameplay from Etrian Odyssey (check out our recent preview). This is the first series entry to come out on a Nintendo console.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Platform: Wii U
Release date: Holiday 2014
The Wii U version of Smash Bros. will feature the same roster from the 3DS game, but it will feature HD graphics and different stages. Currently, Nintendo does not a have a more specific release date.