Gamers around the world are tuning in to all the news coming from E3 this week. From the Nintendo side, two games are of interest for Metroid fans: Super Smash Bros. and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

The first one is the latest entry of Nintendo’s all-star brawler series, coming out in 2014 for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. It’ll once again feature our favorite bounty hunter, with a brand-new look based on the controversial Metroid: Other M. Check out the game’s official website and Samus’ character page.

Samus in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Samus in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

The second one is Retro Studio’s new effort on Wii U. The new 2D sidescroller is a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns that came out on Wii in 2010 and will release this November. Grab more images and information at its E3 page.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Stay tuned to Shinesparkers and Nintendo’s E3 website for all the latest news on those games.

Last month, Nintendo offered Super Metroid as a Club Nintendo reward in North America. However, the same game will be offered for $0.30 as part as the Famicom 30th Anniversary celebration to Wii U owners. So, to compensate for the confusion, Nintendo is returning the 150 coins to Wii U owners spent on Super Metroid as a reward. The codes will remain valid, so users will get to keep the game even if they don’t re-buy it on Wii U.

Don’t forget to pick up Super Metroid on the Wii U eShop starting May 15 for just 30 cents, pence or yen!

In an interview to The Official Nintendo Magazine UK, Hiro Yamada, Nintendo producer currently supervising Monster Games’ development of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, teased that Retro Studios’ next game might be revealed soon:

If Retro aren’t making Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, what are they making? Does it involve a certain bounty hunter?

HY: I wonder what kind of game it is? I hope to introduce it to you in the not so distant future.

Although Nintendo announced that they would not be hosting a press conference at E3, they’ll still be a major player at the event which is little more than a month away. With luck, this means we’ll know about said game by then.

Source: The Official Nintendo Magazine

After Nintendo released its investors report yesterday, it announced that Tatsumi Kimishima, currently director at Nintendo Co., Ltd. and CEO at Nintendo of America, will be promoted to general manager of Corporate Analysis and Administration and General Affairs Division at NCL in Kyoto. Satoru Iwata, global president of Nintendo and CEO of the Japanese headquarters, will now also assume the position of CEO at Nintendo of America, while retaining his current positions. Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO of Nintendo of America will also retain his roles but will now answer directly to Iwata. This comes as a step towards a more global strategy for the company. By sharing the same CEO, Nintendo hopes to achieve a more unified relationship between its operations in Redmond and Kyoto.

In Nintendo’s earnings release, it announced its second consecutive year of losses, due mostly because of Wii U’s sales being weaker than expected. However, the company plans to change that for the year ending in March 2014 and Iwata made a bold promise by forecasting 100 billion yen of profit for next year.

Nintendo wishes to sell 9 million Wii U systems and 18 million Nintendo 3DS systems worldwide during the next fiscal year, and those numbers rely heavily on software being released during this period. With Animal Crossing, Pokémon and Zelda coming to 3DS and the possibility of Mario games for Wii U (in a press release, Nintendo announced that those titles will be released “during the next several months”), it doesn’t seem impossible to achieve those sales, even though the company is facing serious competition from all sides – from Sony, Microsoft and Apple in particular. No forecasts were announced for Nintendo DS, which indicates that the company plans on ceasing production of the most popular line of portable gaming systems of all time, but they still plan on selling 2 million Wii units.

It will certainly be an interesting year for Nintendo.

Sources: Nintendo Investor Relations and Nintendo PR

Nintendo announced this morning that select online services for Wii will be discontinued on June 28. These services include the Nintendo, Check Mii Out, News, Forecast and Everybody Votes channels, but will also affect certain WiiConnect24 services, which includes Friend Voucher trading in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Friend Vouchers can be acquired in Corruption and Trilogy by completing certain tasks in-game and, when traded with friends via Wii’s online services, become tokens used to unlock bonus content such as the Fusion Suit in Prime and the Mii Bobblehead in Corruption. If you still haven’t unlocked those bonuses, now is the time to trade some vouchers!

Source: Nintendo PR

Wii U, Nintendo’s new home console, was released today in North America. A minigame collection for it, Nintendo Land, also came out today. Nintendo Land features various minigames based on Nintendo series, like Mario, Zelda, Pikmin and, of course, Metroid. Metroid Blast is the featured minigame paying tribute to our favorite series, and more info about it can be read in our feature.

Europe gets the new system on November 30, while Japan has to wait until December 8.