Wow, that month went fast. Hope you all had a great Christmas and/or New Year!

I’ll be completely honest: I did not expect this feature to run into 2012. Right up until that last post, I figured news would dry up after Christmas and I’d need to make some drastic changes to keep 2DS View going. Then they announced Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition.

NEWS

PKMN+NA Info Blowout: Screens, Date, Livestream

Yes, right before the end of 2011, Nintendo and Koei announced that they were combining their Pokémon and Nobunaga’s Ambition franchises to form… Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition. The imaginatively-named DS game will add Pokémon to the (somewhat) accurate strategy game based on Japanese history. Since Christmas, a wealth of information about the game has been revealed, including a release date and price: March 17th, for ¥5,800. No North American or European release plans have been announced, unfortunately. A livestream event is happening this week in Japan, featuring more info on the game and some developer interviews – you’ll be able to tune in here at 13:30 on Thursday if you want to watch.

You’ll play as either a boy or girl with Eevee as your Pokémon. The titular Nobunaga controls Pokémon Black’s cover star Zekrom, while his sister has a Jigglypuff. Each of the other generals in the game has their own Pokémon, like Groudon, Mewtwo, Articuno and more. Gameplay seems fairly typical of turn-based strategy RPGs – you battle on a grid, thinking tactically about where you position your Pokémon and how to use your abilities. Serebii.net has a more detailed breakdown of how things work. Below you’ll find screenshots of battle scenes and some character dialogue; I love how the trainers’ Pokémon match their expressions. Shocked Jigglypuff is adorable!

More Little Tail Bronx On It’s Way?

At the Solatorobo Festival 2012 in Japanese last week, fans were given a sliver of hope that another game from the “Little Tail Bronx” series* would one day see release. Developer CyberConnect2′s CEO said this on the subject of a Solatorobo sequel:

In the not so distant future, I would like to greet everyone in the Little Tail Bronx world. Although, I don’t know what media it will be. As long as it has everyone’s support, the Little Tails Bronx world will live forever.

Far from a confirmation that a new game is in active development, but it looks like they’re trying. It did take 10 years to get Solatorobo out the door though, so don’t expect anything soon. You can see some photos from last week’s event below and at 4Gamer.

*Little Tail Bronx encompasses Tail Concerto on PSone, Solatorobo on DS (buy it!) and, bizarrely, the promotional materials for the Fukuoka prefecture disaster warning email system (Mamoru, who also appears in Solatorobo, was the “image character” for the system).

Cave Story DSiWare Still Coming to Europe

Yes, well over a year after the US release, Europe has still not been able to play the DSiWare version of Cave Story. It’s ridiculous that despite getting Cave Story+, the WiiWare version and Cave Story 3D, we still can’t play this relatively straight port of the original version. It looks like the wait is nearly over though (but not quite) – Nicalis has tweeted that the game was submitted to Nintendo in December, but was rejected due to “really minor crap with the manual.” They’re submitting the game again this month, so hopefully we’ll have the game in our hands sometime very soon.

Dig Up Some Fossil Fighters DLC

Nintendo’s been doing free DLC in a lot of it’s games recently, and Fossil Fighters Champions is no exception. Right now you can get two badass-looking Vivosaurs and a group of alien opponents by hooking your DS up to Nintendo WiFi Connection. Check this page for more information.

Pokémon DLC Weekly

Despite being away for a month, there’s not a lot of new Pokémon content to report this week. In Japan, you can get this Crustle C-Gear skin by activating ti at the Global Link website. There’s no password for this one; it’s a tie-in with an episode of the TV show. In the US, a new Lucario event of sorts has begun. Specially-marked copies of Pokémon Black and White sold at Target between Jan 12 and April 30 will include a code that allows you to befriend a Lucario (who knows Bullet Punch) on Global Link. Not much good for those of us who already own the game, but neat if you were looking to get the game soon I guess.