Two of Nintendo's biggest Wii U games get updates today
Key additions for Mario Maker, Splatoon.
Splatoon and Mario Maker, two of Nintendo's biggest Wii U games, get shiny new updates today.
Mario Maker gains a half dozen new items, including screen-filling Skewers (shake a Thwomp to make one appear) and Keys, allowing you to create more complicated levels (shake a P-Switch to place a Key instead).
With the addition of Keys, Nintendo has also added Key Doors and the ability to place Keys in blocks or assign them to enemies - so you have to defeat a boss before one drops, for example. There are also new Pink Coins - collect all of these to also get a Key to drop.
Mario Maker's 100 Mario Challenge has also been updated with a new difficulty level. Super Expert mode will be available after beating the challenge on Expert. This fresh hell will serve up six tough-as-nails trials to beat with 100 lives.
You can also now see where other players died in your course and, finally, 12 new costumes have been added - including Zelda's Tetra.
Meanwhile, in Splatoon, there are tweaks to some of the maps and improved matchmaking. Ranked battles will now match opponents with some preference for what weapons people have equipped. Players will also be closer-matched based on their rank.
Ranked match winners will gain less points if they have only won due to the other team losing a player mid-match. Splatfest Power Levels will now begin based on your ranked battle standing.
And finally, Nintendo announced today that Splatoon has now sold more than 1m copies in Europe alone. 3.5m copies have been shifted worldwide - meaning that one in four Wii U owners now own the game.
