Pack away the bunting

It seems like just last week we were celebrating that Wii U won't have Friend Codes, but it seems our fireworks and streamers were a bit premature. Nintendo of America president and honorary purple Pikmin Reggie Fils-Aime has told Kotaku Wii U will have friend codes, but they'll be different.

By the sounds of things, you'll be able to interact with the general Miiverse populace without adding their Friend Codes — think the game-specific message boards — but adding users to your friends list will give you more options. Fils-Aime says:

There are friend codes, but it's not the existing friend code system, What do I mean by that? Here's what I mean: you will be able to identify people as friends and have a certain level of interaction vs. a different level of interaction for the more general population. The method by which you identify someone as a friend is a lot simpler than what's happening today with Friend Codes.

Depending on your opinion on Friend Codes, "a lot simpler" could mean anything from unique usernames to drawing a six-foot sigil on the side of a mountain. Clearly from all the confusion surrounding the divisive digits Nintendo still has plenty to communicate, so hopefully we'll hear more soon.

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Strong arm tactics

On a press tour of Asia earlier this year, Yoshinori Ono was admitted to hospital and stepped down from his role as Street Fighter producer following the health scare. While you might have expected Ono's hectic work schedule to slow down after the incident, a new interview with Eurogamer.net reveals that's not the case.

Ono revealed that after returning to work, Capcom didn't acknowledge that he'd been in hospital; he came back to a full work schedule and an airline ticket to Rome. Ono says:

There's no mercy. Everyone in the company says: 'Ono-san we've been so worried about you.' Then they hand me a timetable and it's completely filled with things to do.

Ono is unable to change his situation alone, but has sent out a clear message with this interview:

Capcom doesn't allow a trade union or any sort of worker movement you see. So if I complain I will probably get sacked. You have to say it for me, OK? I want you to write: 'Capcom overworks Ono'. That's your headline.

As one of gaming's bona fide characters, Ono's undoubtedly valuable to Capcom, and his work in revitalising the fighting genre should not be overlooked. Sounds to us like he could use a good holiday, though.

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Open the TOYBOX

That Project Happiness trailer we showed you last week certainly looked cute, but we didn't know if it would definitely come to Nintendo platforms. And now we know it will, we have an excuse to show it again.

Publisher Rising Star Games confirmed the game will reach Nintendo 3DS and mobile platforms. Project Happiness is the new game from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada and his new TOYBOX studio, with music from Final Fantasy legend Nobuo Uematsu and Pokémon artist Atsuko Nishida.

We don't know much more than we did last week but at least we'll see Project Happiness on 3DS sometime next year.

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It's not really my place to say but there's something ace going up at Eurogamer this afternoon.

Ghost-busting game is bizarre but ace. Nintendo gaming isn't limited to what's on the TV screen; Wii U should break that barrier forever.

I played Wii Play Motion with Mrs N last night. Mixed quality overall but the stone-skimming game is amazing. Best use of WM+ ever? Yes.

Speak up

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn hit DS some seven years after its predecessor, Golden Sun: The Lost Age landed on the Game Boy Advance. What are the chances of a new entry in the series, though? Camelot head Hiroyuki Takahashi wants to know if that's something you'd want.

In an interview with Nintendo Gamer, Hiroyuki Takahashi said that if enough users ask for a new Golden Sun, it might just happen:

A big reason for us making RPGs comes from the requests from all the people who have enjoyed our RPGs in the past. Perhaps if there are enough Nintendo users asking for another game in the Golden Sun series, then this will naturally lead to the development of such a game.

Don't expect a rush job, though: Takahashi has asked for "a bit of time":

Speaking personally from the perspective of the story, I think that honestly it may not be so likely because Golden Sun really requires a full effort to be put in. But of course, if there are enough people saying that we really must create another game, then we may just have to listen to them. Still, you would need to give me a bit of time to work on ideas for the story before we could release a fourth game in the series.

Golden Sun fans, this is your chance.

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Sonic, tattoos and a samurai sword

After all the E3 excitement last week it's back down to Earth with a bump this week, with a Game Gear Sonic game and European releases of decent, if long overdue games. Here's what's available this week.

3DS Virtual Console

Sonic Blast (Game Gear, SEGA, £4.50/€5) — Sonic's last adventure on Game Gear (in Japan it was the last commercially released Game Gear game full-stop), its rendered environments didn't look great at the time and probably haven't dated well. We'll have a full review for you soon.

3DS Download Software

Samurai Sword Destiny (UFO Interactive, £5.40/€6) — Sadly not the samurai game we were all hoping for, UFO's eShop adventure is a below-par side-scrolling slasher, as our Samurai Sword Destiny review elaborates.

DSiWare

Art of Ink (Sabarasa, 800pts) — Out in North America for over a year now, we'd hoped Sabarasa's quirky tattooing game would reach Europe with a price drop but alas. The good news is it's actually very good: our Art of Ink review should fill in the gaps for you.

That's the lot for this week, folks. What's coming home with you? Let us know in our Facebook poll.

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What did we do to deserve this?

Crimson Dragon — also known as "the best reason to have a Kinect right now" — has been delayed.

The new shooter from many of the staff behind Panzer Dragoon was scheduled for release in Japan on 13th June, but Microsoft has put the release back for unspecified reasons.

We didn't have a final Western release date so this delay isn't really a big deal, but does mean we won't get the game for a while. Xbox.com currently lists its release as 31/12/2799, by which time we'll probably all have real dragons and laugh at the idea of video games.

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NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (puts Kinect back in box) "Kinect Exclusive Crimson Dragon Delayed" http://t.co/2bOy56wt