I don't regret my Wii U purchase one bit, but I think the third parties jumping ship does fall on Nintendo. The 3DS launch mess should have taught them that they can't sell hardware on potential these days, and they should have had some major must-have Nintendo titles at Wii U launch to push more people to become early adopters. Then maybe third parties would see Wii U as a more valuable platform. If Nintendo can have a successful holiday then things might turn around a bit, but I'm not counting on it.

I'm certainly not expecting the Wii U to "die," but I'm fully ready for yet another generation where people buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games and an Xbox or PS4 to play third party games.

@warnerdan If X will be your first Pokémon game and then you go back to R/B/Y, you'll be sorely disappointed. They have huge nostalgia value, but they're horribly slow and cumbersome and lack MANY quality-of-life features that have since been added. Even the FireRed/LeafGreen versions would feel dated, but they would be a far better way to enjoy the Kanto journey because they're quite simply much more playable games.

@skjia I'm surprised to not see more Pipe Dream comparisons. Am I really getting so old?

I got my first iOS device a few months ago in the form of the iPod 5th gen, and while there are some good games on there, I haven't played a single game that wouldn't be better on a dedicated handheld or console. In fact, of all the games I've played on iOS that I've also played on traditional gaming platforms, the iOS version always feels inferior. Mutant Mudds, Theatrhythm, and don't even get me started on the FPS ports. This even extends to the championing iOS title, Angry Birds, which feels far more intuitive and playable on PC IMO.

Still looks like a Yoshi, considering how many official variations there are. I don't understand why some indie devs can't create original content instead of feeling the need to leech off of the popularity of major IPs.

The wait for this game is excruciating.

@2Sang Animal Crossing City Folk did allow you to carry over your character's face and hair, along with part of their Nook catalog from Wild World. I don't know if this version will do anything similar.

Personally I think it kind of takes away from the core gameplay to start with most everything unlocked so even given the option I opted to start fresh on ACCF.

@SheldonRandoms If you're referring to DLC, they've stated that AC will not have paid DLC. Granted that was a long time ago and there was a point at which we thought no first party games would, so who knows.

I already planned to go digital on AC anyway, but it's nice to know I won't have to pay a $5 premium to do so.

I don't believe this has anything to do with pushing downloads on consumers, as this same shortage also affected the Pikachu 3DS XL HARDWARE. Wal-Mart stores here in the US got both Lego City Undercover and the Pikachu XL while stores like Target and Amazon.com had no stock on launch day. I didn't notice or check with MH3U because I intended to buy both versions digitally anyway.

I don't know what's up with the shipping delays, but I don't think Nintendo is creating false shortages to promote digital games, and certainly not with a game that requires an external HDD even for premium system owners (Lego City Undercover.)

Anyone writing this off with sarcastic comments like "omg Amazon sold out of Nintendo systems" and "oh no, advertising similar products on a product page!" clearly isn't paying attention.

Shortly after 3DS came out, Amazon put the product "under review" and stopped selling 3DS systems. Since then they have not carried ANY Nintendo systems and ONLY on the Nintendo systems pages does it say "Try Vita instead" or "Try PS3/4 or Xbox instead."

There's clearly something going on behind the scenes that has Amazon actively trying to steer shoppers away from Nintendo systems and to the others, while they are not stocking the Nintendo hardware. Amazon.com has not ever stocked the 3DS XL or Wii U themselves.

There's obviously something more to this than low stock or "normal retail behavior."

Props to him for pushing it through to release, but considering the WiiWare version was already likely to have the worst sales numbers, and then also releasing the game on other more popular services a while before it got to WiiWare pretty much guaranteed failure to reach the threshold.

This seems almost completely pointless. First of all, not all shows that are on Netflix have the Netflix streaming icon (for example, if you check MLP:FiM, no Netflix option is given even though all three seasons are on Netflix.) Secondly, when you choose a show on TVii, it only lists episodes that are airing/have aired on broadcast TV recently, so you can't start from episode 1 or whatever episode you have bookmarked unless it just happens to have played recently.

Finally, when you do choose to watch something on Netflix from TVii, it closes the TVii app and launches Netflix, thus completely defeating the purpose of even using TVii for Netflix.

This feature is almost completely useless.

I've been playing MH3U on both 3DS and Wii U, and there's barely any difference. Even on Wii U I end up using the Monster Target feature to adjust my camera more often than the right analog, so other than underwater the controls feel fine on 3DS.

The more personal opinions I hear from Phil Fish the less respect I have for him, both as a developer and as a gamer in general. He comes across as immature and fanboyish.

As tempted as I am to echo the sentiments of everyone saying they'd trade these for Earthbound or Bravely Default or the plethora of 3DS VC games they've been getting while we get an NES game every week or two, this really illustrates a larger problem with the industry in general. There is simply too much separation between East and West here with regards to who gets what and what they think gamers in each region want. Publishers (and some developers) need to realize that chances are if a game is good, there will be people who want to play it across all regions. Unfortunately sometimes we can't even get a cheap digital port of games like GCCX2 or in Japan's case, VVVVVV.

Wow, so much hate for the series in these comments.

First of all, four entries all on separate systems in the "NEW" series (with an expansion coming) is hardly "milking" in the days of God of War 7 and Lightning Returns (AKA Final Fantasy XIII-3) not to mention yearly CoD games, etc.

Secondly, the series has evolved greatly over time and each entry is unique. The firs NSMB was admittedly rather rough around the edges and I dare say uninspired, but the other three are fantastic games with a lot of polish, and other than reusing the same music entirely too much, I'm a big fan.

My biggest complaint with the Wii U entry is that they added back the Raccoon Suit in NSMB2 which added back the much-needed verticality that was lost after SMB3 and SMW, but then went with the inferior Flying Squirrel Suit in NSMBU. I'm sure it was because the game is built for multiplayer, but I think the huge vertical and horizontal levels is what made SMB3 and SMW so great.

Lastly, there's a reason the NSMB series continues to sell like hotcakes. These games are genuinely fun and enjoyable. If you disagree, speak with your wallet and don't buy them, but it probably won't have much effect because millions of us are buying, playing, and thoroughly enjoying them. And it's not like these are coming at the expense of 3D Mario. We even got arguably one of the best Mario games since Mario 64 just over a year ago in the form of Super Mario 3D Land.

If it could actually stream my desktop to the screen I might use it, but without the screen in use it's just a comically large controller. I'll stick with my Classic Controller USB adapter for now.

I've got the Pokémon Championship skin atm, but if I can get the Porygon-Z skin I'll probably never change it again. Too bad these will no doubt be the other evolved starters.

I'm sure a few devs might get creative with PS3 and Vita connectivity, but it'll never catch on big for the same reason it didn't with GBA->GCN. No developer in their right mind is going to want to release a game that requires two game systems to play. What the Wii U really brings to the table in this case is connectivity between a handheld and console out of the box with no extra hardware purchase required. Every Wii U owner will have the tablet controller, so devs have no reason to not use it.

Well there's one more 3DS game people won't be playing in public.

I find it a little disheartening to be honest. Nintendo themselves were backing Cave Story pretty strongly, and it was developed by a "garage developer" before Nicalis was formed. "Garage developers" also bring us brilliant games like Minecraft, would Nintendo say no to that if Notch hadn't put together a company to support it?

@mariofanatic128

If it's a regular DS game with no DSi features, it should play fine. If it has DSi features or requires a DSi, it will likely require a system from the same region as the game.

@ tristen
I agree, I've always been a big fan of pixel art, and frankly I think it looks terrible with blur, but I have seen people who think it looks better that way. I just wish we had the option to choose.

It might be worth mentioning in the backward-compatibility paragraph that DS games will suffer from a slight blur due to upscaling, which can be good or bad depending on the player's opinion.

What happened to the eShop accepting direct payment by credit/debit card? I was under the impression that we didn't need points at all, and the new prepaid cards were just for people without access to credit or debit.

EDIT - Straight from the 3DS press release: "The Nintendo eShop will use a cash-based system. Users can either input credit card information in the shop or purchase a Nintendo 3DS Prepaid Card at retail locations."

This doesn't mean new points, it just means Wii/DS points aren't compatible.

I wonder if this will affect settings migration at all. Ideally I'd want to migrate my settings from my DSi to my 3DS ASAP so that my DS games will retain their friend codes, but I'm not sure if that'll be an option, or if it'll have any effect on the ability to later transfer DSiWare.

Achievements can be a welcome addition to many games (Brawl Challenges, anyone?) but as a system-wide e-peen meter they just end up seeming like an excuse for developers to put less "real" gameplay in, and they can promote hostility among players (a serious issue in WoW and I'm sure other games.) I won't really miss it.

I loved my Virtual Boy, and though it was a flop, I think most people can agree the problems were with the hardware more than the software. I for one would LOVE to be able to play Wario Land VB, Mario Clash, Red Alarm, Galactic Pinball, and Teleroboxer (among other titles) again without having to dig out my VB and deal with the hardware issues.

Without a lot of games I don't see the need for a special shop section, but maybe themed releases like the Game & Watch games on DSiWare.

I think it would be a fitting tribute to Gunpei Yokoi for part of his vision for 3d gaming to be brought new life now that the technology can better support it.

As someone who will likely only ever get SpotPass connections at home, I would've liked to see it as an option, but not mandatory. Unfortunately that would've driven up the hardware costs even for people who stuck with SpotPass. Maybe next gen.

It's worth noting that DSi was 18,900 yen at launch, which equates to $225 US, but the actual US launch price was $170.

I honestly don't expect 3DS to be over $249.99.

I'm assuming the old versions won't be updated with the new features? That could cause some confusion for first-time buyers who read up on the new version and then choose one of the old colors, only to find out it's not as feature-rich. Heck, I'd be willing to pay the extra 300 points to upgrade, but I doubt Nintendo would support such a feature on DSiWare.

This has been one of my NES favorites for ages. If you like games like Shadowgate and Deja Vu, and think you can handle playing a cutesy game without all the deaths (I'm struggling to remember if you can even get a game over,) then it's really a great game.

As a longtime fan of Space Invaders, I'd love to have a version on my DSi. But since I just bought Extreme 2 I think I'll pass if they bring this to the US, at least for now.