Unfortunately in Italy it's going to be available only at McDonald's so-called "restaurants"

@C-Olimar Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look at some videos of the game you mentioned tonight

Unfortunately it seems that Solomon's key won't appear on the 3DS Virtual Console. It's a pity, because it's still one of my all-time favourite puzzle games and I would have bought it gladly (even if I had to admit that Solomon's club for the Gameboy is a superior version).

Never liked it too much. IMHO Super Mario Bros 3 is still the best 2D Mario ever released.

I can confirm too that Amazon.it has also slashed the price of Wii U Basic and Deluxe models from 299€ / 349€ to €199 / 249€.

Yesterday I purchased and played Fire Emblem for the first time. I was playing at around 23:00 / 11pm and I choose to visit a hall. Suddently all the characters of the game, one by one, suggest me that it was late and perhaps I should go to sleep instead of playing !!!

I can decide by myself when I want to go to bed... I'm not a child anymore, Nintendo !

I'm feeling a little stupid for having paid a Wii U at the full price of 340€ only 4 months ago... knowing what is happening, if I could turn back time I would never have bought it on day one and instead I would have bought it at christmas 2013 for half its original price with some triple-A games that I hope will be finally available for that date...

Better late than never...

Cool! I'll get Luigi Mansion 2, Fire Emblem and Donkey Kong Country Returns and I'll get Animal crossing for free!

Nintendo should definitely make a limited edition by using this shade of pink and putting the face of Kirby in front

That would be the coolest 3DS XL ever

I'm just hoping to see someone announcing a limited edition of the 3DS XL with Animal crossing bundled together

Neo geo games available for the 3DS virtual console... hehehe....

I never liked this game; I always though of this game as a "Cabal" rip-off, a lot less fun than the original arcade game made by TAD Corporation.

On Amazon.it you can already pre-order the boxed version for €39.58. I could bet 1€ that the price in Europe for the digital version will be the usual €44.90.

> The Croods — While due to arrive in stores on 12th March [...] this 30 mini-game movie tie-in arrives a day earlier.

Er... you mean 12th April I suppose.

@sillygostly here where I live (Venice, Italy) it's the same: a lot of copies available for the Wii U and no copies for the 3DS.

More good news...

Much more than Castlevania or Mega man, it reminds me DUCK TALES... look at how the hero is jumping from brick to brick by using his showel as a pogo stick... just like Uncle Scrooge in the old Capcom NES game.

Why is that surprising? The developers are simply going where the money is going to be.

Another "Meh" week here in Europe, one of the many unfortunately. It has been months since the last time I purchased something on the Nintendo eShop...

I'm still waiting Petit Computer since last July...

IMHO the basic console should cost no more than $199 or €199

Quite disappointing. I'll have to pay again for the very same virtual console games I already purchased on the Wii U, about 20% for each game and if my console will eventually break I'll have to repurchase them again at full price on a new console. That's not really intriguing

It's the same here in Italy, where on the local chart of the top ten most purchased games there's no sign of any Wii U game. Actually there's barely any sign of Nintendo games, with the only exception of NSMB2 for the 3DS at position #9, that is still going strong after almost 4 months of sales.

For the record, actually the best selling game in Italy is FIFA 13, the silver medals goes to Just Dance 4 and the bronze goes to Call of duty: black ops II. After seeing that the UK chart is not that different, I guess that right now they both represents more or less the average top three chart in many european countries...

Captain Commando would be a great game to play online, as well as Cadillacs and dinosaurs (that we will never be able to play again "legally"... stupid licensing issues...)

The greatest gift for christmas? Having the new Virtual console on Wii U and hear from Nintendo: "No, don't open your wallet! It's not necessary that you pay twice to get again these games! you have already purchased them on the Wii and on the 3DS, so here... take them now, FOR FREE!"

But since we are talking about Nintendo here, I guess this dialogue could be classified as pure science fiction...

@RetroGBHippie92 Good luck. Since last july I'm still waiting for Petit Computer on the DSi shop and there are still no hints at a possible release date

Where is Wii fit U ?

only bad news so far...

I can't see anything strange in this. As an analogy, nobody would be shocked in learning that a manager of an italian restaurant every now and then goes eating in a sushi bar, so I don't see what's wrong or strange in this behavior

Here where I live (Venice, Italy) there are no shortages problem, as the retail stores still have some units available for immediate sell and they're going to receive more consoles from Nintendo of Europe on next tuesday.

If you're planning to buy Batman: Arkham City and you already own a Playstation 3 I'd suggest you to wait before purchasing it, because it appears that Sony is going to give it as a free download for Playstation Plus members; actually It's already discounted at 14,99€ and it's marked as "Soon available for free for Plus members" on the european PSN.

Another bad week for Nintendo downloadables here in EU...

@ChunkyDroid Ditto! Why can't we have a real karaoke system?

If the stick is the same that appears in the tiny picture, it looks like a revamped version of the sameHori stick I got with Tekken 6 on PS3... and that's not good IMHO because it has microswitches only for the stick and not for the buttons, so it doesn't feel at all like a genuine arcade stick to me...

I always preferred Episode 2 (known as "Vulcan Venture" in Italy/Europe, and simply "Gradius II" everywhere else).
It's such an excellent game that I ended up buying it twice on both the Wii Virtual Console and on the Playstation Store (using a japanese account since -unfortunately- PC Engine games are not available on the european PS Store..)

Another ugly week for downloadables here in EU

Play dot com is about to sell the deluxe model with ZombiU for €472,49... it's about 615$ !
Too expensive or underpowered for that price IMHO

Definitely not a day-one purchase for me. I'm probably going to buy one of those when there'll be a white deluxe model priced at €249 or less (I bet that this will happen within the end of the next year)

I hate black consoles too. And 32Gb are almost a joke during these days, if you compare that space with the 120Gb you're getting on the "old" PS3.

@Cipher Honestly and with all due respect to the people that like this game, if I'd like to play some Picross I could easily visit one of the many flash game portals around and play one of the many clones available. I could not do the same with Sakura samurai or some other downloadable games actually available in NA.

And according to the NOE eShop website, this is the only new software that will be released next week on eShop
No Sakura Samurai, No Petit Computer, nothing at all... and this is the third "poor" week in a row here in Europe IMHO.

1) All the Virtual console games you have purchased on the Wii can be also downloaded with no extra charge and played on a 3DS (or at least NES and Master system games)
2) A new WarioWare game for the 3DS with elements of WW:Twisted and WW:Touched plus the ability of making our own games just like in WW:DIY
3) A new Punch-Out! videogame for the 3DS (or at least the original arcade game on the eShop)
4) Animal Crossing 3DS available this year instead of 2013

Now this would be cool...

Boo!

At least for 5 bucks instead of DK Jr. Nintendo should have brought Donkey Kong Classics (That is Donkey Kong + Donkey Kong Jr. on the same NES cartridge).
Heck, I had a NES back in 1986 and I can't even remember seeing DK Jr. boxes on the shelves! I still remember I saw a lot of (unsold) copies of DK Classics in every toy shop I visited.

> [...] while European release news is still up in the air

I wouldn't say so, on the official italian Nintendo website this is also marked as a 2013 release, so it seems to me that it has been officially postponed.

Paradigm software (the same software house behind "Pilotwings 64") already made a Spy Hunter reboot some years ago and it was quite fun to play, I had it on my Gamecube. If you have a Wii and can find a copy of it for a couple of dollars / euros I think you should buy it because IMHO it's still enjoyable.