JUST saw an advertisement for this on TV, specifically advertising that they have Mario Kart too. Odd, especially considering there's not even a single one of those restaurants in our state....
Pretty cool that people are able to play it there, though. Plus, the advertisements help put Mario Kart back in the minds of consumers before 8's release. Hopefully I can play the arcade game eventually

I'm on board with the others for bringing Fire Emblem games to the english VC. So far all I have played are Sacred Stones and Awakening (both on hard mode, though I have yet to try Lunatic), and while I imagine a fully fledged Fire Emblem game would overwhelm me, I would greatly enjoy to play a classic-styled strategy game like the older ones in the series. It's always a great feeling when you pass through a difficult map with no deaths, especially one that takes a lot of restarts and planning. I imagine playing the older games like Thracia would be a fun yet anguishing experience for me.

A simple statue isn't enough to warrant an expensive special edition in my opinion, but the deals with the shirt + keychain too or the wheel bundle sound well worth it. I doubt I'll be buying Mario Kart 8 around when it comes out, but if either of those deals come to NA I may very well consider it.

Gotta go with Diddy here. The effects they added to his barrel are looking pretty sweet, and it's awesome to hear his rocketbarrel attack will be more practical to use now. Diddy's face and the blown away figures of Villager and Mac are priceless.

Mario Pinball Land was one of my least favorite GBA games as a child, despite ironically being the first "Mario" game I've ever played (I think). I'll admit a big reason I don't like it is because of it's difficulty, though. It's always hard to launch Mario into (and then keep him in) areas past the first room. It makes the game more annoying than need be in my opinion.

Really great read, Dave. I played the DKC games as they came out with the GBA ports at around the age of four, and while I didn't have quite so much a wait after DKC3 to play another Country game as most others did, I am experiencing a similar transition to this with Tropical Freeze. I never did with Returns, for some reason; my guess is that it came out when I was still young and stupid, with the gameplay of the originals vividly fresh in my mind, so I was too stubborn to finish it.

But when TF was announced, during a time when the pressures of high school life have taken over my life, my passion and nostalgia for the series flooded back, too. I went back to replay Returns, as well as the originals, enjoying every single minute of them with a huge child-like smile on my face. They helped keep me distracted from my constant life of school work and anxiety during those brief moments in the weekends, as well as kept me hyped for what is sure to be a new classic. The nostalgia trip spiraled out to me regaining the same dreams and wishes I used to have, and I have since took up drawing more often and now once again dream to enter the video game industry. They helped push me in the right direction away from my depression like nothing else did at the time, and I love it for that.

David Wise is a huge inspiration to me, and definitely my number one favorite VGM composer of all time. The announcement of his involvement in Tropical Freeze gave the extra push for me to know I absolutely NEEDED this game day one. Every single one of Wise's pieces are catchy, atmospheric, and memorable, and even as I listened to the admittedly lower quality remixes in the GBA ports as a child each piece and rhythm holds an extreme amount of nostalgia for me, and helped me develop my love for music.
Thank you for everything, Wise! I'm really loving your music in Tropical Freeze so far, and I know I'll be replaying this game like with DKC2 for years to come.

Wow... this is a lot earlier than I expected. I respect that they had to do it eventually, but every single game including third party games at once? That's a pretty big action. Thankfully, I never use wi-fi much, so I'm little affected. But I understand some games still have huge communities, and there are quite a few games that are going to have important features taken away because of this, too. It's going to suck when I go back to replay Pokemon games and can't access the GTS or any other features anymore :/

@JaxonH Any of those things would get my money immediately, ESPECIALLY that figure idea! Nearly ANY merchandise related to DKC would, to be honest. It's really such a shame that they didn't make a single bit of merchandise to go with the game- not even a simple pre-order bonus. A game of such artistic and musical mastery deserves so much more than that, but I guess it just wasn't popular enough to warrant the money, which is extremely unfortunate. It seems all Nintendo is ever willing to do is make CEs for anniversaries and Zelda only I understand why, though it still sucks...

I guess we'll just have to hope and pray that Club Nintendo gives us some Country lovin', or that they do something for DK's 35th anniversary in a few years. Keeping my fingers crossed... >:]

Ah, I remember the days of driving around in my little motorized sports car up and down the driveway... until my parents gave it away to my cousin when I became "too old for it". Cretins!
Needless to say, I would've loved this as a child. Definitely too big for it now, unfortunately :[

@JaxonH I would kill for a TF Collectors edition like that! They're really missing out on that opportunity. Imagine if the game came packaged with a model of one of the Kongs or one of the bosses, with the same barrel-style base found on Funky's figurines- as if you had one of your own. It would've been the perfect tie-in!

Nearly all of the music I have on my iTunes is video game music, either from Steam games (legally) or from torrent rips when necessary. I really love listening to Nintendo music while I browse. I'm never one to pay too much for music, but if they ever were to release easily accessible soundtracks for the games I actually want to see I'd snap them up in a heartbeat. Heck, I'd buy a CD for some if they were still fairly priced, even though I would have to transfer em to USB since I have no disc drive Pokemon soundtracks are great, but most songs aren't really the type you can regularly listen to without tiring of them, besides a few battle and gym themes. I know I and many others would willingly pay for an official release of the Tropical Freeze OST especially. Dat Wise music, mm mm!

Aw man, I still have an unregistered New Leaf code, but I've already registered my 3DS a long time ago Wish that you could get one with just the registration of a game. That's that I guess, I don't really need X when I have Y and Z/XY2 will probably be announced within a year or two anyway. I haven't even finished Y yet, in fact... derp.

Finally!! Diddy Kong is one of my favorite Nintendo characters and one of my mains in Brawl, so it's great to see him back in Smash. Now all I have left to wish for is Dixie and K. Rool
The liberties they took with his design and moveset this time are kind of odd, though. Particularly with his fiercely brown eyes (they've always been either black or blue to my knowledge), and of course the arm-stretching. Guess he learned some things from his buddy Lanky in his spare time
EDIT: Just remembered he had brown eyes in Brawl. Oops. Even then they always looked more black to me, though. I really wonder why they still gave him them, considering Returns and TF have released since Brawl, with black eyes for Diddy...

Very excited!!! Glad to see a fan-favorite choice finally in Smash. Now all we need is to get Goku, Shadow, and Pacman

Bet anything we'll probably get a new Smash character reveal, particularly someone from Donkey Kong Country. It is the Japan release date for Tropical Freeze, after all!
Here's hoping they reveal Dixie or K. Rool, or at the very least announce the return of Diddy! They're all on my personal wishlist for SSB4. Maybe we could get the Diddy + Dixie tag team, as was originally planned in Brawl? I guess we'll see...

Diddy isn't Donkey Kong's nephew. He has been called that on occasion, but the only canon game he's been mistakenly called a nephew (DK64) had also called him a "nephew wannabe" so it can pretty much be assumed he's just Donkey's really close friend. I don't think he's blood related to any Kong at all, and they certainly have never said he was in any recent game.

And you missed putting Kiddy separate on the list? For shame!

Okay.... what in the world!? They copied sounds from Nintendo games!
The first few second of music is Paper Mario: TTYD chapter start music, and the sounds that play when you advance dialogue (1:01) are the same sounds that play in Skyward Sword!

@Gioku You, sir, are a genius.