Did always like this when we had a Game Gear. Completed it a few times.

@Jamouse - Skies of Arcadia on the Cube did get a reprint in the US too, which is why a few years back, it was quite easy to suddenly find copies in Gamestop.

Despite the reviews, it must have proven popular at the time as well; as far as I know, the US Cube release was reprinted at some point too.

BlackDragon is correct in what he says regarding making backups and legally being able to use them on cartridges such as this. Proving you haven't made the backup and instead just downloaded a ROM would be rather tricky to prove, so no one really bothers monitoring that, they just go after the whole ROM sites in general.

Physical releases won't go away until publishers understand that people like holding items that are tangible; broadband infrastructure can support nationwide downloading on the gigabyte scale; and change their pricing model to understand that a lot of people trade-in or sell games to afford the next one.

I've met and played against Sami... he is damn good, that's all you need to know

When I saw the headline, I'm hoping it's Sumo or Criterion heh...

Corbs is even older than me then, and I thought I was getting on a bit heh... but I recall a Atari 2600 related Christmas, before the crash, before we then switched to a Commodore 64...

@DarkCoolEdge - actually no, it isn't just restricted to Skyward Sword. Other big titles from this period have been reduced to 20 or 25 quid already, including Saint's Row 3, Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, and Assassin's Creed Rev. Guess the downward economy and end of year competition is reducing things quicker than usual.

@RJEJR - I had the same thought when seeing it, you can't tell the year the surveys expire now. I suspect this is deliberate, as people were eeking out the surveys to boost their coins to still make platinum status (I know I had to for the year just gone). Thankfully I still have a good idea which ones expire in 2012, as I think most of mine were 2014 or later.

A few people I know in the US spotted this game and didn't really know too much about it, so I pointed them to the review. Might get a few more sales now...

Two important questions: will the ability to unlock kart parts essentially lead to everyone building the same "uber kart" in time, or do they not overpower the game that much? And secondly, can you snake in the game, which essentially divided MKDS into the "cans" and "cannots" for competitive racing?

I always liked the GC incarnation of Mario Golf compared to the N64 version, I felt they were about equal. Unlike Mario Tennis, where the N64 version easily triumphs the GC version, I really never enjoyed the update.

@lz20XX - I presume you should hope they are more like the London audience then heh... we were mostly quiet during the performances

I guess they were holding out in the US until the fourth game was released, as the film is set just after this point in the timeline. We didn't have any such qualms here heh... //pats the three disc Special Edition on his shelf

Pikmin was one of those skill building games in the old school style, where if you were not good enough, you would have to start again from the beginning. I recall people whinging at the time about the 30 day limit because they figured they should be able to eventually complete the game properly the first time they attempted it. No such luck. You needed to understand the environment, how each Pikmin operated, and the best "army" to take forward for each confrontation. Just hope that a third game in the series is in the making for the Wii U...

Someone in the crowd shouted out "you're gorgeous" about halfway through her last presentation, which made her giggle and go red a bit. Guess it was handy that her dad was honeymooning in Paris currently (Robin got married on Sunday) heh...

@Ren - The recorded LA concert was nothing like how it was in London last night... we applauded before and after each performance, but the entire crowd was pretty much silent during them. Guess we're a bit more controlled heh.

@Omarzuqo - There were only a handful of cosplayers, probably 20-25 in total compared to the thousands who attended.

Streetpasses were all over the place apparently. I spoke to a couple of guys who had come from Sweden during the interval, and one of them said he'd already gotten over 100 at the event.

Yeah, things were great heh, and never boring. I guess it helped that things were broken up, and none of the pieces were that long (although the Wind Waker stuff seemed to last about ten minutes). Really glad that I was able to go

@Fantasia - all the three previous Layton games have unlockable puzzles on them. They didn't start up until a month or two after release date iirc.

Review is earlier than I expected. Score is what I expected though

A couple of mine who are in the Midlands will be going to this, but sadly for me it's just a bit too far...

I'd be going as well, but sadly the Expo clashes with something I'm doing this weekend in Germany...

Goomba Roomba... heh... nice...

Having heard both voices, I actually prefer the US version of Luke, he sounds less cockney stereotype, oddly enough.

I foresee the mass rush to import the game now... well, from those of us online at least.

They're keeping in London Life? Double bargain!

Actually, I'm as excited about knowing when the fourth Layton game is coming out, as knowing the Zelda news heh. Nice that there will be a CD included from the concert though, regardless of package. Will still probably go for the one with the remote in though.

Link to the Past... but it's a bloody hard choice really...

I can imagine there might be a series of comments about the lack of Super Mario Kart in that top ten heh... but seriously, there are just too many good games to make a definitive list that short, everyone's opinion is going to be different!

@Yoyogamer - I've heard from a couple of people that it launched at different times depending on where in the US you were, with dates of 13th, 19th, 23rd and even 9th September mentioned. It certainly wasn't on one date all over the country.

Wow, Steve's leaving Future? If you happen to randomly read this, all the best mate. As a huge Zzap!64 fan, then I'm just glad, way way in the past, when I finally met you, you didn't mind signing the copy of Super Play I had to hand heh...

^ this. If you play any DS game on an original phat DS or DS lite then it will work, there's no restrictions at all with it. As for importing, I've found it to be generally cheaper to buy my DS games from the US over the years, even with the extra shipping costs.

Now why couldn't these have come before the end of June when I had to spend some expiring coins?

Pity I'm not going this year... maybe next year then...

Still got the original Picross Gameboy cart here CIB, so definitely a worthwhile purchase. Wonder if the save game is still working?

It's quite something, the collection. As someone who can say they have known Joe, John and Sean for a long time, this is a project long in the making, and long overdue. The displays at CGE that I've attended are only part of what they own. As PJ1 said, one of us needs to win that Euromillions heh...

@DarkSquid - reread the first paragraph. The museum the DP guys are trying to get made will be in California.

Didn't stop Mario Baseball being made (twice), and various basketball sub games in Wii and DS titles. American football is probably the biggest interest American sport in Europe, so I imagine the market would be there.

As for the video, indeed, very good animation and modelling there, which holds up incredibly well even today.

It's last year's Japanese club rewards I believe... guess they made quite a lot of them...

Apparently Super Monkeyball 3DS can't delete save data either, yet no ruckus was raised regarding that. Anyone got the game? Can you start a new game and over write the existing data? Is there more than one save game slot?

My memory of "Sonic 2" comes from the live Gamesmaster show at the NEC in the UK, back end of 1992 iirc. Dominic Diamond was doing live challenges on the stage periodically, so I managed to get selected despite never playing the game before. My opponent was someone who had rinsed the game. The challenge was to collect the most rings on one of the bonus stages. And I won. Easily. Cue my comments about how useless Sega players must be with some equally odd comments from the crown and Dom thrown in heh...

DKR was by far the better single player game compared to MK64, but MK64 had the better multiplayer (although Snowboard Kids imo beats it for racing fun). I believe I got 100% in this, mad enough to beat everything. When I was younger and had the time...!

Wow... not just the boxart, but many other things are very similar. On one hand, rather depressing and a little TOO clone like. On the other, it might very well still be good, and it obviously means Layton is doing really well that other companies are looking to copy the formula.

So possibly a handheld version of Hover Bovver? And if you're too young to know what that is, go look up the game heh. I wonder if Jeff has thought about it for iPhone...

I didn't play it that much, but my brother played it death mind you.

The 3DS VC starts off with a bit of a cracker. Got the original CIB on my shelf, played it to death at the time.

That's the odd thing SoulSilver, I think Luke's voice on the US versions is better and less stereotype

Someone mentioned this earlier on NTSC-UK and I double took the words... but seeing these shots make me a believer. Now hopefully it'll come out in the West heh...

I saw this earlier, figured here would be on top of reporting things heh. Glad to see it's coming out in the West, Castlevania meets Rick Dangerous looks to be a great combo!

Great news... hopefully it'll still be for the normal DS...