So I take it none of the nay-sayers have ever played Time-Crisis in an arcade or on a Playstation? If they did, have they gone out and shot-up a mall, office-block, or harbour complex as a result?

The "what about the children?" violent games debates - we've done it to death in previous debates and it comes to this: people kill people, generally as an emotional response or a mental disorder, using whatever means is handy.
Just to add some perspective, nobody has problems using the WiiMote in Skyward Sword and yet you could far easier fashoin a realistic looking blade-controller for that (and similar) stabby-games. I'll bet you'll find stabbings are more prevalent in the world than gun-shot deaths.

(No, I'm not a gun owner, either, there should be less unregistered fire-arms "in the wild", the US Constitution's Second Amendment was written for muzzle-loaders and therefore has no relevance, and the government is hardly likely to be able to impose a dictatorial regime without people voting them in first!).

Niche market appeal, I'd give it a shot if I had the time and money... (pun intended )

@Thomas I would've gone with "naughty bits" myself but then it may confuse those who don't know about the Kenny Everett Show from the 80's...

@AutumnShantel Miriel's not frowning, she's perpetually in deep thought. ..

I think Nintendo needs to consider (a) how many times they've been trotting out the same VC titles and (b) 'competition' from the shadier aspects of non-Nintendo emulators when setting prices.
Obviously, there has to be compensation for the effort of the conversion but all nostalgia aside, there are better games than Balloon Fight that deserve the full-price Nintendo are asking. Now,make it a "pack" of two to three games in a theme of sorts and that would seem a little more reasonable - in my opinion.

I'll also comment about the platform selection on offer.

How about bringing out the VC titles which haven't already been released for the Wii, Big N?
Forget the regurgitation of NES/SNES, and to some degree, the N64; those of us who've brought over our Wii VC collection will already have them.

Where's the GBA and Gamecube games?

The few classics I'm aware of like Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun, Advance Wars would be perfect for the 3DS and Gamepad and yet this market is being eaten into somewhat by the emulators smartphone and tablet platform.

I'm lucky enough to have the 3DS Ambassador GBA titles and if I had my druthers between a NES game - which I had trouble seeing on a regular 3DS screen - and a GBA game, I'd always pick the latter (no misty-eyed childhood memories of NES, I'm too old )

Price-wise, I'd think that if the current NES/SNES prices applied to GBA titles, I'd probably tolerate maybe $15 - $20 for a decent GC title; I can only dream...

@MadAdam81 I would pose the question here:
https://mwtactics.com/forums/index.php?/forum/7-general-discussion/

What I know of it though is that it is browser-based only - so it'll allegedly play fine on any PC OS running say Firefox - and there's not currently a Unity browser plug-in for the Wii U that I'm aware of. My guess is no but I'd be more than happy in this case to be wrong

I'd like Nintendo to check out more of the Unity-powered games on kick-starter... I have said this somewhere else: I'd like to see more than jump & puzzle games on the Wii U from the indies and they are out there;Nintendo just needs to give 'em a nudge in the right direction

What I find interesting is that for all the Nintendo fans who complain about the Wii U not having "many" games on this site, I don't read of too many who 'join the dots' when it comes to influencing Kick-starter projects.
Quite a number of Kick-starter games are developed with the Unity engine and there is a Unity engine for the Wii U.
I'd love to see some Unity-powered old-school TBS, such as Battle Worlds: Kronos and Mechwarrior Tactics brought to the Wii U but they're not likely to whilst Wii U owners and would-bes sit on their hands and whinge.
If getting a Wii U version becomes a stretch target for projects then even if the Wii U version doesn't eventuate there's usually a PC version to run with.
I'd also like to see Nintendo looking at Unity-engined kick-starter games and dropping these 'free dev-kits' at the front door of a wider range of games as well as the seemingly staple diet of platformers and puzzlers.
This may be ove-simplified but it's certainly a more positive way contributing to a platform's game catalogue by putting your money where you mouth is !

@Kroisos editing incompletely may also contribute to incidental grammatic errors. Allow some benefit of doubt in your lessons lest you be seen as a knob - you are free to choose which type....

@LordJumpMad I want to see console gaming - and gaming in general - evolve.

If I'm going to be expected to buy the yearly AAA dross doled out by EAbivision, then I want THEM to make those titles cross-platform.

I don't want to just see fan IPs on the Wii U (I have no childhood memories to influence my game preferences on any platform) or the yaaawn-fest AAAs but I want to see genres that both traditional console fans don't demand and publishers try inconsistently.
That's those genres which have yet to jump from the PC both successfully and consistently, like sims, RTS, and TBS. Sure there's been some great Japanese games in those genres but the presentation often puts off the average Western gamer unless they're prepared to take a punt (like I did with Pokemon a few years back and Fire Emblem just recently).

If any console is going to achieve breaking old PC-sacred ground anew, it's the Wii U,

The genres I mentioned seem to work relatively well on touch-enabled mobile devices. Bearing this in mind, it would seem a logical step to suggest that the Gamepad which some people moan about is one of the Wii U's greatest assets in terms of having the most potential to break traditional PC genre "barriers" and have as much - if not more - success than may be possible on the two new boxes from Sony and MS.
For example, I would love to be able to play the Unity-powered cross-platform turn-based strategy game Battle Worlds: Kronos on the Wii U just as much as I would my Android tab or my PC.

I just can't see the new boxes from Sony and MS having that degree of gaming-genre flexibility because they haven't strayed too far from the SNES/Gamecube controller. Nintendo needs to be capitalising on this and getting out to indies like King Arts Games as well as the platfom & puzzler guys

@Thomas We're seeing the impact of casual gaming, whether on mobile devices or even Facebook and Flash games, there's only so many people able to play so many games. Beyond that, it's too easy to consume as many movies and TV shows as you can possibly download - and legally!

Look at the choices an 18 y.o. kid has today compared to me at 18 (1980) and yourself. I never had a computer as a kid because there weren't any except in universities and the like but my kids, 27 & 24, wouldn't know what it's like NOT to have a PC around the house, but hey, remember those quaint little things called calculators? (saw my first desktop calculator at 12, had my own pocket version at 16)

There may be more people, but there's also more to do... like wasting time posting on game sites instead of playing games.... LOL!

@@Nintendawg Yeah, when you really read it, yes.
When you think "Not another one!" after half-reading a few negative words, you put on your running shoes and go long-jumping into the pit of Conclusion

@ Thomas, I have to admit, mate, when I read the tag-line I thought you guys had started to sink the boot in as well "Et tu, NintendoLife?"... until I started to read some more

@Damo, and nobody's noticed a pre-"Lara C.", elf-like Angelina...

@MarioPartyFan999 That makes more sense because 500 Euros is worth a lot more than Au$400.

@WiiLovePeace Cheers and thanks for the link, mate!

Hmmmm... a dev-kit, eh?
I could get one and add game-programming to my list of things I haven't yet started

I'm thinking of something along the lines of Whack-a-mole but using the Wii mote and instead of moles, Trip Hawkins keeps popping out of the ground...

So out of that lot, is it only Mighty Switch Force that hasn't been rated by the snails at the (Aussie) Classsification Board?

EA have never been the same since they put on a tie and donned a corporate hair-style... This was the Electronic Arts that I knew...

RIP the "ARTS" part.....

Just a follow-up of the earlier post and one I hope NL will pick up:

http://nintendoenthusiast.com/14893/battle-worlds-kronos-guns-of-icarus-wii-u/

Battle Worlds: Kronos is a turn-based strategy game and whilst it's not immediately destined for the Wii U under the kick-starter, the developers, KING Art Games, are not averse to the idea of a Wii U port - I'm sure the Gamepad (and Nintendo's improved indie-friendly manner) would have played some part in the consideration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBDL1j-01PQ

@JSuede You are my friend
What Nintendo needs to encourage both internally and externally - before the other two next gen's rock up - is take a look at what PC gaming genres haven't been successfully translated to consoles because of the whole "mouse & keyboard only" stigma.

For as much as people want to see the same old Nintendo family favourites or the standard multi-platform fare, such as John Madden's Call of Battfield: Ninja Cabaret HD, I believe that an RTS experience on the Wii U is just one of those "PC only" mind-set genres which can only be better than previous attempts I've played on the PS3 (Red Alert 3, EndWar, R.U.S.E (demo)).
Even sims like Sim City or Civilisation could better utilise the Gamepad and would showcase the Wii U's almost-superior* controller flexibility as a console.

It's bringing traditional games to a non-traditional platform which won't translate as well on competing consoles that is needed in the Wii U's catalogue "arsenal"; something to make gamers who are only semi-interested in playing the multi-platform or first-party titles on consoles give the Wii U a second look.
After all, with the proliferation of touch-screen devices such as phones and tablets "in the wild", it's not like the Gampad would be unfamiliar territory, is it?

*I say almost because to not include at least a couple of analogue shoulder buttons leaves the Gamepad just a tad short of being a great controller, IMO.

[Edit] It's now one hour after my original post. I just got back to the PC and read @JSuede's link and realised what I've attempted to say is said in detail in that article - so I'm posting that link again in case anyone else skipped it in @JSuede's post
http://nintendoenthusiast.com/14331/nintendo-wii-u-strategy/

No more! I can't take this onslaught of cool games I'll buy but are unlikely to be completed!
EIther platform or both is fine - just give me time to get over my new-found love of JRPGs and RPG beat'em ups first

@hydeks read the 2nd paragraph of #10 - it's that first, then it's because our ratings board is most likely under-staffed.

I'll pull out may favourite soap-box again - there needs to be a unified list of ratings checks that would only need to be applied once and done in one place - a sort of United Nations games rating system. The ratings gauntlet is run once and the game can be released globally simultaneously instead of putting with the costly, repetitious, staggered crap systems we have now.

Games companies for their part should be presenting in the design submission "no-blood", "no swearing", "fixed-response text comms", etc, "parental" options, then provide assurance to relevant countries where this level of censoring (even for adults) is law the mechanism for hard-coding the options into a particular region's release (or the hard-coded toned-down version of the game could be bought anywhere by parents concerned about their kids being unable to separate play from reality).

Game publishers should be working smarter and collectively with governments and not accept the current ratings grind as being cast in stone. Unfortunately the only thing they seem to want to be smart about is making "funny-money"... after all, once the ratings are unified, it's only 'business decisions' that'll stop a game being distributed at the bricks & mortar store level.

It's probably because for a given population, there's a percentage of people who will always buy crap games, whether they are completionist collectors of a series, or people who simply don't know any better - look at the high percentage of dross that came out for the PS2 and Wii which (interestingly) seemed to sell by the bucket-load from places like Kmart and Target.

This would make it worth while in places like Europe and the US but that same percentage in Australia (population is about that of New York State) just wouldn't cover the costs of the various middle-men for the 3000 or so copies they might sell.

I just watched that 10 minute trailer..... TAKE MY DAMN MONEY NOW!!!!!!

The only beat 'em up ever liked was the side-scrolling Golden Axe and I've never been into button-mashing madness but this.... this game is soooo over-the-top insane that it's harpooned me and is dragging me aboard.

I actually like it the way that it is presented here, untranslated...
Give me the Japanese Special Edition as is, and just bundle in the English translations for the instructions.

Instant Happiness!!!

Where did I see video for this? I'm pretty sure I've seen video and it reminded me a little of Code of Princess in gameplay.
Playing time is rare these days but I will be watching out for this one...

D'Oh... read the post above before posting, Schprocky. Read. The post.Above.
Actually that's not the video I'me thinking of. I'm sure I've seen one much shorter and just game play.

@Ren I think people occasionally have a hiccup with their comprehension and bravely jump into the pit of misguided conclusion. You're the first gamer I've ever read who mentions the term 'project management' so you can be sure that I knew what you meant. My first gaming platform was the VIC20, btw

Also, I'd like to reiterate @gefflt's comment #18 about skewed poll-results. First-past-the-post single-choice voting is great for easy tallying but as may be judged from the posts of respondents to most NL polls, a lot of thought goes into making that choice.
The time taken is likely not much less than if the poll was set up to be ranked 1 to x, where 1 gets the heaviest weighting of points.

There are times when one choice only matters i.e. when a situations exists where only one choice is possible, but for forthcoming games spread across various release dates, there's too many variables to make a single-choice poll relevant enough to draw too many conclusions from... this is why there's lies, more damned lies, and poll statistics!

I'd like to know why the few games that do get translated for the North American market are inexplicably bound to it and why there's a sense that "going European" must always involve translations.

Most European gamers (and this observation is a gut-feel, not a fact) seem to have a pretty good handle on English - way better than I have of any other language - so why deny a potentially greater market?

Better still, instead of flogging a dead-business model (as recording companies have tried to for too long) which seems to be "make it for the US and stuff the rest", why don't the Japanese developers embrace the indie model of kick-start milestones when it comes to translations - and give everybody a chance to land some 'special edition' goodness dependent on the size of the donation?
Surely this might help generate enthusiasm within the Japanese developer community for the global market by direct interaction with fans outside of Japan?

@russellohh but Squire Eunuchs needs ELEVENTY billiondy - that's like nontupy billiondy more - to break even and put the rest into a Cayman Islands account...

BUMP! Any more info about this ?

What happened to Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem?
What do EB Games know that nobody else seems to?
Or did I place the earliest pre-order I've ever made when I put down the deposit for it and FE:A?....

Like MarioPartyFan999 says it's the other side of the country for some of us.
For those who may be geographically-challenged, for some of us this is a bit like announcing a US show that's being held in New York when you live on the West coast

Still, it's great to be informed of Aussie events - keep up the good work, NL!

I like a good conspiracy theory, so here's one I've invented and let's see how long it takes to become an internet 'fact';
Nintendo advertising is stymied globally because as with third-party game releases, Microsoft has 'incentivised' it's software licences for businesses who 'over-proceduralise' marketing submissions from Microsoft's competitors.

@Zach I agree with the latter part of your post regarding the slow uptake with internet integration of services. However there's has to be a considered approach when we talk about 'speed'. Whilst MS, with it's vast networking experience, had a comparatively good out-of-the-box experience online, Sony took nearly two years to get to a similar point and that was with the huge resources behind them - much more so than Nintendo.
If Nintendo has a failing, it's that they are "only" in the business of making consoles and games: what should be a strength is also a weakness because they have no cross-pollination of resources from other non-game related sectors of the "parent" company.
They have, up until recently, seemingly completely underestimated the impact of the internet and integrating that with the local multiplayer that only Nintendo seems to (correctly) care about. This does make me wonder if this is in part a reflection of the Japanese culture and market.
We all assume that without a Western market that Nintendo would be doomed. That may be true in a global sense but I doubt it would mean the end of Nintendo in Japan.
Interestingly, we don't hear news from Japanese doom-sayers... makes you wonder if strings are being pulled by people who don't like open competition...

@BestBuck123 I think you completely missed @dsparil's point.
If you go back and read it again - from the start - it was written that way on purpose to illustrate how a turn of phrase about games on any four month old console can make any such console look like crap. Your response shows that the twist in language unexpectedly had the intended effect
BTW, you only have to look up Wikipedia (or read my months' old forum rant) to see how well any console performed in it's first four months, particularly for those who judge success by quantity...

Just picked up where I left off in Sacred Stones after a lull in all game-playing.
A demo usually drags me in but I also have Lego Undercover coming in soon and with the little time I have lately, it's going to be tough squeezing any amount of gaming in... but I'll try

Sorry that should be 1m30s

@hydeks he tells you at around 1m45s...

@wariosmith having a child/grandchild/niece/nephew is reason enough. Age is no barrier. Or you just out yourself as a geek and buy what you darn-well please 😉

My pre-order for Fire Emblem: Awakening is ready!

@RetroGBHippie - mate! Give FE:SS another go and don't let your ego stop you picking "Easy" - that's what I'm doing and I'm loving the game

P.S. Thanks for the Aussie news, BTW, Andy

So @BankaiPacther is at it again. Five posts before we get past the gainsaying and even then, no definitive answer, no solution.
How does one sell a console when game developers pull an already completed game from release?

Forget exclusivity - the only difference between releasing Legends now and in September is the short-term high-volume sales.
By releasing Legends for the Wii U earlier than for other platforms, how can that not have anything but a positive effect on Wii U sales and Legends sales?

The ROI may not be as rapid as Yves would like but it would surely make for a terrific hype campaign whilst the poor old under-nourished PS360 camp wait until September if the game is truly that good?

If you are going to comment as some sort of an authority on the gaming industry, take some time to explain it to us less worthy types.
It's the undertone of dismissive arrogance which I find diminishes the comments - it's no use being "brilliant" if you don't know / can't be bothered to share/ explain your reasoning.

Oh I don't know, Criterion Games are obviously going down the gurgler with Nintendo simply because it's fashionable to completely ignore absolutely every fact about past new console launches and to kick the 'new kid' console, along anybody who says otherwise...

Of course I don't believe that crock I just made up but then we're not past the first 10 posts or so and the regular Eeyores who post ignorant crap such as that will be along shortly, no doubt.

To answer the first posters Q with a Q - if you don't have a steering wheel AND pedals for the PC version, then would you need an analog Shift key?

The Criterion guy hit the nail on the head - it's the game, not the poly count.
Haze on the PS3 looked great since it was one of the first not to be 90 shades of brown and promised a great story but was the most generic, boringly executed POS with the lamest action that I played... and that was just the demo...

And let's not forget Microsoft's idea of fair-trading: "You can release a finished version on another console first, or you can have a share of the bigger 360 market...."

It probably takes longer now that games have an extra rating classification... Seriously, it wouldn't surprise me if all games now have go to a separate department for reviewing for R content... And it has to run the gauntlet down through to G...

So we have the Criterion crew AND the Ubisoft Montpelier crew who finished Rayman Legends (regardless of some random bean-counters decision, be it Microsoft chucking a hissy-fit or not) who have proven that the machine is (a) not a cow to develop for and (b) possible to create great multiplatform games and still leverage that unique Nintendo 'twist' without the sacrifices faced by the Wii.
Makes me wonder just how much other developers have looked at the Wii U or if they've just been incredibly lazy, jumped to conclusions like the frequency-freaks have.
I suspect they have been content to let the last three weeks of negative press justify/smokescreen their unwillingness to get off their arses and learn a new machine. Again bean-counters don't help - they only want to sell the same old crap on the same old boxes with an incremental release number because of the promise of a good return for relatively very little outlay.

@WiiLovePeace with you, @MadAussieBloke, and me. that accounts for 1.5% of @Bankai's official Aussie Wii U owner tally. No wonder we don't get what we don't deserve

@MadAussieBloke.. no, YOU Da Man!!!
That's all I had for the Wii... hmmm... and the GC disk of Animal Crossing (still have it) before the online gave me the shipts and I ended up with the PS3.
I did get another Wii eventually and surely that must be some kind of testament to Nintendo when the catalogue had developed over a few years

@Everly It is about timing, though, bud. In my forum rant, I noted that Xbox Live is not free (but had trophies), PSN is free, but PSN didn't have trophies for nearly a couple of years post-release, then it started a premium service on top of the free service 18 months ago.

This imminent death of Nintendo and the Wii U is over-exaggerated and fretting over releases at this stage is like jumping out a 10th storey window just because the stock market drops 10 points in 5000 ... the time for any concern will be if things haven't improved in 18 months time...

@Nano Yeah, mate - SNAP !

@FineLerv Nope you'd be joe average I reckon. I made a reasonable trade plus price-matching on release day so I have about a year's worth already otherwise I'd be like you. Mind you, the cheaper Wii U game prices helped a bit as well...