Also I'm flabbergasted about how they are so head in the sand over this. They know its a big issue, hence why they changed after Balloon fight so to refusing to find any solution as soon as it is a game that has been translated into (one or more of) FIGS is just crazy.

Can't wait until 2016 when NOE learn how to upload country specific ROMs or add some more if statements to the VC emulator (easiest solution is to give countries that would like the translation the 50Hz version but English speaking countries be left with 60Hz).

@TrueWiiMaster (and to others saying its a non-issue, btw, the article missing this obvious point has sure helped here). The display you are playing it on is the problem (the GamePad). It outputs in 60Hz ONLY (also the WiiU seems to). How it achieves this for a 50Hz game is it duplicates every 5th frame displayed. This results in it being jerkier than intended (if you can't notice this don't belittle those who have...a few might notice it feeling a bit "off").

Basically America (and Japan) gets 30 frames a second we get 25 converted badly into 30.

@GiftedGimp Nonesense. For it to be the same 50Hz it should have horrible borders on the screen and actually display in 50Hz rather than 60Hz (with every 5th frame duplicated).

@datamonkey F-Zero was only in English. Like Kirby the problem is the German translation. Can't make the translated version 60Hz due to the "optimisations" and can't give some people (with no use for the translation) an American version because crazy internal politics and/or lazy and/or NOE run by idiots.

@b_willers Super Metroid was "translated" the intro has German subtitles and thats about it. Super Mairo world was completely in English in Europe. Thing is I live in a country that does not speak German so has no use for this. Why can't I be given the perfect version? (its a bit unfair to leaves the Germans to suffer but IIRC they can make a Mii, register it to UK and redownload there)

@manu0 Even if its full speed etc its still 50Hz. The Gamepad outputs 60Hz so it repeats every 5th frame making it look jerkier than it should. Likewise the controls are less responsive. In other words if there was no difference between the 50Hz and 60Hz version you would still want the 60Hz version.

@Mikazi . When the Wii came out 1000 points was €10 which converted to £7 (£7.50 if you bought a points card). Remember what happened in 2008, the £ became worth a lot less. So when the DSi Shop came out NOE decided €1.10=£1. These prices have remained since.

NOE didn't want VC games cheaper to buy on the Wii Shop channel than the eShop on the Wii U so kept the cheaper UK prices. I guess your point still stands about why couldn't the 3DS be the same. I guess on the Wii U you can access either shop (i.e. they are competing) and oddly enough Mario's Super Picross is actually cheaper on the Wii U side (as the added 100 points for it being an import has not been applied).

This aside, what is up with Balloon Fight being €4 instead of €5?

This is probably the reason:
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/

I would not be surprised if the sex label automatically puts a game as being PEGI 16 (like how the gambling label makes it PEGi 12- this changed the Game Corner in Pokemon*). Plus NOE might not exactly want that on the box...especially for a piece of paid DLC. Still, it could be written better "smooth as silk" comes to mind but since it is DLC they could patch it...like thats going to happen.

*-The rules and the timing of them meant European Pokemon Platinum had the game corner cut (still there but the machines don't work).

I hope the $30 Mario Kart and $40 OOT are not refurbished...
Club Nintendo slips is not listed in the contents (though I think the serial number can function as a registration in America).

@link3710 Those free costumes are free for the dates listed in the video. In other words think of them as being similar to a pre-order bonus.

If there was no hold up due to content of the game I wonder if it was actually Itoi that was the hold up and in a Sonic CD US soundtrack (for the recent port) kind of way of "we need this persons permission but we've not bothered talking to them".

A similar thing may have plagued Illusion of Gaia (the internal SNES emulator in early SNES VC games had a list of games, later games added an asterisk to the game, most other games that got those were never seen on VC, it was mainly stuff like Picross NP 1-9) as that title had it scenario written by an external individual who may still hold rights over it.

Apparently it is a speed forme (think Deoxys) judging by how it is alleged to tie in with the new movie (but as always with the Pokemon scans and info there is lots of misinformation and plain fake stuff).

Can we still get the Streetpass puzzle please (I mean Rhythm Heav...I mean Beat the Beat Rhythm Paradise also came out ages after America yet the puzzle came out the same time).

Personally, I'm not that surprised. NOE hardly ever release anything July/August and rarely release more than 1 thing per month. Let's see:
March - MH Tri Ultimate, Luigi ("Mario" title so worldwide launch)
April-Fire Emblem
May-Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
June-Animal Crossing

In short, February should have been its slot as none of the above would be pushed back...then again June could also work if we decide to count Animal Crossing as "worldwide launch".

@DePapier Incorrect. Brain Training performed far better in Europe than America. Unless NOAs marketing was terrible the only other difference is the name. Likewise with Professor Layton, NOEs different boxart sold the game much better than NOA did, so much so that NOA were forced to relaunch the game.

I was secretly hoping they would go all out with it and say the were hooves...even doing so in cutscenes.

But yeah if I wasn't told it would take longer for me to notice. Especially as I usually play with animations off (well I mean FE games in general).

The letterbox update reminds me that IIRC you could send audio messages on the Wii. I don't know if anyone did.

Also does anyone ever have this in their streetpass list and if they do, do they ever recieve anything?

I also hear something about the first names and last names being the wrong way round.
All of these make me wonder if they had to apply the English script to a Japanese version of the game (maybe Atlus USA only gave them the script) and then didn't know there some special things that had to be done. As it seems like it was a lot more work was required than what you would think of change the region code, add your name to the title screen and change bits of the script.

He has actually gone and bought a circle pad pro (good thing he didn't have a 3DS XL then...I'm pretty sure Canada lacks the Circle Pad Pro XL).

I can understand his sentiment but MH was popularised on the PSP which also didn't have 2 sticks.

As for the rest of the rant. I find it odd he does that then whines about all the coverage and general shtick he gets for it.

So now, when will Brain Training or Fire Emblem hit Europe...let's not forget Animal Crossing sometime too...

@Five-seveN It would work better if the first piece you got when starting was purple/pink. The system is designed round Japan/Tokyo centric really. The rest of us have to organise meetups or go to conventions. I'm personally not keen on either.

@DestinyMan So let me get this straight. You stopped streetpassing all together once you finished puzzle swap? I guess this is another problem. Those who fully complete it are least inclined to streetpass because they gain nothing out of it but they are who is most required because Nintendo don't like to send Iwata/Reggie out very much.

I guess Nintendo must have pretty small expectations for these and it met those in Canada.

@sonicfan1373 With no SD card slot how do you propose Nintendo would fix the Zelda SS bug? They have no ability to transfer saves off the system bar under the hood electronics (which they probably won't do for Zelda). This almost makes me tempted to get one just to spite myself by playing Skyward Sword that but alas, I have nothing with composite inputs.

Regarding how these systems get into this state. Generally it is kids who either forget or just plain don't wash their hands after handling sticky sweets and the like. Grubby hands onto system done multiple times leads to this sort of mess.

I guess the plus is they tend to be very cheap for people who like to refurbish systems. Decal covered DS systems are a similar place to look for potential bargains. Of course deriving some sort of enjoyment from cleaning the systems helps.

The other fun ones are marker covered cartridges and/or labels. Probably my favorite is when passwords are written on the cartridge label. I can just imagine the password flashing on screen frantically looking for somewhere to write it, somewhere where it won't be lost...the cartridge itself.

This is a reskin of cult GBA game Guru-Guru Logic Champ (at least gameplay is same and at least some levels are identical). Also it is available in Australia but not Europe...I guess Europeans can switch to Australia to buy it.

Great, A shame it took over 6 years to get Nintendo to listen (then again back in the day of the Wii the only contact point was customer services whose job it basically is to keep issues away from the company) I guess Miiverse being flooded with 50Hz kind of gave the topic some much needed attention. Hope people don't get too over their heads and think Nintendo will release Earthbound and Star Fox 2 next if we pester them...

I'm bothered more by the principle than the loss.

@DePapier It could be a long time until you can transfer Secret of Mana (remember, we've still not got all the NES ambassador games available to buy on 3DS eShop yet) so you might as well enjoy your purchase.

@Mario_Party_Fan_999 They probably looked at sales figures when making the decision, ignoring the fact that Wii Party was hardware bundled and was released when the Wii still had life.

While Mario has universal appeal would people feel Wii party games were not making enough of Mario? As in you would never get dice rolling games of chance in Mario Party (~sweeps Bowser's Big Blast to one side~)

Hopefully non-linear doesn't mean its like item not used outside of its dungeon until you reach the next tier of dungeons. Non-linear is pointless if you have to do it in a certain order to make meaningful progress. I guess a Mega Man style where there is a logical order would be an interesting compromise.

Then again a lot of backtracking is a pest too. Maybe spoiling people on dungeon items (Zelda 1 style) and being able to leave notes of "use 'item' in this part of dungeon I've been to" then have the game remind you when you get said 'item' will help give you directed backtracking.

Hmm I don't see the white lines on the b.g. of the techniques. In Xenoblade these indicated if an art was physical or ether based. Thats the only Xenoblade related comment I have.

@TysonOfTime Only the popular RPGs, I mean Baten Kaitos and Disaster: Day of crisis don't have X.

@Xilef It is a red X at the end which is what the Xenogears logo had. Then again these mechs appear to be called Dolls rather than Gears.

So I take it this is one SMT game we can be sure Europe will get. Then again the last FE game not to come out in Europe is fairly recent...

@Jazzem Wait, it has borders on the Gamepad? Given that is 480 pixels high (presumebly for SD content like the VC being beamed over) that means it is getting scaled (then again Game Boy games on VC are similarly poorly scaled unless you hold the buttons down to get the GB screen).

Its a shame I couldn't pick of both polls. I understand why the price is charged but I don't think the fees are fair. e.g. Why is it more for a SNES game?

Also people with large collections who like to have all their games in one place are going to pay a lot (I guess some would argue this is no different to rebuying your DVD collection on Blu-Ray). I mean, the core work of update emulator, Miiverse code is a "done once, done 100 times" affair so I propose the following: The special price gets cheaper the more games you transfer. Say like after 5 or even 10 games it becomes free. That would be more likely to keep people on board rather than going thats 30 NES games and 20 SNES games...£60!

However, if each game had a specific enhancement it would be more justified. I know of emulator scripts that enhance Metroid by adding a map, beam selection, starting with more than 30 HP.

But my biggest concern (besides the will it be emulating 60Hz) is will ALL current VC games be playable on Wii U gamepad one day? Given only NES and SNES have been announced suggests the answer is doubtful (I don't see C64 or Arcade coming back myself). Will the Wii U 2 have Wii support? Also on what timescale will the roll-out be. Having to wait potentially years for GamePad support is not ideal.

I also ask, will 3DS VC ever have the same special price? (yes I know about the wait for 3DS to also use NNID...)

Before I saw screens I was like "Yarn again? I'd have liked to see the pop-up book style refined" (plus it keeps feel good doing new art styles) but seeing it being more 3D shows its the yarn style refined.

Now one thing I think. Yoshi's Story and Kirby's Epic Yarn have a common criticism; too easy. Then again Yoshi's Island DS (aka Yoshi's Island the official romhack) is criticised for being too hard to the point of being unfun (as many romhacks up the difficulty to unfair proportions). There were fewer complaints about Kirby not being fun due to the lack of difficulty.

They had to use the word trial didn't they? Like others have said before, this will confuse consumers into thinking the game is playable for 30 days (or this might well be the case).

Anyway, question for Europeans plunging in. Is it the full speed 60Hz version it should be or are Nintendo crazy enough to keep persecuting us with the 50Hz junk?

The production run for this is 50 copies.

@Hejiru Starfox 2 repros have been around for years. I'm not sure if they have the same work put into their manuals etc though.

@Luigifan141 $75 from here: http://www.uncletusk.com/catalog/15 Don't know if that has shipping or not.

Along with other recent outbursts by Miyamoto, this makes me wonder if the whole new devision of Nintendo that Miyamoto is going to be heading is a just a way to well, evict him to stop him messing up established franchises.

That doesn't help new titles though. IIRC Miyamoto decided to say Steel Diver was done despite concerns of it lacking content (which it was) though, that might have been stopping whatshisface from naming and drawing every single crew member of every single submarine rather than adding a few more submarines.

That said some of those suggestions sound alright. Restrictions do force creativity in a different way as much as they stifle it.

As for differences. Super Paper Mario was a radical departure too (in gameplay). Will there ever be a Paper Mario 3? Makes me wonder how Sticker Star is going and how it will be interpreted (i.e. if it sells bad is it Paper Mario they dislike or the particular direction of this one).

But thing is Super Paper Mario was played and enjoyed for the story and the script as the gameplay is quite literally (and intentionally) tedious at times. So yes games do need story but need a balance which the director should find rather than have an executive hand-wave and go "the easiest balance is just not to bother with that. I dare you."

@retro_player_22 Only a few print runs were made. There must be a few thousand copies made at most so it is much more scarce than Earthbound (first party SNES games must have had at least 100,000 units made).

But the fact you see a $300 price indicates the demand isn't there for that price level as any bargain price will be snapped up instantly. Auction sites are a better indicator of current value than someones trophy cabinet on Amazon.

I seem to remember it being about $50 from the official website (I don't know how difficult it is to get print runs made etc and there is the time in distributing them as well which is why they probably don't want to keep making them). In a way the digital version should be welcomed for fixing the price for those that want to play rather than collect, but I'm unsure how greatly it will be changed and if it'll lose its character or not.

The tax point is good and all but how come Japan gets 10% off. I'm pretty sure their prices are after taxes too.

No new games. what about old ones?

I'd expect to see Nintendo Selects Skyward Sword and Super Mario Galaxy 2 sometime, possibly Kirby games and DKCR. I'd like to see New Super Mario Bros Wii as well but New Super Mario Bros U needs all the sales it can get.

Then again that only encourages people to hold onto the Wii for longer. But if they're going to hold onto the Wii best you (Nintendo) get something out of it rather than used sales.

One thing to bear in mind is the Wii U is flash memory which is much more expensive than the hard drives the competitors use in their hardware. This makes the whole "Ninty should give more storage" not such a cheap thing to do. Yes time will make cost go down as seen on the Xbox360 (thats why there are 250 gigabyte consoles now, plua factoring in the 1000% markup Microsoft like to put on it)

Dedicate a whole drive is iffy given what if in you need to upgrade? Do they expect you to download everything you bought again or, should I pray Nintendo release the hard drive transfer channel for just $6.99...

@Rapadash6 I think the NAND will be used for games as follows:

• Certain files will be loaded onto the NAND so the NAND can act as a cache
• Xbox360 does something similar. Tales of Vesperia is an easy to explain example. First time you go into battle it takes a bit of time to load (as it reads the data off the disc). All other times you enter battle, it is a lot quicker (until you play something else)
  This is essentially the same as the SD card menu (it caches the game you play in the NAND)

The disc read speed is said to be similar to USB 2.0 so performance-wise both are the same so no need for additional caching.

@TheDreamingHawk Pokemon Dream Radar just came out. Point still stands though.

This move makes me think Nintendo Korea will only translate games that people who don't know a second language would play (so young kids, I assume Koreans learn some English in school) and try and counter the fact lots of people play on imported systems (I'd imagine this to be the case). The population of Korea might not warrant translation (won't pay back costs due to few players etc).

@Ristar42 Before Wii VC and Animal Crossing (NES games there run in 50Hz). Zelda Collector's edition was 60Hz only and the NES classics on GBA were also correct speed (though the every x vertical line missing is lamentable).

@KeeperBvK I did a quick search and came across this:
http://www.ravengames.co.uk/engine4.htm
What isn't is it uses some sort of chip to convert the NTSC signal to PAL.

My opinion of the UK advert has gone up after that. Btw, Nintendo UK decided to change marketing companies to give things a fresh start. Maybe NOA should do the sam...oh wait they already did that a few years back when they decided to move marketing from the HQ in Redmond over to I think, New York...(a lot of the marketing team was not prepared to move across the country)

In short. Nintendo UK get outside companies to market for them, NOA have an internal company.

Then again I'm not the audience for either advert.

Its an interesting concept for DLC especially to make a second playthrough more fresh. Price and amount of extras decides its value/fairness.

My stance on DLC is wasn't it supposed to microtransactions of amounts you won't notice (back in 2006 when companies were first doing this that was how they picturing it; to me anything near or over $1 is noticeable) yet it turned into PC game expansion prices on an al a carte basis.

@bulby1994 A while back I saw the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom one for £20. Of course now availability has dropped soaring prices.

The problem I have with them is size and setup (you ideally need to rest it on something)

I thought it was only Nintendo published NES games?

"We currently have no confirmation if this is happening in Europe"
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/the_connection_ambassador_promotion_ends_on_21st_november_55213.html
So yes and same day. Reminders are always welcome because as you can see, the original NOE story can so easily be missed. Interesting fact:
"After the end of the promotion, it will no longer be possible to gift titles which you received due to your Gold or Platinum status."
Does this mean gift copies were free as well?

I would ~guess~ it has expired in Japan and also IIRC, never launched in America. But I'd wager the Wii U launch is a good time to end it as cross-system compatibility could be a nightmare (e.g. can Wii Us and Wiis be friends?).

@Neram Ignoring the whole who the seller is, it could be a case of seeing that these things do in fact sell for big money so selling them while the market is hot which is why more have appeared than on average...of course that is going to bring more counterfeit attempts but you can't assume all of them are. Or none of them for that matter...that said going for an existing dump would be a risk if you were a hoaxer because the original dumper could appear to call you out.

Makes me wonder what happened to this FFI prototype in the end (Garage sale purchase, likely from former Nintendo employee):http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?92562-Final-Fantasy-Proto-found-(-I-think)Its probably still sitting safe in the owners collection, for a few more years (the EPROMs only have a finite lifespan)

Re: Ninja ban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles#Teenage_Mutant_.22Hero.22_Turtles

I didn't know nunchaku were banned completely from rated movies. The word itself wasn't banned (just marketing suicide for children's toys) as after all, The Last Ninja games came out in the late 80s.

@MattyJ2009 re:refunds on undelivered issues. IIRC its publishers discretion though they'll offer subscribing to an alternative at the minimum (maybe with a few bonus issues thrown in to make this attractive). Good will thing to do is refund so they tend to offer that too.

Quick question. Did Future share staff and articles between Nintendo Power in America and Nintendo Official Magazine (NOM) as they should have a lot in common. IIRC here in the UK they are consolidating (or have already done so) the multiple Nintendo magazine publications they have going (Future got the rights to the official magazine back in, I think 2006, when another publisher died but kept their current magazine going in the Bristol office while running NOM in the London one).

As for back in the day. Well, there were less sources to check your facts against so looking back you can notice some glaring issues. Also news actually was news then. That said they seemed to be a bit more creative in finding other things to cover.

@Sonic1994CD There are some people that felt the best use of Club Nintendo coins was on games as you could buy the item on eBay for less than the cost of spending coins on games (say an item is $20 on eBay but the coins could go toward $30 of games...). Of course the game prices are all over the place (Golf for 150 coins? seriously?) making it harder in practice.

Basically the early years set the high price for items as people had lots of coins. Also the programme has an internal budget so having to ship out less stuff cuts down on that (I wonder how much the Elite Membership items drain). Basically, there is no loss for them for maintaining high prices (if all else fails it ends up in one of those mystery bags). Though the recent drop in value of old games might signify a change. Maybe the middle will get better as too many legacy items in the high end.

In general the reward program Nintendo offer is expensive compared to say McVitie's VIP Club. Let's compare the Tote bags are they should be similar:
Nintendo: 250 coins. So thats what 5 "$50" Wii games so $250.
McVitie's: 30 points. Thats like 6 packs of Digestives or 5 of the Pengiun 12 packs. Which is anywhere for £5-£15 (depending on how well you shop)

Similar number of products but completely different spend needed. Of course its rather silly to buy games just for coins (or if you did you would go for $5 games as a top-up...which would even out the cost) plus if the games are already owned etc the real cost is $0.

Disclaimer: I wouldn't trust the McVitie's bags to hold 20 lbs...nor would I want to test the Nintendo ones.

@grenworthshero
Not quite. Person A buys license but revokes it, selling it back to Gamestop (you can't revoke it on DD platforms yet...you can with software such as the one the EU court case was about). Gamestop now have 1 license they can sell. So same as physical...

As for making money developers will have to adapt and offer things that are more than the software or work on commission for publishers. Or relying on day 1 sales...or paradoxically, their game being unpopular (less sold copies exist mean less can be traded).

@Djrr-ific
Just to point something out. Its pretty hard to send your 3DS into Nintendo when something like this happens:
-It was stolen from your car
-You dropped it into a river
In both cases you don't have the 3DS. Let's not go down the "tough, shouldn't have done such silly things" angle...

I know two ambassadors who had the above happen. In both cases Nintendo (of Europe) offered no help whatsoever. In the case of the theft the police report called it a Game Boy and Nintendo refused to believe the police were inaccurate and for the loss there was nothing they could do as they need a police report.

On the other hand I do understand the point that you could be part of a scam if they were to switch accounts or remotely deactivate them (e.g. sell ambassador 3DS then deactive it leaving buyer out of ambassador games). But like most things 3DS that old adge goes..."Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance". In this case the performance is customer care. Not that an account system would be a magic cure by any means...

Wait the coins in NSMB2 are a mode and no the main game? Its emphasis reeks of something put in to make it seem different to NSMBU. I take it they only mentioned spotpass and not online leaderboards...

As for Fire Emblem, they could have mentioned it at any of the shows. I was not seriously expecting any footage since Fire Emblem games tend to have a tonne of text and so take 6 months or so to come out (exception, Shadow Dragon which fans berated for having next to no text among other things). Then again Path of Radiance was seen at the E3 directly after its release in English...can't recall if that E3 was in July though...

My guess: I don't see a HUD in the big screen. Thats what on your gamepad. Time, speed, map etc...

Its funny how the icon looked like an Arwing but then it was "ah its a F-Zero car".

I'd say 4/10, However the content on board is a 6/10...possibly 7/10 depending on what the 3DS conference shows us. Thats what a bad presentation can do to you.

Basically they made a big mistake saving up stuff for other conferences or relegating to videos (Game and Wario, the Platinum Games thing) as this is the one everyone will watch. Also Nintendo Land was shown off worse than Wii Music. A lecture about the rules of the Luigis Ghost Mansion game had me bored to tears...then I see the bonus video of the DK game and am like, "would not this have been better to show?"