Great game. Underrated game.

Well, yes, of course Nintendo has a right. But I'm reminded of a quote from the Federation President in Star Trek VI:

"Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing."

Nintendo gets much more by leaving these people alone than they do by going after them.

I'm a professor who studies social media. Understanding this kind of issue is my job.

And I must say: Bithell nailed it.

Put simply, any company--especially a media/entertainment company--wants an active Internet community discussing their product.

Running out and doing something to squelch that community is a completely backwards move. It tells me Nintendo doesn't understand much about marketing in the year 2013.

And yes, it is a cost-benefit analysis--if that fan community is producing a sequel to your game without permission, squelch 'em. But this has to be such a small amount of cash... yeah. Nintendo just looks desperate--and disrespectful of its gamers, in a day when they can't afford to be.

Love this game--lots of nostalgia. Underrated, IMHO.
But fer cryin' out loud, Nintendo... at these prices, and with so.many.re-releases already, frankly you just look greedy... I know you're a business, I know you need to make money to survive, but I question whether this strategy yields y'all the most profit. Recognizing supply/demand rules for pricing would be a good place to start; for example, differential demand would suggest not all NES games should be priced the same...

@Einherjar I can see how Nintendo would think it "fair" to charge a dollar for every device a game is on. But that standard of "fair" is thinking like the company, not like the consumer. Nintendo needs to become better at thinking like the consumer. Consumers today are used to downloading an MP3/movie/ebook/app once, paying for it once, and using it across multiple devices. Nintendo would serve themselves by meeting that expectation rather than fighting it, IMHO.

What I wish N would move toward is a more Netflix-type model. The back catalog of games is more than the sum of its parts. I'd pay $20 a month to play whatever game I want in that back catalog--and if I did that, in a single year I'd pay about as much to the eshop as I have in my last 7 years of Wii gaming.

Nintendo's approach looks awfully antiquated in the age of app stores. Let me buy the Super Metroid app once, and then port that across my Wii, Wii U, 3DS, whatever future product Nintendo decides to release. This purchase-linked-to-device approach makes Nintendo not only look old-fashioned indeed, but money-grubbing.

Frankly, this is one of the major barriers to me buying a Wii U. I have loads of old games on my Wii--that was one of the major attractions for me buying the Wii in the first place. Yes, I know I can transfer them over (albeit with loss of access to the Gamecube controller, which is consequential in some games). For now, I'm quite content sticking with the Wii VC, but if Nintendo got their act together I'd be more tempted to switch.

Sailing on the sea is great, but it would've been nice to get an upgraded sail at some point that would've made it such that you didn't have to stop and change the wind all the time. That animation sure gets old. Then add the three missing dungeons back in (pretty obvious where they were cut) and change the Triforce fetch quest, and it'd change a great game to an awesome game. Especially with the cartoon art style in HD--that will be utterly gorgeous, I am sure!

Disagree.

And, methinks the developer who couldn't get games about MICKEY MOUSE right has little room to tell us how video games should become more "adult."

What's sad about this April Fool's joke is that this is exactly the kind of thing that would generate the kind of excitement for Nintendo we haven't seen in awhile. And it probably wouldn't even be all that difficult for Nintendo to do.

I'm very glad Kid Icarus made the list! Wish StarTropics 2 had appeared, though.

"The day there is no single player experience is the day I will hang up my game controller."

You said it, @BestBuck123!

Definitely the price of the games. Yes, I know games cost more during the SNES era, etc. etc. But it isn't the 90s. The gaming industry and the worldwide economy are much different. I just can't justify dropping $60 on a game--I haven't purchased a new game at full retail price since 2008.

Soo... a bunch of Nintendo fans decide not to buy this game on the Wii U. Consequently, sales are weak on Wii U compared to the two other platforms.

This encourages Ubisoft to produce more Wii U exclusive games how, exactly...?

This seems like a classic case of a company making what they think the customer wants rather than what the customer actually wants. What makes it so sad is that they're sitting on a gold mine in the FF/DQ franchises. In the hands of many other companies, we'd have a remake of FF7 (and maybe 8/9) by now.

And I think maybe their worst mistake was making the online games actual, numbered FF titles. As a spin-off series, that would've worked fine--but having "missing" games in XI/XIV kind of killed the series' momentum, IMO.

Honestly--I think Nintendo's upper management has had a really, really good run. But I think they're running out of steam. Time for some new blood--new ideas. I'm not sure Iwata stepping down would be a bad thing at this point.

Inflation calculator says $270,000,000 in 2006 = $308,000,000 in 2012 (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=270&year1=2006&year2=2012). So, after adjusting for inflation, the Wii U made less money at launch than the Wii.

Add that to the fact that each Wii was sold at a profit whereas each Wii U is sold at a loss = "ouch" for Nintendo.

I really do miss the "Nintendo Mondays" of 2007-2008, when the announcement felt like a big deal and 2-3 golden oldies were on the plate...

I didn't get the first one because of the mediocre reviews. I really thought this would be the kind of series where the sequel would fix the problems and turn out to be an excellent game. Disappointed to hear I was wrong!

MM7 is one of the most underrated of the franchise, IMO. I'm glad the article recognizes its high graphical quality. Also noteworthy that the final boss is quite difficult. All around a solid entry to the franchise--classic Mega Man yet in SNES style. Perhaps one possible template for an MM11?

That $60-a-game price tag is rough, IMHO...

The inability to change control options is one of my pet gaming peeves. Seems so easy to implement--obviously the code is there if Player 2 can use the remote/nunchuk. Why not enable that for Player 1 too?

$60 is too expensive for me. I have plenty of games from older eras (GCN/PS2/Wii) that I haven't played that are a tiny fraction of that cost. And someday the cost of those $60 games will come down to something more affordable. And I can definitely wait.

I know Mario games aren't chiefly about plot, but a word about it in this game: For what plot there is, the pacing of it is decidedly poor. The identity of Shadow Mario is the big "story question" and it's answered... what, about 10 shines into the game? Then the next major plot advancement occurs at the final boss fight? Combined with the poor voice acting during these segments, SMS is a case where the addition of a plot greatly detracts from the overall experience.

I also have mixed thoughts about integration of FB/Twitter/pick-your-fave-SNS... but from a business standpoint, I think this is a bad move. @ShellyDeKiller, good points.

Like it or not, integration of services across sites and platforms is the future. If it's possible using apps, not a problem. I'd rather have it that way versus FB/Twitter integration out-of-the-box, because it gives me, the user, more choice. But what I fear is that Nintendo wants to make the Miiverse a bit of a lonely island disconnected from the broader world of cyberspace. If they do, many folks (not just casuals) will see the site as "so 1990s"--not a recipe for online success. And given Nintendo's track record for online services, it's hard for me to be optimistic they'll get it right this time. But I hope so.

Whoa. I... just can't see a service with a 30-minute posting delay becoming popular in this era of the Internet.

This conference makes me feel like Nintendo's glory days are in the past. I don't think we'll revisit the halcyon days of old apart from a shake-up at the top. I'm not sure the current Nintendo exec really "gets" the current era of tech/gaming. And I think they might be running out of fresh ideas (e.g., see the current over-reliance on Mario)--but hey, it hasn't been bad for a nearly 3-decade run.

Hope N can recover. I've been a fan since the NES and, in many ways, to me Nintendo is gaming.

Really liked how the bosses reference the first NES Zelda!

Y'know, I'm a Nintendo fan, for sure, and I don't want to rush to judgment. But as of late it does kinda seem like the wheels are coming off of their judgment (e.g., the second 3DS circle pad). I kinda wonder if some of the corporate leadership is past its prime and needs some shakeup. But I'm totally willing to be surprised once more details about Wii U appear.

Um... something Nintendo should've done years ago, no?

'Tis been many moons since I saw something on a Wii Shop update that I wanted to purchase. I miss the good ol' days when I eagerly anticipated the updates... now I don't even remember the update is coming.

Gotta say, I'd love a new Zelda that's more in the style of the NES original!

I think the antipathy arises, in large part, because Nintendo hasn't explained what the system will do--even something as basic as how many U-motes remains unclear. And, of course, there is that matter of cost. I predict the Wii U will be less successful than the Wii, but Nintendo will pick up the pace in the subsequent generation.

What I don't understand is why, from a business standpoint (dollars-and-cents, bottom-line profit), Nintendo is suddenly so concerned about "core gamers." Seems to me like they've made a boatload of money focusing on "casual gamers."

To me, this seems evidence that the Wii U announcement was a bit rushed.

If nothing else--for Nintendo's sake, I hope they make better use of online for marketing downloadable content. The Wii is so laughable--the casual user is unlikely even to hook it up to the wireless router, much less seek out information about content available for purchase. Information about hot titles should be "pushed" toward the user much more than it is on Wii now.

Y'know, I don't think the later NES Mega Mans are as bad as some make them out to be. What gets me about 4, 5, and 6, however, is the two back-to-back castles at the end of the game... across which you cannot save! Nice that the VC's auto-save fixes that.

I feel like quoting Lando Calrissian: "This deal is getting worse all the time!"