@GiftedGimp I'm pretty sure the subtitles WERE forced in the original UK PAL release. I've still got my original Super Metroid cart but haven't had a chance to rig up my old SNES and check yet.

@PachterStation Metroid Prime Pinball for the DS did indeed eventually get an EU release, although it was delayed for nearly 2 years after the US release whereas Japan and Australia got it a couple of months later. By the time it came out here, I think most people who were initially interested in it had just imported a US copy (like I did) so it pretty much sank without trace.

All of these 'who cares anyway, it's trash' comments are silly. I really don't enjoy games like Call Of Duty, but I'd have to be an idiot not to care if say Activision decided not to release the next CoD on Wii U because there's still an awful lot of gamers out there who do like it. WWE is a fairly major brand so not having the next version (at least) not released on Wii U is yet another blow whatever way you look at it. Better to have a variety of games on any system rather than just be stuck with the choice of a few first party exclusives and little else (however great those exclusives may be).

The 3DS has rekindled my interest in handheld gaming so much recently that I've even been picking up a load of original DS games that I missed first time around (as they work on 3DS) thinking that I'd never get around to playing them. But I'm using the 3DS way more than anything else at the moment.

Sorry Rory but you're mistaken....you can actually buy the Telltale Walking Dead episodic game on disc now....I saw it on the shelf in my local Tesco last Friday. This piece of garbage is the only one for Wii U though, unfortunately.

Thought this was a great game....I see it as being to the original Yoshi's Island what the Jap version of Super Mario Bros 2 (aka The Lost Levels) is to the original game....a much harder version (Yoshi's Island DS get's extremely tough later on and a couple of the unlockable bonus stages seem near impossible) with additional features, but still with most of the playability and charm of the original game. I'm surprised so many people on different forums seem to hate the music in Yoshi's Island DS as well, I think it's excellent.

That being said, the original Yoshi's Island is still the better game though...it's level design pretty much is consistently perfect whilst with Yoshi's Island DS, it's just very good....the majority of the time. My biggest bugbear with Yoshi's Island DS is the removal of the inventory system, meaning that there's no way to refill your star counter if you're near the end of the stage with less than 30 stars (forcing you to replay the entire level again) and some of the red coins/flowers/character coins are much more difficult to locate than in the original.

Awesome game, well worth the £4.49. Silver Star/Agetec are really proving themselves to be great at putting together fun 2D platformers for bargain prices (Magical Whip and Rabi Laby on DSiWare were excellent cheap downloads too )

It's a sad sign of the times that there's so little news/screenshots/videos/anything about upcoming games on the Wii U that Nintendolife has to keep putting out articles about kickstarter projects in order to fill up space. People may say that no console has a great first year, but new/upcoming game news was never this thin on the ground when the original Wii was released

Can't believe there's so many comments here trashing Insomniac....they've made some superb games including the original Spyro trilogy, Muppet Monster Adventure, Ratchet & Clank (those games are a hell of a lot of fun) and Resistance. I understand that this is NINTENDOlife, not SONYlife but there's no need to badmouth good games from a good developer....it just comes across like a bunch of Sony fanboys claiming that Super Mario World was rubbish just because they couldn't get it for their console to me.

That being said, Insomniac's not a developer I expected to support the Wii U anyway...they've never developed any Nintendo platform games before (to my knowledge) so it'd be more of a surprise if they DID actually develop for the Wii U. Most people associate them with Sony anyways and own a Sony console if they want to play Insomniac's games.

@K1LLEGAL Amen, brother, amen.

I've got an XL....the battery life isn't that great. Only get around 4 hours out of it before the battery light starts blinking red.

Most days, that's usually more than enough for the times I play it when I'm nowhere near a mains supply to plug it into though.

Episodic content....urgh.

Count me in when there's a full size game to download. None of this 'episode' crap where you can't even be sure that the next episode will ever get released at times if they don't hit their sales targets with the current one.

Hate it when publishers/devs do this, absolutely hate it. I'll wait for them all to be out and then just buy a bundle.

That's cool. I'm planning on picking this up over the next month or so, and it was only the lack of Wii U DLC that was making me consider one of the other versions instead.....no need to worry now.

Mario & Donkey Kong and Bloody Vampire are dead certs for me. The Starship Damrey looks like I'll enjoy it as well. I like the look of Crash City Mayhem, would like to see a review of that one first though. Plus there's also Zelda: Oracle Of Ages/Seasons coming soon as well......

'The 3DS service has given us portable NES games for the first time'

Nope, the Game Boy Advance did that first with the NES Classics series, and the unlockable version of the original Metroid in Metroid: Zero Mission

I still prefer Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Bros 3 and (much more recently) New Super Mario Bros U., but Super Mario World is still a great game in it's own right.

Metroid Prime 2, Fire Emblem Awakening, and some more Etrian Odyssey

Nintendo are weird. They censor that Fire Emblem image, yet they're happy to make Samus Aran look like a slut in the 'good' endings for most of the Metroid games.

Really can't wait for The Daily Mail to pick up on this.

I can see the headline now...'Animal Crossing - BAN THIS SICK FILTH!'

@Reef7009 You couldn't be more wrong. You're confusing The Guardian with The Daily Mail and The Sun I think.

If this is like the old Super Runabout games, then I might be interested. Super Runabout on the Dreamcast was a blast.

@Marksolo A barren launch period might have been true of the Xbox 360 and PS3, but this is a Nintendo site and it certainly wasn't anywhere near this lousy with the original Wii. It had better exclusives at launch and soon afterwards, including an enhanced version of Zelda Twilight Princess (launched alongside the GC version, so most people bought the Wii version instead), Rayman Raving Rabbids (best version), Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Excite Truck, Eledees and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves all before the middle of the year....a year which also ended with Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3, amongst others. We were also constantly given updates and shown new footage from the big hitters that came earlier the following year too, such as Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl. Has there even been ANY footage of the supposed 3D Mario Wii U game, Mario Kart Wii U or Super Smash Bros Wii U shown yet? And that's not to mention the Wii VC that was launched very soon after the Wii (not nearly 5 months down the line like with Wii U) and started off with games like Gunstar Heroes.

They've realeased the Wii U and yet all the best games are coming out for 3DS. Look at the big releases for Wii U this year so far...Monster Hunter 3, Lego City Undercover, Need For Speed U.....then look at the big releases for 3DS this year....Castlevania LOS: Mirror Of Fate, Luigi's Mansion 2, Etrian Odyssey 4, Monster Hunter 3 (which seems to have pretty much the same content as on Wii U), Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins (which is a very decent version of the Wii U game with it's own storyline), Fire Emblem Awakening....and very soon (sooner than Pikmin 3) there'll be a new Animal Crossing, remake of Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Golf, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team....and later in the year whilst the Wii U gets a Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD port, 3DS gets a whole new Legend Of Zelda game, plus a new Mario Party. Now, at least a couple of those games would serve better as Wii U titles, wouldn't they? Maybe Lego City: The Chase Begins would've served better as DLC for the Wii U game? A big problem here for Nintendo is that their own system (the 3DS) is competing with the Wii U and offering a much more appealing selection of software as well....it's not like the old days where the SNES and N64 were alongside the Game Boy as the 3DS is capable of much more technically/graphically advanced games. Even the 3DS E-Shop is packed to the gills with good stuff and easily incorporates DSiWare, unlike the Wii U E-Shop that looks barren by comparison and doesn't allow you to access the old Wii Shop titles unless you put the Wii U into 'Wii' mode (which most people probably won't bother with much). All I've seen this year (in Europe at any rate) is Nintendo Directs that focus almost exclusively on the 3DS as well.

@Chriiis No it doesn't. If you play a DSiWare game that's on the onboard memory, and then go into your options and copy it back to the SD card over the existing copy of the game before you delete it, then the new copy retains your game saves as well the next time you copy it back onto the onboard memory and play it.

@Peach64 You're wrong about redownloading games to a new 3DS....if you transfer your account over from the old one, then you can just plug your old SD card into the new 3DS and you're good to go. Worked for me when I upgraded my 3DS to a 3DS XL....it does require you to keep your old 3DS until you've done the account transfer though. Also, I agree with everything else you said.

@Jakurdo Sony tried that with the PSP GO and it was a massive flop. Maybe the market is more ready for a handheld gaming device like that now, but I'm still not 100% sure.

32gb in mine. I much prefer to use it's space for download only games though...no point in wasting valuable space on retail titles, and then needlessly having to buy another SD card because of it.

Zelda - Yes.

No to the others, unless they offer the 60hz version of Balloon Fight instead, and offer it as a free upgrade to all of us who've already paid 30p for the crappy 50hz version.

And this is why I don't (completely) understand people downloading full price retail games.....It's convenient, sure, but the added extra cost of having to buy larger SD/HDDs to accommodate them doesn't make it seem worth it to me. And game sizes are only going to increase as time goes on...

Good...been waiting for these I've got other consoles but the Wii U is the only console I've spent money on Zen Pinball on, and I'd rather keep all my downloaded pinball tables on the one console together.

I might download the original Picdun as I've always liked the look of it and the sequel's appeared now. And will probably grab some cheap DLC for Zen Pinball 2

It's not as good as the Wii U game (naturally) but it is a very decent open world handheld game despite the technical issues, that seems to have all the areas from the Wii U version in it. I like it, but more so as a companion piece to the main Wii U game rather than as a standalone game in it's own right.....it just doesn't have the same level of humour or character development that the Wii U game has.

@Bluezealand The puzzle differences I can understand....there's lots of little changes to sections of storyline/cutscene dialogue in the Layton games though between the US and EU English versions...even to the extent of the EU versions having a different English speaking voice actor for Luke. I just find it strange and a little pointless.

The worrying thing is.,,I've seen a few comments on MiiVerse saying that they're happy just playing the app and won't bother with the full game at all now....

I've had a quick go at the app, but I'd rather save extended sessions for the full game when it launches

It's not the only game with differences between the US and EU versions....they do it with the Professor Layton games too. Not sure why, really.

So....the Starfox game is easy to get into and the controls feel nice, the SMB3 game is less fun to play and more frustrating (and doesn't have a headphone jack either)....and the winner is SMB3? Eh? Did I read that wrong?

@RupeeClock I've got Gunman Clive and enjoyed it (for the price), but a game that I completed in 40 mins and can barely be bothered to touch again vs a game that I still dip in and out of thanks to the Endless/Survival modes and the challenging later stages? Nah, I personally don't think so but I know I'm in a minority. They're two completely different games though....like comparing apples and oranges really.

I don't own Earthbound or Chrono Trigger carts (played them though) but I've got original copies of all the others. I like Super Mario World, but it's massively overrated and I'd put it behind both Yoshi's Island and Super Mario Bros. 3 in terms of which 2D platformers I like best. I'd have had Secret Of Mana on that list somewhere too....probably in the place of the original Donkey Kong Country which is decent, but finding the bonus levels was too much trial and error and it wasn't as varied or enjoyable as Donkey Kong Country 2.

Not really sure what you guys where expecting from a game that cost less than 4$/£3? I really enjoyed the first one for what it was, and I'll probably download the sequel too if it's around the same price.

@JogurtTheYogurt Except they haven't bought the last couple of remakes to the US or EU If it's really too much of a problem for them to localise the remakes, I don't know why they don't just sell the remakes in Japan but put the already localised original games on the US/EU Virtual Console to make more money from the rest of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9l9wxGFl4k

'You call this a glitch?'

Got this today. Played it for 2 hours so far. And haven't experienced any excessive load times at all yet, asides from about 45 seconds when starting the game for the first time. Maybe I'll notice it a bit more later on when I'm exploring different parts of the city more, but at the moment I'm feeling like the reviews have exaggerated somewhat about the load times.

@ToxorAxiom Different people find different challenges in different games. I've never found Battletoads massively difficult asides from the last couple of stages (the whole game is just mostly a memory test) and my avatar comes from the NES version of Battletoads/Double Dragon which was much, much easier than the original game anyway (well, I thought it was). With Okami, ...yeah, I only died maybe twice the whole time I played it, but that doesn't mean I didn't find parts of it a challenge, or find it difficult to discover everything. It's like Zelda: Wind Waker..,.,that's a very easy game on the surface as well if you just do the basic requirements to get from start to finish,, but if you want to complete it properly/see and do everything, then there's a decent challenge in there.

@Byuu I've got mine preordered from shopto.net...wouldn't surprise me if I actually received it from them on the 28th but likely I'll get it on the 29th as well,,,I usually get games a day or two early from them.

Anyone refusing to buy it just because of some misguided vendetta against Ubisoft is just cutting off their nose to spite their face and missing out on what will probably be a great game.

Fantastic news. Insta-download when it appears on the E-Shop....I loved Shantae: Risky's Revenge and would like a chance to experience the original properly, without having to resort to dodgy ROM download sites....

@ToxorAxiom I didn't think Okami was particularly easy...yes, you have Issun pointing out obvious things a lot of the time, but the game still has an absolute ton of content and is huge.....I tend to explore and find as much as I can when I play games, and Okami took me around 45 hours to play through...I also thought a few of the fights were fairly challenging as well even if you immediately knew what to do. There's a fair bit of hand holding in the first few hours but you get a lot more freedom later on. Okamiden was pretty much the same too, on a slightly smaller scale.

@C-Olimar Okamiden was on the original DS and looked fantastic....there's no reason at all to believe that a 3DS Okami game would look ugly.

@Peach64 It took a little time for some of them to appear, but Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Sin and Punishment (1st western release of a Sin & Punishment game), Red Steel, No More Heroes, Disaster: Day Of Crisis, Madworld, The Conduit and Tatsunoko vs Capcom were all new IPs that appeared on the Wii, and a long way from being 'casual' or 'non' games. None of those might have interested you, but I've really enjoyed them all.

As I've said elsewhere....comparisons to Super Meat Boy are unfounded because it's nowhere near as difficult as that game and a lot fairer. I've not finished it off myself yet but general consensus on Miiverse seems to be that you can whizz through the whole game in a few hours. I think it's very enjoyable and playable game for the price (£4.49) but I'd have have also felt a little ripped off if I'd paid £10 or more for it. Depends on what people expect for a fiver, really.

I already have 3 of those games (Castlevania, Luigi's Mansion 2, Fire Emblem) so I'll take a free Monster Hunter 3 download, as I already have the Wii U version and it'll allow me to transfer my game save and play it on the go. I'd much rather have physical copies of the other games I was intending to buy anyway.

I see what Nintendo are doing here....slowly but surely, they're convincing everybody to try retail downloads with the old 'carrot/stick' routine, and for the most part it seems to be a strategy that's working.....

EDIT: On the upside, judging by most people's comments....the physical release copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf I've got preodrered will be as rare as hen's teeth in the future

Rayman Legends app - Yes!

Everything else - No!

I've already got physical copies of BIT.TRIP Saga anyway, on both 3DS and Wii.

Dear Nintendo and Konami.

Please put Axelay on the Wii U Virtual Console in Europe, as I downloaded it on the Wii from the Australian VC service (changed my region setting in the options to do it) but when I did the Wii to Wii U data transfer, it refused to move Axelay over to my Wii U along with all the other games I'd bought from the EU Shop Channel.

I really don't want to have to keep reconnecting my old Wii every time I want to play Axelay.

Thanks.

I still say my £29.99 (+ free delivery) for a physical copy of Fire Emblem Awakening from shopto.net that I received on Wednesday morning, over 24 hours before it went live on the E-shop is a better deal than paying over £30 for a download code from GAME. It isn't clogging up valuable space on my SD card, and I can loan it to other people or trade/sell it after I've finished with it if I so wish. That being said, I do think that retail outlets selling E-shop codes, especially given that they seem to be cheaper than buying directly from the E-Shop, is still a good thing