Wasn't backwards compatibility something they added to the 360? As in, when people first bought it, they couldn't play their old games anyway? And isn't also a bit buggy sometimes, in addition to it not being universal? And that's all on top of the fact that even with the original Xbox online play was huge, and Microsoft closed down the servers for all Xbox games, making many games obsolete.

The Data theory's probably closest to what the creators imagined. I mean, think about it. You store Pokemon on a computer. They can be transferred through a computer too. Of course, that's not to say that Pokemon, as data, aren't placed in virtual ideal environments, which are also transferred into the computer.

"some of which are coming to Wii U and others, such as Bungie's Destiny, which probably aren't"
That's rather pessimistic. After all, Activision's publishing Destiny, and they have a pretty good track record of supporting Nintendo's platforms. Plus, the developer came out recently and denied the rumor that Destiny was coming to the Vita, but made no mention of the rumor that it was coming to the Wii U. The fact that they came out to deny rumors, and didn't deny the Wii U, bodes well for a Wii U version imo. Also, I still question whether that "Is your body ready" statement they used in the reveal was simply a coincidence. I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that without Nintendo being involved.

That's really disappointing. This is one of the few games I would've bought again.

I have nothing against Sumo, or their games, but I want Mario Kart to be Mario Kart. I wouldn't mind Sonic being a playable character in Mario Kart (that might be kinda cool) but I don't want the universes to meld together. I want a Mario Kart, not a Mario and Sonic Kart.

I hope they mean RIGHT before E3, because I won't be able to watch the Directs easily until the 10th, the day before E3 starts.

That's awesome, but I wish they would go the whole distance and make the demos downloadable, even if they only had 1 try each, or locked after E3 ended. With only about 100 Best Buys across the whole country, there will be a lot of people who won't be able to get to one, and there really wouldn't be enough space if everyone who wanted to went anyway.

I was going to get the DLC, since I already have NSMBU, but the boxed version looks so awesome...

Of course Nintendo's completely allowed to do it, and they probably should be allowed, but I don't think they should capitalize on that right. Like this guy said, a lot of people watch an LP, get excited, and buy the game. I know I've bought numerous games simply because I saw them on Youtube, and thought they looked fun. With this policy, I might not see a game that I otherwise would have seen, and bought.

"in reality there is no slowdown at all in terms of gameplay"
Then what's the problem?

And when you say subtitles, are they optional, like "choose your language", or something more obtrusive?

[edit] I just saw the picture. That's kinda annoying. I guess it can't be turned off? Also, "French or German"? Do you choose which additional language you want displayed, but not have the option for none?

I like where they're going with the SMB2 sale. It bodes well for the future of Virtual Console sales. But what's with the awkward Runner 2 price? $11.25?

I think it's a stupid decision. They have every right to do it, but that doesn't make it the right thing to do. These are just videos of people playing their games. Besides, they're generally better for Nintendo than not. I've lost count of how many times I've looked at an LP to see how a game plays, figure out where I should go, or just get a feel for the game overall, and if I want to buy it. Any hindrance Nintendo gives these videos only hinders themselves.

I guess this doesn't affect reviews, though? And the article mentioned videos of a certain length. Could people make their videos shorter as a way out of this?

"Silicon Knights chief financial officer Mike Mays clarified that while art assets used in Shadow of the Eternals were sold to Precursor from Silicon Knights but Precursor's Denis Dyack - who was once head honcho at Silicon Knights - was not among the buyers."
What? If Silicon Knights sold the art assets to Precursor, the company, it doesn't matter who's in charge. The company Precursor now owns those assets and can do as they see fit with them. Or am I missing something?

Wait, do the characters look like that? If they do, how is this even a LEGO game?

@Bluezealand
It's not just my definition, it's THE definition. It's pretty much the foundation of marriage.

And I never said they should be treated unequally.

@k8sMum
Exactly. And it does work that way. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". They cannot affect religion. However, religious people are obviously allowed to hold office. It would be impossible for them to just disregard their faith, and would it be illegal to try to force them to do so.

I don't define marriage. It was defined long before this country ever existed. I didn't set or decide it. It is what it is. Some people want to change it now, but the original definition will never stop being the original definition. You can't change history.

@shadowhive
I agree that no law should favor one religion or group, but at the same time, there's no escaping some amount of religious influence. Likewise, redefining marriage favors one group over another, which seeks to keep it unchanged.

While the actual origins of marriage would be debatable, religion is undeniably a part of it. To alter the religiously defined would be considered wrong by many people. Also, though marriage has changed to some degree, it has always held one characteristic, and that is heterosexuality.

That isn't the "problem" with religion. If the Bible says something, for example, it can't be rewritten based on "new information". It hasn't changed in thousands of year, even if understanding of it has grown. That's more like a positive if you ask me. And uninformed men? Not at all.

@k8sMum
Precisely. We have no state religion. The government cannot make any religion the national religion, nor can they ban any religion. They're supposed to keep out of it altogether. That doesn't have anything to do with people in the government being religious, or with their religion influencing their decisions.

That's not remotely possible. Religion is at the very foundation of many people's worldviews. The founders never meant for that to be excluded from government.

@emiru69
Which part of your life improves by having what heterosexual couples have? Marriage is union between a man and a woman. Union between man and man, or woman and woman, is something else. Whether it's wrong or right, it's just, by definition, different from marriage.

@shadowhive
Though marriage isn't necessarily religious anymore, it does have roots in religion, mainly Judaism. Even if homosexual marriage were legal in every state, the original definition of marriage, which many hold sacred, would still exclude it, and that isn't something the government could change, legally or realistically.

And separation of Church and State is not supposed to be freedom from religion. It's just supposed to be the government keeping its nose out of religion (which it hasn't done very well). Unless America were a purely atheistic nation, it would be impossible to keep traditional religion out of the government anyway. Many people in the government are religious, after all, and you can't leave your faith at the door.

@emiru69
That quote? It doesn't apply. Everyone has the same rights right now.

@k8sMum
That's a good point, but animals that don't can't really be compared to humans, which do.

@zeldagaymer93
Interracial relationships were frowned upon because of racism. That's it. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Race isn't a part of it, even if some people tried to make it a part.

And it's not bigoted to follow one's beliefs, even if they disagree with another's.

@PvtOttobot
There's a picture in the first article of a pregnant man. At least, I thought that was what it was.

@zeldagaymer93
Men were getting pregnant. That IS abnormal human behavior.

And interracial relationships are a very different topic from homosexual relationships.

This was pretty expected. Nintendo's not one to approach controversial topics or step on people's toes. It's not discriminatory to not include controversial subjects in a game. I applaud Nintendo for not succumbing to the pressures of people wanting to keep the bug, and instead making the game what it was intended to be.

Insomniac used to be great, back when they made Spyro, and before Ratchet and Clank became so spammed, but nowadays I don't really care about them. Fuse looked boring to me, about as generic as you can get. Maybe I'm wrong, but that was the impression my brother and I got when we saw it. I'd be far more interested in Destiny coming to the Wii U (still hopeful).

Besides, is it really such a surprise that one of Sony's most supportive 3rd parties isn't a fan of Nintendo's hardware?

@gundam00
I don't think it's quite that cut and dry. Let's say Harvest Moon did have gay marriage. Who would be the eligible bachelors? Would they add additional characters, or make the existing characters in the game be open to both homosexual and heterosexual relationships (since you can often choose to be either a man or a woman)? Either way, it would make things much more awkward for straight players. On top of that, Harvest Moon games often involve having kids. Though possible with outside help, as previously mentioned, no gay couple can have children on their own, adding another rather awkward angle the game would have to approach. It's not so simple as just including gay marriage. In games like Harvest Moon it would add a lot of work for minimal return. I would tend to think it would be even worse for Fire Emblem.

@Ralizah
That was probably a bit of an exaggeration, as I'd still want to play the game, but I'd probably skip it. Besides the fact I don't support homosexuality in general, in games like this, people flirt, right? I would be pretty uncomfortable with guys in the game flirting with me. It may not sound like much, but that really would be enough to steer me away from the game.

Is this game more like Harvest Moon, or more like the sims? Eh, either way it won't come to America with a "feature" like this, and I don't really mind. I have no desire to play it if the feature remains.

"For decades now, it has been this type of thinking that has plagued Nintendo"
I'm pretty sure a lot of companies would want to catch the kind of plague that produced successes like the SNES, Wii, and DS, not to mention the many hit games.

They all sound good at the right prices. I'd be interested in Plants vs Zombies 2 as well. Though I don't want the spam the app store is known for, some of the games are genuinely fun, and would be great for the Wii U. I think Nintendo should get some other apps too, like Kindle, Yelp, and one of those apps that lets you order food from local restaurants.

Nothing to show but the next 3D Mario, which was the highest rated exclusive this gen, and the next Mario Kart, which was the best selling game of any console this gen. Both of which will be playable too. Oh, and SSB. And all of them will be in HD for the first time ever.

Seeing as how it's pretty much everywhere anyway, and they didn't even have a trademark until after Scribblenauts was out with the character in it, this all seems pretty stupid. On top of that, it's been years since they got their trademark. Did they never take any legal action before this?

I still think a horror game where you could hear your own heart beat as you play would have been interesting, but other than that and a fitness game I can't think of any use for this thing.

Mother 4? I'm still waiting for Mother 1 and 3, and Mother 2's digital release.

I was really disappointed that the videos had such low resolution (I wouldn't be surprised if they were less than 480i), especially with their price tags. I also thought it was stupid that each video is its own channel, rather than one channel for all four. It's still a cool app, though, even if undercooked and overpriced.

I wonder if these can be registered on Club Nintendo like the new ones...

I was pretty much expecting this. I wouldn't be surprised if by "Super Mario Bros" they meant the next 3D Mario too. This will be a big year for the Wii U yet.

I'm disappointed that Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country aren't in there, but at least Super Mario World is. In reality, this is only 4 games anyway, since the other 4 are already available. Hopefully they add more quickly.

Apparently Darksiders was bought by Nordic games, along with Red Faction, MX vs ATV, Destroy all Humans, Summoner, licensed games, and more that IGN didn't list for just under $5 million.

Do you have to use the wireless remote, or can you plug in the original remotes like the RetroN3? I've never used one of these types of consoles before, but I've read a lot of reviews that say the remotes that come with them are pretty low quality (though obviously nobody knows about the RetroN5's remotes yet). Besides, I have no desire to play NES, SNES, Genesis, and GBA games without a d-pad.

I really hope they bring this to America. I'd love a free copy of Fire Emblem.

Though I hate to say it, I tend to think the biggest reason he added Wii U support as a stretch goal was just to save his dying project. With only a week or so left, and well under half the funds he needed to make the game at all, he finally added Wii U support, which managed to net him in one week about twice what he got in the first three weeks. In other words, reaching the Wii U goal would have been a serious stretch, but adding it did help him raise enough money to make the game for other devices.

That said, I still hope the game comes to the Wii U at some point. I honestly think he would have done better by putting it there in the first place, with his many fans on Nintendo systems, and his game looking right up the Nintendo fan alley.

If the music wasn't an issue, why did it take so long?

I'm not really interested. I enjoyed watching Dinosaur Office much more than BearShark, though I don't know how they'd make a game out of Dinosaur Office. If BearShark: The Game reviews well, and it's cheap, I might consider it.

Man, these sales. I just got Mutant Mudds a few weeks ago, Order Up! and Planet Crashers about a week ago, and now I'm gonna get Crimson Shroud and Liberation Maiden. It's awesome, but I'm really beginning to build a backlog of digital games here. It's a good problem though.

That's too bad. I guess it had to happen at some point, but I actually enjoyed the Voting channel and the Check Mii Out Channel. I never really used the News or Forecast channels for fear of WiiConnect24 overheating my Wii, but they were pretty nice too. The Nintendo Channel, though, was my favorite. I've spent quite a few hours on there, watching trailers and Nintendo Week, recommending games, and standing in awe of how long I ended up playing Animal Crossing. I'll miss them all. I wish Nintendo would make new versions for the Wii U, but maybe that's asking too much? Maybe they can just make something like the Nintendo Channel then? I love the new eshop, but I still want a channel where I can go just to watch videos, especially if they made another show like Nintendo Week. And maybe the return of Dark Gary.

While I agree that a lot of people did buy into the hype only to let the system sit on the shelf soon after (trying my Wii inspired several people to do that actually), I wouldn't call it a virus. At least, no more than gaming in general. I mean, how many people have gotten systems over the years and not played them much? My older brother bought a PS3, and he barely ever plays it. Does that make it a virus too? And how does that work with games? Are games viruses if you buy them and don't play them much?

"We recently revealed Animal Crossing: New Leaf is listed in the North American 3DS eShop as $34.99, which is $5 less than usual. Could Nintendo be offering a little discount to allow you to have the game on your system at all times?"
No. As was pointed out in the comments of that article by several people, this isn't an eshop discount. The game's going for $35 at various retailers too, including Amazon, Best Buy, and Gamestop. I'm planning on getting it at Best Buy if possible, but if there's another shortage I might just begrudgingly turn to digital.

Amazon, Best Buy, and Gamestop are all selling it at that price. It's not an eshop discount.

I already have Mario 64, and I'm gonna wait for Super Metroid to go on sale for 30 cents, so nothing for me this month.

Advance Wars is one of my favorite franchises, so yeah, I'd love another entry on the 3DS, or even the Wii U for that matter.