I've watched all of the presentations live.

I follow all of the information that comes out for all the consoles.

So far I think the PS4 is looking like the more exciting system but I'd really have to see all 3 in their final form to decide.

I'm just not sure the Wii U has what it takes to really compete with the other two consoles to be honest.

@MadAussieBloke

True.

Irrespective of all the media crap surrounding Denis Dyack and this new game I'm thinking the only way it's going to get the kind of backing it needs is for Precursor to have a playable demo that people can actually try hands-on at shows like E3 for example and that games sites can properly preview too.

I think that's the only way people are going to be truly convinced this is a proper game that's in a genuinely playable state and that is of good enough quality to really warrant the hype and media backing it needs to get everyone else truly excited about and behind the project.

Having a one level playable demo of the game worked wonders for a game like Shovel Knight and it really helped gain the support it need to get fully funded.

If precursor can just convince people once and for all that this thing is truly solid, and not maybe all just a bit of smoke and mirrors (an admitedly lovely staged video/demo isn't really going to be enough to achieve this imo), wiping away any doubts people have about the potential of the team, company and end product to deliver etc, then I think that will go a long way towards silencing all the naysayers and just making people feel a lot more comfortable about everything to do with the game in general.

Only then do I think the Kickstarter campaign will have a realistic chance of being successful.

I really want this game to happen but at this rate I just don't see things going well for the project.

Nintendo could simply release proper high quality updates to pretty much all it's classic 8bit and 16bit games and each and every one would sell bucket loads.

All they'd need to do is pretty much reuse all the original assets and just create new stories and levels out of them, in much the same way the fans often do these days but this time we'd be getting official first party versions of these games. Or kinda similar to how Capcom did it with Mega Man 9 and 10.

Imagine a new 2D Zelda created with the Link to the Past assets, or a new Metroid game made with the sprites and arwork from Super Metroid, or a new Yoshi's Island game that used the original art, or a new Earthbound game that use the assets from Earthbound 3...

I genuinely think this would be a much smarter move than what they are doing with their imo half-*assed and yet no doubt more expensive nad more time consuming versions of the new 3DS Zelda and Yoshi games for example that actually look like they were made by fans anyway.

Along with that there's so many things Nintendo could do to just improve the whole eShop and VC in general, such as lower the prices across the board (especially the VC prices), combine all the eShops into one unified service, make the digital game cross-compatible on any of the consoles that have an eShop, make digital versions of games much cheaper than the retail versions, get a lot more VC games out much quicker...

@Saturn
Your optimism is commendable but I''ve yet to be convinced that's going to happen.

The Wii didn't really woo third parties developers and that machine sold a lot of units.

I just don't think the Wii U is a platform many third parties, excluding indie devs I'd say, are excited about.

"It honestly hasn't aged a day, like many of its SNES brethren, which is a testament as to why the system is often regarded as one of the best home consoles of all time."

This.

Maybe they should have went back to the orignial idea of including it in the system.

Wii U really needs all the help it can get if they want people to actually bother picking up this thing.

So many bad decisions lately, Nintendo.

The Sega/Sonic deal is just a pile of crap compared to the kind of third party support and games the vast majority of gamers are excited by these days.

Most people really don't care about Sonic games anymore. Sure, some of the new Sonic games are ok and decent fun but Sonic isn't a big deal outside of kids, families and a few gamers desperately holding on to the memories of a time when a new Sonic game was actually a big deal.

Only desperate Nintendo fans and Wii U owners are going to try and make the Sega announcement and a couple of other random games seem like it's a much bigger deal than it actually is.

Nintendo has very little third party support of significance for Wii U and most of the third party support it is getting is small potatoes games that once again the vast majority of gamers simply aren't going to be excited by.

Right now, outside of the obligatory first party games there is very little indeed to get excited about on Wii U, either in the short term or going forwards into the future.

This is just scraping the barrel imo.

What are these guys even making for Wii U?

This is how I interpret all the various news over the last few weeks and months regarding third party support; basically whatever third party games we've learned the Wii U will be getting they're by far outweighed by the announcements of all the third party games it's not getting.

When you average it all out and look at it all objectively it's quite simply bad news for Wii U and I don't see how any rational and objective person could interpret it otherwise.

@evanescent_hero

Which interstingly is exactly what happened with EA's sports brands for Genesis/Meagdrive, and probably quite a few of it's other non-sports games although I can't remember off-hand, in the 16bit era.

Looks a bit like history is repeating itself in that respect unfortunately.

All this reiterates to me is that the Wii U is in big trouble right now.

Most next-gen developers just don't give a crap about it. The hardware is under-powered. The console isn't selling. The third party support just isn't there.

Nintendo really needs to take a step back and figure out how to make this thing sell and fast...

How about dropping the price of console by say $25-$50.

How about reducing all the VC titles to more reasonable prices for what they are; $0.99 for NES games, $1.99 for SNES games and $2.99 for N64 games for example.

How about getting more VC titles on the console much faster as well as announcing support for far more platforms too (GC, Dreamcast, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, even Wii).

How about integrating all the VC and eShop services into one unified store so it's easier and more practical for everyone to access and use.

How about making it that if you download a VC game it's cross compatible so you can transfer and play it on any of your Nintendo systems that have a VC or eShop.

How about making digital download versions of retail titles much cheaper than the boxed versions so that they're actually good value propositions.

How about adding in the option to let people activate CD/DVD playback.

How about including silly stuff like Wii U Panorama View free and bundled with the console, or at least make it a free download, rather than ripping people off for what is basically a totally throwaway gimmicky App.

How about getting some more AAA first party titles on the system fast/now (since the third party support really isn't there).

If Nintendo did all these things I'm 100% sure it would help kickstart the system and increase sales.

At least try these things to get the system moving and to get it into the hearts and minds of gamers and consumers, for Christ sake!

This thing is dying a death and you've got to do something more drastic than tell us at E3 that there a few totally predictable and expected first party AAA games coming as some point in the future, for the love of God!

I'd love to see a retro remake of Aliens vs. Predator.

To be fair, the only thing I think that game could benefit from is slightly more accurate shadow shapes on the characters/enemies, as opposed to always being basic circles, but that's just being picky.

The rest of the game still looks awesome and in fact far more visually appealing than most modern games imo.

I'm really not excited by the prospect of seeing the likes of The Wonderful 101 again or Wii U Fit.

I hope Nintendo has far more exciting stuff to show us than an update of a Wii fitness game and a obscure quirky third party game that I'm really not that interested in or excited by...

I'd take that slightly lower framerate, I'm assuming it doesn't affect the gameplay in any obvious adverse way, if it means we also lose the stupid waggle too, any day of the week.

The new name's not too bad.

I possibly would have told Ubisoft to f*ck off in the first place but this is a decent compromise I guess.

I personally might have called it Super Uber Land ©.

I now officially reserve the right to use that name myself.

Nintendo is in such a dire state right now in terms of it's financial reports that it seems it's stooping to really desperate measures to try and eek money out of every little resource it can possibly find just to try and make it's financial reports at the end of the year look better.

I think it would be better off making products that more people are excited by and want to purchase than silly stuff like this that while it might make them a quick buck in the short term will also hurt them in terms of long term fan respect, satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately sales and profit imo.

Stop making half-*ssed updates to your most respected games and franchises, like the new Yoshi's Island game on 3DS for example that imo just looks half-hearted and like it was quickly churned out by a C-Team that's just discovered the Photoshop watercolor filter, and instead make games that are worthy of the Nintendo legacy and will in turn get the universal praise and the high sales you want to help increase your end of year financial reports.

Just a thought.

This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMUHXPQ8g30

Vs.

This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QbpqC7Ku3o

It's not so much a sign of the times but a sign of Wii U imo.

It's completely baffling to me that given the situation I hadn't even heard of GungHo Online Entertainment until I read this article and yet I follow the industry on sites like IGN and Gamespot etc every single day.

I guess I must have seen articles on this Puzzle & Dragons game and the company but they just never caught my attention enough for me to bother reading them or something.

@sonicfan1373

Well all I know is this...

In it's time the SNES had:

The best graphics of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing.
The best sound of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing.
The best constructed and most advanced controller of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing.
The best and highest rated first part games of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing (using the average critic ratings as a measure).
The best and highest rated third party games of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing (using the average critic ratings as a measure).
The highest sales of it's time, if you consider the main consoles of that generation that everyone was covering and comparing.

Overall I think I'd feel comfortable in saying objectively it's certainly one of the best consoles ever made.

Some people may love other consoles more but I genuinely think that objectively speaking you can very convincingly argue that the SNES is probably the best console ever, all things being relative and equal, whereas at the same I genuinely think you couldn't very convincingly argue that of the likes of the 3DS or the Wii for example.

I mean those consoles fall short in so many of those objective ways of measuring the likes of success and quality etc beyond just subjective opinions.

@Sun

Yeah, it's a bit disappointing Nintendo didn't give it a higher resolution in the first place, as well as include a second analog stick and also address a few other little niggles.

A couple of little improvements to the basic design in the first place and I just feel it would have been a much more satisfying handheld overall.

I mean just imagine a 3DS at launch with a slightly higher-res screen, a second analog stick, a better 3D viewing angle (although this one is more difficult to just address if the tech doesn't really exist), a slightly better battery life, a couple more AAA first party games and a more reasonable price...

Now that truly could have been something very special indeed and maybe even lived up to the all-round greatness and satisfaction of the awesome SNES imo.

I also definitely think it would have been a bit more successful around launch too if they'd avoided those little design niggles right out the gate, as well as having a couple more truly compelling games obviously, since people would just have a couple less reasons to skip it.

That's the issue I have with most of Nintendo's modern consoles; they're so close to being great but there's always one thing or another that just doesn't quite hit the mark and it's frustrating because often those issues seem extremely obvious to me so I don't get why they didn't just address them in the first place.

Man, I miss the simpler times of the SNES...

@Sun

Well it's just how I honestly feel about it.

I genuinely like the idea of the system but in practice it never feels quite as satisfying as I'd like because of that restricting 3D view angle that half the time just goes out of sync for me during play.

If I just turned that feature off and played it like any other handheld I'm sure I'd have a lot of fun just as it is, there's certainly a good selection of great games now, but I just can't ignore the fact that this really isn't how the system was/is supposed to be enjoyed in the first place.

To be brutally honest, given that I really don't think the 3D tech is quite good enough to serve it's purpose ideally, I often wish it just wasn't there at all and then I'd never have to think about how it doesn't quite work as well as it should.

It's one of these really kinda silly but deep seeded conflicts I have with Nintendo products of late, that often have little niggling issues like this, and it's why I prefer the likes of SNES ultimately as an overall satisfying experience because even though it does far less when compared to modern consoles, what it does do it does pretty much entirely flawlessly and beautifully with nothing that detracts from the sheer fun I can have with it, and for me that is what gives me pure joy and satisfaction.

I guess the child in me just wants to play, carefree and full of joy, but the adult in me often can't see past these kinds of glaring issues and if they weren't there in the first place then both child and adult would surely be perfectly satisfied and happy.

Yeah, I have no idea how they concluded it's the best console ever since I haven't read the article but I personally disagree.

The big problem I have with the system is the utterly terrible viewing angle of the 3D screen that actually ruins my enjoyment of most games as I'm constantly at war with the decision of whether the use the 3D or not.

I end up constantly switching back and forth between the two options, never quite happy with either.

If I use the 3D I know I'm going to struggle with seeing it consistently because the slightest movement loses it for me and if I don't use it I'm missing out on one of the main features [gimmicks] of the system and without the 3D it just becomes another slightly under-powered handheld with a pretty decent games library imo.

That certainly doesn't qualify it as the best console ever imo.

I'm sorry but I just couldn't give the award of best system ever to a console with such a glaring issue in it's design.

Nope, I'm personally still going with the SNES as the best console ever, or certainly the most fully all-round satisfying console ever.

Very much looking forward to this game.

With most of the main guys from Silicon Knights having basically transferred over to Precursor Games and them making a "spiritual successor" to Eternal Darkness, even going so far as to buy some Eternal Darkness 2 assets from Silicon Knights directly, it seems pretty obvious that basically Silicon Knights is just taking a wee sidestep to get out from under all the crap that's now plaguing that company and re-establishing itself as Precursor Games.

I'm pretty sure there's some legal basis and benefits to doing it this way rather than trying to salvage what is left of Silicon Knights, or indeed dealing with all the crap and legal shenanigans that are still attached to Silicon Knights, while trying to make a new game.

I'm not really bothered by that to be honest and I can kinda see how it's certainly one way to get out of their current pickle and start afresh while basically still being the same company at heart.

I don't think it's something we need to worry about as gamers interested in their new game or how they are going to deal with us as customers etc.

I hope they get the funding the need for Shadow of the Eternals and I hope the game delivers because I really do want to play that game.

So, as long as they are definitely being totally genuine and straight up with us, good luck to them I say.

Looks cool.

Well it's good to know the episodes are cheap, cheaper than most VC games ironically enough (and some people actually believe the VC games are reasonably priced), but I'd go for the bundle rather than each individual episode. It's just a pity I'd have to wait for every episode to come out first before I could actually do that.

Yeah, go ahead and joke about, Nintendo...

As long as you're getting it frikin fixed!!!

Well at least it's a profit.

Yes, EA owns the rights to Road Rash and this is not Road Rash. I can't see any real issue here.

@HeatBombastic

It is absolutely under powered for a next-gen system when compared to the next-gen competition, which is an indisputable fact at this point (it's basically current-gen tech going up against proper next-gen tech), and in terms of what developers and publishers are looking for in order to support it with their latest games.

The simple fact is that if the Wii U were up to power with the other next-gen consoles it would be seeing a lot more third party support right now and be getting the vast majority of the games on that list, as well as the proper next-gen games coming to the two other systems, that are currently passing it by.

Nintendo has created this problem with a few important decisions they made regarding the Wii U, regardless of their reasoning behind these decisions, and although in some ways it's pretty much impossible to fix now I think they need to figure out some way to at least address it far more effectively than they are doing thus far.

Now, it not being powerful enough to run Frostbite 3 is a different argument and I'm sure that's a bit of bullcrap PR but the fact is that the machine is lacking significant third party support because it's simply not powerful enough to compete with the next-gen competition, and would struggle to run most of the proper next-gen games coming to those system in exactly the same way the Wii struggled to run most of the current-gen games that came to Xbox 360 and PS3, and additionally it simply hasn't sold enough units for developers and publishers to give a crap about putting either their current-gen or next-gen games on it regardless.

Half of those are decent choices and the others just seem like they were the first one's you remembered, ones that are popular, because some of them are really nothing special.

Cool.

Hey that actually looks pretty decent quality.

@-KwB-

No offense but..

A and B. Wrong - You clearly lack the technical understanding to know any better and you obviously lack the ability to creatively problem solve. There's a few ways this could be done and certainly done much better than it's being done right now.
C. Misguided - It's kinda bad business if you're always addressing problems after the fact, like trying to address dropping sales due to overpricing for example, as opposed to avoiding them in the first - You're clearly not very business minded.

And here's another example of the problem with your approach, Nintendo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ig7A-eaZA8

You think overall power isn't important, and maybe it isn't essential in making great games with brilliant gameplay, but it is clearly very important to many developers and publishers and as a result of not having that power the Wii U is quite simply not getting the third party support is soooo desperately needs.

It was a bad decision to make this thing under powered and lacking in a few critical ways and you really should have learnt that from the Wii.

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Tiny selection of games, that are going to continue to trickle out over an extremely extended period of time. NES games where the colors all look dull and lack the vibrancy of the original games. Prices that are far too expensive for what these games are; digital copies of 20-30 year old games that have already made back their development costs for the developers multiple times over...

It's all great ideas, Nintendo, but executed badly in many ways and it's certainly not up to the exceptionally high Nintendo quality of execution and delivery I remember from the company as a child.

It's just not good enough.

Edit: Also, why didn't Nintendo just integrate all the Wii VC stuff directly into the Wii U eShop, in fact all Wii stuff should be integrated directly into the Wii U Mode, so we could have one nice clean simple system, without having to go into Wii Mode or use the Wii Shop Channel to buy and play games for that system. Or so we could use the Wii U GamePad on our older Wii VC games etc. It's all just a bit of a half-*ssed convoluted mess imo to be honest.

Some great images there

Thank God this game got a 10.

I immediately scrolled down the review just to check, scared that it might only get a 9 or something.

Out of all the games out there this game most definitely deserves a 10.

For what it is, it's about as good as it gets.

Of course they have more titles in the pipeline.

All these companies that released their games on the Wii VC will more than likely release all the same games on the Wii U VC.

I just wish they'd release them now rather than trickling them on one or two titles at a time over the next few years.

@softserve
Makes sense.

The devs really need to put the helmet back on the main character at some point. He just looks much better with the helmet.

I'm guessing they think showing his head will make him more appealing to a broader audience but I don't think it's quite going to work out like that because the design of the main character is just not that universally visually appealing anyway, that the casuals and mums will be drawn to him, so I'd suggest you at least appeal to the slightly more discerning gamers instead with his original and superior look that's more in-fitting with the rest of the game design.

That way at least you please those people who are actually likely to buy your game in the first place.

Just my personal take on it.

I think that's very sad.

I really do think a new Mother/Earthbound game could be great.

Off topic but I wish they'd make a Zelda game that actually looked exactly like that art at the top of the article. Now that would look awesome.

Here's an actual gameplay video.

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/s29tjg/angry-video-game-nerd-adventures-gameplay-trailer

This has the potential to be pretty cool

These should have been free throwaway demos that came with the machine to show of one of it's unique features, that most people would waste a few minutes on and then never touch again, but charging for them is just a piss take imo.

@hydeks
Actually, it looks like she's covering her "boingy bits" with some kind of clip board that she's holding while looking a little embarrassed and/or defensive about something.

Which probably still matches better to someone focusing on and talking about her "boingy bits" than her hair being shiny.

I really think these Phoenix games are of a rare breed that have captured the cel-shaded look almost perfectly.

The 3D cel-shaded graphics are so close to the classic 2D artwork.

Very few "cel-shaded" games actually get the look right but these games really have nailed it.

Lovely stuff.

@SirQuincealot
Well that's really the concern of the publishers/developers, to figure out how to get their old games noticed and played in a way that makes sense for everyone, and not the consumers.

I think as a consumer I'd rather have access to as much of the back catalog as possible and be able to pick and choose what games I want to play from the full library and when I want to play them.

The eShop is for new games to get their chance in the spotlight but these are just old games that everyone's seen and played before anyway and I think most people would really just want to get access to them now so they can download and play the games they loved from their childhoods on their new Wii U console.

Making gamers wait a couple of years for some NES/SNES/Whatever game they enjoyed as a child is more frustrating and imo detrimental than just giving us all access to the full VC library right now.

If I had access to all those games right now, and at cheaper prices (they are currently too expensive for what they are imo; which is digital copies of 20-30 year old games that have already made their money back ten-fold), I might actually consider buying a Wii U.

As it stands, Nintendo isn't sniffing my money.

So I ask you; Which sounds like the smarter business decision to you?