Skyrim on the 360 and finishing Persona 3 Portable. If I get that finished I'll hopefully make a start on Luigi's Mansion 2.

I don't get why people are so quick to judge this. It looks super. I think there should be a clear divide between handheld and console Zelda games - it'll help keep the series fresh.

@Beta

I have the Dark World theme in my head now. Wonderful music!

I never got deoxys originally so this brings me one step closer to completely filling the national dex. And it's over wi-fi! I hate the events where you have to go to GAME.

That's spooky. I was just looking at trailers for this last night and thought to myself "this'll never be released here". Looking forward to the autumn release. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait for Shin Megami Tensei IV, either.

@JogurtTheYogurt

Seconded!

GAME's prices are not at all competitive and they are routinely undercut by other online retailers. I also much prefer buying physical copies (unless download is significantly cheaper), so for me, this is a definite no-go.

However, I do see this potentially being a good option for people who either don't buy online or don't like using credit card details on the eshop directly. Consumer choice is a good thing, but I can't help but think it's a slightly surreptitious way of pushing the eshop (and all its disadvantages for the consumer) versus physical.

There's a bigger problem though - Nintendo must introduce a unified accounts system!

I think it looks super. The paper mechanic could be particularly interesting and the 3D in the trailer looked lovely. I love the top-down Zeldas (especially Link's Awakening) and think a return to the style could be good for the series, especially on the handheld.

I was most pleased by the announcement of European releases for Bravely Default and Shin Megami Tensei IV. The 3DS needs more RPGs in these parts so it it's very good news indeed. All it needs now is Dragon Quest VII!

I already felt there would be a new Zelda on the 3DS this year given how long it has already been since OoT3D, but I am pleasantly surprised that they have returned back to the top-down gameplay style of A Link to the Past. It looks lovely and really pops in 3D. Going back to the series roots could produce a very "pure" Zelda experience.

All in all this will be a very busy year for the 3DS and it's great that it is getting so many must-have games.

I just watched the trailer on my 3DS and the 3D really pops. It could end up being a very impressive showcase for the 3D capabilities of the system.

Woo and hoo. Same for Shin Megami Tensei European release.

Ni No Kuni is easily one of my favourite games of the generation and is one of the best RPGs I've played in recent years.

As others have said, the PS3 version has the same story as the DS one, but with a large epilogue that adds some further story resolution, and a lot of gameplay extras, too. However, from videos I've seen on youtube the battle system is very different in the DS version. I would buy it to experience the game in a different way. The touch screen would also make casting spells more involved.

I hadn't heard of this til now but shall certainly check it out. It looks awesome!

The strong yen has been the single biggest challenge for Japanese companies that rely on foreign sales for much of their revenue. Nintendo themselves highlighted it as a key reason for their huge losses last year, and I reckon it is partly why the Wii U was priced so highly in Europe. Perhaps if the yen weakens further it will increase the chances of a price drop...

@GreenDream I thought Final Fantasy X was also quite clever in its damnation of organised religion.

Many games are quite "adult" in the themes they deal with, but what exactly is "adult"? In terms of narrative, games are different to other media in that they are not passive experiences. There are many ways to tell a story or set a scene but at the same time a game has to fulfil its core purpose of providing an engaging gameplay experience that has some sort of goal. I think Warren Spector's argument is far too generalised. He should embrace the nature of gaming!

On the wider discussion of "Games as art", I think they can absolutely be considered art. Not just in their aesthetic, but in the ideas they communicate (and how they communicate them) and in the emotional responses they have the potential to provoke.

People initially believed film could not be considered art. Or rock music. Now it's the same for video games and in the future it'll be the same for a new media.

I like Japanese games precisely because they're "Japanese". They're different to western style games and I think that's a good thing. If I want to play a western-style game I buy a game made by a western developer because most Japanese efforts to emulate western styles suck. They must stick to what they're good at! If not they risk alienating both people like me and, more importantly, their home market.

Well duh, they shouldn't have made it an online RPG. Dragon Quest itself is clearly still very popular in Japan given what the remake of DQ7 sold a few months ago...

Atlus really need a European publishing arm. The stupidly long wait for Persona 4 Arena and Devil Survivor Overclocked (complete with bugs!) and just about every other MegaTen game is infuriating. I'm hopeful this will be released here but am prepared for a 1-2 year delay. Region locking is the absolute devil!

Games don't need to cost $100million to make in order to be successful, yet it's this fallacy that is really hurting the industry. The practice of publishers and developers putting all of their eggs in one basket and making HUGE financial gambits is incredibly risky. The bigger the budget the more a game has to sell to break even and then more still to make a profit. And so we get games made by committee and creativity is stifled.

Does it have to be this way though? If a game like Dragon's Dogma can sell "just" 1 million copies (or thereabouts) but be considered enough of a success by CAPCOM to warrant talks of making a sequel, why can't other titles? Same goes for games like Demon's Souls. The budgets for those can't have been enormous! Then there are the incredibly niche JRPGs published in the west by the likes of Ghostlight. Sales are likely tiny by the standards of the AAA market but must still be high enough to keep these companies in business.

Then there are cheaper distribution methods like PSN, XBLA and now the eshop, which are perfect for companies to take more of a risk, particularly if they don't want to go up against blockbuster games in the physical retail market.

Nuts n Bolts wasn't a bad game at all. The biggest problem I had was with the floaty physics, which made some of the missions quite frustrating. The original Banjo-Kazooie is still one of my favourite games but I am happy to replay that and Tooie rather than desire a new entry.

Bioshock Infinite on the 360 and continuing with Persona 3 Portable. I also got back into Theatrhythm, getting the last few unlockable characters and S ranks on ultimate.

It's certainly positive that sales have increased but I wouldn't bring out the party poppers just yet. A 125% increase really doesn't tell us much when we don't know how many it sold the week before! The real challenge will be if it can not only maintain its current momentum but continually build on it.

I much prefer physical copies. I like having a nice box to go on my shelf with a manual and all the trimmings. It's something tangible that I own and will always own.

I've never purchased a downloadable retail game from the eshop on my 3DS. They are ridiculously overpriced and Nintendo's lack of proper unified accounts is extremely offputting and, in the event of hardware failure, anti-consumer. That alone would prevent me from ever buying a downloadable retail game from them.

I have downloaded full retail games on my psp and ps3 before because the prices have been extremely attractive. Persona 1 was £3.99, as were Final Fantasy I and II. In the case of Persona, a physical release was never available in the UK, and in the case of the latter two, it was difficult to get hold of versions with the original packaging at a reasonable price.

I'm getting towards the end of Ni No Kuni. I'm just farming alchemy ingredients to make me some super armour. I don't want it to end but at the same time I'm eager to finish it before Bioshock Infinite arrives. I'll probably end up playing both.

On the handheld front I'm replaying Persona 3 Portable, this time as the female character to experience the new content. Not as good as Persona 4, but that is hardly a criticism because this is still grand.

Nintendo must be quicker to adapt to the challenges of game development on an HD console - specifically team sizes and just how much extra work is involved. Not to mention other areas such as online. The other platform holders and third party developers have had the best part of 7 years to change and adapt and streamline (or go under in the case of THQ and many others) and Nintendo now find themselves in the precarious situation of playing "catch-up". They've been too slow announcing games and too slow at getting games, such as Pikmin 3, released. This is Wii U's big challenge. It seems that Nintendo is starting to face up to this challenge, as they've already publicly stated that they have started collaborating more and increasing team sizes to get their games out there, but I do get the impression that they were caught a bit unawares. Could the tremendous software push they've given the 3DS be partly to blame for this?

I haven't read reviews before buying or considering buying a game in a very long time (perhaps 4 years). They're opinions, and sometimes will not correlate with my own. Reviews are subjective and it bothers me when it is argued they're held to some sort of objective test. They're not. It's impossible - we're all human, afterall. A further part of it is not wanting a review to influence my own opinion of a game before I've even played it, and not wanting to spoil a game I've been looking forward to. In the past, whole segments of games have been ruined by trailers and previews and the relentless hype train.

When deciding on a game purchase I'll ask myself "is it a genre I like? What have I thought of previous games in the series? What are the developers previous games like?" I'll ask my friends what they think of a game. When exploring new games that I'm not sure about, I may watch gameplay videos or play demos. I haven't bought a game I haven't enjoyed since not reading reviews. I've also played a lot of games that I've loved and gone on to discover have received "dreaded 7's" from the gaming press.

I really, really enjoyed this game. When I first started university I was hooked on it, with me and my GBA huddled under my desk lamp so I could see what I was doing.

I remember visiting my Grandma's house and playing Sonic for the first time on my uncle's Mega Drive. It seemed wonderful and strange and new and I'd never seen anything like it before. When we got home my Dad surprised me by producing a Mega Drive - my uncle had been kind enough to give me his Mega Drive and games. I spent the next few years playing practically nothing but Sonic until my Mega Drive met an untimely demise. Super, iconic console.

I'm away from home at the moment but shall continue with Ni No Kuni and God of War HD when I return. Ni No Kuni is super, one of my favourite games of the generation.

Currently playing Final Fantasy II on the PSP and replaying Super Mario 3D Land. Final Fantasy II has a rather good levelling system (you only level up the skills and attributes you use) and the music's lovely. It's got me in the mood for playing more Theatrhythm. It looks really nice and crisp on the PSP's beautiful screen, too. The base gameplay seems quite forward thinking for a game that is almost 25 years old.

I never owned a SNES but have since played many of its games either through emulation on the Wii Virtual Console or ports/remakes on systems such as the GBA or DS. It may have been 20 or so years since they were originally made, but they don't feel like they've aged at all. I think that pixel art has a timeless quality and the sound capabilities of the system were rather awesome for the time, too. Based on what I've played the SNES must have had an amazing library and surely represents one of gaming's golden ages.

Two of my all-time favourite games, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, were never originally released in Europe, buy we've been lucky to get them since.

Microtransactions are annoying, but at the moment I can happily ignore them. I didn't buy Oblivion Horse Armour or Mass Effect 2 weapon packs. I have no intention of purchasing the ridiculous item or experience point packs for Tales of Vesperia. However some people MUST be buying them or publishers simply wouldn't bother selling them.

I said "at the moment" because in the future I can see important elements of games being held back unless a fee is paid - similar to how many FTP games do. For games that cost £40, this is unacceptable. There are already games that close off entire modes unless you have an Xbox Live subscription (Halo 4's Spartan Ops, which is entirely playable alone!), so I can fully see this going a step further.

I was very impressed by what Sony showed. The specs are great and they seem very focused with a clear vision. They've certainly upped their game compared to the PS3's troubled launch and will go into the next-gen fighting. I'm very interested in what their first party studios will do with the console given their excellent work on the PS3.

As for Nintendo, they need to bring their A game and improve their marketing (both very achievable), but I suspect the real challenge will be securing third party support in the long-term. Will their year-long head start have been wasted? E3 should be very interesting. It's an exciting time to be a gamer as good competition has a habit of forcing the best out of rival companies...

As pleased a I am that there will be a new game in the Mario and Luigi series, Nintendo is relying on Mario games far too heavily. All of the games mentioned in the article are not only Mario spin-offs, but sequels to existing games. They need fresh blood!

Story doesn't need to be a focus in many games, but in others, it is important. RPGs immediately spring to mind, but there are shooters, performers, action games and even puzzle games where story is an important component of the overall experience and one that improves them. Good stories can help create immersion and allow the player to emotionally invest in the game world.

There are many ways to tell a story in games. Straight up plot and narative - which is important as it helps to build structure. Art and music. Emergent gameplay. Even level design... Some games are very cinematic whilst others are more subtle in how they communicate their story.

I want to replay DQVIII this year, but might have trouble finding time between my unplayed pile and upcoming releases! It's one of the finest RPGs on the PS2. I'm particularly looking forward to the 3DS version of VII, especially because the original was never released in Europe. For that reason, I'm not fussed about the changes.

Fire Emblems have seen release in the west for a long time now. Perhaps it is being given higher prominence because the wider release schedule is relatively thin? As for the more niche games Nintendo has released over the past few years, like Inazuma Eleven or Solatorobo, they have said that it was so their older systems did not go unsupported in the absence of first-party developed games. I fully support and encourage this, but it does highlight that Nintendo games alone cannot support entire systems in perpetuity, and that they do not have the reasonable resources to simultaneously develop for multiple platforms. That said, they've been vocal about working to combat this by forming more partnerships with external companies.

Thinking about Japanese RPG's specifically, they are a popular genre in the west, but have never had a big presence on Nintendo home consoles (since the SNES, that is). I don't think the situation will radically change for the Wii U.
The handhelds have been particularly good to the genre with generally consistent levels of localisation, as have the Playstation consoles. Smaller publishers have been particularly willing to invest in titles that may be considered more niche, and bigger companies like Namco have stepped up their game, especially on the PS3. The genre is in good health, much more so than many people give it credit for. The real challenge for Nintendo is whether or not the genre can find a large enough audience on the Wii U, and for that they need wider support.

I'd love to see a new Baten Kaitos.

On another note, why do so many people think they are a third party developer?

Nintendo's approach is utterly antiquated. As others have said, by tying purchases to a single piece of hardware, they can compel repurchase of the same games every time a new console/handheld is released. I bought Final Fantasy VII and Persona on my PSP. If I get a Vita I will be able to redownload them both free of charge. I can also redownload all my purchased PS1 classics on my PS3 free of charge.

Making the consumer jump through as many hoops as possible if their console breaks isn't a particularly persuasive defence, especially given consumer rights in the UK. Nintendo must at least match what their competitors are doing with regard to user accounts given the wider challenges they face in the console market.

Does anyone remember when Sony lost Final Fantasy XIII and Devil May Cry 4 exclusivity? How about when Nintendo delayed Twilight Princess for a whole year so it could be a Wii launch title? Seriously, people, it's still coming out for the Wii U. Yes it's disappointing that it's been delayed, but in the grand scheme of things the world goes on. For those boycotting it, I say this - you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Looking at all the anti-consumer nonsense videogame companies have pulled in the past few years (and the list is long), it is quite telling that relatively trivial things like this are what get the average gamer most up in arms.

In terms of visuals, Wind Waker is the Zelda game in least need of a remake. I played it again late last year and it's still beautiful - almost ten years later. I'd wager it'll still retain its charm a further ten years from now. I also think the new art style is a tad unnecessary, and, based on the few screens released, less visually appealing than the original's cel-shaded look.

In terms of gameplay there are refinements to be made and like others, I'm hoping for an extra dungeon or two placed where they intended in the original release, but I don't think this will be the case.

The download only route isn't ideal but at least it gives gamers the opportunity to play titles that otherwise wouldn't be released. I've noticed this with a few titles on the PSN such as Persona 1 on the PSP (which got a retail release in NA) and Tokyo Jungle on the PS3, and it's recently happened with the 3DS, too.

Many of the best Japanese games are now released primarily on handhelds. In the past if something I really wanted wasn't released in Europe (but was in NA) I could always take solice in the fact that I could buy an American copy from an import site and it would play on my DS or PSP without issue.

The 3DS, alas, is region locked. See where I'm going with this...

Oh, and Atlus really need a European publishing arm.

Currently playing The Last Story, which I feel has some good ideas but also some issues. Jack Ryder as Zael? cringes

Also playing Halo Anniversary, which I am rather enjoying. I like that it doesn't focus on setpieces at the expense of everything else (a trap a lot of modern FPS games fall into).

Finally, my handheld game of the moment its Final Fantasy VIII on the PSP. I really like the customisation the Junction system allows.

I thought this would be the case after sering the screenshots. I agree with the above poster that it will make liquid metal slime grinding easier like in DQ IX! I actually like random encounters but both are fine.

I'm a huge DQ fan so really hope this gets a European release.

I like the PS2 controller!

The Wii's classic controller pro was excellent and so comfortable to hold so I don't know why they changed the button placement for the wii u pro controller.

I haven't played this (it's not out in Europe til next week I think) but as a big fan of RPGs - and "The Thousand Year Door" - the lack of these elements has really put me off the title.

To what Reggie says, surely it's how developers take advantage of those things and the quality of the games themselves. I'd say there's a compelling argument for both viewpoints, especially given the quality of the games seen on the 360 and PS3.

Nintendo have had problems getting support from third party developers since the N64 (though the Gamecube did fairly well with multiplats and some Japanese exclusives) and honestly, I don't think this is something that will change with the Wii U. Perhaps the problem for Nintendo is that a large proportion of the "core gamers" they hope to target - especially those who wouldn't buy a Nintendo console on the basis of its first party offerings alone - arguably already own competing HD consoles. Therefore ports of existing and even upcoming titles may not necessarily be enough on their own.

It's very early days for the system but what it really needs is third party exclusives to truly set it apart. From the developers' perspective the established consoles are a known quantity with a huge addressible markets, and so spending money on Wii U development may be perceived as risky.

We'll just have to see how things pan out...

@Kujo1597

I'm currently playing through Persona 4 on the PS2 (about 70 hours in). Awesome game. Very, very good localisation and super JRPG-cum-social sim gameplay. I think I prefer it to P3P.

Also playing Pokemon White 2, which seems to be taking me forever. As soon as I'm done with that I might give OoT 3D a quick runthrough before playing Final Fantasy VIII on my PSP.

It's not that Nintendo drop support for their consoles when a successor is released (although this hasn't been the case with the DS), as development obviously has to prioritise the new console - it's that they seem to do it very prematurely. Outside of Zelda and the JRPG trio, the Wii lacked a consistent release schedule in 2011/12 and it felt like it was limping along while the world waited for the Wii U. It was the same with the N64 and the Gamecube. With the latter, it was almost painful.

I appreciated how well Sony supported their systems after their successors had been released. It was great to still get big PS2 titles released in 2007 and even excellent 3rd party games as late as 2009 in Europe (such as Persona 4).

Yes, one could get an external hdd, but this understates just how much of a problem the absence of sufficient internal storage truly is, particularly if nintendo are serious about pushing the eshop. When I had a 20GB hdd for my 360, it was very quickly filled by various live arcade games and dlc. So I upgraded to a 120GB hdd, which again was almost filled. I have never downloaded full retail games. These days it is not uncommon for xbla games to be upwards of 1GB in size, and the same goes for dlc, too. I notice that there is a lot of excitement surrounding potential Gamecube games on the Wii U's virtual console, and with GC titles being up to 1.5GBs in size, this could cause problems for those without external hard drives.

I can see why Nintendo chose not include higher storage - SSDs are expensive and hard drives, though cheaper, are physically larger and require more power, which given the wii u's small form factor are out of the question.