Nintendo is not a Japanese tabloid, geeze. How does this affect anything?

Can we please end the doom & gloom predictions now? The only company bringing "doom and gloom" is Microjunk.

I already had Super Star and Dream Land 3 on Wii VC, so Dream Course was a bonus. I don't particularly give two flips about a golf game, and Kirby's Avalanche would have been more interesting IMO, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth. $3 for 3 titles ain't half bad! Hopefully Nintendo can keep up 3+ VC titles per week like the glory days of Wii VC. As an added bonus, when you hit that boss you just can't beat, save states are your friend.

Just one question: will N64 titles ever see the light of day?

@TwilightV Thanks TwilightV. Getting Trololol'ed is so much classier than a Rick Roll. I love that whimsical video.

"Which of the "next-gen" systems do you plan to own? (493 votes)"
You forgot about Ouya. I certainly hope that the "little console that could" doesn't get orphaned before it even comes to market.

FYI, at this point in the PS3 lifespan, PS2 was outselling it.

WTF, they're still selling PS2s???

I get the impression this guy's gonna lose his job over these "tweets."

Earthboud + Shantea = a good year for Nintendo fans!

I certainly hope this comes to Shreveport, La because I'm not driving to Dallas or Baton Rouge just to play some demos.

Edit: I hope they also give an option to download demos on home consoles in case people don't have a participating Best Buy in their area. Best part about the program though is it will give people an opportunity to experience the games who don't already own a Wii-U. Nintendo desparately needs to ship more units and anything that increases public awareness is a good idea. Maybe some 3rd party devs will change their mind about Wii-U support, but at least there appears to be a good selection of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party titles coming out.

3D Mario, PLZ...

In real life, you miss a deadline and they foreclose on your house. In Animal Crossing, if you should decide to be a bum and just sit and stare at the daisies all day, there's no pressure.

Sorry, I think I'll stick to Police chases and arresting bad guys. Riding a Tyrannosaurs Rex through Lego City is far more awesome than a social or pet simulator!

I find it fascinating that when someone hacks, emulates or creates homebrew game for a vintage gaming console, they are congratulated by the community, but when they do something of a similar nature for a modern console, they are completely shunned by the same gaming community. And add the point that modern consoles are a lot more difficult to hack and develop for than the old 8-bit throwbacks.

This just in: Motiva goes bankrupt paying lawyers fees.

LOL. My PC rig uses an octo-core AMD processor, stock clocked at 3.6Ghz, turbo up to 4.2Ghz. Performance was limited to keep the prcessor within it's thermal design limit, but in fact all 8 CPUs can and will run stable at 4.2Ghz. I set the default clock rate to 4.2Ghz, disabled turbo-clocking and APM, and boom, I get a 4.2Ghz machine that can run stable at max load on all cores at 4.2Ghz. It pulled around 90 watts idling; 300 watts under the stress test, meaning my 125W processor was exceeding 210 watts, but that doesn't matter because I have a big-arse heat sink on it. Also I've got thermally controlled fans so it's whisper quiet on idle but sounds like the Indy-500 when the CPU is maxed out. However, there's no giant heat sink on the Wii-U processor, so overclocking it would likely create an overheating situation similar to the heat problem that caused the early RROD deaths on most of the model 1 Xbox360s. Thanks but no thanks, if an overclocked processor leads to eventual failure of the console. And yeah, unless they somehow figure out some way to attach a 3x3 inch heatsink brick to the Wii-U (which would likely involve cutting a rectangular hole on top of the console to make room for the massive heat-sink), I'm calling BS on the 3.24 Ghz figure. Greater than 2x speed on any stock-clocked processor is likely BS in my book.

The Wii-U may have been slightly under-clocked to maintain a certain thermal design rating, but exceeding the thermal design limit without a sufficient cooling system is a nono. That's why all mobile tech (DS, ipad, etc) are inherently underclocked. MS and Sony may have pulled this OC'ing crap (which is why the launch models of the PS3/360 both had heat issues which were not resolved until fab tech gave them a smaller die process which allowed the production of low-power "slim" models), but Nintendo knows better than to sacrifice performance for durability.

@Spooky You bring up a valid point. Excluding the paintings (their really just warps to other worlds), I believe the internal dimensions of Peach's castle are a bit larger that the external dimensions, however the contents are a bigger issue. No bedrooms or kictchens; where do I eat or sleep? All these giant rooms that lead nowhere? Hardly a hospitable place by that logic. If I was going to live in Peach'es Castle, I'd prefer the one in Paper Mario or even the isometric universe of Super Mario RPG. But the Paper Mario one is even less realistic in that you have some very long hallway that couldn't realistically fit inside of the building.

Sony fanboys, ready!
Nintendo fanboys, ready!
Round 2, FIGHT!

Hmmm, a lot of NL users just came out of the closet? As a strait man, I can honestly say that I never "chose" to like girls. In fact I didn't get the whole girl/boy thing until this cute little redhead winked at me in my 6th grade math class. I winked back at her. Then it dawned on me, "Oh, I get it now. I like girls." Never mind 3 months later she broke my heart but that didn't stop me from liking other girls in the future, maybe because I'm just "wired" that way... But what if it had been different? I had a college ex-roommate who was openly gay. His experience growing up was opposite that of mine, and it led to years of turmoil and confusion. He gave me a lot of insight on the whole "nature vs choice" argument. As a result, I now also support equal rights for all gender preferences on the basis that allowing homosexuals to "be happy" will have zero to nil impact on the majority of strait couples or families. Not to mention, if gay couples are allowed to marry and adopt children, then a girl or boy raised by two loving moms or two loving dads will have a much better shot at a normal childhood, especially since that's one less child forced to grow up in the foster care system.

Back to the topic at hand, I believe Nintendo of Japan will make gay marriage a feature for both genders, and the US release (if we ever get it, which isn't likely) will revert to heterosexuals only. As a family friendly game company, Nintendo of America is not going to risk a potential boycott or media backlash: Anyone remember the Disney boycotts in the 90s? Nintendo of America is nowhere near as powerful as Disney, so a boycott of similar magnitude could kill them as a company. But I could totally see EA going full steam ahead by releasing a GLBT expansion pack for their Sims franchise.

So, why can't two women have a little "snookie"?

I know Japan is a little wierd (remember, Vivian from Paper Mario TTYD was originally supposed to be a transvestite), but giving men the option but not women is just sexist.

@Fusion14 I would happily buy all the Virtual Boy titles available if Nintendo released them on 3DS Virtual Console, but I'm most interested in WarioLand. Problem is, Nintendo seems to act like Virtual Boy never existed. If they put VB titles on 3DS VC, they will have to acknowledge Virtual Boy's existance first. Despite being a product failure, it was quite innovative for it's time and not really something for a corporation to be embarrased about 18+ years later.

Gaahhh! Enough with the Doom and Gllom predictions. They go through the same BS every time Nintendo releases a new console.

The Big N drops the show for the first time. WTF Nintendo?

Please note that Super Mario Kart was one of the very few SNES games that was specifically recalibrate for 50Hz PAL. It will run faster than the NTSC version playing on an NTSC system.

@Wilford111: Only the RetroDuo Portable V1 is blendable

Parents, parents, parents...

I was at my local Game-X-Change the other day and some woman was in there with three young boys. She was picking up some stack of cheap secondhand Xbox titles, and the clerk advised her that they were M rated games and might not be appropriate for children under 17. She replied, "They're alright," and proceeded to purchase the games anyway. Blatant disregard for the ratings bordering on ignorance. And I see the same situation when going to rated R movies and seeing parents bringing in their little ones to watch it with them instead of hiring a baby sitter. I remembered going to Blockbuster with my friends to rent some VHS movies when I was a kid, and my mom sternly told us, "No Rs." And I never had a Nintendo as a child growing up despite everyone I knew had one. But parents these days just blatantly buy sh** for their kids without thinking twice. I think they use the TV / Video Games as a cheap babysitter to shut their kids up.

Come on, release this in the US already, geeze...

I picked up Animal crossing on the Game Cube platform, and honestly I couldn't really get into it. It seemed like you just go around "do-gooding" by doing chores for people in exchange for modest upgrades and items. You've also got to pay off your house. Also if you didn't have friends to trade data with, you got stuck with the characters you started with in your town. I actually got more replay value out of it by unlocking several NES games using Action Replay codes, including the coveted Wario's Woods item. Sadly, Nintendo did away with retro game bonus content on Wii, or offered timed VC demos like in Smash Brothers Brawl. The changing seasons were a nice touch though. I finally bricked up my game file by planting a wall of cherry trees around my house and buried the hatchet in the junk yard. I came back six months later to an inpenetrable forest, making it impossible to get to Tom Nook's to buy a new hatchet. Pretty silly way to break the game! I ended up selling it a short time later...

Donkey Kong is great. DK junior is good. I recently downloaded DK Jr for the first time yesterday. I also got it as an Ambassador game as well.

The ratings for many of the early NES games, including black box launch titles, arcade ports, etc tends to be on the low side for no good reason.

Conker's Bad Fur Day still made the cut though. I'm still amazed Nintendo let that game squeak by given it's track record.

@mario-gek Right, I should have bought two copies and gotten the second one VGA graded. Then I could hawk it on the Internet for major dough in 20 years!

Show me a tablet with "A"/"B" buttons and a D-pad, and I'll tell you to

"SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

So far, Apple does not get it. As for Wii-U and 3DS xL, cha-ching!

This is no different from back in the day when Atari titles often had fake screenshots that looked nothing like the actual game-play. Pacman, ET, anyone?

I can't wait to see AVGN slam his own game. It will be a riot!!!

I have an 8Gb. My original 3DS upgraded from 2Gb to 8Gb, then I tranfered all my software over to 3DSxL and kept the 8Gb card. I only use eShop for VC, indie games, and download exclusives. Most of these d/l games are much smaller than retail titles btw.

I also stopped buying DSi-ware when my old DSi got filled up, and 3DS only marginally increases this storage area. I transfered most of the titles I wanted to my original 3DS (Shantea is awesome btw). Sadly, a lot of DSiware is shovelware anyway, but I digress. Haven't bought any DSiware in a while...

Lego City is basically a giant GTA clone. FYI, if GTA-V uses the gamepad in a similar fashion, I just might break my usual mold and buy it.

But comic mishief is soooo awesome - many E rated games and virtually all E10s have this descriptor - where's the humour in playing a game if we can't have our comic mischief?

And murder is still murder, whether it's stomping goombas or gunning down zombies, right?

Wait a minute... I'll keep my Overalls for stomping Goombas and kicking Koopas; they can have their zombies, tanks, and machine guns!

They will have no trouble getting funded. Looks to be a pretty solid Megaman clone. Unfortunately, I suck at Megaman style games. They're just tough as nails. I wish people would make a good Mario clone though, not like there's already a ton of retro platformers to choose from.

Spelunker, again - Why? Maybe the game will be a lot mor playable this time thanks to save states...

I'm lucky to get all the keys on the last stage, let alone beat it X times in a row and trump somebody's top score. I seriously need to play some more DK Jr. It's been a while. Sadly, I'm only familiar with the NES version. DK Classics, all the way... That, and my awesome DK complete Edition repro NES cart!

We all need more boing-boings in the video game world. Be glad that these games even got localized at all. Remember all those wonderful Japanese games that didn't make the cut during the NES/SNES era?

Of course you've got to realize, these stages were specially set up, most with one-stock matches. It's not unfathomable that something will lead to a CPU player's demise. Bad AI or not, this guy probably went OCD trying to set hundreds of scenarios to find the one that actually worked. Notice the randomness like how the players for CPU and Luigi keep changing. This is because different players have different starting points, and typically a high perch is more advantageous for a player who does nothing.

I've set up coin farming scenarios in Super Smash Bros Brawl to earn experience points and music tracks. Basically I set up a two player match with conditional items set to always punching bags (because these always drop the most loot) and a conveyor belt that pulls the objects into player 1 (Bowser). Then I had a turbo game cube controller with the A button set to turbo and held down by a rubber band, and Bowser just breaths fire and slashes the whole time. Pikachu plays the runt as player 2, taking hit after hit until all 99 stock are depleted. I walked away for an hour or so until the match was over, and I earned a couple thousand coins and several dozen CD tracks for basically doing nothing. Rinse and repeat...

I remember drooling after eying a donkey Kong sports watch promotion on the back of a cereal box over dinner. Unfortunately, I was at a boot camp for teens, and despite my begging, my coordinator would not let me take the empty cereal boxes for the UPC codes. I'm 99.99% positive the codes went in the trash unredeemed.

@Windy: It is a good game, but the NES version sold very poory, as did a lot of third party NES games released during 1992-1993. This makes many games of the era quite valuable to collectors. I eventually re-bought the Famicom version of Bonk, which is identical to NES aside from the Japanese title screen, and costing a small fraction of the NES price.

Great console title shoehorned onto a portable. Sorry, it looks like I'll be sticking with the Wii-U version. I didn't buy any of the Lego games on DS, as they just don't feel right as a portable platform.

Balloon Fight, but only because I already got it in January. super Mario World is awesome tho!

I don't see how they're going to do a Mario Kart e3 debut when Nintendo already announced that they won't be in attandance

That said, "It's-a-go-time: VRROOOOOOM!"

This is good news. I traded my old Bonk's Adventure NES for a nice little GBC game. Guess what it was? Shannnn... Teaaaa...

Now if only I can get my hands on an Earthbound SNES cart.

I'm gonna miss the funtastic reveals. Oh well...

Test this code with every game you play

I also seem to recall a Simpsons episode in which Homer recites the Konami code while giving thanks at the dinner table, but the episode number has escaped me.

Microswitches are awesome btw. Now all we need is an extension to that thumbpad with a shiny black knob on top. I've built several arcade controllers for vintage systems (basically jumbo sized controllers modeled after the originals with real arcade parts). The clicky feel gives you a more tactile feedback than a mushy d-pad, so you can feel exactly when you make a connection under the button. Some people may not like it though; to each their own. Frankly, I'm more concerned about the ergonomic shape of the controller as those corners do not look comfortable, but looks can be deceiving.

@Fusion14 I was referring to the fact that Nintendo no longer supports these old systems, so they don't care what people do with vintage games. VC is an excellent service, and I have bought many titles twice, once on cartridge as well as digital download, to support the service.