I've played Don't Starve for a while until I couldn't keep up with all their content updates. It's a hard game and a cruel one. When you die you lose everything. It's basically Minecraft's early minutes of Hardcore Survival meets Tim Burton's fantasies, pretty crazy game. I really enjoy the style.

Problem with a 3DS ports are the controls. They are currently thinking about GamePad support, but I don't know how the game should work with a pad... right now it's played by mouse and WSAD, heavy clicking.

Zelda 3DS please!

@BossBattles
Animal Crossing might be a game that keeps you playing... but who actually plays this? I don't know anyone.

And what's up with the sarcasm? Of course you can play games more than once. I've played through Ocarina of Time countless times. But no one does that in an endless loop. Most Nintendo games have a clear end, where nothing is left to do except for replaying them. My point was about games that KEEP you playing. As in potentially never ending.

I have a Wii with all big Nintendo titles for it. The same with the 3DS (except for the new Luigi's Mansion, haven't picked that up yet). And I rarely use the two systems. There are phases where I play a specific game like Skyward Sword, but inevitably the Wii returns into the closet (so it doesn't literally collect dust). On the other hand I play my PC all the time, the same couple of games for years... I rarely get bored of it unlike my Nintendo systems, which become boring real fast.

Nintendo needs something that keeps their systems running and interesting.

@LDXD:
Oh, I didn't mean Nintendo doesn't have any timeless games. They sure have and I still enjoy their classics today, especially the old Zelda games. But you don't always play Zelda. A Zelda game is finished at some point. You may replay it after some time, but you don't always play Zelda.

Monster Hunter definitely has such an everlasting appeal, but it's not an exclusive Nintendo franchise, it's a Capcom game.

Well, to be honest, Nintendo doesn't make games with ever lasting appeal. SSBB was probably the Wii game, I spent the most time with. But even that faded out eventually. Games like Mario Galaxy oder Zelda Skyward Sword keep you busy for a while, but they have an end...

Nintendo needs something like Minecraft. Something you simply cannot stop playing. In that terms Epic is ahead of Nintendo. I still like to play Unreal Tournament today - 13 years after its release. I haven't played Gears of War, but I guess it has a similar appeal.

It was my first game in the series, I played it up and down. More so the SNES counterpart. But the later games in the series repelled me by being too complicated.

As a longtime fan of both Epic Games and Nintendo the whole situation really saddens me. Especially the stupid comments from some Nintendo fans, who probably never played Unreal Tournament or the like. Mark Rein can be a jerk, we all know that, but he's just saying the truth.

The Wii U is not next gen. The CPU is in fact much weaker than the ones on Xbox360 and PS3. It goes so far that some developers had problems porting their years old games to the Wii U. The GPU is more powerful, yes, but not suitable for the multicore technology the UE4 is aiming at... the UE4 is an entirely different beast. Wii U is best suited for UE3.

If you want to develop a game for Wii U, why should you want to use a downscaled UE4, when UE3 is much more suitable and cheaper? Rein has a point here. He would be a real jerk if he tried to sell the UE4 to developers who want to make Wii U games.

The engine might be downscalable to a point, where it runs on the Wii U... but will this change anything? Do you really expect many UE4 ports on the Wii U? As if all the UE3 ports changed anything... the Wii U is not a lucrative system as of now and some half-hearted UE4 ports won't change this. Only Nintendo can change this. With good Nintendo games. The Wii did fine without UE3 and the Wii U can do fine without UE4. This is entirely in Nintendo's hands. So don't blame Epic.

I had Harvest Moon on the GBC... and I wonder about the VC release. The original version had a weird sleep feature, where the game kept "running" even if the GameBoy is off or the gamepak is out. When you returned, you got certain stuff done. It would potentially kill your gamepak's battery, but it was required to get the upgrades for sickle and hoe. I guess this won't work on the 3DS, so will there be a way to get the upgraded tools from the dwarfs?

That Zelda will return to non-linearity was probably the best news that Nintendo could have given me. I was praying for years for this to happen.

Also, the Wind Waker remake looks pretty lovely.

I'm disappointed that I have to buy all VC games again. They badly need an account system that is shared with all Nintendo systems. If I buy a Zelda II on my 3DS, it should be available on my Wii and my Wii U as well. Simple as that.

Minecraft, as always. Just completed my legendary item collection in SSP (best possible enchanted items in all combinations).

Actually... I think this looks a lot better than the real deal. I prefer the slide pads for some reasons.

They could add some cameos like Kirby, but it should stay Mario Kart. And I can't imagine Zelda characters or Samus in karts, that would be ridiculous.

@Punky:
It's called "asymmetrical". And please don't just try to quote Nintendo and tell me what is so attractive about it? What makes the "asymmetrical multiplayer" stuff so good that I just have to buy the Wii U for it? Like the four-against-one games? You always have to make one person into an "outsider", who gets hunted and hated, which is the problem with the whole asymmetrical stuff. Or one player gets to have the main fun, while the others act as sidekicks... Who wants that? People tend to choose games, where every player is equal, because that's fair and simple.

Sorry, but I don't see it. I see why the Wii was very attractive for "casual gamers", but I don't see it in the Wii U. Nintendo just innovated for innovation's sake and now acts like it's as revolutionary as the Wii. But it's in many ways the entire opposite of what made the Wii successful.

Pachter is an a-hole and he didn't have a single clue about Nintendo in the last years, but his broken record might be accidently on the right track for the first time... however, I'm not worried that "Nintendo is doomed". If the Wii U fails, the next console is going to be utterly amazing. And that's what I'm waiting for.

@XCWarrior:
"Yeah, finally I can play Mario, while my stupid girlfriend watches her soap opera Grey's Anatomy crap. Let's buy Wii U!"

I don't know.... The Wii was about playing together, the Wii U is about doing different things in the same room. You think your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/whatever will be happy, when you pay the pad more attention than her? She wants to watch her favorite TV show together with you, if you just play Mario, you might as well leave the room and hang out at the PC. I don't think this is something people have been waiting for. It's nice for kids, when the parents want to watch something, but most kids already got a NDS or even 3DS, which (in the parents' eyes) serves the same purpose. No need to buy a 300 dollar system so the kids can play on their own device...

@misswliu81:
But Wii Fit U won't have any real advantages over the Wii version. The pad will just be in the way (you can't do sports with this thing in your hands) and the Wii version will be still "good enough". People will continue to buy and play the Wii, as long as it's "good enough". The GamePad doesn't have the same impact as the Wii controller.

Ah, come on... all he does is telling his investors what they want to hear. "Nintendo will fail, Nintendo is doomed, blah, blah", he's a broken record. And he probably doesn't care if he's right or not, as long as he gets the money to buy his 10th Porsche for saying that stuff. If someone pays you thousands and thousand of dollars just to hear you saying that Nintendo fails, you'd do that as well. Don't get me wrong, I like this guy as much as you do, but in the end he's the one with the millions.

And while he couldn't have been more wrong with the DS and Wii (this guy was a real joke at the times and still is), maybe he will be right with the Wii U. I mean who does buy a Wii U to play Call of Duty or Mass Effect or any other big PS/XBox/PC title? You usually buy Nintendo systems for the 1st party stuff, but they keep f*ckin up games like Zelda and lose more fans every day.

And it's completely lacking the Wii Sports / Wii Fit stuff, which made the Wii attractive for non-fans. The whole GamePad is the entire opposite of the nice and slick Wii controls, people just don't see the advantage of the new system. Because there's none. The Wii is still "good enough" for most people, I wouldn't wonder if the Wii Mini in Canada outsells the Wii U. And if Nintendo screws up games like Zelda (I fear Zelda U will look a lot like Battle Quest...), a lot of fans will skip on the system as well. The Wii U might be the next GameCube.

It's not something I want from a Nintendo console. At all. So, I wouldn't be unhappy if Germany isn't one of the "selected regions".

Nintendo's strength was once to make timeless games. That's what they should focus on again and not some features which become worthless after a few years...

Xonotic and Minecraft

Anyone can check how many blocks OoT3D consumes? Pretty please.

(I would check myself, but I don't have enough money on the eShop to get to the point where they actually tell me the block count... or is there another way to check this? I need this information for a small news article on a Zelda site.)

Ah, it's nice that the sparkling only goes away if you actually use the help power up. I remember that in previous Mario titles just having the guide appear makes the sparkling go away, whether you actually used the help or not. For someone who always wants the 100%, that was really annoying.

Actually I thought the GB version of Wario Land II was the more charming one. The coloring just didn't look right, I didn't like it. And there were no additional features unlike in Zelda LA DX to justify the GBC version in any other way.

I had 5000 stars last month... but Nintendo took 500+ of them away this month, I hate them so much right now...

I loved Soul Calibur 2... but I never played any other SC game since then. I didn't have any systems that runs them and yeah, Link was missing, who was my main fighter.

If this one gets Link as a cameo, it's an instant must buy! Otherwise I'll think about it.

I have a couple of questions about the System Transfer. I've recently bought the Zelda 3DS and I want to sell my "old" red 3DS. But before that I want to transfer EVERYTHING.

• Does it transfer DSiWare games and their progress? I don't want to lose my Four Swords AE savegame, I've beaten the Hero's Trial and got a lot of medals... Or do I have to use the DSi transfer tool first? Does that even work?
• Does it transfer Miis and all Miis collected in the Street Plaza? Because I've been to a Nintendo press event and I picked up a lot of Miis there.
• Does it transfer all of the Activity Log? (same question as 7ATalavera)
• Does it transfer my Play Coins?

I hate you, Nintendo!
I just bought a 3DS recently... and I waited all the time for a bundle exactly like this, which even got denied. There's no excuse that they didn't announce or release this earlier... They just screwed every Zelda fan, who already bought a 3DS.

Yeah, the Hero's Trial should be somewhere mentioned in this review. This is the hardest **** in any Zelda game yet! Even Zelda II is a walk in the park compared to this stage. It blows tons of enemies at you with the nastiest combinations (Ice Wizrobes and B+C Troopers, anyone?), it's cheap, it's cruel, it's never ending and it will kill you many, many times. I haven't even cleared all of the Hero's Trial yet, but I already need therapy. Zelda fans were asking for some challenge since years now and this one offers enough challenge for a life time.

We played this game a lot on the N64. Good times, great review.

@Thomas Whitehead:
"free download of Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition. [...]this isn’t a simple port of the GBA title, but rather an enhanced edition with additional levels, weapons and an all-new one player mode."

Errh, no new weapons. Singleplayer and new levels are true, but all the items and unlockable sword moves (which you get from the new levels) were already in the GBA version. The additional sword moves were originally unlocked in A Link to the Past. Now they are the reward for beating the new stages. I know that in the press release Nintendo made a big deal out of them, but they aren't new.

@legodavid15:
One Link per player. Only in singleplayer you control two at once.

@Mully: As someone, who has played through the entire original game, I can assure you, that I'm really looking forward to the singleplayer. Multiplayer can be fun, no question about that, however, it gets annoying that you're dependent on a 2nd player. With the singleplayer I will be able to play this game whenever I want and I don't have to rely on other people.

@Collinhall:
It's an enhanced port of the GBA Four Swords. It has nothing to do with FSA except for some features that were taken over.

@Mully:
The original game could be played with only two people, so no need for four systems. The singleplayer is based on the two-player mode, you control two Links at once. You can control them individually or swap into an "AI buddy"-mode, where the 2nd Link helps you out by performing certain actions automatically.

Online would be really annoying, you need to communicate all the time and some players would just screw you. Trust me, I played through the entire game with two friends and online is not something you want for this game. The singleplayer solves all problems, you can play every bit of this game whenever you want. No need to look for other players or to torture yourself with bad online play. It's perfect.

My favorites are Terranigma, Zelda A Link to the Past and Super Metroid.

@TeeJay:
doesn't work... I tried this with the original release and two GBAs... it's impossible to solve certain puzzles like pulling things from two different sides.

Very good article. The two games, that I want the most, are Zelda Master Quest and Terranigma. Master Quest on the GameCube was just an emulated N64 game, similar to Ocarina of Time on the same disc, so it would be indeed a candidate for the Virtual Console, though it was originally never released on the N64. And Terranigma is just awesome.

More third party N64 titles would be lovely, too.

Sequel or New Play Control?

I'm hoping both. I missed the game on GameCube and I would probably get the NPC version.

Well, there is a non-Collector's Edition. It's the version we got in Europe, which simply didn't come in a metal box.

No, just no. It was a failure, Nintendo, move on to better projects.

Natal.... ahahahahahaaaaahhhaaaahaaaahaaa, lol.

Natal's just hype. Even if it actually performs as well as in Microsoft's hype videos, it won't be suitable enough for good gaming. You need real feedback and buttons.

Of course the next Nintendo console will be HD. The question more or less is, when this console will arrive (probably not in the next two or three years, the Wii is still very healthy) and wether this will be a Wii successor or an entirely new idea.

I'm glad, I haven't gotten a DSi so far. It's also the first time, that Nintendo makes more than three models for one handheld generation, which is rather unexpected.

Seriously, I'm sick of preorder bonuses.

I'll stick with my copy of Metroid Prime Pinball.

Looks like I'm not going to update then. I don't have any modifications, but I can't risk my Wii glitching now while playing Metroid Prime Trilogy. ^^

I'm waiting for 4.3 or 5.0 or whatever when they hopefully solved this problem.

I love Terranigma, it's my very favorite Action RPG out there. However, I was skeptical about Soul Blazer, but after this review I'm going to check it out. I didn't like Illusion of Gaia too much, which is why I lost interest in going back even further.

OMG... Nintendo gives us something for FREE!!! Let's start complaining!!

Seriously, Nintendo could give everyone a copy of the Metroid Prime Trilogy for free, people would still complain.

It absolutely doesn't matter, if this channel is stupid or worthless or a waste of memory (omg, my 2GB SD card will suffer from that one, lol), it's for FREE, gorramn it. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

lol, do the people, who already downloaded it, get a refund? xD

Retro styled games on WiiWare/DSiWare always get me excited, I hope Nintendo does this theirselves one day.

I think fishing is exactly what the game would have needed. There aren't enough relaxing sport events next to the Island Flyover.

It looks great, but I'm disappointed. Why only Summer and Winter, what's wrong with Spring and Fall? Especially Fall would have looked great with the colored trees and all. * goes back playing Zelda Oracle of Seasons *

A patent doesn't mean, that they're using it as an actual product. They're probably patenting every crap idea, so they can sue or at least charge all those third parties, who are developing similar peripherals.

Well, at least it's nothing, that could be used in Zelda. Because the horseback thing gives me nightmares.

It deserves it. Awesome game.

Also, this is good news, because Nintendo will win confidence in MotionPlus and utilize it more in their future games (like Zelda Wii).