back in '06 or so, when E3 was being canceled, it may not have been the right move. But I think E3 as an epic, yearly event now just isn't the right strategy. The appeal of e3 was always this niche of gaming, and in recent years, gaming is everywhere. And I think it's damaging to gaming, to have this cycle where developers need to devote resources towards creating something for right now. The downside is so much greater than the upside.

I think that was a good interview. The real problem here is that wiiware had promise in the beginning, and has had a number of strong games, but never really built on that, never tapped into the giant user base, has alienated a number of developers and has left Nintendo in a very, very deep disadvantage to it's competitors in the download space- be it apple, android, or psn/xbox live/steam.
Nintendo has not shown (to me) that they have learned from the majority of the mistakes they made with wiiware, and there are some huge question marks going forward that the other platforms have already resolved.

It's hard to stay positive that the Wii U will get strong weekly support of content when Nintendo's past and present suggest otherwise. Especially when sony and ms have weekly drops of drastically more content.

What I like about digital is sales always support the developer/ip owner. I might not be that interested or want to spend full price on a game, so if I wait to buy it on clearance or used, the developer gets nothing. But a sale on digital content, the creators get a piece of my payment.

Does this indicate that Wii U will also have a 2GB cap? That wouldn't be so reasonable.

During the barren rpg days, this came out along with Anvil of Dawn. I went with Anvil of Dawn, and was happy with that choice. But a part of me always wondered about Stonekeep. I was hoping this would be a great chance to play it, but the review puts me off.

The success is mixed bag. It sends a strong message that Nintendo doesn't need a robust lobby and matchmaking system that MS/Sony provides. It also was a blackhole of sorts, negating most other racing games on the wii. And (maybe it's personal taste), but without a ghost item from 64, too much was sacrificed on the altar of last minute wins and rubber band competitions. Still a good game, but frustrating.

I enjoyed fluidity immensely, except the high difficulty of the ending.
This is great that the coins can be used for games now.

not releasing xenoblades in the na market is insane, just a huge warning sign for nintendo's direction with the wii u

This was such a great game, it's a shame the wii audience won't experience it but at least steam and the psn are large platforms. The wii u cannot have an arbitrary cap for downloadable content, there were so many mistakes nintendo made that they need to avoid going forward.

I'm cautiously optimistic that Nintendo will be involved and co-develop another Eternal Darkness game.

Is there confirmation Anima (us) is an updated version of the previous release?

wasn't on my radar, going to get it now, thanks for the review

Yup, noa's abandonment of the wii in the face of great games continues to make me less like to want the wii u.

mario kart 64, I easily played a couple thousand hours of splitscreen. So much of that game is burnt into my permanent memory, from how to best make the wallcut jump on wario stadium to being able to sense the moment the game starts running fast.

skyrim goty of the year could be one of the greatest 3rd party launch titles for a nintendo system

The unfortunate thing about these statements is that time and money is a hurdle for all games to have decent, robust online components. Sony and MS have not spent years developing and supporting online gaming. If Nintendo does not get it's act together with online, be it purchasing content, sharing experiences or multiplayer gaming, it's going to be too late for whatever system they have after the 3ds.

Grabbed it, thanks for the review, as always.

The frill I want is when I purchase digital content on a nintendo platform, it is available on the other nintendo platforms I own. Tie content to my account instead of to my system.

will wait for the review, but most likely purchase. Not many great wiiware games on the horizon.

I wonder if gamecube bc support will still be there, much like dvd playback, and can be turned on via some future hack?

I'm holding off for the next version, hoping the battery life can get a decent improvement.

3d dot racer
no track building tho?

So is wiiware finished, or is there anything decent being developed?

I don't understand, this is exactly the type of game the wii needed, and the wii u claims to be bringing to the system. Maybe they need to throw the project on kickstarter.

sales must not have been there, hopefully 3ds/wi u shop will reach a greater percentage of system owners.

Are there any stong wiiware titles still in the pipes? Lost Winds 3, right? But are titlles winding down or completely spent?

The wii name was awful, but you get used to it. Xbox sounded pretty lame originally, and playstation also was clunky. The only hardware company that named their consoles decently was Sega. Not that it mattered much.

If the hardware simply cannot read gamecube games easily and consistently, then it is unfortunate, but understandable. If nintendo is deliberately locking out gamecube games, either to sell in the vc or some other notion, then they are wastefully burying some fantastic software that remains playable to new and old gamers.
Seeing as how the downloaded content on the wii will not be movable (and so I will keep my wii and it's gc bc), removing gamecube bc will not impact me directly, but it is a shame that many others will.

One of the nice things about the wiimote was battery life/efficiency. I know that isn't as in demand as other specs, but this controller is going to be an energy hog. I mean, it is impressive and it will be tough resisting wanting to use it all the time.

fluidity was a fantastic game on so many levels, (except for the final battle), partly because the controls work great
shame this game doesn't have the controls to meet the vision

Bad reviews hurt financially, and they also hurt emotionally. It's a natural reaction. But that internal email was a lapse of judgment. The next step is for HVS to contact Amazon and ask they pull the bogus negative reviews they posted.

Echoing the sentiments of others, if the 360 or ps3 sites expanded to at least include all downloadable titles, that would be more appealing (to me) to check out on a regular basis

agreed that 40mb is really impressive, picking this one up

Looking forward to the review, if they were able to squeeze the game into the wiiware fike size, that will be some pretty fancy work and a quick purchase on my part

echoing what everyone has said about online. Don't need to reinvent the wheel, just copy the best bits of steam, live and psn

The reviews for From the Abyss were poor, but I feel like if there hadn't been a cart release, and this was a dsiware (or cellphone game) it would have gotten a much stronger reception.
If it is broken up into two parts, so the whole game would be 400 points, it seems like a great dsiware game. But if it has 4 or more parts, considering the ds game is now really cheap, it isn't as strong a value.

definitely fits into a category the wii is sorely lacking. always have high hopes, even if many 3rd party games have been letdowns.

As a consumer, there are quite a few vc and wiiware titles that I would buy if they even had a 100 or 200 pt sale. I have bought 15+ wiiware titles, many of which are fantastic. But there is a 2nd tier of content that I had lesser interest in and have fallen completely off my radar. A sale or price drop, even if small, would renew my interest.

I found the playbalance perfect in 64 because of the ghost item. You can steal a blue shell/lightning, or protect yourself. It was a shame they got rid of that item, later games were the worse for its loss.

glad to see the continued demo support, they must be increasing interest. It would be fantastic if games also had a 100-200 point sale the week the demo came out

If it means going to a psn real world currency, great, fantastic, and hope the next console goes with that system.
In the unlikely event this is another monopoly money currency simply replacing nintendo points, this is a stupid, fanbase anger decision.
In either case, phasing out nintendo points may yield some decent discounts at retail.

Lit was a great game, too bad they don't also have weekly sales when a demo for an older game hits. Not that it is overpriced, just even a 100 point sale would be something.

echo the other sentiments, would love to see a sony/ms site that focuses on all download titles. There is a real void out there in n digital console content reviews.

How efficient are induction chargers? The convenience is great, but is a significant amount of energy lost in the transfer process?

glad robox has a demo, trying that one out

glad there was a demo for this, it made the sale for me (though this review helped)

I would love a Criterion level collection of all cart Mario games in a great package with extras that truly does the series justice. And once that is done, move on to Zelda, and Metroid and...so on.

Choice was probably dictated by sales, if tatsu had been a sales monster, mvc 3 would have made it over