Pikmin 3 is Playable Next Weekend At GameStop or EB Games

Not to be a meaner or anything... Does anyone else think some of the environment textures look rather satisfactory?

@Chillama - Seeing as this is Nintendo's first big true HD title (in terms of scope & scale), I'm quite happy with the texture work. If this was like 3-4 years into the Wii U life cycle, I would have an issue but considering the depth of gameplay and massive amount of content for a "first generation" Wii U game, it's quite impressive. Keep in mind that Nintendo is just entering the HD development cycle so they have to learn the advantages of HD and how to utilize it to its fullest. I personally think this is why they are holding off on games such as a new Metroid or Mario Galaxy, those games are graphical showpieces so they want to make sure they have a good grasp on the tech first.

ooh a whole day, who gives a crap, if download versions arent going to be considerably cheaper or at the very least, come with lots of bonus content, then they need to be available weeks before the hard copy. thats the only way that i would pay the same price for the digital as the retail.

Can't wait to go to Gamestop and play it! Now i'm thinking about pre-ordering the digital version!

"No partipating stores within a 100 mile radius."

Figures. : /

@ouroborous Couldn't of put it better myself.

@Chillama The ground textures are what bother me. Everything else seems to look great like the flowers, but the hills and dirt i do agree.

@Chillama there is alot of earlier screenshots going around... I recommend checking out some of the higher fidelity videos.

It's originally a Wii game so we can expect some slightly low polygons... As far as the texture work, its actually fine but I'm disappointed in the lack of of anisotropic filtering. It's when you view a texture from the most common camera angle the textures look quite crisp but if the angle of the camera changes that texture stretches, giving it that ugly low resolution look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering

And http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_11.html Skip down to the anisotropic filtering section.

As you see in any of the Pikmin screenshots when the camera is zoomed in and at a different angle it blurs the ground textures. My guess is the Wii U probably chokes when this particular game attempts it... As we see with MK8 the system can handke anisotropic filtering quite well. I'll chalk it up to either the Pikmin 3 team doesn't know how to enable this effect or the Wii U struggles when this particular game attempts it.

Cool. I went to EB last night to preorder and the guys working there told me about this promotion.

@ouroborous the way I look at it is on release day Nintendo' servers will probably be bogged down, so I'm going to jump at the chance to download it when less people are downloading it.

I'm lucky enough to have one of the Wii U showcases right down the road (2 hours away) at Navy Pier in Chicago, so I'm going to head there on my birthday next weekend and check some games out and whatnot. I don't want to play too much Pikmin 3, if any. I know I'm getting that game and that it will be quality. I do want to check out The Wonderful 101 and some other titles though.

That "one day early" deal for pre-ordering the digital version isn't enough to coax me into it. I prefer physical copies. A $10 discount might make me think twice, it's alright... I'd probably still get the physical copy.

When I read EB Games in the title, I immediately got excited at the prospect of an Australian showcase. Nonetheless, we sorely miss out... again. I wish Nintendo of Australia wasn't such a regional office and actually did marketing or at the very least have a front man such as Reggie or Shibata. We miss out too much. I hear all about these roadshows, experience showcases and just sigh at it.

Next Sat. is my birthday, may have to stop by and play before going out. Last month was 5 years w/ Nintendo Life

Wont be getting digital, still hoping for a GC sale w/ game and WiiU, its why I've been waiting to purchase one.

TreonsRealm, you said it best. I think the same and Nintendo is holding off on those titles. They know that there alot of people just waiting for a new Metroid, Galaxy and I also want a new F-Zero, so I still think they will have these titles releasing on Wii U, just not right away. But when that day comes it's going to be sweet. I have said it before.......Come on Nintendo F-Zero GX or AX HD!!!

can't wait to see the purple and white pikmin. i hope they are not left only in the multiplayer game or locked underground. i always wished i could bring my lil army of bulbmin out to the surface

Already played it at the Wii U summer, tour, so awesome... I'm on vacation when this comes out but I'll be sure to pick it up right when I get back.

I'll never understand why they keep choosing the most podunk/ghetto locations for these events.. you'd think they would want the BUSIEST locations to showcase these games, to garner attention from the most eyes. I'm thinking that BestBuy/Gamestop/EB are just picking the least busy stores they have in hopes of drumming up much needed sales in those stores to keep them relevant, yet gamers are there to play games, not buy something they could simply purchase somewhere more convenient.

When I left the Glen Burnie, MD Best Buy event, the sales rep was asking each person, "would you like to pre-order any of these games?" to which I replied, "Uhh, no, I live in White Marsh."

WHY would they think somebody would pre-order something 30+ miles away when one could easily do the same thing MUCH closer to home?? -_-

I live in Canada and I have a GameStop and EBGames store locally, so we have both, and the stores are literally less than a mile away from each other, very weird, I know . Same company, same store, my edge card works at both, but for some reason, ones called GameStop and the others EBGames. Yet again, weird, I know ¬¬

@rjejr Happy early birthday friend! Mine is next Sunday July birthday's FTW!

Well happy birthday to both of you!

And once again, please have a demo available for the millions of persons who don't live in the US or Canada, and the ones without access to these stores. You have this thing called eShop where demos can be downloaded. I know they want to shift systems but early adopters could get a little taste at home too.

Sorry, I cannot hide how much I want to play this thing.

I went ahead and pre-ordered the physical copy today. Being able to play one day in advance is not enough of an incentive to purchase the download version. Maybe if the price were at least 5 or 10 bucks cheaper as well, then I'd consider it going with the download.

So is there any reason you can't "preorder" this on the eshop directly?

@Prof_Elvin_Gadd - I'ld invite you over for a pool party but we don't own a pool Had some great pool party birthdays growing up though.

@sinalefa I agree, they should have a demo ready on the eShop for the early adopters too.

Well thats a little unfair, i pre-ordered my already but u HAVE TO pre-order them those days to get to dl the game a day early. they should have said preorder BY those days and then i think it would be fair.

And again australia get screwed!

Its a great idea to put the game in stores for folks to fiddle around with. Hopefully, they've made significant strides with use of that gamepad, and that should be enough advertisement. This game will sell very well in Japan.

I'm probably not going to buy it soon, because I'm broke and I'd rather get Shin Megami Tensei IV. But I'm totally willing to try it out, as long as its the EB Games store I can walk to near my house.

@rjejr Lol! I'd accept, even though I'm not a fan of swimming. Too many ear problems when I was a kid haha.

Why does Nintendo want us to buy digital so badly? I'd much rather have a physical copy.

@Magusnake So they can cut out the middleman.

@Magusnake - They are pushing on digital because it is unfortunately the future of the industry. In all honesty, Nintendo has been the most reserved in their push which I personally appreciate as I hate digital retail releases for home consoles. They are even releasing the Super Luigi U as a retail disc which I didn't see coming but I love it as I would have NEVER bought the DLC. I expect Microsoft to be the first to push for all digital in the future with Sony doing the same shortly after. I expect that Nintendo will hold onto physical retail releases as long as they can but they will work digital into their strategy as "another option" for those who want it. Based on the most recent sales figures, digital has actually been a big part of recent Wii U game sales. Personally, as long as I can get my physical disc games, I will support digital through digital indie games on the eShop (I've got Shovel Knight already paid for on my Wii U through Kickstarter .

If you have the deluxe console essentially you get 5$ eshop credit with download. I'm still highly disappointed ninte do keeps tying demos to retail stores when they are capable of reaching a larger audience with demos on the eshop itself. Pikmin, as much as I love the franchise, has shown its not a system seller. And if Nintendo really has all these games up its sleeve ready for announcement and possible release they sure should have shown something. Their direct videos were supposed to showcase games that were up and coming and as the pre e3 direct in the beginning of the year has shown that every game announced was eventually pushed back anyway. Aug 4th cant come soon enough but the fact that ive gotten more use out of my wii u's wii mode sorta scares me for the console's future. Wind waker dropped the ball for me with its lack of additional content. Mario 3d world and dkfreeze are on the wrong device imo and the truely AAA titles are 6+ months away. Thats a lot riding on Pikmin3 to reach a more substantial audience.

Is Pikman good? I played the Pikman minigame in NintendoLand and it was only subpar. Do people care about downloading it one day earlier?

@GreatPlayer I'm sure some people care, but I'd rather have my physical copy. But to answer your question, yes they're good enough to want a day early.

"No participating stores found within a 100 mile radius. Please try again with a different location."

First I get shafted at Best Buy, then I get shafted again at GameStop. What the heck, there's like 5 Gamestops in my area, grrrr...

Closest Gamestop to me that will be doing this is 95 miles away, I'm sad now.