BearHunger

This game looks set to repeat every problem the series has had since Mario Kart DS. It's a shame, because the courses, graphics, and character roster all look amazing. Battle mode will probably continue the recent tradition of no survival matches even in local multiplayer, and local multiplayer itself will still most likely be a snooze fest.

But for how much I whine that those games are missing the point of ol' Mario Kart, they are remarkably fun, addictive, and overall great all the same. This game will be no different, and as bad a thing as that is, that is a good thing.

Thank you for saying “last-gen” instead of calling the Wii and DS “current-gen” as calling the new consoles “next-gen” would imply.

I'll be playing the Genesis version of Strider on Virtual Console. If you can get past the subpar sound, sprite flicker, and stiff controls, it's still a mediocre game. But hey, I knew what I was getting into! (Okay, well to be honest I thought the graphics only looked wonky because I was watching a Youtube video at the time.) I'll also be playing Axelay on Virtual Console as well; I was originally planning to download it on Wii U VC, but by the time it gets there it may be gone from the Wii Shop!

I won't be playing much, though, 'cause I have work to do.

YES! Royal Raceway!

While it supports off-TV play, it does not enable you to play with five players, nor does it allow the GamePad player to use the full screen on the controller while others use the TV in a local race, thus potentially adding an extra player in the process.

What— what the— what— what‽ Did such a feature (which S&ASR Transformed had and was appreciated for) slow the game down too much? Is there some half-butted justification, like that it would make the GamePad player jealous 'cause the visuals are worse on that? This is brain-dead.

All this “balance” stuff has not been doing this series any favors as far as I'm concerned. I prefer the randomness of old.

Siesta Fiesta? Conception II? It sounds like you guys ran out of games.

Substitute any two between Friend Collection and Moon Chronicles, exclusive, for Sonic Boom and Disney Magical World and this list would be slightly more accurate. But still, ten is reaching. It doesn't help that Super Smash Bros. is (I suspect) likely to be delayed.

Finally, a real game.

"Gen4"? This is Generation 8! Wikipedia says so.

This is the first time I've ever been unexcited for a Mario Kart game. Maybe that will change as the launch approaches, but usually the first trailer hooks me in and then every day thereafter is more painful waiting.

Huh, I was expecting Sonic Boom to have a higher turnout. Super Smash Bros. is a hype juggernaut, I guess. But still, don't I count as more than one vote?

Also, I don't think Xenogame is coming out this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if Super Smash Bros. is delayed into 2015.

Wait, this is on mobile?
Zelda plagiarism. 😈

@Bikeage And Activision, but I guess enough people already hate them.

@ogo79 With that pricing scheme, I wouldn'ta hesitated. I must own all the rarities! 😋

I just checked—Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is gone too. Dang, I was gonna get that. I guess I'm not missing that much, but this is still alarming. And this forum post indicates that Shanghai II is gone as well.

I ought to get Strider before Capcom follows suit. The old Strider, that is. The new one's probably not going anywhere for a while. 😌

This happened at the beginning of this month at the latest. It's happened to other games as well, but I don't know which ones and where.

Well this was unexpected. It sounds like kind of a missed opportunity not to have 360° aiming with the circle pad, though.

I can't really make it out.

If only the circle pad were also pink. Oh well, it's still lookin' good overall.

Community search should have been here from the beginning. At least it's here now!

@skywake I don't think they even look much like chomps, myself. They look more like how Gastly would eventually look.

@Kirk Before Yoshi's Island, even. At least, I haven't had much fun with Mario & Yoshi or Yoshi's Cookie, and apparently Yoshi's Safari wasn't very good either.

I'll admit that I can forgive a lack of graphical excellence if I like the style enough. Some of this game's animations are lackluster/jarring (even on Yoshi himself, if I remember the trailers correctly), but the way the game blends 3D models with textures and assets that look painted wins me over. I didn't love it the first time I saw it, but, like the graphical style of Skyward Sword, I warmed up to it. At the end of the day I think it looks better than Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, even though that game is clearly animated better.

@Kirk Yoshi's games have been throwaway ever since the character was created. He has been the star of exactly two games that are universally considered great. (Why two? I counted Tetris Attack.) There are worse actual Nintendo games, and certainly worse Yoshi games.

P.S. That screenshot looks fine to me, except for the NSMB2-esque washed out fuzzy background that seems to be all the rage with 3DS sidescrollers. You could've reposted one that includes Yoshi's giant feet instead.

@Tsuchinoko You're not alone. I actually prefer the DS iteration. It just feels… less overwhelming. And I don't mean from a difficulty standpoint, I mean the game just doesn't stress me out like SMW2 does, even though they follow the same model. I'm not sure what it is, exactly.

@unrandomsam #201

New Kirby looks like more of the same but 30fps (So it will feel wrong). Probably even easier than this. Definitely far too soon from the last iteration.

That is exactly how I feel about that game, as well as about DKC Tropical Freeze and Rayman Legends (I know, it's a Rayman game, but bear with me). I can't get excited for a sequel that soon anymore, especially not when I had no complaints with the original.

those well-versed in all things Yoshi will likely be disappointed.

Actually, they'd probably expect this due to this game being made by some of the same people who made Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (and Yoshi's Island DS, but that doesn't as much support my case), and because all Yoshi platformers except for the first and DS have gotten mixed reception at best. Even then, DS is generally held not to have reached the heights of the first game—which is not easy, of course.

But hey, thems is some great art style.

Toad Harbor is looking to be the second funnest video game level based on San Francisco.

Releasing this in the ol' VC molasses trickle is a great way to make new consumers hate old video games. That way they'll buy the new ones, right?

I guess Nintendo don't want to keep on spending so much on those blue rings on the back of the Wii Wheels.

Downloaded Futuridium EP right after watching part of that trailer.

$63USD, eh? The current-gen X will most likely be $3USD cheaper.

The presence of the word "unleashes" in the headline is only making me more excited.

Too bad this never came to fruition.

@Bluezealand Well, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team did come preinstalled on the 3DS XL that I got. That might count, though I still haven't played it.

@unrandomsam #10 Very true about the cheap arcade deaths, though. Had to keep 'em paying somehow.

Wow. I didn't think I'd need another Mario Golf after the amazing Toadstool Tour and Advance Tour, but I just might get this. If I do, it'll be my first retail 3DS game since Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

@Spuratis Agreed. Critics these days…

Good thing I haven't already bought this game.

It's about time.

This review's tagline is wonderful, thanks especially to the etymological root of the word “excruciating.”

@unrandomsam Or longer. Games could afford to be short back when they were hard enough to take multiple plays-through to beat—it took way longer than the <45 minute length of The Revenge of Shinobi for me to finally reach the end of that game. On the other hand, the N64 era had games like Donkey Kong 64, which was not especially difficult (save a few minigames) but took me almost 30 hours to complete 101%. Nowadays games have neither difficulty nor length, with the exception of DKCR.

@unrandomsam If this game's difficulty to Returns' difficulty were like the difficulty of The Lost Levels to that of Super Mario Bros., then the vast majority of consumers would be confounded and angered. (Unless SMB1 were taken to already have been significantly more difficult than DKCR.) That said, I agree.

Because the real Peggle will never come to Wii U.

Does this game support the Classic Controller?

I actually dig the graphics; in that respect the game looks like a cross between Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Donkey Kong Country. The gameplay, though, doesn't interest me, not for poor quality but for how I do not want to play a Yoshi's Island game again. I got kinda burned out on Super Mario Advance 3… and even then I wasn't anywhere near 100% completion or even unlocking all of the extra levels.

@SparkOfSpirit
Urgh, I know! Baby Daisy was absolutely not a character who needed to enter the Mario universe. I think she existed only so there would be a line of four babies on the character select screen, mirroring their adult counterparts.

All the Koopalings would have filled out 87.5% of the character roster of one of the older Mario Kart games. The selection of drivers sure has come a long way.

I very well expect to see this game have a character roster containing three times the number that would fit in a race, even though several characters will probably be quasi-reskins like in Mario Kart Wii.

Everyone online will still just pick their Miis though. Or whoever has the highest hidden speed stat.