Cakes

Sorry... off-topic. Got excited.

BREAKING NEWS: Level-5 sale (NA and Europe) of Guild 01 games starting Thursday!! Maiden / Shroud down to $5, Porter down to $3

Would be cool if you could use two Wii Remotes as each hand... never understood why more games didn't take advantage of asking player to use two remotes at the same time, unless it was a tech problem or not wanting to limit their potential audience.

If shaking the Pad makes you vomit, I will buy this game.

A well-deserved spot. Just finished Mansion last night... then picked it back up today. I just want to keep playing it. So fun and unique.

Reading the rest of the Top 40 makes me feel like I have almost 0% in common with the typical game consumer. Yeesh. And I know it's due to the tiny install base, but the fact that LEGO City is nowhere on that list while Aliens: CM is at #32 is a crime against humanity.

A Miiverse announcement ("it's available now!") plus Flipnote Studio 3D would be huge-awesome. Hard to see any surprise games coming out of this with Animal Cross, Dream Team, Golf, and DKCR 3D already coming soon.

Who actually develops this? I know Nintendo is the publisher, but is there a small studio named as actual designer/developer? Just curious.
It's nice, at least, that these add-on sequels are at least $10 downloads and not, as they were back in the day, $50 retail games.

If you passed by Aero Porter of the Guild 01 games... take another look. Seems simple at first, but it reveals itself little by little. It's getting its hooks into me.

Hope these come westward.

When the Kickstarter'ed deluge of indie games hits Wii U.... we'll have a bunch of okay indie games on Wii U. Really want to hear more news of games made FOR the system, not PC games brought over 'cause why not.

Agreed that these were neat ideas that, honestly, haven't been used in this house for some time. But Everybody Votes was super-cute.... I loved how the percentages would be tallied by a bunch of color-coded Miis running around. Hope the dropping of the Wii services allows some extra bandwith for similar programs starting up on Wii U. Seems they'd make even more sense on Wii U since the uptake on connecting system to internet is way higher than it ever was on Wii.

Hold your tongue, Mollutje... Tank! Tank! Tank! is awesome, I don't care what people say. Play My Kong mode with a friend and try not to laugh or shout. Even the simple campaign got me hooked. Really hope they bring over the free eShop version to the states so more people can get a taste.

I've put about 2 1/2 hours into 3D Classics: Urban Champions. I actually kind of like it in small doses.

Wow, the range of opinion on here is pretty wild.
My 2 pennies: I don't have enough time to play all the games I have/want on 3DS & WiiU. If you ONLY had a WiiU, I guess I'd see the problem. But show of hands: How many people on here only have a WiiU? I'd bet a tiny, tiny number. My hypothesis: By Dec. 2013, the story will have changed significantly. I'm crossing my fingers it goes in the positive direction.

I see what he's saying... but personally I wish the west would embrace Japanese game design, not the other way around.
[Yeah, what Tech101 said.]

To everybody saying the online fees are what doomed the sales numbers, I thought I'd heard the monthly subscription fees are actually making this a reasonable return on investment? The whole MMO experiment was a dicey prospect, to be sure, but at the end of its lifespan DQX may end up making a decent bit of cash money for Square Enix even with the poor sales..

Man oh man, I REALLY want this to come over to the states. And yeah, it'd probably be a large localization job, but so was the original Animal Crossing, another (at the time) unproven idea in the west, and it came over and became a huge hit. I'm with bahooney and think the same could happen here. (Or I'm just selfish and want the game to come out.)

Now that it's on the eShop, you think it's worth a spin? Was always curious about Gabrielle and her various grooves...

@Ralizah Yes. Yes you are. Ouch....

I think what @BossBattles was criticizing was the gall this guy had to write the letter in the first place, then make a concerted effort to spread it around. I'm all for freedom of expression, and I realize many feel the same way. But when @BB writes, "It is not the gamers job to constantly audit Nintendo and penalize it for not being exactly what YOU expect and DEMAND" he's talking about the constant bickering/complaining that many gamers feel entitled to do, often in a public setting, (i.e., Mass Effect 3 ending, Bayonetta 2 backlash) that goes beyond choosing to play another console. If you're not into the Wii U, that's fine — plenty else out there. But the tone of this letter seems to imply it's like Nintendo is personally smiting their fans, which is kind of ridiculous.

Anyhoo. Carry on. Back to enjoying the heck out of LEGO City...

This is a problem whether you like Unreal Engine games or not. 'Cause less 3rd party support means less games, and less games means less people buying system for said games, which ultimately affects Nintendo.

BUT personally I don't care all that much... one of my biggest annoyances of this past gen was how so many games used UE3 that ended up looking kind of the same. Doesn't have to be this way: Shadow Complex used it to great effect. But too many devs leaned on the same tired assets which gave everything a blah feel, at least to me.

Since my most anticipated game right now is Game & Wario, clearly the lack of UE4 isn't my biggest concern. But for the overall health of the Wii U, it's another strike.

The fact that a room full of developers laughed along with Rein is arguably the bigger problem. I wonder how many of those same people would love to have their game on a Nintendo system, though, but just go along with the groupthink of "Wii U is dumb underpowered kiddie stuff." It cracks me up so many are so eager to dismiss Nintendo, when time and again they've proven to outmaneuver the latest tech with ingenuity, polish and charm. This holiday season gonna be veeeery interesting....

Yep, it works. I was loving Runner2 but every time I tried going back to the home screen I had to unplug the system. Really didn't like doing that so I stopped playing. Tried yesterday after the patch installed and no problems. Finally into the 4th world. Ooh, it's gettin' tricky....

@HeatBombastic But that's the point @snoox is making.... illustrators with a PC will have less limits & a greater tool set, which might produce a beautiful picture but without the raw charm and creativity often on display on Miiverse. I fully agree. Hope the browser-based app is more of a gallery. Seems like you'd want to keep some of the Miiverse functionality unique to owning a Wii U, so you feel compelled to buy one and not just open your free iPhone app, right?

I imagine/hope Nintendo puts up an Indie section on the eShop, kind of similar to what's on XBLA but less hidden. Then you can feel free to sift through a bunch of cheap, odd, interesting titles if you want, or you can avoid it and stick to more known quantities.

Each time I go onto Wii U's eShop, though, it fills out more and more. I like the clean, attractive look of it. And certain games get a beautiful spotlight too, like what Runner2 had last week.

@Kagamine Go here. https://gdc2013.nintendo.com/

@ouroborous Some people like good things, I guess. Personally I'm having a great time with HarmoKnight, though I wish the difficulty ramped up sooner. Maybe a tad on the short side, but what's there is fun and varied. Support new IP!!

Been waiting for this for a long time. I wouldn't say it exceeds my expectations... but it matches them. Very happy with it. Any fans of BIT.TRIP or Rhythm Thief should be all over this!

Hmmm.... one of my favorite games (obviously, given my handle), yet I kind of feel silly buying it when I have the original Mike Tyson's NES cart sitting right over here and bought the Wii VC version already.

Then again: Just found two dimes, a nickel and five pennies on my desk. Okay fine. Can't wait for to see some stellar Miiverse illustrations...

Main character borrowed some clothes from Max in Where the Wild Thing Are, looks like...

@Five-seveN Come to Boston and get into PAX East... Nintendo will be selling Dark Moon on Saturday! Crisis solved.

A big-time week. Hey you Zen Pinballers, what's your favorite two tables? I'm not much of a Marvel guy but am interested in original pins, preferably not on the 3DS collection already.

Like many of you, I vividly remember playing this with a buddy back in '94. My friends and I mainly played multiplayer games (Kart, Street Fighter) but for some reason this totally hooked me in. Going through the final sequence for the first time is still my single favorite gaming experience, 19 years later.

I second the hope for these Sega 3D classics to come west. Maybe even a little Sub-Roc 3D while we're at it, eh?

Ooh, I'm looking forward to this. I live outside Boston and teach in the city. Have been lucky to attend PAX East from the beginning. If you StreetPass with "Cakes," say hello.

@DrKarl Ohhhh, sometimes I kinda miss our old Commander-in-Chief.

Enjoyed the 3DS collection but will probably just sample and DL a few individual titles. I'm no big Marvel buff so those packs don't interest me. Hopefully the Star Wars tables come eventually as that's much more in my wheelhouse.

Still anticipating Pinball Arcade much more than this, but hey, I'll take some HD fake pinball while I wait...

I also thought Keflings was somewhat owned by Microsoft. A demo for the first game was even pre-loaded on my Xbox 360 when I bought one two years ago. But this does fit the Nintendo demographic, so I'm keen on checking it out again. And I find Miis MUCH more charming and attractive (in a platonic way, people) than 360 Avatars.

For example: My flipnote celebrating the 3DS launch...
http://en.flipnote.hatena.com/587EE4F0F3632F7D@DSi/movie/632F7D_0A8D3FE8987DC_004?in=user

I wonder if you'll be able to import old Flipnotes into it and 3D-ify them?

The scoring system of almost every gaming site/magazine is kind of ridiculous. Or rather, the perception of the score is the problem. If an 8 is seen as "okay," you basically have a 3 tier scale: Great / Okay / Bad. I know that's not the intention, but that seems to be how a lot of people read 9 / 8 / 7. Which is silly.

Personally, I almost like reading reviews for games I have little interest in playing, but want to understand what the big deal is. I'll probably not play Tomb Raider. But I read a bunch of reviews. I bought and loved Fire Emblem but I didn't read a thing about it (okay I wrote something, but that's different). So for me reviews don't help with purchases, as much as they're a supplement to playing the games in the first place.

The fact this is has a short campaign is actually a good thing in my mind. I hate putting games down without finishing them, but I just don't have time to go through multiple 20-30+ hour games. And at the VC budget price, I'd prefer something short and sweet. Hope it comes stateside soon.

Please.... PLEASE bring Tomodachi Collection to America!!
(That is all.)

To celebrate this news, I will finally download Aero Porter, as I've been waiting to do so for some time. In 3... 2...1....

Though I'd love the accurate arcade versions, have to agree it's likely these are NES ports. Would love option to use the 3DS sidewise, play on the now-veritical top screen...
Either way, this is good news, as Gun.Smoke was my most eagerly awaited VC game for years on Wii. Finally tracked down the NES cart. Still a bomb game.

That last bit is the best news of the whole Q+A. I'd love to see more indies developing small, Wii U - only games/experiments leveraging the GamePad and/or Miiverse. All the indie love is great, but if they're all just PC games ported over, there's little incentive to make use of the system's unique features.
I do like the idea of a roguelike platformer, though. Even if Spelunky made me consider self-harm.

[Lots of stuff released, old retail games given big discount, budget options, demos...]
"WHERE'S EVERYTHING ELSE!?"
I grow weary of this more every week.

The most appealing thing sounds like the mini-introductions to how each object found itself in the well. Reminds me of the Smooth Moves position cards. Probably not nearly as charming/funny, but I might give this a go.... worried about longevity, though.

I have the retail copy of Neo Assault, and... didn't love it. Too much ghosting, too slow movement around those globular surfaces. Best part for me were the behind-the-ship sections kind of like Star Fox. Really stunning in 3D. But overall, I didn't want to spend much time with it. Oh well.

Will be jumping on River King when it comes to the U.S.! Maybe I'm just an old guy who likes fishing more than spaceships nowadays...

Ooh, I do hope it's available tomorrow. Loving this early release for indie eShop games thing we have going on. Runner2 shall join Little Inferno (get it!) and Puddle (maybe get it!) on my list of initial Wii U downloads. If it's 1/2 as awesome as RUNNER, this is a happy happy day.

I think some are missing the developer's point. Even though the headline chose to emphasis the "innovation" line, it seems like this is the real focal point of the remarks:
"Players keep on playing Mario, after all, precisely because it's easily understandable in a very unique way. That's a strength that's hard to imitate for games with shorter heritages, and it's something I think we need to keep cherishing."
A 2D Mario game is absolutely unique in the market. The core of that gameplay shouldn't be taken for granted, 'cause you ain't getting it anywhere else.

Any other midwesterners out there who have been to Cedar Point? "America's Roller Coast." So good. Still remember going on the Magnum for the first time around 20 years or so now...

I'm glad to hear this is developed with Wii U specifically in mind. So many of these indie projects are "also coming to Wii U!" so the design is made with a broader, play-on-anything kind of philosophy. Off-TV play will be cool, but little else will take advantage of the GamePad. So I hope more indies and 3rd parties in general are able to develop something for Wii U specifically. Only then will we start to understand what kind of ideas are possible on it.