Churchy

I think Sonic does have the potential to be great, but I do feel sorry for anyone who has to be involved with decision making, as everyone has a slightly different idea of how the series should proceed (if it should proceed at all).

I do think that Sonic Boom was hideous mess in almost every department. I'd be tempted to say scrap future plans on that but with the way SegaSammy works it's often a lot more complicated than it appears!

Overall, yes. The NX I'm very much looking forward too and I think the 3DS will have a great year too.

For the most part I am optimistic. Star Fox Zero looks fairly lifeless (I wish I didn't think that!) but I'm looking forward to a lot of the 3DS line-up and what the NX will be. To me it's mostly about those two letters (which will presumably morph into a longer word). I think the best thing Nintendo can do is to build on presenting new approaches, not just in games but in the way they manage themselves. Splatoon was a great example of this.

Come on Ninty - knock it out the park and surprise us all!

This exciting session of people sitting down and clicking buttons was brought to you by Doritos and the American College of Rheumatology.

I think this will be pretty spot on, especially with the leaks coming out of Foxconn (along with the suicides) and other sources. Not to mention the fact that Nintendo's end of year schedule is looking suspiciously empty.

Also, the old tried fashion of taking more than a year of build-up doesn't really work anymore. If you announce it when it's fully ready and tell everyone it'll be ready before the end of the year - that is how you can get maximum interest. But that is assuming the console has a clear identity, new IPs as well as old ones and can compete with other systems in terms of power and functionality.

@Shiryu Now you're just trying to scare me.

@Shiryu It is a scary thought isn't it? But at least it's there for posterity!

@Shiryu: Aha, good man! Awesome stuff - I had to go back in time with SNES as I had more home computers at the time. Your knowledge is most impressive sir!

Awesome - I wasn't aware of this game previously. I think I'll have to dig in. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Damien!

Unfortunately, the UK tradition of seaside arcades was replaced by mugging and stabbings.

That aside, I would love to give this a go. Perhaps this is something Heart of Gaming in London might look into?

Some great stuff coming to the 3DS. Fire Emblem is a no-brainer but I'm also super glad that Zero Time Dilemma is even happening (the two previous games are fantastic) and that Bravely Default's sequel gets a chance to shine.

Oh and there's that thing called Pocket Minions being re-released or something. Hot tip for the new year perhaps?

@Xenocity I was thinking more in terms of quality of games rather than the money (even though Generations was good!).

Hey, it's a logo. I'm not really too bothered. It's like when Capcom announced a 20th anniversary logo for Resi. It's not really something that needs to be announced!

Well, SEGA do seem to have realised that a lot of people aren't going to swallow their manure. The fact they apologies late last year is an interesting development, but we'll see. In all honesty, I'd rather see another company buy SEGA at this point as they do publish some great licenses and there's an awesome back catalogue. Let's just hope Sonic's latest game doesn't stink up the place - those running shoes must be sweaty by now.

I wonder if it's like Metal Gear Solid 3 where the ghosts of fired developers all haunt you as you walk through.

@KomrathDE Perhaps the most ironic question ever: did you actually READ the article?

But anyway, this is awesome. I remember him completing Abe's Exoddus. Super Mario 64 next?

Considering Sonic has been on life support for some time, I hope they do something decent eventually. They should do a fresh game that utilises the future levels from Generations into a new adventure.

As for personal favourites it has to be the first game, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Advance, Generations and both Adventure games.

But let us never speak of Sonic '06 or Sonic R again.

It's cool to read what the take of the staff on the year ahead. Undertale on a Nintendo machine would be a really cool thing to see.

@TossedLlama Fear not, I only watched the first one. After the shark dies I didn't see much point. Even so, a 3D shark with 80's technology is tempting.

@shaneoh Aye, that is true. And as far as I know, Iwata never made any monologues about sharks.

To me, Iwata sounds like Quint from Jaws - everyone is wondering how to solve the problem, and he's the dude in the corner who's like "Yeah, I can do it."

@Mister_Wu Thanks for the link and for clearing that up for me. Dayvv Brooks is a total legend. Trent Reznor is a gamer of old so I wonder if he's aware of it?

@itzdanburton Even if it is SMW I wonder if Reznor was named after Trent Reznor too. That'd be so awesome if so. There seems to be quite a few musical references in Ninty games, my favourite recent example being that trainer in Pokemon X/Y who says his Pokemon's name is Sepultura. Brazilian metal for the win!

I would like to put forth a few ideas that put a twist on some of these points. I think that the NX doesn't necessarily need to be adopt the blue ocean strategy, but it needs to have a clear focus and target. The Wii U didn't have that and that's why it stumbled. I would also argue that Sony have managed to appeal to vocal minorities with certain titles and have still been able to do well, so appealing to everyone isn't always a smart or fruitful approach.

When it comes to third party games - it's about having third party games that are new and released at the same time as other platforms, otherwise there's not much point - releasing older third party games on the console would be a waste.

Most importantly, Nintendo's exclusives should focus equally on new IPs and ideas. In the same way that Gunpei Yokoi decide to embrace the ideas of a young designer called Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo need to give much more creative control to it's younger designers and new teams - the result is you get games like Splatoon and will find a new wave of game creators. At the moment, they put way too much stock in Miyamoto and other senior designers. You can't rely on old ideas for too long - you need new ones alongside them too.

As far as smartphone gaming goes, it's needs to be carefully handled. What a lot of the market boils down to is a lot of mush with no real depth or a real sense of achievement. Nintendo can do better than that and create smartphone games that offer something different, something with depth and a connection to the game that people feel deeply. If they decide to just tick all the psychological boxes like most of the market, it'll be a missed opportunity indeed.

Overall, I'm really optimistic about the NX and I have a feeling there'll be a whole host of surprises coming up. But if anything, I think Nintendo need to open up and re-invent themselves a little. We can only wait and see.

I have a bad feeling about Star Fox Zero. I wish I didn't but from what we've seen, a lot of the environments look quite empty and the lack of any real texture looks a bit lifeless. I just hope that the gameplay is awesome.

Anyway, there's only one thing to do. Wait and see!

@SmaMan I'd forgotten about that! It'd be great to see it.

It's quite interesting when you dig into Star Wars games as several people worked on many different titles.

This is strangely reminiscent of when Shigsy said he wanted Mario to be more "mature" a while back.

If anything, I just want Mario to be more explorative like 64 and Sunshine but to have a touch more narrative added in like Rosalina did with Galaxy. However, Shigsy hates narratives being in a Mario game so I guess that won't happen for the foreseeable future.

Lovely stuff. It'd be great to see more of the obscure stuff like this. Next: BS Super Mario USA and other Satellaview content!

I'm definitely in for Smash and might be able to make MK8 tonight. Overall, this is how I feel about this initiative.

@Mister_Wu No worries, I'm aware that it's a different team as it's been Intelligent who handled Paper Mario, I meant more in terms of overall enjoyment and RPG mechanics. As good as the Mario and Luigi series can be, I always prefer the early Paper Mario games. To me, Thousand Year Door is still the best Mario RPG out there. FEEL THE RAWK!

I shall be playing Super Mario RPG as it never made it to UK shores. Although I'm a bit worried I'll be comparing it to Thousand Year Door!

@Shiryu I would lose my big smelly poo if that happened.

After having just arrived back from holiday, I downloaded this last night. Dear God, it's insane. A brilliant title and a great way to close out the year. Shin'en have really outdone themselves and to see that they're responding with positive updates is great.

@Shiryu Aha, I see what you mean, going on already accumulated knowledge. Good stuff!

And that video is fantastic.

I really enjoyed it. Sakurai and his team have been working ridiculously hard. Considering that Melee was meant to be the last game in the series (and then Brawl after that), it's amazing he's managed to keep going and I'm sure it's driven him a little bit nuts at points.

At the end of the day, we got a great game with lots of great characters and stages, we got a game that also catered to tournaments as well as general play, and we got over a year's worth of DLC that wasn't on-disc, featuring third party characters that no-one thought would join the fray. I think we've done pretty damn well.

In all honesty, Smash Bros. should go away for a bit. And as Sakurai feels a real attachment to the series, I wonder if this really should be it as I fear he won't be able to let it go so easily. At the very least, let it rest for now and enjoy what we have!

It never bothered me either way; it was just a bit of an odd "why is that there?" feeling I had. But hey, if they want to do that, why not?

Overall, I thought it was a great presentation. They always go into great detail with each character in terms of move set, animations and how they relate to their respective games. Corrin was a bit of a surprise, and although I don't have the personal attachment, they've really thought through the move set.

It's great to see Bayonetta in there too. They've worked seriously hard to add characters and I loved the ending of the presentation. Classy stuff. Now can Nintendo please let him have a vacation?!

This is an awesome article. Some awesome knowledge on display and ridiculously well researched. Awesome stuff!

I will always have a soft spot for Day of Reckoning 2. I wish more wrestling games allowed you to place a trash can over the ref's head.

I hope Sakurai gets a holiday for a bit. He's basically been working himself sick on this franchise!

"Unfortunately there's a simplistic mentality out there, that 'Make a Mario game for smart devices' is a recipe for printing money. And it's not."

Well, I guess that explains Pokemon Go then.

I'm still waiting for Ninty to make good on their bicycle controller patent.

@ekreig This made my evening.

I missed Bravely Default first time around. Is it worth playing that first or am I okay to dive into this without prior knowledge?

Yeah, this ain't exactly a great time to release this. It's long after most people have already played the PC version or a version on another console. It's more expensive than on other systems (and considering you can mod stuff on PC that's even more of a gap). It doesn't have much that makes it special or unique to the platform, and considering we don't even know what the Nintendo content is, there really isn't much cause to buy it.

More than anything I appreciate the fact that heads of companies are more open and not at logger heads (publicly) like they used to be. It's a much healthier attitude to have.

Also, as for the future. Who the hell knows? Many thought Microsoft wouldn't have made a console in the first place. Many thought Nintendo and Sega would never co-operate on anything. Many thought that Shenmue 3 would never be announced. But here we are.

This was going to be a purchase from me, but now it just sounds even better. I kept joking and just calling it F Zero, but it sounds as if it might even be better. There seems to be a bit more of a danger element to the tracks. Either way, I'm looking forward to this one greatly!

I'll definitely be downloading F-Zero.

It seems to have become a popular thing to bash PH but I love it still. Whilst I wouldn't say its an undisputed classic I feel it's great fun and a solid handheld Zelda. Also, Linebeck. That man is beautiful.

I'm really up for this and I love the more horror-esque vibe to it. And seeing as how Ninty isn't currently doing anything with Metroid and Konami hates video games, then this is very welcome.

Reggie is actually a Robot. But he needs a new processor.

The NX being something totally different is exactly what it needs to do. Let's hope it delivers.