As someone who plays Pokémon competitively I'd say that an annual tournament series for other Nintendo games would be amazing and could do so much for both brand recognition and ensuring repeat customers. I know full well that some of the top players in VGC only play Pokémon (as in they have next to no interest in other videogames) and consequently wouldn't buy each years game if it weren't for the competitive scene. From a personal point of view I would have gotten bored of ORAS and sold it a long time ago if I didn't play competitively.
I've also met people at public tournaments who had limited knowledge and interest but were passing by with some free time and curious enough to watch. Each time I've gotten the impression that they've left with a more positive viewpoint of the game; even if they don't immediatly go out and buy a copy to join in positive awareness is no bad thing. Admittedly this is more the case with publicly accessible tournaments (events held in GAME rather than a Premier Challenge or Regionals) and Pokémon is in my experience one of the friendliest competitive communities which definitely plays a role but still, regular tournaments for other Nintendo franchises seems a good idea and opportunity to me.
@SupremeAllah The key for SS for me was not to raise the whole arm, just tilt the remote itself upwards.
As for the article, the integration of the whole world is definitely one of my favourite parts and creates a feeling of community and consequence unlike any other.
It struck home for me when I started the Kafie/Anju quest and saw the Gorman troop leader being told that his performance was cancelled due to the Zora's not being able to perform. You start thinking about that and how everything relates everything else; how that event in Zora's bay causes his drinking in the milk bar over the next few days, of which both he (through his brothers) and the bar itself are linked to the Ranch. The Mayors wife, she ends up there on the third day having not heard from her son, but as the post mistress is responsible for letting the Postman flee or not. The fact that the Gorman troop is in town brings a few more characters onto the scene who otherwise wouldn't be.
The wedding quest itself takes you all over the place, linking in with seemingly isolated events like the woman getting mugged for her bomb bag and the thief later selling it to the curiosity shop, Anju's family in the Inn and how they're fleeing to the ranch, and ultimately how you can indirectly affect all those people by altering a few unrelated events.
It all combines to create a string sense of a real community, a feeling that I don't think I've experienced in any other game and perhaps more importantly one that I don't think is possible in another medium. MM is definitely one of the best example I can think of of a videogame doing something that no other media could achieve; sure, you can copy the plot points and details or whatever, but establishing a community in a way that you can tangibly impact, that's unique.
It's worth acknowledging Nintendo providing more of the Majora's Mask New 3DS's through their website after the first batch sold out instantly, even if it was on the provision that they wouldn't actually be available until March and one per customer. I think it'd be an idea to approach more things like that; keep releasing smaller batches periodically after the initial launch, it'd hopefully mean that the dedicated fans get one a bit later down the line after the people on there for the initial hype have moved on.
If I had £200-£300 spare I would completely go for that Mario Kart bundle. All you'd have to do is top it up with Smash', probably an external somewhere down the line, and you're all set. As is, lack of money x Christmas + ORAS, Smash 3DS and loads of unplayed Vita titles = an unfortunate no on that front. Maybe next year
Well you can listen to music through the 3DS, through the pre-installed Music app. I tried it for a bit and found it was just too big and clunky for day to day use, especially when compared to an iPod (which also tend to have larger storage space)
The second one is my favourite. I want fairly understated for a background theme, avoiding bright colour clashes that detract from the game icons and most importantly no music that's going to give me a heart attack if I open the 3DS first thing in the morning for some quiet Animal Crossing. The second is the only one that ticks both boxes.
I'll finish 4 and go through 3 before deciding on this (by which time hopefully it'll be cheaper), but I've not been a big fan of dungeon crawlers in the past so we'll see...
I grew up with World on the GBA and really disliked SMB3 (which I also played on GBA). Since I was too young at the time to actually be aware of how influential either was/has been and it isn't something discussed enough for me to have formed a valid opinion, I'll just vote for my favourite.
As much as I keep questioning the point of them, I keep thinking it's pretty likely I'll end up buying at least one or two of these at some point. Probably most of the ones with swords and/or Greninja. Because Ninja Frog.
Aww, if only it were a week or two later, I'd be living in Bristol without a massive load of work preventing me from joining in.
On a similar note, isn't this a fairly quick turn about for this kind of thing? The similar Pokémon Battle Tournament earlier this year had a good few weeks advance notice, this is 11 days from now until the whole thing is over. I know that you don't have to build a team for it and all that, but still...
The only game I've ever felt the need to use the internet browser for whilst playing is Pokémon X, just to quickly check things like when a move is learned or when an evolution happens. I can't imagine there'll be much desire to check things like that during 'Smash, and even if I do there are more than enough internet enabled screens around to facilitate it.
There are quite a few Metroid albums out there already (ShineSparkers Harmony of a Hunter is one of my favourites, OCR's Relics of the Chozo is also worth a listen), but more is never a bad thing. Looking forward to it. Could you post an update when it's released?
@DerpSandwich Same here, I was really looking forward to them as both games have a lot of potential for charming little animations (kind of like the shorts 'Uprising had near release). Instead they were really disapointing; I guess it's fair enough that you'd re-use the game assets but just editing together gameplay footage is about as low quality and far from my expectations as you could get.
It's for that reason I'm slightly cautious about this announcement, but ultimately I still think there's a lot of potential for short stories in the Pikmin universe and I'm looking forward to it.
Everyone talking about how hard everyone else gets it, remember that Europe are getting the game a week later than the rest of the world. Okay, yes the cases and figurines are cool and I *might have pre-ordered both when I only intended to get one (couldn't decide which though), but still, we have to wait a week longer to get it. All works out right?
"some even claiming he was a 'horrible person" You're doing pretty well if you're a target for abuse on the internet and the worse you're receiving is claims of being a horrible person.
Sunshine is my favourite, and whilst I think 64 or Galaxy2 are probably the best as overall platformers Sunshine always seems to be the one that gets forgotten so I voted for it. Turns out it currently has 10% of the votes. What do you know?
This looks cool, but I already have far too many games to play, with more released at the end of the year. I'm really interested, but don't know if I can justify it at the time of release... :/
I didn't really enjoy my time with the 3DS version, it felt more like a Metroid-vania type game than a Sonic 2D platformer, but as I'm not a big fan of either genre I don't know as anyone should let my opinion sway them. I guess you'd get used to jump being on the B button. Eventually.
The figurine is a cool bonus though if I were interested in buying the game. The cynical part of me can't help but feel it's a reaction to the current negative attitude toward pre-ordering (partly caused by Sega's last Alien title) -if you're getting a figurine that usually costs a third of the cost of the game itself for free there's less perceived risk in pre-ordering.
For anyone who's interested I attended the Saturday afternoon and wrote up a blog post on it. There's photos of the event as a whole, not just the Nintendo stuff, a few Amiibo ones, some of the t-shirt/canvas designs and some of the swords. All iPod quality, but there you go http://animatedaniel.com/2014/07/27/hyper-japan-and-editing-scripts/
The changes to the C-stick and D-pad look like they'd be good, but the rest I'm quite happy to pass on. It looks like a moderate third party effort, and I've had mixed experiences with those in the past. I'll stick to getting a brand new GC controller for Smash (with the added bonus of being able to use it for GC multiplayer)
I don't know if it's worth avoiding the spoilers for Sheik, Smash Bros Melee and Brawl ruin it as a matter of course. One of my old housemates was playing through OoT on my old Gamecube, got stuck at the Water Temple for a while (as you do) and said he was only keeping going through it for the plot and to say he'd finished it. Melee removed what was pretty much the only big twist, and he never bothered to complete it.
@rjejr I think it's generally about a third difference between US and UK prices. A $60 game would be £40 here. So a reduction down to £30 would be about $45?
@Trikeboy I wouldn't have said so. There's a whole competetive multiplayer scene that goes with Pokémon and Europe looks set to be a week behind the rest of the world. Getting HW earlier is great, but I'd rather have Pokémon (or both) released at the same time.
@rjejr It's not the time consuming aspect that puts me off, it's the money consuming bit. Me and my friends gave playing Pokémon TCG a go around about when D/P came out but it just cost so much; you have to buy all the cards to get started then keep buying them as new sets come out (you can't just keep the same old deck, older sets get rotated out of what's currently legal every few months for newer ones) and then you have to travel to events to make the most of it (or at the very least to a friends house ).
Compare that to the videogame where you buy it for a one off payment (as opposed to lots of small ones), get all the single player enjoyment included as part of that as well as the multiplayer element with none of the additional costs (you don't even need to leave the house to play multiplayer). For that reason I completely agree with you; if they had the card game (either Pokémon TCG or the Smash Bros one mentioned) included in a videogame I'd be really up for it, but I can't justify buying loads of playing cards really.
Some of those tracks were barely recognisable; Wario Stadium in particular was one I didn't see the resemblance to until right at the end. Which is really good actually, I'd rather have newer feeling tracks than converted copies of stuff I already have on other games.
@Fireninjastar This event just focused upon the videogame, and I assume as a videogame site it'd probably get coverage priority over the card game if there were a joint tournament anyway. There are plenty of sites out there that cover the TCG though if that's what you're interested in. And who knows, maybe nintendolife will cover the TCG as well when the UK VGC happens later this month?
As for everyone who's saying they've only had negative experiences with the community, that's really disappointing to hear. My own experiences have largely been really positive, and whilst I wont pretend that some people don't take everything too seriously I'd have said overall the competitive community is a really friendly and approachable one.
I really dislike both the original and Super Circuit. The turning in particular is something I find really horrible, it seems to turn far too little at first before dramatically oversteering, and powersliding (hopping?) just doesn't seem to work. I've played both multiple times over the years but never for any extended period, so maybe I just haven't 'gotten it' yet, but I just don't understand how people enjoy something you can't control properly. That said, I am still glad people enjoyed the original so much, as it led to one of the best multiplayer franchises in gaming.
You're recommending that the console goes download only? I think you've forgotten the PSP Go (as has everyone else, which is the point), and perhaps more notably, the Xbox One lash back. It's not quite the same situation as that, but enough of the same arguments carry over to mean it'd be foolish to go digital only.
That said, I can't see the emphasis upon digital downloads disappearing either, that'll only continue to grow, just not at the expense of the physical cart slot.
@sevex Pretty sure you can opt out of that when setting up the Uplay account (or just not bother signing in with it, I don't think I have). And you can activate Igniculus's abilities by clicking the right stick, if that helps. I agree with the auto-save only though, that's something I don't like about many modern games.
It's scary how real life sneaks up on you. When growing up I had loads of free time but relatively little money, so games got replayed endlessly or traded in for new ones; I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many times I've played through the pre-Twilight Princess Zelda titles. Whilst I haven't sold a game in years and can still afford to buy almost everything I want new, I have barely any time to actually play them. I bought myself a PS3 at the start of last summer, and since then I've completed one full retail title on the console. I sometimes wonder if it'd be worth just giving up on everything for a bit and just spend days catching up on my backlog...
I don't know what people are doing to their Gamecube controllers, the only one I've had break on me was my original and that was because I wore the cable out by wrapping it around the controller too often (blame Smash Bros). It's definitely my favourite gaming controller ever. It isn't perfect (I don't play many FPS's but I can see why the L/R buttons aren't great for them, the C stick is a little small for my liking and personally I'd prefer the Z button to be like the Dualshock R1. And clicky analogue sticks are cool as well ) but playing with iIt just feels... right. I haven't encountered anything as good before or since, and whilst it's great that it got another 5 years of life through the Wii it'd be a shame if the controller got abandoned now.
That's pretty cool, and makes X and Y look even more embarrassing. Go into battle with two flying types (Moltres is the worst, it has to render both flying and fire animations) and the framerate struggles even in standard 2D, 3D is a complete mess. That a turn based game failed where a fighting game succeeds so fantastically is... well, as I said, embarrassing.
I think the most significant part of this is that characters no longer change forms. It means both Zelda and Shiek get an extra move and I can play Samus again without having to worry about Smash Balls making her rubbish.
"...The technological advancement of the 4DS by simply adding another number to the name of the console can be interpreted as a jab at the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One..."
I think you're perhaps reading into this a little too much. But if that's the route we're going then please can we over-analyse the Gameboy Horror from Luigi's Mansion?
@haniwa Up until B/W the TCG was actually really good at avoiding power creep, and then they just sort of went 'f*** it' and blew everything to stupid levels. If a Pokémon's got less than 170hp now it's susceptible to a turn one ko, it's pretty ridiculous tbh. Which is why I was interested in that Pyroar above, blocking all those fast overpowered basics that dominate at the moment.
@Dark-Link73 ...uhh, what are you talking about? The bit you quoted states that everything you've downloaded will still be playable after the deadline. Meaning it's downloaded, on your machine, and nothing's going to happen to stop you from playing it. It's just the servers providing new downloads that'll be stopped; you wont be able to buy any new songs to accompany those ones you've already got.
As for me, there's a part of me that wants to go and pick some stuff up, there's some good songs on there the last time I checked, but the infrequency that I play GH combined with the fact that this would require me to put funds onto my Wii means I'll probably pass. If I had VC points spare I'd probably use them up on this, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to take advantage of.
@Pit-Stain Honestly, the sheer number of comments like this in the past for different sections that they then precede to blitz through means I have little doubt that any game that is put forward will be conquered. Wallace's gym is no more difficult than Jhotos Ice Cave, another section people were saying would never get completed in the run up to it.
Gamefreak are actually doing really well on releasing the soundtracks to the Pokémon franchise. And whilst I agree with the article overall, I often find official soundtracks can be a little hit and miss -the original OST for Tales of Symphonia sticks out as a particularly bad one. It's over four discs, which is exciting because it's got everything included (not just a small selection as some do), but it's all just taken from the game, looped once, then fades out. No particular order to it either, which means there's almost no flow to it at all. Thankfully Namco have gotten better at it since then, and not every company has quite that 'stick it on a disc and sell it' approach (Final Fantasy OST's tend to be amazing) but if Nintendos efforts would be in any way similar to that I think I'd be okay just sticking to fan remakes. Which is more or less what I do now, and some of them are incredible. Theophany's Time's End is one of my favourite albums of last year, and GlitchxCity's Pokémon tracks are fantastic.
"With NFC the potential for a Nintendo 'World', in which characters from various IPs do as they please in user-generated levels, is hugely exciting. With the principles of Infinity and Minecraft wrapped in Nintendo packaging it could be a huge selling point."
Yes! A sort of Smash Bros/Disney Infinity-like set up where you could buy 'trophies' similar to those from Smash Bros, scan them into a game and just... play. That's... I'm excited just thinking about it. And imagine if every piece of Nintendo branded merchandise in the future had an NFC bonus embedded in it or the packaging? You buy a soundtrack, the case unlocks that soundtrack in a game. Zelda Mangas unlocking artwork and weapons, or plushies unlocking characters.
Comments 285
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo World Championships 2015 Should Be Just the Beginning
As someone who plays Pokémon competitively I'd say that an annual tournament series for other Nintendo games would be amazing and could do so much for both brand recognition and ensuring repeat customers. I know full well that some of the top players in VGC only play Pokémon (as in they have next to no interest in other videogames) and consequently wouldn't buy each years game if it weren't for the competitive scene. From a personal point of view I would have gotten bored of ORAS and sold it a long time ago if I didn't play competitively.
I've also met people at public tournaments who had limited knowledge and interest but were passing by with some free time and curious enough to watch. Each time I've gotten the impression that they've left with a more positive viewpoint of the game; even if they don't immediatly go out and buy a copy to join in positive awareness is no bad thing. Admittedly this is more the case with publicly accessible tournaments (events held in GAME rather than a Premier Challenge or Regionals) and Pokémon is in my experience one of the friendliest competitive communities which definitely plays a role but still, regular tournaments for other Nintendo franchises seems a good idea and opportunity to me.
Re: Weirdness: The Moon in Majora's Mask Probably Has a Black Hole Inside, Because Science
I think the video was linked after having been viewed; it starts at 7:20 as he's signing off.
Re: Eiji Aonuma Reveals More Information About the Development of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
@SupremeAllah The key for SS for me was not to raise the whole arm, just tilt the remote itself upwards.
As for the article, the integration of the whole world is definitely one of my favourite parts and creates a feeling of community and consequence unlike any other.
It struck home for me when I started the Kafie/Anju quest and saw the Gorman troop leader being told that his performance was cancelled due to the Zora's not being able to perform. You start thinking about that and how everything relates everything else; how that event in Zora's bay causes his drinking in the milk bar over the next few days, of which both he (through his brothers) and the bar itself are linked to the Ranch. The Mayors wife, she ends up there on the third day having not heard from her son, but as the post mistress is responsible for letting the Postman flee or not. The fact that the Gorman troop is in town brings a few more characters onto the scene who otherwise wouldn't be.
The wedding quest itself takes you all over the place, linking in with seemingly isolated events like the woman getting mugged for her bomb bag and the thief later selling it to the curiosity shop, Anju's family in the Inn and how they're fleeing to the ranch, and ultimately how you can indirectly affect all those people by altering a few unrelated events.
It all combines to create a string sense of a real community, a feeling that I don't think I've experienced in any other game and perhaps more importantly one that I don't think is possible in another medium. MM is definitely one of the best example I can think of of a videogame doing something that no other media could achieve; sure, you can copy the plot points and details or whatever, but establishing a community in a way that you can tangibly impact, that's unique.
Re: Weirdness: Nintendo Aims to Make Today Mario Day
Reading that Amazon tweet in a robot voice, accompanied by the sounds of a dial up modem connecting.
Re: Talking Point: The Limited Edition Battle With eBay Scalpers Can be Tackled More Efficiently by Nintendo
It's worth acknowledging Nintendo providing more of the Majora's Mask New 3DS's through their website after the first batch sold out instantly, even if it was on the provision that they wouldn't actually be available until March and one per customer. I think it'd be an idea to approach more things like that; keep releasing smaller batches periodically after the initial launch, it'd hopefully mean that the dedicated fans get one a bit later down the line after the people on there for the initial hype have moved on.
Re: This Articulated Skyward Sword Link Toy Should be Worth a Lot of Rupees
Ugh. Those eyes. Much prefer the Figma one, even if a lot of the joints are visible http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008AGAXV2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1RJ8W7FEUHLG6&coliid=I2VTOZBDYP6ZDO
Re: Amazon UK Offers Bargain Prices to Shift Its White 8GB Wii U Bundles
If I had £200-£300 spare I would completely go for that Mario Kart bundle. All you'd have to do is top it up with Smash', probably an external somewhere down the line, and you're all set. As is, lack of money x Christmas + ORAS, Smash 3DS and loads of unplayed Vita titles = an unfortunate no on that front. Maybe next year
Re: Video: Nintendo Shows Off More 3DS HOME Themes as Smash Bros. and Pokémon Options Arrive in North America
The Slowpoke theme... Japan, what... what have you done?
Re: The 3DS Proves to Be a Popular Music Player in Japan
Well you can listen to music through the 3DS, through the pre-installed Music app. I tried it for a bit and found it was just too big and clunky for day to day use, especially when compared to an iPod (which also tend to have larger storage space)
Re: The Man Behind Sega's Wonder Boy Series Hates The Controls In Super Mario Bros.
SMB3 is the only Mario I've stopped playing because I hated the way the controls felt.
Re: Nintendo Releases Footage of Its Upcoming Super Smash Bros. 3DS HOME Themes
The second one is my favourite. I want fairly understated for a background theme, avoiding bright colour clashes that detract from the game icons and most importantly no music that's going to give me a heart attack if I open the 3DS first thing in the morning for some quiet Animal Crossing. The second is the only one that ticks both boxes.
Re: Video: Atlus Releases a Preview of the Persona Q Art Book and New Character Trailers
I'll finish 4 and go through 3 before deciding on this (by which time hopefully it'll be cheaper), but I've not been a big fan of dungeon crawlers in the past so we'll see...
Re: Poll: Nintendo Minute Debate - Is Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3 More Influential?
I grew up with World on the GBA and really disliked SMB3 (which I also played on GBA). Since I was too young at the time to actually be aware of how influential either was/has been and it isn't something discussed enough for me to have formed a valid opinion, I'll just vote for my favourite.
But '64 was the most influential Mario overall.
Re: Gallery: A Closer Look at the Six New amiibo Figures
As much as I keep questioning the point of them, I keep thinking it's pretty likely I'll end up buying at least one or two of these at some point. Probably most of the ones with swords and/or Greninja. Because Ninja Frog.
Re: Nintendo UK Confirms Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Championship
Aww, if only it were a week or two later, I'd be living in Bristol without a massive load of work preventing me from joining in.
On a similar note, isn't this a fairly quick turn about for this kind of thing? The similar Pokémon Battle Tournament earlier this year had a good few weeks advance notice, this is 11 days from now until the whole thing is over. I know that you don't have to build a team for it and all that, but still...
Re: Standard 3DS Consoles Will Have Limited Online Functions When Playing Super Smash Bros.
The only game I've ever felt the need to use the internet browser for whilst playing is Pokémon X, just to quickly check things like when a move is learned or when an evolution happens. I can't imagine there'll be much desire to check things like that during 'Smash, and even if I do there are more than enough internet enabled screens around to facilitate it.
Re: Keep Your Eyes Peeled for this Orchestral Metroid Album
There are quite a few Metroid albums out there already (ShineSparkers Harmony of a Hunter is one of my favourites, OCR's Relics of the Chozo is also worth a listen), but more is never a bad thing. Looking forward to it. Could you post an update when it's released?
Re: Shigeru Miyamoto's Pikmin Short Films to Make Début at Tokyo International Film Festival
@DerpSandwich Same here, I was really looking forward to them as both games have a lot of potential for charming little animations (kind of like the shorts 'Uprising had near release). Instead they were really disapointing; I guess it's fair enough that you'd re-use the game assets but just editing together gameplay footage is about as low quality and far from my expectations as you could get.
It's for that reason I'm slightly cautious about this announcement, but ultimately I still think there's a lot of potential for short stories in the Pikmin universe and I'm looking forward to it.
Re: Limited Edition Steelbook Bundles Announced for Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire in the UK
Everyone talking about how hard everyone else gets it, remember that Europe are getting the game a week later than the rest of the world. Okay, yes the cases and figurines are cool and I *might have pre-ordered both when I only intended to get one (couldn't decide which though), but still, we have to wait a week longer to get it. All works out right?
Re: Talking Point: Mario Kart 8's Diverse DLC Sets Up Endless Potential for the Franchise
'Absolutely, I'm moderately hyped'
That's the best phrase I've heard in ages XD
Re: Weirdness: Earthbound Designer Shigesato Itoi Comes Under Fire For Tweeting About Fukushima Peaches
"some even claiming he was a 'horrible person"
You're doing pretty well if you're a target for abuse on the internet and the worse you're receiving is claims of being a horrible person.
Re: Mario Kart 8 DLC Coming In November, Features Zelda And F-Zero Content
It Begins!! o_0
Re: Poll: Which Is The Best Super Mario Platformer?
Sunshine is my favourite, and whilst I think 64 or Galaxy2 are probably the best as overall platformers Sunshine always seems to be the one that gets forgotten so I voted for it. Turns out it currently has 10% of the votes. What do you know?
Re: Fantasy Life Offers Multiple Ways to Connect With Other Adventurers
This looks cool, but I already have far too many games to play, with more released at the end of the year. I'm really interested, but don't know if I can justify it at the time of release... :/
Re: A Pre-order of Sonic Boom Will Bag You an Exclusive Sonic Figurine
I didn't really enjoy my time with the 3DS version, it felt more like a Metroid-vania type game than a Sonic 2D platformer, but as I'm not a big fan of either genre I don't know as anyone should let my opinion sway them. I guess you'd get used to jump being on the B button. Eventually.
The figurine is a cool bonus though if I were interested in buying the game. The cynical part of me can't help but feel it's a reaction to the current negative attitude toward pre-ordering (partly caused by Sega's last Alien title) -if you're getting a figurine that usually costs a third of the cost of the game itself for free there's less perceived risk in pre-ordering.
Re: Feature: Nintendo's Natural Home at HYPER Japan Set The Tone For Future Events
For anyone who's interested I attended the Saturday afternoon and wrote up a blog post on it. There's photos of the event as a whole, not just the Nintendo stuff, a few Amiibo ones, some of the t-shirt/canvas designs and some of the swords. All iPod quality, but there you go
http://animatedaniel.com/2014/07/27/hyper-japan-and-editing-scripts/
Re: PDP GameCube-Styled Wired Fight Pad For Wii U and Wii Listed With November Release Date
The changes to the C-stick and D-pad look like they'd be good, but the rest I'm quite happy to pass on. It looks like a moderate third party effort, and I've had mixed experiences with those in the past. I'll stick to getting a brand new GC controller for Smash (with the added bonus of being able to use it for GC multiplayer)
Re: Ocarina of Time Joins Hyrule Warriors With Sheik, Darunia and Princess Ruto as Playable Characters
I don't know if it's worth avoiding the spoilers for Sheik, Smash Bros Melee and Brawl ruin it as a matter of course. One of my old housemates was playing through OoT on my old Gamecube, got stuck at the Water Temple for a while (as you do) and said he was only keeping going through it for the plot and to say he'd finished it. Melee removed what was pretty much the only big twist, and he never bothered to complete it.
Re: GAME's One Day Mario Kart 8 Deal, for £29.99, is a Must Buy for UK Racers
@rjejr I think it's generally about a third difference between US and UK prices. A $60 game would be £40 here. So a reduction down to £30 would be about $45?
Re: iPad Title Castaway Paradise Does A Pretty Convincing Impression Of Animal Crossing
The visuals look more Windwaker than Animal Crossing to me
Re: Guide: The Biggest Wii U and 3DS Retail Games Coming In 2014
@Trikeboy I wouldn't have said so. There's a whole competetive multiplayer scene that goes with Pokémon and Europe looks set to be a week behind the rest of the world. Getting HW earlier is great, but I'd rather have Pokémon (or both) released at the same time.
Re: Pokémon Trading Card Game: XY - Flashfire Expansion Available Now
@rjejr
It's not the time consuming aspect that puts me off, it's the money consuming bit. Me and my friends gave playing Pokémon TCG a go around about when D/P came out but it just cost so much; you have to buy all the cards to get started then keep buying them as new sets come out (you can't just keep the same old deck, older sets get rotated out of what's currently legal every few months for newer ones) and then you have to travel to events to make the most of it (or at the very least to a friends house ).
Compare that to the videogame where you buy it for a one off payment (as opposed to lots of small ones), get all the single player enjoyment included as part of that as well as the multiplayer element with none of the additional costs (you don't even need to leave the house to play multiplayer). For that reason I completely agree with you; if they had the card game (either Pokémon TCG or the Smash Bros one mentioned) included in a videogame I'd be really up for it, but I can't justify buying loads of playing cards really.
Re: Video: Join Us For A Relaxing Weekend Drive Around Mario Kart 8's Vintage Circuits
Some of those tracks were barely recognisable; Wario Stadium in particular was one I didn't see the resemblance to until right at the end. Which is really good actually, I'd rather have newer feeling tracks than converted copies of stuff I already have on other games.
Re: Guide: How to Become a Pokémon Battle Tournament Master
@Fireninjastar This event just focused upon the videogame, and I assume as a videogame site it'd probably get coverage priority over the card game if there were a joint tournament anyway. There are plenty of sites out there that cover the TCG though if that's what you're interested in. And who knows, maybe nintendolife will cover the TCG as well when the UK VGC happens later this month?
As for everyone who's saying they've only had negative experiences with the community, that's really disappointing to hear. My own experiences have largely been really positive, and whilst I wont pretend that some people don't take everything too seriously I'd have said overall the competitive community is a really friendly and approachable one.
Re: Mario Kart Month: An Outsider's View Of Super Mario Kart
I really dislike both the original and Super Circuit. The turning in particular is something I find really horrible, it seems to turn far too little at first before dramatically oversteering, and powersliding (hopping?) just doesn't seem to work. I've played both multiple times over the years but never for any extended period, so maybe I just haven't 'gotten it' yet, but I just don't understand how people enjoy something you can't control properly. That said, I am still glad people enjoyed the original so much, as it led to one of the best multiplayer franchises in gaming.
Re: Talking Point: What We Want To See From Nintendo's Next Handheld
You're recommending that the console goes download only? I think you've forgotten the PSP Go (as has everyone else, which is the point), and perhaps more notably, the Xbox One lash back. It's not quite the same situation as that, but enough of the same arguments carry over to mean it'd be foolish to go digital only.
That said, I can't see the emphasis upon digital downloads disappearing either, that'll only continue to grow, just not at the expense of the physical cart slot.
Re: Upcoming Child of Light Patch to Rename Difficulty Settings
@sevex Pretty sure you can opt out of that when setting up the Uplay account (or just not bother signing in with it, I don't think I have). And you can activate Igniculus's abilities by clicking the right stick, if that helps. I agree with the auto-save only though, that's something I don't like about many modern games.
Re: Pokémon Moviegoers in Japan Can Receive Diancie and Darkrai
Does anyone else think of a rampaging Metapod when they read Cocoon of Destruction?
Re: Veronica Mars Star Kristen Bell Reveals Her Former Love for The Nintendo 64
It's scary how real life sneaks up on you. When growing up I had loads of free time but relatively little money, so games got replayed endlessly or traded in for new ones; I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many times I've played through the pre-Twilight Princess Zelda titles. Whilst I haven't sold a game in years and can still afford to buy almost everything I want new, I have barely any time to actually play them. I bought myself a PS3 at the start of last summer, and since then I've completed one full retail title on the console. I sometimes wonder if it'd be worth just giving up on everything for a bit and just spend days catching up on my backlog...
Re: Ninterview: Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman on Mastering Super Smash Bros.
I don't know what people are doing to their Gamecube controllers, the only one I've had break on me was my original and that was because I wore the cable out by wrapping it around the controller too often (blame Smash Bros). It's definitely my favourite gaming controller ever. It isn't perfect (I don't play many FPS's but I can see why the L/R buttons aren't great for them, the C stick is a little small for my liking and personally I'd prefer the Z button to be like the Dualshock R1. And clicky analogue sticks are cool as well ) but playing with iIt just feels... right. I haven't encountered anything as good before or since, and whilst it's great that it got another 5 years of life through the Wii it'd be a shame if the controller got abandoned now.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Will Run At A Silky-Smooth 60 Frames Per Second On 3DS, Even In 3D
That's pretty cool, and makes X and Y look even more embarrassing. Go into battle with two flying types (Moltres is the worst, it has to render both flying and fire animations) and the framerate struggles even in standard 2D, 3D is a complete mess. That a turn based game failed where a fighting game succeeds so fantastically is... well, as I said, embarrassing.
Re: Yoshi, Sheik, and Zero Suit Samus Confirmed as Challengers in Super Smash Bros.
I think the most significant part of this is that characters no longer change forms. It means both Zelda and Shiek get an extra move and I can play Samus again without having to worry about Smash Balls making her rubbish.
Re: Review: Rusty's Real Deal Baseball (3DS eShop)
"...The technological advancement of the 4DS by simply adding another number to the name of the console can be interpreted as a jab at the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One..."
I think you're perhaps reading into this a little too much. But if that's the route we're going then please can we over-analyse the Gameboy Horror from Luigi's Mansion?
Re: Game Boy Advance Games On The Wii U Virtual Console Are Single Player Only
I'd have thought it'd be obvious to have the gamepad be one player and the TV/Wiimote be the other...
Re: Pokémon Trading Card Game: XY - Flashfire Expansion Arrives on 7th May
@haniwa Up until B/W the TCG was actually really good at avoiding power creep, and then they just sort of went 'f*** it' and blew everything to stupid levels. If a Pokémon's got less than 170hp now it's susceptible to a turn one ko, it's pretty ridiculous tbh. Which is why I was interested in that Pyroar above, blocking all those fast overpowered basics that dominate at the moment.
Re: Guitar/DJ/Band Hero DLC Catalogues Getting Unplugged at the End of March
@Dark-Link73 ...uhh, what are you talking about? The bit you quoted states that everything you've downloaded will still be playable after the deadline. Meaning it's downloaded, on your machine, and nothing's going to happen to stop you from playing it. It's just the servers providing new downloads that'll be stopped; you wont be able to buy any new songs to accompany those ones you've already got.
As for me, there's a part of me that wants to go and pick some stuff up, there's some good songs on there the last time I checked, but the infrequency that I play GH combined with the fact that this would require me to put funds onto my Wii means I'll probably pass. If I had VC points spare I'd probably use them up on this, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to take advantage of.
Re: Twitch Claims Victory in Pokémon Crystal
@Pit-Stain Honestly, the sheer number of comments like this in the past for different sections that they then precede to blitz through means I have little doubt that any game that is put forward will be conquered. Wallace's gym is no more difficult than Jhotos Ice Cave, another section people were saying would never get completed in the run up to it.
Re: Soapbox: Nintendo Soundtracks - Where Are They?
Gamefreak are actually doing really well on releasing the soundtracks to the Pokémon franchise. And whilst I agree with the article overall, I often find official soundtracks can be a little hit and miss -the original OST for Tales of Symphonia sticks out as a particularly bad one. It's over four discs, which is exciting because it's got everything included (not just a small selection as some do), but it's all just taken from the game, looped once, then fades out. No particular order to it either, which means there's almost no flow to it at all. Thankfully Namco have gotten better at it since then, and not every company has quite that 'stick it on a disc and sell it' approach (Final Fantasy OST's tend to be amazing) but if Nintendos efforts would be in any way similar to that I think I'd be okay just sticking to fan remakes. Which is more or less what I do now, and some of them are incredible. Theophany's Time's End is one of my favourite albums of last year, and GlitchxCity's Pokémon tracks are fantastic.
Re: Talking Point: NFC And The GamePad Can Succeed If Nintendo Gives Players Control
"With NFC the potential for a Nintendo 'World', in which characters from various IPs do as they please in user-generated levels, is hugely exciting. With the principles of Infinity and Minecraft wrapped in Nintendo packaging it could be a huge selling point."
Yes! A sort of Smash Bros/Disney Infinity-like set up where you could buy 'trophies' similar to those from Smash Bros, scan them into a game and just... play. That's... I'm excited just thinking about it. And imagine if every piece of Nintendo branded merchandise in the future had an NFC bonus embedded in it or the packaging? You buy a soundtrack, the case unlocks that soundtrack in a game. Zelda Mangas unlocking artwork and weapons, or plushies unlocking characters.
I'd be bankrupt within weeks.
Re: Majora's Mask "Time's End" Music Beautifully Reimagined by Rozen
To anyone who enjoyed this, I can't recommend Theophany's Time's End album enough. Go listen.