Crunchewy

If the New Nintendo 3DS wasn't region locked this would be less of an issue and we could import a small New 3DS. Not that that would be the cheapest option, but at least it would be possible.

They managed to make Skylanders-like NFC figures confusing as heck. Plus the inability to save data from multiple games is far from ideal.

The lack of sales numbers for the Wii U console is disappointing. They can't be all that good given that. The game is awesome though. We love it!

The controls sounds weird, but I'll reserve judgement until I can try it.

The really great thing about the Polygon article is that their data comes from VGChartz. LOL.

Nintendo is getting into this game late. I hope it works out for them, but I'm a bit skeptical. Plus there's only a limited supply of Nintendo characters, unlike, say, Skylanders, where they can keep making new ones up and keep the franchise going until everyone is sick of it (which I keep thinking is going to be soon, but it hasn't petered out yet, so what do I know)?

They also need to stop being stubborn. Add an achievement/trophy system, for one. They are throwing money away with their stubbornness. They also need to stop being my kids' parents. Stupid stuff like how they won't let my kids use Youtube because they are (were) under 13. Nintendo won't let me make that decision. Of course I could have lied about their age, but I shouldn't have to. Let me be the parent, please. Having access disabled by default is fine, but let me override it.

They need to figure out how to make new IPs succeed.

I think Nintendo should stop being stubborn and update the Wii U to have a fully integrated system wide achievements/trophy system. People want that. The ones who don't can easily ignore them, but people that want them can't ignore the fact that it isn't there. I know quite a few people who are not buying a Wii U regardless of its games because it does not have such an achievements system. You can think they're crazy for it, but that doesn't fix the problem. I think adding a robust achievement system will boost sales.

The problem with the gamepad is that people don't see the value in it. Now once they have it they may find that they like it (I like off-TV play), but as far as making a purchasing decision, I think many people don't see what the point is of it. So in that light I think it was a mistake. They should have put the $100 or whatever toward something else, or lowered the cost $100. If they make the gamepad optional, though, then they might as well just discontinue it because nothing will support it after that.

I also think they need to stop relying so much on their staple characters and make new stuff, new IPs, new characters. They aren't going to sell as much in their first iteration, but you've got to keep trying and in future iterations, if the games are good, they'll take off and Nintendo will stop seeming so stale.

I'd like to believe this, but Nintendo HAS had a terrible year. Wii U sales are awful and while the 3DS is doing a lot better, it's sales are down. Now we like our Wii U, but Nintendo needs to get out of the dark ages. There's some things they can do. They can add a system wide achievement system. Yes I realize there are some Nintendo fans that think achievements are bad, but lots of people don't agree and won't even play games that don't offer achievements (and system wide ones). Of course that's only one thing, but it would be relatively easy to fix and you've got to start somewhere.

I hope they find success in year 2.

This is good, but they need to have a significant price cut. Go ahead and have an ambassador program to keep early adopters happy, but they need to cut the price.

At least my converting gizmo (cigarette to AC outlet) says it should only be used when the car is not running, I think it said due to power fluctuations. Or something. Not really sure why. In any case I'm not sure I'd try running a Wii U or any other console from it while driving anywhere. Maybe this is only a problem with the one I have?

IMHO, game and bios roms should be public domain after some number of years. NES should certainly be public domain, as should SNES, Genesis, TG16, etc. This stuff is old. Nintendo should be spending its time making new games, not reselling us old ones.

I was at PAX East and Nintendos showing was much better than Microsoft's and especially Sony. Sony's display was terrible. They showed exactly one game: Last of Us. No Vita at all. No other PS3 games nor PS4 anything. Microsoft had a better booth, definitely, but still they didn't really have anything new to show. Nintendo had playable demos of Wonderful 101, the new Luigi, new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, etc. Plus playable demos of Lego City and other existing games. And you could buy Luigi and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon a day early.

In fact we had two copies, and both cracked.

Our Action Replay disc cracked long ago - I think they made these discs with plywood, but I'm not sure.

@DePapier What I'm talking about is being connected to the internet via a cellular data connection. I think an Animal Crossing game could benefit from that. Having an internet connection 24/7, wherever you are (mostly). They could do interesting things with that.

It's both Nintendo's and EAs fault. Nintendo's for the weak sales performance of the Wii U so far, and EA's, of course, for trying to sell Wii U owners just ME3, while selling the trilogy on other platforms.

@Arcamenel, but wouldn't you like to see what they would come up with for cell phones and tablets? Unless they drop their hardware, that's not going to happen. Myself, I'd rather having Animal Crossing on my iPhone than an unconnected 3DS.

Going software only doesn't mean that Nintendo is going away, just making games for other platforms, like Sega. It has worked out pretty well for Sega. I think Nintendo would see a lot of success with the same approach. The question is would they have more success doing that, or sticking with making hardware too? I don't have the answer. I do know that if I could buy Super Mario Galaxy 3 on my Xbox 360, I would, and that would save me a good chunk of change.

I'm one who wishes they would do this, but I doubt they will because the 3DS is a pretty good success and the Vita is not. The Wii U is struggling, but I'm sure eventually it will pick up. I'm not a business person so I don't know what makes the most sense for them, but I would prefer if I could buy Nintendo games on the other consoles instead of having to buy a Nintendo console for Nintendo games.

That's pretty terrible. I hope they do change it so you can log in on other consoles, and such that you don't lose all your purchases if your Wii U gives up the ghost. Sometimes Nintendo is so freaking clueless. Plus some day I'd like to have 2 WIi U consoles (we have 2 Xbox 360s). This locked to a single system stuff is bull.

Also I like the composite character much better than the one above. See the blog post.

Is ONM "Official Nintendo Magazine"? That's not in the US. Or are they going to bring it to the US? If not, what are they doing for those of us here?

My oldest son is going to be distraught. He looks forward to every issue. I hope they figure out some way to keep it going.

This game makes sense as a 99 cent time waster on iOS (or when I got it when it went on sale for free), not so much for 8 whopping dollars. Ouch.

Are these the ones that they won't sell? I think that's pretty dumb. My kids would like some of these, but because we didn't get a 3DS until this xmas, they are SOL? It makes no sense. Give the games free to ambassadors, absolutely, but not sell them at all to others? Why?

@siddharthbandhu: I bought a 3DS for my kids for Xmas. I'll try it out too, but probably won't play it much. Mostly for them.

This is certainly good, but Microsoft reported that in November they sold 1.7 million Xbox 360s in the US. Nearly double what the Wii sold. Of course, and on the other hand, Microsoft's sales in Japan are never even remotely pretty, LOL.

@23 - if they could patch games, they would have patched Metroid Other M. They didn't. They can't.

The WiiU can't get here fast enough... at least I'm presuming that it will allow for downloadable game patches. Knowing Nintendo, I guess that isn't really a given, is it?

Will this be coming to the US before Xmas? At all?

@thanos, except this time each sale is lost money, not money made. Of course they hope to make up the difference with software and accessory sales.

As far as the 3DS never having been in trouble, @1Robb92, that's a pretty ridiculous thing to say, seeing how Nintendo itself seemed to think it was in big trouble and needed a precent setting price drop to get it going.

Hopefully this does the trick, though actually I kind of hope that Nintendo gets out of the console hardware business and starts making games for other systems, similar to what Sega did, albeit hopefully a lot better!

There's no way around it... that is an embarrassment. What were they thinking? That and the WiiU controller. It really feels like desperate times for Nintendo. They are just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. Well, I'd actually like to see them become a software company anyway, so maybe it's just as well. If their hardware efforts continue to tank maybe that will happen. I'd love to see what they could up with for Kinect, for example.

And EA is totally confident in 3D too! Errr... wait a sec....

Nintendo has certainly become the company for sequels. Will we ever see a good new IP from Nintendo again? Mind you, my kids will eat it up, but I find myself less and less excited about Nintendo franchises all the time.

So you'll have to buy the games over again, and the thing doesn't have a big HDD to hold the games anyway, only flash memory? Well, I guess they could limit it to only small games. I'm sure there are some, but I imagine the selection will be paltry and unimpressive. I think I'll just keep the Wii non-U for gamecube games. Plus who knows if we're going to be able to transfer our WiiWare and VC games.

This is great, but since we only have one DSi (and two DS Lites), it's not as interesting to me. I'll still download it for sure, though.

I'm sure I won't be with the majority on this, but I'd be a lot more interested in this game if they scraped plans to release it on the Wii and instead reworked and released it for the Wii U, with a global achievements system, HD graphics, etc. I doubt I'll play this game at all on the Wii. However, my 10 year old will, so we'll get it anyway.

I played Snail Mail on my iPhone a few years ago, I think? It's OK. Well, it was OK for that time, but now it will seem pretty pathetic.

3DS needs a price cut. End of story. If it hits $200 or less, I can see getting one for my kids to share around xmas time. Otherwise they're going to go without. If they drop it to $150, which is where it should be, I would probably buy 2, one for each of my kids, so I'd suggest they do that.

I can't say that I'm excited. Episode 1 was pretty bad.

I think that's good news, but I'm still not sold on the new controller, mainly because it would seem to bring the focus of the Wii U full circle to single-player per console experiences. Actually more then full circle. It's back to nothing before it. Even the Atari 2600 and even pong supported and promoted more then one player. Even if the Wii U supports multiple such controllers, they are going to be so expensive that almost no one will have more then one and so developers will not bother to develop local multiplayer games, aside from the one-off game that combines a new controller with Wii Remotes.

I tried to play this on the N64 and didn't get far. I like my Zelda games 2D, and I don't mean 2D 3D, I mean 2D.

If it's like the 3DS, then they can hang it up. Per-console friend codes? Friend codes in the first place? Yeah, that's as easy to remember and give to someone, and for them to remember as, say, a username. Please tell me that Nintendo does not see the 3DS's approach as the answer.

But all these games will have been out on the PS3 and Xbox for a year before the Wii U is even released. Why is anyone excited about this? And odds are that the Wii U is going to cost more then PS3 and 360, so you could save yourself a lot of money and buy one of those if you don't already have it, and play these games much earlier as well. What we need are announcements of new games, especially exclusives.

Wii U is a mess IMHO. Nifty controller, but you're only ever going to have one of them as Wii U doesn't support more then one. What in the world were they thinking? They go from the developer who created the first 4 player console to the first to go almost exclusively single-player, except for online and the oddball game here and there that combines the new controller with Wii Remotes for other players. I'll still be interested, but a lot less then I was before the announcements. Disappointing.