Drawdler

This... The vehicles aren't all they're showing of this game at Gamescom, is it?

Whenever I see these racing sequences, I can't help but think they just look less tight and entertaining than Mario Kart and kinda by-the-books in themselves... I wanna see more of the on-foot sections, so tired of seeing all the kart segments. They just don't look that fun. I wanna see what attacks the new characters have on the ground. I wanna see how I can upgrade them. I wanna think about how I could apply their moves against enemies. That's what I liked most about all the past games, and with the focus on vehicles in this game that aspect seems to be holding back the on-foot sections by breaking the pacing and forcing the devs to diverge attention to vehicles. I know you can also upgrade and mod vehicles, but they seem to be restricted to small areas and don't have the same personality as a Skylander, so I doubt I'd get attached to them. Plus, the Air and Land sections don't really look deeper than the past vehicle minigames.

That you can only have four players together online, and the rest are just CPUs, that seems like it'll hamper that part of the game too. it's just not as entertaining with less players, with CPUs taking extra places- you can't get as many people together and CPUs usually aren't fun to race.

When racing/playing co-op with friends online, is voice chat mandatory? That's what it sounds like. If I get this game I'd like to try the online out, but if I'm forced to use voice chat I'm not going to bother.

Also, is classic PVP still completely gone?

I've only played a few hours, but I really dislike the time system, because I think it adds tedium. I feel like just the masks could've added enough to the formula and I liked OoT3D, WWHD and SS much better by this point. I think I even liked ALBW better by now. I like MM3D so far, but the time system's put a huge damper on it for me.

I hate to say it, but I just liked OoT3D so much more, and MM3D makes me ache to replay OoT3D more than anything. That game had time cycles which gave some attachment and development to the characters, too. I think it did it much better, since the past/future system and time cycles didn't rush you, so you had time to appreciate everything.

Also, the framerate dips and occasional muddy textures are disappointing. Maybe I'm biased towards it, but I think OoT ran much better and had better graphics. Not to say some of the graphics weren't meh- OoT3D had flat stairs/fences and I remember a couple of iffy textures/models- but they seem more obvious in MM3D.

@Damo But how much is there to really say about them? There could be a similar article about Skylanders, or Infinity figures, but I can't remember seeing either of those despite them being around much longer. I know amiibo are more relevant to this site because they're made by Nintendo, it's just... There's already so much about amiibo (a whole forum for it here), when really, there isn't that much to discuss about them. I doubt there'll be anything very interesting until February. If any more amiibo articles, I think some featuring some nice customs would be different (Cheetimus has made the best I've seen). I've been pretty impressed with some of the customs I've seen but haven't seen compilations of cool-looking ones, or guides on how to make them, or anything like that. This article doesn't have anything I haven't seen before (which I guess is why I feel so fed up, this just feels like fluff).

@rjejr Phineas' eyes just creep me out! Perry looks fine, though. I agree the Marvel ones are some of the worse ones. I think the Wreck-it Ralph ones also look pretty good, but I might be biased. And the Frozen ones look really nice, even though I don't like that film. I think Randall is my favourite. I'm curious to see the Inside Out ones, if they make them (I'll definitely buy Disgust, just love her design so much).

Do we need so many amiibo articles? We've had three in the past day, and eight in the last week. They aren't that interesting. I was going to post about the amiibo I've collected but I already did it on the forums, and don't have anything to say about them that I haven't already.

@rjejr I actually like the stylisation of the Infinity figures, they're nice and slick more than cheap to me. Some of the characters look off in that style though (Phineas especially).

These are just like any other new characters to me. If Activision finally release all the figures we're missing in Australia, like Mirror of Mystery, then I'd be more amazed. We're so far behind this year, it's pathetic. We don't get these EPs until January, and haven't gotten a lot of Wave 2, and goodness knows when we'll get the Wave 3 Trap Masters like Blastermind or any more Minis. I was braced for bad releases, after SWAP Force, but this... My interest is very low with our release schedule.

To be honest, Smash and Shovel Knight were the only games I felt truly satisfied with, so I just voted for those and gave Smash U my overall GoTY. Every other game I would consider had some flaw that impacted my enjoyment or just didn't feel as polished and fun. The only other title like those two would maybe be Tropical Freeze. To be fair, I haven't played Bayo2, though.

@TheRealThanos I think it's a mix of both.

@Turnip-Forest As someone who prefers difficult games, eeyup.

I think Binacle is way worse than Barbaracle and I like most of the inatimate object Pokémon because making them into animated creatures is much more creative than most of the normal Pokémon designs.

Wow that list was... Very objectionable.

And a spot for Gen V 'mons (which imo get way too much hate), but Cryogonal doesn't appear. I think that's the single worst-designed Pokémon. It manages to look overly complex and overly plain and boring at the same time. I keep forgetting that it even exists.

I love the impicaions of the Dedede one XD

But guys, you forgot about Alfonzo.

Best comments section. And look, I got the 99th post here! Congrats to whoever gets the 100th.

I hope they finally update Smash to add amiibo compatability. Hopefully by the end of the year. I'd love to use amiibo with my N3DS because I get to play it much more than my Wii U.

Looks much better than it used to, but still looks to have bad framerate and ugly textures. Those aside, it actually seems like it could be a good clone for the Wii U- but since I already own Minecraft, I see no reason to play this.

Her expression can convey a gentle smile or the determined stare of a lady who knows it's fate-change o'clock.

Dammit you missed the chance to make a joke about scale-tipping

In all seriousness: That looks fantastic. I won't buy it, though, because it's not exactly cheap for one figurine. Not that expensive, but not something you could splurge on. I like Lucina and this figure, but definitely not THAT much.

This was actually the best surprise in the whole show for me.

Been a while since their last game, hasn't it? I'm glad they're finally be releasing something again, but I'll still have to wait, since I'm in Aus.

Yeah, it' pretty decent. I really enjoyed some of it, particularly Episode 3. It's heavily plot-of-the-week-ish, but for the most part it isn't badly written, enjoyable and short enough to check out, and it has some solid concepts. I'd like to see it develop more.

@TeeJay I had a look around and Hoopa-U/the new Shiny Megas popped up around Oct 16. Discovery of the form is almost two months old (and it's not like Hyperspace Fury was discovered much later, either). There was footage of it in-battle using HF the day before release, posted by the same YouTuber that made the video shown here.

The sprite suggesting at a Mega Evolution was in the ORAS demo files, not X and Y's.

Also, I hate to be "that guy" (and I'm sure you've got reasons), but... You guys were pretty slow to post about Hoopa-U.

@WaveWarlo Woah, not often that you see hand-drawn animations from Nintendo now. Cool ad.

This is some of the best spritework I've seen... So many beautiful colours and well-defined details. The moon's even wearing a grin.

I'm using the black one because it goes with my console. The Smash logo stands out more, too. If I were nostalgic for the GameCube, however, I would probably splurge on one because it looks just like the classic GameCube controller.

And Pac-Man is so charming and fun in Smash Bros. He's one of my favourites just because of his personality, even though I like other characters with fairly similar playstyles a lot better. It's sad when the companies that own the rights to these characters are doing a worse job at representing them properly, than another company borrowing them for a mascot fighter.

@ekreig Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (yes, the 3DS version) can be expensive and is kind of short but if you're into the figures, it's also wonderfully addictive for levelling them and in general is a well-polished and fun game.
The sequels are fairly average, but enjoyable (except for Giants, which is bad- plain game and art design, bogged down by performance issues- at best, it's a neat distraction for someone into the series).

Version 1.2 used Flamethrower! Version 1.1 was defrosted!

I feel really sad, yet intrigued...

It's always interesting to hear about cancelled games... But Crash has been dead since 2008 and hasn't had a great home console game for longer (though CoTT DS was fairly good). Fans keep finding resources related to cancelled games and believable hints toward new ones.
I lost hope of a new Crash game ages ago and as someone who grew up with Crash 3, his current state makes me upset. Same with Spyro, but at least the general public still know him somewhat (albiet, an incarnation that has no significant role in the latest games he appears).

BOOST RING!

Guys, you forgot to report about another graphics glitch someone had. Now THIS is nightmare fuel!
http://youtu.be/gPWRuPMJBEA
http://youtu.be/T0PNsPaEAlY
http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/2lsx1i/my_smash_bros_game_is_getting_way_too_glitchy/

Yes, I'm glad Tetris DS is getting some love here! I don't even like arcade games much, but that's one of my favourite games of all time, due to its Nintendo charm and sheer content. I still play it fairly often.

@baba_944 The funny thing is that it even fails at being a prequel. No worldbuilding that makes the show seem more interesting or deep, and so far, the main antagonist Lyric hasn't been mentioned in the TV show at all.
There are locations in the TV show you never see or hear about in the game and the locations in the game seem completely unrelated to those of the show (so far, at least, they might explore them later though).

The show itself is actually decent, nothing special, but has a couple of good moments (Ep 3 is the best so far). I'm keeping an eye on it because I think it has potential and could get really good later on.

@Kaze_Memaryu Cheper than all the copies on eBay
@Noelemahc It's worse because there's already 3DS piracy...
@Sforzando THANK YOU. Sadly, most people will probably miss your post...

Speaking of DLC, it was finally officially confirmed you can buy Mewtwo for Sm4sh seperately from the promo. https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/535440805054672896?s=09

Not only was it removed from the Japanese eShop, EB in Aus are recalling all their copies. It was pulled from their site and has a price of $9999 (same as pre-orders) in their system.

I got a New 3DS XL. I wish amiibo had launched today here.

I'm getting ORAS for Christmas.

Good. I wasn't going to pay for this. Then again, I never use the 3DS browser.

Amazing how an exploit was discovered through something so obscure.

Reviewer confirms no Battle Frontier but it's hinted to appear later somehow.

The thing that bothers me about the water is that it feels so much emptier than land. There isn't anything to do aside from battle trainers and wild Pokémon, with occasional island city and the rare random island. There's no puzzles or hidden items like on land, sans the route west of Pacifidlog, which is optional and doesn't excuse all the other, mostly-empty routes.
I don't know if they've added anything more interesting to explore like extra dive spots, but that could've helped without removing water or changing way you move accross the routes. Even if those didn't have extra puzzles, being on water and looking for areas that might have extra items would be more interesting.

@Porky I agree, though I love how the 3D battles and some environments look. Most of the characters looked kinda silly when the series was 2D as well, but I think it's a bit more charming and excusable there (and that they did a better job with sprites in general, but that's probably because of experience over time).

If you are planning to trade or battle with someone on X & Y, you’ll have to adhere to the rules in your opponent’s game, which means you cannot use the new Mega Evolutions or trade Pokémon holding any of the new items. This makes a lot of sense

Didn't the DS games let you use new forms against older games, like a Sky Shaymin against Diamond/Pearl? I might be misremembering, but I thought they'd appear as their old forms but with new stats and such. Assuming that's right, the only reason I can think that isn't the case here is because of the new moves added for the cover legends (I don't think they added new moves between any other games of a gen).

These games look kinda disappointing to me. I think I'd enjoy them more than XY, but those are my least favourite Pokémon games, so that's not saying much. I'm going to wait until Christmas to get these because a couple of the new features seem cool and would probably make it worthwhile, but I've got enough of a Poké-fix and it doesn't seem marginally better.

@Ninjaboy666 They probably can't because of embargo.

ITT: most people don't know that we already have 3DS piracy

Happy birthday, Miyamoto-san. You have such a clear passion for your work, just seeing you in a Nintendo Direct is enough to cheer me up.

To be honest, the only one I really really want is Robin and to a lesser extent, Greninja. The more I see of them, the less I want them, because it seems like new kinks with these keep coming up. Out of the currently announced ones, I think I want Bowser most, possibly Dedede- but I'm not sure if I'll buy both of those. I might buy Mario or Kirby at launch, just so I have an amiibo to play with straight away.

I just realised how the center of Rosalina's wand isn't actually hollow like it should be and how her fingers are so darn thick. She definitely isn't on my to-buy list, especially because the support for Luma sticks out quite a bit.

I love how this suddenly became a hot game again

Boo! Hiss!

Is this really what they had to announce in CoroCoro? Maybe my expectations were too high, but I'm disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I think this sounds cool, but I expect it to be the equivalent of the Looker Missions in XY and not last very long. The extra legendaries don't suck me in, either, since I already have an almost-complete living Dex that includes all of those so I have no motivation to catch 'em (unless I reset for good IVs and nature, which I have no interest in after that stopped me progressing beyond Xerneas for weeks). SoulSilver is still my favourite Pokémon game.

Ocarina of Time can be cleared in twenty minutes, but speedrunning exploits in that game (and many others) aren't so stupidly easy. Most glitches and unpolished details aren't as blatant as those in Boom seem to be.

@BakaKnight said it perfectly. I've watched 3/4 of the game and it doesn't look like it gets much better. If anything, I think it looks worse later on, because the later enemies sponge up dozens of hits and the puzzles/platforming hardly improve.

I want a DLC pack with the amazing, the almighty, the legendary CHEESE LAND!

The pic with Shulk's alts is my favourites. It's so cool to have them lined up like that!

Some great pics this week, there were a few times where I reconsidered my vote.

I'm glad that I decided to wait for reviews. Really, really glad. This looks like a huge but empty, not very polished or interesting game. Hopefully it's better later on, but what I've seen hasn't left a good impression.

I went and watched other videos of the final version with gameplay of the first full level, not the hub. Impressions stand unwavered.

@Jazzer94 i never realised Marth's face changed. The final version looks silly. The more I see of amiibo, the less interested I become.

I'm not going to subscribe to this, because I'm only planning to buy a couple (and I'd like to search for the best-looking ones), plus it's too expensive.

I was reading the first sentence and expected to hear about cheap difficulty with platforms disappearing and such. I assumed it was a sidescroller, didn't know it was another FB clone. There are too many popping up lately.