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If Nintendo talked more about its core franchises other than Mario (for example F-zero, Zelda), then headlines in the press would have been been: "Nintendo focuses on core Nintendo fans, abandons Wii Fit audience". The Zelda series is unfortunately irrelevant to most moms around the world.

If they talked about Mass Effect 3 and all the pixel shader effects supported... then presented a 10 minutes cinematic cutscene with some war-like scenes... then the headlines would have been: "Nintendo goes after Sony crowd, Wii U is a new home for ultraviolent games".

Instead, they did very well to explain how the new console expands on the Wii concept and brings families together. They showed how the family can give the Wii U GamePad to the five years old or to grandma and let them join the family fun.

I am surprised that people did not get it. The Wii U GamePad screen gives something to do to your girlfriend that doesn't care much about your weird passion. That's a good thing.

Well, the CNN correspondent wrote that the Wii U is an accessory to the Wii that makes the TV obsolete. That's all that he understood - and he helped to further spread the confusion.

Just as I expected:

The self-professed "biggest Nintendo fans ever" come out to complain about the new platform.

It happened with the Wii, it happened with the DS, it happene with the 3DS...

I got "Art of Balance TOUCH" and love it. Much better than the minigolf game from the same company...

Unfortunately it looks like it won't be a launch game for the Wii U (since the message on the SEGA blog says it will launch on 12 February 2013).

I personally do not need two circle pads on my 3DS. The console is fine as it is now.

The problem with Nintendo launches is that each successive iteration of its hardware is designed to appeal to a slightly wider audience than that of the previous console. This includes the GameCube, with its big green "A" button.

However, the gaming press and those who are going to buy the console at launch is made almost exclusively by enthusiastic gamers which prefer long games with plenty of content and hair-pulling difficulty. They will invariably claim that "Nintendo lost it".

This happened with the GameCube, the DS, the Wii and the 3DS. The number one hater against Nintendo at launch will be web sites like this one, and all the disappointed self-professed "biggest Nintendo fans".

Yet, if Nintendo launches the console with games that cater to this hardcore audience, they will fail to appeal to their intended audience. So Nintendo has to launch the console with quirky, strange games that use the particularities of the hardware... while appealing to a larger audience... while not spending three years to develop the game (which means short games).

Just wait, and you'll see how Nintendo Life gives a 6 to most Wii U launch games, complaining about their lack of contents, bla bla bla.

The update has also improved overall stability. Before the update, my system would freeze in Colors 3D if I scrolled too fast through the online gallery. That happened two or three times. Pressing the power button would not close Colors 3D - the whole system became unresponsive.

After the update, Colors 3D crashed again, in the same place. But the system did not freeze. Instead, I got a popup saying that the application had a problem and it was closed.

@BenAV : Do as as I did - remove it.

@ArcanaXVI Thank you for your post - I found it equally informative as the review.

@Phle: I totally agree, this is a great game.

I have the game and I must applaud this review. It really gives you an idea about what this game is like - instead of being a vehicle for the reviewer's attempts at cleverness. It also manages to convey what is the intended audience of this game.

@ BudrSbastig: Thanks for the tip, I'll give them a try!

@Koapa: I too found «Fun Fun Minigolf Touch» rather weak, and ended up removing it from the console. I purchased Speedthru half an hour ago and it's more engaging than the game mentioned above.

Actually I thought that it will be like the Fit game from Tetris Axis, but it is much more than that.

One thing that I love about this game is how replayable the levels are. The ability of turning up the heat makes each previous chapter feel completely new.

I put the touch screen controls for the land battles to maximum sensitivity, and that works great for me.

I will never forget the stream of rumors before the reveal of Wii U at E3. One such "reliable source" said that the Wii U uses haptic technology - where the touch screen would appear in relief to the touch... Yeah right...

It seems to me that some of the NintendoLife guys participating in this round table are big Nintendo fans, while others are rather casual players.

@BenAV: I totally agree with your assessment. There are better games on the eShop.

Your website is quite good. But the 3DS will attract lots of people that won't fit the profile of those that read gaming web sites.

The short description from the Nintendo Power magazine is very promising. Now where's the Amazon entry to preorder it?

So far I own 17 retail games for the 3DS.

To this I add my eShop games, and those received via the Ambassador program ("Yoshi's Island", what a masterpiece!)

There are enough games to eat up all my free time.

When I had a GameCube, I found that many, many game reviews on various web sites were spot on.

But with the 3DS, it's like many reviewers are playing a different game. Maybe now I'm in a different "market segment".

@James: When it comes to the 3DS, it appears to me that many professional reviewers are looking for things that are totally unimportant for me. For example: I don't think that Pilotwings Resort needs more content, I do not care that Resident Evil Mercenaries does not have a story, and the list goes on. Many reviews that I read for the 3DS seem to be written by people who mostly play PC games.

I'm 30 years old, got my 3DS at launch and used it every single day for at least an hour - and often more.

To somebody like me, who stopped playing video-games when he grew up and then got hooked back again by the 3DS, I would say:

Be warned that professional game reviewers now-days seem to be raised on Call of Duty and other disgusting war simulators. There are very few game reviewers that seem to be adequately equipped to make a proper assessment of a Nintendo 3DS game.

Also be warned that many people providing user reviews online do not even own the product that they talk about.

I purchased Pyramids based on the demo. Maybe this information helps somebody at Nintendo of Europe...

Haha, bring it to Europe now!

I am curious if this demo will be available in Scandinavian countries. The game was not distributed here, om some silly ground... I bought it online when it was released. There is absolutely no questionable content in the game. Moreover, it is a fantastic piece of software. It would be a shame to continue to prevent people from giving it a chance.

@BulbasaurusRex:

After playing the game this weekend, I agree too with your point number 2. I have to press Y, X, B as fast as possible... and I find that I am not as quick as required.

That's part of the reason why, for me, this game feels quite static in comparison to Dead or Alive Dimensions.

@ jamiljamtheman:
Many thanks for your impressions. I find that impressions like that, written by someone that seems a balanced person, are often equally valuable as a full review.

I love the 3D effect and I always play with it on. I am a bit disappointed with this... but it's not such a big deal. They probably had their (technical) reasons for this choice.

I received yesterday the Circle Pad Pro in a bundle with Resident Evil Revelations. It works well. However, I prefer to play the game without the accessory. The touchscreen camera controls are optimal, in my opinion.

Personally, I believe that this accessory is only for those who play many first-person shooters on other home consoles, and have some sort of a psychological barrier that prevents them from buying the Nintendo 3DS.

I am very sorry to hear this. They published Bloody Roar: Primal Fury on the GameCube, which was one of my favorite games.

I really hope that this game will be released in Europe as well!

I also own the SNES cartridge for the game, and this looks almost identical. In my opinion, this game looks better than its DS version, in which some backgrounds were removed.

These analysts are working for investment bankers and other professionals. So if anybody at all followed their advice, then this practically means that their wrong advice prevented people from earning money (or has even caused some to lose money).

Now, I happen to be familiar with the game industry. The lesson should be that, if I ever want to put some money in an industry that I don't know much about, then I shouldn't bet all my life savings on the analysis of one like Michael Pachter (and many other analysts)...

Some publication somewhere writes a fantasy piece called "What would it be like if Apple buys Nintendo?"... then other web sites find it on Google News and the news becomes "Rumour: Apple to buy Nintendo".

This phenomenon happens all the time...

I am very excited about this game. I'd like to see more adventure games on the 3DS!

I am very, very happy with this selection of games. There is truly something for everyone here. Thank you, Nintendo!

How is the the actual ghost fighting, compared to Face Raiders? Is it more complicated, or more simplistic?

@James - The update added something else in the 3DS Camera photo browser. Now you can pull the circle pad down, and it will zoom out of the picture to show you more of it.

@TWK Thanks for the update. I have deleted Zen Pinball (from the System Settings menu) and then redownloaded it from the shop. Now I get to the main menu in the game, but the game crashes while Loading the table.

I suspect it has to do with the fact that I have enabled the online leaderboards. Perhaps Nintendo changed some aspect of the way the console uses the Internet.

Anybody else has difficulties starting Zen Pinball 3D after the update?

The video recording is much better than I expected!

I'm not a big F1 fan, but I do like the 3DS and I have so far about twelve retail games, which I enjoyed a lot. However, this game was a disappointment for me. As the reviewer says, the AI can often be terribly aggressive and run into you when you least expect it. Moreover, the graphics are bad. Somebody getting this as their first 3DS game must know that the 3DS can do much better.

Actually this trailer has made me interested in this game.

I got Kirby's Adventure and I find it brilliant. It's amazing that it was a NES game - it looks better than many SNES games.

This game is exactly like LEGO. You have a number of pre-set elements, which you can combine in countless ways. Not all these elements are available from the start, but must be obtained from unlockable creatures (called Friends). The unlockable creatures are just like LEGO kits: they contain a mix of old and new elements, which you can use to make more interesting formees, or to tweak your initial formees.

I personally spent many hours over this weekend, trying to improve the looks of my earlier, crude models. It's a wonderful game and one that I highly recommend.

I bought Freakyforms and it is very nice. If you love to tinker with your Miis in the Mii Maker application, then you will love Freakyforms.

@zdyoshikpl

Oh no, you Facebook spammers hit NintendoLife too...

Funny, this appeared in Denmark last week already.