EllenJMiller

Only 35 days until the Nintendo Downloads should get interesting again, with the launch of the Switch at the end of that week.

Well, I hope they get interesting again. They can't get worse than some of the weeks we've had, right?

Sounds like there's some kind of Unprecedented Partnership going on.

I really, really doubt EA's words until we see some actual deeds. That means more than just FIFA 18 announced to be coming for it.

I'm holding out hope for a physical release of all three and the amiibo, BoxBoy has been a gem this gen.

Okay, I'll place my bet: FIFA 18 will come to Nintendo Switch on Friday September 29th 2017, and will be not only the sole FIFA game on the system, but the sole EA game on the Switch.

Just to add my reasoning: With Super Mario Odyssey scheduled as a Holiday 2017 title, that leaves 1-2 months before it comes out? A full fledged Mario game will sell systems in the holiday season but by that point EA may have looked at FIFA launch/1 month numbers and come to a decision.

Hoping for Fire Emblem Warriors news, and Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn HD Collection.

Unless there's a lot more to it I'll switch this. I already own the HD Remix on 360, on the Capcom Digital Collection disk.

Now if it was Ultra Street Fighter Alpha 3 HD Remix you would not be able to stop me from getting it at launch.

I've been hoping for this to come West for a while, so I'll grab it.

Now if we could also get Tetris Switch done by Nintendo, including all the Ninty love that Tetris DS did...

Suda51's brand of enthusiasm transcends languages anyway. With all the puroresu references Nintendo's guy didn't stand a chance.

@Shiryu It was the first thing I looked for when I found a PSP in a charity shop almost brand new for £25.

@Shiryu At least with the PSP you can get a Micro SD > Memory Stick Pro Duo Adapter and save a lot, unlike with the Vita memory cards.

Amazon has a SanDisk 64GB MicroSDXC for just under £18 if you don't feel like dropping that much cash for 256GB, and 128GB for under £45.

After all the gumf with their 'unprecedented partnership' and how little that meant, in this case I think seeing will be believing.

The main thing that worries me about the current known lineup is we've had 2 years of Wii U releases slowing down (plus some very cheap efforts like Amiibo Festival and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash), and a number of Wii U to 3DS ports, and yet it seems there's nothing to show for it.

Especially with the worries from previous Nintendo systems about software drought, and the lack of 3rd party stuff and some of the known stuff being late ports (see: Skyrim).

I'm not sure which is more baffling, the needing an app on a smart device for chat (when there are plenty of free options available if you're using an external device/program), or getting 1 NES or SNES game to play for no longer than a month.

Xbox Gold/PS+ at least let you keep the games while subscribed, and as it stands we'll probably have to buy Virtual Console titles again for what, a third time now? And if the exclusive discounts are anything like the My Nintendo discounts then I think you could probably just save money by not paying for Online.

Also, would Splatoon have been as popular as it was if it was locked off from online play by a paid online service?

Expensive console, expensive games, paid online...

In a year's time he'll say the exact same thing. New Nintendo console, old Nintendo problems.

Suffering is the sauce that makes good things even better.

I sold my copy of Pokemon Moon for a quid less than I bought it for. I just couldn't get into this gen no matter how much I tried.

I'm kind of glad that these sales have been so bad, I can save my money and recover from Christmas spending.

My only digital purchase in the Christmas sales was Yakuza 5 at £10.99 for the PS3. Now that's a deal.

Merry Christmas to you all!

@samuelvictor Later on I picked up Gungriffon, NiGHTS into Dreams, Burnign Rangers, Sonic R, Fighters Megamix, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Virtual On, and the fantastic Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka. Very very fond memories of the Saturn, had some fantastic games that couldn't be found elsewhere (and many still can't)

Christmas 1994? I didn't have my own console yet so no gaming stuff, just playing what my brothers got. It was 1997 when I got my first console just for me, a SEGA Saturn with Sonic Jam, SEGA Rally, and Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams from the cover of the Official UK SEGA Saturn Magazine. As soon as the shops in town opened after Christmas Dad took me and my brothers in to spend our Christmas money, and I picked up Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Virtua Fighter 2.

My Saturn will be 19 this year and is still going strong, thanks to the addition of a 4M so I can muddle my way through imports and regret that I'll never be able to comprehend Japanese enough to play Kenji Eno's Real Sound: Kaze no Regret.

I'll grab D and Enemy Zero some day for it.

Pre-ordered. Splatoon has some cracking art.

At this point I just want them to release them as eShop titles. Especially Power Drift and Puyo Puyo 2 from the previous collection that they botched the release of.

@DanteSolablood Or a look back at some of the terrible video game shows in the UK.

Gamezville retrospective?

I'm waiting on Darksiders Warmastered Edition to come out (though part of me wonders if it will be cancelled), the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild, and then waiting for a few of the titles I'm missing to grab at a cheaper price.

It's okay, Wii U. I still love you. It'll be three years of us this Christmas, and I don't mind that everyone is cancelling their games for you. We'll always have Bayonetta 2. It's not Christmas without caviar, after all.

Anniversary edition re-release of Dream Collection including Europe please.

4am? Looks like I'll grab an early night and set my alarm for that.

I'll grab the free SMT4A and 7th Dragon DLC.

I'd love Gamecube and Wii games at the least so we could get the two Fire Emblem titles on those systems without paying outrageous prices.

... Hell, I'd listen to it just for finding out what Tatsunoko vs Capcom would sound like.

I think the only time I'd take mine out of the dock is if it has a touch screen to use it for inputting information, like when purchasing things on the eShop. When I've had to put Xbox store cards in on my 360, I've loathed using the pad for doing such.

I barely take my 3DS out with me for fear of damage/loss, I won't be doing it with a Switch.

I'm only entering this excellent and generous giveaway for 2BA Master.

... Getting close to the time of year I need to listen to Pokemon Christmas Bash, too.

Make the 3DS and Wii U (and vWii mode) region free and that'll take away a reason for a chunk of people to modify their system.

Tech Romancer, Plasma Sword/Star Gladiator, Rival Schools.

Even just HD versions of TR/Plasma Sword/Project Justice would do me just fine, Capcom.

I hope both come to Europe.
And then a Pullblox collection + amiibo.

Has 7th Dragon III come out in stores yet? I thought my copy would arrive along with SMT4:A, but it is still listed as pre-release, GAME have it as TBC 2017, and Amazon apparently have it.

It wasn't even Witcher 3 that won Best RPG, it was Witcher 3 DLC.

I do think some games get robbed by grouping handheld and mobile together, they're different beasts entirely.

Just as a note, you also get 30 platinum coins each week for checking nintendo.co.uk and so on when you're signed in with your Nintendo account.

LEGO is the only true Toy-to-Life, as by the nature of it being LEGO it is playable with on its own and with other LEGO sets. Amiibo are just little statues but have a big brand behind it.

There's Devil's Third T-shirts selling for £3 on Nintendo's Official UK web store. I ordered 3.

The console deals are a joke, I got my Wii U with 5 games for £280 back in December 2013 from GAME of all places.

As a heads up, you can get new physical copies of two of these games for cheaper on Amazon UK. Hyrule Warriors Legends at £21 and Star Fox Zero at £20. Also you can get a code for Star Fox Guard for £5.52.

Also I got my physical copy of Tokyo Mirage Sessions at launch for £1 cheaper than the digital sale price through My Nintendo.

@manu0 The DDP eShop codes could be spent on anything instead of what offers Nintendo puts up in the My Nintendo Rewards section. Often I'm getting offers for games I already own and very little to actually use them on. And when there's offers like this, it's much easier just to buy the physical copies and not that much difference in price. (Plus I could sell them on later or use them on another 3DS without having to transfer everything across.)

The only gold point deal that has been of use to me was the launch discount for Chase: Cold Case Investigations.

50 Gold Coins for 10% off? Jog on, Nintendo.

Disaster: Day of Crisis 2. The return of Raymond Bryce.

Fun game but I don't see any need to buy it again, so I'll pass on it. XCX on the other hand, if true... I'm a Monolithsoft mark.

Truth be told I'm considering selling mine. I've used it a bit but most of the games I'm interested in I already own on Virtual Console, and it doesn't play nice with my HDMI switcher meaning I have to go and set it up in another room.

If XCX gets a port I hope they make a number of improvements to it, like re-balancing the audio in cut-scenes, fixing the font size, improving the party selection screen so you don't have to track down party members each time, adding a time change option to the menu rather than having to find benches/base camps, changing how the augment and crafting system works so it doesn't require as much grinding to make even basic things, improving inventory management, improving party AI so they don't run off ledges into water they can't fight in/into lava...

And that's not even getting into hopes of adding to the story/post-game content.

(I did like XCX, but for all the places it stepped forwards from the first game, it stepped back a lot as well. Also someone really loved the visual of the party standing covering their faces as some kind of blast rushed by when it came to cutscenes. XC's were much better than XCX's.)

@BinaryFragger Yeah, definitely. If Iwata hadn't said about the NX, we'd have had a load of "Nintendo are going mobile/3rd party, Nintendo is doomed" posts, just a shame that to balance it out it took the knees out of the Wii U.

I used to say the Wii U was Nintendo's Dreamcast, but that's shifted to being Nintendo's Saturn. Iwata's statement announcing the development of a new gaming platform wasn't quite as snappy as Bernie Stolar's "The Saturn is not our future", but it sounded a similar death knell.

The past year or so of software has had a number of disappointments, and some of the games definitely feel low quality compare to previous installments in their franchises. Mario Tennis stands out particularly.

Still, I love the Saturn, and I love the Wii U. I've played so many great titles on it, from Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101 to Super Mario 3D World and Xenoblade X (though that isn't as good as its predecessor in many ways). Lots of great eshop titles too, and the option for playing Wii games on it has helped me dip into that library more. I've got a few more games I'd like to pick up for my system, from the good to the bad to the ugly to Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

I just wish it was region free so I could import a copy of the physical release of Giana Sisters, and Yakuza 1 & 2 HD. That's one of my biggest hopes for the Switch, that it loses the region requirements.