Comments 337

Re: Did Sumo Digital Just Tease A Sonic Racing And Mario Kart Crossover?

Grackler

I think Nintendo have Sumo to thank for the viability of this SEGA-Ninty cross-over deal.
In SAASR:T, they made a game that really used the Wii U (looked nicer, handled great, 5-player and off-screen play), and by all accounts they got some stunning sales as a result. Despite the massive gulf in userbase, they managed to sell as many on Wii U (it was a little over quarter of a million on all home formats at one point, I recall an article saying) as on the other 2 consoles, which had a much larger install base. I would guess the 3DS one trounced the Vita version too.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I reckon if I was at SEGA, those figure combined with the mass exodus of Western devs would lead me to seeing major untapped potential in the Wii U audience going forward, especially with Ninty helping to push the product! Who knows what they might do together next?

Re: Nintendo Claiming Ad Revenue On YouTube User-Generated Gameplay Videos

Grackler

@AceTrainerAndy By saying you will bad-mouth Ninty products if they don't let you make money of let's playing, doesn't that somewhat imply that the actual quality of the product and games doesn't matter to you? Should they have trusted your advice to "buy a WiiU" in the first place? Can you not accept that people might like and want to play on something you aren't making money off? I can understand your frustration, but it sounds like you are throwing your actual opinion out of the window and letting the money talk for you here.

Re: Mario Kart, Wii Sports And Animal Crossing Named In Violent Games Rundown

Grackler

I guess it's due to it been out of office hours, but since there's several of us down here pointing out the mis-information in the piece, I hope it's updated in the morning to reflect what the Guardian survey actually says.

These comments show that the article content has skewed people's view of the facts, so for the sake of journalist integrity, the data presented should be updated in the article, or the content justified (particularly the "trying to insinuate that family-friendly Nintendo titles are somehow harbingers of senseless violence" line). Come on NL!

Re: Mario Kart, Wii Sports And Animal Crossing Named In Violent Games Rundown

Grackler

After what @Peach64 said I got home and watched it...
You really need to look at the linked article and re-consider what you've put here. "However, by trying to insinuate that family-friendly Nintendo titles are somehow harbingers of senseless violence".
Where does that occur?
The video there also makes a point of highlighting the LACK of violence in Nintendo's sport games compared to the generic label applied, otherwise the games there are just the top 50 sellers of the year, in which Nintendo feature heavily.
I feel this is an incorrectly reported story: the last line makes sense, but the rest is off. Nowhere does "The Guardian" say anything about it's opinion of the violence in the games, and the selection is based on (probably poor, but regardless) sales data of the top 50 games and the labels the ERSB has attached to them. it is a gathering of facts. If I have misread this or missed a link to an opinion piece, please correct me!
But at the moment there's a screen of hoo-har and Guardian-bashing about something that isn't even the case, and just reading the above text (and not the link) is what has caused it.

Re: Mario Kart, Wii Sports And Animal Crossing Named In Violent Games Rundown

Grackler

To be fair, the chart linked doesn't seem to indicate the games are violent or that games generally cause violence. I can't watch the video (so correct me if I'm wrong), but I think saying they "called out" Nintendo games for violent content is probably exaggerating it a tad to make an issue out of it.

Also: "Source: VGChartz" OLOLOLOLOLOLOL! The figure there are tosh, especially for Europe. Really, a proper paper like The Grauniad should know better!

Re: Talking Point: An Open Letter To Nintendo

Grackler

When did gamers start caring about stocks and sales so much? Why is every games sites comment section so obsessed with the WiiU performance in shops? Sure, a successful machine could mean more games, but I've had some of my best gaming years on the N64 and Gamecube, commercial flops compared to rivals.
I love the WiiU. The console feels amazing to use, the features are lovely, the online shops are lovely, there's no nasty DRM-lockout-preowned-bonsense, the games are original (or just ultimately polished versions of great titles), and Nintendo have made all the right noises when it comes to new games and updates (in seriously exciting and earnest broadcasts).
I'm looking forward to the next year with relish. If it's selling or not, Nintendo is doing what I personally want out of gaming, and I'm ready for a awesome ride. Anyone who's in this for the sheer, unadulterated fun of it all is welcome to join!

Re: Nintendo's Stock Price Jumps Higher than Mario

Grackler

@pashaveliki Pretty much any multi-format site's comments on a Nintendo article are endless rants about how poor business performance mean the device they've never used is awful and somehow a personal attack on their "hardcore" values...

Re: Talking Point: Nintendo Should Offer Indie Game Bundles

Grackler

Sales would so help. Steam gets constant purchases from me thanks to them, and I end up paying more than I would without them, no doubt. Also: general support for the e/u/wii shops, it's good to be a little hands-off on people's work, but it does sound like Q&A testing just takes too long.

Re: Nintendo UK Boss David Yarnton Suffers Health Scare

Grackler

@BudrSbastig Well, if you don't why bother commenting? In fact, if your being pedantic about news content, when does anything posted on a sodding gaming website constitute SUPAIMPORTENTNEWSS1111!!!!eleventy-one!!!! It's about nintendo, not global politics, get over yourself.

Glad to hear he's ok!

Re: Video Games Become the Biggest Entertainment Medium in UK

Grackler

The UK is an odd one: on the one hand I heard it's the second biggest gaming nation in the world after the USA (bigger than Japan!), and per head of population even more into games than Japan and the USA, but the culture isn't exactly "game friendly". The press disregard gaming at best, and villainize it at worst (Murdoch and co), and it's much less culturally accepted than in Japan. Still, selling is good, lets hope this much delayed tax relief brings some of the talented development studios back!

Re: Pokémon Champion Stripped of Title After Hotel Incident

Grackler

Good thing, childish behaviour at a proper event smears the reputation of everyone. Also: smells bad! I also think it's a bit rich that he gets to enter in several different countries. Don't get me wrong, people of any nationality should be able to enter the UK championships to ensure everyone gets a fair shot. However if what people said on ONM forums is true (takes an entire shot of salt!) and he and his friends enter in every country's event to get a better chance of reaching the final, that's not on. There are many people who won't get a shot at it since these guys take up places multiple times over.

Re: Capcom Open to More 3DS Resident Evils

Grackler

Like many other here, loved Revelations to bits and I'm still playing it. Here's hoping sales keep going up, because not only would I like more, but I'd like to send a message that this kind of high-quality 3rd-party content is A Good Thing(tm)!

Re: Wii Motion Gaming Won't Guarantee Better Fitness

Grackler

While I don't really see "active" games as exercise, or even care if they are, this was a terrible study and its lack of scientific rigour should be addressed. Firstly, the sample size of both groups was only 78 children (39 per group), which is far too small (although they did mostly use a proper selection process to be fair). Secondly, the amount of time spent on each game wasn't factored in at all. Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, the "exercise" was recorded by an accelerometer at hip height to track leg movement and turn this into effective "Calories burnt" for an average child. This is very foolish, since the games selected involved mostly upper-body movement, which isn't tracked at all. Finally, currently what exercise actually is good for you is something still under debate (see BBC's '3 minutes intensive exercise' story this week), so sweeping statements like this without taking other work into consideration are stupid. Basically, this is a headline-grabbing non-story using statistics (as most if not all of the "Wii games are good for you" studies were too). Still, all the kids got to keep the Wii's and games, so at least they're happy!

Re: Pokémon Black & White Version 2 Announced

Grackler

Damn, I wanted a technically impressive Pokemon, and (though I maybe pre-judging), this will likely be the not-that-good-looking even-for-a-DS-game Black and White game engine. 3D battles Pokemon Company! You had it on the 64, Dragon Quest can do it, pleeeeaaase! A move to 3DS would force their hand, which is why I'd like it on that.

Re: Talking Point: 3DS Depends on Nintendo Titles for Success

Grackler

I think Nintendo are doing all they can, the rest is up to developers (to make lots of great games), and gamers to pay attention. Perhaps a change in advertising/selling tack would help too. At the moment, they all try and get one big burst of sales at launch and then mark success or condemnation based on that. If they go head to head with Ninty's top-flight titles, they will lose sales, simple as. No-ones going to let a new Zelda adventure go unplayed, and if, say, Rayman, Sonic or (even more difficult) a new IP stops appearing on shelves and advertising, people will forget about it unless they are in the small group of dedicated fans. A constant stock flow and more even advertising spread would really help. Resi: Revelations for example, sold out on day one around here, (with signs up, internet ads, the lot going), and that was it. They didn't announce new stock, stopped the adverts and it languished way out of sight in stores and website listings. Capcom wouldn't even tell me when it'd next be available! They didn't seem to care post-launch day. I just can't imagine it will get the general public buy-in if they don't wander in and consistently see it on shelves, or if it's not listed consistently as in-stock or advertised slightly online. Mario Kart Wii, Goldeneye, even the DS itself, all garnered massive sales though word of mouth and continued (slight) support over time. With DLC and the internet available to inform people, ever growing sales through word of mouth as wallets free up in dry-release spells is more than possible these days!

Re: Review: 3D Classics: Kid Icarus (3DSWare)

Grackler

I got the code e-mail....and it was missing the code! I'm not the only one either, there were several others with the same blank code entry commenting on the ONM story about Kid Icarus' release. No reply from Nintendo yet, so I'm hoping they're working on fixing it...

Re: Nintendo Donates 5,000 3DS Consoles to The Louvre

Grackler

I seem to remember Miyamoto doing a talk about the DS several years ago, and a custom device Ninty had designed based on it for museums in Japan. It had a form of tracking, so it knew which exhibit you where at, and would show you close-ups and extra information in menus, it looked really smart. Hopefully something similar is on these 3DS (like some AR tagging of picture features)

Re: Charts: 12th December 2011 (UK)

Grackler

It's always nice to have charts rather than vague, circumstantial guesses on how well these things are doing. Looking forward to having time to play Pullblox soon....