Haywired

So we have characters like Incineroar, who I've got to be honest, I'd never even heard of. Characters like Cloud, who have almost no relevance to Nintendo consoles. Characters like Isabelle, who are not remotely fighting characters. The most excessive, bloated character roster ever, and yet... still no Dixie Kong!

This game just gets more and more bloated every time you hear about it... At this rate, 90% of your play time will be in the damn character and level select screens. What is it like 100+ stages and 80+ characters now or something...? I think I'd take the 9 stages and 12 characters of the original over this "exhausting/overwhelming amount of content" approach any day, but maybe that's just me.

@Yasume
Amazon UK

I thought Death Mark was supposed to be coming out today, but it seems it's been pushed back to February.

"Continuing With Efforts To Expand Sales" Until they completely run out of phoned-in remakes, compilations and Kirby games to put on there.

Not sure if I'll like it, but I'm very intrigued and will probably give it a go.

How the hell (no pun intended...) did this only get an 8?

I have a backlog to get through, so if 2018 has been a slow year for big new titles, I've been more than grateful for it.

@RedMageLanakyn @SBandy
I guess Nintendo consoles being superior to phones is what we have to cling to nowadays.

@TheFox
Yeah, the amount of comments I saw after the StarFox reveal along the lines of "I had no interest in this game, but now it's a must-buy!" It's like; yeah thanks, you're really doing wonders for the old Nintendo fan/third-party games stereotype there.... I guess Ubisoft's policy is that Nintendo fans are like babies who'll only take medicine if it's hidden in their food.

I'm guessing, like Mario & Rabbids (as we all know a Rabbids game on its own wouldn't have got 9/10), that this means 8/10 [+1 because Nintendo characters]. Kudos to Ubisoft, they know exactly what they're doing with all this...

My favourite Mario Party memories were at university where my friends and I would play Mario Party 6 on Gamecube all the time (including much hilarity with the frankly broken microphone minigames). Mario Party is a great multiplayer experience because its gentle pace means you can kind of just chat while playing, unlike say an intense racing or fighting game where you're kind in your own little zone.

0:37 in the video. Jesus Christ... How is this still a thing? 2007 nightmares...

I'm very fond of my Wii U game collection. And I do actually look back on the Wii U era with a surprising amount of fondness (certainly compared to the Wii era anyway). However the Wii U Gamepad was a terrible idea based around one good concept (Mario Chase). Everything else was contrived at best, or clunky and irritating at worst, often just making things needlessly convoluted. A solution desperately looking for a problem. Pausing the game to look down at a map on your controller instead of just pausing the game to look at a map on the screen you were already looking at was never going to be a killer app...

In any case, I actually still have my Wii U hooked up to the TV. For Netflix and the daunting prospect of Xenoblade Chronicles X which is still looming in my backlog...

Yeah, but have they finally included the map that came with every NES/Famicom version of the game, which showed the location of all the dungeons and the order of the first 4 (thus isn't quite as "open world" as people think)? They never seem to include this with the digital manual whenever they've ported it to various things and it always makes people think that the game is incredibly obscure and confusing, when this actually wasn't necessarily the case (at least not to that extent).

I love how you can do an article about a gaming innovation and clearly state that Nintendo had nothing to do with it and yet people in the comments will still try and credit it as one of Nintendo's innovations... I guess this is exactly how the "Nintendo does everything first" myth perpetuates, it's like some sort of selective blindness.

It's amazing how far motion controls in games have come. In the 80s they were awful, but nowadays they're errr... ever so slightly better than awful haha.

Same old boring FIFA at no.1... Should be an exciting fresh new franchise like Mario Party!

@CupidStunt
To be fair the SNES Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 did win a few Game of the Year awards back in the day.

@jhewitt3476
This wasn't a Nintendo product (as the article states, it was produced by Mattel. Nintendo was not involved with it).

Intriguing...

Looks pretty rad.

@Slim1999
Someone asked Nintendo about the future of dedicated handhelds and Nintendo simply said they "were considering many possibilities", which could just as easily mean there definitely won't be a 3DS successor as there will be. NintendoLife's misleading headline may have suggested that they confirmed a new 3DS, but they never actually said anything of the sort. Unless by 3DS successor, we're talking about the inevitable Switch Lite/Switch Mini/Switch Portable or whatever, then yes, that will most likely be the 3DS successor. After all, it would be pretty strange to unify their home and handheld divisions, make a hybrid console, put mainline Pokémon on it, and then disunify them a couple of years later.

@Spectra
There wasn't really any recent talk of a 3DS successor though. It was more a misleading headline from NintendoLife. Someone asked them about the future of dedicated handhelds and they just said they were considering many possibilities, which is basically a nothing answer that could just as well mean there definitely won't be a new 3DS as there will be. Personally I think the next dedicated handheld will be a smaller, more portable Switch Lite of some sort (as a hardware revision is, as always, 100% coming at some point and I doubt it's going to be a larger model). It wouldn't make much sense for Nintendo to unify their home and handheld divisions only to just disunify them a couple of years later. They're trying to keep the 3DS alive as much as they can now and eek as many last sales as they can because why wouldn't they, but once the Switch Lite hits I think that will be the end of it. I mean, mainline Pokémon is now a Switch game. And the Switch is basically already the new handheld in Japan even without the smaller version. Plus, after the 3DS and Wii U, neither 3D nor dual screens are really worth pursuing at this point. Their Switch/Switch Lite and Mobile ecosystem should have everything covered.

Fans of David Wise should check out his work on Tengami. I didn't really care much for the game itself, but one of its tracks I'd say is one of his best ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT9dtOHXz38

@Romeo-75
Yeah Donkey Kong Country is my favorite video game soundtrack ever and Gangplank Galleon theme my favorite track ever.

I don't think you can say "the PlayStation Portable ... a device created to tap the insanely popular Nintendo DS market" when they came out at the same time.

@Gauchorino
Are they really that different? The original Atari, Sega, Commodore, etc. retro consoles were mini retro plug n' play consoles with a load of preinstalled games. The NES/SNES Mini are mini retro plug n' play consoles with a load of preinstalled games. I'm not seeing what this big distinction is just so we can say that it was Nintendo's idea and anyone who comes after is copying them. I mean, if the Atari, Sega, Commodore ones had come out after the NES/SNES Mini somehow I doubt Nintendo fans would be picking at any minor differences to give them a pass.

I've seen some people say "Well Nintendo popularized them!", as if a) that's remotely the same as what they were first insinuating, b) As if that's relevant. c) The original retro consoles must have been successful enough to still be on the market to this day and successful enough for Nintendo to think that that could be a fruitful market for them to get into and d) As if Nintendo fans would be fine with it if it were the other way around. If Sony's next console was a complete rip-off of the Wii U for some reason, but they made it really successful, would Nintendo fans be like "Yeah cool, no worries, you popularized it, so, it's your innovation now. You can have it." Yeah right...

@bimmy-lee
Oh it's true. It's damn true. It would never... EEEEEEEVEEEERR... happen.

@Dr_Lugae
So what's so different about Nintendo's mini consoles to the previous mini consoles then? They're all basically the same concept/product.

For so many people I know, Goldeneye is like 90% of their N64 nostalgia. If it's not included, they're going to have to put a sticker on it like: "Warning: This does not include Goldeneye!"

@olrodlegacy
WWF No Mercy 2000 is like the final boss of licensing issues.

1. Sports/wrestling games are tricky enough anyway
2. THQ
3. WWF now WWE
4. Benoit (plus a load of other wrestlers in the game who have since died in tragic circumstances).

I think it's safe to say hell has more chance of freezing over.

Broken Sword 6: Stop Buying Swords Off Ebay

@Woosh193
Nintendolife is often definitely generous to Nintendo games in a way that it wouldn't be towards third party games, however they do give poor/mediocre reviews for Nintendo games. Off the top of my head; 1-2 Switch only got 6/10. Hey Pikmin and Triforce Heroes both got 6/10 (which I thought were harsh).

People saying that Sony don't innovate with their consoles; to be fair, if you had a business that was as successful as Sony's home console business, why would you drastically change it? I mean, they've made 4 home consoles and they make up 4 of the top 5 best-selling home consoles of all time. Plus they have actually put out a number of wacky, "innovative" (if Nintendo had done them...) games/peripherals/controllers in that time. Nintendo may have gone down the wacky/innovative console route in recent times, but that's only because they f'ed-up their home console business so badly that they gave themselves no choice but to do that. Before that they were all "Now You're Playing with Power", "Now You're Playing with Super Power", "The Fastest Most Powerful Games Console on Earth" etc.

@JaxonH @tangram
Well the original retro consoles must have been successful enough to still be on the market to this day and successful enough for Nintendo to think that it could be a fruitful market for them to get into. Of course, I don't care if Nintendo "copied" them or not, I just think it's a bit rich for everyone to go nuts over this.

How it normally goes:

"Nintendo did [insert innovation] first and [insert name] copied them!"
"Actually Nintendo didn't do [insert innovation] first, it was [insert name]."
"Well, Nintendo were the first to do [insert specific aspect/variant of said innovation]!"
"OK, if that makes you happy. I think we're both probably just clutching at straws now."

@DanteSolablood
Oh yeah, of course, loads of motion control devices existed before the EyeToy, like the Atari one I mentioned above and the Power Glove (though that was made by Mattel not Nintendo despite what a lot of people think).

@DanteSolablood
I was actually completely baffled when Sony announced the Sixaxis in response to the Wii, because they already had a high-profile motion control device on the market before the Wii was even announced; the PS2 EyeToy (well I say "high-profile", it's now been largely wiped from history as it doesn't quite fit in with the whole "Nintendo invented everything" mythos haha). Instead of crowbarring motion controls into their controller and inviting all the ridicule in the world, they could have just nonchalantly announced the Eyetoy 2 for the PS3, with sequels to their already existing motion-controlled party, sports and fitness games and been like "Yeah we've already got all that, and that's just a small part of what we've got. I don't know why Nintendo's making such a big deal out of it." Instead they made themselves a laughing stock, when they could have done the same to Nintendo, or at least massively taken the wind out of their sails. With that simple announcement they could have perhaps nipped the Wii in the bud if they wanted to (after all, the Kinect took a lot of the shine off the Wii when it released, a new EyeToy could've done the same). So yeah, that always seemed really dumb to me.

So the Totaku collection is a copy of amiibo, but somehow amiibo isn't a copy of Skylanders?

The retro PS1 is a copy of the retro NES/SNES, but somehow they're not a copy of all the SEGA, Atari, Commodore, etc. retro consoles that have been around for ages?

Move was obviously a copy of the Wii remote, but you describe it like Nintendo invented motion controls with the Wii. There have been dozens of motion control devices before the Wii. In fact it's funny you mention Kinect. Nintendo fans accused Kinect of copying the Wii, despite the fact that it had way more in common with the PS2 EyeToy (Sony's motion control device that somehow existed before the Wii despite Nintendo "inventing" motion controls with the Wii), so by their logic wouldn't that have made the Wii a copy of the EyeToy, as it's the same difference?

Hell, Atari had a wand-like motion controller in the 80s...

Battle All Stars was certainly inspired by Smash Bros. but then I don't remember X-Men vs Street Fighter/Marvel vs Capcom fans accusing Nintendo of "totally ripping off the idea of a franchise crossover fighting game" etc. back in the day. There was also an obscure Japanese fighter called The Outfoxies that was somewhat similar to Smash Bros.

Only Nintendo fans seem to care about such things (I guess because of this "Nintendo invented everything/Nintendo is the only innovator" mythos/narrative that's been fabricated over the years). Why are we always so obsessed with who copied who?

[Oh and if anyone accuses me of being a Sony fan/defender or something, I'm not. Don't care about Sony. Only ever owned Nintendo consoles]

@Razer
OK, so Sony copied Nintendo's retro console idea, but Nintendo didn't copy the original retro console idea. Only Sony can copy.

@Razer
OK, so we have: SEGA, Atari, Commodore, etc. retro consoles.

Nintendo makes a retro console: Not copying because Nintendo is the master innovator who invents everything.

Sony makes a retro console: Copying Nintendo!!

I'm not a Sony fan (never owned a Sony console), but people are obsessed with accusing everyone of copying Nintendo all the time.

@wolvesboy @Branovices @SamuraiPanda @tangram
Sony copying Nintendo's idea? There have been retro, all-in-one consoles for decades. SEGA, Atari, Commodore, etc. Somehow I doubt you accused Nintendo of copying them...

Once again Nintendo does something that's already been done and then anyone who comes after that is copying them apparently.

"When you are tired of 8-bit Metroid, are you tired of life?" In my experience, I'm tired of 8-bit Metroid after about 5 minutes of having to play it...

@Agramonte
Yeah it seems the Labo Vehicle Kit didn't even get into the Top 40, and entered the Switch format chart at no.17... Ouch indeed...

@Krull
Yeah and I guess the fact that people (I think) tend to see the Switch more as a handheld and sports sims always sell a lot more on the high end, powerful home consoles than handhelds (perhaps not to this extreme but a bit like comparing sales of the PS3/360 version of the latest sports game to the DS version).

Didn't the Labo Vehicle Kit release last week?

@MrBlacky
Oh right well, I think the cool, trendy games tend to chart high regardless of the country. It's not just a UK thing.

@MrBlacky
So what kind of games get into the top 3 in your country's chart? Uncool ones?