Highwinter

@koops330
This most likely affects all upcoming EA Sports games, the Wii is pretty much a dead system now.

It would be an interesting addition, and definitely a good sign that Nintendo is taken the modern times a bit more seriously. It wouldn't replace my kindle though, it's e-ink or nothing when it comes to e-books.

This is hardly surprising. WiiWare has a lot of silly restrictions (including the fact games cannot be over 40mb). They had a lot of problems with the original and WiiWare is just a very unpopular system.

I'd be very surprised if it didn't come to the Wii U though, assuming Nintendo have finally stepped up their game and started taking online content seriously.

The third timeline really ruins it for me, it comes from no where and makes no sense. It isn't created by a logical paradox, like the young Link/Old Link thing, it's completely arbitrary.

If alternate outcomes can just occur randomly, what's to say the next game isn't a continuation of Windwaker Link dying? Or not bothering to get up in the morning? It makes the timeline completely inconsequential, because there could be millions of alternate realities now and any game can potentially fit anywhere.

In my opinion, the best Mario games have been 64 and Galaxy, the ones with big open levels, with a lot of exploration to find the many objectives.

I'm not sure why Nintendo now seem to think they were bad games or that people didn't want gameplay like that. Sorry, but we've moved on from super linear games that take four hours to complete..

@Gamesake
In the beginning, the only reason the (original) Xbox and PS3 sold at all, was their power. Halo single handedly kept the Xbox alive, just because it was so far beyond what other consoles could do.

Regardless, I don't think those are great comparisons. The Wii has been such a failure with gamers because its lack of graphical power makes it impossible to play games like Assassins Creed, the Elder Scrolls, Grand Theft Auto, etc.. "Graphics" may not be important, but the power of the system still affects how complex games can be and how developers will make games for it.

The Wii U may be capable of playing all the games we're seeing on the 360 and PS3 now, but what's going to happen a year later when Sony and Microsoft reveal they're much more powerful systems? Nintendo are going to be in exactly the same position they are now with the Wii.

@SMEXIZELDAMAN
No, in Japan you can buy things from the Stars catalogue, as long as you register games, etc. It's a much better system than what we get in the US or Europe.

@grumblegrumble
Tetris lost points because it's a full priced 3DS game in an age where games like Tetris can be played for pennies, if not for free on other platforms.

Tetris is still a classic, but it's impossible to justify the price. The rest of these games are unfortunately just bad.

Discounts would help massively. Just because I don't want to pay £5 for a virtual console/DSi Ware game when it's first released, don't mean I wouldn't pay £2 a few months later.

That's the single biggest reason I own very little on my Nintendo systems, compared to XBLA, Steam and PSN.

I'm not someone who believes in the iPhone vs handheld console argument, but this is one case where it makes sense.

When you can play games like this on your phone that literally cost pennies.. how can they justify something like this being a full priced game? The market has changed and they need to adapt to that.

There's definitely too much nostalgia for this game, 6/10 sounds about right. SA2 was the beginning of Sonic turning to complete rubbish. Too many annoying characters, really bad level design, annoying rock music, atrocious story.. and so forth.

The first Sonic Adventure at least had some of the Sonic charm and didn't take itself too seriously. This one went way off the rails and turned the franchise into something I despise.

I never thought I'd be sick of the koopa kids, but they're being overused to a Metal Sonic degree.

Other than that though, the game is looking great.

@Luffymcduck
Yeah, getting the variations is needlessly difficult. Hopefully they just add them all for everyone in a future update.

I wasn't really impressed by this on the GBA, but I'm gonna give it another go tonight on multiplayer and see how we do.

Still hoping we see a Crystal Chronicles release on the 3DS.

All electronics in Japan are crazy expensive. Look at something like the Star Wars blu-rays that were just released.. it'll cost you around $80 in the US, where as in Japan it'll set you back a good $180

And that's a website that tends to be cheap, there's nothing even remotely unusual about Zelda costing that much over in Japan..

Why is it now you guys in the US are saying you won't complain about prices? You've always had much better game and video prices than anywhere else in the world (sorry for the rant, but it is frustrating to hear people complain about $60 videogames, when most of Europe and Australia pay almost double in some cases).

I think Mario is too common a name for Nintendo to claim ownership over. Super Mario was a totally different story, especially because of what it was being used for.

Nice to see Mario Land 2, but I think I'll wait for Metroid before adding any more money to my account.

Suddenly the circle pad add-on looks less ugly.

@Link79
In my opinion, the Advance games were terrible, they're the pure epitome of everything wrong with "modern Sonic". Poor level design, annoying friends, pits of death everywhere, bad music..

@John-john
It probably can't, this was just concept footage. There's not a chance the 3DS could do areas that size.

I'm looking forward to this though, hopefully it does mean we have a more open environment (still with loading between areas) where you can find more random monsters and such going about. Having to take specific quests just to find certain encounters feels very dated, it's my single biggest complaint of the game.

It needs to be much more about the survival and hunting aspects, which this concept kind of showed.. Betting it'll be exactly the same as the past few hundred games though.

How about a new Snap game or at least another Ranger? You know, something people actually care about? The amount of these bad spin-off's they release is really disappointing.

@TeeJay
I might be making this up, but I seem to recall hearing that Mario Kart was never a big seller in Japan. It's ridiculously popular in Europe though, which is likely why we're getting it first.

@LittleFuryThing That's my concern as well, as someone with small hands.. I'm not sure how you're supposed to be able to use the new circle pad and still be able to reach the face buttons.

The screen being completely lop-sided with the thing attached doesn't help either. This is just an awful looking little peripheral that obviously only exists so early adopters don't throw a rage when we see the revised model in a few months.

It still looks awful, uncomfortable and is only going to split the user base. It may not be a requirement, but why are so many games supporting it? Well I'll answer that myself: because they essentially need it, and it should have been there in the first place.

It may not literally be a requirement, but I'm guessing we'll be stuck with terrible controls if you don't use it.

I dislike the terms "hardcore" and "casual" but you're very much wrong if you think hardcore only refers to games like Gears of War or Mortal Kombat. The distinction is actually between games like Farmville or Wii Sports - things that traditional "hardcore" gamers don't particularly want and things like Metal Gear Solid or Mass Effect. Games like Mario or Pokemon that have no violence are still hardcore games, they aren't designed for the 40+ Facebook crowd.

My problem with this list of games is that not a single title appeals to me in the slightest. Yes, it was a Japanese event and we should have expected them to cater to that audience more.. but like was said, it was a world wide event and the leaked list showcased games that would have appealed to Western and Japanese audiences.

I'm sure some people out there care about these games, but this has only increased how disappointed I am with the 3DS.

@Shockwave
But it's still a game many people played to death over a decade ago, would you blame someone for not wanting to buy an expensive new system just to play old games?

Starfox and Zelda might be good games, but they're not system sellers. The 3DS still lacks any real reason to purchase one.

@MasterGraveheart
As much as I love Starfox, Deus Ex 3 is certainly not an inferior game. So far, I'd say it's easily the best contender for GoTY.. slightly edging out the Witcher 2.

Dead Island seems like a great game, glitches aside. Warhammer has a rather big following in the UK and Lego Pirates is an immensely fun game.

More likely they'll just roll out in America at different times. For example, you guys just got a Zoroark theme, where as everywhere else got the Deerling. Everywhere will get all of them, eventually.

I don't really see the point though, is anyone really still playing the game? This sort of stuff needed to come much closer to the release.

This is a very poor idea by Nintendo, especially if it means a redesign is coming. If this is really Nintendo's business strategy, I'm honestly going to give up and order a Vita.

@James
Monster Hunter was playable on the PSP, due to the d-pad being directly above the analogue stick, meaning you could "claw" your hand and play the game just fine.. if you don't mind horribly disfiguring your fingers.

So yes, it's a necessity for MH. The 3DS button layout means you couldn't claw even if you wanted to and since there's no target lock on, you always have to be aware of your opponent and need to be able to keep him in view.

A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that this thing is allegedly being developed by Capcom solely for this purpose though, it's not a Nintendo peripheral.

Minish Cap, Zero Mission, Golden Sun, F-Zero and Mario World are the ones I'd like to see.

Mother 3 doesn't even merit discussion, there's more chance of that still being released as a retail GBA game than there is of it being on the ambassador list.

I don't think the Monster Hunter comparison is relevant. MH isn't a big series outside of Japan and it's "online play" is no different from what you get with something like Diablo, there's no reason for it to have a subscription, besides the fact they can get away with it.

Dragon Quest has a much bigger audience over here, especially after IX, and since it actually is an MMO, the monthly subscription may actually exist for a reason.

That said, there's no chance in hell I'll be playing this over Guild Wars 2.

I enjoyed the 360 demo, it was a lot of fun.. but the modern Sonic sections look as bad as ever. It's great that the 3DS version is actually a different game, but I'm still not sold on the gameplay after so many bad games in the past.

And yes, I played Colours.

@Aviator
Look at Steam, Xbox Live or PSN. All manage to consistently release content on a weekly basis, that's only on a much bigger scale, but of much higher quality.

Even if we get some good games in a couple of weeks, that doesn't excuse updates that have been going on like this for months. The 3DS was supposed to show that Nintendo are stepping up the game in regards to online content.. and so far it's been thoroughly disappointing. That doesn't bode well for the WiiU.

@Wheels2050
That doesn't mean you wouldn't still have to pay a subscription and it also doesn't address what the single biggest problem with IX was - the party members being hollow mannequins.

@KaiserGX
It's not even coming out in Japan this year, it'll likely be translated by the European team again (hopefully) and could be several years away.

After watching the gameplay footage, I'm very disappointed. It definitely isn't just using online features for a single player game the way DQIX did, it's an actual MMO with hundreds of other players (and most likely a subscription fee). That probably also means no real story, and no NPC companions.. which was the biggest problem with IX.

The combat system also isn't turn based and instead looks very much like Final Fantasy XIII. Oh well.. tell me when they announce XI.

Online is definitely worrying. It's not so bad if it's being done like DQIX, where you simply have the option of playing with others, but if it's an actual MMO, I'm not going to be as interested.. and if it has a subscription, you can count me as one lost sale.

I would have much preferred another single player RPG, more in line with the previous games.

@rjejr
Considering the popularity of IX, X will definitely be released in English, there shouldn't be any doubt about that.

The Collection only seems unlikely because they're very old games that would have to be completely re-translated. I'd love to see them released (at least in Europe ) but I don't see it happening.

@XCWarrior
Unless you're talking about the Japanese version of the collection, you're going to be waiting a long time. Doesn't seem too likely that it'll ever be released in English.

It's out on the 15th in Japan though and contains something about DQX on the disc, so the new announcement has to be a proper announcement for it, rather than some new spin-off game as some fear. Wouldn't be surprised if the announced 3DS game IS DQX though, considering the popularity of IX on the handheld.

@Melistrius
The 2nd joystick attachment would only be necessary if the rumours about the hardware revision is true.. in which case, yes, it makes the ambassador program seem a little redundant as they've just screwed the early adopters even harder.

Releasing it so soon is something I don't think Nintendo would recover from, especially with how strong the Vita's launch is looking.

@AdmiralBucock
From what I can tell, they're all PAL versions. Super Mario is painfully slow, I really don't understand why they didn't just give us the NTSC versions, rather than go to the extra effort to give us worse versions :/

@JayArr
That's a completely different situation, Nintendo of Europe happened to decide they wanted to translate the game, I don't see how you guys not getting it is at all connected to us having to wait for free games - especially when we're in a time zone that should really mean they're here first.

If you want, I can give you a list of games, JRPG's or otherwise that were released over in the US but not in Europe Hell, we had to wait over two years for Animal Crossing.

@Luigi78
Sorry, it seems you had to be a little faster. They quickly bumped the price up to £60 and then down a bit to £50.. which I think will stick as the standard price.

Worth paying attention to other sites to see if they go lower, it'll likely be another case of supermarkets and Amazon trying to undercut each other, so I'm sure somewhere will get it back down to £40.

For the record, I'm happy with the games we're getting, I'm sure I'll enjoy playing through them a lot, especially Zelda 1 and 2.

However, I don't think it makes up for the mistakes Nintendo have made with the 3DS and while I blame myself for buying the system early, this is certainly not reassurance that the same thing isn't going to happen again with the Wii U, so in that sense it is a bit of a failure

Again, I think people are well within their rights to be complaining and I don't think their points should simply be met with "stop whining". That doesn't deflect their argument and is just immature. The bottom line is that Nintendo are in a very bad position now and a few free NES games does little to help.

@lz20XX
But people also expected the system to be better supported. Several months in and the only real standout title for the system is a port of a decade old game. Having a system drop in price so quickly is almost completely unheard of as well.

Yes, people thought the original price point was good enough at the time, but Nintendo also completely failed to market and support the system properly. I'm not saying I agree with them, but "ambassadors" are well within their rights to feel ripped off and nobody should be telling them otherwise.

It's up on order on Zavvi now for £40.

@JarvanZheitk
Credit card details weren't stolen. And while Nintendo dont have to give us anything, they're at a huge risk of alienating fans. After the 3DS crashed and burned within such a short period of time, how many are going to go out and buy a Wii U on day one now?

This is their attempt to say "it was a fluke, it won't happen again. here's some free games to show we're going to make it right". I think people the early adopters are well within their right to complain, if they don't think it's a fair deal.

It's exactly the same situation as it was with Sony. They're doing it to keep fans, not just from the kindness of their hearts.

Chances are it'll be GAME exclusive. In which case, expect the price to be horribly inflated.

@Beechbone
Pokemon Emerald is very unlikely, due to the multiplayer features being completely absent in these virtual console versions. This list of NES games also differs from the rumoured one, proving it was a fake.

@JimLad
I wouldn't call Monster Hunter an RPG, there's not exactly a story, it's just killing monsters.