Highwinter

Doesn't sound overly expensive, especially if it really is more powerful than the PS3/360 and has that fancy touchscreen controller. But at that price, I'd really have to wait until there a few good games I really wanted, unlike the Wii, it couldn't really be an impulse buy.

A release this year wouldn't surprise me either.. There has to be some reason they keep delaying Zelda, huh? It's Twilight Princess all over again.

@ ville10
Galaxy 1 did have a lot of exploration and a lot of hidden stars in each location.. It was Galaxy 2 that went back to smaller levels with each stars, and that's why I thought that game was such a disappointment.

If we're going back to more of a Galaxy and 64 style, I'm definitely excited.

@b_willers
Paper Mario still hasn't been officially revealed, beyond the tech demo we saw at E3. It's likely still very early in development, I highly doubt we'll see it this year.

@skywake
I would generally agree, I don't think blu-ray is an absolute necessity.. but we have seen 360 games begin to struggle with the limitations of DVD's. Forza 3 for example, required an install to the HDD to be able to access a good chunk of the cars and courses, simply because there wasn't room on the disc.

As games become bigger and more complex, it's going to become more of a problem.. Probably not for the Xbox, for as long as it can do games like Skyrim with a single DVD but if this new system is "significantly more powerful" than I think we will need blu-ray as the standard game format.

The Dreamcast controller had a screen and was used to display information about the games you were playing, it was a pretty cool feature. It would also make multiplayer games like Four Swords or Crystal Chronicles possible without needing a million and two attachments.

Or what about just being able to write notes on a map screen, a la Phantom Hourglass? I really like the idea of the controller having a touchscreen.

I really wouldn't write this off as a simple rumour. These are pretty high profile leaks coming from numerous sources.. not just some internet analyst making guesses.

Not surprising to see Pokemon sell so well, but after the past few games were rather disappointing, this one really deserves all it's success, they did everything pretty much perfectly with it.

And yeah, we need a new Stadium-like game on the Wii. (not Battle Revolution!)

It's really a shame she isn't playable, they could have simply altered Nicole's moveset from DoA4, since she obviously won't be in this one.

@Rensch. Sony HELPED developed the blu-ray format, they didn't create it and they don't own it. It's very likely we'll see the next Xbox using blu-ray as well. It's no different from what we currently have with DVD's or did with standard CD's on the Xbox and Dreamcast.

It also only won out over HD-DVD, because they bought out the rights to practically every movie studio, making it literally impossible for HD-DVD to release any new films. Something that's usually considered an underhanded Microsoft tactic, hm?

@Zach Kaplan
I owned a 360 for about a year before getting a Wii and that was the system that really pushed the online services. Using that and then seeing how laughable Nintendo's online "features" were was really astounding. It definitely needs to be one of their main focuses with this new system.

I'm also a bit surprised to see people calling HD graphics a "gimmick" or "buzzword". Yes, they don't add anything to gameplay but it does look significantly better, even 2D games with HD graphics look beautiful and if you're playing non-HD games on an HD TV, you're left with a horribly blurry and washed out looking image on an already dated looking system.

And let's face it, motion controls have proved to be nothing but a gimmick. They also don't add anything to most games at it served purely to appeal to casual gamers who bought a Wii, played one game and never touched it again. As much as I love Nintendo, I don't see why we have to cover for all their mistakes.

And for those that don't think this rumour is true, you just have to look at the facts. Wii sales are drying up, attach rate is very low, upcoming big games are ZERO (other than Zelda), Microsoft have released their own motion control system - which is very popular and Sony have as well, to a lesser degree. They've fallen behind the competition in every conceivable way and these rumours aren't sprouting from one person, this is numerous sources all saying the same thing.

@Armoredghor The rumours are saying it's significantly more powerful than the 360 and PS3 but that won't necessarily mean we'll see new systems from those two. Sony have only just started making a profit on PS3's and Kinect has proved very successful for MS. A new powerful Nintendo system wouldn't automatically render those two pointless..

Remember, the original Xbox was significantly more powerful than anything else on the market at the time but that didn't make it the best or the most popular.

Personally, I was very disappointed with the Wii. I don't mind them trying to appeal to a bigger audience, but it has felt like they abandoned serious gaming by doing so.. Now that the casual market is drying up for them, it'll be very interesting to see what they do.

Good list, though I'm not sure I'd agree that any of the titles are really 'must haves'. Dead or Alive or Zelda are the ones I'm really waiting for but I'm enjoying Ridge Racer until then.

@WaltzElf
Seems you might enjoy the Total War series, which takes a much more accurate look at historical events like this and has much better gameplay to hold it up.

Still, even if you are interested in this, it seems it may be better to hold off for Dynasty Warriors 7 on the consoles. Everything about this just seems like it had to be massively scaled back for the handheld, it doesn't really seem ideal.

Somebody posted about this on the forums a few weeks ago, it's pretty likely to be a Monster Hunter announcement and I'd be surprised if they weren't porting Freedom 3 over to the 3DS, since they've confirmed it's coming out in English.. Just not on the PSP.

Looks to be very melodramatic and the anime connections from the developers people have mentioned worry me more. Not my thing, I'm afraid.

Hate to beat a dead horse but there's really very little they could announce that would interest me now.. and it's most likely just going to be an Episode 2 announcement.

Let a new developer handle the games and maybe they could do something genuinely new and interesting with it. Otherwise.. let the hedgehog die.

I agree to an extent.. Some franchise go on for far too long and are completely run into the ground. Call of Duty is the prime example of this, do we really need another one? At least Microsoft have the decency to wait a couple of years between each new Halo title, and that at least has quite a deep backstory to keep it going.

But I don't think every new game that comes out should be completely new and seperate from everything else. Sometimes it's fun to have sequels, to see how the story and characters evolve, etc.

This Angry Birds guys is really starting to bug me.. He's made one successful game (which is a direct rip off of another game) and seems to think he has the authority to comment on everything in the gaming industry.

He creates casual games that are fun to play for a couple of minutes while waiting for a train. There's nothing wrong with that, I enjoy a few of them myself, but claiming they make big budget retail games pointless or that they're over priced are ridiculous. The type of games he makes are in a completely different market.

It's like claiming Youtube videos make big budget movies pointless.. His arrogance is astoundingly ignorant.

The Lego games are always great fun and the Star Wars ones are still the best, simply because the variety of characters available to play as. The Clone Wars TV show has just been getting better and better but I could see this being a bit less appealing for those who haven't seen it.

I've bought hundreds of games on Steam, Xbox Live and other services after price drops have brought them down to a level I think is more reasonable.

If games stay the same price as when they're first released then it's going to hurt sales and the game developers as a result. It's a shame that Nintendo is still so far behind in regards to their online strategy.

@Hardy83 The GBA version is easily the best version of the game but it was a limited run and the game goes for a phenomenal price on eBay. I agree about an HD remake too.. the PSP got really nice versions of 1, 2 and 4, it'd be great if they could give 5 and 6 the same treatment.

This is one of my favourite games ever.. but I'm not sure how badly I need another version of it. If it were released on the 3DS, so I could play a portable version, I'd be a lot more interested I think.

I'm not expecting anything big. Usually when Nintendo say something like this we can expect a few extra pieces of dialogue or an extra quest at most. I think those expecting new dungeons or something like the Unicorn Fountain finally added are really setting themselves up for disappointment.

Though that would be pretty amazing

I think the problem is with data. The games take up a lot of memory which is obviously limiting the games in certain regards. This one does have fully animated Pokemon sprites in battle though, that must take up a stupid amount and have taken a considerable amount of time to do for 650 different Pokemon.

I think it's a fair bet that the next games will at least have 3D battles, the sprites are just going to become unmanageable.

I occasionally play games on my Android but it does annoy me when I read articles about how the Angry Birds developer thinks that console games, etc, are becoming obsolete because of this type of game.

They're completely different. Mobile phone games are typically played by non gamers as something to do for 10 minutes while waiting for a train. It's not an experience that matches sitting down for an hour or two and playing something like Dragon Age and it never will be.

Claiming mobile gaming is going to replace handhelds, consoles and PC gaming is like claiming Youtube has made theatrical movie releases redundant too.

This is annoying, as I've just spent my free 1000 points on games I ended up not liking. Still, I don't expect the 3DS version to come here for a very long time and region locking makes importing impossible.

I agree with him, to an extent.. having no items would be silly and they should keep a certain element of chance. After all, the game is supposed to be fun, not a deathly serious racing sim.

However they do really need to balance the blue shell. In Mario Kart Wii it was FAR too frequent, almost impossible to avoid and it had wings, which meant instead of sliding around the ground and taking out everyone it hit, it ONLY hit the player in first position, which means it only ever benefited the person in second or third place.

Keep the items and keep the blue shell, just balance it better.

I pretty much agree with the review, I love how it feels like the original Red/Blue, there's really a feeling of discovery and setting off on a journey that the other games have lacked.

However, I don't buy into the "if it ain't broke" philosophy. I think they could easily keep the GAMEPLAY mechanics the same, but change up much of the events. The story and progression are literally exactly the same as all the other games and that really lowers the overall score for me.

I do really love the style of Skyward Sword and that new Mario game looks really nice too. I wonder what the tail could mean.

I know the Sonic franchise gets a lot of hate these days.. but it's with good reason and after the travesty of Sonic 4, there's really nothing they can do to interest me. Give it to a new team of developers, who can do something completely different or let it die.

@kkslider5552000: It didn't break the fourth wall any more than the previous games did and I don't see how the humour was forced.. but like you said, different strokes. But I really can't see how you can claim the missions weren't original, especially as you were free to complete them by any means necessary. Are you basing the whole game on the demo?

I do agree that they didn't need to change the game so drastically, I definitely would have appreciated some classic platforming in there some where. But being different doesn't automatically make it bad either and right from the start it seemed like nobody wanted to give it a chance and let that colour their judgement of the finished product.

Nuts & Bolts was an excellent game. Completely different from the other two in terms of gameplay but it really nailed the same humour, charm and it tied up the story in a really perfect fashion.

It was also very challenging and required a lot of creativity. It's such a shame so many people hate it for being different and it's exactly that attitude that's lead to us getting year sequels to things like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero.

Absolutely. There was a lot of hype for the game a few months ago, all of which has completely died down. People who were interested in buying the game have forgotten about it, especially now that Pokemon is out soon, the 3DS and several big titles for other platforms. (Dragon Age 2, Dissidia and so forth).

The delay was a huge mistake.

Releasing on the same day as Pokemon isn't a good idea. Never played this one but wasn't Bomberman always popular for its multiplayer?

I was very excited about the game when it came out in America, there were lots of previews and talk about it and it all looked fantastic. Now the hype has died down, I've completely lost interest and there are so many other games coming out right now that I just don't have time for it.

And this is exactly why they shouldn't wait months to release games over here, it's going to sell so badly because of the 3DS, Pokemon, Dragon Age and whatever else.

@Fuzzy
I'm going with those two games as well. They seem to be the most diverse and have the most lasting appeal. As much as I loved the previous two Pilot Wings games, this one is literally a slightly enhanced version of Wii Sports Resort..

These are pretty cool, but completely pointless so close to release of the 3DS.

Shockingly, almost identical to the EU lineup. Shame there's no real big hitters but a couple of them at least look decent.

@edhe
That's a render of Joanna when Perfect Dark Zero was a Gamecube game. She looked NOTHING like that in the final 360 version.

I disagree with a lot of what the general community seems to think about Rare. Viva Pinata, Kameo and Nuts & Bolts are at least as good as anything they released back on the N64, the only problem is they completely failed to find an audience.

I'm sure returning to Nintendo would give the games the sales, but there's nothing wrong with the games they've been making for the Xbox.

@Otaku
JRPG's are dying in the west because of their lack of innovation, ever growing bland styles and being surpassed by WRPG's in terms of story and character development.

Like the review said, this is a great classic RPG but it's not going to appeal to everyone.

There's none of these in the North East of Scotland, the closest one to me requires travelling on train for several hours and the events are in less than a week, why didn't they announce them sooner? If they can't distribute them better, it should just be done through wi-fi.

It would be really great if they could get the Pokemon cards to work with this.

The point system manages to be worse than the 360's, having to buy 1000 points minimal is outrageous, especially when a game costs something like 1,200, making you pay at least £7 more than you have to. If the 3DS doesn't use these points, that's only a good thing.

There was also a Mario 25 Anniversary coin that came in a very nice pouch but that seemed to sell out in seconds. But it's too difficult to get enough stars for most of these things and they expire after a short time, which really sucks. There's a few things on the catalogue I'd pay good money for if they'd just sell them in a normal store.

Pokemon XD was really quite good, I wouldn't mind if they did something similar to that but even just a new Pokemon Stadium would be useful. Just as long as it's not like Battle Revolution, which is flat out one of the worse games I've ever played.