ImDiggerDan

@7 - If you're daft enough to buy it from a high street store in the UK, it's more like $65.

Got this for my son as I figured it'd be a bit easier than Rayman or Star Wars for him. He's enjoying it, I'll play it a bit if I run out of other things to do.

Like a few of the launch games I've experienced, this feels a little rushed and unpolished. Particularly the menus and other non-gameplay areas. It's crazy that you can't see which levels you have completed all the challenges in, for example.

Yes, VVVVVVVVVery.

Having played for over 20 hours, I completely agree with the review. It's a great, fun game to play but spoiled by the stability issues, lack of multiplayer and certain apects which appear very rough and low quality.

I suspect this title was rushed out for the release and certain things sacrificed to meet that date. A real shame.

Don't think this price is sticking around! It'll be £200 minimum after the initial pre-orders. We're not that lucky here!

Hmmm. Just contacted my local Game store (who are opening at midnight, but aren't on the company's list of stores opening at midnight) and they are unsure as to whether they are giving one away for free. They say it may depend on how many people turn up.

Is the 3DS review going to be up before 11PM GMT tomorrow? Might sway my decision about getting this.

+1 I'm even considering putting out a PC emulation version of Digger Dan as a way of getting a demo out there. Given that there hasn't been a huge amount of marketing for the game, a demo could really help people decide if they want to buy.

Nintendo actually do consult with the developer/publisher for setting price points but they can over-ride if they think the suggested price is wrong.

It is a huge shame that they don't currently have a more flexible system to allow temporary sales etc to gain interest. I hope they do add this facility to future (3DS included) on-line stores.

Shame they didn't add the parachute missions from the original SNES game. Was always a day 1 purchase for me, though. 2 sleeps to go...

I pre-ordered my wife's 3DS from Amazon UK 2 days ago as it is pretty much the cheapest UK option that I am aware of. £188 for the machine plus £15 for a game bundled with it. My own 3DS is pre-ordered from a local Game store as I traded in a couple of old DSi consoles against it.

"the majority of the problem likely lies in the fact that we've spent years playing games on our portable game systems in 2D"

I think the problem is more down to the eyes normally having to adjust focus for viewing objects at different differences. These fake 3d images are in reality all the same distance away and the eye doesn't have to focus. This is the more likely cause of any uneasy feelings.

Excellent. Please leave feedback in a couple of days.

Nice review, Corbs. A question about the Street Pass - Do you have to have the game running or the card in the system for it to work, or is the feature installed to the system in the same way that some Wii games could install channels? It was suggested at some point that you wouldn't need the game in the machine.

Well, Ret, there's nothing to say Nintendo haven't found more ways to detect the cards. They've done it before and newer DSi flash cards had to be firmware upgraded themselves to work again. Nintendo could do what Microsoft did and make a note on your system that you have been naughty and act on this fact later on.

I seriously doubt they'd brick your 3DS for it. They'd be hit with more lawsuits than you can shake a stick at by people claiming to be innocent and Nintendo would have a very hard job proving that they aren't.

I suspect the warning is a simple "if you use any devices that are unauthorised, Nintendo can't be responsible if your system ends up bricked" Sort of like the people in Europe who had chipped Wii consoles, downloaded US versions of new games and bricked their consoles when the game tried to install a Wii System Update not made for Euro consoles.

@ballkirby1 - My comment was actually supposed to be a sly dig, Two Tribes missed out on doing Open Warfare 3... Shame, really, they did a fantastic job of OW2.

Worms Open Warfare 3.

Quick question - does the eShop feature in any form on the launch device, or is it coming later? If it's here already, what's on there and what are the prices like?

@Aviator - I don't have figures to hand and it's not a simple case of cost per area, you have to take in to account the number of sales you'd expect to get from a territory. If it costs £5000 to rate in the US but you expect 100,000 sales and £2000 to rate in Oz but you only expect 5,000 sales, it's not necessarily worth the risk.

Also, some territories ratings boards recognise the difference between $1M budget boxed products and $50K budget download titles and offer cheaper services but the OFLC doesn't.

To be fair to Nintendo, it's your OFLC that hates video games. Their costs discourage publishers from releasing in your territory.

@Blargg - You missed the Manchester ones. They were a couple of weeks ago.

Link's Awakening is my favourite LoZ game.

It's actually the devision of the publishers what regions they want their games released into. They weigh up whether the additional costs will be covered by the additional sales and, sadly, a lot of them have past experience that says no they won't be and don't release.

Probably not, I think the region is set in the hardware and is not user selectable.

@Collision_Cat - You are correct there, however Nintendo of Australia offer a ratings service at a reduced price.

Blame the OFLC for that one, they charge way too much to get games rated which is why so many publishers ignore Australia.

@Zach

Ferry nuff. We'll stop now.

Well, since I like money, definitely yes!

With some attempt at impartiality, read the review. If you like puzzle based games, I think this one has a lot to offer.

Thanks for the review, Jacob. It's good to have an independent point of view of the game.

As for cradle and playing whilst charging, I'm assuming that the charger will plug directly into the 3DS or into the cradle. I'm hoping so.

Also, if you've seen the shots of the system pulled apart, I found it interesting that to get to the battery recess, the entire back comes off, not just a small panel the size of the battery. I think this will lead to 3rd (and possibly 1st) party additional batteries that cover the entire back of the system making it a bit thicker but possibly extending the battery life by many times over.

This may be an intentional design choice by Nintendo or just something the accessory manufacturers could make use of just by chance.

100 levels in all.

Thanks Steve! I'm the programmer on this project and it's fantastic to hear that someone not related to me is enjoying the game at long last!