KneehighPark

Wow. I don't mean to be so crass, but that is just plain stupid. The reason I was looking forward to the Nintendo Network ID was to have a server based username/ID. This means I can't go to a friend's house and sign into my Nintendo Network ID (though with the lack of an achievement system, the reasons for doing so are lessened...). People better hope their Wii U doesn't get bricked or stolen, because I wouldn't be surprised if your ID is lost forever.

Wonder if the same thing would work with Micro SD cards, and using a Micro SD to USB adapter.

Great review Morgan! This will be an insta-purchase when I finally get my Wii U.

I can safely say he's the reason I got into the games industry, and the reason I will (hopefully) be developing them down the line.

Happy birthday Miyamoto!

@BenAV - I wholeheartedly agree. People either need to learn how to budget, learn how to wait for prices to drop, or take up something other than gaming.

My body is Reggie.

@NintendoCat14 - It is in English. The copy I received had option for English audio, or Japanese audio with English subs.

If you live in America or the UK, the movie has been released there, so no need to import.

@FonistofCruxis - Yup, Tobias95 summed it up quite well. This is why, in the opening scene, you see characters such as Don Paolo, Flora, Inspector Chelmey, Barton. And then in the flashback, we see Emmy and Grosky.

@MagicEmperor It's been fixed. Thanks for the heads up.

@daznsaz - Yes, it uses voices from the game. However, the movie was first localized in the UK, and then Viz Media brought that version directly to North America. Because of this, some voices sound different, because you're hearing the UK voice actors vs. the American ones. The most noticeable is Luke, but I liked his voice.

@Geonjaha - Thanks. I'll (hopefully) be doing movie reviews for the foreseeable future, and I will not be assigning scores.

I think this is a sound strategy, though I'm surprised Nintendo is being upfront and letting people know that they are holding back titles. Good on them

For example, when this site is at the bottom of review scores... and gives a game a 1 out of 10, I would expect that means the game is basically broken, not playable, terrible button responses, etc. BUT, then you read/see other reviews rate the exact same game around the 7s mark... there is clearly a disconnect somewhere.

Building upon what Phil said, I don't think its a matter of disconnect, simply a difference on what scores mean to people. In my experience, there are gamers who expect scores of 10/10 to equate to some sort of catharsis or huge innovation within a game, while to others, a score of 10/10 equates to a game that is really well put together, with little or no flaws. Similarly, there are people who expect a game that gets a 1/10 to be riddled with visual flaws and other glitches (broken gameplay, constant crashes, etc.), while others expect a game that is simply garbage, even if it doesn't crash.

Stressful hard. Not taking into account the sheer level of difficulty, you have to beat the game TWICE in order to "really" beat it.

@Linkstrikesback While this is true, a lot of us North Americans don't always watch the European Nintendo Directs, especially when things like European release dates don't matter to us.

@JamieO

Jamie has made some excellent points. I think there are a couple of things that people need to remember:

1) The placement of a game on this list is not based on review scores. Each NL staff member voted for their top games. This moves into my other point...

2) We can't expect EVERY staff member who votes on this list to have played every Wii game. Because of this, some people are going to leave out great games, simply because they haven't played it. Similarly, there are going to be a handful of games that don't make it on here, because no matter how highly one person rates a game, it's going to take votes from everyone to make sure it comes out on top. I placed Little King's Story and Rayman Origins very high on my list, but one person's opinion doesn't trump 16 other opinions.

And while some might argue that we should have included 25, or 30 games, we have to draw the line somewhere. Else we would just keep adding game after game.

Man, can't wait for this game. The commerical on the other hand.....

I had a lot of fun voting for this list, even though 4 of my favorites didn't make the cut:

Rayman Origins, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Little King's Story, and World of Goo

@Philip_J_Reed - I think Ninjabread Man surpasses every game on this list. Its godly status is too much for this mortal list.

Thank god. Those internal, hard to reach sync buttons were awful.

Thank god you reviewed a bad game. We needed to balance out the universe after it let you review Code of Princess

God, I can't wait for this game. I know there aren't any official announcements regarding localization, but all the signs point to yes

Glad to see Australia wasn't left in the dust.

@A-Hungry-Banker There was an announcement years ago about a live action Layton movie, but no news has surfaced as of recently. I would love one as well

@Morphtroid - I totally agree

@ouroborous We don't hand out 10's too often, but we have given out our fair share:

World of Goo, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Bit.Trip Runner, Shantae Risky's Revenge, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Ocarina of Time 3D, MotoHeroz, Skyward Sword, Rayman Origins, and most recently, La-Mulana.

LOL. Are people forgetting that swag has 2 meanings. I'm not talking about hipster swag, I'm talking about SWAG.... Stuff We All Get

I hang out at a used game store a lot, and you have no idea how many bootleg GBA Pokemon games come through there. It's really ridiculous.

Nice to see Nintendo coming out on top here.

Great article Martin!

@FonistofCruxis Thank you! If you're a fan of the series, you'll definitely enjoy it.

@Superconsole
@zipmon

Thanks!

@DarkEdi - I borrowed a Japanese copy from a friend and obtained fan made subs. However, it's slowly getting released around the world.

@WesCash - No scores for movie reviews

@CowLaunch - To my knowledge, yes

@Ron_DelVillano You should have reviewed Mad Dog McCree

Wait a moment.... Ron actually got to review a good game?!

(sneaks off to Amazon.com to order Ron a copy of Ninjabread Man)

But seriously, great review!

@TheKingofTown Call of Duty Elite was announced to be free this time around.

@Varia01 It's a way to manage your game offline, by looking at game statistics, manage clans and loadouts, and there are social-networking features. Read more on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Elite

Sweet. Going to pre-order this today

Didn't play the first one. Maybe I'll try this one out, it's only 2 bucks.

Also, great review Morgan!

The G is clearly for "Game of the Year"

@Tsuchinoko Yeah, it is a bit ironic that Nicalis games don't come to Japan.

Sad to see you guys didn't get VVVVVV. That game is a 10/10 for me. So good. You can always play the PC version though

@Tsuchinoko I think part of the problem lies with Nicalis. They might not have experience when it comes to publishing in Japan. The same thing happens with Atlus games in Europe; other publishers usually have to step in

My favorite song from the DK series, along with Simian Segue, and the Bonus Room Blitz.

@ouroborous Yeah, as you can probably tell from my review, the anagrams were a misstep in my opinion. The lack of hints makes for a tedious time. I would have much rather seen something more akin to Boggle, where you use a pre-set grid to try to find as many words within a specified amount of time.

I actually walked into a used game store today, and saw Crosswords DS for $7. It's virtually the same game

@ecco6t9 Crosswords Plus will run you $30... unfortunately it does retail for more than Crossword DS did.

@Flowerlark - I unlocked Hard mode by doing enough Medium puzzles. Same goes for Expert; I completed enough Hard puzzles. I don't have an exact number off the top of my head, but I think it was around 15-20

@sinalefa I highly recommend it. Arkham City was a great game, easily one of my favorites from last year. If you can, play Arkham Asylum

@SkywardLink98 Ah, the new modes that the website mentioned are some slight gameplay tweaks. The Battled Armor Tech mode is essentially a meter that Batman uses. As he defeats more baddies, the meter builds up, and when full, he can dole out some serious damage.

Other than that, the DLC, and the WiiU gamepad features, I think everything else is the same.

@Trikeboy Yup. It comes with the Harley Quinn's Revenge single-player DLC, all the costumes from the previous versions, and some new modes if I am not mistaken.

I see this coming up a lot, so I wanted to mention two things:

1) With all DS/3DS cartridges, they use cartridges that have 2^n MB of space. Even if a game is 513 MB, they fill the remaining 511 MB with dummy/junk memory and put the whole thing on a 1 GB cartridge. I can't remember the exact reason for it, but I know hackers have developed tools to delete the dummy memory so they can fit more games on flashcarts.

2) To those complaining about the high prices of digital releases (like Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, etc.) realize that Nintendo is obligated to release these games at high prices? Why?

Well, in short, they aren't allowed to undercut retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, etc. Nintendo has to keep a good relationship with these large retailers, and they are obligated to sell these games at the same price as big stores do, so that people don't just skip on buying physical releases for a cheaper digital release. This problem is compounded by the fact that the MSRP on Nintendo games rarely drop. Mario Kart 7 still retails for $39.99, and it will for a long time (except for sales and online prices).

I'll definitely pick this up.

Puzzles like the ones in the game are actually used to train to play real chess. I know I used them.

@Fudge I agree. It isn't feasible to limit your humor/writing to specific companies and consoles.

One of my favorite Nintendo references was in Assassin's Creed II, a game that didn't even come out on any Nintendo console:

@Knuckles @ouroborous

I could be wrong, but he might mean speed-run. Probably referring to the speed-running from the old Kirby games

@David77 FTL is awesome! I find that the endgame is a bit unfair, in the sense that you have little to no chance of surviving if you haven't upgraded your ship enough. On the flipside, a roguelike such as the Binding of Isaac has some very difficult bosses, but it's possible to win even if you aren't upgraded.