Linkuini

How the heck could you work or relax in a room where the moon is always staring down at you!?

@11
I doubt that's as simple as it sounds, otherwise there's quite a few games that I would like to see get that treatment.

Huh. What kind of messed up bee is that, anyway? The stinger coming out of its... face? With antennae on its posterior? Uhhh...?

Oh cool, a there's a red kart too.

Birds can grow mustaches? I wonder what hormones I would have to find to give my parakeets Mario and Luigi 'staches...

What's the difference? PETA's a joke even when they're serious.

Boom Street? Does that mean something in Europe?

Are you really gonna review the fifth episode? When you could just write "see House, M.D. Episodes 1-4 reviews"? I mean Skyward Sword's coming out soon. I hate to imagine taking a break from that to write a review for a terrible game identical to four other terrible games that have already been reviewed.

Bah. Good thing I have SFIV3D. Of course, I'm less likely to get any good at it than the VC is to get an online multiplayer game.

DeMartini's right. As business hardships go, Nintendo's current one is not nearly serious enough to count them out of the hardware market. They've got plenty of time to pick themselves up if they have to.

That character's a dude? Ah, whatever, that kind of thing shouldn't still surprise me at this point. That screenshot reminds me of Ocarina of Time.

@Bigdog
I remember seeing that fan art in Nintendo Power! I'd love to see a real game that looked like any of that artist's work.

We're not getting anything concrete on this in a while. Now back to pondering how I can soonest obtain Mario Kart 7...

Hmmm...

Optimist: If Nintendo's willing to patent something that silly-looking, they must have good ideas for it!

Pessimist: Who's gonna want to touch that?

I wonder if the reason Oswald isn't showing up anywhere else is because he technically still lives in the Wasteland, a world specifically for forgotten Disney characters. That would make it weird if he started getting more publicity. That'd be kind of a silly reason. Yet kind of melancholically poetic...

On topic, I agree that the target audience isn't a very good excuse for a lack of nuance in the gameplay. What it probably is an excuse for is the tame difficulty you mentioned, though. Sure, kids play New Super Mario Bros., I'm sure. They probably also play Kirby's Epic Yarn, and probably appreciate being able to reach the end without big bro's help.

Now I really want this. How can you look at those things move around and not smile?

Scary stuff.

I like I-U's idea, especially considering how StreetPass could keep things interesting.

It seems a little cynical to think Nintendo is talking about brain-training and cooking games and such when they say "new genres". Those are nowhere near new, for starters. That's the kind of thing we're more likely to see from most of the third-party output, not that that doesn't worry me.

I wonder if bringing my Mario hat to this would make me more likely to win an early copy of the game.

Again with the tweeting, though. Why can't we just pay money for some mushroom pizza? I know they're selling it out of a truck and all, but some people don't even like mushrooms...

Two bucks seems reasonable enough for those videos. I'm not going to buy them, but I have enough appreciation for that kind of animation quality to understand a price like that. I think it's neat enough that we got to see them for free, and exclusively on 3DS, in the first place.

Based on the footage we've seen already, I fail to see how button controls would make the swordplay work the way it appears to. Moving the sword to a specific position and then swinging it in a certain direction are aspects that were not entirely addressed in past Zelda games.

And I must disagree vehemently with the assumption that button controls distract from the game world more than motion controls do. If the player wants to do one action, but forgets which button to push, that clearly takes the player out of the game world. The problem applies to both button and motion controls alike. In prior Zelda games, in fact, I sometimes performed the wrong action with my sword because I forgot that the B button did different things if I was targeting an enemy. That's one problem I don't foresee having in Skyward Sword, thanks to motion control.

It's great to see a developer taking the initiative to use the 3DS browser to show off their screenshots to their fullest potential in 3D.

This game's settings look kinda boring, though. I think my interest in it will hinge on a healthy amount of content and a robust multiplayer experience.

Looks pretty ambitious for WiiWare! Should be good as long as it doesn't get too hard to keep track of what's going on (would hate to have this turn out the same way as Planet Pachinko).

Sweet, I didn't know they still put Nintendo systems in hospitals.

Well, Alphabounce was a glitchy game too, but its addictive structure means it pulls out way ahead of this one.

We all know it's possible to get extra styli without buying another system, right? Eight bucks for three styli is kinda iffy, but still...

A week-long rental was all it took for me to see every inch of this game. Still, though, it was an awesome week. About 8 or so levels and about 13 or so great boss fights. Pretty much the least you can hope for when Treasure's involved.

I love those new music tracks. I might just get it for that, in addition to not having a handheld version yet.

As much as I'd love a sequel, it would probably have a tough time meeting the expectations of the fans. Not to mention the first one seemed to wrap up its plot pretty tight in the true ending.

Oh, gosh... do I have time to get addicted to another game from Level-5?

Other than that concern, I'm just curious about how jobs like chef, scholar, postman, farmer, etc. could be as much fun as jobs like soldier and treasure hunter. A certain Star Wars MMO had a little trouble nailing that, from what I hear.

I wonder if this suit will be mostly just a neat weapon, or if it will have other bizarre uses, like taking stuff that's far away, or making certain objects spin around. I guess Link's pretty much cornered the market on creative uses for the boomerang, but I'm hoping this game will surprise me, knowing what kinds of things were possible with the power-ups in Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2.

This was the first Sonic game I ever played, and then I played the 2D ones and couldn't adjust very well to the terrible bonus stages, Sonic's debilitating inertia (he needs momentum just to walk up a hill), and the unfortunate combination of super speed and a 5-foot line of sight. When I first learned what so many people thought about how the 2D and 3D Sonic games compared, I was a little confused.

Even so, I don't think a 6 is too crazy for a polarizing game like this. Going back to play it later reminded me how clunky and aggravating the mech stages were. In fact, I'm not a fan of the treasure hunt levels, either: while Knuckles' and Rouge's high mobility was fun, the levels were just so huge and took so long (I much preferred the size of them in Sonic Adventure 1). The tricky gimmicks in Rouge's stages didn't help much. I loved Sonic and Shadow's levels, but it's a shame they couldn't make enough to fill the whole game. I bet they're hard to make.

I'm starting to feel like Nintendo's sticking Tanooki tails on everything just to annoy us on purpose. They must have told Marketing that they'd all get raises if "Tanooki Tails on Everything" becomes a meme.

I don't know how Valve does it. The sales (and freebies!), the multiplayer framework, the continuous (not weekly!) inflow of new downloads, the free updates and extras... with all the ways Steam leaves Nintendo's online marketplace in the dust, I would think they'd be too focused on the consumer experience to maintain such good developer relations, or at least that Steam developers would miss out on a lot of profit. Somehow they've got that covered too?

I sure hope Nintendo can catch up a little with the Wii U. Even if the HD and online features are all present and correct, they must have a bit of a reputation to fight against by now if they still want to attract good third-party support, indie or not.

– Easy way to show the 3D effect to others. check!
– Impressive catalog of 3D games.
– Pandas! check!
...

I had the same problem that warioswoods did. The communication cut out right as my brother and I were about to finish the boss of that ice level and we had to do the whole level again. It wasn't so bad, though, since the dungeon we went through on our second try had a completely different layout. It didn't happen again for the rest of our play time, which consisted of 3 other levels.

I haven't played in single player at all, and don't plan to. I figure that the game being free will mean that more people will have it and be able to play. So based on the multiplayer alone, a 9 seems right to me. The way that the Zelda mechanics I know and love have been translated so naturally into a multiplayer game is just ingenious.

Well, if it's any less glitchy than AlphaBounce, it could probably compete.

Aw, crud, voice acting. That's gonna eat into the budget when it comes to localization. Looks like gold to me, though, so here's praying that it'll make it stateside somehow.

I wonder how many levels they could fit into this game. With so many classic locales to draw from, I'll probably have more fun if I try not to think of all the good ones that'll have to be left out.

We demand online games for Wii one second, and we rage at a game with a dedicated online experience the next. And then we ask why a publisher's not listening to the fans. A splendid farce!

Am I the only one who thinks it's option A? The use of a word as fancy as "ambassador" and the useless but shiny looking "Ambassador Certificate" you can download both seem like part of a deliberate effort to appeal to exclusivity. No way would it feel as special if the people who waited until Kid Icarus and Mario Kart came out eventually got the same rewards as the people who bought the system at launch.

In fact, the people who waited would probably even save money by not buying the NES games that they did not want. So instead of getting free games, launch buyers would just be forced to pay for Ice Climber and Donkey Kong Jr. even if they didn't really want them (arguably, that's exactly what happened anyway, but that's another topic). In effect, the ambassador program was meant to make up the difference to people who bought the 3DS without anticipating such an early price cut. Releasing the same games to people who paid less would clearly give late adopters a better deal, putting us right back where we started. I will be completely bewildered if Nintendo puts GBA games on the eShop for purchase in the foreseeable future.

Wow, I never would have expected to see a good third-party game get a 3D classics update this soon! I expected them to make us wait until they had released 3D Classics: Hogan's Alley and 3D Classics: Clu Clu Land before even considering an import title. We should celebrate this kind of event, if you ask me.

No further questions! The game will surrender to a localization team pending international release. Court adjourned!

It's been mentioned already, but Gunstar Super Heroes was even better than Astro Boy, good as it was. What else...

Scurge: Hive came out so late it got a DS game alongside it. I haven't gotten to play it all the way through, but what I got through was good. I had to admire the boldness of giving the player a time limit between reaching a save point. It made me do some backtracking sometimes, but it also kept me occupied when I wasn't sure what to do next, and the constant sense of urgency was exciting without being frustrating.

Other than that, I had some Crash and Spyro games, but they really didn't work out so well on the GBA. I sure did buy a lot of Nintendo titles.

I'm with Shadowflash. I own both versions of Sonic Colors and was more impressed with the Wii version by a huge margin.

Still, I'm starting to get a better feeling about this one now that I've seen more of how the modern gameplay looks on the 3DS. In addition to the wider screen, it looks like the new platform makes it possible to slightly tilt the viewing angle in some parts of the level, which should make it a lot easier to react to obstacles if it gets used in the right places. Smart little things like that have made a huge difference in recent Sonic games.

Can't make out that other level, but if it's just grayed out (rather than some whitewashed level I'm not familiar with), it's probably a casino level.

Finally! 3D Visuals! Broader Wi-fi access! Tag mode that might actually find people!

Oh, well, I guess they haven't confirmed all of that yet, but they will! Right? ...Pretty please?

I tried both Pokémon Rumble and Pokémon Ranger and liked Rumble, better, so it's really a question of taste when it comes to the spinoffs.

No word about online features? I guess StreetPass will do for now, then, but I hope Nintendo doesn't plan on shying away from online play much longer. It's a new hardware platform and everything!

Of course, the more games that use StreetPass, the better, given the unique possibilities it presents for social gaming without the need for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Truth is, the 3DS doesn't even have the proper means to authenticate for Wi-Fi access in most places besides my own house. Granted, I'm not very well informed on how this IT stuff works, but on the surface, it strikes me as a tad pathetic.

Wrecking Crew's a little obtuse for my liking: nowadays, if a puzzle game makes it that easy to run yourself into a corner and get killed, they let you have infinite lives! On another note, I'm shocked at how much time I've spent enjoying Yoshi, even if it does fail to top Dr. Mario.

Thinking about one guy handling that many aspects of development and then adding promotion and marketing on top of it just... wow, I'm a little dizzy. Still, if he came up with that great trailer with the cardboard cut-out of the main character, maybe it's possible. He certainly knows how to make a game stand out.

At the worst, I can see this tiding me over until a new Dragon Quest comes out on 3DS. From what I've read about it though, the game takes itself a bit more seriously than I'd prefer. One of the reasons I prefer Dragon Quest over a lot of other RPGs is that the tone is so fun without being complex or overbearing; that sets a great mood for a multiplayer game, too.

On the one hand, this news is lightning out of a blue sky and I feel terrible for all the fans who were excited for this game, especially those who had a hand in developing it to the state that it reached.

On the other hand, the abrupt halting of projects with so much care and promise behind them is just as much a part of game development as seeing them fully developed and released (that's what a professor in Game Design at RIT told me, anyway). It's only natural to feel disappointed, but to react by cursing out Capcom and their practices is downright immature if you ask me. Besides, there are probably plenty of people at their offices getting migraines over this to begin with.

I'm happy that Capcom decided to try making a game with as much fan input as this one had, and I can only hope that fans and corporate development studios alike don't decide to shelf the idea of such an undertaking after this.

I've obtained every hat and puzzle piece, but I still keep the Mii Plaza activated just to see if anyone new shows up. Forget Find Mii, though: what I'm itching for is a 3D Dragon Quest game. DQIX allowed you to trade treasure maps with people you passed, but that would work so much better with StreetPass on 3DS, where you wouldn't have to worry about having the game card inserted all the time.