Mister_Wu

@Peace-Boy Yep, that's... odd, maybe they also think about the guys who don't want to update and have an iPhone 4S/5... honestly iPhone 4 isn't that powerful hardware-wise so I understand this decision from an hardware point of view. I have an iPhone 4 so I will happily skip this app (but sadly pretty much all the other apps from Nintendo at this point, unless they release a Pokemon Shuffle-like game...)

For your information, in Italy the release date is 31st of March:

https://twitter.com/NintendoItalia/status/714785725691084800

And in the UK as well:

https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/714784412769132545

@Fidu @IceClimbers @Project_Dolphin Since the original Japanese text was aksed for, here it is:
http://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1603/23/news081.html

A funny thing discovered by the Sonic fans, in the "BIG on helicopter" screenshot, there was something written in webdings:
http://i.imgur.com/dCcTSBW.png
this something is a line from "Luv(sic) Part 4":

"May the best dance in a Juno bridal"

and in the lyrics of the song there is this line:

"A series so classic at the top of October"

Ok, I am now suspicious that at Sonic Team they are making a new big Sonic game but, in order not to '06 it, they are still seeing if they will be able to release it this year or not. If they will, the July 22nd event will have the announcement, if not, the event might be quite "interesting"...

Sometimes behind small things like logos lie people who really deserve to be better known, it's also sad that he died so young.
Rest in peace, Medalle!
Condolences to his family.

Just a small bit of information: DeNA seems to be caring about the online infrastructure, at least regarding mobile apps; will Nintendo Network still be the base for online gaming of current and future games? Because I fear some situation like that of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection that was managed by GameSpy and was ended abruptly due to the latter company folding.

If Star Fox Zero had problem with development time (and it surely had, being delayed), this kind of easy mode is simpler to implement than a rewriting of AI, stats and even a new object placement. While the second would be a proper easy mode, it requires much more development time. So I can see why such a curious mode was implemented instead of a proper easy mode. I like that finally Miyamoto himself tries to describe some design choice in depth, I would really like this to be done more often as we're frequently left with just these single "ipse dixit" lines that depicts the man in a not-so-bright light that maybe is not so correct after all (see Sticker Star for example - I can see the point about the story in his Mario games but Super Mario 64, one of the last games directed only by Miyamoto, had original characters and settings!).

I already brought that up in the forums, and I will add it here: the game has been rated by PEGI and USK

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Wii-U/Paper-Mario-Color-Splash-1090845.html

https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Wii-U/Paper-Mario-Color-Splash-1090845.html

Does this mean that at least the content in term of script, cutscenes and animations is complete? Or are the ratings given before the game's content is complete?

@Dankykong That "cheating" consists mainly in slides and firehopping. They are exploits of the 50cc/100cc/150cc/Mirror physics engine (in 200cc they are no longer effective) that allows to increase speed during a boost (firehopping) and to lose speed more slowly after a boost (slides).

@Yellowkoopa Expect the Koopalings and...
not much more.
Honestly, Nintendo couldn't be more explicit:
they showed us a lot of red Toads;
cards that you collect outside battles (you can also see a cards shop in the screenshot of this article) and then use in-battle after coloring them;
among those cards there are "things" cards;
there's a star which is a goal (you can see on the top of the town in the trailer) and a world map connecting the stages;
there's a new tattler who is a bucket;
there's only so much more we can expect, because in the case of Paper Jam, Nintendo used the same tactics of immediately saying what were its main aspects in terms of gameplay and story/characters.
If the battles with standard enemies gives you colors they might make sense...

@IceClimbers While this is clearly the EU presentation, it's that Super Nintendo games on New 3DS that bugs me on this theory: I suspect that the folders also include worldwide announcements.

@TheRealThanos Well, if they manage not to talk about Mother 3 and Paper Mario and say to Wii U owners "after Star Fox Zero there's no retail game until June, lol! And thanks SEGA for that only retail game that will come in that month! SEGA does what Nintendon't!" they at least have some gut...

@Qun_Mang If the rumors about Star Fox Zero are correct, they had issues with that game and probably chose to make the full Nintendo Direct in another moment when they have finally decided whether or not Star Fox Zero will be delayed again.

@Blue_Blur Yes, it seems that SEGA has done quite a decent job this time, and the sales reflect that!

@wiggleronacid Well, the exploits are in the Operating System (because the hacks weren't glitches, they were modifying the game code), and Nintendo sometimes updates the Wii U operating system in order to make the exploits less useful (until the hacker figure out how to remove the new protection measures). I think this is the reason why we see some updates that only "increase stability".

@IceClimbers The copyright claim system works also on the videos I uploaded, and I didn't have any issue issue like this. In my opinion hacking videos are being manually targeted.

EDIT: less strong wording, as it is my opinion after all!

Before being a great developer, he was a man, so condolences to his family, and may he rest in peace.

@CB85 Not in Japan, where the PlayStation Vita still has a strong presence:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/02/nintendo_drops_behind_sony_in_japan_as_wii_u_sales_tumble
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/02/sony_hardware_and_exclusives_dominate_in_japanese_charts_as_mario_tennis_ultra_smash_has_a_decent_start

If the rumors about Star Fox Zero are right, we will have to wait a little for the next Direct as the priority for Nintendo now is understanding whether or not that game has to be delayed again.

Nothing new for the Wii U! What happened?

@Grumblevolcano Thanks! This also means that this list of games tells us very little of what we could get in Europe.
Interesting the presence of Super Mario All Stars, since it was initially released as a celebration of the 25th anniversary, with soundtrack and booklet, while here I think there won't be anything other than the game.

By the way, in the US Super Mario Galaxy 2 wasn't already part of Nintendo Selects? Here in Europe it surely is.

I am actually surprised that nobody even mentioned an issue one might have with her: she's a demon-summoning witch, that quite often fights angels. There were problems when in the DK rap "one hell of a guy" was said, to the point that in Melee this was replaced with "one heck of a guy", but now that there are more glaring issues, nobody even dares to mention them?

@Yorumi Well, Nintendo is now part of the Khronos Group, and since they typically use AMD hardware for home console (at least since the GameCube days), it's very likely that their future home console will support the soon-to-be-released Mantle-derived Vulkan specification.

@Yorumi I think your point is spot on, I might add the worrying difficulties Nintendo developers are having with developing current games, especially Wii U ones.
Mario Kart 8 was released after the expected release date without battle arenas and with many little signs of tight deadlines (no victory ceremonies, important characters missing in the roster, physics with important exploits, a HUD without many features seen in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! such as timer and speedometer in standard races and at launch, not even the minimap). Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is a more recent example which arguably went worse. Splatoon itself had many important features added after release. Not to talk about Zelda U and Star Fox Zero, that are facing delays and significant ones in the case of Zelda U.
It's also worrying seeing that Mario & luigi: Paper Jam has many glitches, as this is a 3DS game, meaning that the deadlines were not very realistic even in that case.
I think developing modern games require much more workforce if Nintendo wants to respect its expected release dates.

@NImH @Xenocity I think that's because there is no gore, even though the Inkling may "explode" when defeated. This is a typical trait of many Nintendo games developed internally, which I quite like, but probably many hardcore gamers don't agree with me...

@acegibbo It was very interesting actually to see the reason why the GLA costume was introduced in Super Mario Maker: many current Nintendo gamers are those that played in the NES/SNES era, so advertising a GLA can be fruitful. I suspect that the younger generation (think about 8+ years old) is interested in the games for adult à la COD and GTA.

@Xenocity well, Splatoon is clearly more inspired by modern shooters, either FPS and third person, of course the tricky part is being enticing both for younger gamers and hardcore gamers, whose interest, as I said above, probably overlap more than what we are thinking.

@zool Well, let's not exaggerate the faith in Nintendo, apart from the fact that there are multiple development groups, it's not always that straightforward to devise a proper control scheme for every game even if you are experienced, and frankly some innovations don't always work. As an example, I think that in New Super Mario Bros. U the button for spinning, even though it was introduced in Super Mario World, was a better solution than having to wave the Wii Remote as only possibility in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as it allowed a more precise control and the avoiding of many "false positives" and "false negatives".

@rjejr Yep, seeing the Vita as the best selling console and the best selling game being a Vita game is quite odd, I wonder now how Sony considers its handheld console...

@J_watch well, be happy that Paper Jam developers share your sentiments:

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/replies/AYMHAAACAAADVHk3RBHHWg

"I heard one fan saying "It's sad that we haven't seen Toad Town, the town outside Peach's Castle, since Bowser's Inside Story." I feel the same way. If I get to work on another game in the series, I'd like to work it in somewhere, but we've put a lot of work into this game's world nonetheless, so I hope you enjoy exploring it!"

@XCWarrior That's because one of the directors of Super Mario RPG (the other one working at the same company, by the way) doesn't want to do one in the short term:
http://kotaku.com/dont-count-on-a-new-super-mario-rpg-any-time-soon-989543461

@HyperSonicEXE It certainly is easier to balance with only three weight classes, we'll see if the developers will return to them or if they will just try to improve the existing systems of MK7 and MK8.

@rjejr Since they are using GPU technology from AMD and since you can see 720p Youtube videos on the Wii U, it's likely that an H.264 hardware decoder is inside the Wii U. Now if the protocol to send the A/V stream to the GamePad is bidirectional, the same channel can be used to send the stream of the NX GamePad on the Wii U.

@HyperSonicEXE My point was about the "critical reception" you mentioned, this term usually refers to the reviews collected by GameRankings and MetaCritic. Of course, it is very often different from the user perception and an high rated game can still have flaws. I don't have the game, so I cannot do a personal critical analysis.

There are many weight classes in MK7 and MK8, and while in 200cc things are more balanced, in 150cc the clearly are not with the Heavyweight characters being favored. I agree that having more variety of characters is positive and that is a problem in Mario Kart Wii, where 2 combiantions have a clear advantage and are almost always used online. So MK7 and MK8 are already an improvement, with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! being possibly even better. I still think a better balancing would ultimately be a better choice than just having all the characters with the same stats (even though the second method always works, while the first is not always guaranteeed to work), 200cc has showed that this is not entirely impossible, even though maybe we're not there yet.

@HyperSonicEXE Well, the automatic drifting with Super-Mini-turbo boosts is already in place in MK8 (even though it looks like skidding):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjerQ1zy2oc
It also has better angular velocity when you're using inward drifting bikes:
http://mkboards.com/forums/threads/angular-velocity-in-steady-state-drifting-and-skidding.21115/
Also, every Mario Kart game had the weight distinction based on characters, from Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii, so what you suggest is something different, more akin to what is being done in Mario Kart 7 and 8.
Finally, the critical reception of MK7 is positive, as Metacritic and GameRanking show:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/mario-kart-7
http://www.gamerankings.com/3ds/997822-mario-kart-7/index.html

@HyperSonicEXE I don't think your point is a valid one. All your aspects except antigravity were introduced in Mario Kart 7, that had a great success. Not to say that coins were introduced since the first Super Mario Kart. Having more depth helps the game, as it increases the replayability value, which is fundamental for online games whose online community would otherwise become empty after a few weeks.
In fact, in the Mario Kart games released before Mario Kart Wii manual charged Mini-Turbo is quite common, and that is way more difficult for beginners. I furthermore think that SMK and MKSC on the other hand are quite difficult to play (especially the first one) and have coins. And of course, Mini-turbo in those games are hard to release, and there are many New Boost Techniques that can be unleashed in both. Being beginner-friendly and having deep game mechanics or weird physics to be exploited are not always one against the other, the best games manage to do both.

@HyperSonicEXE Regarding MK8, they already had to cut features in Battle Mode, leaving it barebones without even proper arenas, so a simplification in MK9 would likely only hurt at this point...

@DreamOn Hydrocity is not confirmed to be a Michael Jackson song. It is widely believed that the cues replaced in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and in Sonic & Knuckles Collection are the ones made by Buxer and Jackson. So:
Knuckles Theme in Sonic 3
Mid-boss Theme in Sonic 3
Carnival Night Zone
Ice Cap Zone (that is actually an instrumental version of Hard Times of the Jetzons, as AmyGrrl noted)
Launch Base Zone
Ending Credits in Sonic 3
Competition Menu

Indeed, these cues are different from all the others. I remember that I was quite amused by Carnival Night Zone's BGM!

I would like to mention Tails Adventure, that actually came before Sonic Adventure and is a very interesting game, even if small by today standards.
Unfortunately the screen of my Game Gear died before I could even acknowledge its existence, so I played it later on Sonic Adventure DX for the PC.

@dkxcalibur that game was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Really good graphics and sound, and favored exploration to find the emeralds on the second act of each zone. Also, really fascinating zones, especially the last three (Gimmick Mountain Zone, Scrambled Egg Zone and Crystal Egg Zone).
But it was hard. Incredibly hard. My brother and I managed to beat the first boss only when we learnt that a specific pattern worked well for the first bombs.

@Gold_Ranger Well, Mario Kart 8 definitely doesn't have the rubberbanding of Mario Kart 64!

@Xenocity That's the way things should be, as planned obsolescence and cutting costs through less quality control are bad ideas to begin with at best and shouldn't be favored in any way (unfortunately even the Wii U that was given to me had a blinking blue light of death and I had to send it to the repair center).

@Xenocity Planned obsolescence (read: consoles that die a few days after the warranty expires)? At least in the EU we have that law that forces 2 years of warranty...

@Xenocity But is it just me or the current home console generation is having an hard time reaching the previous generation levels? Not even the PS4, by far the most successful home console, seems to be able to reach the Wii levels. Let alone the Wii U and Xbox One that so far seem to be pretty much a flop compared to the past generation.

But wasn't the PS Vita supposed to be dead? Its software sales are still pretty interesting in Japan!

Sursprised not to see Mario Kart 8 in the list, like in the UK. Did they already sell all the copies to all the Japanese Wii U owners?
Anyway, at least Paper Mario Mix is still in the list...

@BuckoA51 My idea is to use the power from the digital A/V port to power an active converter that reads the proprietary digital signal and converts it into HDMI-compliant signal, a bit like it is being done in the DAC of the Nintendo cable, but of course all digital and lossless, with autodectection of the nature of the incoming signal (since the information about the digital signal should be given by the port). Is the power from the digital A/V port enough? But most importantly, is it feasible? I'm not an electrical engineer so I don't know exactly what the details of the implementation should be.

P.S.: I'm talking about a 1:1 conversion here, with upscaling and deinterlacing left to the downstream device/software. Also, of course, detecting the incoming signal would also mean automatically signalling through HDMI the nature of the output signal.

@RadioShadow The RGB cable is interesting because even the digital port has a 4:2:2 chroma subsampled output, while, as far as I know, the RGB cable allows a full RGB picture without chroma subsampling

Out of curiosity, since the first GameCube consoles (including mine) have a fully functional digital A/V port that outputs digital video (4:2:2 chroma subsampled) and audio (see http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendodigitalav for more information), could an adapter to be plugged in that port be made instead? It would be simpler!

@Grumblevolcano @ChristopherM I think that Mario Hanafuda is the new deck that has been available in Japan since a few months, I have the cards and they are pretty nice, since every card is now Mario-themed (the ones which were already Mario-themed in the Club Nintendo deck are different, by the way).

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n09/mariohanafuda/index.html

If you use a tranlsator you can also have some more information here:

https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/19642618-9190-11e5-b940-0a6d14145cb1.html

By the way, I am quite surprised that the Minecraft version selling so well is the PS Vita one!
On the other hand, at least Paper Mario Mix is being sold there...

@Wouwter I really hope it's not that the reason, although it would be too funny if it really was...

I am surprised that both Larry fights weren't put side to side. They use the same model with the same animations!