MussakkuLaden

The line-up surely isn't as amazing as in previous years and it shows typical signs of a generation coming to its end, but similar to the Wii U there are enough extensive high-quality core-games among them to keep one satisfied.

Zelda Wii U will be a day-1-must buy, the first in quite a while. Starfox didn't convince me until now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it'd end up being a great game. Pokken is not for me, nor Mario & Sonic. The FE thing may become a must-have, but most likely not something I'll get too soon – too many other, presumably smaller titles are waiting. And Zelda HD: Gonna get it some day, but as I wasn't such a great fan of the original and I'm unsure about the changes alongside the HD graphics, I don't think I'll get it any soon.
Okay, all in all, that sounds rather negative, but in fact I'm quite pleased with the 2016 line up so far. The thing simply is that so many other games are still waiting to be played, some of them waiting at home already, and around a dozen others I still haven't bought, and with the exception of Zelda Wii U the older games are more interesting.

@ekreig Yes. While it cannot be changed that from today's perspective, games like this don't seem very original, it's a shame how fast people forget how groundbreaking certain innovations (of Nintendo) were at the time when they were released. For most players the DS provided the first-ever touch-screen experience. Or games like Brain Training or Nintendogs. Now it's being looked down on similar titles, but back in the days these were so unique, original, new – even hardcore gamers were excited about them. Or an even simpler example: The Virtual Console on the Wii. If you leave aside emulation on the PC (which isn't a mainstream thing), in 2006 this was impressive.
Naturally, these issues don't only affect Nintendo games and consoles. But no matter what, when evaluating things of the past, it's important to take into consideration what they meant back in the time.

The comforting fact is this: Nintendo has always, at all times, released its fair share of mediocre and/or disappointing titles. Therefore I'm not disturbed by the latest letdowns.

Looks neat indeed.

Still no Harvest Moon for Europe...

The headline runs: "Nintendo Expecting Mobile Business To Eclipse Wii And DS Era Profits"
The Twitter comment states however: "Kimishima also says that in 3 years time, Nintendo's profits will have the potential to exceed Wii/DS era profits."

While I don't know what the complete Japanese article says exactly, the Twitter comment appears to talk about Nintendo's profits overall, not only about the mobile business. So how I understand, he's not saying that the mobile business alone is to eclipse past profits, but Nintendo's profits in general. That's quite a difference. Also he isn't "expecting" it, but merely seeing the "potential".

Could be the NES version. On the other hand, if the TGX16 makes a return, Bonk would be an obvious choice to start with.

Damn, that Revelations discount! Plus the release of Secret Files Tunguska, plus that of Konami Krazy Racers, plus... Time to recharge my account!

My game of the year (not becomes of these outfits though, but they are a nice addition).

Well, not really new WiiWare. Boring.

Surprise, surprise! The Wii title Secret Files: Tunguska is suddenly scheduled for an eShop release in Europe TODAY. While it cannot yet be downloaded by the time I write this, it's listed in the eShop already. I think that's the first third party release of a Wii game on the eShop. Makes one hope for more, especially as publisher Deep Silver was a fairly strong supporter of the Wii, including high quality mature games.
On the other hand, Konamy Krazy Racers is yet missing. Perhaps it'll appear later or Nintendo made some last minute release changes.

Surprise, surprise! The Wii title Secret Files: Tunguska is suddenly scheduled for an eShop release in Europe TODAY. While it cannot yet be downloaded by the time I write this, it's listed in the eShop already. I think that's the first third party release of a Wii game on the eShop. Makes one hope for more, especially as publisher Deep Silver was a fairly strong supporter of the Wii, including high quality mature games.
On the other hand, Konamy Krazy Racers is yet missing. Perhaps it'll appear later or Nintendo made some last minute release changes.

Great! Konami Krazy Racers, I was waiting for that one!

Very nicely done!

If it wasn't so expensive, it'd be a must have for me... >_<

It's time Platinum's learning something new anyway. As great as their games are - basically they are releasing the same game all over again for years.

The reason for this might be that the catalogue could not be accessed for a while in the hours prior the scheduled shutdown. But who knows... Oh, I just see, scamander said something like that already.

Moreover, last night I realised already that the website for exchanging Stars into Nintendo Points is also still active (and fully working; I got a code on 1 October) and can be accessed independently from the actual stars catalogue! So even if the catalogue may eventually be closed, it's worth trying if Nintendo may have forgotten the Nintendo Points exchange page.

https://wiipointscard.nintendo-europe.com/

@Kirk Sure there's truth in what you are saying. A glitch speedrun isn't really about playing or beating the game as such (maybe one could say: it's about beating the rules of the game). On the other hand, what actually is "pure skill", and what is a glitch? Just look at the various stages of the boss battle at the end of this run. I'd find it hard to discriminate between instances of skill and exploiting. And there are more tricky examples: If I remember correctly, in Goldeneye on the N64, speedruns were done with the player constantly looking down to the floor, as this resulted in a better framerate and a slightly faster walking speed...

What I find most interesting about this game: It turns "ghosts" back into ghosts. With that I mean, it combines the two forms that ghosts take in video games: I don't know if Mario Kart 64 was the first game to exhibit time trial ghosts (at least it's the first game I know) and Extreme Exorcism picks up the concept of "ghosts" as a form of recording of the players' previous actions and allocates these actions to the actual supernatural entities of the same name. And what is more, it's really pretty haunting that, firstly, the more souls you kill, the more ghosts are haunting you, and, secondly, that it's your own actions who aren't lost in digital nirvana but come back to you to haunt you on your way...
Leaving aside this great concepts, I had lots of fun playing the preview of the game, though I felt it's not a game that keeps me interested all too long. Therefore the price tag is a bit too high for me at the moment, but once it drops to something around 5 euro, I'm definitively in!

"I knew Nintendo would never go for the adult version of Pit. In fact, I'd wager they took it as an insult that we didn't use their version."
...and I'd wager that behaviour like this is the reason why not only the Kid Icarus project began to fall apart, but the whole of Factor 5. It's exemplary.

Makes me wonder if anyone will keep caring about the existing titles, i.e. in the form of re-releases, etc. Would be a shame if within 5 years or so, even the older installments of Konami's great series would be difficult to play.

Not really surprised. Rather relieved. Could benefit the game a lot, as it'd be a shame if the first true AAA-Starfox in almost two decades would be anything but good. Besides, for me personally, 2015 has better titles coming and I had never bought Starfox this year.

I found World of Goo an utter disappointment, but Little Inferno rather entertaining. This, however, looks quite great! It's been a while since a gameplay idea seemed so interesting to me. And after Little Inferno I expect an interesting story too.

I'm in. And for the reasonable price, I may even buy it without waiting for a discount.

"Clearly Kimishima's role isn't quite the same as Iwata's. With Miyamoto and Takeda acting as his "wingmen" we could see a more team-focused stance this time around, […]". Actually, when Iwata was appointed to the position more than a decade ago, the tenor was pretty much the same. I'd argue that Iwata strengthened his position gradually over the years that came. And then again, there was Yamauchi before him, so any change would have meant change...

Actually, I wonder how long it'll take until some real large-scale Splatoon clone will turn up. Probably on the PC first, probably free-to-play. The gameplay appears to have quite some impact on the shooter scene, so it's just a matter of time until something similar will turn up (not necessarily something that would call for a lawsuit, as it's very rare that those are successful, and for a good reason Nintendo hasn't done so in similar instances).

I find nothing fundamentally wrong with a 7/10, though personally I'd give it a 8.5 or so. The fact that it's fairly realistic and the Mario characters barely affect the gameplay is just the point why I prefer it over most other Mario sports games, while the Mario designs on their own are already enough to make that game more fun than most truly "realistic" golf games - which, by the way, at the time when Mario Golf was released were still way more generic and sober than they are today. So Mario Golf did something for the genre.
From a technical perspective, while the graphics are very satisfying, I think the true strength of this particular installment is its soundtrack.

I found it was a GREAT JOY playing it, but somehow – for reasons I can hardly specify – almost all of it was instantly forgotten after the game had ended. This is one of the reasons why I prefer Super Mario Sunshine.

Personally I'm not interested in Vs. Excitebike as I own and played the NES original in too many ways already. But it's nice to see that Nintendo takes the efforts to release a previously unreleased part of the series, which makes me hope that the amazing N64 installment may finally arrive on the VC one day. And Excitebots in Europe. Speaking of Excitebots though, Excitetruck would certainly deserve a release on the WiiU eShop too. It may not have been one of the best selling games back then, but those who did play it where very satisfied, and many who bought the Wii later than one or two year after its release may not even have heard of it.

The preview was really fun, and I could certainly play it again and again every now and then. But I cannot really imagine it as a full, extensive game so far, though that's what one should expect for the rather high price. So, well..., I look forward to what it turns out to be in the end.

@BenBertoli Of course it's short, but it's a shoot em up with a focus on getting high scores. From that point of view, I rather find the sequel too long. But that's another story. So, well, if one is looking for a game one plays through once or twice, S&P is certainly short. But then, it's a highscore shooter, it's meant to be a highscore shooter, people should expect a highscore shooter... So while it's valid mentioning that the game is short, I don't think that this is a problem for what this game essentially is. It's a game meant to be played through WITHOUT using continues (that's why they are continues, and not just additional lives) and this alone is a challenge on higher difficulty levels (as long as you don't use the save feature of the Wii U VC, which I consider problematic anyway, as it makes highscores rather meaningless). And then there is the hunt for high scores... I mean, people sometimes seem to forget that S&P is essentially an old-style-shoot'em-up and not a modern 3rd-person shooter. As long as one has a certain affinity for the genre, one would not criticise the 30-minutes-lenght of an Ikaruga either. Or Starfox 64..., when you just play through it, it's hardly longer than S&P too.

Surely the weakest game I know from Treasure. But then again, it isn't really their genre. And what is more: It's still quite good. A 6.5. from me or so.

The ink effects in Splatoon may go back to the these brown and blue liquids in this game... ^^

So it's a 5 then. Expected a 5 or 6 after having read the review. However, now that it's out, it seems increasingly interesting to me. At least way more interesting than any CoD.

Wow. A very, very strong week on the WiiU.

@Taggsta In my opinion, the original. There is nothing wrong with the sequel, but it just doesn't feel so unique. Basically I agree with all ToneDeath said already. The somehow watered down look of the sequel was perhaps the main reason why I never came to like it so much. And I would add Blue Submarine No. 6 to the list of anime ToneDeath mentioned as resembled of the original game.
However, there are great differences in the game play too. Both play entirely different, actually. And which one you prefer in that regard is even more a matter of taste I guess. For me, it clearly is the original, but what I like about it may be just what the generation of players past the N64 or past the PS2 generations may find dated.

Hmm... I have this on my Wii, and for various reasons I never did a system transfer. However, I'm seriously considering getting this again one day... It's one of the few games that is that good.

Well, this isn't that interesting, owing that quite a lot of footage from the GameCube version had been made available back in the days.

Awww, the limited horizon of that sort of fans. I think the only thing one can do about this is to wait for the moment they come to realize that a work of art cannot be measured by means of a quasi-scientific approach. Which may happen when, well, they have grown up. MrRight's comment is particularly hilarious. He's just showing the sort of attitude and narrowness that is the reason why video game criticism (and even video game journalism at large) is still as underdeveloped as it is, compared to film criticism, literary criticism, and the like. That's not only a pity with respect to the journalism – but also a pity for videogames as such, as the quality of the discussion about and the analysis of an art can contribute a lot to its further development. Luckily, there are promising tendencies in game journalism and criticism,, and luckily, NintendoLife must be counted among these promising tendencies, with its reviews in between the "traditional" video game criticism many readers are still used to, and a more mature and sophisticated perspective on the game. Thumps up for the reviewer.

Meh. And I spent my stars in the boring Mario Kart 8 soundtrack... Because I didn't expect new things turning up, while expecting the MK8 soundtrack may also be sold out if I'd wait too long.

Never really enjoyed the Minecraft gameplay, but these fixes sound quite promising for a game that always appeared very decent while in a few aspects almost broken. Could develop really well...

Well, this does all sound really nice. BUT, I'm seriously wondering if the developers could keep all these promises, even if they'd get the money, and if they'd prove capable of developing. An own amiibo character for instance. Would Nintendo agree to that so easily that they could just promise that now? Moreover, original German voice cast, Dale Schacker, Peter Cullen... Did they REALLY CHECK if all those were willing and available?

One of the greatest games on the N64. Top 20 definitively, perhaps even Top 10. And maybe my all time favourite shoot 'em up across platforms. The sequel on the Wii is still a very good game too, but often feels a bit too loose. This may be a matter of taste, though. It's surely more modern, from an age where games tend to be that way. Too bad the online rankings don't work anymore.

@Kirk I understand your description and all. However, even you are saying the controls "technically work as intended". It seems to me that they just don't work in the way you wished them to work. Yes, the aiming system of Splatoon is different from other shooters (and with that I don't mean the, in their own way unusual, "controls" as such, but the aiming system, i.e. how the game computes your input, as this seems to be the problem you describe). But it's certainly not random, there's a logic behind it, and you can learn this logic. It's likewise an invalid argument to say that a game cannot be played competitively just because a certain aspect isn't under your complete and exact control, because it doesn't affect the results on the long run as long as all players are affected equally.

That would be a pretty big thing. The Shovel Knight game and the franchise would be elevated a lot as the result of an inclusion. And it would only seem logical if Nintendo receives something in return. Could be the beginning of a closer relationship between the two companies.

Still the best Mario Party. Sadly, it may never get a VC re-release, because of the rotating-the-stick issue. Which, actually, is one of the reasons why MP1 is more fun than all the others.
However, I'm hoping that on the Wii U, MP3 finally gets the VC release it didn't get on the Wii, because I played it only briefly back in the old days.

"and the impressive fortress / clan setup in Siege mode are impressive". Impressive.

Seems okay in the end. It was never a game I was particularly interested in, but still remains one I'll pick up for 10 bucks or so. Maybe the developers can improve some of its flaws in future updates. Like the reviewer stated: it falls short in details. So it isn't too unrealistic than those could get fixed.

DAMN. And I spent only recently 3000 stars for another MK8 soundtrack, now having 1500 stars left and nothing truly interesting available for that... I would have liked that Kirby blanket!

I found the demo of Trine 2 quite fun to play. But its visual style is just too repulsive in my eyes. It's the same with Trine 3, though the camera movements look really nice.

NoA keeps doing strange things indeed.