Nekogao

Just the kind of contempt for customers that justifies piracy.

Damn scorpion! I've been prowling round late every night in July and I've spotted 3 so far: 2 fell in the river before I equipped my net and 1 jumped out from behind a building and attacked me. Caught a tarantula first time, though.

And I've also been playing Animal Crossing...boom. Tish. But they do seem even rarer than in previous games.

I'd imagine it's only a very small minority of users but what about those of us who live in a different country? I'm British and always bought the UK versions of games.

5 years ago I started working in Japan. I bought a 2nd hand Japanese DS. I can speak passable Japanese and so most titles would present little problem. But text-heavy RPGs would prove a real slog in Japanese so I had the option to import these titles from the US.

The 3DS is the first time it has chosen to region-lock a handheld and it doesn't make ANY sense. More and more people are moving around the world and the 3DS is a portable gaming machine. I have bought a 3DS, though it's taken the English release of Animal Crossing and the internet to get the best out of the game. If I leave Japan and return to the UK, my best option would be to sell my system and all the games and buy a new system if I want to keep buying new games. Is that really a good way of treating your loyal customers, Nintendo?

These days I generally only buy Nintendo hardware and Nintendo-developed games as an endless parade of shooters and racing games doesn't really appeal to me. I don't intend to jump to the Vita anytime soon but Nintendo's u-turn on this issue really frustrates me.

Must be hard translating these from the Japanese. Thanks to the ridiculous region protection (in 2013) I had to buy the Japanese version and, though I can follow what's going on, I miss out on so many of the subtleties and in-jokes.

More Metroid! Thanks for this. I've barely been off this site this weekend...breaking away to get back to Corruption (I will finish it this time!). I like to compare the two to the pair of Zelda games on the N64: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The first is the template, with vast worlds and an arguably more complete, varied game. But the second took an element and ran with it, creating a different but equally good game. I think it was a tighter game, with less of the backtracking and getting lost of Prime and I seem to recall the Morph Ball being better realised. Back to Corruption and the Pirate Homeworld...

The reviewer definitely does a disservice to the soundtrack, IMO. Add Magmoor Caverns for me! Love the way it builds up...

My first was Super Metroid and it came in a huge limited edition box. I absolutely loved it - the atmosphere, the music, everything. And it had the best final boss battle and twist ever!

Think the next one must have been Prime, which I played solidly through to completion. And I remember playing Fusion on holiday in Spain on the balcony shifting the non-backlit original GBA around to get a decent view - took me hours and hours to finally kill the Spider Boss. I also loved Echoes and played it solidly through to completion.

Now living in Japan, I bought Corruption over 2 years ago and have given up several times in frustration. The voices are in English with Japanese text so it's easy enough to figure out where to go but the technical sci-fi language is pretty difficult to decipher and makes finding bosses weak spots a frustrating matter of trial and error. Have recently returned to it and am using Game FAQs to help me through. Just defeated Helios and got the hyper missiles. I can feel the energy coursing through me!

Damn you, Abobo! I hate you!

Picked this up on the cheap having never got into any of the Tony Hawks and other trick-based games (though I did love Jet Set Radio on the DC).

And I absolutely loved it. It is big, bold, loud and completely OTT but carried off so well, its hard not to be drawn in and try to pull off more and more tricks.

For those interested (guess you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't), the soundtrack listing on the Japan version is:
01. Super Mario Bros.
02. Super Mario USA
03. Super Mario Bros. 3
04. Super Mario World
05. Super Mario 64
06. Super Mario Sunshine
07. New Super Mario Bros.
08. Super Mario Galaxy
09. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2
11. Coin
12. Mario Jump
13. Power-up
14. 1UP
15. Mario Shrink/ Entering a pipe
16. Time up fanfare
17. Player down
18. Game over
19. Course clear fanfare
20. World clear fanfare

The latter are literally 5-second sound effects. Each game has the soundtrack to only one level so Super Mario Bros. has only the classic opening level theme but no underground theme, underwater theme or castle theme. I was expecting something a little more comprehensive, to be honest.

Just got my 25th Anniversary All-Stars pack and I have to say, it's a bit disappointing. The game itself is, as expected, exactly the same as the SNES version. There is very little original artwork in the booklet and the soundtrack has only 20 tracks, half of which are 5 second long sound effects from the original Super Mario Bros. Only the main themes from each game are included. So no underground level music from Super Mario Bros. Nintendo have released arranged versions and medleys before but none are on here.

A disappointingly lazy effort from Nintendo when you consider what they could have done with it. I understand Miyamoto wasn't in charge of them but why have the Game Boy Super Mario Land titles seemingly been airbrushed out of history? An update of those titles would have been an excellent addition.

It's a lie! There is no booklet! And I'd know, as I've just bought them...

This is a reason not to use my phone to buy some new points! But then, do I merely admire them or use them? And bearing in mind the lack of decent games since around 2007, are there any titles worth buying?

It is a little disappointing that it's just a re-release of a near 20-year-old compilation on a new format. At the very least, they could have added Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island. As a long-term Mario fan, I bought all the original NES and SNES games, Super Mario All-Stars and got them all again on the Virtual Console. How many times do we have to pay for the same thing, Nintendo? Some recognition for the Game Boy Super Mario Land games would be nice - how about a tarted-up version of those on the package?

But if it's limited edition and Japan-only, it could be worth something in a few years' time...I'm buying!

Any idea what the new RRP in Japan will be? I'm still using my DS Phat...

Finally, Pilotwings is here! Why did it take so long? Now how about Pilotwings 64?

Meh. Have had it for months. ;-D

But no Pilotwings over here...come on Nintendo!

Did the Wii Freeloader ever get updated?

Being in Japan, but far from fluent in Japanese I tend to avoid text-heavy games making RPGs a no-no. But I'm sure I'm missing on on some excellent games and would like to import those games from the US or Europe.

I seem to recall a Wii update screwed the Freeloader...

So how does one go about becoming a Platinum member?

Will be sticking to Sonic & Knuckles on the Virtual Console, then...