Phantom_R

Yeah right. As long as the blue and red shells exist, Mario Kart will always be about luck. Nearly all power-ups are built around harming opponents instead of actually boosting the player's own performance.

I lost my Superstar Saga ages ago, and I never had a chance to get into Advance Wars... I'll probably try those out on the giant screen as soon as I get a chance next week!

Look at how his hair just defiantly ignores the laws of gravity!

The smartphone market is still split into factions like consoles. For example, there's an awesome Rhythm Thief sequel on the App Store, and I don't have an iOS 6 device... No love for Android.

@ryanator008 When did I resort to name-calling? It's rather well known that most of Fox News's audience consists of older, far-right conservatives known for misunderstanding and aggressively rejecting inevitable changes in culture.

Nor did I ever state whether I personally support same-sex marriage--simply that it's becoming more and more acceptable in our society, and it's just plain illogical to fight it.

Fox News would flip over including same-sex marriage, and also anything else... not that Fox News has a sane audience to corrupt. Or an audience that'll still be alive in ten years.

Wacko conservative parents might speak out against Nintendo if they catch their children playing with this. Although it'd be a big wake-up call to them, that society is changing and they need to either accept it or stay a bunch of miserable grumps, Nintendo may not feel like they should be the ones making such a move, even if it's the right thing to do.

Nintendo seriously needs to get their priorities straight on the Virtual Console front. Nobody wants these terrible old sports simulators.

@Cinaclov I liked how the Diamond/Pearl sets made actual deck themes, at least until HG/SS came around. Plasma cards were nothing like Galactic and Pokemon SP, but at least the new Fairy types have some synergy.

Mega EX, because EX alone wasn't dominating the TCG enough already. The Pokemon TCG can be silly fun but the starter decks are terrible and casual play isn't exactly as easy as it is with other games.

Have you tried this with the giant AR card from Club Nintendo? It would certainly become a very different beast.

@Emblem Is the AI any good in free battles? (And does it really get unfair advantages?)

Looks really interesting--I haven't been interested in an eShop game in a long time! The review sounded like it was going to give an 8 or 9 though.

Is there any kind of free battle mode against the CPU, or is it just preset missions or multiplayer?

"When the world is in jeopardy, you don't have time to worry about what you look like."

I make time.

Women are absolutely objectified in video games. But it's the same deal with men, too. One of the reasons why I love Phantom R (from Rhythm Thief) so much is that he's one of very few male characters who use agility over wit, and is capable of love without acting the least bit angsty.

Yes, women are more than sexy twigs with boobies, but let's also remember that men are more than dirty, beefy hulks who can't resist punching anything that moves.

Everyone objectifies everyone. That's the point I'm making.

@Discostew Hold start and select as you start up a non-3DS game to have it reduced to 1:1 resolution. Why Nintendo doesn't advertise this feature, nobody knows.

Beware: the cards have glitter on them, and it will get everywhere. Glitter may be the greatest good in the universe, but it is also the purest evil.

@Artwark 3D World, on the Wii U? That was great. But 3D Land, its origin on the 3DS, was very sterile. The stages are short and simple, enemies aren't aggressive at all, and new/returning obstacles were all toned down considerably compared to their other appearances. 3D Land still managed to be a good game, but 3D World is what it should have been in the first place.

3DS Mario games have been playing it WAY too safe... Though I never liked Yoshi's Island anyway. I can only see it appealing to the most hardcore completionists out there.

@Klimbatize The downside of these recent download sales is that customer confidence takes a huge dive. We hesitate until the product goes on sale, because if we buy it first, we'll just be angry when we miss the discount.

GAH! I've had my eye on Number Battle for, like, almost two years or something. How did they know? Kind of pricey, though...

@BakaKnight Compared to stuff like Rhythm Thief and HarmoKnight, the rhythm minigame in Weapon Shop is very simple. You're really just relaying back a few taps on the touch screen. It's more basic than Theatrhythm ever gets.

Chuck E Cheese is for little kids and Dave & busters is, I guess, for adults who really miss their childhood. Near where I live there's an independent restaurant/arcade that's more in the middle, but they probably wouldn't have this...

If Nintendo actually translated some of those old Fire Emblem games they'd sell like crazy--especially Thracia, which I'm, like, dying to play. Even if it's flat-out unfair (like reinforcements appearing and moving in the same turn).

My dad downloaded this on an emulator when I was, like, six, along with a South Park reskin of the NES original (like he knew). So actually I got my start in video games with Mario without ever being aware of it.

Even if it's just a silly port of a game I've already got on the same system, I'd buy it again for the nostalgia and to correct my father's past wrongs. (Also the art stealing thing. Gotta make up for that too.)

Breeding is easy--it's getting all the tools together that's hard. XY will be the third time I've had to start from scratch and I just can't be bothered to gather any more perfect IV Dittos. Why does Game Freak insist on making breeding so frustratingly lengthy and complex? It's nothing like real life...

Psyched for the new Mario Circuit. I can't get enough of courses that just go in a straight line with zero player interaction.

@unrandomsam Fun fact I learned--"the Lord's name in vain" refers to casually saying things like "I swear to God", not things like "oh my God!"

Style Savvy for life.

stop making fun of me damo you're just jealous that you'll never have a dream boyfriend like mine

Twitch Plays Pokemon Red will go down in history as a legendary narrative... But Crystal will probably be weighed down by forced memes.

They're still making DSiWare, huh? Even if it's to reach a slightly larger market, are there really many people out there (still) using the DSi shop? I've rarely even seen DSi systems...

My eyes, how they burn.

Aside from going "2.5 mph" (which is totally understandable), $200 isn't a bad price at all for this thing. It does make me wonder just where and how one would go about playing with something like this...

Oh man, perler bead pixel art is some beautiful stuff. I wouldn't mind sticking one of those into every corner of the house. A new weekend project appears!

Didn't Iwata once say he was interested in making a first-person shooter?

Promotions like these are why I still haven't registered my XL. But I think I'll keep waiting, since nobody in the world doesn't have Pokemon XY.

Are these still the shortest-possible versions of the BGMs?

Every race is going to be filled with koopas now >_>

I don't understand. What is Flappy Bird, and why is everyone apparently obsessed with a new, even simpler iOS flash game from 1990?

For it to really work, you'd have to be playing in a dark room. That's not really healthy or comfortable. At least Nintendo's still trying new things, even if they don't always work.

I don't get it. So, push-ups with my hands on the floor build muscle, but push-ups with my hands on a Wii Balance Board do nothing?

Of course playing Wii Tennis isn't going to shed ten pounds in a week, and nor will cheating Wii Fit's mini-games. But if you use it as a guide for yoga, strength training, and aerobics, etc., then it's going to be a lot more helpful than "real life".

I've never bothered to figure out what TVii actually does, nor do I have any interest in the Superb Owl.

@unrandomsam I love combining touch and buttons. If smudging is a problem for you then use your nails instead of your finger. (This is also one area where Nintendo crushes other touch screens, which these days tend to be heat-sensitive or something and won't work with nails.)

Like with Kid Icarus: Uprising, it's all about posture. If you've got the right posture then everything will come together.

@unrandomsam No no, I was careful not to rule out things like Kirby: Canvas Curse, which made perfect use of the touch screen where buttons couldn't go.

And even when it comes to something that should have used buttons, such as the DS Zelda games, Nintendo still came up with an innovative control scheme that at least did work. Like, imagine if iOS games with virtual buttons had used a system like the DS Zelda games. Not better than buttons, but at least not trying and failing to copy buttons where touch clearly fails.

The main problem with using a touch screen for controls, such as with virtual buttons, is the difficulty in seeing what we're actually inputting. We can feel buttons--that physical feedback is how we know what we're doing--but touch controls are simply blind.

It seems that only Nintendo really understands where and how touch controls should and shouldn't be used. Long live the buttons!

DON'T PASS THIS ONE UP, PEOPLE! The 31-day trial thing is also misleading, since you get to keep the full game for $20. So really, it's not so much a free trial as it is a really big discount.

@topperware: I imagine if you have a Fit Meter from a packaged game you can save it for the free download version. But if you can't download it because of pre-existing data, you could try copying that save data onto an external device, and later try copying it back on. You might not be able to keep data from both--I don't think anyone's tried this before.

@SteveSnowmn Rhythm Thief IS on the eShop now! Though as fabulous as these recent sales have been, a lot of the best games on sale are huge downloads--like Street Fighter a while back for just $5, but in like four gigabytes.

An irresistible deal for anyone with the slightest interest in Monster Hunter for Wii U. Though personally I'd put that $20 toward Rhythm Thief...

"We didn't encounter another Brilliant Hamsters player during our time with the game, so it all depends on how many people are playing in your area."

Jonathan Swift applauds your sarcasm. (That is, for the record, the highest applause which sarcasm can receive.)

I think people are kind of overusing/abusing crowdfunding. Video game projects in general don't seem to meet with very much success (at least from what I've seen).

This phantom prefers Rhythm Thief and HarmoKnight. Theatrhythm seems to be more about baffling the player than testing their rhythm.