RevolverLink

Some Wario Land 3 here and some VVVVVV there, with a little bit of OoT 3D Master Quest and possibly Kid Icarus: Uprising mixed in as well.

Okay, I just spent half an hour of pure bliss playing the VVVVVV demo on Steam. Now I definitely have to get this game.

Segata Sanshiro never would've let things come to this.

I'm definitely running with an all FFVI/FFIX team as soon as I get the chance: Terra & Locke and Zidane & Vivi.

I wonder what this means for the Yakuza series going forward. I mean, it's clearly an established IP at this point and the games seem to perform fairly well in Japan at least, but I'd hardly call it a big brand in the West...

I'm unsure whether the bad news coming out of Sega lately means I should jump on Rhythm Thief next month while it's still $30 (and just after binging on VVVVVV later this week, OoT 3D, Wario Land 3, and pre-ordering another rhythm game in Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy) in case it becomes hard to find quickly, or if it'll be in the bargain bin by September.

But not focusing entirely on myself as a consumer for a second, it's never good to hear that more people will be losing jobs. Hopefully those affected will be able to land on their feet soon.

Looks like I no longer have any excuse not to get VVVVVV at this point.

I'm already breeding a race of atomic super-mutant Oshawotts in order to start out, and inevitably conquer, Black/White 2 with an elite squadron that will consist entirely of Dewotts - the greatest species of Pokemon in existence.

I'm going to have to figure how I'm going to have enough time and money for it, though. There's a lot of 3DS stuff I've been really looking forward to coming out that time of year (Virtue's Last Reward, Paper Mario, Code of Princess, Professor Layton, to name a few). I suppose I don't have to eat.

I think Nintendo may be trying to create the least pocket-friendly portable system ever.

Geez, you could fit, like, 10 Game Boy Micros in the same space as a 3DS XL + Frankenstick.

And in the Super Smash Bros. green room, Pikachu openly laughs at Samus when people pretend like Metroid is a part of Nintendo's "big three"... or it would, if Samus wasn't a fully-armored, trigger-happy, homicidal Amazon. Or at least she is when I play as her.

...I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Whoa, Sonic Blast is not a pretty looking game.

It has some very welcome minor upgrades (more memory, longer battery life, less awkward D-Pad placement, 1:1 pixel ratio for DS/DSiWare games, presumably a bigger 3D sweet spot) but at the end of the day, they aren't enough to counter the much sexier and actually, you know, portable design of the original for me. Or that I just bought my 3DS three flipping months ago.

It's cool for the people that want it, but I'll be passing on it; I'd rather spend that $200 building up my still small 3DS library. Maybe Nintendo will sucker me in with the next revision.

I'm not so sure that the "Introduction of Waluigi" should be considered a feather in Mario Tennis' cap.

Eh, I'll pass. I bought my 3DS not too long ago and I'm not typically a fan of less portable portables anyway.

This new Animal Crossing better be an enormous step forward for the series to have been pushed back so long.

They seriously couldn't have mentioned any of these things during their 3DS showcase?

A sale on Super Mario Land? Two VC games a week? Wario Land?

I need to wipe myself down.

This guy's favorite Kirby game is Kirby's Adventure. I'd like to buy him a beer.

Rhythm Thief demo. YES!

Professor Layton 5. DOUBLE YES!

I'm quite enjoying the Wii VC's Spring/Summer resurgence.

Yeah, from what I've played of the demo, it's still a functional version of Rayman Origins and therefore still good. But unless the 3DS is someone's only current system, I can't recommend this version of the game to them over any of the others.

I thought this was easily one of the more promising WiiU games at E3, so it seemed almost fitting that Nintendo didn't talk about it at all during their press conference.

Well, of course I wish it was a "Metroidvania" and thus had some collecting (I might need that plate of foie gras later!), because that's my favorite method of getting Castlevania into my gaming bloodstream. But I like classic-style Castlevania too and Mirror of Fate clearly wasn't going to be built like SotN - granted, most of the cues that would indicate that it could be a SotN-style game wouldn't necessarily have made for exciting trailer and press conference material for most people - and I'm sure I could still enjoy it on its own merits if Cox and MercuryStream don't drop the ball.

In North America, NES Vs. Master System was less of a console war and more of a full-on console massacre.

Man, I really hope that 2015 (I'm presuming that's when Smash 4 will hit the 3DS) won't be the end of the 3DS' lifespan; I say this knowing that there are some exceptions, but successful handhelds are usually supposed to have a longer shelf life (pocket life?) than the typical 5-years-and-out runs of their home console cousins.

@ZIMM - First time available on the go? How could anyone forget about the port that was available for the (goofy and bulky) Nintendo e-Reader!?

Oh wait, only a couple dozen people even remember the e-Reader existed.

Yeah, I really wasn't expecting the next Smash to be ready by late 2014, at the absolute earliest. Late 2015-early 2016 looks much more likely.

Development doesn't start without Sakurai, and Sakurai's been busy for years stuffing Uprising full of content and has had less than three months to even consider how the next Smash will play. Now he'll have to build a new game from the ground up for a new console he presumably hasn't had much, if any, time to tinker with yet, not to mention a simultaneous 3DS release.

I always love it when gamer parents do cool stuff like this for their offspring.

Yeah, I wouldn't be able to, in good conscience, recommend this game over Donkey Kong '94 either. That game is all of the best parts of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., turned up to eleven.

Plus, Mario can do handstands and backflips!

That's because he is Jimmy T.

Donkey Kong '94 and Donkey Kong '94, with some Donkey Kong '94 sprinkled in (also Super Metroid - I really want to beat it this time!).

I always knew Donkey Kong was supposed to be good, but I really wasn't expecting this little puzzle-platformer to be so fantastic. Certainly the best 100 Club Nintendo coins I've ever redeemed.

@LavaTwilight - I'm sorry, I must've misread what you said there. Everyone knows that Wario is the best Nintendo character.

Anyway, I think I'd rather just have a new WarioWare, but if the 10 mini-games are deep enough and fun enough, I could see myself getting this (although definitely not at full retail price).

I can't shake my skepticism about MercuryStream or this Castlevania, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt until I play it.

I'm still not big on the switch from beautiful 2D to 2.5D-style visuals, but that's a matter of preference more than anything.

I'm so jealous of you guys; I can hardly wait to play this game..

@Nintendo6400 - Only Red and Rock Pikmin were playable at the E3 demo.

@bro2dragons - Because as much as we all love it, Metroid was deservedly overshadowed by The Legend of Zelda last year. And it's also something around Nintendo's 9th best-selling series; even Kirby's done a full lap on Samus in career sales at this point.

I will agree that Metroid turning 25 warranted at least a Tweet from Nintendo, though, and it seems almost out of character for the Big N to not publicly pat themselves on the back for reaching that kind of milestone.

The expected line-up, but that's hardly a bad thing.

I already have Adventure and Super Star on VC, but I'll probably double dip as long as Nintendo doesn't do something silly and set this at $50 or something.

Given the option, I'd rather Nintendo just make a new Zelda game built from the ground up for 3DS, but The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and 3D Classics: A Link to the Past would still be insta-buys for me. Because I'm both a big Zelda nerd and a sucker.

What I definitely don't want though, and what I've seen discussed on some gaming forums, is a re-imagining of ALttP in the style of the N64-to-present console entries, because 1) if they're going to do that, they might as well just make a brand new game anyway and 2) Ocarina of Time already was that.

I think I might just jump back into Scribblenauts for Unlimited, although the 3DS version will be the more likely option for me since I don't plan to get a WiiU at launch. The burned feeling I've had since I leapt headfirst into the original game - which I felt was a fun time-waster as a sandbox-y toy, but often frustrating and borderline broken when it was trying to be a video game - is finally starting to wear off.

That it actually has co-op at all is good news to me. There was some talk during E3 that Pikmin 2's sneaky-great multiplayer modes would be completely absent from the sequel.

The day a Rayman game remains an exclusive is the day Mario starts showing up on Sony & Microsoft consoles.

Ubisoft likes to port the guy onto almost every system under the sun. Heck, Rayman 2 is still getting new retail releases.

Even as a big Mario fan, I wasn't terribly impressed with Super Mario Land 2. It had some goofy and unique aspects that I liked about it, but at the end of the day it mostly felt like a basic Mario platformer to me, and I'd hesitate to put it in the same company as Link's Awakening and Donkey Kong.

But... what I wanted was another sports-RPG hybrid, Camelot.

@Popyman I'm pretty sure everyone won some sort of prize for that one.

Even if Shantae did use password saves - I wouldn't know, I've never played it - I would think that restore points should resolve that issue nicely.

Anyway, very cool news, I've been meaning to play this game for years, and I'm obviously much more willing to give it a try at $5-6 than at the current going rate for a used cartridge ($150 is the cheapest I can find at eBay, $165 at the Amazon marketplace).

I'm still going to need some serious convincing on the Mirror of Fate front, but I can't be too disappointed in a year when I finally saw my most anticipated game in years (Pikmin 3) and when we finally learned something about my most anticipated 3DS game (Paper Mario: Sticker Star).

Which is not to say I wasn't disappointed with the overall lack of exciting surprises and reveals between the Big 3 this year. Those are my favorite part of E3, and there really weren't a whole heckuva lot of them in 2012.

And really, Nintendo, you couldn't have revealed one new game at that big 3DS Showcase you got us all excited for? Fire Emblem: Awakening coming to North America wasn't worth five seconds of everyone's time?

For the inevitable amount of crude genital etchings alone, I do not envy the moderators that will have to work on Miiverse .

@ThomasBW84 That is a good point. The WiiU very well could be an excellent, more cost-effective option for some of the more cash-strapped developers (especially those in Japan) but a big key for the WiiU's longevity, of course, will be whether those games actually end up selling.

The Wii, especially during the first half of its life, was itself a haven for unique 3rd-party games that simply wouldn't have been possible for developers to make on the much more expensive HD behemoths without sending them to the poor house. But most of those efforts, for various reasons, ended up falling by the wayside, so "core" 3rd party support dried up and we've been left in the familiar position of waiting months for the next interesting Nintendo-developed release because there just isn't anything else to play for it.

With the WiiU, Nintendo needs to find a way to get those games to more gamers and thus encourage those developers to stay on board for more than just one or two of development cycles.

It's all about the games of course, and the WiiU controller provides the opportunity for some new and really unique stuff, but to say that I'm not a little disappointed that Nintendo hasn't done more to "future proof" their next home console on the visual front would be untrue.

What's really going to have to set apart the WiiU from its competitors will be how well both developers and consumers embrace this console's unique capabilities - something that ended with mixed results for the Wii this gen.

I hope I end up being wrong, but it's still sounding like a watered-down WarioWare to me.

Iwata, Reggie and Shiggy would be the undisputed kings of cringe-comedy.