Shinion

So how much is the game on its own in the UK? They're valuing the amiibo card at £10 if you assume the game is £40, and the controller is half-price of its £20 RRP if you get the bundle. Quite confusing, though I think I'll just get the Mewtwo card with the game.

@shani now that you've explained yourself better, I do understand where you're coming from, but I'd say the old adage 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' sums up my opinion. I'm actually playing FFVII for the first time right now and everything about the ATB system just works, it's familiar and simple, yet still allows for strategy and a challenge. 'Innovation' can sometimes have a negative effect if it's done just to invent a fancy new phrase. FFVIII's 'paradigm system' comes to mind here, most people don't like it.

@shani that is some of the most bizarre logic and blatantly ridiculous comparison I have ever seen on this site, which is saying something believe me. Your prerogative if you dislike it and don't think it's fun, but I kinda enjoy Chrono Trigger more than most RPGs I've played to this day, and no comparisons to writing down codes will make me think otherwise.

@Kirk I accept your apology. Now tell me what you REALLY think of a Mario game on Wii U

@shani it was with you saying that turn based RPGs are 'outdated' even though there is no evidence/facts that point to that being true. Square-Enix think the same, which is why neither of the upcoming Final Fantasy games are turn based, because it's 'outdated'.

@shani Square-Enix is that you?

@Peach64 you obviously didn't try out Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

@andrew20 this isn't a part of the story so unless you want your avatar character to enter a homosexual relationship you won't see this or any other gay scenes if Nintendo's statement is fact. Which is good for you I suppose if this offends you.

@DoctorOverbuild Nintendo just released a statement confirming that gay marriages are an option in all 3 versions of the game. So yeah they're doing the right thing.

Oh and since there will probably be a separate article for that statement and this one has died down I will reiterate again that I'm glad certain people have been alienated by this game. If this optional content not a part of the main story is too much for you or your drug scene that is no more is that precious to you then good riddance. There's plenty of better JRPG strategy games coming out on the market this year so you're definitely not missing out, because it's not like you were even fans to begin with.

Oh and these changes in fates being compared to Zelda being turned into an FPS...

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Warruz It sounds to me like you're over complicating it. I don't want to play a Role Playing Game where a character drugs another one because they're homosexual and that's not OK. That's like the dark ages where people with mental illnesses were burnt at the stake because people belived they were witches. We're a more enlightened people in this day and age and games should do their best to represent that. Homosexual people have the right to be properly portrayed, doesn't matter in my eyes what Intelligent Systems intended or thought was appropriate for their Japanese audience, it's coming over here now and I'm glad this has been changed for us.

And for the people saying they don't want this trash in their games, I'll be the first to say I'm glad you've decided this game isn't for you. There are plenty of games in the AAA space of things that suit your 'needs' better, I for one think it's well overdue that Nintendo are embracing modern culture.

@Octane here's a radical idea: don't buy them then. It's better than just posting things like this, I haven't bought Konami, Ubisoft, EA and Square Enix games for anything other than pre owned because all they do is take the rhymes with kiss. If you hate how Nintendo are giving you the option of buying characters they worked on post launch and allowed the community to influence one as well THAT much, mabye buy a book or something for that £3? In fact I think you'd be lucky to get a book for that much TBH.

UK release this century or nah? :/

Adventures of Pip is a long time overdue really. Don't know why the developer(s) had such a long delay getting it on the EU eShop, but I think £11 is a fair price. Though that puts it on the same price range as Fast Racing Neo and I'm not sure which of them is worth it more. I think I'll get AoP.

@SahashraLA I think you need to re-evaluate things a little bit, either that or you're massively misinformed. 10 million? For an exclusive? In a few months? In one region? I'd say it would be a fair bet that exactly 0 PS4 games will meet all of those criteria in its lifetime. I'd say there's probably only one or two ever games that do. New Super Mario Bros Wii eclipsed 20 million in USA alone last year, and that is one of the highest selling individual games ever.

Braixen is cool and unexpected, Mewtwo was always a given and Garchomp was also expected but good to see finally confirmed.

The Bravely Second limited edition is also up on the Nintendo Uk store for £70. In an ideal world I'd like to get both but I'm not made of money and so it is more than likely I'll have to pass

@aaronsullivan well yes, I think that is the least surprising thing in this article, Japan's taste in games at least hasn't changed much over the years, yet Sony have moved further away from what they want. What were the games Sony made last year, and can you imagine them being popular over there? Until Dawn? The Order 1886? Uncharted Collection? Heck even Bloodborne has nowhere near the amount of pull as Monster Hunter or any of the franchises in that 10. Persona and Final Fantasy will be the ones to watch next year for Japan.

@retro_player_22 kinda because we don't pay for this service and this is a planned down-time put in place by the company announced way in advance. As opposed to a supposedly top quality service we pay for by a multi-million ££££ company's servers unexpectedly going down for several hours because a couple of teenagers did DDoS thingy-migingy. There's several big differences there I hope you can see.

One of those games is not like the others. Legend of Korra is that game as it was both a bomb in sales and consumer/critics' opinion of the game. For all the others, it was only the former. Consistently great games, albeit they could be a bit varied in their gameplay, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. Looking forward to all 3 of those games coming up from them, keep up the good work!

@MadAussieBloke almost like how people saw the coding for PS2 games on PS4 and lost their minds praising their favourite company for bringing some form of backwards compatibility to their 'next-gen' system two years after launch, only to later have it be confirmed it was just selling you stuff. Again. For $15 a pop. Again.

@zool I'd say it has more to do with the fact that it's an excellent Wii U exclusive JRPG that wasn't adversitied at all as opposed to say something like Star Wars Battlefront. Though I don't get your point at all.

Eh, no main Pokemon, Zelda or Fire Emblem= 0/10

Splatoon, Yoshi's Wooly World, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade, Paper Jam & Monster Hunter= 9/10

One of those two. Depends on how I'm feeling when I'm asked the question.

@Cyberbotv2 wow I can almost hear the violins from here, you do know you can always just do something else with your time if you think it's genuinely depressing to play Nintendo games. No one's forcing you after all, not least being on a Nintendo fan site with the same comments. Is it like a case of Stockholm Syndrome or something? If you do unfortunately stick around can you please change the tune a bit? Or at least learn to accept that the games you grew up with aren't the be-all-and-end-all. Eternal Darkness and WWF No Mercy magical? New Super Mario Bros U is more magical than both of them combined

Virtue's Last Reward for £10. Anyone fancying playing one of the most mind-blowing games I've ever played (and I've played a lot of 'em) don't miss out on that deal. It's well worth that much, nearly 30 hours to reach the end and the pace barely drops at all. Highly recommended.

Yep, I personally would love to see how Sakurai would handle one of Nintendo's other IPs, like he did with Kid Icarus, but if he's not had one since Smash Wii U's launch I'd say the guy (and his team in general) are due a well-earned break. They've done about as good as they could've in meeting demand from fans, critics and Nintendo, so once Corrin and Bayonetta are done-and-dusted and released they should kick back a little.

But after that, give him Fire Emblem (lol), Mario, Starfox, Donkey Kong, F-Zero any of them and let's see how he can freshen them up. He sure did that with Kid Icarus Uprising. Heck I'd even take Kid Icarus Uprising 2 really, there's more he can do with that IP for sure. Just not Kirby. I don't like Kirby all that much. Sorry Sakurai-San.

Brace yourselves... 2D side-scrolling shoot-'em-ups using the Fire Koopa Clown Car are coming...

Very impressive numbers again, quite incredible that Splatoon has sold more than virtually all the AAA shooters combined in Japan, despite the fact that COD and Star Wars have been relatively popular over there for quite some time. Surely this places the worldwide sales of it close to 2 million? What an achievement that is.

@AlexSora89 yes, Bayonetta whenever she is made available (wink-wink) will be the last DLC character for Smash 4, Sakurai said so right before her trailer.

Am I the only one who is thrilled with all 3 of the characters? Granted, being a massive Fire Emblem fan helps with Corrin (can't wait for Fates, that voice acting "my big brother is now my big sister! Haha), not much else needs to be said about Cloud and Bayonetta, they both look fantastic, full credit to Sakurai.

@Therad not technically true again, you are most certainly not guaranteed a free play every day in Nintendo Badge Arcade, and you can at least play Candy Crush without paying was my point.

Anyway forget those two examples as they weren't the best, the best is the one you conveniently ignore, when EA had to change Dungeon Keeper Mobile under the threat of legal action. That is where the difference between 'free-to-play' and 'free-to-start/download' is best seen. Did you play Dungeon Keeper Mobile for more than 5 minutes without paying? Of course not, it's virtually impossible, because that's how greedy EA designed it to be.

And the same is true for this amiibo game concept. Nintendo absolutely cannot call this a free-to-play game if it requires the purchase of a £11 amiibo to play. It will be a free download according to the article, and that's how Nintendo will refer to it.

See the difference now? So yeah you summed it up perfectly- totally different

I always feel it's too soon to be doing these GOTY award thingies in the same year that they're about, especially as the 'official' ones didn't even wait for all the games to release. I haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles X yet and even most people that got it on release and vote now won't have completed it, albeit it shouldn't be necessary to have to beat a game to have an opinion of it, but still. Haven't even got Wooly World or Rise of the Tomb Raider either, two games I'm very much looking forward to. Do people honesty say there aren't enough games, regardless of which system(s) one owns? I can't keep up.

@arnoldlayne83 'if' it will come to Wii U.

And so there it is, after what must be at least half a dozen confirmations, there are people that still doubt that Zelda U will come out on Wii U. That actually made me laugh so thanks for that dude

@Therad nope that is technically not true at all. Free-to-play indicates that it is possible to play the game without paying for anything, a good example of this being DC Universe or Candy Crush. There is a so-called 'freemium' experience with those games, where you will need to pay if you want to get the most out of them or if you want to play them for a long period of time, but someone can play them to some degree without paying.

That's where it differs from Nintendo Badge Arcade, Dungeon Keeper Mobile or how this game sounds. They all outright demand money otherwise they are unplayable, which led to heavy backlash being directed at EA (of course) for marketing Dungeon Keeper Mobile as 'free-to-play' in their adverts for the game, something that was not true at all as you would be left waiting days for a single block to be built without paying. They subsequently charged it to 'free-to-download' after being threatened with legal action.

So nope they are not the same thing. It is far more honest to be open about your product from the get-go as Nintendo have been doing, rather than tricking people like EA were. That's why I would have liked clarification as to where this leans on the free-to-play scale.

@JaxonH yeah Microsoft really stepped it up recently, to the point when I couldn't resist buying the console for £300 on the day Rare Replay came out. It's hard to swallow having owned both that by all likelihood the Wii U and Xbox One's sales combined won't reach the PS4's. Not that this is a competition worth getting personally involved in or anything, just pointing out the stats. At least both Nintendo and Microsoft are seeing healthy profits for their efforts, which have been considerably more than Sony's. In my opinion.

@JaxonH well I think we'll have to see how it performs in the US before we draw any conclusions. The original Xenoblade only got a limited physical release over there as well as no digital. X could still sell near 1 million, unlikely but not impossible.

@Grumblevolcano I agree with the first half of your comment, I would've expected to hear about a big amiibo game by now, mabye for NX if this isn't it? It's gotta happen eventually. But what are you saying there with the second half of your comment? Granted, I've not played on Mario Kart 8 all that much, but I was sure there was only ever going to be 2 packs, and that's definitely all that Nintendo announced. And what does it have to do with smartphones? I'm confused.

@LiamR so you DO know what game it is, you're just selectively disclosing your information just... Because? So is this like 20 questions or something? Lemme have a go:

. Is it a platformer?
. Is Mario on the cover of the game or heavily featured in the branding of it?
. Does the title have 'super' in it?
. Is it lame? (In your opinion).
. Are you making stuff up? I jest, I jest.
. When will we next get an update either from your source or official confirmation from Nintendo themselves?
. Does your source know who 'won' the Smash ballot?
. What's your source's favourite colour?
. What's your favourite type of sauce?

Can't think of any more ATM, thanks for any further clarification you give us in the comments

All of that makes some degree of sense, they had to make a game that was compatible with all amiibo eventually, one that actively requires an amiibo to work. Interesting to see that it is 'free-to-play', though I'm confident that will be changed to 'free-to-start/download once it's announced. Though of course there's no juicy details about how the amiibo will be used and what type of game it is. Did your source learn about this information and you're going to disclose it at a later date or did he switch off at that part of the meeting?

If I had the monies I would be all over those discounts and a couple of the new releases (still haven't got Fast Racing Neo yet). Oh well, I'll give my recommendation out to the Ace Attorney games again, for a little under £25, you could do much, much worse than 4 brilliantly funny and original games.

@TomKnows I honestly don't know where people get this idea of 'Vita is more popular in Japan' from. Clearly you didn't recently check the charts, where a certain once Sony handheld exclusive series just sold 2 million in under 3 weeks with its latest instalment, this series being by quite a distance the most popular in Japan over the last 5 years. I am of course talking about Monster Hunter, which also has 2 more games well on the way for a Japanese release in 2016. All of them being 3DS exclusives and the gap could be so wide that (from my very, very rough estimations admittedly) by the end of the Vita and 3DS's life-cycles, the Monster Hunter series ALONE could have sold more than all other Vita exclusives combined in Japan.

Where is this so called movement of Japanese devs to the 'thriving' PS Vita happening? @AVahne Because I sure as hell never see it on the chats. Level-5, Capcom Square-Enix and Nintendo are by some distance the most popular and successful Japanese developers for Japanese gamers, and they don't care at all about the Vita. Monster Hunter, Yokai-Watch, Dragon Quest, Animal Crossing and Pokemon, what has the Vita ever had to compete against even those 5?

Leaks at what time then? Sometime on Monday I'm guessing?

Meanwhile in Europe- to pineapple or not to pineapple, that is the question.

I have to say, despite wanting to come here celebrating (for a change with this website) and discussing how great the 3DS has been and will continue to be, after just glancing over the 50 or so comments I am absolutely gob-smacked (look it up people not from the UK) at how many people are at a stage where they assume the opposite to what Nintendo say, even when evidence supports their statement. These conspiracy theorists need to get a grip if this is what they come to, I can't imagine living my life where I assume the opposite of every statement said to me, unless with these people it's just a special case with Nintendo.

A Nintendo employee saying that they're not going to abandon their main money making method (A+ for alliteration there) is apparently 'utter nonsense'. Good grief and I thought I was the cynical one as far as these game companies are concerned.

@MysticX well yeah, last week I spent £100 on the Xenoblade Chronicles X special edition and Mario and Luigi Paper Jam Bros. I didn't buy a single Nintendo game in November, only buying Star Wars Battlefront on PS4. I don't know what you like (apart from Shante obviously) but I love(d) the previous games from both series and am loving these ones. Am I supposed to be mad about amiibo Festival/ Mario Tennis Ultra Smash? Should I whine about it on forums? Do Nintendo have to make more than £100 off of me for them to be 'good'? Nintendo aren't in a crisis, anywhere near in fact, and as long as that is so, this doom-and-gloom attitude will always baffle me. For a comparison, I bought one Sony exclusive all year- Bloodborne. I know which of the two needs to step up their game for me at least.

@Peach64 yeah that always grinds my gears, when people say that Nintendo should 'drop' the UK market, 'cause they'll never 'succeed' here, then when we see the US' taste in games, what do we have? COD, Madden, Halo, Fallout and Assassin's Creed. This industry isn't rocket science, the big publishers know what sells and are happy to flog it on a yearly (or bi-yearly) basis.

But yeah glad to see that doom-and-gloom reigns here, not that I expected anything else. Anyone got any positive news or are we lamenting the fact that Nintendo stopped releasing good games since oh when was it again, last week when we got two solid 8-9s on the 3DS and Wii U (in the UK at least)?

DOOOOOOMED!!!!! Oh woe is me!

My favourite generation, followed closely by 3. I could easily type as much as you have there Serebii on why it is so, but I feel like that's always a futile exercise when people refuse to budge from their favourites. Certainly, the physical/special split, the addition of online and the tons of great new Pokemon are undoubtably great things to come from gen 4.

Nah, there's no need to even make this an article at all really. It's not going to happen, and what's his point when he says that he'd like to see it happen? Xbox owners are stereotyped perfectly, A.K.A they wouldn't even buy Metroid or Zelda in massive amounts if they went onto their platform, let alone Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Pikmin and the like. Or does good ol' Phil like how Microsoft kill franchises because no one on Xbox buys them a la Conker's Bad Fur Day (which Microsoft cancelled a sequel of in favour of, of course a Perfect Dark game) and Banjo-Kazooie? That's the only way that statement would make sense. Concentrate on getting Rare to make Banjo-Threeie Phil, I'm one of mabye 10,000 Xbox One owners who would buy it, and that's being generous.

@Yorumi awwwwww and here I was about to give you my friend code so you could come to my town in New Leaf. We could've had so much fun!

@Yorumi "cause anything is going to sell better on the 3DS" that's not necessarily true. The comparisons between the Wii U and 3DS are difficult to make because the user base is so vastly different. If you compare say the more even Wii and DS from last gen I'm sure you'll find some similar games that sold better on Wii than DS. NSMBW sold more than NSMBDS I believe? And I'm 99.9% sure that Mario Kart Wii sold more than DS. Twilight Princess is the highest selling Zelda game, whilst no one cares about the handheld games and they sold poorly. I could go on for longer but I think you get the point.

You asked the question and I believe I gave you what would be Nintendo's answer, which was New Leaf and a great answer at that. If you need a handheld and a home conolse version of Mario, Zelda, Smash, Animal Crossing, Metroid, Smash. Mario Kart etc released every 2 years in order for Nintendo to meet your expectations I think you need to get out of Cloud-Cuckoo-Land and back to reality otherwise you're always going to be disappointed and you'll become very cynical and whinny. Or is it too late for that?

@Yorumi because they already printed 100x more money than this would've made with New Leaf only a couple of years ago maybe? I hate to be the pessimist in this scenario, especially since Josh is passionate about this and it does undoubtably look amazing, but it's the truth the way I see it. I said it in the thread about this, this is best as a handheld franchise. Nintendo were hit from pillar to post with City Folk and people demanded a great handheld game, they gave them it with New Leaf and now this is the response?

Animal Crossing is far from a neglected franchise for Nintendo, and I'm sure they looked at New Leaf's 15 million (hell even Happy Home Designer's 1 million in Japan alone) units sold and wondered "if only we could Nintendo better, oh I know Wii U!". Sarcasm in case it wasn't obvious. 99.9% the next Animal Crossing is already in development for the handheld portion of the NX, if that's what it turns out to be.

Once again though credit to thebitblock, great vid, great ideas.