TheAdrock

@daveh30 , $5 rebate / $99 spent = 5%
Now admittedly you could spend $50 and the same rebate would then be 10% which begs the question: why wouldn't Nintendo make it a sliding scale rebate to encourage more spending? But IMO, even 10% is a weak rebate. That barely covers most sales tax.

A 5% discount is about as wimpy as you can get. Even Bed Bath and Beyond gives 20% all the time.

@hydeks There's always the dragon girl's nude scenes...

See I told you so. Nintendo is not doing enough to salvage the U. Dip into that fat bank account and dedicate some resources to saving this console. But it might already be too late. "Wait and see how Christmas goes" isn't a strong strategy. Meanwhile they have 25 years of existing content which isn't being made available with any speed or urgency whatsoever.

^^ nice homestar profile pic.
Anybody know if Medieval 2: Total War will play on Windows 7 properly?

Awesome! Looks like the game that Nintendo should have been making. I'm getting that now.

Love the cartoons. Hope this game is better than the first.

@Bass_X0 , so you want WoW in Hyrule. Also, there's the new 3Ds LTTP sequel coming out in the overhead style. Maybe it will be massive and free-exploring?

A decent opinion piece.
Analogy: The new 2014 Corvette is amazing. But the 1956 is also amazing even though its eclipsed technologically. Only a fool couldn't appreciate each for what they are.
But I remain convinced that the emotional attachment to a specific gaming "era" has to be deepest with whatever you had as a kid growing up. For me, that's NES. Everything was better in the 80s.

While we're waxing nostalgia: to beat a game in those days was very communal with your friends at school. There was no internet to find out secret levels and stuff. For example on Zelda, we'd spend an entire weekend bombing rock walls to find a secret, then make maps on paper of each screen, and share with our friends at school. We'd designate tasks to each other and share what we'd found. It was a special time. You don't get that today.

It was 1985, NES was brand new, came with ROB, Gyromite, and Duck Hunt. A friend and I stayed up all night trying to figure out how to use ROB. You cannot understand how awesome it was unless you lived those times. You could go to the arcade (kids today don't even know what that is) and see the same games that you have at home on Nintendo. Capcom games especially. NES is responsible for the video game culture as it stands today. You have to realize that the home console market was dead when NES came out — Atari was old and fail at that point.

The U was at least 4 years too late and I think is the biggest reason that its failing. The market sees the U as a 4 or 5 year old product... in other words an HD Wii that JUST NOW can compete graphically with the Xbox360/PS3, meanwhile MS/ Sony are moving a step ahead again. Right or wrong, thats the perception, and perception becomes reality. ... All N had to do 4 years ago is just release an upgraded Wii with HD. No other innovations or changes needed, just amp up the Wii to compete graphically. Same OS, same controllers, newer GPU. If they had done that then, the U would be perceived differently today. My $.02.

That's actually F*CKING awesome. I relate. Good solid head nod to that guy and kids like him.

@element187
I'll repeat myself to be more clear: Nintendo ought to be dedicating the resources to have all old titles on the lineup for release. I did not say that they should all be released on one day (not sure why you implied that). They don't have content for their only console, yet there is a library of content in the closet. Utilize your assets Nintendo. There might be some potential buyers of the U who are super jazzed to play that old title from their youth. Nintendo doesn't have the luxery of taking their sweet time getting the market interested in the U.
And as for Nintendo doing unsensible things: take another look at their history to see how untrue that statement of yours was. Heck, just look at how they botched this latest console. Did they create, launch, and market the U in a sensible manner to you? smh

There is no sensible reason that Nintendo doesn't have every old Nintendo game ever made on the lineup for VC release ASAP. Triple the team of guys who are working on the VC stuff until its all there. Until you have some new content to excite gamers, at least provide the old stuff.

When executives are unaware of what consumers think about their product. It would be funny if it weren't sad.

Other innovators in their sectors who became irrelevant or disappeared: Kodak, Xerox, Palm, Blackberry, AOL, Sears, Woolworths, Pan-Am, Schwinn, Atari. If you think that Nintendo is immune to market forces, or that its all a media conspiracy, then you're as blind as Nintendo executives are. It took only 2 years for Blackberry to go from the top selling phone on the market to completely irrelevant — and they practically invented the smartphone.

EDIT: PS,. and I like Nintendo and want them to win.

Story is everything. Music is second.

"The title princess of THIS_GAME...". Seems fair enough. Though I'd be pissed.

The first Wii U game that I care about buying.

Good times.

Frankly if all that Nintendo did was re-render all their Zelda games in HD, I'd be happy. If TLoZ (Zelda 1) were re-rendered in HD with no other changes I'd be thrilled and it would be worth the purchase. WW-HD isn't a new game... so why expect it be be redesigned with all these new features? Analogy: people who buy restored classic cars don't expect them to have GPS nav and cruise control. Just new paint and leather.

1. He's correct.
2. Nintendo games ARE a good enough reason to buy one. I don't know anybody who cares about Call of Duty anymore.

No reason that the playing character couldn't change from one protagonist to another throughout the game as the story unfolds. If done right, it would add depth to the story.

@MrWalkieTalkie
Thats hot. I want to do immoral things to her now.

Also, I recall in Spirit Tracks being able to control Zelda as a character. Just saying...

Also, anybody here old enough to remember Kings Quest 4 where you played the princess Rosella as the main protagonist? That game was a blockbuster for its time. No male players felt emasculated as far as I know.

Just do a kindle app. Easy and the infrastructure is already there through Amazon. Sheesh.

NO to microtransactional theft.

If I were N I'd just forget about that domain and let the squatter stew. The domain name is unimportant. Most people who want info will google it anyways. Nobody types URLs by hand anymore.

Focus on what really matters: that guy's hair and glasses are SO cool...

Their Skylander U game is very buggy and they won't provide any support for fixing it. Just sayin...

@Imagine23 All businesses are designed for only one thing and thats profit. If they provide what the market wants, then they profit and stay around. As of now the U is not what the market wants, clearly. Perhaps the U is what the market wanted 4 years ago (which is my contention) or perhaps the market will desire it a year from now, but so far the U has not resonated with consumers and that's not really EA's fault. EDIT: it should be noted that a console has two markets to appeal to: consumers AND developers. If it doesn't strike both chords at the same time then it will stuggle and/or fail.

And the same old cycle continues: if you want to play Nintendo titles, you buy N's console, and for all the other titles you buy the X/PS. Nintendo was supposed to have smartened up and make the U appealing to ALL developers so that gamers wouldn't need to buy two consoles, but clearly not. Now we get to wait another 7-8 years for the next N console to see if they can get it right... that is, if N is even still in business...

I don't care about EA, but I think their lack of supports creates a legitimate PERCEPTION that the U is not worth buying because its already being ignored by publishers. THAT is the problem in my estimation. Which is why N ought to cut their losses on this console and immediately introduce an upgraded U2 with a new supercharged v10 engine that can hang with the new competition. Don't have to redesign the entire product, just rev it up with higher flop/s.

Seems gimmicky to me... I doubt I'll bother with it.

On a similar note: Obama promised to not raise taxes, to close Guantanamo Bay, that Obamacare would lower the cost of medical care... ahh promises made by liars.

@pc999
Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible

Wow I seriously couldn't care less...

@MeddlingIdiot , "What good is power without creativity?"

For the most part I agree with you. But on the flip side: what good is creativity when it doesn't come to the U? N is in a catch-22 as we know, but if developers don't believe in the system and all the cool new games skip it (or we only get some lame half-assed port which seems to be the case so far) then the U is a fail.

If he's "unconcerned" then he's either lying or is delusional.

And as for the next-gen/current-gen label debate: all that matters is what developers think. If they don't want to develop for it because its "current-gen" (in their minds), if all new cool games skip the U, then N loses.

@mikeyman64 i agree with you about wanting to eat glass.

Its frustrating when the people who are supposed to be so smart clearly have less of a clue than I do...

WHEN!? Release date pah-leeze!

He has to say that. Hope he's right, but as I've said elsewhere: if they are wrong then they become Sega. N ought to be throwing every dollar and every resource into developing new original content and marketing the heck out of this console. Take no chances. This Christmas is big or they are done.

@krunchykhaos re: #81, Okay maybe I'm being overly dramatic about PS. Xbox is complete trash to me, but I don't find PS to worth their high price either. I'm probably a minority but I just don't see why I would buy a scaled-down PC (lower res, fewer FPS, etc) to play the same games I can get on my PC.

@crobatman re: #101, That analysis is pretty much accurate. Also, N managed the U project poorly and continues to bungle it (or so it seems).

Its kinda obvious that if N doesn't support the content that people want, then customers will buy the console that gives it to them. The ONLY reason I bought an XBox360 was to watch HBO Go. If N would give me that support for that content, then I would watch it on the U.

And if N is wrong about this... they become Sega. Is it worth taking that risk?

Price cut? Frankly N should do anything and everything possible to jack up sales of the U before their lose their proverbial shirt. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Pour every resource and every dollar into original creative titles for the U, price cuts, marketing, free game giveaway gimmicks, whatever. They ought to be in full panic mode. If this 2013 Christmas season isn't BIG for N, then it will be too late to recover the U in 2014.

Seems obvious that N bungled the U in all respects that matter. IMO their HD system is/was at least 4 years overdue. Now its too little, too late, and being unprepared to deliver a library of games is just the cherry on top of N's giant FAIL. I'm rooting for N to come through this with a win (mostly because the Xbox and PS are such total garbage IMO).

re: having Zelda at the protagonist...
I've had the thought for some time now that N could really mix up the story telling by having us play Zelda and Ganon and Link through different stages. Perhaps a young Ganon (pre-evil) where we get a better understanding of him as a character, not so much a one-dimensional "evil bad guy". Changing protagonists throughout the game could be interesting and expand the characterization. You're welcome Nintendo.

The last time that Time Magazine said anything wise or worthwile was... NEVER. They have the most dismal record in journalism.

People really care...?