We need facts! How much extra weight does it add to the controller? Does it increase fatigue over long play sessions? How much extra time do you get for using it? If the extra battery hours are enough to counter the added weight, I might pick this up. That said, since the Wii U is not a handheld console, limited gamepad battery life generally doesn't impact me that much. When I'm done playing, it goes right back on its charging cradle, ready to go the next time I get a hankerin' for Zelda or Mario. The only time I've seen the battery light flash has been after all-day gaming session with my family and friends and that hasn't been often or inconvenient enough to warrant this, particularly if it makes the controller twice as heavy.
I totally understand Nintendo's position with their pricing model — you don't want to undercut your retailers and risk ruining relationships that, for now at least, are vital to their continuing success.
What I would suggest to Nintendo, however, is to do exactly what those retail stores do with their titles — put them on the shelf for full price for the first 3-6 months, then have targeted sales for $5-10 off or buy-one-get-one-50%-off specials, then move them to the bargain bin with a permanent 50% mark down. Why is Sonic & All-Stars Racing still $40 on the eShop when I can find it marked down to $25-30 at local stores? At this point Nintendo would not be undercutting their retailers any more than they're already undercutting each other, and I can't see that seriously hurting them.
Honestly, if they could go all-out ridiculous and do the types of sales Steam gets away with, I think people would jump on board a lot faster, and once you've got people used to buying digital games, it becomes easier to convince them to buy future games that way as well. As that happens, your reliance on physical retailers becomes less and less over time and then this whole argument becomes moot.
Yay for getting cheap attention by poking at a popular game with the racist/sexist card! While he's at it why doesn't he examine the sexist themes in Halo or accuse Mario of being a white-supremist?
This moron proves he doesn't even understand the material he's accusing. Let's take a look at some of those claims, shall we?
Let's see... The game is racist because the Gerudo, who live in a desert, have darker skin than those who don't live in a desert. Let's ignore the blatantly-obvious reason for that for a moment. So, he says this is clearly racist because the Gerudo are the "bad guys." That's funny, because during the game you get help from one of them, end up becoming a member of their organization, oh, and the one that helped you earlier? Yeah, she becomes one of the freaking sages who at the end of the game entrap Ganon in the Golden Realm, an act without which he would have continued to reign as the evil king. Just because the villain happens to be a member of one of the in-game races does not inherently make that entire race "the bad guys."
Okay, what's next? Oh right, sexism. How laughable. So let's see all the ways the female characters in the game directly refute this bizarre claim:
1. Before the story even begins, Link's mother sacrifices her own life getting him to safety in the Kokiri forest. Without her, he dies and there is no one to stop Ganon.
2. Saria provides Link with help in the form of his first ocarina, one of the tunes required to advance in the game, helpful tips throughout the game as needed, and she becomes a second of the sages who as already mentioned save the world at the end of the game.
3. Impa provides Link with another useful ocarina tune and gives him helpful advice to continue him on his quest.
4. Zelda provides Link with much necessary aid in procuring the sacred stones needed to access the Temple of Time, and also provides him with the ocarina later. After Ganon takes over, she then proceeds to directly aid Link in her alternate Sheik form and provides invaluable wisdom needed to defeat Ganondorf, as well as hooking Link up with several vital ocarina tunes. It is also her magic at the end of the game which allows Link to deliver the finishing blow to Ganon's beast form.
5. Malon teaches Link another tune for his ocarina that is very helpful in advancing the game, and introduces him to the horse without which he would not be able to progress. (By the way, the horse is also female.)
To say that the women in Ocarina of Time just sit around and wait for rescue is ridiculous to anyone who's actually bothered to play through the story. One of the most iconic sequences in the game features Link sneaking through a fortress run exclusively by women in a quest to save male workers they captured. Did he conveniently forget that when writing this trash?
Idiots and their opinions are a dime a dozen, and nobody with any brains is listening. This person should go back to the dark hole from which they crawled and never speak again.
Yeah the only issue with this is that I'd have to get a kit for each Wiimote, when all I really need is one charger and 4 of the battery packs. They should really consider selling those separately.
Wow, this is disappointing. I have always been a fan of the Myst series and seeing it treated this way disgusts me. There is literally no excuse for not taking new stills in 3D since if nothing else the 3D data from RealMYST could have been used. And not using the touchscreen to point and click with? What were they thinking?!
Can't wait to see the Vita/SmartGlass features be ridiculously cut down or clunky compared to the GamePad so my friends at work will stop claiming that somehow those are going to make it obsolete.
It's amusing to me that the lack of 3D is considered a feature at all. Oh sure, I can understand picking it up for less money as a tradeoff for not having 3D, but for it to be a selling point is just so backwards. Especially since despite Nintendo's warnings, no health agency in the world has warned that using it can cause damage to young player's eyes.
I know the 3D feature gets a lot of flak, either because of the supposed "risks" or that it just isn't worth it, or whatever, but for me it's still a huge selling point for the system. When a game uses it correctly, the difference is night and day: you can see objects in 3D space more clearly, the image appears sharper and games become easier to play, as well as simply adding some cool factor to the experience. Anybody who says 3D is just a gimmick should pick up one of the Zen pinball games on the system. Play it for 10 minutes with 3D and then try going back to 2D for 5 seconds. You tell me whether it makes a difference being able to see objects in 3D space on a cluttered pinball machine. After using the 3D feature, 2D just looks like a mess and following the action becomes so much harder, even when playing an HD console version on the big screen.
My hats off to you, you strangely unwanted and marginalized feature of the **3D**S.
I think Nintendo should definitely do this, yes. Even if they charged a modest fee for downloading the same game on another device, I would most likely take advantage of it. For example, right now I am not considering getting Smash Bros. on my 3DS at all. However, if I could grab it for $5-10 after purchasing the Wii U version, it would be incredibly tempting, especially if there are decent cross-platform features.
Yay! Finally us Wii owners can buy a game and then spend even more money buying the content that should have been included with the original game! Alright!!!!!
Um... Won't lag be an incredibly huge issue with this? With two separate systems running separate games in response to inputs received at separate times.... **shudder**
I don't even want to think of that kind of nightmare.
The reason Nintendo hasn't done this is because you can't just hack something together like this and expect it to work online. You have to change the games to add prediction and error handling, you don't just wave a magic wand and every game suddenly works.
For example, if the network hiccups for even a few seconds during a Mario Kart match, what should the emulated system do? Assume the player is not pressing anything and send their kart careening into a wall? What then happens 2 seconds later when the correct inputs are belatedly received? Suddenly your game is out of sync. The correct handling is for the program to presume that the player will continue to press the same buttons as they were during the "last known" good packet, then when the correct packet is received with their updated position, it needs to be prepared to adjust their kart to where they now are in reality. No games made for the NES/SNES have code that is prepared to handle these occurrences.
Giving the game away for the cost of the Fit Meter to existing Balance Board owners is a brilliant move. I was watching this pretty much disinterested until they announced that. Now I have to decide if it's worth $20 to give Wii Fit another try. Clever Nintendo...
$50 for unlimited access to all five games is not unreasonable given the package they're putting this in. Allowing you to pick and choose which games to pick up just makes it even sweeter! I don't see how anyone could fairly complain about the pricing model. Try all the games for a day for free, if you're still not certain about a particular sport you can get another day for $2. (I don't see many people taking advantage of this) If you like it, drop $10 on the table and it's yours.
Not putting this out on Wii U is a major mistake of Rockstar. I've no doubt the game will be considered a smash hit anyway, but there are so many opportunities that the Wii U could deliver for them and it's a shame they gave the system a pass.
First off, the Wii U is currently the leader in hardware performance, so they could push so more polys or spend those extra resources adding enhanced special effects or sharper textures, which would also bridge the gap between now and the inevitable PC release. Secondly, the game pad could make juggling between the 3 main characters a snap, allow you a great map view or hold HUD elements so the main screen doesn't have to be cluttered, or just let you take better aim with a sniper rifle or similar weapon.
A sandbox game set in a major city is also a great place to try out Miiverse integration. Imagine being able to come across graffiti of other player's Miiverse postings on buildings or tunnel walls in the game.
On Nintendo's side, the game would go a HUGE distance in proving that Nintendo isn't just about kid games. They should have made every effort to woo this game onto their system.
What? A development studio owned by EA canning employees to improve their bottom line? Say it isn't so!
This is why everyone needs to boycott EA.
I don't believe that this is the studio's decision for a second. You don't lay off a bunch of your staff and feel good about it, but you've still got to spin it as a positive change anyway.
@Nintonic If it was just music, it would have turned out better. Trying to replicate the sound effects as well resulted in some pretty rough noises, but it was neat to see the full game audio replicated in real time nonetheless.
Also, if you're against machines producing music for you, I'm assuming you don't listen to music on the TV, radio, PC or some other electronic device that is reproducing recorded tones in real time? Because it's effectively the same thing.
Nintendo made the right choice. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more Zelda titles remade in HD (though I'd rather have an original title first!) but Wind Waker HD was the correct title to start with. For one, it's older than those other two so stands the gain the most in terms of a graphical update. Another reason is the opportunity to streamline the game to remove some of those minor annoyances that cause the original to age poorly. Finally, it came out on the Gamecube, limiting the potential audience whereas the other two were on the Wii, a system that founds its way into many more households.
"The upper and lower portions of the screen are covered in black bars, shortening the vertical length of the game screen (the PC Engine and Genesis ports also added these black bars). This was done to compensate for the reduced size of the character sprites and make the change less noticeable to players."
I bought this game on sale awhile back because I liked Toki Tori on the Wii and the review here gave it good marks. I was quite disappointed with it after seeing that the stage-based puzzles of the previous game were gone and replaced with an endless series of stages with seemingly no overall goal and no story or assistance to be found. After getting stuck on one of the puzzles for hours and having no clue if I was even in the right place, I gave up on it.
It sounds like I need to update and start over and see if I can make sense of the game now. Always happy to give a game a second chance if the developer is willing to own up to their mistakes and release an improvement like this one. Here's hoping I'll be able to enjoy the series once more!
OMG, that's too funny. This is precisely the reason I don't own a tablet (or even a smartphone for that matter) and don't consider them a replacement for a true handheld console like the 3DS. I have people ask me why I'd bother to "waste money" on something like the 3DS when I can play "games" on a tablet. This, right here, is why. If you want real controls and games that last longer than 15 minutes, get an actual handheld console. Suction cups with fake controls are not going to help you do anything more than look like a complete idiot.
Sure, the tablets and phones of today have games... all of which are terrible. The market for tablet aka "casual" gaming is completely different from what Nintendo is selling. I don't consider the ability to divert myself for 5 minutes flinging birds at pigs to be true gaming, and the few times that the crappy mobile titles have been ported to 3DS (Words Up, Bird Mania 3D), it's resulted in some lackluster or just plain terrible experiences. Until there are a large selection of games of the caliber of Ocarina of Time or Donkey Kong Country Returns on tablet devices, I see two different markets with very little overlap.
And, sorry, but if parents don't want to buy a game console for their children and show them what real gaming is, how is that Nintendo's fault? Too many children are being brought up on these casual garbage games and wouldn't have the first clue what to do if they suddenly had a Nintendo game in front of them. Can you imagine someone who's only used to playing simple tap and slide games on a tablet suddenly loading up Pikmin 3? What a joke.
Nintendo should keep doing what it's doing peddling real game experiences to those intelligent enough to understand the difference. God help us if they stop. Think of how bleak the future would look if your only two choices were Angry Birds and Call of Duty 57.
This comically misses the point. For $350, on top of the price of your console of choice, you can play on your gamepad as long as you stay within 20 feet. So it's not a portable system, it doesn't support any of the other functions that make the Wii U great, all it lets you do is allow someone else to use the TV while you play. For the low-low price of $350.
Or, you can drop $300 (after Sept 20th) to get a game console WITH a controller that offers the same off-TV play, built-in motion control, asynchronous multiplayer and the ability to do much more than simply duplicating the screen.
This project is stupid and I hope it falls on its face completely.
@speedyboris: Nobody really wants the arcade version anyway, do they? Try playing the original SSF2 arcade on MAME some time and see if you can get past the first or second fight. They made the game brutally hard, even when the difficulty is set to its lowest setting (so-called "Easiest"). There's a reason that when they released HD remix on the 360 and PS3, they gave you a choice between Arcade and Remix mode, the latter of which was MUCH easier.
While I don't expect Capcom to do so, it'd be great to see that version released on the Wii U.
It's been mentioned in these comments but the review doesn't make it clear — this game DOES have a turbo mode built into the SNES version. Unfortunately it is not that obvious to see. I accidentally found it while perusing the manual on the Wii U version. You have to go to the title screen (not the main menu, the screen where it just says "Press start") and push right on the D-pad. You can set the speed from 1-3 stars, or no stars, which I think lines right up with the 4 speed selection of the previous game.
I've got both Turbo and Super for the Wii U VC and was playing them with my brother. I much preferred Turbo for its speed but I liked the additional characters and content in Super. As soon as we saw that option and turned it on, Super became the hands-down winner in our book.
Sorry, Reggie, but I've personally had to explain to several people that the Wii U isn't just an expansion, new controller or upgrade to their existing system. Most people I talk to about it don't know it's a new system that can render HD graphics. I think there are three things working against them. One, the name sounds like an upgrade to the uninitiated. Two, the new controller being at the forefront of the advertising makes it seem like that's all it is, and three the system looks too much like a Wii so when you see images of it (always hidden behind the new controller, of course), they think that's what it is.
The average consumer may understand now, close to a year after the system's launch, but I think it was a big hurdle to the console's early sales, which in turn led to lack of 3rd-party support, prompting more lackluster sales, leading us to the mess Nintendo's in now.
Lesson learned: When you have something new to sell, make sure your consumers know about it!
Homebrew has always been a weak excuse to me. If you want to create homebrew stuff, use a PC. People have been able to do some pretty incredible stuff by linking Wiimotes and the Wii U Gamepad to PCs and Nintendo has done nothing to stop those efforts because it doesn't infringe their ability to sell games. Why do you need to hack the console itself?
I honestly checked my calendar while watching the start of the 2DS announcement. I thought Nintendo had jumped back to April 1st for a minute. As the video kept playing with no sign of a punch line, the truth settled in... Nintendo has gone off the deep end.
Seriously though, it looks goofy and uncomfortable. I appreciate that it's not for me and that the lower price point will probably move systems, but couldn't they have at least attempted to make it look less like something a toddler would have fun with?
OK, point of discussion for those that think this doesn't count since he uses glitches: Who gets to decide what constitutes a glitch for the purposes of doing a speedrun "without glitching?" OK, so warp glitching to go straight from Gohma to Ganon I'm assuming is a pretty clear glitch, but what about using the menu to skip talking to certain NPCs or listening to Navi whine at you? Is that allowed? What about backwards running / jumping to shave time, is that a glitch or allowed? Is saving and restarting to warp back to Link's house a glitch? All of these things are used by speedrunners to cut time off the game, so how can you ban some of them without banning all of them?
Dang it, I saw this and was hoping someone had made an N64-style controller for Wii U. This seems pretty pointless to me as anyone who's still hanging onto an N64 these days probably has some official controllers to go with it. And if all you're looking for is a controller without the joystick problems of the original, well...
@Cohort Perhaps that's why they're doing the special?
Although the first game is not quite the same as Turbo. There are some attacks missing from certain characters (like Chun Li's fireball) and the balance is different. I prefer Turbo myself, but there might be some purists out there who crave the original.
@Hetsumani While I'm not holding my breath on new dungeons, that post is..... spurious, at best. Assuming they stuck mainly to reused texture resources and enemies, a dungeon wouldn't require much memory at all. 3D geometry is (putting it simply) defined by a series of points in 3D space and their connections to each other. It's the textures, music and sounds that take up the majority of the space on disc.
I find it rather funny that you believe 1GB can fit better textures and models (not sure what you mean by "more models"... new character models, or just more rendered on screen at once? Because new characters would be more unlikely than new dungeons, and a more powerful rendering engine would not require any additional data, which is why Mario 64 can render better on an emulator despite using the same data as on the original cart), but there's just no way you could squeeze better music or sound effects in that space? Why not?
Again, you're probably right about what they're going to include. It's the reasoning you use in your post that I find rather humorous.
This will be a day 1 download for me. Wind Waker is a fantastic title, and hopefully will be made even better with the "streamlined collection quest" thing..... whatever that means.
Love the giant arrow pointing at the Wii U that says "New Console." This is what Nintendo should have been doing from day 1. Or day -50, for that matter. Maybe then people wouldn't have just assumed the Wii U was a new controller for the system they only ever played Wii Sports Tennis on.
@ramstrong I think you need to read up on how patent law actually works. You've got some silly ideas. In particular, if you don't file a patent, you have no claim to it, even if you can point to a forum post that proves it's your idea. Secondly, if you don't actually have the means to benefit from the patent, or make any effort to obtain said means, then a company profiting from the idea is in no way taking money out of your pocket (you wouldn't have made any anyway) so they owe you squat.
A lot of people commenting here about "patent trolls" need to go back and look up the history of this case. The person suing Nintendo didn't just do so randomly after deciding he might make a quick buck. In fact, he was one of several individuals invited to Nintendo's offices to demonstrate glasses-free 3D technology. Afterwards he was told they had decided not to use his technology in their new system. Now he is alleging that the 3DS makes use of that technology even though Nintendo didn't pay him for its usage.
A similar situation would be a movie studio reviewing a script, turning it down, and then releasing a suspiciously-similar movie a year later. If you had written that script, you would feel slighted and due compensation for your idea. This is the same situation, and from what I know of the case, the plaintiff is not at all a patent troll.
I don't doubt that Nintendo honestly feels that their technology is sufficiently different from his, which is why they didn't think they had to pay him. Nintendo is not in the business of knowingly stealing from people. He however disagrees and is asking the courts to address the issue. Whether he or Nintendo is correct is for the court to decide, not us.
I stopped shopping at GameStop a long time ago. They're seedy, pushy and have shown that they will do underhanded things that hurt their customers and the gaming community as a whole whenever it suits them. I am looking forward to the day when digital content makes them obsolete entirely as a company.
Wow, why so much hate? I know nothing about the legality of them making this or using Kickstarter to gather the required funds. However, if they can make a fun and entertaining Metroid film, I say why not? At worst it shows Nintendo that fans are still interested in the franchise, encouraging them to sink resources into making another gameNOTBYTEAMNINJAOHFORTHELOVEOFGODPLEASENINTENDONO!! ... Uh, sorry about that. Ahem, where was I?
Right. I've always said Metroid would make for a good movie series and while it'd be better to hear about a full-length film blessed by Nintendo, I'm not going to shun some fans for trying to make it a reality. It's not like them making this is somehow going to take the place of a game, seriously...
@Intrepid Naturally the game doesn't tell you this right off (you have to get to a certain point and then dig through the Controls section of the information database to find it), but you can target something then press B to send all your Pikmin charging at it. It's not great in every situation, but it works wonders on walls and dirt mounds.
As for selecting captains, if you've got the other following you then you're going to have to dismiss Pikmin anyway to divvy them up before you send them off on separate tasks, right? I haven't found the act of switching between captains to be all that hard myself. The lock-on mechanic is also much better than relying on the often-finicky C-stick mechanic of the previous two games, in my opinion.
Alright! Downloaded Pikmin late last night (I'm in Mountain Time, so it came out around 10PM for me), playing into the wee hours of the morning, then got up again and have been enjoying the game ever since. But why, oh why is it that Nintendo always feels the need to add just one tiny thing to their games that screw up an otherwise perfect experience?!
So there I am, finally found the Winged Pikmin, spend most of the day increasing their numbers, go out and grab some fruit but on the way back the 10 second timer starts. Uh oh, time to gather in the Pikmin and make sure the stray counter (an AWESOME feature!) is at 0 before time runs out. Ok, done, all the Pikmin are with me and everything is fine, counter goes to 2... 1... 0, and I set down my controller.
BAD MOVE! Putting down the controller triggers the AWFUL and COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY motion-controlled "Dismiss Pikmin" command. With no time left, the screen blacks out and I watch as most of the Pikmin I spent the last 20 minutes gathering die to the bugs that come out after sunset. Why the HELL would you add a motion-controlled action for dismissing Pikmin when I can do the same thing by pressing the B button??? Why would you put it on a hair trigger?! Are there really players who were just begging for that function to be only a flick of the wrist away?! Nintendo, patch out this garbage. Add an option to turn it off, or better yet remove the stupid "feature" completely, but either way, this is ruining an otherwise flawless game for no reason. This is why so-called "hardcore gamers" continue to hate you. It's this, right here. Get rid of it, then fire the idiot who suggested the idea in the first place.
Comments 628
Re: GamePad High Capacity Battery Available Now in Europe
We need facts! How much extra weight does it add to the controller? Does it increase fatigue over long play sessions? How much extra time do you get for using it? If the extra battery hours are enough to counter the added weight, I might pick this up. That said, since the Wii U is not a handheld console, limited gamepad battery life generally doesn't impact me that much. When I'm done playing, it goes right back on its charging cradle, ready to go the next time I get a hankerin' for Zelda or Mario. The only time I've seen the battery light flash has been after all-day gaming session with my family and friends and that hasn't been often or inconvenient enough to warrant this, particularly if it makes the controller twice as heavy.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Catch-22 With Retail Game Pricing
I totally understand Nintendo's position with their pricing model — you don't want to undercut your retailers and risk ruining relationships that, for now at least, are vital to their continuing success.
What I would suggest to Nintendo, however, is to do exactly what those retail stores do with their titles — put them on the shelf for full price for the first 3-6 months, then have targeted sales for $5-10 off or buy-one-get-one-50%-off specials, then move them to the bargain bin with a permanent 50% mark down. Why is Sonic & All-Stars Racing still $40 on the eShop when I can find it marked down to $25-30 at local stores? At this point Nintendo would not be undercutting their retailers any more than they're already undercutting each other, and I can't see that seriously hurting them.
Honestly, if they could go all-out ridiculous and do the types of sales Steam gets away with, I think people would jump on board a lot faster, and once you've got people used to buying digital games, it becomes easier to convince them to buy future games that way as well. As that happens, your reliance on physical retailers becomes less and less over time and then this whole argument becomes moot.
Re: News Site Claims That Zelda "Takes A Dim View Of Workers, People Of Colour And Women"
Yay for getting cheap attention by poking at a popular game with the racist/sexist card! While he's at it why doesn't he examine the sexist themes in Halo or accuse Mario of being a white-supremist?
This moron proves he doesn't even understand the material he's accusing. Let's take a look at some of those claims, shall we?
Let's see... The game is racist because the Gerudo, who live in a desert, have darker skin than those who don't live in a desert. Let's ignore the blatantly-obvious reason for that for a moment. So, he says this is clearly racist because the Gerudo are the "bad guys." That's funny, because during the game you get help from one of them, end up becoming a member of their organization, oh, and the one that helped you earlier? Yeah, she becomes one of the freaking sages who at the end of the game entrap Ganon in the Golden Realm, an act without which he would have continued to reign as the evil king. Just because the villain happens to be a member of one of the in-game races does not inherently make that entire race "the bad guys."
Okay, what's next? Oh right, sexism. How laughable. So let's see all the ways the female characters in the game directly refute this bizarre claim:
1. Before the story even begins, Link's mother sacrifices her own life getting him to safety in the Kokiri forest. Without her, he dies and there is no one to stop Ganon.
2. Saria provides Link with help in the form of his first ocarina, one of the tunes required to advance in the game, helpful tips throughout the game as needed, and she becomes a second of the sages who as already mentioned save the world at the end of the game.
3. Impa provides Link with another useful ocarina tune and gives him helpful advice to continue him on his quest.
4. Zelda provides Link with much necessary aid in procuring the sacred stones needed to access the Temple of Time, and also provides him with the ocarina later. After Ganon takes over, she then proceeds to directly aid Link in her alternate Sheik form and provides invaluable wisdom needed to defeat Ganondorf, as well as hooking Link up with several vital ocarina tunes. It is also her magic at the end of the game which allows Link to deliver the finishing blow to Ganon's beast form.
5. Malon teaches Link another tune for his ocarina that is very helpful in advancing the game, and introduces him to the horse without which he would not be able to progress. (By the way, the horse is also female.)
To say that the women in Ocarina of Time just sit around and wait for rescue is ridiculous to anyone who's actually bothered to play through the story. One of the most iconic sequences in the game features Link sneaking through a fortress run exclusively by women in a quest to save male workers they captured. Did he conveniently forget that when writing this trash?
Idiots and their opinions are a dime a dozen, and nobody with any brains is listening. This person should go back to the dark hole from which they crawled and never speak again.
Re: Nintendo of America Selling Wii Remote Rapid Charging Cradle and Rechargeable Battery Set
Yeah the only issue with this is that I'd have to get a kit for each Wiimote, when all I really need is one charger and 4 of the battery packs. They should really consider selling those separately.
Re: Review: Myst (3DS)
Wow, this is disappointing. I have always been a fan of the Myst series and seeing it treated this way disgusts me. There is literally no excuse for not taking new stills in 3D since if nothing else the 3D data from RealMYST could have been used. And not using the touchscreen to point and click with? What were they thinking?!
Re: Video: Proof That Pokémon + Dubstep = Not Quite As Bad As It Sounds
Lucky freaking Pokémon...
Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut Finally Dated for Wii U
Can't wait to see the Vita/SmartGlass features be ridiculously cut down or clunky compared to the GamePad so my friends at work will stop claiming that somehow those are going to make it obsolete.
Re: Parent Trap: Nintendo 2DS Family Stress Test
It's amusing to me that the lack of 3D is considered a feature at all. Oh sure, I can understand picking it up for less money as a tradeoff for not having 3D, but for it to be a selling point is just so backwards. Especially since despite Nintendo's warnings, no health agency in the world has warned that using it can cause damage to young player's eyes.
I know the 3D feature gets a lot of flak, either because of the supposed "risks" or that it just isn't worth it, or whatever, but for me it's still a huge selling point for the system. When a game uses it correctly, the difference is night and day: you can see objects in 3D space more clearly, the image appears sharper and games become easier to play, as well as simply adding some cool factor to the experience. Anybody who says 3D is just a gimmick should pick up one of the Zen pinball games on the system. Play it for 10 minutes with 3D and then try going back to 2D for 5 seconds. You tell me whether it makes a difference being able to see objects in 3D space on a cluttered pinball machine. After using the 3D feature, 2D just looks like a mess and following the action becomes so much harder, even when playing an HD console version on the big screen.
My hats off to you, you strangely unwanted and marginalized feature of the **3D**S.
Re: Nintendo Considering Cross-Buy eShop Purchases, But Doesn't Have Anything To Announce Yet
I think Nintendo should definitely do this, yes. Even if they charged a modest fee for downloading the same game on another device, I would most likely take advantage of it. For example, right now I am not considering getting Smash Bros. on my 3DS at all. However, if I could grab it for $5-10 after purchasing the Wii U version, it would be incredibly tempting, especially if there are decent cross-platform features.
Re: Batman: Arkham Origins Season Pass Confirmed for Wii U
Yay! Finally us Wii owners can buy a game and then spend even more money buying the content that should have been included with the original game! Alright!!!!!
.... pass.
Re: Online Multiplayer Comes To The Super Nintendo Thanks To SNESoIP
Um... Won't lag be an incredibly huge issue with this? With two separate systems running separate games in response to inputs received at separate times.... **shudder**
I don't even want to think of that kind of nightmare.
The reason Nintendo hasn't done this is because you can't just hack something together like this and expect it to work online. You have to change the games to add prediction and error handling, you don't just wave a magic wand and every game suddenly works.
For example, if the network hiccups for even a few seconds during a Mario Kart match, what should the emulated system do? Assume the player is not pressing anything and send their kart careening into a wall? What then happens 2 seconds later when the correct inputs are belatedly received? Suddenly your game is out of sync. The correct handling is for the program to presume that the player will continue to press the same buttons as they were during the "last known" good packet, then when the correct packet is received with their updated position, it needs to be prepared to adjust their kart to where they now are in reality. No games made for the NES/SNES have code that is prepared to handle these occurrences.
Re: Nintendo Direct: Check Out the Wii Fit U Direct Here
Giving the game away for the cost of the Fit Meter to existing Balance Board owners is a brilliant move. I was watching this pretty much disinterested until they announced that. Now I have to decide if it's worth $20 to give Wii Fit another try. Clever Nintendo...
Re: Wii Sports Club Takes The Competition Online With HD Visuals And Wii MotionPlus Support
$50 for unlimited access to all five games is not unreasonable given the package they're putting this in. Allowing you to pick and choose which games to pick up just makes it even sweeter! I don't see how anyone could fairly complain about the pricing model. Try all the games for a day for free, if you're still not certain about a particular sport you can get another day for $2. (I don't see many people taking advantage of this) If you like it, drop $10 on the table and it's yours.
Re: Poll: Would You Buy Grand Theft Auto V On Wii U?
Not putting this out on Wii U is a major mistake of Rockstar. I've no doubt the game will be considered a smash hit anyway, but there are so many opportunities that the Wii U could deliver for them and it's a shame they gave the system a pass.
First off, the Wii U is currently the leader in hardware performance, so they could push so more polys or spend those extra resources adding enhanced special effects or sharper textures, which would also bridge the gap between now and the inevitable PC release. Secondly, the game pad could make juggling between the 3 main characters a snap, allow you a great map view or hold HUD elements so the main screen doesn't have to be cluttered, or just let you take better aim with a sniper rifle or similar weapon.
A sandbox game set in a major city is also a great place to try out Miiverse integration. Imagine being able to come across graffiti of other player's Miiverse postings on buildings or tunnel walls in the game.
On Nintendo's side, the game would go a HUGE distance in proving that Nintendo isn't just about kid games. They should have made every effort to woo this game onto their system.
Re: Burnout And Need For Speed Studio Criterion Downsizes To Just 15 People
What? A development studio owned by EA canning employees to improve their bottom line? Say it isn't so!
This is why everyone needs to boycott EA.
I don't believe that this is the studio's decision for a second. You don't lay off a bunch of your staff and feel good about it, but you've still got to spin it as a positive change anyway.
Re: Hometown Story's Character Episodes and Interactions are on 3DS but not iOS Version
Another example of why mobile phone gaming is not true gaming.
Re: Weirdness: Robots Play Classic Nintendo Music and Sound Effects
@Nintonic If it was just music, it would have turned out better. Trying to replicate the sound effects as well resulted in some pretty rough noises, but it was neat to see the full game audio replicated in real time nonetheless.
Also, if you're against machines producing music for you, I'm assuming you don't listen to music on the TV, radio, PC or some other electronic device that is reproducing recorded tones in real time? Because it's effectively the same thing.
Re: Nintendo Tested Two Other Zelda Titles in HD on the Wii U
Nintendo made the right choice. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more Zelda titles remade in HD (though I'd rather have an original title first!) but Wind Waker HD was the correct title to start with. For one, it's older than those other two so stands the gain the most in terms of a graphical update. Another reason is the opportunity to streamline the game to remove some of those minor annoyances that cause the original to age poorly. Finally, it came out on the Gamecube, limiting the potential audience whereas the other two were on the Wii, a system that founds its way into many more households.
Re: Video: Want To Know Which Version Of Street Fighter II Runs The Fastest?
@JJtheTexan The screen size is unchanged on the Wii U emulated version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_fighter_2_turbo#Super_NES
"The upper and lower portions of the screen are covered in black bars, shortening the vertical length of the game screen (the PC Engine and Genesis ports also added these black bars). This was done to compensate for the reduced size of the character sprites and make the change less noticeable to players."
Re: Hands On: Toki Tori 2+
I bought this game on sale awhile back because I liked Toki Tori on the Wii and the review here gave it good marks. I was quite disappointed with it after seeing that the stage-based puzzles of the previous game were gone and replaced with an endless series of stages with seemingly no overall goal and no story or assistance to be found. After getting stuck on one of the puzzles for hours and having no clue if I was even in the right place, I gave up on it.
It sounds like I need to update and start over and see if I can make sense of the game now. Always happy to give a game a second chance if the developer is willing to own up to their mistakes and release an improvement like this one. Here's hoping I'll be able to enjoy the series once more!
Re: Video: The Wind Waker HD's New Features Are Shown Off, Along With Gorgeous Visuals
Ready for Hero Mode from day 1, and looking forward to the fast sail as sailing from island to island was probably the dullest part of the game.
Re: Weirdness: These "Anywhere Buttons" Look Daft Wherever You Are
Hahahahahahahahahah!!!
Aaaah hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
HA HA... HAHAHAHAHA!!! gasp
OMG, that's too funny. This is precisely the reason I don't own a tablet (or even a smartphone for that matter) and don't consider them a replacement for a true handheld console like the 3DS. I have people ask me why I'd bother to "waste money" on something like the 3DS when I can play "games" on a tablet. This, right here, is why. If you want real controls and games that last longer than 15 minutes, get an actual handheld console. Suction cups with fake controls are not going to help you do anything more than look like a complete idiot.
Re: Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Claims Nintendo "Could Be On The Path To Irrelevance"
Sure, the tablets and phones of today have games... all of which are terrible. The market for tablet aka "casual" gaming is completely different from what Nintendo is selling. I don't consider the ability to divert myself for 5 minutes flinging birds at pigs to be true gaming, and the few times that the crappy mobile titles have been ported to 3DS (Words Up, Bird Mania 3D), it's resulted in some lackluster or just plain terrible experiences. Until there are a large selection of games of the caliber of Ocarina of Time or Donkey Kong Country Returns on tablet devices, I see two different markets with very little overlap.
And, sorry, but if parents don't want to buy a game console for their children and show them what real gaming is, how is that Nintendo's fault? Too many children are being brought up on these casual garbage games and wouldn't have the first clue what to do if they suddenly had a Nintendo game in front of them. Can you imagine someone who's only used to playing simple tap and slide games on a tablet suddenly loading up Pikmin 3? What a joke.
Nintendo should keep doing what it's doing peddling real game experiences to those intelligent enough to understand the difference. God help us if they stop. Think of how bleak the future would look if your only two choices were Angry Birds and Call of Duty 57.
Re: Weirdness: Say Hello to the Cross Plane, a GamePad For Other Systems
This comically misses the point. For $350, on top of the price of your console of choice, you can play on your gamepad as long as you stay within 20 feet. So it's not a portable system, it doesn't support any of the other functions that make the Wii U great, all it lets you do is allow someone else to use the TV while you play. For the low-low price of $350.
Or, you can drop $300 (after Sept 20th) to get a game console WITH a controller that offers the same off-TV play, built-in motion control, asynchronous multiplayer and the ability to do much more than simply duplicating the screen.
This project is stupid and I hope it falls on its face completely.
Re: Sonic Generations Will Cost $29.99 On The North American 3DS eShop
Terrible game, outrageous price. Next!
Re: Review: Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@speedyboris: Nobody really wants the arcade version anyway, do they? Try playing the original SSF2 arcade on MAME some time and see if you can get past the first or second fight. They made the game brutally hard, even when the difficulty is set to its lowest setting (so-called "Easiest"). There's a reason that when they released HD remix on the 360 and PS3, they gave you a choice between Arcade and Remix mode, the latter of which was MUCH easier.
While I don't expect Capcom to do so, it'd be great to see that version released on the Wii U.
Re: Review: Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
It's been mentioned in these comments but the review doesn't make it clear — this game DOES have a turbo mode built into the SNES version. Unfortunately it is not that obvious to see. I accidentally found it while perusing the manual on the Wii U version. You have to go to the title screen (not the main menu, the screen where it just says "Press start") and push right on the D-pad. You can set the speed from 1-3 stars, or no stars, which I think lines right up with the 4 speed selection of the previous game.
I've got both Turbo and Super for the Wii U VC and was playing them with my brother. I much preferred Turbo for its speed but I liked the additional characters and content in Super. As soon as we saw that option and turned it on, Super became the hands-down winner in our book.
Re: Weirdness: ABC News Tells Us All About How the 2Dees Can Play 3Dees Games
Can't wait to hear her report on the X-bazzown...
Re: Wii U Name Isn't To Blame For Poor Sales, Says Reggie
Sorry, Reggie, but I've personally had to explain to several people that the Wii U isn't just an expansion, new controller or upgrade to their existing system. Most people I talk to about it don't know it's a new system that can render HD graphics. I think there are three things working against them. One, the name sounds like an upgrade to the uninitiated. Two, the new controller being at the forefront of the advertising makes it seem like that's all it is, and three the system looks too much like a Wii so when you see images of it (always hidden behind the new controller, of course), they think that's what it is.
The average consumer may understand now, close to a year after the system's launch, but I think it was a big hurdle to the console's early sales, which in turn led to lack of 3rd-party support, prompting more lackluster sales, leading us to the mess Nintendo's in now.
Lesson learned: When you have something new to sell, make sure your consumers know about it!
Re: Say What You Will About Nabbit, But He's Helped A Blind Girl Enjoy Games
Awwwwwwwww! That's awesome! Way to go, Nintendo!
Re: HackYourConsole.com Goes Offline and Closes Pre-Orders
Homebrew has always been a weak excuse to me. If you want to create homebrew stuff, use a PC. People have been able to do some pretty incredible stuff by linking Wiimotes and the Wii U Gamepad to PCs and Nintendo has done nothing to stop those efforts because it doesn't infringe their ability to sell games. Why do you need to hack the console itself?
Re: Nintendo Confirms Limited Edition Wii U Bundle For The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Poop. I would pay for a bundle with just the gamepad and the game if it didn't mean having to buy another Wii U.
Re: Reaction: Nintendo Surprises Us All With the 2DS and Wii U Price Cut
I honestly checked my calendar while watching the start of the 2DS announcement. I thought Nintendo had jumped back to April 1st for a minute. As the video kept playing with no sign of a punch line, the truth settled in... Nintendo has gone off the deep end.
Seriously though, it looks goofy and uncomfortable. I appreciate that it's not for me and that the lower price point will probably move systems, but couldn't they have at least attempted to make it look less like something a toddler would have fun with?
Re: Review: Rayman Legends (Wii U)
"I do not own a Wii U, but this game is coming out on the Ps3, so I'll get it that way."
Oh, right, that's the reason I'm not buying this. Now I remember.
Perhaps when it hits a bargain bin somewhere I might give it a look.
Re: Weirdness: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is Beaten in Under 20 Minutes
OK, point of discussion for those that think this doesn't count since he uses glitches: Who gets to decide what constitutes a glitch for the purposes of doing a speedrun "without glitching?" OK, so warp glitching to go straight from Gohma to Ganon I'm assuming is a pretty clear glitch, but what about using the menu to skip talking to certain NPCs or listening to Navi whine at you? Is that allowed? What about backwards running / jumping to shave time, is that a glitch or allowed? Is saving and restarting to warp back to Link's house a glitch? All of these things are used by speedrunners to cut time off the game, so how can you ban some of them without banning all of them?
Re: Hardware Review: Wireless Super Retro 64 Controller
Dang it, I saw this and was hoping someone had made an N64-style controller for Wii U. This seems pretty pointless to me as anyone who's still hanging onto an N64 these days probably has some official controllers to go with it. And if all you're looking for is a controller without the joystick problems of the original, well...
Re: Weirdness: Mike Tyson Plays Punch-Out!! And Takes on His Arch-Nemesis, Glass Joe
This video shows why you shouldn't be a boxer unless it's virtual. I think he's taken a few two many punches to the head.
Re: Nintendo Download: 22nd August (Europe)
@Cohort Perhaps that's why they're doing the special?
Although the first game is not quite the same as Turbo. There are some attacks missing from certain characters (like Chun Li's fireball) and the balance is different. I prefer Turbo myself, but there might be some purists out there who crave the original.
Re: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Download Sails Away With 2.6GB of Memory
@Hetsumani While I'm not holding my breath on new dungeons, that post is..... spurious, at best. Assuming they stuck mainly to reused texture resources and enemies, a dungeon wouldn't require much memory at all. 3D geometry is (putting it simply) defined by a series of points in 3D space and their connections to each other. It's the textures, music and sounds that take up the majority of the space on disc.
I find it rather funny that you believe 1GB can fit better textures and models (not sure what you mean by "more models"... new character models, or just more rendered on screen at once? Because new characters would be more unlikely than new dungeons, and a more powerful rendering engine would not require any additional data, which is why Mario 64 can render better on an emulator despite using the same data as on the original cart), but there's just no way you could squeeze better music or sound effects in that space? Why not?
Again, you're probably right about what they're going to include. It's the reasoning you use in your post that I find rather humorous.
Re: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Download Sails Away With 2.6GB of Memory
This will be a day 1 download for me. Wind Waker is a fantastic title, and hopefully will be made even better with the "streamlined collection quest" thing..... whatever that means.
Re: Video: UK Comic Rufus Hound Explains The Wii U Difference
Love the giant arrow pointing at the Wii U that says "New Console." This is what Nintendo should have been doing from day 1. Or day -50, for that matter. Maybe then people wouldn't have just assumed the Wii U was a new controller for the system they only ever played Wii Sports Tennis on.
Re: Nintendo's $30.2 Million 3DS Patent Infringement Fine Halved
@ramstrong I think you need to read up on how patent law actually works. You've got some silly ideas. In particular, if you don't file a patent, you have no claim to it, even if you can point to a forum post that proves it's your idea. Secondly, if you don't actually have the means to benefit from the patent, or make any effort to obtain said means, then a company profiting from the idea is in no way taking money out of your pocket (you wouldn't have made any anyway) so they owe you squat.
Re: Nintendo's $30.2 Million 3DS Patent Infringement Fine Halved
A lot of people commenting here about "patent trolls" need to go back and look up the history of this case. The person suing Nintendo didn't just do so randomly after deciding he might make a quick buck. In fact, he was one of several individuals invited to Nintendo's offices to demonstrate glasses-free 3D technology. Afterwards he was told they had decided not to use his technology in their new system. Now he is alleging that the 3DS makes use of that technology even though Nintendo didn't pay him for its usage.
A similar situation would be a movie studio reviewing a script, turning it down, and then releasing a suspiciously-similar movie a year later. If you had written that script, you would feel slighted and due compensation for your idea. This is the same situation, and from what I know of the case, the plaintiff is not at all a patent troll.
I don't doubt that Nintendo honestly feels that their technology is sufficiently different from his, which is why they didn't think they had to pay him. Nintendo is not in the business of knowingly stealing from people. He however disagrees and is asking the courts to address the issue. Whether he or Nintendo is correct is for the court to decide, not us.
Re: GameStop Defends Xenoblade Chronicles Pricing, Plans More "Vintage Titles" Like Metroid Prime Trilogy
I stopped shopping at GameStop a long time ago. They're seedy, pushy and have shown that they will do underhanded things that hurt their customers and the gaming community as a whole whenever it suits them. I am looking forward to the day when digital content makes them obsolete entirely as a company.
Re: Metroid Fan Film Seeks Crowdfunding For Completion
Wow, why so much hate? I know nothing about the legality of them making this or using Kickstarter to gather the required funds. However, if they can make a fun and entertaining Metroid film, I say why not? At worst it shows Nintendo that fans are still interested in the franchise, encouraging them to sink resources into making another gameNOTBYTEAMNINJAOHFORTHELOVEOFGODPLEASENINTENDONO!! ... Uh, sorry about that. Ahem, where was I?
Right. I've always said Metroid would make for a good movie series and while it'd be better to hear about a full-length film blessed by Nintendo, I'm not going to shun some fans for trying to make it a reality. It's not like them making this is somehow going to take the place of a game, seriously...
Re: Out Now: Pikmin 3 Finally Lands in North America
@Intrepid Naturally the game doesn't tell you this right off (you have to get to a certain point and then dig through the Controls section of the information database to find it), but you can target something then press B to send all your Pikmin charging at it. It's not great in every situation, but it works wonders on walls and dirt mounds.
As for selecting captains, if you've got the other following you then you're going to have to dismiss Pikmin anyway to divvy them up before you send them off on separate tasks, right? I haven't found the act of switching between captains to be all that hard myself. The lock-on mechanic is also much better than relying on the often-finicky C-stick mechanic of the previous two games, in my opinion.
Re: Out Now: Pikmin 3 Finally Lands in North America
Alright! Downloaded Pikmin late last night (I'm in Mountain Time, so it came out around 10PM for me), playing into the wee hours of the morning, then got up again and have been enjoying the game ever since. But why, oh why is it that Nintendo always feels the need to add just one tiny thing to their games that screw up an otherwise perfect experience?!
So there I am, finally found the Winged Pikmin, spend most of the day increasing their numbers, go out and grab some fruit but on the way back the 10 second timer starts. Uh oh, time to gather in the Pikmin and make sure the stray counter (an AWESOME feature!) is at 0 before time runs out. Ok, done, all the Pikmin are with me and everything is fine, counter goes to 2... 1... 0, and I set down my controller.
BAD MOVE! Putting down the controller triggers the AWFUL and COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY motion-controlled "Dismiss Pikmin" command. With no time left, the screen blacks out and I watch as most of the Pikmin I spent the last 20 minutes gathering die to the bugs that come out after sunset. Why the HELL would you add a motion-controlled action for dismissing Pikmin when I can do the same thing by pressing the B button??? Why would you put it on a hair trigger?! Are there really players who were just begging for that function to be only a flick of the wrist away?! Nintendo, patch out this garbage. Add an option to turn it off, or better yet remove the stupid "feature" completely, but either way, this is ruining an otherwise flawless game for no reason. This is why so-called "hardcore gamers" continue to hate you. It's this, right here. Get rid of it, then fire the idiot who suggested the idea in the first place.
Re: Pikmin Keyrings Arrive as Club Nintendo Europe Rewards
What?! Why aren't these in the states as well?
Re: Disney Infinity's First Wave of Power Disc "Blind Packs" Is Revealed
What do I think? I think I'm not an idiot, and therefore not one of their potential customers. Moving along.
Re: Shigeru Miyamoto Reportedly Hints at Pikmin 3 DLC
Yes! This is a game I would gladly pay to play more of.