bro2dragons

A few months ago, I had never heard of Puzzle and Dragons. Then I received an email from the Google Play Store containing a receipt for more than $30 USD spent from my Google Wallet account to buy stones in this Japanese game I had never seen or downloaded. I, of course, called Google and got my money refunded, but that was the moment I realized Puzzle and Dragons must really be something and that it was only a matter of time until it took over the West, too. If some Japanese player was willing to hack my Google account just to get a little more playtime out of the game, I knew this thing was about to explode if it hadn't already.

Now that it's on 3DS and Mario's involved... looks like I'll be losing another $30 to this game.

Excellent promotion. That might put me over the edge on picking it up. Thanks!

@NintyMan Sure, but tell me it doesn't sound like a Nintendo skit to be talking about some new Mario game and when someone mentions Bowser, Reggie goes, "Wait... where IS Bowser?" Then we see Reggie, Bill and a couple guys in suits step into an office as the camera slowly pans up a desk to show the "Doug Bowser" nameplate and a piece of paper on the desk reading "Gone to lunch." Everyone looks shocked and it starts an elaborate wild goose chase ending with Doug nomming on a sandwhich in the office cafeteria saying, "What?" Then a trailer starts for Super Bowser Buffet, a new eShop game in which you control Bowser to traverse labrynthine restaurants and candy factories, eating everything in sight and fighting giant bosses who want to eat the food that's rightfully yours.

...or something.

I have a feeling he may be popping up in some of Reggie's groan-worthy announcement skits.

And I can't wait.

Maybe they'll finally give Bowser his own game and let Doug announce it!

That game choice is a huge missed opportunity. Why not create a special demo disc than will start selling for thousands online next year and, in doing so, continue to create brand awareness for modern Nintendo titles. A set of quickfire challenges from Smash, Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon would be easy and special, or have it represent Nintendo history. Challenges from Donkey Kong, Ocarina of Time, Wii Sports, and finally one of the three Wii U titles I mentioned above, would test skill with a broad range of Nintendo eras.

This just seems like a cop out. Like an executive decided to bring back the Nintendo World Championships and the guy responsible for designing the challenges forgot until the day it was due.

I love a good twin stick. This may be what I need to finally pick this up.

Not that I really need another game to play right now...

I'm looking forward to this game where you can do anything.

Grand Theft Nintendo, anyone?

THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THE VIRTUAL BOY! AND SAID THE GAMES WERE GREAT!

VIRTUAL BOY 3DS CLASSICS SERIES CONFIRMED!

Gonna wait to read a review or two, but it's awfully intriguing.

@Bass_X0 It's really the only way you CAN play it. The screens are small, but only slightly smaller than an actual DS, so it's all very functional. Not ideal, but functional.

These games are just SO expensive. I really want to get into them, but I'm not creative enough to get my money's worth from the Toy Box and having so few playsets, such expensive playsets, and playsets that only work with one version of the game really kills it.

Especially that last one. If I could buy 3.0 and play pre-made Marvel, Star Wars and Disney games, I think I'd drop the money. But it's just a waste as it is. And at $35 a pop, they're pretty expensive short games, too.

I'm going to hold off, I think, in the hopes that when all these are released, we'll also get a hardcover edition.

I put my suggestion in, but I do wish they'd said just a little more about what the weapon actually is, does. It's hard to even tell from that picture/art style if it's a pistol or rifle and we don't know if it fires bullets or lasers or... I dunno. Steam.

But I'll keep giving these a shot and will be getting this game, even if I'm not picked as an ambassador.

@AlexSora89 That means nothing, though.

It's music. What's most likely is that at some point in development Roy was considered for inclusion. Not far-fetched since he is a prior character and they put in another Marth clone, instead. I'm sure he was considered for Brawl, too. But they decided not to include him and the music file (like a LOT of various media files) was left in the code.

Same for Ryu. They would have struck an agreement with Capcom to put one of their characters in and, next to Mega Man, Ryu is probably the most obvious choice. He would have been in discussions and they would have drafted music for him just in case.

There's unused code in every game. This literally means nothing and it would be all kinds of nonsensical to add either of these characters at this point in the game.

I still can't understand why people seriously believe either Roy or Ryu will be added to the game.

I strongly disagree that the music here is not memorable, but not bad. The original had beautiful, catchy tunes for every level and menu. This one... it's like they had an intern write the music. The soundscapes are sparse and filled with more lonely beeps and dings than melodious chords and tones. The music is boring, distracting, repetitive and often rather grating. All problems made much, much worse when compared with Yoshi's Island's SNES soundtrack.

@T7L3RB I only have the one, so I've never tried, but as far as I can find online... no. There doesn't seem to be any way to do that.

@Einherjar I dunno. Yeah, it's filled way beyond capacity, so I think I'm eventually going to do what you suggest and move things back and forth from original hard drive to system memory to new hard drive with a few files at a time, then redownload RUNNER 2. It's gonna be a pain and I guess I still don't really know what caused it, but at least everything will be functioning properly once I find the time and money to drop on another hard drive.

@Einherjar Well, I don't know much about how all this works. I was told recently the most likely reason the game was corrupted was turning off the system while the game was running instead of going to the menu first. When I read this, I kinda assumed it had something to do with it.

@Einherjar I lost an entire game for this exact same reason. My entire file for BIT.TRIP RUNNER 2 is corrupted and I can no longer play it or even delete it. I want to go back in and finish 100%ing it, but doing so would require me to reformat and wipe the whole hard drive, losing the saves on all the rest of my games, and forcing me to spend hours redownloading all my titles from the eShop. So now I'm stuck with a dead game.

THIS is the danger of sleep mode.

I haven't seen a complete list of patch notes on him yet, but all I know is Mewtwo feels a LOT different after the update.

I had my worries when they first announced the game and, mainly, its control scheme. But they assured it worked better in practice than in theory and the trailers looked good so I remained hopeful.

I'll still keep an eye on this in case patches clear up some of the problems and I'll find a few more reviews hoping this reviewers bad experience wasn't the same for everyone. This is one I'm still interested in, so, while I'm disappointed, I'm still hoping for the best.

On the plus side, though, several of these look great with Neo Bowser City being the only one that doesn't seem to distinguish itself in any way. That Nature Road track really looks like something special, though. That's one I'll remember for a long time.

Nintendo didn't understand why we wanted a new F-Zero so they refused to make one. But they knew we wanted one, so they gave us 200cc and two F-Zero tracks.

Compromise?

I don't think it's possible we'll ever see multiple fighters from the same third party in this game. And if we did, it wouldn't be Capcom. Nintendo has a much stronger relationship with Sega (Sega has been making Nintendo-exclusive games, while Capcom has been abandoning Nintendo-exclusive games), and Bandai Namco (they developed this game...), so putting Ryu in without equivalents from the other two would spark some (justified) professional outrage for sure. It's a LITTLE more likely because of the relationship, like I said, but this is the same reason why I continue to scoff at everyone demanding Tails be put in the game. There just isn't any advantage for Nintendo in doing that.

Also, music means nothing. I expect that was probably meant for the Mega Man stage before someone somewhere decided it should have all Mega Man music instead of Capcom music. Although, in my worthless opinion, I do think that was a waste. Pac-Man got some general Namco tracks, and those are better than some of his own.

I love that they had Commander Video keep dying in the trailer. Looks like they've got a lot of respect for each of these characters.

@Fazermint If by "nearly identical" you mean approximately four times bigger, with ramps, mud pits, grass, speed boosts, fewer laps, and no meaningful walls, then yeah, I get what you're saying.

@BenAV Why would you think that? Mount Wario and N64 Rainbow Road are both only one lap...
They've shown at no point that all courses have to stick to an arbitrary three-lap formula.

I hope this is true, because Baby Park is great. Plus, we have, like, 40 babies on the roster, now, so I feel like they're owed a track.

More importantly, though, even if we don't get actual arenas, I am hoping against all evidence that Nintendo will at least add more tracks to Battle Mode. And Baby Park would be a PERFECT (hectic) Battle Mode course.

@ZurrrrBlattTron Probably in gameplay, but I firmly believe they've yet to beat Path of Radiance's story or music. IF just might do it, though, at least on the story front.

I'm almost OK with not getting a new F-Zero now.

@rennandovale I "suck in video games," but I find them fun and enjoy the hobby despite my shortcomings and growing list of uncompleted games. I guess I should sell my systems, too, though, because games are meant to be beaten, not enjoyed. I'll make a trip to Gamestop this afternoon to get some cash for my Wii U and 3DS, then put my DS, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance, N64, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, and NES up on eBay because I shouldn't be playing games anymore.

It's going to be really hard giving up my favorite hobby, but you've convinced me of my mistake and opened my eyes. Because you think I'm not good at it, I'm going to stop playing games and take up knitting, instead. I just hope I'm good at that.

@SpookEevee1996 You can upgrade your Wii version to the Wii U version for $2.00.

@Zach777 Si-scrole-er. Psyscrolr. They're only missing one vowel before the r. If you can pronounce tumblr, then you can pronounce psyscrolr.

So that's what they made that button for...

@BlinkT I think I'd be willing to trade one for the second set of Smash Bros. posters, if they're 700.

Send me an email at [email protected]

Man, Wii U really got overlooked.

I'll PROBABLY get Mario Golf, but I play so much more on my Wii U than 3DS. I'm temped by NES Remix 2, but of all the platinum offerings, it's the least bang for my buck. And I'm thinking about Mario Kart 7, but with Mario Kart 8 on my Wii U, I doubt I'd ever play the inferior handheld one...

@dizzy_boy Because Star Wars and Marvel, both owned by Disney, couldn't appear in the same game in Wii U like they do in every other system's version of Zen Pinball 2?

It's nitpicky, I know, but I don't like pinball enough to justify having two games on my system. I do however want several of the Star Wars tables. I understand Zen Studios isn't making much off Wii U. But I want my version of the game to be equal to everyone else's and I'd wager they'll get more purchases if people can try the tables before buying. It would be a simple update to add these tables to Zen Pinball 2 and allow anyone who bought Star Wars Pinball to download them for free.

I just still can't understand why this isn't Zen Pinball 2.

Definitely gonna be a roller... I dig it.

Dat Yoshi and Dragon Ball themes, tho...

@Sir_JBizzle "Like new."

I wouldn't buy one without it. Once again, Miyamoto makes the sensible call.

Well, I, for one, now have a sad. If anyone would like to share this sad with me, feel free to join me in the corner. The handkerchiefs are complimentary.

Those nunchucks aren't even connected...

But... this is still awesome. I hope these guys are able to market it to the right crowds and actually make a profit off the game and controllers.

It sounds like something I'll get in line for, but I don't think it's the right move.

I think Nintendo needs a console after the Wii U that finally puts it back as the main player in gaming hardware. A system FAR more powerful than anything currently available, with stronger, more open (and still free) online features with built-in voice chat and social media sharing/streaming functions and released first in the cycle and sold at a loss to keep costs low. Maybe even a Nintendo-developed FPS game along with some third-party deals to draw in the PS/Xbox crowd. This system could bring the "hardcore" market back to Nintendo and get rid of the negative name associations it's gotten over the past couple generations. If they could lead in the next console cycle like that, then the system after (two generations from now), they could release something that tries to redefine video gaming, and gamers wouldn't immediately write it off just because it's "Nintendo being gimmicky yet again. Why don't they make real games?"

There are also considerably more Mario characters in Smash than Pokémon, too, for those talking about it.

You said May 31 and March 31... Which is the deadline?

@Volmun ... Oh my.

@King47 I'm not sure that's an accurate way to put things. Aside from your arbitrary and asinine labeling (I play games exclusively on Wii U and 3DS — does that mean I'm not a gamer?), do you not remember the Wii U's E3 announcement and hype trailers? Nintendo DID think it was building it for "gamers." They talked about the HD graphics which they said were much more powerful than the previous generation HD consoles (though time proved them to be only mildly more powerful), and about the robust online multiplayer and smooth digital store. They talked more about the Gamepad's application in hardcore games as a handy map, inventory or alternate viewpoint than they talked about its asynchronous local multiplayer. And the trailers showed Mass Effect and Tekken and Ghost Recon and Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty, etc., etc...

They have shown before they don't quite understand how quickly the industry moves forward or what most players are looking for. But they absolutely designed the system theu thought would most appeal to what you call "gamers." They were simply wrong. I'll buy their next because their games still appeal to me and because my time and money is limited. But there's no reason to think that a next system or any change in target demographic would better fit what you're talking about. Their ideas of what a "gamer" wants and yours are just different.