c1pher_c0mplet

@maximo_jd Episode 1 is a remake of the original Moon: it's the entire game. The following episodes 2-4 (which are still in development) are going to be all-new content further fleshing out what happens in Moon. (Episodes 2-4 aren't really "sequels," which is why I think Renegade Kid went with the 'episode' nomenclature.)

@brandonbwii
1) Episodes 2-4 are considered to be the "first season" and are still in development.
2) Anyone wanting to play the game is required to pony up the cash for episode 1 (which is the remake of the original DS game). After episode 1, you'll be able to purchase a season pass for the remaining episodes when episode 2 drops.

@kereke12 As others have said, if you consider $15 is too much for a game then... This isn't the App Store. I wish all games, including retail packaged ones, were all $15!

Anyhow, I'm excited this is already here just about! I played some of it on DS but never got a chance to finish it (was a friend's cart and had to give it back lol). Plus, the Circle Pad ought to make controlling things a lot easier this time around and the updated graphics, 3D... Oh, man! Haha. And I'm cool with the pricing strategy: I don't mind paying for episodic releases.

This is hysterial! Nintendo are officially blithering idiots. What in the world are they thinking and doing over there?!? They're limiting a bundled system seller exclusively to a single specialty store... (One first-party title isn't going to get them out of hot water but still.) It's like they get dumber and dumber with each passing business day.

@Paperluigi No kidding. That and a Golden Sun 3DS game. I'd even like another Okamiden (I always wished the original one would've been a launch title for the 3DS since it would've been better graphically and controlled better with the Circle Pad). But I'm not sure if we'll ever get those games again or anytime soon.
@MoonKnight7 Agreed. I don't do any social networking or comment on articles much but the community here at NL is really cool. Of course, with your occasional troll but they make life more interesting.

"Posting an operating loss for the fourth fiscal year running is something unacceptable."
XD That made me LOL for real! Like the previous three years were acceptable, haha. I wish he'd get that SMB3 Mario boot but I have a feeling Iwata isn't going anywhere.

Mmm... I guess this is decent. I don't have a Wii U but if I did and bought Mario Kart 8, I wouldn't ever use this (although I'd be more prone to utilizing the MKTV features if they were perhaps included in the actual game itself). Whatever. We'll see how the masses take to it when it's released.

@Squid Pretty much. Not interested in NFC toys at all. (But I wouldn't say this is a move of desperation since the system had NFC from the jump.) And the nostalgic sentiments attached to Nintendo characters isn't pulling at my heart strings to coerce purchases of these either. At least the Pokémon remake news was awesome today!

Come next month, I really, really hope the directors/shareholders seriously consider starting the process of relieving Iwata of his positions. I agree with the general consensus of posters today that the absence of marketing has proven to be fatal as well as other failures. But Iwata simply lacks the vision, prowess, and gusto to give Nintendo the 21st century edge they need (and by "edge," I don't mean go tech spec-crazy). I truly believe Nintendo needs and would greatly benefit from a leader who believes in the spirit/soul of the company but also isn't afraid to embrace the future. A person who isn't afraid to embrace tech instead of running away from it; who believes in games first and gimmicks last, if ever; someone who doesn't want to keep putting the company's weight on the shoulders of Mario and Link when there are so many other iconic figures riding the benches. It isn't the end of the universe for them right now (although they're not doing very well either) but I only see Iwata continuing to choke any possible new growth and eventually run them into the ground if he remains.

@memoryman3 You're not really raining on anyone's parade simply because the people - young and old - who enjoy the spinoffs are going to continue enjoying them regardless if you and others don't. (I'm playing Pokémon Rumble Blast on 3DS right now and loving it.) In fact, Pokémon Snap is an extremely popular spinoff that many fans have wanted a sequel for since the first one. The spinoffs may not be AAA material but then again not everything needs to be. (And no need to read any rudeness in my response: just friendly conversing is all.)

SECOND ANALOG STICK, for crying out loud. Beside that, the only other thing the next handheld needs to have is unified accounts (although we need that NOW). And I don't know about you guys but the buttons on the 3DS are atrocious for playing old school eShop games (especially platformers like SMB3 that just came out: I can barely play it on my XL). Resistive touchscreens are more accurate w/stylus and cheaper so they should keep those. I can see Nintendo pushing digital w/the eShop even more on the next one but I can't see them ditching carts completely. Lastly, I really don't think HD matters or is necessary. It'd make things look better but... I don't really care about that.

I wonder if this has something to do with that speculative piece I read yesterday regarding a Nintendo 3DS patent with changeable buttons a la Project Ara... Still, I wouldn't get too hyped until E3 time. Iwata better have something off the meters, though, since his butt's on the line with Nintendo investors/shareholders.

@GamerOZO Funny you feel that way because that's the way I feel towards Japan: they get games first including ones we'll never get in the States plus all the awesome collector's editions, limited editions, etc. Haha

@Dauntless You're correct in stating Iwata doesn't understand contemporary tech or the times, which is strange seeing as how he's a former coder. Perhaps being behind a desk for years has rotted his brain. I agree, though: Iwata needs to GO. Please, Nintendo: get him outta here. Now.

@arkady77 Perhaps you're right. But you should also remember Iwata indeed was arrogant enough at one point to state the reasoning behind the high launch price of the 3DS was because of the "[overly positive] reactions to the system's E3 reveal" in 2010. And that definitely wasn't a language-barrier issue or some meaning lost in translation.

For some reason, I thought there'd be an Iwata story today... I'm sorry but he needs to go. While I disagree wholeheartedly with many of the shareholders wanting Nintendo games on iOS, I completely understand their frustration with Iwata's cryptic-speak and nonsensical, hair-brained ideas. I love Nintendo - more so their handhelds - and I want to see their console business succeed and thrive again but Iwata is like a weed choking any kind of new growth in the company. As many have pointed out here, for example, it's 2014 yet Nintendo's fans/customers have to beg them for unified account services (which is ridiculous).

In my opinion, he has no clue what he's doing now and he never did ever since he became prez during the Nintendo 64 days (where he made some crazy decisions then). Maybe he doesn't need to leave the entire company but he needs to step down as president/CEO, I believe: fresh, new leadership is direly needed. (And the issues started when he cosigned the name 'Wii U,' I think. I remember watching E3 thinking, "No. Just... no." lol)

I always hear people spew about how terrible GameStop is. Perhaps I'm extremely nonobservant (which is completely false) or everyone who works at the ones I go to are cool. And I've been to countless stores hundreds of times and I've never experienced the extremely horrible service many speak of. Perhaps I'm lucky? o_O

@Tasuki It's Capcom, so one can count on being shafted. Perhaps we'll get lucky and that won't occur.

I wonder if Nintendo would ever release something like a content pack for ACNL... E3?? There's nothing wrong with dreaming.

@brewsky Not as long as there's $$$ to be made. (With a multi-platform kids game like this series, they'd probably support GameCube if they could.)

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is phenomenal. It's just that I hate being forced to log in daily to make sure my favorite 2 residents don't leave. (Wish there was an option to ticker favorite residents to stay, similar to how you can ticker your favorite StreetPass houses in the HHA.) Tomodachi's a first-day buy for me (or preorder if I remember to do so).

While I'd absolutely LOVE to see Iwata ousted from Nintendo (perhaps then they could actually step into contemporary times), the company also doesn't need a new pro-mobile president pushing what would be another wrong agenda. Remove Iwata and replace him with someone that understands, believes in, and shares the vision of what Nintendo represents to gamers and the industry but also believes in moving the company forward into the 21st century (and by that I don't mean competing head-to-head with Sony and Microsoft). I want a real account system. I'd like to message my gaming buddies (3DS). I'd like new Nintendo franchises and reboots of dormant series. Things of this nature. My 2.

@ikki5 I'm with you. Until Miiverse 3DS incorporates some type of messaging registered persons on my Friends List, it's a cute "My First Social Network" type thing but it's ultimately useless for my needs.

::sighs::

Just give it up, already: Iwata says, "NO." Understood?

I probably wouldn't mind going exclusively digital on 3DS if Nintendo had a proper account system. But at the same time, Nintendo games (esp. the first-party ones) tend to either retain or go up in value with physical copies complete w/the box and manuals. So, I dunno.

@rjejr Original DS games really don't look good on 3DS. The image is either fuzzy/hazy (at the 3DS screen res) or very small with humongous black borders (at the DS screen res on the 3DS screens).

@Peach64 @Ralek85 No kidding. It's not because of the whole "Wii U/3DS DS games" thing either but I really don't like Iwata. He just seems clueless. (And please don't flame; it's my opinion. No harm done.)

@MrWalkieTalkie Like the new baseball game avatar! Back to the game, I don't even have a Facebook but I'll make sure to visit the game's page to voice that should they decide to localize it, they can count a +1 preorder sale from me. =vD

Ha. Glad I never invested in the Wii U... That's absolutely terrible. 3DS XL all the way for me. Honestly though, I was never interested in Nintendo consoles growing up. Always loved their handhelds, though.

@faint Not every 3DS owner wants a Wii U. I know I surely don't. While I do see your POV, you have to admit releasing ~10-year old handheld games on a contemporary home console, regardless of the system's financial condition, is somewhat perplexing. Other than Nintendo diehard fans who likely owned a GBA, I really can't imagine GBA VC games reinvigorating the Wii U's life force (or contributing considerably toward such).

I think it's ridiculous that it takes Nintendo running into trouble to realize brainless concepts such as these. Hopefully this little fit of trouble spurns Iwata & Co. on a ---> keyword: CONTINUOUS path of growth and experimentation instead of simply trying to fix the here 'n now (which, in my opinion, is what Nintendo tends to do).

@EarthboundBenjy Park Patrol for the DS is a lot of fun! I played the demo for Photo Finder and besides being very disappointed and unimpressed, the reviewer is correct: the framerate is atrocious. And it's even abysmal when nothing's happening onscreen. Very, very disappointing and crummy. Chibi-Robo deserves better than this.

I don't have a Wii U nor do I want one. But I find Iwata's "strategies" more perplexing as they raise more questions than anything else. Just my 2 but I really don't care for him as Nintendo's head. At all. Besides their handhelds to which I'm always loyal, I haven't been compelled by a Nintendo console since the SNES as a kid. Only thing I care about is games. All these inventions, creative ideas, and "new blue oceans" are... mmm, whatever. I think they should focus primarily, first and foremost on GAMES. Then if they want to do all this other stuff, they can knock themselves out.

@Kid_A I don't know about Nintendo making a fortune creating iOS ports of their exclusives... that's debatable. But the main reason why they won't do it is because they'd be cannibalizing their business. Nintendo's ecosystem, in many ways, is closed while containing a healthy number of exclusive titles that gamers literally can't get anywhere else. The day they put Mario, Metroid, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. on anything other than Nintendo hardware is the day they lose a very integral part of what differentiates them from other competitors.

@_@

Uhhhh.... Ooooookay?? Sounds... interesting? (Whatever the heck it is.)

Not holding my breath but this news is still interesting... Hopefully, "one day" in regards to the account system doesn't equate to "eons from now." Says a lot that it's taken recent unfortunate events to finally get them to start considering stepping into the contemporary digital age...

DS games on the Wii U... o_O
I guess so...
Seems like it'd make more sense to put portable games on a portable...
Anything to make the GamePad seem "worthwhile," right? ¬_¬

I'm absolutely LOVING this bad financial news for Nintendo: hopefully this spearheads them to stop ducking their heads in the dirt and step into the 21st century. They don't need to change who they are intrinsically - just stop limiting gamers with draconian policies, fully embrace the Internet, and to get back to making GAMES and stop relying on gimmicks. (I'm in no way bashing: I'm the proud owner of a "Mario red" 3DS XL!!!)

It was an accident... Ha, whatever. Regardless of opinions on bidding for high-priced luxury items, that really stinks for the seller that moron backed out with an incredibly lame excuse.

Having downloaded the demo when it debuted in the eShop a couple weeks ago, I was kinda dumbstruck upon playing it the first few times. In fact, besides not liking it (or what little I could understand of it), the game seemed really average. It wasn't until a couple nights ago when I finally "got" the Brave/Default/BP system - it just "clicked." Not that I need any game hand-holding but the fighting system is intricate to the point where the demo really could've used some type of explanation. Anyway, it's an awesome game, so much so that I preordered the Collector's Edition last night. Just my 2.

I noticed a few things post-update (N. American unit):

• Shutting down the 3DS is a second or two quicker.
• The first couple seconds of Miiverse theme music loads during the NNID login screen (so it gives the impression of +2s quicker startup time lol)
• Clicking between pages in Miiverse is a smidge quicker than before.

I'd complain but SE seems not to care anyway. I wonder if North America/Europe will see any DQ games during the 3DS' lifespan... I'm starting to think not, which is unfortunate. Not a huge RPG fan but I do love the DQ games (don't like FF at all).

Well, National StreetPass Weekend is officially over! (At least it's supposed to be; I was getting international hits Friday Dec. 13 when it was supposed to start the next day on the 14th.) And it's been a blast! Since Friday, me and my buddies piled into the ride and poached every single Nintendo Zone we could find LOL. My plaza went from a population of ~350-400 to 770 in a matter of 3 days! o_O Completed A LOT of puzzles (only a few pieces of three puzzles left), tons of achievements, TONS of region locations... Cool, Nintendo! =vD

@ThomasBW84 Cool. (Long pause: exams, what can I say? lol) Anyway, we figured it out: she completed the NNID process but had never actually went inside Miiverse 3DS yet. Guess actually opening the app the first time "initializes" your NNID into the Miiverse servers. As soon as she opened the app, I was able to search for and add her.

@grumblegrumble Hmm... Perhaps I accidentally missed a line in the terms (although I thought I perused it rather thoroughly)... Surely you should be able to search for/follow a buddy on Miiverse 3DS? The only thing I can find online is where a NoA Customer Service rep reported Miiverse 3DS would not have Friend Request or Friend PM features... Perhaps you can provide a link, if you wouldn't mind; I'll keep looking myself.

Anyone else having trouble searching for friends in Miiverse 3DS? A buddy of mine successfully created her NNID and updated both her 3DS and StreetPass Mii Plaza (I sat next to and watched her do the whole thing). But when I try finding her by her NNID and/or her nickname in Miiverse, it doesn't locate her... Perhaps it's some day one kerfuffle?

@PenCapChew Sure thing. If you formatted the system memory on the 3DS, any games previously on the system should be erased from it (similar to how reformatting a hard drive erases all data previously on it). So if another user purchased that particular 3DS you formatted, it should appear to them like they just purchased the system brand-new (also meaning your games or other user data wouldn't be there any longer) and they'd have to set it up with their info and data. And as such, simply reformatting the 3DS keeps your NNID: it just unlinks it from that particular 3DS so you can link to another 3DS you purchase/acquire later. Btw, I don't profess to be an expert in this stuff; just thinking it thru as it makes sense to me =v)

@PenCapChew Not sure about the Nintendo Direct you're referring to... That message you previously wrote seems like a safeguard against accidentally deleting the NNID (which if you did delete the NNID, I surmise you'd surely lose everything attached to it, eShop history included). On the other hand, if you simply wanted to unlink your NNID from the 3DS WITHOUT deleting the ID (basically, erasing it like it was never created in the first place), such can be accomplished by formatting the system memory via Settings (which by doing so, you'd still be able to use the same NNID on your Wii U). If you wanted to sell your 3DS, unlinking the NNID from the system (by formatting system memory) will remove the ID from the handheld; thus, if you purchased another 3DS, you simply link the NNID to the new system. That's what I'm thinking, anyway.

It's probably best to retry updating StreetPass Mii Plaza and entering the eShop later in the day. The servers are surely overloaded at the moment.

@tripunktoj Niiiiice... Thanks for that link, btw. I'm glad they've apparently nixed the rather draconian 5-transfer limit.