dronesplitter

Even those SEGA minis were marketed more toward casuals. Just trying to be real about this, if it doesn't appeal to you now that you understand it's not going to be a separate VC style platform with online, then don't buy it. It's not meant to be that, but rather another standalone device to draw in people that don't buy every Nintendo system. I bet it also has the emulator settings tweaked for each game on it, so it's unlikely to be a cheap catch-all design that will get the same results with any rom you throw at it. Modders have understood that about Wii/Wii U emulators for a while.

@GameOtaku The sound emulation and probably graphics too had to be terrible on something cheap but if you will take "it works" as good enough, then you can buy that, sure. Yeah, plug a cart into it, that too will look and sound bad. Also, cheap infrared controllers?

Look, bottom line (as if anyone needed to break this down), if the emulation and presentation are good quality, this mini NES is well worth $2 per game (and the list of games is about as good as one could dream given the realities we know usually interfere with getting a great list on a device like this).

@MetaSmasher I found a cheap adapter that lets me plug in an original SNES controller to a wii remote. It works perfectly! Official controller with cord would be nicer, I guess, but for now I'm good on that.

@samuelvictor Yes, if they make those kind of mistakes with it (really hoping they don't, of course) then it will be junk to me.

@VanillaLake I really doubt there would be save state support (confirmed it does do save states) and be running on actual NES hardware. To me, that's a great move. The new gamers that get one of these will need suspend saves to get through the tough games for sure.

@Alshain01 Because this has $150 worth of VC games that are all really good games (okay, ice climbers is very meh at best). It also plays on a TV, which to be honest is much nicer than playing on a 2DS unless you absolutely need a portable format, then, sure, get a 2DS. But still get one of these, too, IMO. This is cheap and has a great collection. I'll support it not only to enjoy on its own but also to encourage the SNES-mini.

Paying $60 for a handful of amiibos = cool man, imma put that on my shelf
Paying $60 for a mini NES with 30 great games = ewww get it away

Never change, pretend gamers.

I've never thought about buying one of the SEGA versions of these mini consoles just because reviews have always said that the emulation was spotty and weird (bad sound, usually). Nintendo, though? I trust they'll get this to work great so it will be worth buying one.

I still haven't tried it but good for Nintendo as long as they don't go full idiot mode like Konami (very unlikely for the next few years but if the NX doesn't do well...who knows).

I'm sort of happy that would be system exploit users (many of them just in it for piracy) will rush to download these games then are going to update to the latest firmware in the process, discover they can't really downgrade, and all they will have is a basic homebrew install. Enjoy the homebrew, though Oh, and thanks for buying SmileBasic.

EarthBound is a huge memory for me, really loved that game growing up. I know he did a lot more than that one game but I'd say it was EarthBound that I'll remember Iwata for most. Rest in peace, your fans still love you. Keep a seat for me in one of those arcades in heaven, can't wait to hang out there one day myself.

There are some things you can't unsee

I just want to say, I have nothing against the graphics of this. In fact, I wish more indie game makers did this and went for the early, low poly PSX/Saturn style. However, the game needs to have its own ideas and not just borrow everything from a single source. This kind of looks to Silent Hill what New Super Mario Bros is to the old 2D Mario games: lacking a soul of its own while reeking of being a copy of copy. Here's hoping when I try it out that I feel differently, of course.

Thank god...I read the headline wrong at first as well. I mean, now that I realize it was just a battery that died, I'm just left feeling a bit confused that there's an article pointing out such a minor thing, though.

I wish they had just done both...come on, the wii version had them, was it that hard to add them back in for the few that appreciated them?

This is a weird discussion to me because, on the one hand, I would flip my lid if I ever heard people start calling Zelda games sandbox games. Even when you or I like to point out how free you were in the original NES Zelda, it wasn't a sandbox style of game. This much I agree with Miyamoto, we don't want that word attached to something when it has a lot of negative connotations going on (negative if only because it misrepresents the truth about the more focused gameplay going on with Zelda).

I'm sure when the game is out, though, people will back off some from that term in connection with Zelda, and I will inevitably stop having panic attacks over it, lol. It's a nice buzzword for younger gamers to feel good about, I guess, but it's not really appropriate unless the series is barely recognizable going forward.

The E3 demo was made to focus on only the open exploration, so I guess for now people are seeing what is put in front of them and forgetting what they aren't seeing yet (the story and main path to the game, the puzzles that have one intended solution to them, etc.),

This is it people...
SMELL-O-VISION IS HERE

@marandahir You got me good...I should have remembered Zelda II doesn't have them, lol. I actually love that one, so not sure why I didn't catch myself there. Link doesn't have to pay anyone in that game, he's that charming and awesome.

I wasn't worried. A Zelda without rupees is probably not worth playing (only semi-joking here).

I didn't actually ever get excited enough about SM64 to buy it when I got a N64, I just got Zelda and Goldeneye. Eventually played SM64 from a friend, just didn't really love it very much in the end.

The hackers needed Tom Cruise to pull this one off. Maybe Jon Voight as well.

The more the merrier! When you dare to make a Zelda game this size and this open, it is far better to have a ton of devs to fill this game with the content it needs (and deserves) to make it live up to its scope. Honestly, I don't see a downside to this at all. Well, one downside...that this game isn't coming out soon for Wii U but now has to wait until NX

I don't mind a more solitary experience for Link, personally. The NES Zelda was exactly that and it was perfectly fine. As much as having a town or two would be cool, if this ends up with just the old man and, eventually, Zelda (and the bad guy somewhere in the world), I could live with this as long as the gameplay is special and (somewhat) revolutionary. Just making it this open and vast is a step towards achieving that, but the dungeons shouldn't stray too far from what Link to the Past started, which was making the puzzles to progress not based on just killing all enemies in a room.

The big drawback? Potentially no real overworld quests to do for NPCs, but that's not a big loss.

This is probably going to be Shadow of the Colossus done right as far as the overworld is concerned.

I think I'll go play some Thousand Year Door and pretend like it's not this decade anymore.

The problem with campaigns like these are they set Nintendo up to be a bad guy if they don't give in. Who suddenly put together a campaign to alter games because of a recent tragedy? How does one's mind connect these things so quickly and then organize this to ask for developers to alter their work to suit them? Look, it's not much of a gesture if you do it in such a contrived way. It would mean more and be much more a pleasant surprise if this had started with one of the developers at Nintendo deciding it would be a nice gesture, but that's just my feeling. The internet is an odd place.

@Sanicranfast You're wrong for saying they aren't GBA games, since that is what they are running in DSi mode. It's running the original code with hardware, no emulation. That makes them better to a lot of people since it means the games run just like they were intended to, which doesn't always happen with emulated experiences.

I like to keep my Game Boy Pocket (see-through model) loaded with fresh batteries and a copy of Tetris. Sure, it goes a while without being played, but it's really cool when I remember it and give it some time. Really perks me up. It's a little like playing Tetris on an e-ink device today, lol. No color, some ghosting, but still pure bliss for the fun you get out of it.

@fluggy The movie became a story about evolution and how, when the meteor that struck 60 million years ago caused the dinos to die out, there was some separating of dimensions that caused the dinos to actually shift over to a new version of our earth. They stuck around over there, actually became more human somehow (but still descended from dinos), while we evolved from monkeys in a world without any dinos. Hopper takes over Mushroom Kingdom by developing a gun that can de-evolve things (he actually turns the king himself into some kind of fungus...yeah, not sure this part makes sense) and then the king tries to make Koopa suffer by doing the only thing he can by spreading his fungus all over.

Anything here shedding light on the story? I know, it's weird, especially for a script based on the game.

If you kind of just suspend all disbelief like you would for any science fiction script, it can still be a fun movie and so far the only one for Mario fans. Why did they use Daisy, though? I guess someone didn't like Peach.

NightSky is great! This is a fine list, I'm pretty much in total agreement with it although I might throw in a couple of others. Although all SEGA 3D Classics are wonderful, I would have to put Shinobi III 3D in the list. Fractured Soul would be another one I'd have to find a place for. Honorable mentions to the following games: Steel Empire, Xeodrifter, The Starship Damrey, Yumi's Odd Odyssey.

Looks like the reason you wouldn't really want to play on this (other than the small screen) is the fact the d-pad and buttons are so freaking close to each other on the face of it. You can tell while he plays, it's uncomfortable like that.

The guy that made the tiny Donkey Kong emulator machine, that had a much nicer style to it, I think that's the one I'd want if I got a micro device like this. Pretty soon, they'll probably make keychain emulators.

Hackers, beating the dead horse as usual.

@Churchy
Granted, I haven't looked into it, but I would imagine it's because there's nothing better in terms of conditions. I'd imagine (but could very well be wrong) that even with all the negative past concerning suicides, it's still not close to the worst and quite possibly one of the best in how it treats the workers. After all, if there were in fact an obvious alternative, you would hope by now enough pressure would have mounted for them to switch. That...might be wishful thinking, sadly.

If it's optional and not meant to replace a modern save system, then no one should care if it happens. It will make a few niche fans happy that it's there, the rest will ignore it.

I don't know if that is what they were going for, but this is what came to mind when I saw this look for the blue bomber...

OK, that Sonic image...XFD!

I'm confused as to why you would sabotage your own product by guaranteeing to your potential consumers that you're not interested in future support for it by leaving out DLC (and therefore updates/patches in general for it) but the Wii U certainly gets this attitude by third parties a lot...almost like the release on Wii U is done out of hatred and doubt right from the beginning. Better than no release at all? Maybe...but not for most which is why they will ignore the Wii U release.

I may not like what I've heard about Dyack, but I can't deny that Eternal Darkness is a game that could really, really use a great sequel. I don't know what his beef is, specifically, but I agree with the commenter who said Dyack needs to just focus on bringing the goods. People will start to support him again but his reputation is such that it's an uphill battle for now, so get it made and prove that the skepticism is unfounded.

@Freeon-Leon I'd say something like "keep dreaming" but that might be seen as rude. Instead, how about a nice Hawaiian Punch?

There's plenty of random devs to make app games. Why are companies that attracted talent to develop the most sophisticated games each gen and push the industry, why are they such an asset to task with making low quality phone stuff? It's a total waste, IMO. People were all headed toward a goal they no longer believe in anymore, it's actually quite sad to see them lured away so easily. Not necessarily suggesting the dream is dead but it will be on life support for a while if enough jump on that bandwagon.

It's not that people see smartphones as weird things, it's just they correctly identify them as a huge step back for hardcore gaming. Look, everyone can appreciate their social media stuff, but this mixing of the two is unnecessary and really only about the short term profit ambitions of striking digital oil. Personally, I think the oil wells are going to dry up relatively quickly for those that gamble on it, they should stick by the loyal followers. Buck the trend, continue to build traditional gaming platforms without that white noise of social media dragging it down, and the players will come. Maybe not in quite the same numbers, but if the ship goes down, let it go down fighting.

Most of those free games are pretty terrible, at least. I dunno, people are mainly addicted to the social media stuff, it seems. Gaming is probably seen as too isolated an activity for the current day. I'm sure they will try to find ways to cater to the smartphone people, but in the process it will change much of gaming to be more of a platform for socialization (great, like we don't have that covered with a gazillion devices by now) like everything else, and then it won't be the kind of gaming I'll care about (so I'll hunker down in a virtual console bunker, I guess).

I hope everyone savored the 3DS days. I did, it's my favorite Nintendo handheld, and probably the last I'll be able to enjoy on that old school level. Get ready for 'post to Facebook' as a standard game option, a device with mainly touch input to control games, and Nintendo emojis as our new paradigm.

Thus, we are one step closer to seeing the 2DS included as a prize in cereal boxes!

*note: I actually love 2DS, no offense intended by the joke

The download page says it is specifically for Europe, though. Anyone willing to redeem 100 on it and see if it actually works for North America people?

@MyLegGuy If you don't permanently hack your 3DS with CN when you have it (downgrade), you goofed anyway.

They're secondary entry points, meaning you need an exploit to modify the save data of the second game or else you can't actually do the hack. What's kind of funny about that, is that you already have a primary entrypoint, making the secondary one both redundant and kind of pointless.

These releases are, it seems, being released to goad Nintendo into taking down more software. The hackers are just trying to feel like they have some control over Ninty's actions.

Really enjoying this so far, I mean, it's at least an 8 in my book but I haven't finished solo mode yet. I think Kojima should take notes, this is a well made stealth action game.

I've never played minecraft, don't really plan to either, but a free update like this is awesome! Happy for all you minecraft fanatics, hope you can make good stuff with it and it enhances your fun.

What happened was this: snobbery. The games traditionally falling at the upper end, fans of each franchise got really snobby about their 10 being so much better than some other's 8 or 8.5. Reviewers picked up on this, maybe subconsciously even, but over time, a really well known franchise (if they were going to give it a high score) had to be a 9, or somewhere between 9 and 10. This skewing of the numbers, over time, caused the 6 and below are all trash mentality.

I've reviewed games, and I'll tell you that if I give a game a 7, it's likely a fun game and worth getting. Even a game that gets a 5 shouldn't be considered automatically one to ignore, it's just it may be far more niche at that level. It's about each site making it clear what their review scale says. 7-10 should definitely be the upper end, not a microcosm of "bad" to "perfect" in 3 numbers out of the 10 that you have at your disposal to gauge the game.

@Kilroy I'm saying that 2d platformers are not a novelty these days and I have a huge selection of great ones to occupy my time, so it's not about entitlement, it's about the reality that a dev has to do something special or, free or not, I'll pass on it. Super Mario Maker lets people even make their own these days. It would be entitlement on their part to expect otherwise. Oh, I've been gaming since the NES and Atari for your information.