ducktrapper

Exactly what I expected regarding Mario Run. The price was only part of the problem - it was also unrealistic expectations. The fact is, there have already been countless similar tap to jump platformers on mobile platforms before, some of them comparable to Mario Run in quality. Pokemon Go was a different beast - absolutely a fluke, and the sort of thing you cannot predict or repeat.

@arnoldlayne83 Our family finally invested in a PS4 at Christmas, and I went straight and bought Bloodbourne and Dark Souls III, both of which are brilliant. My budget won't stretch to a Switch in any case, but it would be great to have such games on the go if the 3rd party big guns get behind it. The early signs do not bode well, but hope I'm wrong.

Why does everything Switch-related feel so very Wii-U like all of sudden? It hasn't been released yet and already the news on nintendolife is starting to resemble the desperate Wii-U news from about a year ago.

It's almost as if there's some kind of 'Let's sink the Switch' conspiracy going on.

Where is the impressive 3rd party support from the big guns? I've heard Skyrim (isn't that a PS3 game?) and FIFA mentioned but must have missed anything else of any real weight. The Wii U launch lineup was indeed more impressive. I think what will decide the future of this console is the interest in its portability. If Nintendo are wrong about its appeal - and I think they might be - then I can't see it standing a chance.

@gatorboi352 If you are right, I have a feeling its fate will be sealed. Why else would someone choose it over a PS4, unless they have an existing loyalty to Nintendo?

The consensus, from Nintendo supporters, seems to be that it is overpriced. Potential buyers with no Nintendo bias are probably also going to think twice at that price, especially given the huge support the cheaper PS4 already gets. It seems to me that Nintendo are gambling everything on the appeal of a console on the go. I hope that is enough to sell their system. Otherwise, I wonder if we may be looking at the last Nintendo console. If they are making mistakes this time, they seem, for the most part, to be the exact same ones they made with the Wii U. Call it hubris. But I would like to be wrong.

As I write this, one can purchase a basic PS4 console for 217.74 on amazon, and for around the 230 to 240 mark you can get a console bundled with a game. Pretty stiff competition, don't you think?

@WOLF1313 It's just plain common sense, isn't it? The situation with the Wii after a while is that it would be left out in the cold when a new game came out for the PS3 or Xbox 360. We had got used to hearing that a Wii version of said game was not being developed because of its inferior specs. With the Wii U, the same thing happened at an accelerated pace. I have a bad feeling about this.

The portability gimmick will have to sell the Switch, surely. Because based on the glimpses we've seen of games, there's nothing there that the Wii U itself could not do. Have you seen Assassins Creed on the Wii U? It's about as good as the brief glimpse we had of Skyrim.

I thought the hearts had disappeared in Breath of the Wild but there they are once again. I guess I must have dreamed it.

Whatever. I am a grammar teacher but who cares. Believe what you want to believe. If you want to believe the possessive 'our aim' is identical with 'we' as a subject you are welcome to do so. You are also welcome to believe that it has nothing to do with grammar. Good luck to you, sir. Time is precious, and I have no further interest in prolonging this. If you are at all interested, I recommend getting a book on grammar and taking up your quarrel with its author(s).

@PanurgeJr Disagree. The people involved in creating the magazine were inspired. Their aim was not inspired. Their aim, as they themselves state, is to create their own magazine. We can be inspired, and that inspiration can modify our aims and plans, but the subject should be we and not our aim. It is not a clanger of a dangling participle, but a dangling participle it is.

@PanurgeJr If there is nothing non-grammatical in what I quoted then it means that dangling modifiers are now broadly tolerated. Which of course they might be - I'm an old timer. Still, I wouldn't tolerate it from my students and red ink would certainly flow. I'll stick to my grumpy old grammar rules, thank you very much.

Hehehe. Had a feeling a typo would creep in. It usually does when one comments on someone else's grammar. Good thing I wasn't writing a Kickstarter blurb, really...

"Inspired by high-end culture magazines such as Little White Lies and Elephant, our aim is to redefine what a physical videogame magazine can be"
I don't mean to appear churlish, but if one seeks to produce some sort of games as high culture magazine (or whatever it is they are claiming), perhaps they should be exacting when it comes to grammar, especially given that this is part of the mission statement on their facebook page. I would recommend reading up on dangling participles and misplaced modifiers in the present case. Grammar Nazism? Sorry, but zero tolerance when it comes to editing standards, especially at the supposed high end of the market.

Can't see any exciting 3rd party software that might lure gamers who've either strayed from Nintendo or might be drawn in by the portable aspect. Hmmm.

I honestly think the Gamepad was a great idea. I'm not saying they explored its potential, but simply having the ability to relax on the sofa with a screen in my hands was wonderful.

I recently caved in to pressure and bought a PS4 for my kids. It does the job as expected but I simply can't get used to having to look at the TV screen all the time while playing a game. My old eyes aren't what they used to be. The opportunity to have a gamepad in my hands while I lie on the sofa solves the problem of fading eyesight and is far more comfortable. Maybe I'm in a minority. I'm not in the habit of carrying a device with me when I'm out so the Switch doesn't hold extra appeal for me. However, speaking personally, I think the second screen on the gamepad was an excellent idea and it deserved to be a smash hit.

It's good news IMO. I wasn't overly impressed with what seemed to be the quality of the games. Perhaps they will surprise us after all.

@RetronX It might just be subjective. I played it for a couple of hours and then deleted it. I'm not arguing with you, and you are probably right about it comparing well with games from the time. It may have been my nostalgia that was distorting my view. I have fond memories of Ty but the years have gone by and I probably should have avoided a remaster of an old game.

I wondered what the kids would think, so I showed the trailer to my two. Not sure if they are typical of teenagers in general but anyway they were not very overly impressed. I had to cave in recently and buy them a PS4 and the only thing they were interested in was how good the games looked. No surprise that they didn't get excited over the games. The portability thing they admitted would be an asset, but not a deal breaker. What they want to see in a new console is graphics that will top the PS4 or PCs, otherwise they are happy where they are now. Just reporting, so don't shoot the messenger.

In a nutshell it's a cool concept for a handheld - something to replace the 3DS, and a better alternative to a tablet in that it comes ready supplied with detachable controllers. That in itself could be enough, and make it a hit. As for the question of home console - I see nothing on the TV screen that a Wii U couldn't pull off. In fact, most of the games seemed identical to their Wii U counterparts (Skyrim, on the other hand, does not seem, from the brief glimpse, any better graphically than say Assassin's Creed on the Wii U). So I think they've given up trying to compete for the home market and taken a gamble on a different alternative. Hope it works, but my money has now gone to the PS4 and I won't be bothering to upgrade unless a home console comes along that can top it.

I only got into Fire Emblem just recently with the e-shop sale on Fire Emblem GBA and DS virtual console games. Very impressive they are too. I can't speak about Animal Crossing as I haven't played any of those but choosing Fire Emblem for what is obviously now seen as a necessary step into mobile gaming seems a smart move to me. Turn-based strategy works very well on touch screen tablets and as long as care is taken Fire Emblem will be a great success.

Does anyone who might be 'in the know' have any idea why it told me 'Access Denied' when I tried to register using my Nintendo ID? I regularly buy downloadable stuff and never receive such messages. What I find particularly disconcerting is that no explanation whatsoever is offered. It gives one a 'Big Brotherish' sort of feeling.

That is a particularly rich list of sale titles for the Wii U. I'm going to bag me four of them. By strange coincidence they all start with the letter T. Teslagrad, Tengami, and Trine 1 & 2. I have been playing the last two in demo form and they are very beautiful indeed. Hope the first two are as good as reviews suggest.

We finally bought a Wii U for Christmas, and to be honest I surprised myself because I had come to the point where I thought the console was one to skip. Our son had asked for PS4 but our budget simply wouldn't stretch that far. We got a basic Wii U in a sale at less than half the price of a PS4. I wasn't expecting to be massively impressed with the console but it has exceeded expectations. The Gamepad is much more user-friendly and much lighter than expected (I am sure countless people have remarked the same thing), the console runs smoothly and nowhere near as sluggishly as one review led me to believe; even better, the handful of games we have bought so far have all been excellent and from what I can tell the lack of third-party support has one obvious advantage: it means the Wii U will have a higher proportion of good quality software because we won't see the same levels of shameless cash grabs pretending to be software. The latter problem really marred the Wii for me - far too many lazy conversions or cobbled-together family games with remote waggle controls tacked on. I suppose we might have seen the same thing on the Wii U had the gamepad caught on like Nintendo wanted it to (endless Nintendo Land-like party games would have ensued and I think arguably Nintendo Land itself set a bad example of how the Gamepad might be used lazily, at least in a couple of the games).

Not that the drying up of third-party software isn't sad. It looks like a great console and I think developers who did produce games for it should not have concentrated on sequels to games available on other consoles. Still, my son is really happy with what he has played so far and he hasn't really complained. Unfortunately once he's played through the existing third-party software he's going to start feeling jealous of his friends with their Playstations and X-Boxes, and I think I'm the one in the family who recognises the superiority of Nintendo's own games (perhaps you have to be either very young or else grown-up enough not to find them childish, if that makes sense).

My only other real grumble is the poor implementation of Miiverse and the near impossibility of searching for friends in minority languages. But other than that - I love the console and I can only wish that a late growth in sales might lead to increasing support, even this late in the day.

Not interested in an update as I still have my original. Love the game to death, probably my favourite Zelda. Wonderful immersive story, much more story-driven than Skyward Sword. I never understood why some people rate it somewhat low.

Is there any possibility that this will come to Europe?

Bought this yesterday and it didn't take me long to regret buying it. I was looking for something along the lines of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (which I loved) but I find Kay a very mediocre game indeed. It doesn't control well, the camera is atrocious, and it simply doesn't feel polished (Ty is extremely polished, BTW, and the controls are mega tight), and not worth the 7 euro or so I paid for it. I wish I'd played a demo first.

@kyuubikid213 Forgive the off topic question. Not sure I am permitted to do this, but I noticed on an older thread that you had been using a USB flash drive for storage for game updates. Did it eventually die on you or did it work out ok? I am in the same boat now - I want to run games off discs and have no interest in downloading digital titles, but large updates to games bought on disc are filling the meager storage space of my 8GB Wii u.

After considerable time testing, repeated FIFA 12 3Ds crashes since I did the update yesterday. I can only assume it was caused by the update. Shouldn't there be a warning along the lines of 'update may cause problems with older software'. I hear that there was a problem with Ridge Racer too.

Update finished this evening. Since then have been playing FIFA 12 on the 3Ds and it has crashed twice. Never crashed before. Are the two things linked, and if so can I do anything about it? Will continue playing FIFA to see if it happens again.

@CountWavula Love your expression, count. Have been living off stale pieces of crusty cheese for too long.

@Henmii No, I meant 3D Land. I don't have a Wii U sadly but I imagine World is even better. For me, Land is still a platform game elevated to near perfection on the system for which it was made.

Super Mario 3D Land: boundless invention, beauty, meticulous craft behind the level design. Video gaming pushed to the level of art.
Jet Rocket II: mediocre and forgettable, mundane levels, probably worth someone's money but for my money Nintendolife have been generous in their rating. Still, I think if you read between the lines you can see that they were underwhelmed with what is after all an ambitious download game.
Each to their own opinion. This is mine. No offence to anyone here.

Mediocre is the word. Sadly I bought this on day one and the trailer made it look fantastic (in other words, it did its job). It is a pretty enough game to look at but it does not play well in my opinion. Not terrible, but the levels either feel empty (3d) or crowded with cheap deaths (2d). I never get a buzz from playing it, like I get from so many platform games (not just the superlative Mario games but from things like Mighty Switch Force or Super Little Acorns, both of which have very well designed levels). Not impressed with this one.

"I don't see how 3D World can't be considered as fresh as an exclusively 1 player affair as Mario Galaxy."
It isn't as fresh as Mario Galaxy. Mario Galaxy was a completely innovative approach to a Mario game. Mario 3D World is a sequel of sorts to Mario 3D Land. Lovely, but not a new direction.
"Saying that Super Mario 3D World has no innovation because it is based upon Super Mario 3D Land is like saying Assassin's Creed IV is a mediocre crossing between Caribbean Pirates Movies and a rehash of Assassin's Creed III."
Olmectron, you put them in their place! Who said that Super Mario 3D World has no innovation??!! Shame on them. It wasn't me, as you will see if you actually read my post. I am sure it will include lots of good stuff, and lots of surprises, but nevertheless it is a sequel of sorts to Super Mario 3D Land as I stated. See, something like Mario Galaxy is really innovative as it takes the series into a whole new direction. Same with Mario 64. Breakthrough! Eureka! Get it?

Sorry but I think claims that many people think the Wii U is just a peripheral or that people do not realise it is a new console are just ridiculous. Nintendo have used this excuse to try to smooth over its poor sales, but the plain fact is that the hardware hasn't impressed, and it is clear to most people that Nintendo's console seems a generation behind the upcoming big consoles. However, Nintendo still have the ability to reach a mass public through the power of their big guns like Mario and Zelda. The new Mario 3D World might make a difference but even with that it seems a case of updating an existing game to an extent rather than something completely fresh like Mario Galaxy. Same with Wind Waker. An all new Zelda game is called for. Games can make the difference for Nintendo.

Hope you fix the glitch on level 4 that makes the game crash when you die, and that the patch becomes available to European users.

The game crashes when you die on level 4. Will there be a patch for it, I wonder, or is it tough luck?

I think Twilight Princess is pure genius, and it's long been my favourite Zelda game.

'it’s fair to say that the Zelda series has become a little stagnant in recent times'. Sorry, I stopped reading at this point. I appreciate the 10/10 and that is all I need to know, but the Zelda series has been brushing against perfection for a long, long time. Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess on the Wii, for example, are video games so good they are worth buying a console for. How many games make you feel that way?

I tried it out for my son who will be receiving it today. It took me about 10 attempts to get past stage 3. It seems to allow only one save file so I deleted the save data so he can play from the beginning. If he can't do that third stage, I will have to do it all over again (and to be honest I did it partly by being lucky). I think the developers should have made it a bit easier - the difficulty ramps up too quickly.

Downloaded it earlier and not very impressed. Jett Rocket handles stiffly, frustrating gameplay (only the third level and pixel perfect movment required), poor level design. Resemblances to Mario are superficial. A bit like comparing Rolf Harris with Michelangelo. Not terrible but nowhere near as good as it looks.

@johndevine Very well said. It has a kind of wacky beauty, but if it's anything like Origins it simply doesn't play well. It also has a dream-like, floaty quality that somehow makes my mind wander from the action on screen.

I have never personally met a single person who thinks the WiiU is a "Wii add on". They are simply unimpressed or uninterested in the console. When the Playstation 2, or 3, or whatever came out, nobody thought that each successive console was an "add on". Nintendo have been claiming this a lot recently but I think the only problem is that people are unimpressed with the hardware and Nintendo have yet to understand that it all boils down to their one great trump card - matchless games. More games, please.

Bought this game about a week ago and since then I and my son have been hooked. I think you underrate it - it's wonderfully atmospheric, even if everything has to be done in a rush, and combines tower defence/resource management/fighting to a delightful degree. No problems with the controls at all . 10/10 from me.

Honestly, if I had the money I'd buy a WiiU. Zelda games, in my humble opinion, are the only games that by themselves justify the purchase of a console. I adore this game, and would love to revisit it, and yes it is probably worth buying a WiiU for this even if there are a shortage of other games.