earthboundlink

@DarkKirby I'm generally not a fan of Nintendo going mobile (like most of us here, I'm hoping for the best), but I would absolutely love Picross on my phone. It's so much better than most of the garbage "match three" puzzle games on iOS. Pokémon or not, I would absolutely pay $5 or so for a solid Picross outing on my phone.

Also feels weird to note that when the HD game releases, it will be nearly 10 years after the original release. Has it really been almost 10 years since the Wii came out? Jeez.

I'll wait to see more gameplay footage and longer shots of the open areas in actual 1080p before I make my decision to buy. The better draw distances of Wind Waker HD were a huge part of the benefit of the remake (I love looking way out over the game's vast ocean). It does make the world feel bigger. Once you're actually out in the desert, or riding Epona through Hyrule field with an eye on the horizon, I have a feeling the reboot will shine a little more. Better lighting in the lamplit and twilight segments also seems like it could make a big difference. There was a deliberate blurring in the twilight sections to create that dreamy feel, but it ended up not feeling different enough from the crispier normal portions of the game. I have a feeling the contrast will be better felt in the context of the HD release. Given the more "realistic" detailed environment of TP, I feel pretty confident some HD polish will do a lot for the game in the end.

Anyway, this is obviously not finished given the March 2016 release date and the limited amount of actual footage we've seen. Plus, I don't think the Youtube video is 1080p, and I would be stunned if the final product is only 720.

Well if it's real, this is great for the folks who like Minecraft. I played it once and I guess I didn't really get it. I got pretty bored pretty fast. But huge third party game on a Nintendo console? Even if it's late, it's something. And good relationships with third parties bodes well for the launch strategy for the NX.

Still give a localization announcement for Monster Hunter X (it can be a year or two away if need be, just assure me it's coming) and a little bit of gameplay footage/details for Zelda Wii U and I'll be fully satisfied with the direct.

Bonuses: A little more Smash DLC and some new things headed to Super Mario Maker.

I like the quirky Japanese factor, and I always enjoy a game with good presentation, but I've got my grinding quota full already with MH4U, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, and soon Xenoblade Chronicles X. I need to lighten up a little on the grinding with my game selection. Maybe I'll check this one out if it ever goes on sale.

@shigulicious I feel bad when I cart too; everyone does. I've been the reason for loss on a few hunts (being the third cart; man that's rough). I always apologize in the gathering hall, and almost always the other folks will be really cool about it. I do the same when someone else carts. The way I see it, losing is how you get better.

Be glad to hunt with you someday, but having kids makes my online times pretty erratic. Never checked for a Nintendo Life forum for MH online hunts, because I always just jump on real quick while kids are napping without much thought. Still not at G Rank yet, but getting close. My goal is to hit G-Rank, and after that, just mess around in the game until the next one comes out.

@gcunit That's a legitimate perspective. I never resell my games, so it doesn't affect me. I see mild convenience in the downloads, and I don't mind paying full price for them. I think everyone should be entitled to whatever suits them best, but I'm pretty much all in for anything that leaves me with fewer things hanging around my house.

Also, storage is cheap these days. I have a 250 gig hard drive from an old laptop that I just put in a slick shell that serves as my Wii U external. Cost me like $5 and works like a charm.

Was kind of surprised at the anti-download sentiment in the poll. I'm somewhere in the middle, but trending toward downloads, especially for a portable console. Discs get damaged, lost, and have to be switched in and out when switching between games. And, I hate going to stores for new games and hoping that copies are available. I'll still do it sometimes, but out of mild convenience, I prefer downloads these days.

The breakthrough success of MH4U and Fire Emblem on the 3DS shows that western 3DS gamers have excellent taste, and will buy games because they are good, even when they are not tied to big-selling IPs.

@EllenJMiller I read this a couple of times before I got the reference. +1
Title: The Legend of Xelda

@Genesaur @hcfwesker @shigulicious I am HR7 (after nearly 200 hours of gameplay, though most of that is single player), have played all of my online quests with randoms, and have never encountered any of these hackers or bad players at G Rank. Almost every time I was with someone who kept failing it was because they were fighting monsters above their rank, or trying to rank up. We all get carted sometimes. Even when I play lower tier monsters, sometimes I get careless and find myself wallowing in shame at the base camp.

@XCWarrior I have this exact same problem. So online people, don't be hard on those of us who drop out at weird times, or just do one and done hunts online. We probably have kids!

I would also suggest that those who don't like the game after early stages try out some different weapons. The game plays remarkably differently depending on which weapon you use. I was not at all sold on the game using melee weapons. I thought early on that maybe you needed to know which weapons were best for which monsters and master them all, and it was too daunting. I had also heard that gunning was "too complicated" and that as a noob, I should stick so DB and SnS. It wasn't until I convinced myself to give the bow a shot (pun intended) that I realized I loved the game.

Also, I'm terrible with it, but everyone should try the gunlance at least once. Whoever came up with that idea is someone I would like to meet.

Great that MH4U is a success. It's probably the most hours I've ever put into a single game. It has actually inspired me to go back and put some more time into MH3U (which I oddly find much easier than MH4U, probably just because I'm in the earlier stages).

Generally, I hate voice chat in games. I really do. It kills Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate online for me, and MH4U did a great job of getting around it. But a game like this really does need it, or at least a customizable chat function like MH4U. I understand the hesitancy to put in voice chat, and the panels are a neat way to try to get around the problem, while also introducing an amusing mechanic into the game, it's just not enough.

I am far from a big critic on Nintendo's online efforts, but this is an example of the problems that occur when you hold back player communication too much.

@russellohh "my quadcore Android that has graphics and specs much nicer than the 3DS...costs $40" That's probably subsidized by your phone plan, and not an accurate measure of the actual cost of the device.

I'm very highly skeptical of the top shelf specs bit. The same rumors were swirling about the Wii U when it was still "project cafe." I would expect NX to be on par with PS4 and XBO, but no better. However, the concept of switching between mobile and console on the same platform is of great interest to me. That should allow Nintendo to merge its console and handheld game development divisions and reduce game droughts. That will be huge for a company that has to work so hard to support its systems with its own games.

It will be interesting to see how the DeNA and mobile gaming projects work together with this concept. Interesting days ahead for the Big N.

I enjoyed TP's waggle controls enough when I first played them in 2006, but after Skyward Sword, I just can't imagine going back to the TP waggle controls. I'm betting if TPHD comes out, it is the Gamecube version, with menu updates for the gamepad. Basically, it will get the WWHD treatment. Since WWHD was absolutely gorgeous, I can only imagine what a more realistic and moody game like TP would look like in HD. That's enough reason to release it. Also, absolutely needs a hero mode, master quest, or something, because it was WAY too easy.

I actually think Twilight Princess HD would be worthwhile. It was a game that had a really dark mood, and was actually really pretty in the early days of the Wii. Unlike Wind Waker and Skyward Sword, which used art style to work around the limitations of the hardware they originally released on, Twilight Princess was going for a much more realistic, detailed look. With a fresh coat of HD paint, fancier lighting effects, etc., Twilight Princess could be a real looker of a game. In fact, if you will recall, Nintendo did a mock up of an HD Zelda game when the Wii U was announced to showcase the graphics. That snippet, which involved Link in a temple with a giant spider creature, definitely used the Twilight Princess art style.

I'm still not convinced TPHD will make its way to the eShop (more likely just a Wii download release like the Mario Galaxy games and Punch Out!!). But it would represent the complete Gamecube-era Zelda series remastered for the Wii U, which would be consistent with the two 64-era Zelda games getting releases on the 3DS.

Still, not convinced it will happen.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and guess that this will not be Pokémon-related, since Pokémon has already taken to the app store multiple times.

Calling it: "Jumpy Block," "Klash of Koopas," or "Mushroom Crush: Fire Flower Saga"

Obviously a few were stretches, but a lot of them I didn't know about were very likely correct. The ROB ones in particular I suspect are mostly correct (not the 3DS one, I don't think), and really cool to think about.

@Moon I actually really like how Monster Hunter is this game full of brutal weaponry and massive man-eating monsters, but it drops in so much stuff that is just pure silliness, like talking cats, goofy gestures, over-the-top characters, and "so tasty!" I'm always amused at how everyone in the villages has such a sense of humor about the fact that they are surrounded by giant freaking monsters. If not for all that stuff, the series would be too much of a brooding, American-style dystopian universe.

My understanding is that MH4U has been a pretty big success in the west, so I'd be surprised if they don't bring it over. But then, the success of MH4U has been apparently keyed off of its more straightforward explanations of game mechanics and a slightly less complicated progression.* It seems to me that introducing even more mechanics to an already pretty intricate set of game mechanics could raise Japanese concerns that we westerners will be too bewildered by the myriad options.

*Source: Been going back and playing MH3U lately, and it is definitely less user-friendly than MH4U.

I suspect that the main reason they are not releasing these games is that they don't make much money on them. I actually think they would make more money if they dropped the prices to mobile game levels ($1-2), because they would sell more of them. I think a lot harder before spending $5 than I do before spending $1 or 2.

I also wish they would put all those GBA and DS games that the Wii U gets on the 3DS. I don't know how much work would be entailed to do that, but those games were largely designed for portable platforms (shorter bursts of play), so it's odd to have them on Wii U but not on the mobile platform. The GBA games are more important than the DS games, since you can actually play DS carts on a 3DS. I still have pretty much any DS game I thought was worth getting at the time.

I don't have my codes at the moment, but apparently my levels are really tough, based on my single-digir clear rates. They're not total troll levels, I don't think, and I don't design them to be that way, I've just been playing Mario for a very long time, and I guess I've gotten better at it than most players.

It's also worth noting that clear rates are a little questionable as a metric. If I play a difficult level repeatedly until I beat it, and then never play it again, then I will only ever beat it once despite likely having died numerous times, so the clear rates will always be low. Because people tend to die a lot, but only beat stages once, this will be a persistent problem.

(FWIW, this is similar to the problems that plague divorce statistics. Outside a few odd scenarios involving death, a person can essentially only ever have one successful marriage, but can have several unsuccessful ones, skewing the stats negative. The more you know!)

FAAAAAAAAKE. There is no way he didn't know that was an auto-level.

Also, I'm with others that I'm pretty much over the auto-levels now. They are no longer particularly clever. "Ooh, wow, that horde of carefully placed enemies nearly hit me as I did nothing. What an amazing experience. NOT."

More real levels please. They don't have to be vanilla Mario levels, and they can be cheesy, or easy, or goofy, or short, or long, or whatever. Just make sure I have to play them.

Man, I wasn't going to be interested in those Mii fighter costumes, but then I saw Monster Hunter. I've been wishing lately for a way to bring Monster Hunter to Smash, but I couldn't think how you would do it. Now I must have that content!

This spinoff series is due for a reboot. I thought the multiplayer was flawed but fun, and the concepts for the different hunters were really cool. Given the success of Splatoon, I feel like a FPS version of this game for Wii U (probably not 3DS since Federation Force is headed that way) would be beautiful and fun. It doesn't have to be big and complicated. Just make it a budget download that focuses primarily on online play, with a single player campaign that is mostly focused on training and tips. Use the core of the original game, tack on some HD models and textures, add a couple new hunters, and charge $40 for it. I would buy that, especially with better modern Internet speeds.

@Raien I thought there were a lot of good secrets in the NSMBU world, less so in SM3DW. I do notice that the games I play most for Wii U (Smash, Mario Kart, SM3DW, and now Super Mario Maker) are largely compilations of disparate concepts rather than rich cohesive singular universes (Note that I view Pikmin 3, DKCTF, and NSMBU as counterexamples, with fun, cohesive worlds).

I see your point, but I don't think it's quite that stark. These days "world building" tends to mean massive, open world, first-person, American-style RPGs. I think Nintendo does a really good job of using art style to make a world a joy to dwell in, even if it's not quite as loaded with secrets as it used to be. Part of that is a product of the Internet age too; secrets don't really work too well anymore, because everybody knows them all as soon as the game comes out.

Anyway, I'm so deep in Monster Hunter 4U and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D that basically all my gaming time goes to my 3DS. That's not a knock on Wii U, since I have thoroughly enjoyed the games I have for it, but the 3DS library is incredible, and full of third parties and extremely rich worlds.

Remember playing this one back in 2004. I was a member of the "Nintendo Street Team" back then, and this was one of the games we demoed to folks around town. I thought it was a cool concept at the time, so it's good to hear it holds up pretty well.

Like others in the thread, I believe it's the best in the series. I was never a huge fan of the turn the series took with the minis as the actual "playable" characters, and preferred the "Donkey Kong sequel" approach.

Already have Shovel Knight, so there's basically no reason not to get the free DLC. Even if I never play it (which I likely will), I just want to put in my support for the whole idea of free DLC instead of "director's cut," "game of the year edition," or tweaked re-releases of that kind.

@DarthNocturnal Why did you have to say that? Now I want a Waverace/Excitebike crossover I'm never going to get.

I like the idea of fleshing out the Monster Hunter universe a little bit with some human conflict. When I play MH my wife always says she feels bad for the poor monsters, who are just doing what they were born to do. She says, "who is the real monster here?" She's joking of course, but it makes you think.

The attempt to make Khezu cute somehow made it even more horrifying. And I see that Konchu down there trying to bowl be over at the exact most inopportune time.

September 11 is a date on a calendar that happens to be a Friday this year. Just because this particular tragedy is identified by its date doesn't mean the global economy should cease. We don't avoid releasing games on Pearl Harbor Day, or the date of the Oklahoma City bombings, or the date of the Newtown massacre, or the date of the British bus bombings, or any number in the litany of national tragedies that have occurred in the last 100 years. Bad things have happened on many days; 9/11 just happens to be the one we identify with a date rather than a description, so it stands out to us.

Let us have no more discussion of this silly date issue, because Super Mario Maker looks awesome.

A lot of folks are not enthused by this. I just don't see how you can stare in the face of endless, eternal Mario levels, perpetual new platforming ideas, and the unleashed creativity of the masses in four versions of the Mushroom Kingdom and shrug "meh."

This game is an automatic buy for me, so I'm just going to throw out a couple of things: 1) release a version of the editor for tablets; 2) start working on a 3D Mario platforming level editor.

That was really relaxing. I'd like to hang out there with a cool drink and maybe have a snooze.

That is more sense than I was able to squeeze out of the plot of this game when I played it on the Wii. I was playing it, saying "I have no idea what's going on, but this is amazing." FWIW, that was also my reaction to the Bayonetta 2 demo.

As someone who wanted this, but picked up ax XL instead... :-/

Still, if that Zelda version is slick, I may consider the absolutely, irretrievably unnecessary purchase on collector grounds.

Downloaded it for iOS. I may never play it, but I have it. FWIW, there was actually already an officially sanctioned Pokédex app for iOS. The app was free, but you could buy different regional dexes for it. It was substantially similar to the one available for 3DS.

I bought this game last night primarily on the strength of this review. Didn't get to play long, and only did a few of the single-player challenges, but I love how the game talks smack to you when you lose. Kind of makes you feel like even when you're playing alone, you're playing with someone else. I'm also relatively green in the "Nindie" scene, but it won me over with the last epic indie sale (picked up Guacamelee, Cube, and the latest BIT.TRIP). I love how Nintendo is cultivating its own, unique indie scene, and that now there's this, which is like an Indie Smash Bros. full of those characters. It makes me want to try out those characters' games, kind of like how Smash makes me want to play those characters' games.

Anyway, just wanted to preach like a converted Nindie fan. These games are really great.

@Dpishere There is no least likely place. This is the world we Americans have chosen for ourselves. We have to live with the constant threat of mass killings because a few vocal hobbyists are convinced their hobby is tantamount to freedom. /rant

When I first saw the TVii unveiling, I thought, "that's an interesting set of ideas, but there's no way it gets the support it needs to be as good as it seems in this video."

I was very right. The all-in-one box is not really what I want my console to be. I'd rather have it be very good at gaming, to the exclusion of all else. If the effort that went into developing and promoting TVii (I do like the name, actually) had made one more solid launch game, it could have made a huge difference.

If you're going to do a TV or multimedia service, the smart thing is to just set up a partnership with some company that does that better than you.

Love JRPGs, but never really been a Dragon Quest guy. Still, the visual concept here is absolutely brilliant, looks exceptionally well-executed, and should be used in more games.

Intrigued by Pandora's Tower, but currently too deep into Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and some other time sucks to justify the purchase. I'll probably add it to my wishlist for someday when I'm feeling some super Japanese oddness.

"unfortunately got bored after 340 hours" lol. Only a Monster Hunter player would suggest this wasn't enough. I've been gaming since the 80s and I don't think I've ever played a game that much. I think I'm currently pushing 130 hours on MH4U (Still only HR4, and I'm stuck in the 8 Star single player quests), but I come back to it periodically when the spell grips me again. It's really increasing my backlog.

For those with a smartphone, there is a free app called "MH4U Database" that will help you quickly track down elusive items you may need for crafting, learn a little more about monsters, and build theoretical armor sets to check out skills and stats. It works so much better and faster than any of the wikis you encounter online. Definitely worth a download for a quick ref MH4U pocket guide.

@BakaKnight I got Monster Hunter 4U shortly after it came out, and I honestly don't know how people have gotten even close to being able to deal with this content. All I want is that Hero's bow and I still don't have it.

Still, incredible game, and it has more hours logged than any other game I have, though XBC is fast approaching.

I'm only 20 or so hours into the N3DS version, so absent some kind of MH3U-style save file transfer I don't think I'll be picking up the VC XBC if/when it comes across the pond. That's too bad, because given the option, I probably would have bought the VC version. Oh well. The ability to play it in snippets here and there is still nice. And the 3D is cool.

And man, I just don't know where I'm going to find time to get through the Wii U version. I don't even know if I'll finish the N3DS version before the XBCX comes out. I suspect I'll be jumping in later than everyone else and will miss out on any limited or special editions. For me, it's all about the game anyway, so unless there's bundled content or some such, it's no big loss.

Odd that they didn't do a special edition Gamepad like they did for Wind Waker HD. Have they done any other special edition gamepads besides that one? They release special edition 3DSs all the time, so I wonder why so few Gamepads.

I think the issue is not that the reviewer took the movie too seriously. The issue is that it's not even particularly good at the somewhat lame thing that it's trying to be. 80s references are not inherently funny just because they are references. If the whole point was the cool special effects and video game imagery, then there wasn't even enough of that to make it worthwhile.

That's just what I got from the review. Don't plan on seeing it myself, since something about the trailer told me I had already seen everything good about the movie. It's too bad, because the concept had promise.

Green Greens was my favorite, but we already have that one. Next was probably the old school Mushroom Kingdom stage. We should bring that one back, or maybe just make an old school version of the "Mushroomy Kingdom" that's more true to the old school look. Do it on the release of Mario Maker as a celebratory gesture.

Stage skinning is a cool idea they should consider elsewhere, basically what they've done with the omega stages, but in simpler non-Omega stages. Like various Nintendo-based skins for the Battlefield stage.

@MikeW Do you mean Star Fox SNES? Pretty sure that was the first one.