earthboundlink

You gave us Mother 1 and Lucas as Smash DLC. Now give us Mother 3, and announce the development and western release of Mother 4. I'll take it for whatever console you decide, Nintendo. Let's take this 20th anniversary of the release of Earthbound as far as it can go.

Nintendo knows that the die hards want this. Remember last year's E3 presentation? I hope Reggie doesn't hit me with a fireball.

@Dr_Corndog Yeah, they can really eat through some funds. I've got 6. I got the first 5 with Christmas gift cards. If I ever happen to be in a store that sells them, I'll swing by the video game section to see if they have any worth considering. So far, I've only ever seen one that I just had to have and was willing to drop my own cash for (Mega Man). If I ever saw a Ness, I'd drop my last dollar to pick it up.

@Sonic1994CD It's on the main screen. Just scroll down below the Smash DLC. It's easy to miss, but the image looks like a weird drawing of Ness.

Oh.. OH MAN... OH MAN!!! You guys, think about it... Lucas arrives in Smash, we get a western release of Mother 1... It's the 20th anniversary of Earthbound's American release. I'm going all in on my prediction: Mother 3 release in the west (I'm betting Wii U) and I'm letting myself believe we may learn of the development of a sequel. Remember when Reggie said they're going to announce things people haven't even thought to think of yet? THIS COULD BE IT.

Okay, maybe I'm going overboard a bit, but I've been rocking this username for a very long time, and this E3 it is finally relevant.

@ricklongo Agreed. Personally, I would love to see a true sequel to Chibi-Robo that retains the original game's concept and applies a new coat of paint, some new mechanics, characters, etc. It was such an endearing game, and I thought, a lot of fun to play and help out the other toys and the family. And the character is awesome. If Chibi Robo weren't so small, I'd suggest him for Smash.

@rjejr lol, shows what I know. I'm old too. Although, an inspection reveals that the images posted above are, in fact, .jpg images, and not .gif format.

So now that I've gotten us way off topic, I've felt the need this baseball season to explain to you (based on your avatar and the unexpectedly decent Mets) that I am a devoted Nationals fan, and that you and I are mortal enemies until at least September.

So since neither of us can control the teams' performances, what say we settle the rivalry in Splatoon one of these days? (or Smash... I'm better at Smash)

I feel duty bound to point out that most of the images being posted in this thread are not, in fact, GIFs, but rather memes. A gif is like an image, but it moves. The image of a scene/character/moment intended to convey a caricature of some sentiment with the large text (usually Impact font) on it, is typically referred to as a "meme." This is something of an oversimplification of the term "meme," but I digress... Just want to get us all straight on our Internet terms.

Also, if you view this as a $30 game that requires a $30 season pass DLC purchase, does that not make it seem a little fairer? That's effectively what's happening here. I mean, they could have just waited several months to release the game. Would that be better? I think Nintendo's been pretty honest and clear about their plan, so there's no deceit here. If you're okay with the amount of content that will ultimately arrive, by all means wait. I think it's an interesting strategy to release the content over time to keep up interest. No doubt they learned that this worked well in Mario Kart 8, and are just applying the lesson in a new way.

I feel like, for a certain crowd, the call is "Nintendo needs new IPs!" "Nintendo needs more online!" Nintendo does a new, online-focused IP, and the response is "Why isn't this more like a single player version of an IP I'm already familiar with?!"

I suspect time will be good to Splatoon, and we'll see some sequels in future generations as those who played it obsessively as kids grow up and want to revisit the fun they had. Basically, I see this as potentially a new Mario Kart for Nintendo.

@Quorthon Perhaps. But U.S. copies of The Legend of Zelda came with a map to make it easier, while Japanese versions had no such map.

I feel like this topic deserves more scrutiny by the authors of the site. We need an in depth analysis of whose gaming library is more difficult: East vs. West.

I've been playing STEAM for awhile now (I'm American, so obviously don't know how Japan would relate to the setting and themes), and I really like it. It's a view of the battlefield I always thought would be cool in Fire Emblem, and the game carries a bit more suspense than FE does, with enemies lurking behind corners ready to catch you unawares. I have basically two complaints: 1) the enemy designs are a little uninspired, and 2) the characters talk too much.

Maybe I'm just not very good at the game yet, but the difficulty ramps up pretty hard once you get to 3 and 4 characters on the battlefield. Those enemies are everywhere, constantly spawning, and the mortar rounds make it pretty tough. I'm down with difficult games, but I guess I'm surprised that Japanese customers aren't. They were the ones who withheld the real Mario 2 because they thought we westerners would think it was too difficult.

As far as I can tell, the purpose of social media sites has largely become complaining about social media sites.

Interesting, because magic and arrows have always had their strengths, they just weren't formalized in the triangle approach of the main weapons (and as the article mentions, some installments have had a magic triangle, which I liked). Bows have always been strong against any flying enemies but weak against heavily armored enemies, while magic has tended to be strong against heavily armored enemies, but weak against pegasus knights in particular (but oddly enough, not wyvern knights).

I do like when they change these things up, because it makes each release unique, and re-instates a learning curve for the game. Otherwise you walk into each new installment already knowing all of the game's mechanics, and it becomes just a level pack.

@Whopper744 Wow. It never occurred to me that there might be people who have not played a Street Fighter game. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is basically the reason we all still play fighting games today. It was to fighting games what Super Mario Bros. was to the platformer. I might be overstating it a little bit, but it was a hugely influential game. I'll never forget the first time I played it at a skating rink arcade, picked Dhalsim because he could spit fire and stretch across the screen, and proceeded to get absolutely destroyed by whoever else was playing. Good times.

@Megumi Oh lord, we're not going to try to sort out the true numbering of the Mario franchise are we? I'm pretty sure science has declared that one of the laws of the universe says this is not possible.

I would also like to point out that, as an adult who likes to play games, I dislike voice chat because it has me communicating directly with strangers much younger than me. It's extremely awkward, and nobody ever really has anything useful or productive to say anyway. To me, the creepy factor is not worth the marginal strategic value. I think MH4U gets it mostly right: allow short lobby chats through text between matches, maybe some short customized pre-programmed messages in-match. You could highlight the location of the "speaker" on the map (this could be nicely implemented through the touch screen map in Splatoon). That way you could say things like "Need help over here," "I'll cover you," or "There's a sniper around" that would only be visible to your teammates. They combine the message with your location on the map to piece together a strategy. With some moderation, I think that mostly solves everyone's concerns.

@Kirk I agree that multiple gamepads would have been great (they suggested two could be supported, and I wouldn't be surprised if that feature came to this game eventually, with the ability to port your own custom Inkling using your gamepad from your own system on someone else's system), but I think the limitation was largely technological. The Gamepad streams directly from the system, so the system is putting out two images at once, one to the TV and one streaming wirelessly to the gamepad, since the gamepad has basically no onboard processing power. The more images you add, the more power drawn from the processor in the system, and the more streaming output you need. Beyond breakdowns in the performance of the game when putting out four (or even five counting the TV) separate images, I would imagine you could also start to see serious lag in the streaming, which we all know is completely untenable for fast paced games. Honestly, the lack of almost any lag whatsoever in the single stream is quite impressive.

All of these things might have been possible, but the system would have to be a serious beast, and would be exorbitantly expensive. Not to mention, it would push developers to program for multiple gamepads, pushing more households to feel the need for extra gamepads, which themselves would probably be quite expensive.

Again, I understand the promise of the concept, and I was disappointed when I first learned there would only be one gamepad with a possibility for two, but I don't know how they could possibly have gotten the price point to a viable level for a system running four of those things.

@Lizuka Funny, I tried the Splat Roller and couldn't do anything with it. When I used the handguns I was much more successful in painting things and getting kills. I thought the weapons were pretty well balanced. With more time people will get better at them and start finding exploits that will be patched (see SSB4), but it's pretty great balance as a starting point. Most of my matches were pretty close (I only played on Saturday for the mid-day PT hour, which was the afternoon for me on the U.S. East Coast).

I really liked how getting kills is not the main point of the game, but it still benefits you to get them when you can because it sets back the other team's painters. It also feels awesome to travel by paint into the middle of a fray and pop out unexpectedly to turn the tide of a firefight (inkfight?), especially if you can pop out and flank the enemy. Then you just plaster the whole area with paint and move on. The objective keeps people from lingering too long in one place and just defending a single corner or location for cheap kills. You still have to get painting! I also like how you get scores compared to your teammates at the end, so it encourages you to actually participate rather than ride your teammates' skills to victory.

I thought it was really fun, but felt the matches were a bit too short after a few of them. And there better eventually be a "FLUDD" weapon. That would be a sweet easter egg for us Mario Sunshine fans!

@IceClimbers Interesting. I just wonder why I don't have the same problem in For Glory mode, which presumably uses the same model. Am I right that For Glory players just tend to have better connections?

Just wondering if anyone else has had problems with lag in SSB4, but only in "for fun" mode. I almost always have a smooth experience in "For Glory" mode, but in "For fun" I find it lags frequently (but not always). I don't know if that's because there is more going on in those matches (with items showing up and stages morphing) or if it's because the "for fun" folks tend to have worse connections because they're not as "serious" about gaming.

I don't care about online stats at all (except hunter rank in MH4U!), so I don't mind getting beaten up in "For Glory" when I switch off my main characters, but I would rather play "for fun" because I think the crazy stages are half the fun of the game (items are okay, sometimes annoying, but I can take or leave them). I stay out of "for fun" because of the frequent lag problems. Just wondering if others have experienced this, or have any ideas about the reason for the issue.

Anyway, all that is relevant to Splatoon, because I hope that having more dynamic stuff going on, along with more weapons, items, customizations, etc. does not harm the game speed. The global testfire was smooth as silk for me, but it was limited to a small part of the game.

Had a couple of disconnects in the lobby when I switched weapons. Never had a single problem in-match. No lag whatsoever, no framerate problems, I was really impressed.

And I enjoyed the little 8-bit squid jumping minigame on the gamepad during session set-up. It was like playing Ice Climbers as a Blooper.

@Kevlar44 Some people got good with the sniper option, because they were lighting me up in my one play session. Personally, my memories of Metroid Prime: Hunters have soured me on too many snipers having too much power, and the game losing its frantic nature because everyone is just hiding and waiting to snipe.

I came away from my one play session thinking it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see more customization and weapon options.

$30 is too steep for me on a game like this. $10-15 seems more in line.

Tried the iOS version, and I did not care for it. It was too complicated to be a time waster, and seemed to be trying to pillage my wallet the whole time.

@DarthNocturnal As others have noted, I think they're trying to overrun the servers to make sure they can handle the full release. And it's kind of a cool way to do it, especially getting the Nintendo staff in on it. I doubt I'll be able to make the sessions as a U.S. East Coaster, but I think it's neat that they're doing it because it makes fans feel like they're helping beta test the game.

I like the idea of bundles, particularly since there are so many longstanding series. They've already been trending toward themed releases (like releasing a series all at once, or near each other). Just take that a step further, or even bundle a series into a single app (à la Mario All Stars, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and various anniversary collections). Just add in some artwork or sound tests as bonus features, and charge a reasonable amount, and series fans will eat it up. Plus, it's a great introduction for those who want to try a new series, but don't know which game in the series to start with.

@Captain_Gonru Also, I want to throw my name behind a movement to bring back the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles sub-series. Loved the original and My Life as a King. Never played the Wii version because reviews were so mediocre, but I did play the two DS games. They were decent, but not super captivating. I just feel like that series is always hitting on some good ideas, but never quite got all the way there. Put some real effort behind developing the concept of the original, implement a Monster Hunter-like online system, make it glorious HD, and I'll just give the developer my bank account info to take what they want.

I'll check out the Amiibo thing. Been so focused on 3DS games lately (MH4U, Majora's Mask, and STEAM) that my Wii U has been left alone except to play Mario Kart DLC and Smash Bros. from time to time.

Also Shin Megami Tensei IV has been on sale so many times... I nearly bought it when they were bundling it with Fire Emblem: Awakening, but decided against it.

I truly enjoyed this game, though I wish the writing had been just a little better. The rhyming dialog was a bold choice, but one that didn't hold up very well throughout the length of the game. I think to make that kind of thing work, you would need to spend a substantial amount of time on the writing, and you would need some really good writers. It would make the game a nightmare for localization. I often wonder if the writing worked a little better in French, since the studio was Ubisoft Montreal.

I never got the paid DLC for FE: Awakening because the game itself has plenty of content. I expect it will be the same for this one.

Tried P&D on the phone, but it kept wanting to connect to the web and I was on an underground train. Frustrated me to the point that I stopped playing it. It did seem complex for a matching game, in a particularly Japanese way. Right now, there are plenty of games out there to fulfill my complex game needs (Monster Hunter and Xenoblade Chronicles come to mind). Just waiting for Splatoon to get that more arcade vibe going (although Smash does this nicely, people online are too good at the game, or sometimes have bad connections that frustrate me).

Smash DLC is okay. You don't have to buy it. I got a couple of the Mii costumes I like, and now i actually enjoy playing as my Mii Proto Man character. However, a lot of the costumes are not very interesting to me, so I didn't buy them. I got the Mewtwo for free, so I can't complain there, and generally I think fighters and stages are exactly the kind of DLC I want. It's a great way to promote new releases and draw interest for less well-known games in the Nintendo universe. I mean really, if not for Melee, how many of us would be playing Fire Emblem now? Some, but probably not nearly as many. I feel like Shulk in the game could do the same for the Xenoblade series. Maybe Lucas's popularity finally gets us a localized version of Mother 3 (LOLyeahright).

I have already made a Proto Man Mii, and he has defeated Mega Man at Wily's castle.

Although if I wanted Proto Man to win, I suppose I could have saved some money and just played a bad round of Mega Man 3...

Few notes:
1) I have actually never played a Dreamcast.
2) Boy we really liked 1 on 1 fighting games in those days.
3) Sega always did know how to make really nice-looking hardware.
4) Some of you young'uns might be a bit confused by some of the terminology in this article. See this link for clarification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_game

FAAAAKE. This was drawn, not tattooed. And it's not supposed to actually be real Charmander. And he probably wasn't even drunk.

I'm not super excited about the costumes, except for that Protoman costume. I have always loved me some Protoman. I'm one of those odd ducks that played Mega Man 3 before Mega Man 2, and I'll never forget that first time I played game, selected Magnet Man's stage, and partway through, suddenly this whistle plays and this pink character shows up. I fought him for a minute, and then he just left. I was like "Did that even really happen?!" My young mind was blown.

Got the 3DS update here in the U.S., received the code email, but when I try to access the eShop through Smash it consistently comes up with an error message. Pretty frustrating. I know my Internet is solid because I was able to download and install the update through the regular eShop. I guess there are too many people crushing the server right now. It's moments like these when I realize how much value DeNA could add to Nintendo.

This article could have been titled, "'Analyst' with no more information than you or me engages in wild speculation."

I was intrigued by the first title, but never picked it up. Alas, my backlog (games I haven't finished) combined with my front log (games I want but haven't purchased yet), will probably prevent me ever playing this interesting-looking game.

@Stubborn_Monkey This is a good point that I like to make to counter those who say Nintendo never makes new IPs. Nintendo's stable of existing IPs is absolutely massive. Look at Smash, and it just represents the big ones. Meanwhile, it's constantly creating new ones that people don't notice, either because they are smaller downloadables (like Pushmo or the Dillon games) or niche genres (like Ketzal's Corridors, Codename STEAM, or Xenoblade Chronicles), or oddball concepts (like Wario Ware, Chibi Robo, or Fluidity). Those are all Nintendo IPs (just off the top of my head) that were unheralded by the masses, but were excellent games. And that doesn't even begin to count the variety of non-canon games featuring sundry Nintendo mascots (Mario's karting, sports, board game, and other ventures, Kirby's golf, pinball and touch screen outings, 3D and 2D takes on the same game universe like Metroid, Mario, and Zelda, etc.) It's truly incredible, actually, how much variety this one publisher maintains in its library, while still creating new IPs on a consistent basis (just in the first half of 2015 we have Codename STEAM and Splatoon, two pretty major releases of new IPs).

I know I'm mostly preaching to the choir on this thread, but Splatoon is not some crazy Nintendo initiative to make new IPs. They've been doing that at a pretty incredible clip, all while maintaining consistent releases of their existing, more famous franchises. And all those Internet commenters who decry Nintendo for a lack of original IPs are demonstrably incorrect.

@allav866 I thought Perfect Dark required it as well.

I like the look, and the idea of a Monster Hunter RPG (I'm assuming it's some kind of take on a turn-based JRPG) is very compelling. I particularly like the idea of being able to tame certain monsters and use them as a mount for travel and fighting.

The world looks nice. I've always wanted a more contiguous version of the Monster Hunter map that shows more of how the areas are connected and how the hunters get around from place to place. MH4U did a good job of explaining this, but the idea of a more open and less chopped up Monster Hunter world is very enticing in terms of fleshing out the game's universe.

And the art style reminds me a lot of the new Legend of Zelda, which is a very good thing.

Don't know if I can separate the true game from the blistering nostalgia, but I can say when I play it now, it still feels fun, open, and energetic. The difficulty level is near perfect: you can always make progress, and when you get stuck, you can usually just go try another level and come back to the one that's frustrating you. Then, when you finally get that star that has eluded you, the satisfaction is so palpable.

I very nearly got a Playstation before the N64 came out because I was tired of waiting for my next system, and the Playstation had Street Fighter Alpha (I was a big fighting game guy back then). I rented the PS, and decided I would continue to wait to see what Nintendo offered. I'll never forget going into a Toys R Us and playing Mario 64 on the demo unit there and knowing instantly that I had made the right choice to wait.

And man, the first time I climbed that tree in front of the castle, did a handstand on top, and flipped down to the ground, my eyes got big, and I thought to myself, "This. This is going to be fun."

The X and Protoman costumes are awesome, but I think I would have preferred them to be alt costumes for the actual Mega Man character rather than for the Miis.

That should be the next round of DLC: alt costumes for the real characters. I'm thinking Wolf O'Donnell, Dr. Luigi, Slippy/Peppy, any number of Fire Emblem favorites (Roy comes to mind), Toon Ganondorf, Tetra (as an alt for Toon Link), Wooly Yoshi, Yarn Kirby, Fusion Suit Samus, and I'm sure there are more good ideas.

@Quorthon If your 3DS/Wii U are not on often these days, then you are missing some quality stuff. Hopefully you've just got something else going on another platform, because I don't even have time these days to play the games I already have, let alone the new ones I want.

Mario 64 is one of the best games ever made, period. I hope the next 3D Mario platformer jumps back to the exploratory approach of that game and Sunshine, rather than the more linear approaches of the more recent games. Not that I don't love the recent ones, I just think it's time to revisit that idea. Or, you know, just HD remake Sunshine. I'd be happy with that.

I like the Sonic gear. My Luigi Ace Palico is getting a little stale, but I don't change him because the weapon and gear are pretty powerful.

At first I didn't like the Palicoes, and I wanted my Shakalakas back, but now I've come around to the Palicoes and really like collecting their armor and doing the activities on Sunsnug Isle as a break from big game hunting. And the ability to have so many Palicoes and swap them out is a cool way to put a little variety into the whole thing.

Hopefully the Sonic Palico gear is just a giveaway like the Mario/Luigi was, though I wish I could get another set so I could have Mario AND Luigi.

Yoshi's New Island or NES Remix 2? The former seems like a better deal, but my poor Wii U is getting no love lately because of the recent glut of 3DS games.

I'm betting on something announced tomorrow that we haven't seen. We'll also get some Amiibo news, some Starfox love, some more Zelda footage that will appease those anxious for the game, and I'm betting a lot of Xenoblade.

I see the LoZ title as a defining game for the system, and something of a swan song. It won't be the last Wii U game, but probably will be the last really big Ninty franchise to get a Wii U release.

I want this so bad, but it won't be a day 1 buy because I am still deep in the throes of Monster Hunter. I am still about 3/4 of the way through Majora's Mask, and that is the tip of the iceberg of my backlog. I can't decide whether XBC or Codename STEAM should be my next purchase. And my poor Wii U is relegated to Netflix duty while these deep and time-consuming 3DS titles continue to bombard me. And all of this is murder on my Smash skills, which are atrophying as I spend my time mastering the bow and the light bowgun.

@akaDv8R Do you know why those third party games are not living up to the hype? Because they are all rehashes of the same ideas that have been recycled for decades now, but with more bloom lighting, more particle effects, longer draw distances, and generalized eye candy. The concepts are losing their lustre because their novelty has worn out, and we're no longer captivated by more polygons.

That is why win or lose, the industry needs Nintendo to help push forward. Not all their ideas are big winners, but at least they try new things. Third parties are pathologically averse to new ideas, and it seems MS and Sony are happy to accommodate that complacency. Nintendo is almost the only non-Indie player in this industry that likes to break out of the bonds of what we used to do, which is ironic considering how much they still do with their extensive back catalog.

I agree with the thrust of the article, and you can count me as among the concerned Nintendo citizenry trying my best to remain cautiously optimistic. But I tell you, if I see a Doodle Jump clone with Mario in it, I'm going to be very, very disappointed in the results of this shift.

I think our best clues about what Nintendo is thinking at this point are Pokémon Shuffle, Puzzles and Dragons: Mario Edition, and that Pokédex app that has actually existed for a long time. I think we'll be looking at some pretty rudimentary touch screen/tilt games with Nintendo skins on them. We'll probably also see some of the lesser known puzzling and concept IPs like Picross and the Artstyle series make their way to phones. I think we're less likely to see VC games on phones, lesser still to see more fulsome console-style games, because Nintendo has tended to be pretty picky about how controls in their games work, and outside VC, they always design for the platform on which they release games (i.e. no lazy ports). I don't think they'll want to make the generic compromises necessary to make phone ports of bigger games (soft d-pads and buttons... ugh).

Those are my predictions as to phone games, which has been everyone's focus. I think the big missed news here is the renewed emphasis on accounts and better networking. That aspect, as it applies to a more social approach to gaming (you can imagine where they want to go with Animal Crossing and Pokémon, where interaction has always been important), is the real news here. I think phone companion apps (not necessarily games) will be part of that strategy, and that I am excited to see. I think Miiverse has been a pretty big success for them, and they will build from their experience with that.

Every time someone says Nintendo needs to focus on power and third parties a Pit or Palutena loses its wings. I don't want to see Nintendo cater to the lowest common denominator of developers. Nintendo has basically never led the industry in power specs, even in the glory days of NES and SNES. What makes Nintendo unique is that it excels at game design and maximizing the use of its own hardware.

And third parties are important, but they are a byproduct of having the rest of the package be successful. Nintendo doesn't need to scale back its own development just because the system owners like their games better than third parties' games.

The formula for success is elusive, but it's somewhere near a combination of the right level of power balanced with the right price point, interesting software/UI, and generating consumer interest through hype and advertising. This idea of just making a PS5 and putting Mario, Zelda , and a Nintendo logo on it is the kind of nonsense Internet commenters throw out because it's the stuff people in the IGN comments section troll about. It's a follow-on to the idea that controllers were perfected in the Gamecube/PS2/XBox era and basically nothing should change because it's what these self-identified "gamers" on the Internet are used to. I fundamentally disagree with this line of thinking, and I hope Nintendo does too.