emayer

The title of this article is a little deceiving. AM2R was completed and released, and then the takedown order was issued. The takedown only halted any significant post-launch updates from being developed and widely distributed.

It was a lot of fun too! If Samus Returns ends up being better, then we're all in for a real treat.

@Spoony_Tech No, Tropical Freeze's soundtrack was done completely by David Wise.

Whatever they do, it'll be awful if they again wipe the slate clean and slowly drip feed the same exact games over the next four years.

@XCWarrior But Hunters isn't a good Metroid game.

I played it on PC, but it's so good I'd definitely double dip to play it on my Wii U. It has a new soundtrack now, so it wouldn't be a completely redundant experience.

Now, if there is going to be a Shovel Knight amiibo released this year, it'd make a lot more sense if it was tied to the upcoming Shovel Knight DLC, and not to Smash.

@KeithTheGeek We're only just getting the Mewtwo amiibo in November. Lucas, Ryu, and Roy amiibo are nowhere to be seen this year. Why would Shovel Knight's amiibo release so far ahead of any of those?

Why would retailers have information regarding Smash Bros. DLC?

I must have that Tingle amiibo!

@Trikeboy Sorry man, a collection purporting to celebrate Rare's 30 years of existence that ignores nearly half of those years would not be definitive or complete. It doesn't really matter what you think of the games released during that time.

I've been a huge fan of how Nintendo has handled DLC for Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, and Splatoon. In the case of the former two, you're getting lots of new content at very reasonable prices, and in the case of Splatoon, it's all been free, so you can't argue with that.

Smash Bros., on the other hand, has been alarmingly bad with its DLC. The pricing is the very definition of nickel-and-diming. The newest update, with two stages and a pack of costumes, costs over fifteen dollars if you get it for both the Wii U and 3DS versions. That's nothing short of absurd. The previous update, which did have three new characters, nearly totalled thirty dollars. This is the kind of pricing model that's used by other AAA companies, and they rightfully get lambasted for it.

You can buy ALL of Hyrule Warriors' DLC for $20. You can buy ALL of Mario Kart 8's DLC for $12. And these games' DLC actually elongate the experience with new content to play through, whereas Smash's DLC is mostly cosmetic and repurposed old content. I'm not a fan of what they're doing there.

Playtonic Games is comprised mostly of ex-Rare members who stuck around until the Kinect Sports-era. All of its ex-Rare members remained with Rare at least a few years into the Microsoft days. It's funny how many times "everyone good at Rare" managed to leave. Whatever fits the narrative of the day, I suppose.

@Aromaiden True! And you're welcome to have a different opinion. It's also subjective and opinionated to say that Rare's entire output was overrated and subpar (ahem, @Achoo). All I know is that I played both Kazooie and Tooie for the first time this year and was absolutely blown away by both of them. The last Mario game I've played that immersed me to an extent anywhere close to what the Banjo games achieved was Galaxy 1.

@Achoo Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are probably the two best 3D platformers ever created.

@Trikeboy A hypothetical Rare Replay on a Nintendo console would by no means be "definitive" either, as it wouldn't contain any of Rare's Xbox or Xbox 360 output.

@Mk_II The buyout happened in 2002. The Stamper brothers left in 2007. Many of Playtonic's key members, including Chris Sutherland, have only left Rare in the past year or two. This narrative that no one good was still with Rare as soon as they went to Microsoft is just blatantly not true. Some of Rare's big names from the Nintendo era are still actually with Rare, like Gregg Mayles.

In a perfect world without all the legal complications, obviously, a collection of Rare's greatest games would include its Donkey Kong games, Diddy Kong Racing, Goldeneye, and Star Fox Adventures. But we don't live in a perfect world, sadly. Given the circumstances, it looks like Rare did about as great a job with the collection as they could.

I don't see how this game's Xbox One exclusivity is "tragic," nor do I understand the argument that Microsoft and its fans don't "deserve" this game, while Nintendo fans do. Rare and all of its IP are 100% owned by Microsoft, and it's been that way for well over a decade. The fact that a game like this hasn't happened sooner is honestly baffling, as it's a fantastic way to reintroduce Rare's entire stable of characters to Xbox users.

Nintendo fans love to gloat that Rare "isn't any good anymore," and that "they're just a shadow of their former selves," but the moment they release a product that appeals to them, they say it should be on their system? Why? What does Rare owe all those fans who piled on top of them when they were down?

This is so disappointing. I really thought K. Rool was going to legitimately make it in. Sigh.

@Samuel-Flutter Yeah, you're right. Divisibility by five is pretty arbitrary. They should've waited for the 28th anniversary, as 28 is perfect, just like King Dedede!

23rd anniversary? That's a tenuous reason to celebrate. Seems more like an excuse to dump some KIrby games onto the eShop that NA has lagged behind on.

Sea of Thieves isn't an MMO, according to Phil Spencer.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1069817

This game is so freaking good. I'll definitely pick it up again on Wii U!

A lot of unnecessary hate coming from my fellow Nintendo fans in these comments. It's kind of sad how insistent a lot of you are that Rare is awful and garbage and all that, even when they do something that is as close to objectively great as you can get. I guess that's a coping mechanism for the fact that Nintendo no longer has Rare?

This is an amazing compilation being offered at an amazing price. I just bought an N64 cartridge of Banjo-Tooie last month for $35. With this compilation, you get three Banjo games, Conker, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, two Viva Pinata games, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and many, many more for just 30 bucks. I seriously wish I had more of a reason to get an Xbone, because I would scoop this up without batting an eyelid if I owned the console.

I wouldn't want to see them do away with individual downloads. The pricing is too high, for sure, but I like the idea of having games like Mario World and DK64 on my Wii U, permanently.

The bigger problem is the lack of continuity. The Wii shop amassed an enormous library of Virtual Console titles, but then they wiped the slate clean for the Wii U, meaning we've mostly been retreading the same ground for the past two years. Is Nintendo going to do the same thing when NX launches? How many times can you sell the same decades-old games to the same consumers before fatigue sets in?

And some of the platform distinctions between the 3DS and Wii U VCs make no sense. You can buy Game Boy/Game Boy Color games on 3DS, but not on Wii U, and GBA games on Wii U, but not on 3DS. But some 3DS owners were given some GBA games. Just because. They sell DS games on Wii U, despite the 3DS actually having a screen configuration that works for all DS games. And then you have NES games, which are sold on both. I get that there are some technical limitations involved with all of this, but wouldn't it make the most sense to put every game on both systems, unless the system technically can't handle it? Because it all just seems so arbitrary, the way it is.

The lack of K. Rool on this poll is upsetting.

There were definitely rights issues involved with adding DK64 to the Virtual Console, with it containing the completely Rare-owned game Jetpac.

Phil Spencer seems like a really cool guy. Microsoft is lucky to have a person who's genuinely passionate about gaming-at-large in charge of Xbox.

I'd consider getting Namco Museum because I absolutely love Ms. Pac-Man. Is the version included faithful to the arcade version, or is it slowed to the point of being boring?

The SD card I'm using currently is 16 GB capacity, but I actually have less than 4 gigs of stuff on it. Will I be able to transfer to the 4 GB microSD that comes with the system, or do I HAVE to get a 16 gig micro?

It is absolutely mind-boggling that Nintendo isn't offering Tropical Freeze's soundtrack for purchase. It's one of the best game soundtracks I've ever heard.

7 is a good score...

This is the least worthwhile of all the Mario Advance remakes. Super Mario Advance added some neat challenges to SMB2, in addition to it retaining the graphical overhaul from All-Stars. SMA3 added six new levels to Yoshi's Island. SMA4 obviously had all those extra e-card levels to SMB3.

But this one... it just doesn't do enough to improve on the SNES original. No new levels. A sharp decrease in difficulty. Looks worse. The only interesting thing it does is keep track of which Dragon coins you've collected. Meh.

Tengami is a must-buy this week! Two David Wise soundtracks on the Wii U in the same year? We are truly blessed this Thanksgiving season!

Super Mario Advance is a great version of SMB2, but come on, we need the DKCs, NoA. The only acceptable explanation for their absence will be if they're saving them for a DKC 20th anniversary tie-in later this month.

The first DKC is admittedly relatively simple, but the same can't be said for DKC2 and 3. Those games are just as nuanced from a gameplay perspective as any of the 2D Marios, if not moreso, and have level design that's second to none.

The SNES DKC trilogy is the best gaming trilogy I can think of. The excellent core gameplay is fairly consistent throughout all three games, but the atmosphere and setting varies tremendously and to great effect.

Mario Pinball was sooooooooo bad.

Yoshi's Island. That game is an absolute masterpiece.

Super Mario World, 64, and Galaxy 1 would be my runners-up, in no particular order.

$15 for an 8-bit 2D platformer is too much, but $15 for a "remix" of a bunch of 8-bit games is perfectly fine...?

The glitches are concerning, though. Hopefully the patch will work those issues out quickly.

Best game in the Mario & Luigi series, easily.

Nintendo is really missing out here. I and many others would gladly pay good money for an official soundtrack for Tropical Freeze, but if there isn't one, we're still going to find a way to access the music. There's already a nearly complete rip of the soundtrack on Youtube! It just seems like something that would take little effort on Nintendo's part and would only serve to make them money.

This game was a bear on Wii VC without save states. There was no greater satisfaction than finally beating worlds A-D though!

@Bolt_Strike Mangroves, European Mountains, Savannahs, Underwater, Snow — none of these broad world themes were in DKCR. And the levels within these worlds contain tons of variety, even moreso than in DKCR from the looks of it.

With as solid a gameplay base as DKCR had, they didn't have to reinvent the wheel. They've expanded on it with new helper Kongs with unique abilities, added swimming into the mix, and replaced one of DKCR's less exciting features (blowing) with something a bit more practical (pulling/throwing). I would've liked to see some new Animal Buddies as well, so that's kind of a bummer, but with how interesting all the locales look, I can't complain too much.

@Bolt_Strike I'm not seeing how this game looks safe or lazy or anything like that. Every single level they've shown so far has been completely unique from the next. They're all individually crafted, fully detailed 3D worlds. There's virtually no crossover at all in terms of archetypes from DKCR. This isn't something like NSMBU, which used the same exact level themes from the previous three games in its series.

There's a reason this game has been in development for 3 years...

Am I the only one who's glad that Retro isn't shoehorning in some unnecessary Gamepad-specific functionality just because it's there? The Gamepad should be a tool that's there for the developers if they want to use it. It shouldn't be something that every developer feels obligated to integrate. That's the mode of thinking that gave us waggle controls in so many games on the Wii.

There's off-TV play. That's really all Retro needed to do when it comes to the Gamepad.

I was hoping for Parry the Parallel Bird, but maybe they're saving him for the third game.

It makes me sad that so many people were disappointed by DK. It was the best reveal of E3 for me.

Donkey Kong is freaking awesome. I was thrilled by the announcement. Let's not forget that before DKCR, the DK series was essentially dead for a decade. One sequel is definitely not overkill.

You forgot about GP Legend! That was a fantastic GBA game. There was also Climax, but I don't think that one made it out of Japan.