grumblebuzzz

@Stargazer Exactly. I hear so many complaints from people that 3D Land was sooo short and easy and then you ask, "Did you get all the star coins and complete the special worlds?" "Oh no, I can't be bothered with all that." "Then you didn't complete the game!" And they missed all the challenge and secrets the game had to offer by not doing so. For instance, do those people know that you can get a P Wing without dying from the Mystery Boxes? It's super rare, but it's there if you play it enough to see it. Also, I've actually heard people say that the game would be much more fun if you could play as Luigi too. (facepalm) Don't judge a game on its content if you don't even bother to explore it past the first half.

I'm going to wait for the reviews to accumulate on Metacritic before I decide to buy or not. Everything I've seen on the game (which is a lot since there are currently walkthroughs of the Japanese version on YouTube) seems underwhelming. I'm especially disappointed that at least 90% of the soundtrack is recycled. Not remixed or re-imagined, but straight up the exact same music. That's just laziness.

Yup, right back to the schlup as predicted.

Why in the world Nintendo continues to produce these, I'll never know. If they would let the DS die, the 3DS' popularity would probably increase more.

Given that Nintendo seems to be on a HUGE SMB3 nostalgia kick lately, it would have been nice if the final fight with Bowser had echoed that game with Bowser trying to stomp you and eventually crashing through the floor. And what about that Koopa Clown Car his band of brats have been riding around in lately? How come dad always lets the kids take his ride out for a spin but he himself never drives it anymore?

Spoilers:

The ONLY thing I did like about the Bowser battle in NSMB2 was when he starts tossing those huge hammers during the first phase. That made me grin a little bit since Bowser hasn't wielded a hammer since the original game so that was a nice throwback. Still yet, the battle itself is very ho-hum and has been done to death at this point. People can say what they want to about 3D Land, but that final boss battle was EPIC and AWESOME, even if it was another instant deathswitch kill. Getting to that switch was just nerve-shattering.

@Olaf-symbiote From what we heard at E3, NSMBU seems to have an entirely new soundtrack. Even the main theme is different. There's "bahs" in it, but the music is completely different, which is good.

@Nanoline I agree that the final boss is very, very lackluster in this one. Honestly, if I weren't such a huge Mario fan, after seeing extensive video of the game in action, I'd probably skip it. It just seems so half-hearted and rushed.

@Collinhall Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp3iQQTxCFk There's lots of other videos of the game on there too.

@Miroku Why, because it's very colorful? I don't get this whole "toddler" obsession you have with the game? What's so childish about it?

@FluttershyGuy I've watched videos of the stages up till World 3 and have only heard one "new" song so far (the one you were referring to in your post).

@sinalefa I agree with every single thing you said in your post. All of it. In 15 years, the 20-something-year olds will be saying, "Give me Mario 3D Land! That game was HARD, not like this new Super Mario Blackhole Supernova stuff! They've made Mario WAYYYY too easy."

As far as the Renzors returning, is it just me or does that seem super tacked on? The reason they were in SMW to begin with was because the game had a dinosaur theme to it and this one doesn't. They're just randomly there, like the developers said, "Hmmm, well, we've brought back the Koopalings and Boom Boom. Who's left?" And honestly, they were always kind of lame to begin with, being just generic triceratops enemies with no special design to them whatsoever. I'm all for nostalgia — I freaked out when I saw the Koopalings return in NSMBW — but only if it makes sense and only for stuff that I don't have to be like, "Oh, yeah, I remember those guys... I think."

Never played the original, but the WiiWare version was a game that got all this glowing praise from the critics and fans of Nintendolife, so I bought it, played it for like maybe a day and then never returned to it. Unless the original is different somehow, I'll pass.

@GuardianKing I definitely can see that. In most of the videos I've seen there's like a billion enemies on the screen at once in almost every single frame. Top that with all the coins scattered about and the abundance of switches, rings, blocks and power ups and this game can definitely be described as "chaotic".

@TheDreamingHawk You're very right, they do seem very similar and since those are always the most annoying parts of any Zelda game to me, that might be why I'm very underwhelmed about what I saw.

@Miroku Well, we might not agree on this issue, but we do agree that getting the digital version of NSMB2 without some sort of account-based system in place is risky at best so I, too, will be going physical with it.

@Miroku (shrug) Well, if you feel that way. Me personally, I've been playing Mario games since the NES era and I like 3D Land a lot. I also like to complete my Mario games 100% because to me, having played every single game in the series and beaten every single one to that degree, that's part of the fun for me.

@Miroku Because that's where the challenge is. You can zip on through any Mario game, not pick up any collectables or go through the stages in order and beat it in an hour. That's not really changed in over 20 years.

I know that Miyamoto oversaw this game and that a lot of fans are waxing poetic about it, but I watched videos and it just seemed like a standard puzzle game to me. Maybe I just don't care for the genre that much or whatever, but I didn't see anything outstanding about it to make me all "INSTANT DOWNLOAD!!!!" like I've seen from a lot of folks on here and elsewhere.

3D Land isn't a bad game, nor is it "too easy" like most people say. Try getting every star coin in the game and completing it 100% without using the tanooki suit. I assure you it's tough.

@LordOtakWiiU Yeah, I mean it is kinda good in a way. Since the stages look tough, that will keep the people who are always crying that Mario games are too easy happy (only probably not really because those people are NEVER satisfied). Extra challenge is always nice. I just wish they'd have switched some stuff up about it besides throwing the coins in there. A new soundtrack (or even a more thoroughly remixed one) wouldn't have taken much effort.

There are gameplay videos up from Japan now on YouTube. It seems fun and all, of course, but yeah, nothing really all that "new" here to warrant that title anymore. The stages are also very weirdly designed to me, giving them a "New Super Mario Bros Wii Remixed" feel to them. They look pretty hard too honestly. Given this and the fact the music is almost exactly identical to NSMBW, this feels like SMB: The Lost Levels modern day counterpart. Nothing really wrong with that, but nothing really outstanding about it either. I'll buy it and probably play the hell out of it, but I'm not counting down the days till I hold it my hands or anything.

I'm'a gonna win playing Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 this weekend. WAH-HAH!

Yeah, I'd rather it had been called that than the name that stuck. NSMB2 just doesn't make sense since it's the third game in the franchise. I think they should have just dropped the "new" and the "2" and called it Super Mario Bros Gold.

@MrWezzle Word. 2 and 3 for me.

I don't necessarily feel like Nintendo will ever get out of the handheld race. The 3DS might not have been a major success right out of the gate for a number of reasons, but it's rebounded into a profitable system despite the fact that handheld gaming for most people in 2012 involves a phone or tablet. I do sort of feel like the Wii U will be a good indicator as to whether or not Nintendo will be producing home consoles in 10 years. There's a lot riding on this system.

@Onett It was actually pretty cool back before they instituted the pink pieces thing because you could complete puzzles on just a few streetpasses and a ton of play coins. As it stands now, many of the puzzles I have are totally complete aside from the pink ones and they're probably destined to stay that way unless I end up traveling to a convention or something, which probably won't happen.

@Onett Not everyone lives in LA, NYC, Chicago or wherever. We do have events where I'm from, but they are not comic conventions and video game conferences because those only seem to come to cities like I mentioned above. I went to the biggest summer festival in my city (over 4,000 people there) and got all of one Streetpass from someone who had Plaza turned off no less.

I tried the demo and it's not for me. I just can't get into many RPGs, especially from SquareEnix, even if I dig the story and characters. Too many button-press combinations, menus and terminology to memorize. I'll stick with Paper Mario.

Dang, that boo is ugly!

After just now watching a long play video of Of Myths and Monsters on Youtube, my disappointment in Uprising and hating the insane difficulty of the original, I think I've discovered that I just don't really like the Kid Icarus franchise. I can't say I didn't try though. C'mon next week and Wario Land!

I love that art style: cute, yet decidedly weird and creepy. Hope this game is as awesome as World of Goo was!

The game looks fun enough, and I've noticed I've been half defending it lately from haters but that recycled music really is a huge turn off.

Wow, this was hyped by a lot of fans as a game that they were really looking forward to. I wonder if this is just one reviewer's bad experience or if it actually isn't such a great game? Hmmm. Off to do more research before I buy.

It doesn't really matter if you have infinite lives or one life, you still have to get past all the enemies and traps and survive long enough to get to the flagpole. I think that's something a lot of the naysayers who are shouting "TOO EASY! TOO MANY COINS! TOO MANY 1UPS!" are failing to look at. I've used the comparison before and I'll do it again: think about Rayman Origins. Not a single 1up in sight, infinite lives, and hard as hell toward the end.

@Rococoman I think we will find that as they continue to rehash 2D Mario over and over in the same art style and with less and less "new" features, the 3D series will eventually outsell or at least come to par with it. NSMB2 probably has had the least positive reaction from fans of any Mario game ever. I mean, sure, it'll be fun and we'll enjoy it, but they can only make us play the same game again for so long before we look for newer, more exciting experiences.

@mamp Majora's Mask is a game that is only popular with hardcore fans, while Ocarina of Time is considered one of the best games of all time by a much larger audience. The whole "Make Majora's Mask 3D!!!" rant that's going around on the internet is basically the same thing that the Xenoblade thing was last year — a smaller (yet very vocal) group that wants a game that only caters to a certain audience released. Majora's Mask 3D wouldn't be a system-seller for Nintendo.

It's repetitive, boring and clunky to control.

Not an RPG fan so I'll pass. Still kinda miffed about Nintendolife's glowing review of Gargoyle's Quest which caused me to buy that turd of a game.

@WarioFan63 I would be okay with one game a week but before this, we got like one a month.

Alright, I'm gonna be the negative voice of reason here, not about this update, but about the first update in August. Who wants to bet that as soon as our "8-Bit Summer" is over, we go back to getting bupkis on Virtual Console?

I wanna see it too. I love plants, especially in 3D.

I personally never used it in 3D Land — or even saw it for that matter — but I am glad it's there none the less. My 5 year old nephew is just now starting to get into video games and features like this keep him playing rather than leaving him frustrated in tougher levels.

Ambassador game updates only for me, but this is still a great week. New content all across the board. Keep this up, Nintendo.

*games, rather.

@shinesprite The last three you mentioned are 3DS game and the list is about the Wii.

@Buob You played Mario Galaxy 2 for FIVE MINUTES and then threw the disc away? Wow. You must have the attention span of a gnat and some really, really wealthy parents.

The Wii has had some great games, yeah, but I'll agree that almost all of those are games starring Mario, Kirby, Samus, Donkey Kong, etc etc. Something new would be nice.

@Savino Oh, I'm old school too, believe me, but I never found any of the original Marios to be that hard either (aside from Lost Levels, which is just AWFUL). I mean, yeah, I never got 99 lives in Marios 1, 2, 3, or World, but I beat them all pretty easily. I think some people just have this nostalgic view of the older Mario games being tough as nails when really, they weren't. The original SMB was, and remains, the toughest of the 2D Mario games, if only because 1ups were so scarce in it.

I found the later levels of NSMBW to be pretty challenging myself. I don't want a frustrating Mario game though. Tough is nice; grueling is not when it comes to Mario.

Also, I saw someone up there say they hoped the game was "Lost Levels Hard". I don't. AT ALL. That game is unplayable except to the most die-hard, over-practiced fan and it would be really dumb of Nintendo to release a game like that now. There's a reason why Lost Levels didn't leave Japan as Super Mario Bros 2.