gsnap

If journalists cover it the way they should (EQUALLY) then it will get noticed because it's right there on the front page.

Eh. I've yet to play the Last of Us, so I can't say anything about that. But my experience with story-first games is that they almost always lack in gameplay. Just for an example look at Naughty Dog's last attempt with Uncharted. There's no true platforming, the game does everything itself, the shooting is clunky and uninteresting (seriously, shooting someone with a rifle is the same as with a shotgun. It just takes less hits, it's uninteresting).

Then look at Bioshock Infinite. What a mess. Powers are all practically the same, two gun limit, AI is dumb as ****, level design (outside of aesthetic) is uninspired.

I'm not saying Nintendo shouldn't do it, I'm just saying history has shown me that it's not something I should get excited over.

Get out.

Yeah, this may not mean that we're going to see a dramatic increase in Wii U's monthly sales, but it does mean that we've seen a dramatic increase in customer interest. Which will continue to increase at E3 and beyond.

@Peach64 And nobody cares about the Xbox One either. Sure the other consoles are still threats, but after the overwhelming negative reception that Microsoft got today (yesterday), Nintendo is in a good position to sweep in and court gamers.

Well if Microsoft continues to dig its own grave with gamers, then Nintendo should be in a pretty good position. I expect Xbox One to sell fairly well to casuals because of its fancy living room experience, but its software sales will probably end up being less than stellar. It'll hurt Microsoft's image, and word of mouth will bring people to the Wii U and PS4.

It's not a problem with "kids these days" it's a problem with "games these days". If we had all these features available as kids we'd do the same thing. Get stuck for 1 minute then cry for help. Modern games teach players that they don't have to work that hard for solutions, so obviously when a game asks them to, they don't understand the logic. They don't understand "shoot doors with everything", and other aspects of game logic that we had to deal with.

Many modern games are designed to be played. And to be played to completion. Older games were designed to be beaten or overcome.

How are they having trouble getting in contact with Nintendo? Are they talking about in the past or right now? Because right now everyone else is saying that Nintendo is very easy to work with.

Well modern gaming trends are kinda crappy. So if Nintendo continues to ignore those trends, well then more power to them. Somebody has to do it.

hahaha. Isn't it amazing how when Pachter actually says something positive about Nintendo he has to spin it in a negative way? Even to the point of telling lies. Anyone who knows what Nintendo has in the pipeline would know that they have plenty to show.

If it hits this year I would've expected November. But hey, if they can get it out before October I'll take it.

@dragon_rider Semantics. There's no point in distinguishing between the two. The outcome is the same: the loss of a sale. That's what companies care about.

Iwata is clearly not talking about storing a save file in the cloud. He's talking about streaming the game like Onlive does. And he's correct. Where the tech stands right now, cloud gaming is a vastly inferior experience.

Well... yeah. We already know that Itoi doesn't feel like making another one. It's still technically possible (there's no such thing as a dead franchise), but if one were to ever be made, he wouldn't have anything to do with it.

So it's definitely less likely than other games, but still possible.

This probably won't affect most Nintendo games. Just allows other pubs to do those things if they see fit.

Man I wish console makers would get some more crazy designs/slash colors like they used to. It's just more fun. I'm buying a console to play games, I don't need them all to be slick black like some sort of luxury car. The fact that I haven't seen spice orange since the Gamecube really bums me out.

http://i.imgur.com/taNccuF.jpg

Hmm. My reaction to this will depend on how it goes from this point on. If we get this same numbers of games, like, every two weeks, then I don't see any reason to complain. But if they go too slowly, then it will be a problem.

No, nothing about the game SCREAMS public paid beta test.

No game has ever been released as perfect.

@DrKarl The game was hardly in beta form. It was a complete game either way, so what if they tweak a few things based on feedback?

Really strange how many stories there are of people losing their stuff, and Nintendo still refunds them. So why is that?

IF I'm going to buy a game digitally, I'm not going to go to the store to pick up a code. But they'd be good for gift cards I guess.

I played on hard/classic, and even that only requires thoughtful tactics for maybe the first half of the game. The game isn't very well balanced. The game encourages you to use the relationship system, but after a certain point your characters are so overpowered that it doesn't matter if you're on classic or not, you just shred through everything.

Why are people complaining about it being top down? Top down Zeldas rock. They're not inherently worse than the 3D ones like some of you fools are implying. They just have a different perspective, which allows for a focus on different types of puzzles.

They may be right. I know I have no interest in their games. Didn't play Saint's Row or Dead Island on my xbox or playstation, certainly not gonna play them on my wii u

Yeah, yeah, yeah, every gen has a mix of good and bad designs, but overall I do think the aesthetic of pokemon design in general has gone downhill (in general, there are exceptions). It used to be that stupid pokemon got stupid designs. Most of the pokemon with ugly designs weren't major pokemon. Jynx, Mr. Mime, nobody liked them, but they weren't legendaries. They weren't supposed to look good anyway.

Now a lot of pokemon that I would assume should look cool just look stupid. Like the legendaries. I mean look at this thing. It's got Vienna sausages for fingers, its toes look like Squidwards nose. It's got Super Buu's head tail. And it has a handle on its head.

Yes, gen 1 and 2 are my favorites in terms of design (with gen 5, despite its overwhelming unoriginality, coming in a close second), but there's a reason for that. The designs were overall simpler and (ironically) more realistic back then. The overall design aesthetic of pokemon has changed, and not for the better, in my opinion. You can tell me to take off my nostalgia glasses, but that's not the case. I don't like it when the otter pokemon looks like a clown, sorry.

As long as at some point in the game, Mewtwo meets up with this piece of garbage and beats the crap out of it.

Mew and Mewtwo are the best. Quit ruining goods things.

Evolution. It has everything modern controllers have and more, but doesn't do anything that is genuinely new.

It has no real negatives (unless you personally find it uncomfortable), but it is more like the next logical step for the modern controller, rather than a revolution.

@TruenoGT

You are correct. If we must discuss stories in games, then the most important thing is not exactly what the story is, but how it's experienced. The story itself doesn't have to be anything like an Oscar winning movie. It doesn't even have to be a story, it could just be an experience. If it is delivered to the player in a "mature" interactive way that movies cannot, then it is a successful "game narrative".

Some recent examples would be Journey, The Walking Dead, and Dark Souls.

In Journey, the narrative takes a backseat to the interactive experience of traversing an unknown world with an unknown partner. The interactions that you have with that person and how it allows you to experience things you've never experienced and build your own story makes it a mature gaming narrative.

The Walking Dead is obvious. Choices with consequences.

With Dark Souls, the player is essentially a historian/archaeologist. You're not presented with a story. You're presented with a world with a history. As you discover that history (whether via NPCs, items, secrets, etc.) you learn more and more about who you are and what you're doing.

Movies can't do any of that. So just because none of those games dealt with a stuttering king doesn't mean that games haven't matured in the right ways.

I keep hearing people talk about "the Citizen Kane" of games and how we're not there yet, but that's not true at all. It's already happened. Super Mario Bros., Ocarina of Time, Chrono Trigger, the list goes on and on. These are crowning achievements in gaming. Games are a young medium, yes, but they're old enough that they need to draw inspiration from their own past to make good games, rather than the past of movies.

Honestly, neither Japanese nor Western devs need to learn from each other in their current states. When that happens you just get games like RE6.

They just need to learn from their own pasts. Games like Ni no Kuni or Dark Souls, that take the best of gaming's past and incorporate it with modern techniques. That's the idea that these devs need to strive for. It's not a matter of this genre or that genre. Just figure out how to make your games fun.

So is he just upset that they're not selling that much in the west?

Because from what I've seen, Western and Japanese devs are basically tied in terms of game quality, with japanese devs maybe even pulling ahead in terms of creativity, etc.

That's ok. It's coming to the Wii U, which needs it more.

Well, the camera is fixed, so you don't need the second circle pad for that. You only need to look up (never down) and that is mapped to the X button, which is incredibly easy, so you don't need the second circle pad for that either.

I won't say that the controls don't take a little getting used to, because they do (like... 10 minutes), but to say a second circle pad is necessary just isn't true. Honestly, the second circle pad/analog stick is one of the most overrated input devices on the modern controller. Plenty of games can get by just fine without one. Especially a game like this, designed from the ground up to not need one.

It's nice that they're going through so much trouble, but I hope that isn't what they're really expecting. Because a port that old will most likely not sell systems.

I guess this is one of the reasons I don't really mind the NSMB franchise. It's not very interesting, but it's a safe money maker. And Nintendo seems to be putting that money into being creative or different with other things like KI: Uprising, Sticker Star (even though that didn't work out for me), LM: Dark Moon, paying for Bayonetta 2, FE X SMT, etc.

I'm willing to sacrifice a few 2d mario games to blandness (for a little while) if it results in other games like these. Of course that can't last forever, and they'll have to do something different with NSMB eventually, but that money does help out.

Alsoooooo, this whole situation kind of shows how the Wii U might not need 3rd party support like people keep saying it does. So many of these companies are having a hard time making money. They're in trouble themselves, and a few of them will likely go out of business in the coming years. How are companies that are in a worse spot than Nintendo save Nintendo? And if the number of successful AAA games is gonna be as small as Jade Raymond says (a decent number of which will be Nintendo's own titles), what does it really matter if the Wii U never gets a game like Battlefield 4?

@Raylax The reason those series are even able to last 20+ years is because Nintendo doesn't make them every year and run them into the ground.

Games first. Price cuts are all fine and dandy, but price cuts alone don't sell consoles.

Also, the PS4 and 720 will NOT be $350.

I'm getting kind of tired of this idea that "AAA" 3rd party support is what the Wii U really needs. Like that's gonna save it? 3rd party publishers can't even save themselves. Look at how much they're screwing up lately compared to Nintendo. CEOs are resigning at an alarming rate. Sequels can't even make a profit after selling 3.4 million copies. Near constant ill will towards customers with always-online, micro-transactions, etc.

And the Wii U is in trouble because these failures made by failing companies aren't making it to the console? Hardly.

Nintendo still has their 1st party games (which are still great 90% of the time). They're getting 3rd party exclusives from good devs like Platinum and Atlus. They are raking in indie support, especially after their great GDC announcements. Aside from the odd dev like Fish, indies are really backing Nintendo.

They still have plenty of work to do, sure. They need to advertise more, and a few more Nintendo Directs before E3 would be great, but other than that they're not really doing anything wrong at this point. Should things have been better at launch? Sure, but the launch is over. Now they're hard at work trying to make games for us. Complaining at this point is futile, it's not like Nintendo is just sitting around doing nothing. They're obviously already hard at work trying to get games out to us. It just takes a while. At this point there is no choice but to sit back and wait. (And enjoy playing the many games that were released this month)

If we're in this same situation come fall/winter and into next spring, then there will be grounds for more complaining.

This looks like one of the better kickstarters. I'll be picking up the Wii U version for sure.

Good. Fish needs a reality check.

The guy was a DB before this and he'll be a DB after. The guy has done nothing to garner good will from anyone, he constantly runs his mouth and says things that he shouldn't. Ignoring anything he says about Nintendo or the 3DS he's still a rude, arrogant person who does not deserve the time of day.

Quit posting news stories about him.

Been playing the game since release. It doesn't need the CPP at all. Camera angles are set depending on what room you're in. It does take getting used to, but after 5-15 minutes you'll be sucking up ghosts like it's no big deal, and you won't miss a second circle pad.

3DS: Download

Wii U: Disc

idk, I played the demo and had no trouble with the controls. You just... lock on to the monster. Voilà, no camera issues. At least it didn't bother me. But then again, I'm adaptable, and can get used to a different control scheme pretty quickly. You know, since I'm a gamer...

Also, having a second screen rocks. Handheld screens are small, and I don't want that space taken up by too much junk. Besides, at worst it's neutral. It's never a detriment unless the developers specifically try something crazy and it doesn't work out (which nobody has really done since the early days of the DS).

Pretty much what was expected. Though I wasn't expecting the Vita to drop so much so quickly.

@Grubdog Seriously.

"Buy the game, and then maybe you'll get the content we're giving to our other, favorite customers."

No, how about you promise me the content that everyone else is getting, and then maybe I'll buy the game.

And don't give me that "But they're a business, blah, blah, blah.." excuse. Businesses are more successful when they try to please their customers.

story of the wii u's life. "Well, we could easily bring it to the wii u, but what's in it for us?"

That's reasonable to an extent, but when you start lying to your customers, then you've crossed the line.

In one sense, I wouldn't buy the DLC anyway, so personally, I'm not missing out on anything.

In another sense, every customer deserves as equal service as possible, so just saying, "Oh, all you who bought the Wii U version? You get nothing." is kind of stupid.

"Nintendo shoulda turned the Wii U into a Gamecube 2.0 (in other words, a VERY powerful console with better design and better Gamecube controller [two improved Z buttons, better d-pad {this is already a given since Nintendo can't use the previous d-pad design anymore}, a second analog stick and classic "ABXY" face button order])"

Add a screen to that "better Gamecube controller" and you just described the Wii U Gamepad.

"quite a lot of people — paid or otherwise — that write about games, have decided that Nintendo is no longer representative of real gaming."

It is sad that many outlets have taken this side against Nintendo. Especially when it's the exact opposite of the truth. Outside of the indie scene, Nintendo still makes the most gamy games out there.

Is this gonna be the year of stating the obvious.