happylittlepigs

@Kirk I totally understand where you're coming from. I am as big a free speech activist as anyone, but when it comes to violent threats, how does law enforcement determine what is an actual threat and what is an internet troll? The law addresses violent threats, with a maximum punishment of 5 years/$250,000. That punishment will only be handed down in cases where the accused is found to have validity in the threat. So a case where he is actively trying to plot to kill them. But in the case of the internet troll, the troll's lawyer will probably bring up the fact that it was a troll, and that's considering the DA even wanted to bring a troll to trial. The fact that this case is going to trial shows us that there is probably some actual intention here, as a judge would probably shoot down a case where the person is some 12 year old saying mean things on the internet. Like I said earlier, the Secret Service investigates every single threat of harm that is said about the president. They don't prosecute all of them (or even most of them) but they pay them a visit. That same practice could be (and probably is) applied to threats against individuals. The police pay them a visit, scare them a bit, and they promise never to do it again. The sheer fact that the case is going to trial shows that the police and/or DA believe there is cause to be afraid of this person's threats.

@Dave24 Gun ownership varies by state. In California and New York, it's about as restrictive as Europe. In 2nd amendment-respecting states, it's some of the most permissive in the world. We live in a strange time. Liberals are wanting more and more gun control, making it seem like a controversial topic. However, (with the execption of places like NJ, NY, CA and CT) gun laws have become somewhat more permissive over the years. Concealed Carry permits (a permit that allows someone to carry a firearm concealed under clothing or in a vehicle) have become much easier to obtain in most states, and there are more guns in the states than ever before. A common joke among gun people is that the best gun salesman in the world is Barack Obama, because every word that comes out of his mouth about how he wants to control guns gets people scared enough to go out and buy a gun

One man was most likely arrested for illegal concealed carry of a firearm, the other for illegal possession of a handgun by a person under 21. Guns don't need to be registered in almost all states, but in some states, you aren't allowed to have a firearm in your vehicle without a concealed carry permit, which neither of these men had. So that is the reason for their arrest.

@Kirk I agree that a *possible sentence of 5 years/$250,000 is harsh, and the judge will most likely not hand down a sentence that extreme. However, violent threats are not an extension of free speech. Inciting or threatening violence against someone is totally illegal. The punishment you see there (5 years, $250,000) is for those people who actually pose with the AK-47 they intend to commit the crime with, and display intent. However, by threatening them with words alone, he probably will make an emotional plea to the judge, who will let him off easy. If he doesn't, then his attorney can file an appeal. The judge doesn't set these maximums, and they aren't set for each individual case, they are set for the crime. If the crime is a violent threat, that is the maximum sentence. Period. Whether that crime is as serious as a legitimate death threat, with the person admitting they wanted to kill, or a kid saying on the internet, "MAN I HATE YOU GUYS ILL KILL YA WIT MY AK-47!!1!11!" The kids won't get that sentence. The adult making legitimate death threats will. I would be outraged as well if 5 years, $250,000 was the minimum, but I'd be surprised if the minimum was anything more than probation. If a threat is made against the president, ANY LEVEL OF THREAT, then secret service pays them a prompt visit. It's about security. A death threat is not protected free speech, no matter how you slice it. I'd be surprised if he gets a year in jail, max.

As for the fellas illegally carrying firearms AND threatening the lives of others; this should NOT BE TOLERATED! 99% of legal gun owners never commit a crime. Concealed carry permit holders are statistically less likely to commit a crime than our own police force, for god's sake! It's people like these guys who are in illegal possession of a firearm that should be sent to jail, because we need to send the message that illegal possession of an otherwise perfectly legal item is not acceptable. 2 years jail time was an apt punishment. I might've even sentenced them longer, because people like that make legal gun owners look like criminals by association.

@Kirk We seem to see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues
@-DEMISE- Read on for a detailed look at why Kirk and I feel that this is protected fair use.

If Nintendo did ask for compensation, then they are in the wrong. If not, then it appears they have made a mutual decision with Bitmap to modify some parts of the production to satisfy both parties.

First, let's look at the facts of the book:
Nintendo created the games featured in the books, and have a copyright on all parts of the games, including box art and screenshots.
Bitmap used said box art and screenshots in their book.
The box art and/or screenshots were supplemented by, "a 200 word review/critique of the game." Some were supplemented further by 2,000 word analyses.
The book is being sold for profit.
The book is clearly labeled as "unofficial"

Now we need to look at Fair Use. Since I live in the U.S., I'll be looking at our fair use laws. They may be different in Europe which is generally more restrictive of individual freedoms than the U.S.

The important part of our fair use laws:
"In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Now we go step-by-step to see if this production falls under fair use. The first, and arguably most important part of fair use is the first point, which is often referred to nowadays as "transformative work". Stanford University sums it up as, "If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes." In this case, Bitmap has reproduced some of the copyrighted work by Nintendo (screenshots) and provided commentary in the form of the 200 and 2000 word editorials. The work is transformative, so it passes the first point.

The second point deals with the nature of the published work, being fictional or non-fictional. A fictional work is more protected than a non-fictional one, but both can be deemed fair use if other criterion are met. In this case, Bitmap is using Nintendo's fictional work in the form of video game screenshots. It also deals with whether or not the work has been published yet, which the games have been. You can check all of this up on either Wikipedia's article on fair use, or a Stanford law professor's article on fair use. I will link both below.

The third measure of fair use is how much of the work was used. A video game is many hours long, and is composed of thousands, or even millions of different possible screenshots. Showing one single frame of a game with commentary is most assuredly protected by fair use. This is a no-brainer. Bitmap is using maybe 1/100,000 of a game's total screens to comment on.

And the final factor is composed of two parts:
1. Does the book affect Nintendo's possibility of obtaining profit from a similar medium?
2. Does the book render the original works meaningless, thus detracting from Nintendo's sales of the original work.

The second criterion is an overwhelming NO. A screenshot, or even a bunch of screenshots, can not take the place of a full, playable video game. Seeing a screenshot of Mario will not make someone say, "Well shoot, I've seen the screenshot, so I really don't need to play the game!" The first criterion is a bit harder to determine, and it could really go in favor of either party.

Basically, we need to determine if, by making this book, it potentially affects Nintendo's shot at making a similar book. Previous court cases have sided with the copyright holder on this issue, as in the cases of (Twin Peaks v. Publications Int’l, Ltd., 996 F.2d 1366 (2d Cir. 1993).) and (Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publ. Group, 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998).). Both of these cases were about a third party making a book (one, a Seinfeld trivia book, the other, a complete guide to Twin Peaks) that interfered with the copyright holder's availability to make a profit by doing the same thing. Here we see a similar case of a third party making a profit off of something Nintendo could be profiting from instead. The one caveat to this is that Bitmaps wasn't allowed to get interviews from current Nintendo employees, which an official Nintendo published book could do.

So now we overview the facts of the case, and weigh the scale to determine fair use:
1. One of, if not the biggest factor, is "is the work transformative", meaning is there added content that was not seen in the original work. As evidenced by the 200 and 2000 page reviews on single screenshots, the answer is clearly yes. Big points for Bitmaps.

2. This is less of an important issue, as it deals with non-fiction getting a little more leeway for fair use determination than fiction. In this case, the work is clearly very transformative, so it is a non-issue.

3. This is probably Bitmap's biggest advantage. In games composed of thousands, if not millions of screens, they are only using one, and supplementing it with commentary. They are using so little of the original works, that it basically isn't even comparable.

4. This is the trickiest one of them all. One one hand, Bitmaps is using so little of the medium, in a format that is totally different than the medium, so it has no chance of replacing the medium. A screenshot of Mario doesn't act as a substitute for playing Mario. However, the issue stands that Nintendo can still make money off of a similar book. Does Bitmaps' book take away from Nintendo's share in the "visual compendium" market? Precedent set by previous cases would say yes, but each of those used a more substantial portion of the original work than what is used here. Nintendo has the opportunity to make a visual compendium, and theirs would include exclusive content unavailable to Bitmaps, as well as the Nintendo Seal of Quality. This may be why they wouldn't allow Bitmaps to speak to current employees (or vice versa) or use a modified Nintendo Seal of Quality.

Evidence for a fair use ruling:
+Uses a minute amount of original work
+Uses original work in transformative way
+Does not replace, nor attempt to replace the original work

Evidence against a fair use ruling:
+Nintendo stands to make a profit from making a similar book, of which the market would be affected by this book being released.

This is my full analysis of the case. I believe that the work is fair use. Both sides have been presented. The unfortunate part about fair use is that it is totally up to the interpretation of the judge as to what is fair use and what isn't. Normally, we can say, "This is the law," but in the case of fair use squabbles, we have to say, "This is the generic ruleset, you rule how you see fit," which creates problems for fair use precedents and fair use debates like this.

Here are the sources I used, in case you want to learn more about fair use:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Oh, and @Kirk, since you made the accusation that Nintendo is taking money from Bitmaps, the burden of proof is on you, not the other way around. Innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around

@FriedSquid You, sir, are very good at stage picking.
Moray is fun for Rainmaker and Tower Control, not for Turf War.
Kelp Dome is awful. I hate that stage.
Walleye Warehouse is the best pick of the bunch. Great for turf war.

If I knew we were voting on this, my votes would have been for Mahi-Mahi Resort, Piranha Pit, and either Walleye Warehouse, Saltspray Rig, or Museum D'Alfonsino.

@Stu13 Amen to that. Everything a politician does is just a bid for reelection. The Democratic sit-in? A stunt, so they can tell their followers that yes, they are "trying" to address the "problem" of gun violence. New York soda law? Does nothing, but it looks like they're trying to curb obesity, so people rally behind it. Same thing that's happening here with Pokemon GO. Get the government out of our hair!

@Nintendian I would guess that maybe it's because the text is being upsized to fit the bigger 3DS screen rather than downsized to fit the small 3DS screen. Majora's Mask 3D looks really crispy, and having played it on both my New and old 3DS systems, I can say that the bigger screen makes it look better, not worse. I think MM3D was created for the N3DS and downsized to fit the old 3DS, and MH4U/G was developed on the old 3DS and upsized. Or maybe Capcom just doesn't give a damn about text blurriness, because they figure the people that play their games don't care about things like clipping into the monster's body or other breaks in immersion. As a fanbase, we have shown that we don't really care about trivial stuff and will play a game for 500 hours as long as it's got cool monsters and cooler armor, without caring about things like non-existent story or PS2 textures.

@Kirk Thank you for standing up for freedom of expression and free speech! There is an attitude starting here in America that "hate speech" should be illegal. Here, American colleges are setting up "free speech ZONES" for people to express themselves freely. These same places are also establishing "safe spaces", where no speech is tolerated, and if someone doesn't like what you say, you are kicked out of the safe space. People invented the term "microagression", which basically means anything that could possibly offend someone at some point. Colleges are setting up "speech codes" telling their students how to speak. It's truly sickening. There's a great organization dedicated to stopping these 1st amendment violations called FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). I encourage you to check them out if you haven't already.

Getting to the issue at hand, that company had no right to terminate him based on his comments. If he said, "I can't play Pokemon GO, therefore, my company is stupid," and they can prove that those remarks caused them to lose money or impact their brand, then he was fit for the firing. But he didn't. He said, "I can't play Pokemon GO, therefore my country is stupid." Not very nice remarks, but totally harmless. If I say something like, "Americans have whittled their options down to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, therefore I hate America!" my company has no grounds to fire me. If I was a campaign person for Hillary or Trump, then they could fire me. Making harmless remarks about a country in general is not grounds for termination, here in America, at least. Singapore kills people for drugs and canes people in public, so I don't really know if they have the same rules as us. So, for all I know, that was grounds for termination in Singapore. Not in America. If someone says something on social media, it should not be held against them when it comes to the issue of job security, unless it directly relates to the company and hurts either their brand or their profit.

We have a right to free speech. You have a right to be offended by my usage of free speech. You do not have the right to shut me up because I offended you. Someone earlier said it best: socially-acceptable speech doesn't have to be protected. It's the so-called "hate speech" that does. If he were making disparaging remarks against his employer, he can be fired. If he was inciting violence against his employer, he can be fired and prosecuted. But ranting on social media about Pokemon GO and making disparaging remarks against his country ought to be protected by freedom of speech.

I encourage everyone who agrees with @Kirk and I to check out thefire.org. They are actively promoting free speech of all kind on college campuses. Look up "whiny college kids" and you'll see why they are doing what they're doing.

@tedko There are no apex monsters, no frenzy virus (but Gore Magala is back), no G-Rank (but I've heard the new variant monsters are very challenging), no swimming/underwater fights (but Lagi is back) and, worst of all, NO MORE POOGIE!?!! Now we get a llama known as a Moofah.

Sounds kind of like Smash Tour, what with the everyone moving at the same time and going around a free-movement board and picking up fighters to help them out in battles and all. Except hopefully better.

There's just something about Majora's Mask that I don't like. I can't really put my finger on it, but I just don't have a ton of fun while playing. I'm at the Water Temple, which is much worse than Ocarina but nowhere near as bad as Twilight Princess. I'm stuck, but that's not why I dislike playing the game.

It gets way too much credit. Majora's Mask is basically the hipster of the Zelda franchise. Everyone that says they like it says it's because of the "dark" atmosphere, but ignore the fact that it didn't tell a narrative as well and lacked as much substance as Ocarina. Ocarina of Time is the superior game, but because this is the popular opinion, hipsters have taken to Majora's Mask as the best because they see it as being overlooked compared to Ocarina, when it really wasn't. It got great reviews and sold very well at launch. It's not like Earthbound, another game made popular by hipsters, which sold horribly and was met with negative reviews. Gaming hipsters latched onto it and made it a very well-known SNES game, thus taking it into the mainstream. Majora was always popular, always well-liked and sold well, but because Ocarina was always more popular, more well-liked and sold even better, for good reason, Majora hipsters reject it as the best game. So not only do you have the fact that Majora is a really good game, but you've also got vocal hipster support, and all of a sudden it pops up at #3 on best Zelda games lists instead of where it should be in my opinion. I just think that the "dark atmosphere" isn't a reason enough to love the game over Ocarina, which is far better in every measurable way, and Twilight Princess, which was even darker. The only provided reason for liking Majora is atmosphere, which Twilight Princess had in spades. That's just my view on it, though.

So we get ANOTHER electric mouse Pokemon? And what's with the stoner dragon Pokemon? Not loving the new designs, but Cutiefly is fantastic.

I need an industrial-size amiibo holder.

Before even seeing the graphics analysis with framerate, I knew that framerate wouldn't be tolerable. The game looks great and people need to stop complaining about 720p vs 1080p, but 30 vs 60 FPS is a BIG deal. Here's hoping that the NX version can hit 720p 60 FPS.

I knew that the demo getting leaked would be disastrous for Nintendo, but it made for a hype E3 with ma boi Etika.

YASSSS! I'm so excited for finally getting info on Specter Knight! Plague of Shadows was awesome, and this new campaign looks to be just as good!

Overall, I like a lot of the new changes. I really like that it's open world, but I hope the gameplay doesn't overshadow the story. I'm just worried that if you are allowed to go anywhere at any time, how can they shepherd in a story to it? And that no music thing will really hurt my enjoyment of the game. Zelda games have ALWAYS been about great music, notably starting with Link to the Past and continuing in literally every game since. If there's no good tracks, I might just have to download the orchestral Skyward Sword soundtrack and play that on headphones or something. The visuals look stunning! Framerate didn't look too good, though, but that could just be the video. I like the weapon pickup system, but do you ever get a "story sword" that doesn't break, like the wooden sword from TP or Kokiri sword from OOT? Obviously, you will get the Master Sword at some point, but what is your go-to weapon until then? And with no companion in such an open world game, how can the game keep you on track? I'm all for an open world, but not if it sacrfices story development. All this being said, the game looks great and I have full trust in Miyamoto, Aonuma and the rest of the Zelda team that they will make a great game and address these problems sometime before 2017.

I'd quite like a code as well, for anyone here who still has a second one
email me at [email protected]
I had a fish. His name was Gerp. Thus, gerpthefish!
If I can get a code, then I'll have 2 codes up for grabs whenever I get mine emailed! You know what they say, what goes around comes around
Thanks in advance, and I'll give a huge shoutout to whoever sends me a code, because not thanking someone for a gift is just rude!

@GameOtaku
I can see why one might not like the slower-paced gameplay of Monster Hunter, but I like it because it's not just a mindless action-packed button masher which seems to be the common trend for action games today. Each attack is slow and deliberate with longer cooldown times to promote intelligent decisions when fighting monsters. There's a reason potions take 3 seconds to drink; it's so that you make sure you are in a safe spot before using one. It is also meant to discourage playing stupid and getting hurt against monsters like the Tigrex and Deviljho which can easily punish a potion drink. Monster Hunter is slow and deliberate, which is why a lot of new players don't like to play it: they just like mashing buttons to win and always being safe doing so.

It seems like a simple concept. You've got fans directly telling you what to do with your franchise. "TAKE AWAY THE CAR! MORE MARIO PARTY 1-8, LESS 9-10! MINIGAMES R STILL GOOD!" It's not that hard when a huge majority of the fanbase is doing your job for you. Don't even need a focus group! Sonic also has a similar issue, except 2D vs 3D is a whole lot bigger deal than car vs no car. 3D Sonic has potential, if they ever decide to pull their heads out of their rear ends and sit down to make a quality game. Car Mario Party just doesn't work. When it's such a simple fix for a simple problem to an otherwise good game, just GIVE FANS WHAT THEY WANT!

What I was expecting to see:
WOW OMG WHAT SEXISM NINTENDO AND AUNOMA ARE SEXIST I HATE THEM SO MUCH THEY HATE WOMEN VOTE 4 HILARY #Feminism #KillAllMen #NintendoIsEVIL #SJW #ImWithHer

What I actually saw:
Eh. I never really cared about gender selection to begin with. Would've messed up the game's dynamic. Game looks really good!

Good job, NintendoLife readers! You aren't all raging feminazis!

If you're good enough at Star Fox Zero to win the grand prize in a competition, why do you need a strategy guide...?

I've got a theory (call it a Game Theory, if you will) that Nintendo is trying to reduce the importance of e3. Last year was totally disappointing. They announced a bunch of games, most of which turned out to be bad. Now this year, they're just showing more of the games that have already been announced. Kind of like what they might do at a smaller gaming convention like PAX or Comic-Con. Nintendo, unlike Sony or Microsoft, has had the directs as mini e3 presentations all year long. If they just get back into the groove with the directs, they no longer have to rely on e3 to stir up hype. If Nintendo doesn't show anything big at PAX or Comic-Con, not really anyone cares. If they reduce e3 to the same standard, it directs (pun intended) the focus of fans to the monthy broadcasts. Nintendo is trying to shift the entire game announcement culture in their favor, and the size and scope of this year's e3 should prove or disprove this idea. But hey, that's just a theory, an e3eory!

I'll see myself out now...

This is hype. The rotom Pokedex looks really fun to use, and it may finally give me a reason to check my Pokedex. The region has 4 islands, which means island hopping, baby! I hope the evil team is just super chill and they want to, like, steal coconuts or something. Hawaii's not the place for any true evil. I hope they add an optional hard mode in the game, because Omega Ruby was a joke. I get that the normal setting should be easy for kids, but there's no reason you can't have a difficulty selection like in Black and White 2. All they have to do is up the opponent's levels a little bit. I'm hoping the graphics improve, which they most likely won't. It would be really nice to see them fix the awful framerate issue. If Monster Hunter, a MUCH more demanding game, can hit 50 FPS and 40 with 3D on, then there's no reason that Pokemon, of all games, can't manage 30. Regardless, I like what I see thus far.

@adrianbiga I was in the same position as you in the last Spring Sale when they cut MH3U's price. I bought it, and I don't regret my purchase, but I also rarely play it. Try doing a 4U hunt with none of your favorite combo finishers, no jumping, no wall climbing, and no mounting. That's 3U for you. It was clearly phenomenal before the verticality of 4U, but once you mount for the first time, you never go back. Hunts are just generally a lot more boring, and only being in one town the entire game doesn't make the hub world any more fun. The free hunting in Moga Woods is probably the most unique factor, in addition to the swimming. Now let me make this clear: 3U gets swimming controls SO UNBELIEVABLY PERFECT! Hunting in the water doesn't control any different than hunting on land, which is nice, but the overall concept is poor. You are a human. You are a land hunter. You are hunting the Gobul. The Gobul is a water monster. Which has the advantage in a water battle? This problem really hurts underwater hunts: you take already boring gameplay (compared to 4U) and throw in even slower water combat against naturally advantaged opponents, and the resulting tedium is why I feed to my 400 hour playtime of 4U rather than my 60 hour playtime of 3U when my inner Monster Hunter gets hungry. Get hyped for Generations. Leave 3U in the last generation. It's a really good game, by pre-2015 standards, but 4U is just so many miles better, it's hardly a competition.

And in the west, we shed a single tear.

This is nice. It would be cool to see them come out and, for example, give props to whoever wins these big tourneys on Twitter. Smash 4 and Melee have a gigantic competitive scene, but they've had to do everything by themselves with no help (and often hindrance) from Nintendo. Nintendo wants the game to be a party game, like Brawl, the fans want it to be a fighting game, like Melee, and Smash 4 is the greatest convergence of "why not both?"

The frequent buffs of competitively-determined low tiers (except Puff, for some reason), and the nerfs of competitively-determined top tiers could not have just been the result of Sakurai randomly picking characters to make better or worse. The buffs and nerfs (mostly of 1.15) really show that Sakurai and the team had been watching competitive Smash and determining which characters needed to be nerfed/buffed and in what areas. All this: the competitive Invitational before the game's release, the constant patches, the support of tournaments (however infrequent), the addition of a tournament mode in online play, and even Reggie saying "No Johns" in a direct all point to one thing: Nintendo is starting to embrace the possibility that Smash is a competitive fighting game and should be treated as such. The casual fans don't care about competition, and thus won't care if Nintendo supports the competitive fanbase. If they do, maybe we can eventually see Smash at a major eSports event.

#FreeLeffen

@smashbrolink Ok, I didn't know about the lack of hazards. But the other complaints are valid. If you've ever seen 8-player smash, it's nearly impossible to follow, especially if 2 or more people use the same character. And football is different for a fee reasons. For one, you've got 22 people on the field that is 100 yards long, and almost 50 yards wide. Smash takes place on a TV screen, usually no larger than a 40 inch at locals. And another thing is the problem with certain characters. Sheik, ZSS, and Ryu are all very combo-heavy on individual characters, but you can't complete a combo because you will either be hit out of it, or your opponent will be. Concentration is nearly impossible.

A party is a group of several people. Smash is viewed as a party game: that is, a game to be played with a party of people in a casual setting. Party games are not treated with the same respect as competitive eSports titles. So if Smash is viewed by eSport organizers and the public as a disorganized party game, somehow the best way to make them respect Smash as a fighting game is to include it in their lineup and play it like a disorganized party game? Makes a TON of sense. The best game mode for competitive Smash in my opinion is crew battles. You've got a team of people, which eSports likes, plus organized 1v1 competition. It promotes team-based gameplay as well as single player gameplay, and strong strategizing among players on a team to counter the opponent's character picks. Crew battles are also really fun to watch.

@MitchVogel I agree. Take Metal Gear Solid V for instance (I know you're Nintendo Life, but bear with me). The game was HAILED by critics as being the best game evar, and even recieved a few GOTY nods. But most seasoned Metal Gear Solid fans disliked or even hated the game for the lack of cutscenes, well-written narrative, and totally unlikable or poorly-developed characters. If you were just grading it compared to action games, it is a 9/10 game, maybe even 9.5. But if you're comparing it to the "story-first, gameplay second" standard set by previous titles, giving it a 7.5 would be generous. And I was just joking with my comment, I totally get the whole "different scales for different games" concept. Although, I was wondering, for purpose of accuracy, did you ACTUALLY have a 3 year-old play it? Because if you didn't, we might need a re-evaluation of this game's score

Super Meat Boy gets 8/10. Now I Know My ABCs gets 7/10.

Seems legit.

This is an absolutely terrible idea. Has the creator even SEEN an 8-player match? It's hectic, to say the least. On big stages, all you'll see is camping and hiding and on little stages, you can't tell your head from your ass. And the stage choices?! Orbital Gate Assault LEGAL? Norfair LEGAL? Orbital Gate Assault randomly kills people whenever the stage changes unless you're in one of the few safe areas. And Norfair... unavoidable lava flow. Need I say more? This is such an awful, awful idea. I'd honestly be more supportive of playing with items on than with this godawful format, and I HATE items. It doesn't help that Smash is already seen as a party game, yet somehow playing on the most party-like game mode is supposed to change that? People see 1v1 Smash, they associate it with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken: real fighting games! People see 8 players messing around on Kalos Pokemon League with a bunch of random, unfair hazards popping up, and it looks like a game of Mario Party.

I see a kid playing on a tablet, and I'm just so disappointed with today's youth. I see a kid playing on a 3DS and I have hope in humanity. Bonus points if he/she is playing an actually good game, like Smash, Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. And of course the problem lies in not only losing the little, little kids because "here, Johnny, take daddy's iPad while he's in the board room" is easier than buying a 3DS and games, but also in losing older, high-school/middle-school aged kids who think they're too cool to play a 3DS in public. There's no stigma surrounding mobile games on phones because they're just played casually. If someone says "ha, you're playing a video game, what a nerd!", you can respond with, "naw man, just playing it cuz I'm bored", but the 3DS, because it has QUALITY games that you can get really into, you are the nerd. It's cool to say to a group of people, "hey, anybody play Clash Royale?", but if you say, "Anybody wanna have a Pokemon battle?" they'll look at you like you just asked for group sex. I don't know how it is in elementary school today, but when I was in elementary school, people still played Pokemon. I really hope that hasn't changed, but I feel like it has.

Another big problem is the way the media treats gaming. The last news story I saw on anything Nintendo-related was a few months ago on a local entertainment news channel in a 20-second piece saying that Brittany Spears has a chance of getting into Smash 4 because of the fighter ballot and the fact that she was in Dance-Dance-Revolution on the Wii. But you always hear about the newest phone games, and see them referenced to often, i.e. "playing ______________ on the toilet" or "getting addicted to _______________"

@TheDavyStar brought up a valid point when they said, "This is why it killed me to see no 3DS games nominated for BAFTAs and Lara Croft: Relic Run beat Monster Hunter 4 at The Game Awards." The fact that the actually good 3DS games are being shafted for awards in favor of F2P titles is just maddening. It's how the majority of Americans feel when they see Donald Trump supporters: with so many other good, qualified candidates, why is the undoubtedly worst one the UNOPPOSED Republican nominee?

Nintendo just needs a new mobile IP. As someone else brought up earlier, Nintendo was at its peak when kids would beg and plead with their parents to get the new Gameboy game. If Nintendo can re-inspire those younger audiences, not only will you get more immediate revenue, but also more down the road because you're creating fans for life. The Wii was great, sure. But how many Wii owners that you know (that weren't into gaming before the Wii) are still into gaming? Judging by the sales of the Wii U, I'd wager not very many. I became a gamer because of Pokemon on my Nintendo DS. I didn't have any older brothers, gaming parents, or friends pushing me to play, I just got really into Pokemon because of all the brand marketing. Actually have a pretty funny story about that.

So, I'll assume you all remember the 2nd Gym in Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, the Eterna City gym. The hint the guy gives you at the front of the gym is that the trainers are scattered around the gym and you have to find them. Well when he said around the gym, I thought he meant AROUND the gym. As in, on the exterior of the gym, outside it's walls. So when I saw an odd-looking trainer in the gorge separating Eterna City from Mt. Coronet, I figured I had to do SOMETHING to reach her. And when I tried and tried and tried again to get through Mt. Coronet (which is impossible to do at the time, separate from hacks) and nothing worked, I just trained a Shellos I caught at level 13. And trained. And trained. All against lv 10-13 wild Pokemon, mind you, I grinded all the way up to level 30 and evolved it! I had a lv 30 Gastrodon after only the first gym. I then returned to the gym and... I saw a strange pixel or two out of place in one of the trees. I. was such. an idiot. Around the gym doesn't LITERALLY mean around the area of the gym, it means hidden IN the gym! So I swept the Grass type gym leader with a water/ground type, and proceeded to make my way through the entire game not with a highly overtrained starter Pokemon as most little kids do when they start out, but with a highly overtrained Gastrodon. And that's the origin of my Shellos profile icon.

So the moral of that highly off-topic anecdote is...

phone games=bad 4 n1nt3nd0
pokemans=good 4 n1nt3nd0

@Tsurii I bought 4U at launch as my first MH game, and then 3U when it was on sale a few months later. 3U is fun and all, but I can play 4U for hours on end, but I can rarely spend more than an hour at a time playing 3U. The lack of mounting to speed up the pace of battle, plus the slow-ass water combat just makes each hunt feel a lot longer than it actually is. My main weapons, SA, DB and SnS, all have additional combos in 4U that make it flow a lot better, specifically the X-X-X hack-n-slash in Sword Mode on Switch Axe, the charge jump attack on SnS, and the spinning X+A attack when DB is in Archdemon mode. Everything about 3U is just a lot slower once you've played 4U.

This game looked indeeresting. Unfawntunately, it's looks more like a deer in headlights. Guess I won't be shelling out the bucks for this one. Doe not undeerestimate the power of a bad-deereview. I hope the Xbox One venison is reviewed better.

The Japanese one was just fabulous, showing that Pokemon can bring kids together. And the U.S. one showed the gameplay. Overall, both trailers served their purpose, best when combined, and I can not contain my excitement for Sun and Moon.

Mahalo, Pokemon Company. Mahalo.

The game. Takes place. ON HAWAII!

I can hardly contain the hype. Everyone will just be on island time. Ready for a super chill Pokemon game. Although, with it being on an island, IGN will hate it. The whole "water" aspect is too much for them.

This sounds terrible. I like the idea as an exhibition match after the actual tournament featuring the top 8 finishers. Or maybe in some local tournaments where you basically just show up with your friends to screw around. I can say, though, that 8 player-smash is HECTIC. It's honestly hard to tell who you are if someone uses the same character as you, and almost none of the 8-player smash stages are competitive-legal. The mode would just be awful in every sense. There's a reason the game has stayed at singles, doubles, and crews and never played as Free for All. It would just be awful, especially at an eSports event. Seeing two people performing at their very best against each other in neutral conditions is exciting and makes people see Smash more seriously. Seeing a bunch of people basically messiong around with no rhyme or reason would solidify Smash in many people's minds as "just a party game". What a joke of a format.

I would love to see Nintendo go back to cartridges. There's just something strangely satisfying about seeing your collection of carts and slotting one into the machine with a light click. Holding your games in hand without the chance that you scratch them. Discs break, scratch, and are overall just more fragile. I saw a video where someone exposed NES carts to the elements: snow, dropping from a large height, hammering the cartridge, dropping it in water, etc. and it turned out exactly as you would expect: totally fine. If this rumor (which is more of just logical consequence) is to be believed, then I think it does NOT show that the NX will be a handheld.

Think logically here, people. Nintendo has a commercially-failing (but highly under-appreciated) home console, that will have more than served its console lifespan upon the release of the NX in March 2017. The Nintendo 3DS is wildly successful and has kept Nintendo profitable, or at least closer to breaking even, even when the Wii U was failing. It also just got a new model last year that has been sadly under-utilized, but still sold well.

Let me re-iterate: the 3DS has sold very well, has a huge install base, and just got a new, more powerful version that still has a lot of potential. The Wii U has not sold very well, has a minuscule install base, and is still behind last-generation's hardware in the processing department. Yet somehow it makes more sense for Nintendo to replace the 3DS with a new handheld (confirmed as being strong enough to run Zelda U, I might add) and keep the Wii U in production? It makes more sense that: A. The apparent logical consequence of this announcement is different than the actual meaning of the announcement and we're all jumping to unreasonable conclusions: B. The chips are for the Nintendo 3DS or the internal storage of the NX: C. The NX, a home console, is going back to cartridges for nostalgia, or as a marketing technique, or because of cheaper cost, or maybe even because the new CEO likes them better.

NX is a home console that may or may not use cartridges and may or may not have something to do with portable gameplay. It's too early to make assumptions.

I honestly thought Nintendo Life just gave up on reviewing this game. It's nice to see that they gave it a great score, for a game that looks like it had a budget of like 12 dollars.

I want a new Smash series of amiibo based on characters' alternate trophies. It would be so cool to see a blood falcon amiibo, or characters in different, cool poses.

Does anyone know how to beat the Jester in the new update? If you hit him, he regenerates health and moves to a different spot, and makes clones at the start of every turn! I don't get how to beat him if every shot he just heals himself automatically.

I love the answer to, "Will there be more DLC?" "Yes..." That's great to see. I love seeing my favorite games get new DLC, especially as affordable as this one.

I think they should make wave B of Smash amiibo that are all the character's alt costumes. That would be worth collecting!

Really excited for this DLC! Regardless of what it ends up being, it's a day one purchase for sure. In love with this game!

If the thing could hold a charge longer than 3 and a half hours, I might use it more. Otherwise, the only good thing is the off-TV play, which is a godsend. Being able to play any full Wii or Wii U game on the gamepad while someone watches TV or plays another console is a huge development, and it's a shame that the next console likely won't include the feature. The rest of the features of the gamepad are alright, and the ergonomics are alright, but the weight is just too much. It's so heavy, and awkward for motion controlling. If Splatoon were compatible with the pro controller like it should be, then I wouldn't even have to take the gamepad off its charging cradle.

@DarthNocturnal I agree. The "pikachu" in the Pokemon Super Bowl commercial looked like a fat yellow dog. But if they do them normal, like they're supposed to look, then they'll look weird, kinda like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but that's part of the appeal of that movie. This would just be too strange for most people, fans of pokemon or not.

amiibo festival is OBVIOUSLY the best aminal crossing game out there! It's the newest game, it's the only one with it's own amiibo collection, and it's got the best grahpics! Plus it got a HYPPPPEEEE e3 announcement last year! They were all like, "gereddy for animal crossing on wii u" and I was all like "aw hell yeah" and they was all like "it's mario party, but without the minigames, and you have to buy amiibo to play" and I was like "AW HELLL YEAAH!" SO yes in conclusion my favorite aminal crossing game is amiibo festival. thank you.

KRUSTY KRAY-AH-YAY-AH-YAB, YAY-AH-YAH-AH-YAB PIZZA!
IS THE PIZZA YEAH-HEH FOR YOU AND...

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Officially the only Splatfest I'm excited for, and I haven't even watched Spongebob in like 5 years!

First of all, I love how this is considered "news" on NLife. They take every little thing seriously, don't they? And I also find it interesting how I read the article and comments and am now posting a comment on the really pointless topic, especially considering I have no plans to purchase Star Fox Zero.

I couldn't understand what the guy was saying, but Backwards-hat Psychic Kirby should just be called Ness Kirby. I'll be skipping it for now because of Monster Hunter Generations, Pokken Tournament, Pokemon Sun and Moon and Zelda U if it ever releases, but maybe I'll pick it up later on.