mid_55

Absolutely love these games. Once I start, I just get hooked and absolutely sink my teeth into them, my 3DS hours log is crazy for the previous 2, I expect this one will be the same!

Barely anything came out in 2015 that I felt compelled to rush out and buy...yet I had no problem choosing 5 of these that I'm interested in, so the release list is looking a lot healthier for 2016

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE looks very interesting to me...

Rhythm Heaven! Yesss haha! Hope that baseball one makes it in

Decent direct, lots of exciting new games for both consoles, neither are dead just yet!

A few things that I have noticed with the WIi U:

My friends who play games and are into tech often still don't know what I mean when I say "Let's play it on Wii U". There was no marketing, no product awareness. This is 2016 and casual gaming fans STILL don't know it exists. That can't happen again.

When I play Need for Speed U, or something unusual for the Wii U, people around me frequently say something along the lines of "wow, I didn't know Nintendo did real games". A misinformed opinion, for sure, but perhaps a title of that nature would be key for showing what the new console is capable of. Not for big N fans, but nonetheless welcome by other people who might buy a console.

@mjharper I am currently just discovering the Wii version, and I have to say it's actually really good as well! Yes, I know it's FAR from the seminal shooter that Goldeneye 64 was, but still, there are some really nice touches in there, and a lot of nods to the older game and parts of the film that the 64 couldn't do. Plus, gotta love Wiimote shooting accuracy, so satisfying!

As for the 64 game; best local multiplayer ever. Thus, best multiplayer ever

Wind Waker was perhaps not the best game to pick, as we all know it in HD anyway!

In any case, does anyone know how can I get my Gamecube to look better on a plasma TV? I had a 21 pin SCART, bought what claimed to be a True RGB cable, but both are awfully washed out. You can barely make out sky from sea or even land, all yellows and bright whites are just a huge glow of white. I've checked TV settings thoroughly, and the Dreamcast works really nicely on the same TV...

I love that Nintendo's musical direction over the last few years has gone to the orchestral/live performance kind of route. It really adds a lot to the games that you play, it can be such a big part of the experience, and it just rounds off a really high quality product in my opinion. The MarioKart 8 music videos inspired me a lot!

@JoelCouture Is there any word on an EU release for this? I loved this when it was new. I spent hours on end getting all 120 birdie badges, the music, characters and courses are great, and it just has an atmosphere somehow. One of my favourite N64 titles!

Just thinking out loud, how well would Melee HD go down now, as people are still so fond of it. Especially now the Wii U has Cube pad possibilities. As an eShop title how well would that sell?

How similar was "Jam! With the Band" or whatever it was called, to Daigasso Band Bros? That looked like a pretty cool piece of software to muck around on...

Watching this makes me realise how much I like having the Gamepad for this game, it works perfectly with the real time colour map of the stage. I was late to the party, but I'm enjoying online play for the first time since PS2 (Pro Evo 5 or 6).

LOL at "Proper account - and reward system."

Definitely all of the official terminology there then...such terminology, so proper, wow etc.

It's funny how Ice Hockey games retained this late 80s / early 90s vibe for another 8-10 years haha! Good ol' 90s Mega nostalgia seeing and hearing all that!

Actually now I mention it, the one with the large generic mountain in the backdrop isn't a million miles from the full Fuji raceway layout either.

Anybody noticed that the track layout of picture one is a carbon copy of Autodromo Carlos Pace, Sao Paolo, and one of the smaller pictures is the Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit, too (although neither screenshot bears any resemblance to the actual circuits)! Race fans at heart, maybe it is good after all?!

The BBC article about this still called the Wii U the 'Wii', a good illustration of how badly Nintendo publicised this generation of console.

Does this massive kickstarter response suggest that somebody i.e. Nintendo, should be investing a bit in teams like this and trying to make the new Rare their 2nd party "buddies"? It's clear that people want it, and will pay money for it.

58 fps, that counts as slowdown in my book.

Who else thinks this won't make it out on Wii U in the end?

For the record I will buy it if it does (and it's not terrible, natch.)

Looks like a great DLC pack to me, I think even Baby Park (which everyone seems to hate) usually made for some great carnage and lapping cars! The GBA tracks look ace too...and that "Streetle" haha, amazing!
The attention to detail in Nintendo games is wonderful.

Never played the game but I enjoy the look of it from what I see on Smash Bros., and this music is great I may hunt down the Wii version...still using Wii mode quite a lot these days...

The website is so sloooow. No way I'm getting any codes tonight!

People are always complaining about Nintendo lagging behind and not being modern enough, especially regarding memberships, online and smart device content...so here we go.
This seems like a fairly smart move, take a trusted (and relatively local) company to do the heavy lifting and let Nintendo provide the IP and content that people love. Whether WE, as Nintendo fans, will buy it is almost irrelevant, if DeNA hit the nail on the head then millions of people will get on board, and that can only be good for the Big N in the long run, can't it?

I'll be keen to see if this turns out well in the end...I miss that Banjo-Kazooie style collect-em-up genre!

P.S. That voiceover, though :S

Anyone know when these updates usually go live? Merry Christmas folks x

I still haven't seen Mario 3d World cheaper than £35 anywhere, or €55 where I live, so I'll actually pick that up as a Christmas present to myself

Most likely this was done via a 3rd party events company anyway, it might have been Nintendo's overall responsibility, but directly, the chap and his bosses on the day were probably representing Nintendo's brand rather than actually employed by them.

@Kirk

I think you're not too far off it above, the only important distinction, which is easy to miss in many such IP cases, is that the defending company are (in the majority of cases) not really using the other company's tech, or stealing technology known to be invented by someone else. It's far more common that there is a very, very slight legal crossover of an intention or technical aspect (which could well be invisible to a layman), which the plaintiff feels gives them just enough ground to make money off in court. These things usually get presented as stealing, because depressingly dull, tiny legal infringements don't make for good headlines :S

It's not a case of Nintendo "stealing" or using other people's tech per se, but with the vagueries of international intellectual property rights, Philips (notoriously aggressive on revenue collection in this manner) will have gone through everything with a fine toothcomb and their legal team will have advised that some of Philips own IP rights will be close enough to something in the Wii/Wiimote that they could win in court. Hey presto, we end up in court, they've struck a winner here, now Nintendo will have to pay Philips an agreed percentage cost on all usages of that component. Likely a very small amount, and Nintendo may even have countered with some IP rights of their own by the sounds of it.

All in all it's the standard, expensive, lawyer heavy, time wasting capitalist nonsense which is how international businesses are run these days! It's like a legal lottery which Philips just got a small victory in. See Apple vs Samsung, Philips vs Everyone who ever made CD-Rs

I feel the same way, absolute clarity is going to be required here for these to become a mass seller which consumers really take to. However, I'm reserving judgement until I have seen the quality of these figures. I know a lot of gamers who would have paid £10-£15 just for a plastic Nintendo figure with NO features at all, so great are their IPs, I probably would have picked up the odd one myself. Hopefully the in-game functionality will be more than a little bonus, but if it's just that, then it's not the end of the world! Mario & Bowser et al will look pretty good on my shelf anyway

Also, this is an eye catching story due to the funny length of the ban, but it's not exactly ruined the game, and I'm sure it'll be patched in the next day or two. Problem solved, everyone can enjoy smash online again, including the relatively small number who were affected.

Wait... It doesn't make sense because the 3ds won't be online that long???
Yeah...that's the major issue with trying to play smash in 136 years

On a separate note, I'm amazed at how many people are moaning about players online always playing in a certain way. If you've really worked out exactly how they play in their "cowardly" style, then you should have little trouble beating them.

@soma Yeah, why bother with ISS 64, this alone would be fine! ISS 2000 had a cool career mode and awesome music, but "hi-res" mode was a frame rate disaster haha! I still love it though

That review is a grammatical nightmare

Still can't resist those Snezzy buttons on the smaller one, and at least it has bigger screens than the original 3DS, I'd rather go back to some higher pixel density rather than having another big screen...

I still just love the black outlined character art style, classic Nintendo, knowing how to get the very best from their hardware. It looks as if they wouldn't do it any other way even if there was more power available.

@Nintendofan83 I think that if Nintendo were really banking on region locking boosting sales, there would be at least a page on the Nintendo UK store saying something along the lines of: "Missing out on these great games? Buy your US/JPN console and games here." As it is, if I wanted a JPN Wii U, I'd be far more likely to get it off eBay or somewhere from which Nintendo don't really see much financial benefit.
This is just a tiny minority of dedicated gamers forgetting that they aren't at the centre of a company's sales and marketing attentions...

Such a tiny percentage of the console user base would ever even consider buying a new console from another region just to play one or two import games that they're missing out on. This surely is not Nintendo's logic behind region locking. It's probably more to do with their massively overzealous child protection safety ethos, it's not good for us customers...but I'm not sure they're doing it to encourage multiple console purchases.

@luke88 Thanks for posting that mate, quite interesting actually to get a human response from the developer and an offer of explanation at least. So it's worth the money anyway then? Looks like the kind of thing I'd buy on PSN...

I emailed Nintendo (yeah, I know that's a bit sad eh?) back when MarioGolf came out, and they got back to me with essentially a "no comment on pricing" response which was a little disrespectful when I was about to pay the best part of £50 for the game and DLC, too...

This looks great, and I have just gotten near the end of Steamworld Dig, but seriously how is $14.99 also £13.99?? Harsh...reminds me of Mario Golf being $29.99 and an inexplicable £34.99...

Great value with or without the 108 holes of DLC in the USA, but that makes it a kick in the teeth to pay £34.99 (maybe £39.99 in stores) plus £10.49 at least for the DLC in the UK.
This clearly doesn't add up, what makes it cost more for UK customers Nintendo?

HD remakes are a strange thing, Nintendo have a wonderful ability to make a game feel like it would look exactly the same whatever hardware they used. Like they have designed it just how they wanted it to be in the first place. That being said, I think that games from N64 make the best remakes, still 3d, but well designed or not, technology has moved on since.

Not sure on the pricing in North America, but in the UK it's available new for £10-£15. Seems like a steal at that price.I prefer the physical disc versions, so I'm happy to get this at such a low cost.

I know there aren't a huge amount of top WiiU games yet but I've been busy enough with Mario World, Deus Ex, Mass Effect and Pikmin keeping me fully entertained on the gaming front over the last few months!

"Nintendo frequently opts to develop its own warped, counterintuitive take on the latest trends."

Criticizing a company for blazing its own trail is great from a generic, sub-standard news agency like CNN.
Yes, Nintendo do things diifferently from the other companies, sometimes it's less successful, sometimes it's more successful, but it's always different. Often the ONLY difference in a very similar marketplace. That's why I play their games and love their consoles. Nothing wrong with the other consoles AT ALL, they're great too, but there's a magic in Nintendo that others can't quite emulate for me. Just look at the ropey looking DS, smashing the PSP a few years ago, on paper that would be impossible if you ignored that magic touch and just looked at tech specs. It's annoying to have to get another console to play the big multi-format stuff, but for me the Nintendo exclusives are EASILY worth it, and don't forget those special little touches on ALL their consoles that sound like nothing, but make all the difference.