mookysam

The Thousand Year Door is one of the very best RPGs ever made but entries since have not been of anywhere near the same calibre. I don't expect a new game to be as marvelous as TTYD because that is perhaps unreasonable, but to muster excitement from me it will at least need to return to the core elements of what made that game such a good RPG in the first place.

The problem is not that the people who only buy Call of Duty and FIFA did not purchase Amiibo Festival and whatnot. It is that the Nintendo faithful didn't! How many people here whinged about Nintendo's winter lineup? I wonder how many will buy Federation Force when that launches.

The UK is an important market, but Nintendo have really got to try harder when the NX launches, get real with their software prices and actually advertise. Also, their struggles with the Wii U are global.

Black/White is my favourite Pokémon game. I had taken a long break from the series at that point, but so much about this was new and it completely hooked me. Not just the pokémon or the surprising focus on story, but lots of little tweaks and enhancements. I also loved Unova and thought the presentation was lovely, with improved graphics and wonderful music.

The story isn't just "good for a Pokémon game" it's legitimately good, which surprised and delighted me. It was a shame that after this game story again became an afterthought, and the less said about Black/White 2's Purrloin the better.

Many have bemoaned the pokémon designs - some were bland, which I always find to be the case, though I liked most of them - but there were some wonderful new type combinations. The bug/fire Pokémon volcarona and dark/dragon hydreigon quickly became firm favourites for me.

Pokémon White is the game that reignited my love for the series.

This year looks set to be a great year for gaming in general with lots of great looking games on other platforms.

On the Wii U, I'm still catching up with its back catalogue - I just bought Captain Toad - so its poor release schedule hasn't bothered me too much yet. Zelda U has been my most anticipated game on any platform since it was announced and I can't wait to play it. I'm curious about Star Fox, but will wait and see.

The 3DS didn't have a wonderful 2015, and Majora's Mask was the only game I bought for it that released last year. This year things look different with lots of localised games, including Dragon Quest VII.

As for the NX, I don't really have any hype for it. That is not to say I feel negative, because I don't, but we don't know anything about it yet.

The 3DS just doesn't do this game justice.

I loved Xenoblade Chronicles largely because of it's story, which is thematically rich and was full of enough twists and turns to keep me hooked til the very end. The music is truly wonderful, too and I still enjoy occasionally listening to the soundtrack I downloaded as part of the club Nintendo promotion.

I did find the battle system to be a little fussy times, and felt it would have greatly benefited from more control over the AI - perhaps like the gambit system in Final Fantasy XII. Aspects of the gameplay I particularly enjoyed were the affinity system, levelling up artes and crafting the best gems to get my party pretty powerful and well balanced. My favourite character to use was Riki (cute and powerful) followed by Dunban and they both featured in my party past a certain point. I hated the English dub and so used the original Japanese. I also disliked what appeared at times to be an artificial difficulty ceiling. On the whole, however, a great game and a surprising experience on the Wii.

Why's he so ugly? Otherwise a nice model, though I like the more Japanese look Link has had recently.

The original pixel art is so gorgeous this is one game that I don't think needs a remake. Would be cooo to have a sequel though!

That video is quite in keeping with the style of the original.

I just don't see the point in localising an MMO at this stage, especially for the Wii U. Dragon Quest is already a niche franchise. I love Dragon Quest, but of all the unlocalised games and XI, 10 is at the very bottom of my list.

I don't think they are. Their game projects are just as subject to commercial considerations as any other major publisher. Nintendo often make creative, excellently constructed games, but I no longer think they are the driving force for creativity in the industry. It is not as if other developers or publishers have failed to innovate in other genres or make creative games.

In recent times Nintendo has been of the view that innovation comes primarily from hardware, but I think that innovation should come from software first and foremost.

I never owned a SNES (I was a Mega Drive kid ) but I have enjoyed it's legacy through playing an array of virtual console emulations, remakes and rereleases. Chrono Trigger, with its beautiful pixel art and amazing soundtrack is my favourite SNES game - alongside the similarly marvelous Final Fantasy VI. It's interesting that neither was originally released in Europe, so the system doesn't quite the same cachet for European fans; yet both games perfectly capture the spirit of early 90's game development and highlight what a wonderful system the SNES must have been.

The Vita is said to be extremely easy to develop for; the hardware is familiar and the developer tools friendly. The Wii U may well be powerful in its own right, but it's unique architecture must surely be a hurdle, even more so in light of the system's poor sales.

It was good. Pleased with Twilight Princess HD which I think looks very nice, and the Dragon Quest VII localisation announcement. The brief snippet of Zelda U was a nice surprise but more important was that it has been again confirmed for the Wii U. The Wii U and 3DS are certainly winding down, but this left me feeling more optimistic about Nintendo's 2016 after the dull E3.

I thought it was good. I honestly wasn't expecting much, especially after the hideous E3, but 2016 now looks like it will be a decent send-off for both the 3DS and Wii U.

The big news for me was Dragon Quest VII being confirmed. Not as excited for VIII as I still have the original, but his will be my first opportunity to play VII.

Very pleased that Zelda U has been reconfirmed as a Wii U title. I was beginning to worry that it would skip the console altogether. It looks absolutely gorgeous and I liked the little snippet of sound. Also looking forward to Twilight Princess HD, which I think looks nice. The Wolf Link amiibo looks great and I'm interested to hear how it will work with the game and transfer data over to Zelda U.

@ThomasBW84 Cool, thanks. I look forward to your review

@ThomasBW84 Story is usually quite an important feature of Japanese RPGs for me. I really enjoyed the linear story in the first Xenoblade, so just wondering how much of a backseat it takes to the wider spectacle of exploring the open world? Do you think the focus on siide quests could get dull? i.e. get so many of such an item etc etc.

I think it looks great Pretty much what I would expect and the improved textures make a huge difference. One thing the video doesn't take into account is how poor the Wii version looks on an HDTV.

Really not too sure what people were expecting. It's HD, the jaggies are gone and they've upgraded the textures. It looks along the lines of practically every other HD remaster.

@JaxonH @Peach64's comment is valid though. Fans have been begging for this for years and calling Square-Enix lazy money-haters. You would think from the noise made online that there is significant demand for this so the proof will be in the sales. Localising a title like this is expensive and time consuming (whoever publishes it) and so the sales will be watched extremely closely.

Great news though. So pleased it's finally coming over.

I really hope they don't show more Xenoblade. It's been showcased to death and has been out in Japan for ages.

The Wii U is a good console and has some excellent Nintendo games. However, given the cost of the system itself, if a budget conscious family is more interested in the backwards compatibility aspect, wouldn't it logically be better to just keep their Wii? I think this is one problem Nintendo has faced with the Wii U and 3DS, how to convince people who are perfectly happy with their older devices - particularly families and "casual" gamers - that they need the upgrade.

Hopefully they'll show some Zelda U footage.

The ability for NoE and NoA to localise games and make their own scheduling decisions is actually a good thing. If NoE didn't have this autonomy it would always defer to NoA, who isn't best placed to make these decisions for Europe. The best examples I can think of are Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. They wouldn't have been localised at all if it hadn't been for NoE.

Nintendo do usually release the biggest games - such as mainline Mario and Zelda - simultaneously, thankfully, but with smaller games I can see the logic in being able to vary the schedules to give them the best chance of succeeding. NoA may have confidence in Yo-Kai Watch, but in Europe I think the established Mario and Luigi actually has a better chance of selling during the Christmas period, and Yo-Kai Watch will get more chance to shine in the quieter Q1. I remember when the DS was launched; Europe got it later than North America, but Minish Cap was released instead.

@rjejr It's a lovely game. The battle system is a bit fussy because of the poor team AI but on the whole I really enjoyed it!

I'm not entirely convinced by Youkai Watch, but I'm not sure why. :-s Maybe I'll get it when it's cheap.

@JaxonH It is being made my the creators of the franchise though so should be good.

The future of digital, people.

I have absolutely no idea what this is referring to and I'm still not entirely sure what a meme is.

Nintendo Directs are great for core fans like us and I always enjoy them, but I don't think they are a good way of marketing games to a wider audience or engaging with people they need to grow the user base. I honestly don't know what they could show at this point that would be that exciting unless they could really pull something out of the hat.

@Tsusasi Games almost always release on a Friday in the UK. Every game is on an equal footing in this regard.

I don't like to buy "retail" games digitally on the Wii U or 3DS because they cost far more than buying a physical copy. It's an absolute rip-off! Nintendo have said that they will not reduce the price of their first party digital games because they think it devalues them, which is ludicrous. Aside from pricing, I also don't like to buy them for these consoles because Nintendo still lack a proper account system. I did get Ace Attorney 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV digitally in sales because there was no other option.

I will always prefer physical over digital for a variety of reasons and feel it has a valuable place in the industry, but I am not entirely opposed to digital. I have bought "retail" games digitally for the 360, PS3 and Vita when they've been cheap in sales. I buy games on my phone and tablet. All have a proper account system!

I desperately want this and while I didn't find the Famitsu update yesterday terribly encouraging, I do have faith in the team to produce an exceptional game. Perhaps Nintendo are behind the curve when it comes to open world game design but I think if the creative vision hinted at in the reveal is fully realised this could be something very special.

Like @rjejr I get the impression that this is still early in development at a time when the core of the game should be set in place. Maybe the transition to a HD console has caused problems? I guess the big concern I at this point is if it has been shifted to the NX.

This would be a single player experience for me as I know only one other person who would play it with me. Playing with strangers without voice chat sounds cumbersome. I loved Four Swords Adventures, but am put off by how single player seems to have been implemented here. It sounds like having the Links follow you and being able to round them up in a totem with one button press would have made an enormous difference. :-s @ThomasBW84 How much fun do you reckon can be had if the issues in single player can be overlooked? Would you recommend this as a solely single player experience?

I actually think the original Wii is probably still a better option for families, particularly if they are on a tight budget. They can be picked up for cheap as chips and with the NX just round the corner I'm not sure the Wii U is a great investment for families unless there is a price drop - irrespective of how great core gamers like us find it.

As for the other consoles, they are now priced competitively with the Wii U and do (or will) offer a wide selection of games, including those suitable for children like the toys to life games, minecraft and others. The NX will be competing with them.

I think a Zelda RPG would be cool. Nobody would have thought the Mario universe would make a good setting for an RPG series but it did.

I still think this will be primarily a handheld - perhaps with a dongle allowing for use on a television - powered by mobile chips. This would keep it affordable and still fit the handheld/home hybrid "Industry leading hardware" could well mean modern, powerful mobile hardware.

I'm sceptical about the specs and/or handheld component simply because of the cost. How will Nintendo keep the system affordable with a mobile unit included? The gamepad was the main reason the wii u was so expensive and why Nintendo were unable to reduce the cost. Will they want to make the same gamble again?

Dragon Quest Heroes has come out today so I'm not going to completely write off the series' chances in the west just yet. If it sells well enough XI may be released but for all the 3DS games I suspect S-E will be wondering if the market is viable enough at this point in time.

This is my favourite Zelda game and I certainly wouldn't say no to having the opportunity to play it in HD. I always thought this would benefit more from a HD port than Wind Waker did as the latter is still beautiful, even in standard definition. I suppose Nintendo could pull a Majora's Mask 3D and announce it in a Direct before releasing it early next year but I would be surprised. That said the release schedule next year is looking horrifically barren and a HD remaster is a good way for any platform holder to fill in the gaps.

One explanation for the heavy bias towards retro titles in the eshop charts is that in addition to being brilliant they are also relatively cheap. Nintendo never reduce the price of retail games on the eshop and I think this puts people off buying. Not to mention the console won't even let you buy a game if there isn't enough room to download it.

Bit out the blue. I still don't think I'll get it right away as my backlog needs to be cleared a bit.

Hopefully a proper complete edition will be forthcoming at a reasonable price.

A price cut will eventually come simply to clear inventory. The Wii U is now at the point where it is not even competing with the other consoles and I doubt Nintendo see the value in giving it a particularly hard push this Christmas. Sales are not going to meaningfully increase so they may as well ride it out; they're surely hoping to make a completely clear break with the NX. I can't help but wonder how much goodwill they have lost, however.

Not too surprising as Nintendo is one of the few large Japanese publishers to not invest heavily in mobile.

Maybe I should pay my town a visit. It won't have weeds thankfully.

I think they should strike on principle if they are being treated unfairly. It sounds like they have some valid concerns. Many people seem to be under the impression that every video game voice actor is "rich". Some people may command higher fees (particularly Hollywood talent) but the reality is the same as it is for most jobbing actors. Voice acting is not the most important part of a game and I don't think sells copies, but it's not unimportant either.

I'll probably get Xenoblade sometime next year. I'll be busy with Fallout 4.

It was a rather high profile release so the strong sales do not surprise me. I don't know if it suggests Indie games as a whole perform particularly well on Nintendo platforms though.

Four Swords Adventures was marvelous in both single and multiplayer so I was hoping that this would be in much the same vein. I only know one other person with a 3DS so wouldn't be able to enjoy it in local multiplayer and online sounds ghastly.

This seems like a bit of a quick development job to pad out a rather weak winter release schedule.

Absolutely dreadful company. I can't believe how slow they have been to resolve this issue!

I didn't play this until I got the GBA version. It is my favourite of all the 2D Mario games. Absolute side-scrolling platforming perfection.

I adore Super Mario Galaxy. I bought a Wii (preemptively in August 2007 because of the high demand) just for that game and Metroid Prime 3. I hadn't skipped the previous generation and also had a 360 so it wasn't like it brought me back to gaming, but the sense of joy and wonder I felt when I played Galaxy for the first time is hard to describe. It made me feel like I was little again. I was so giddy and just couldn't stop smiling. For a game to really make me smile is the mark of an exceptional game.