moosa

Wow this sounds.... bizarre! It got me a little excited after reading that depressing "3DS has no original games" bit just a minute ago. I'm a bit of an audio geek myself, so I LOVE to hear that a developer is putting so much focus on sound, and I've always been a fan of 3D sound. I will say though that I can't help but get the impression that this game might rely too much on the novelty aspect and not enough on creating a fleshed-out experience. Here's hoping though!

You guys better be out there waiting right now...

I think the biggest culprit is the industry itself. And especially now that the development costs have risen much beyond the DS. It doesn't help that a lot of the big developers are still hung up on their processor lust and can't make games unless they have the fastest hardware available. Hopefully we'll hear about some more interesting ideas soon...

I have a special place in my heart for Bomberman, but I can't remember the last time I was excited for a new Bomberman game. Another one will be announced soon enough. I was more interested in Omega 5...

Again, I thought this was the 3DS version at first... Oh well. It was a good review.
I can't help but worry about Lego Star Wars III seeing as how its coming to every console known to man and it seems to be a different game for almost every one of them. =/

This was certainly... unexpected.

Clearly inspired by Earthworm Jim...

Better not miss. I've always liked the idea of making every shot count.

I don't think a single person here has realized that the most important aspect of this issue is resources. If demos were free then nobody at Nintendo would be questioning it.

This is just one guy (important as he may be) sharing some of his own thinking out loud during an interview. Not only does he not say anything conclusive, but his words aren't representative of Nintendo's official stance at all. He's simply saying, "I don't know if demos are effective or not." Nothing more or less.

Conclusion: Stop getting worked up at Nintendo for silly reasons. .

@edhe I experienced something similar during my very brief demo time with the game. I believe its something that some people might just need a little time with before their eyes get used to viewing the 3D world.

Wasn't expecting much anyways.

I wish people would stop automatically taking points off of every game that doesn't feature online multiplayer...

BECAUSE WE WANTED IT TO.

Guys, you can't debate someone's opinion. Nobody's opinion can be "wrong." The way to go about this is to listen to the other person's opinion and then state your own in comparison and contrast. Trying to prove someone else's opinion wrong in any way is just silly.

Thanks for the review Corbie. I've decided it isn't for me. The original Monkey Ball has my heart, with all it's thrills and crazy challenges. The challenge is what made that game for me. I'm sure I could enjoy this for a little while, but it wouldn't keep me coming back.

Could we try to refrain from the spoilers guys?

@7.Corbs This is the game that made me realize that "trippy games" could mean something entirely new on the 3DS.

Remember who said this guys. It's Reggie. Maybe his mouth was not ready.
I think you can figure out what he really meant without intentionally finding a way to misinterpret it so it sounds bad.

@20 we're talking about the difference between those who are actually invested in their games and those who play around with code after school. I know of a couple of hobbyists who have published games on iOS. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what they're doing, but there's also a million billion people out there who could do the same. Nintendo just doesn't want to support those million billion people's game projects on their own platform. They have other avenues available to them, and I'd rather the 3DSWare shop not be cluttered with endless amounts of random game projects, regardless of the fact that people can still publish low-quality games on the service.

@theblackdragon Because they're not afraid to stand up and say the things not everyone wants to hear.

Of course people are going to take this the wrong way.
If the developers are good enough/motivated enough, they'll bring themselves up out of the garage. Hence why Pixel is now releasing games on Nintendo platforms, not because he sat at home and sent Nintendo an email begging for their attention, but because he made a game that built up enough attention on its own to catch a publisher's attention, and at that point Nintendo is happy to get on board with it. Happy ending. Nobody ever said none of these upstarts could work on Nintendo platforms, they just have to prove themselves by working up to that point first. That's the way the world works, and Nintendo is right for doing things that way.

The commercial was better before the announcer guy started telling us about the game, as if we were supposed to take it seriously from that point.

@Tasuki Well, in a way you did.

Nice work on the banner graphic guys.

I'd say it must be nicer to have an XL for this kind of "game."

Took you guys a while to get this up.

@48 should we be surprised? You're comparing a DS to an iPad...

I only skimmed the article... But I'm still going to chip in.
I don't think Nintendo was ever afraid of Apple or the so-called "mobile games." Nintendo is very good at making money, and it doesn't look like they're going to be slowing down any time soon. Nintendo has made an effort to point out how the mobile format as it is currently could have a negative impact on the industry as a whole, specifically for those involved with development of the more traditional, "gamers'-games." I think it's silly to think that Nintendo would be "scared" of Apple or any other company, or that they are in any way in danger of financial doom. Nintendo is a very healthy company on very secure footing, and they can make large profits without taking huge risks.

It looks like Commander Video got sat on.

"Ridge Racer 3D also gives a reasonable indication of the kind of visuals we’re going to be seeing on Nintendo’s new machine."

I disagree with this. I don't think any one game could tell you what another game will look like, and I particularly wouldn't expect a launch title to set a very high bar in terms of visual quality achieved on the hardware.

Anyways, this is pretty much what I expected. Same ol' Ridge Racer. I imagine people who are new to the series could fall in love with this if they gave it a try though.
Two things that are probably important that I didn't see mentioned in this review: audio and content volume. I've heard that the music is pretty good while I know that the announcers are INCREDIBLY obnoxious (can you turn them off??). I've also heard that there's quite a bit of content in this game.

It probably also depends a lot on whether you're holding the 3DS 5 inches from your face and playing for 14 hours at a time. I'm being dramatic but I mean it too. Fact: You can get headaches and blurred vision from staring at any screen for too long, especially when it's close to your face. Also, Japanese are known to be more prone to motion sickness in videogames already, regardless of the 3D. I wouldn't be surprised if the 3D had a greater effect on those who were prone to motion sickness though.

There's that explained.

@61 That's 1,296,000 seconds.

@6. The music is better than Chrono Trigger? I find that difficult to believe.
I have every intention of playing this though.

I've done this before... >Hear blue shell >Hit the breaks >Let second place driver eat it >Continue on my way.
I agree with 45.ArmoredGooba. Working on balance is always good, but you have to play the game, you can't just barrel through recklessly and hope others will go easy on you. Being continuously aware of items other players could use is a big part of Mario Kart. And if the world conspires against you and you get screwed once in a while, it's not that big a deal. Just have fun with it.

@17.Mikau94 Just wait until you move to Europe before you purchase anything if you don't want to import. And I'm sure 3DS games will be as enjoyable as anything else in 2D.

I was thinking "wow, this looks pretty darn good in the graphics department." And then:

It should be noted at this point that the screenshots EA provided for this review are from the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Honestly for a 360 game the graphics aren't impressive at all haha. I imagine the Wii version must not look like much then.

So is it "Class" or "Clash?"

I found this game to be pretty frustrating many years ago when I owned it. That was back when I would actually put up with less-than-great games and try to play and enjoy them anyways.

@8.Zach I suppose I can... this time.
It just seemed odd timing considering the current 3DS hoopla and how much everyone is waiting for reviews of launch titles that you'd review a DS version of a game that's a 3DS launch title. That being said, I'm sure NL probably doesn't even have a review copy of Sims 3 (3DS) yet, so its not really of any consequence.

Argh... I wanted a review of the 3DS version. Way to throw me off guys.

I LOVE YOU NINTENDO LIFE.

We have to get him to grow the fro back out. Can you imagine him walking out on stage at the next press conference with that glorious fro?
Time to start an online petition...

@WaveBoy Although that would have been wonderful, Brawl is a FAR more complex game in terms of the amount of data that needs to be synchronized. The internet simply isn't fast enough.

It should also be noted that Iwata's words were directed towards developers and those in the industry, not to us, the consumers. He is, once again, warning about potential dangers within the industry, not saying anyone's products are good or bad.

@44.Kirk You're completely right. I played Restaurant City (by Playfish) for a while. It was addictive. It even got a little bit of my money. Ultimately it became very clear to me how big a waste of time it was. Those games are all engineered for addiction, and to eventually prod some (or a lot of) money out of you. It's really sad how many people are addicted to those games. At some point it becomes no longer about having fun anymore, but instead you keep playing because you're afraid not to. People are terrified of the idea of missing one day in the game because they've already invested so much into it and can't bear the thought of those consequences put in place for when you play any less than obsessively. It is truly, literally engineered addiction.

Oh one other thing... As much as I enjoy low prices (I love nabbing PS2 classics on eBay for $3 a piece), I have to emphasize this. Having oodles of freebie apps and 99c apps available can really start to spoil consumers, to the point where they would look at some $60 game that was just released and think that was some crazy amount of money. It IS a big investment, but many people may have a harder time understanding the difference in what you get for that investment. That's a big part of the "quality" issue, when people start questioning the sensibility of paying that much for "a videogame." As core gamers it's probably a bit harder to understand that.

@pixelman Iwata never said Apple was bad. He never said there weren't good games on the service and etc. He's talking about the effect on the industry and those involved with it. The lack of a standard of quality (for every excellent game there's 10 that would be a waste of time if they were free), the challenge of exposure, and the lack of cost/risk involved in development for so many of these games are all factors that have a big impact on an industry where millions of dollars can be spent on production of a big game that doesn't sell. MONEY is such a huge factor in everything that happens with core gaming these days, and when a no-name, one-man independent developer can make better profits on a no-cost/no-risk game app than a huge company can on their big-budget console release that was in development for two years, employing hundreds of people, THAT really shakes the foundation of the industry.

Long story short, many of these people that work on these traditional, complex, core-gamer type games are in danger of losing their jobs when all the money is going towards little low-budget apps.

That's pretty much the point Iwata was trying to make.

I want all of them. On one cartridge. In 3D.

You cant say something like this without people misunderstanding, not wanting to believe it, and scratching and clawing for a reason to say he's wrong. Iwata knows exactly what he's saying and it isn't difficult to understand exactly what he means, and he's completely right.

Apple (and other "mobile" companies) are not game companies. They DO NOT care in the slightest about the quality of games released for their platforms, because they don't make money by making games. They make money by selling their hardware and off of the software sales of others. I'm not saying they're EVIL, just that that's the way it is. Their business model is obviously very effective right now, but its harmful for the industry, and Iwata is pointing out why.

Seriously, where do you guys put your games?
http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-3DS-Pull-Go-Folio-Black/dp/B004KPH7TS/ref=sr_1_20?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1299377263&sr=1-20

Oh gosh. You can take photos of anything. Wi-Fi --> no-go.