tudsworth

I like the fast, presumably web-page based eShop a hell of a lot, and provided they stick to that format, it'll prove to be a decent experience regardless of the usability tweaks, so that's good.

However, I do believe that something of an overhaul is needed, especially as the weeks with 10+ new titles get more and more frequent. As of now, the last game on the European eShop's front page released just over a fortnight ago, and with tons of titles already slated for this Thursday, I reckon we'll hit a point where the "new releases" page each week doesn't even cover one week's worth of titles. That is, naturally, going to be a nightmare for discoverability, and the eshop could do with a "new this week" front page showing -all- of the titles released this week, whether it be 2 or 20. Heck, throw all the current discounts on the same front page, give them front-and-centre discoverability alongside all the new stuff so I'm not having to check the News Channel for blue dots I might have missed daily.

The themed sections on the Wii U and 3DS are fairly quaint, and don't always make perfect sense, so I doubt they're really needed, but a "What we're playing" or "editor's choice" section for ensuring the best third-party and indie titles don't get overshadowed or buried would definitely make sense and not go amiss; as would a "featured in Nintendo Direct/Nindies Showcase" page - it'd be lovely to be able to find a title like Gonner which had, somehow, passed me by in a nice little list with all the other Nindies from recent showcases that are currently available.

People want sorting by genre, but personally, I think the way that's handled on Wii U and 3DS is enough to make me lose all interest - conceptually it's fine, but sometimes I'll check the listed genres for a title and think they're ill-fitting or otherwise not 100% representative... though I find myself thinking that about most games being thrown into fixed genres nowadays, especially with RPG elements permeating basically every action or adventure title nowadays. Granted, every other major online gaming platform does it, so clearly it works for some, even if it doesn't work for me.

Basically, though, I'm happy with the current massive list with some basic filtering and searching options - just as long as Nintendo provides greater discoverability options, because that's what developers need to ensure not only their success on a short-term level, but a good tail-end for sales; and consumers need it to help inform their purchasing decisions and keep them on top of what's new/recommended.

Granted, I am not a UI or design expert, so I'm sure somebody who is can write multiple paragraphs tearing down exactly why I'm wrong, and I'd welcome that.

@tanookisuit Basically, the game didn't perform super well, but EA wasn't expecting it to perform super well based on the fact it sold through so quickly. Alternatively, this is all the game needed to sell to be a success... which wouldn't surprise me, seeing as it was a project by a small team on a development cycle under 1 year.

@Peach64 Sounds about right to me - I bought my copy from ASDA, who sold through all the Switch versions they had in stock on launch day; and it seems to be out of stock pretty much everywhere else.

Clearly even with the sales estimates being pushed putting it at less than 10,000 units EA were expecting a sub-10K launch period in the UK. I expect, as the idea catches on and more casual players get Switches for Christmas or whatever, the game will have a decent tail-end.

@electrolite77 My one friend who cares about these things keeps comparing it favourably to 16, too, and seeing as that's the most current game of choice for FIFA diehards, I can't help but think the development team deliberately did this to appeal to that group.

I picked this up on 3DS (and Wii U) on various sales, and recently downloaded this from the Japanese eShop due to a 10% introductory discount making it about £30; and I'll be honest - if you played either version of the original game extensively, the bump up to a glorious 60fps in both handheld and TV modes is super noticeable in a good way. Like, the game was clearly designed for 30fps locked, but playing it in 60 makes the action considerably faster and considerably more fluid to the point that I'd argue, if the price is right to you, this justifies a double-dip.

If you're a fan of One Piece and have somehow avoided this game to date, you owe it to yourself to buy this version; especially due to the addition of single-system co-op and the bump in framerate.

Nintendo UK just took my money, so... roll on Friday! It'll be nice to finally (officially) play Star Fox 2, and my famicom mini and NES mini could do with another friend to join them in front of my television.

I'm actually moderately excited for this. I have absolutely no interest in pro wrestling, but wrestling games are always good for a laugh; and we've not had a portable one since THQ folded, so I might as well support this - provided there's not reports of major performance/stability issues coming out before/around launch.

@Ooyah The original renegade was a conversion of the first game in the Kunio-Kun series, so developed by Technos. All subsequent Renegade titles were developed by Ocean Software, who licensed out the name Renegade from Technos, so I doubt Arc System Works has the rights to re-release those games.

Given the sheer import-friendliness of including the 5 English language games, if the price is right, I won't even bother waiting for news of a localisation - network play in River City Ransom alone is something I'd consider a worthwhile purchase due to how much time I've sunk into that game over the years.

Given that The Tomorrow Children was, frankly, a really good idea executed so poorly I still feel bad for paying into the "founders" edition of the game; I genuinely hope Q-games find their feet... and that their upcoming ideas don't get as shafted by poor communication and marketing as TTC seemed to.

@gcunit This is what bothers me about how a lot of third-party for Nintendo is being handled. I do not mind a belated port if, like Binding of Isaac AB+, the game on other formats hasn't been discounted or isn't so old that it's kind of a joke.

Oddworld's situation was a really funny one, for me, in that I recall it having been heavily discounted on both PS4 and PC mere weeks before the Wii U version's release — and the PS4 release included the PS Vita version as a free bonus back when such a thing was a really great incentive. So, naturally, even as somebody who had given the devs the benefit of the doubt and was willing to wait... I was swayed into not waiting.

To complain about the sales of your product when actively jeopardizing them through your own pricing decisions is just in poor taste, IMHO.

Given the presence of multiple PowerPro games and Family Stadium, both (really good) baseball games, I have to wonder if this was more of a generalised "best sports games" list.

Still, while it has been overshadowed by subsequent games, in my opinion, nothing quite compares to playing the original in glorious split-screen on a slightly janky 14 inch CRT; so I totally get why it has taken the top spot, nostalgia is a powerful drug.

I... kind of want that Game Boy... thing. Despite the fact it's probably a purse intended for women.

I'm perfectly comfortable in my masculinity and all, but I think carrying a purse around would raise a few eyebrows.

Given that the game's RRP is £60... a price that practically everybody is undercutting to some degree... a £10 drop off of RRP with a hat is pretty neato, especially if it's like the plush Mario hat Nintendo UK have had for sale/with pre-orders for games previously. That thing, while obviously a novelty, was actually a fairly comfortable hat to wear.

The little headset splitter looks like a squid, though, and no matter how convoluted the audio setup looks, that's all that really matters to me.

I suppose, on the bright side, if voice chat is something you need to actually put effort into setting up, that minimises the risk of obnoxious people doing it in public places, and I'd call that a good thing.

At the expense of banging the drum - the 3DS has an install base of nearly 70 million strong. To put those numbers into context - it matches the PSP, a system that had steady support in Japan until 2014; three years after the Japanese launch of the PS Vita, a system still receiving support from a small, loyal install base and third-party developers, no matter how much Sony proper seems to be avoiding mentioning it by name, lest doing so bring a curse upon them.

To completely abandon the system at this stage in the game would be, frankly, leaving money on the table - particularly if cross-generation titles with the Switch (Fire Emblem Warriors) and lower-budget family-friendly titles (Pikmin, M&L remaster, Kirby) are both cheap and easy to develop; or can be given out to second-and-third party partners.

People worried that their investment in the Switch will somehow go badly, and that's fair, given what happened with the Wii U; need only look at the kind of support the 3DS is still receiving from Nintendo to realise that, for one, the lion's share of Nintendo's first-party, big budget developers and resources are, indeed, going to Switch exclusive titles... which makes sense, it's a $300 product for more serious gamers who want the biggest, best titles from the company... as opposed to a $150 product for those who just want a Pokémon/Mario/Zelda (remember the 3DS has three top-quality Zelda titles, four if you count Tri-Force heroes!) machine to tide them over.

Nintendo are talking big about this support right now, however, because they -need- this segment of the market, they are the only company in it; and they want to convert that segment upwards into their more expensive all-in-one hybrid system in due time without them feeling "forced" into it; which is a difficult sell at the best of times.

I can't really talk, because I know I'll buy one, day one, like I do with every iteration of the 3DS due to having absolutely no common sense; but it lines up with what the company has been saying for the longest time - they plan on supporting the 3DS alongside the Switch, at least for the foreseeable future. Doing so with a lower priced "new" model allows for them to not be as limited by the specs of older models - we'll inevitably see a bunch more New3DS exclusive titles in the coming year or so... likely bundled with the New2DS to sway those on the fence.

My issue, though, is that pulled off correctly, the New2DS and Switch can easily be complementary systems... but there's so, so much that could potentially go wrong with that sort of messaging; and a small part of me is worried that Nintendo will mess it up somehow.

I don't remember the Inkling girl costume being in the original MK8... so... hopefully there's more new amiibo costumes on the way, too?

I know it's such a minor thing, but I liked dressing up my Mii as a chubby, washed-up Captain Falcon enough for it to become my main online character/kart combo.

@Yasume Not everybody owned a Wii U? As somebody who -did-, the portability, and the fact I'll finally be able to play it online with friends who skipped out on a Wii U, are definitely swaying me towards picking this up again. I mean, I get your point, it's silly to spend £50 on a game -again-; but given the improvements to the overall package, including what looks to be glorious 60fps 4-player splitscreen, it's not a bad idea if you're gonna be getting use out of the new features.

Besides, the original MK8 held its trade-in value pretty well, so selling -that- to get a decent discount off of this version is also an option.

I picked up Metal Slug 3 because, frankly, owning a system capable of playing Metal Slug 3 and -not- owning Metal Slug 3 on it seems blasphemous to me. I've noticed the issues but, frankly, it's still a cracking game on the Switch, and I'm glad Hamster are working on fixing it... hopefully, they're seeing enough sales and interest to warrant bringing over some of the non-SNK titles from their frankly amazing ACA lineup on the PS4. I'd definitely double-dip for stuff like Puzzle Bobble.

Well, I already picked up Blaster Master on the Japanese eShop, so... YoKai Watch demo and the BoxBoy demo are about all I'm gonna pick up; though the Gunvolt DLC is tempting, since I like supporting Inti Creates in all they do.

@Monkeyofthefunk I'd hate it if the people at my local lost their jobs - they all know their stuff and actually care about games, which is supposedly a rarity. But when I go in for Pokémon cards and spend a whole hour talking about Neo-Geo stuff, I think it'd be a shame to see that store go.

Would not surprise me, at all, if this was another Super Mario Maker situation, and their godawful website managed to charge people multiple times; because that seems to happen with depressing frequency. From now on, if I want a GAME exclusive pre-order goodie, I just go in-store to handle it, because it's better than having to deal with their shoddy web presence more than I have to.

the download version of Project Mirai is super tempting at that price... and means I don't have to carry the cartridge with me at all times anymore, so... that's a no brainer, even with spending a bunch of money on the Switch and its games this week.

Princess Crown? I knew there was a reason why I trusted this site's staff when it came to good taste in games.

I like these size comparisons - particularly with the DS and 3DS cartridges - kind of baffles me how little space you can fit so much data in to now... and yet, I know they could go even smaller if they were so inclined.

Given that both games have fully localised English releases on PS4 and PC, I am cautiously optimistic that K-T America/Europe will release them in the west, and I hope they do. Strategy titles like these are perfect for the Switch, and any excuse to re-play Sphere of Influence is welcome - it's one of my favourite games for the PS4, and one of the few reasons I keep mine around.

@lemonjellydude System3 have published physical releases before in Europe, so the option's definitely there. I think this may just be eShop only, but I thought the same about the 3DS Port of Putty Squad (another system3 published game) until I actually had a copy of it in my hands.

@JaxonH It's the absolute worst £4 you could ever spend on a video game. Even buying an NES game for the umpteenth time on the Wii U or 3DS is a considerably better investment

Remember that Pitchford was SUPER enthusiastic to support the Wii U. What, exactly, did this enthusiasm translate into, you ask?

Well, there was the cancelled Wii U port of Aliens : Colonial Marines. Said port was, due to Pitchford's sheer enthusiasm, shifted mid-development to a completely unaffiliated developer, and his sheer enthusiasm caused said game to get cancelled after the PS3 and 360 versions of it released as steaming piles, in spite of the developer in question's interest in actually salvaging the Wii U version to make a half-respectable video game.

His words are about as cheap as brand new copies of Battleborn, and yet, considerably more fun to tear into than any video game he has ever put his name to.

@memoryman3 He's a Wall Street Journal analyst based in Japan who has a fairly decent track record IRT leaks.

That said, I am not holding my breath. I'd rather wait 'til January and the Switch Presentation, where we'll likely get a better idea of the specs, than speculate endlessly on the myriad contradictory leaks and rumors circulating.

Another 100K for Mario Maker 3DS was kind of expected. The whole package seems geared more towards the Japanese market, where streetpass level sharing makes considerably more sense to me, and I can imagine it's going to have a decent tail-end for sales.

Miitopia's debut is a weird one. I expected it to perform moderately, due in part to releasing hot on the heels of another, considerably bigger, RPG series; but I also think that, if the game's good, it will sell... just not so close to Pokémon. I mean, even after nearly four weeks at market, it's still selling nearly 200,000 copies a week.

Still, here's hoping Miitopia both sells well (or, at least, well enough for Nintendo) and actually gets localised, that would be nice, too.

Argos are generally good in terms of selection and pricing, but impulse purchasing is pretty much an impossibility, especially if you live in a town with a smaller store. I'll likely reserve myself a copy of this, mind. They also have UK retail exclusivity on that one YuGiOh ZeXaL game from a couple of years back, so it's not like this is a new or shocking thing.

Anybody remember when they had Dragon Quest 6, 9, and Monsters Joker 2 for like £5 each? Good times.

@Henmii True, but if it's in stereoscopic 3D (It was shown in 3D in Japanese cinemas) it's probably worth picking up for the sheer value for money... though I doubt I'll ever want to sit down and watch a movie on my 3DS for 90 minutes.

@C-Olimar When I went out to look for it on Saturday, my local GAME hadn't received a single copy, I'm sure the few other retailers who still stock brand new Nintendo games are in the same boat. It may very well be a supply issue, rather than a lack of demand.

@crazycrazydave Oh yeah, I'm glad they at least admit they're better off having a third-party bring titles over on their behalf, and it's ultimately a positive thing in the long run, seeing as we got Valkyria PS4 day-and-date with the US; and I reckon we'll see the same with titles like SMT IV Apocalypse.

I'm just a little, ya know, bothered that it takes a distribution deal with a completely unaffiliated company for SEGA to release -anything- on a console in Europe; given that the other divisions of the company seem to handle both Console and PC just fine.

People seem to forget (or just not know!) that Deep Silver published Catherine in Europe with no real furore or particularly awful marketing. Oh, and Killer Is Dead, and the new King of Fighters. Clearly, somebody there can give niche Japanese games decent enough marketing, as Catherine and KiD apparently did very well for them.

I mean, SEGA Europe clearly don't care, they had Deep Silver publish Valkyria Chronicles PS4 over here a few months ago. A single console release was too much effort for them.

@Piersen Go for it, it's a great little RPG at that price, though my biggest gripes were the game's aggressive tutorialisation (seriously, you keep getting tutorials, even 10+ hours in to the game; and they're unskippable too); and the over-reliance on things like the internal gyroscope for the minigames used to trigger special attacks.

They weren't enough to detract from how much fun I had with the game for myself, but your mileage may vary.

I just want Future to hire Chris Scullion again in some way, shape or form. His work on the latter days of N-Gamer, ONM and CVG was always genuinely enjoyable to read, and I'm sad the N-gamer website has been lost to the ages- dozens of hilarious articles just gone, forever... most of which aren't properly accessible through the Wayback machine, either.

I mean, he has his own site now, and that's great, but I miss getting a printed monthly thing through my door. If Future axes or messes with Retro Gamer in any way, then that'll be it for me - gaming magazines will be well and truly dead.

@davidevoid From what I can tell, it's a last hurrah before their licenses run out. Might as well, you know, make as much money as you can from the arrangement while it lasts by making them all dirt cheap to convince an influx of impulse sales. I'm quite sure developers of licensed games have done this on other stores before to get around the fact a licensing agreement is due to expire.

Digger Dan, at that price, definitely looks worth a buy, and I'll likely pick up a few of the discounted CIRCLE games, since one of them looks like a fairly good visual novel, playing through the Phoenix Wright trilogy again has left a massive VN/adventure game-shaped hole in my life.

I'm glad I picked this game up day-one, the feeling of going into it blind, having seen no actual footage of the game beforehand by choice, is something I wish I could experience again. I can remember the ambient noises in the game majorly adding to that experience, and a free soundtrack to coincide with the game being truly affordable to all for a few more days is a great thing.

@Pod Chris Pranger? Yeah, I remember that, a lot of internet fallout over the guy basically leaking stuff that was under NDA. Apparently, Nintendo should have just let all of that slide because he was making "a stand" or some equally dubious justification.

... I'd say something about the cyclical nature of history here, but it goes without saying.

@zool There's been no statement directly from Rapp in regards to her second job, but generally, Nintendo -does- allow moonlighting. A lot of the treehouse's translators also do freelance work on the side, and a lot of their VO artists work for other companies when they're not required.

When PR is concerned - worse, PR who mentions your company name directly in the bio of their personal twitter account; the range of jobs you can really take "on the side" shrinks massively - and it's likely Rapp took a second job that Nintendo either explicitly or implicitly forbids their PR staff from taking when they're a "face" of the company.

@SM4SHshorts I was under the impression content updates were ceasing, but there was always the chance any required balance patches could be issued at a later date - Sakurai never did rule that out when Bayonetta and Corrin were released.

I mean, there could have been a statement since that I wasn't aware of, but it's not like a balance patch to nerf Bayonetta is somehow a "no" because development of content for this game has been ceased.

I'd argue that Miitomo's biggest strength is that even if you -are- being a bit of a prat, which I've definitely indulged in with some very insincere or outright trollish answers to questions, the general absurdity of it all makes it very hard to take it too seriously.

Basically, it's hard to fish for outrage when your outlet is a mii narrating your answers in a cartoonishly exaggerated text-to-speech voice; and harder still to take it seriously when said mii is a man wearing a frilly dress and a purple wig. That's not to say it's outright impossible, just that the very design of the thing from the ground up makes attempts to do so fall flat easily.

@Stitches This is what really bothers me - surely Nintendo has the foresight to re-release the all-in-one cartridge on its own down the line, but the fact they're yet to do so in Japan makes me worry that they have no intention of doing so. Heck, if cartridges of it can be pressed, surely they can just release it on the eShop if their worry is that releasing the cartridge without all the special goodies devalues it somehow.
@Kid_Sickarus Look at how poorly a lot of special editions actually -hold- their value. Unless it's either truly limited by print run, or has something people actually -want- to own, the price drops within a couple of months of the game's release, and some older Spec Eds are actually -cheaper- than it is to just buy the game on its own, if not outright worthless. We're already seeing an equivalent to what happened to comics in the 90s, just on a smaller scale.

@pandarino None at all, and SEGA Europe isn't answering any questions about the game on any of their social media accounts. They did the same for the SEGA 3D Classics Collection NA is getting, and we're now close enough to release to assume that's not coming out over here, so it's not looking too good.

@Gridatttack The previous two games are essentially their own thing. III has elements of the previous games in there, but the story is entirely standalone. It's also, due to original devs imageepoch's unfortunate death, by an entirely different developer (though shares some of the same dev team as previous titles).

@CB85 Game Freak and later TPCi have done a large amount of their localisation work in-house for years now. I quite like things that way - there will always be changes, sure, and you can have whatever opinions you like about said changes, but at least the original writing staff have their say and hand in the localisation process, which I feel a lot of games sorely miss in the day and age of outsourcing the localisation to a third-party like 8-4 or subsidiary like NoA's treehouse.

I think the only misfire under TPCi was the time the Pokémon Diamond & Pearl translations were absolutely laden with memes from the Something Awful forums; but even that instance was fairly inane, with clowns who already had an irregular speech pattern proclaiming "A WINNER IS YOU"; and similarly inconsequential things.

@TruenoGT With you on that. I think Nintendo have got (almost) everything right, and I hope they don't feel pressured by the wider industry to "adapt... OR DIE" as some would put it; because I'd rather the latter than the former, personally.

@AVahne I think that more and more of the middle-market developers will find it harder to pay their bills over the years. Game development is getting bigger and more complex, and just making a single £10 title every couple of years and paying the bills entirely on sales is getting harder and harder in a market where more and more people are finding the notion of even paying for these kinds of games disagreeable - I mean, what if I can get it in a bundle for a dollar six months down the line? Or on a steam sale with a hefty 70% discount? Not every developer can afford to do these kinds of incentive deals and even if they actually -do- participate in them, the 10,000 key sales and "exposure" it nets them rarely translates into any full-price sales of their other titles.

The market seems to be in a race to the bottom right now, devaluing a lot of download-only and lower-tier titles to the point that the business is actually becoming hostile to anybody who has the gall to release these kinds of games. It's a shame, because we're losing a very valuable and interesting segment of the market as a result.

Have SEGA Europe already said they have no plans to publish this, or is it more of a matter of them not having confirmed a release, yet? If it's the former, that makes no sense - even a digital-only release over here would sway people, that's money on the table they're ignoring.

@MercifulLemon7 You've just gotta buy the amiibo, then you can be a happy man