warioswoods

I'm hoping that this great idea of a "basic" model (no Wiimotes, sensor bar, etc) comes to fruition given the fact that so many consumers already own Wii remotes and peripherals. Nearly everyone on the planet has these items by now.

Iwata gave me a bit of hope in his Analyst Q&A:

"There are 190 million Wii Remotes out in the marketplace around the world. As Reggie pointed out in our presentation at E3 yesterday, there are also quite a large number of Wii Balance Boards. We look at both of those as important assets that we would like to continue to leverage."

I don't have to play it to be convinced: I was a huge fan of the asymmetry of Pac Man VS and used to bring it out at just about every gathering of friends at my house. I'm also the fanatic who bought up 4 cheap GBAs and link cables so that I'd have Four Swords Adventures ready at any time that I could convince others to join me. Games that exploit the shift between public screens and private screens are such a joy for local multiplayer.

3DS actually sold more hardware units by far in Japan this month, which is unusual since that's a smaller market. But they do love their handhelds, and Nintendo has really been dominating there lately.

Thief sounds amazingly fun. That's exactly the kind of unique multiplayer idea the Wii U has me excited about.

Stop offering my exclusive ambassador games to the common rabble, k thx.

One further note: a Master Quest should be added to MM if they port it.

I'd say that the Mario collection was actually better, because it brought back the 16-bit remade All Stars versions for the first time on a modern system.

All of these Kirby games are already available in the same form, so I don't have much incentive to pick up this package instead of the 1 or 2 I'm still missing on the VC.

TNG table?? Wow. I may have to get on board for that.

I'll take Majora's Mask 3D with randomly and unexpectedly unlockable BenDrowned, please.

How does the multiplayer work? Since this is the first version of the game for the TV, my first thoughts go to finally being able to experiment with this game alongside another player.

Instead of waiting years for all our favorite second-tier characters to make an appearance on the console (Metroid, F-Zero, etc), this game will give us a little bite-sized taste of each one in HD, with fun local multiplayer and Miis that are essentially engaging in cosplay. What's not to love?

I'd like to point out just how far we've come without seeing this "inevitable" dual-analog redesign that many sites (NintendoLife included) were so certain would appear. I'd like to point out that I've been a naysayer about that possibility all along (outside of perhaps a special XL model).

@ThomasBW84

Awesome, great minds think alike (except when it comes to SML2 ).

Given the cost of all the extra things they'll want to put in the box in addition to the console and primary controller, I've been wondering if it might be worth considering a special, lower-cost package for current Wii owners, which would save on the price by not duplicating those things you already have (wiimote plus, nunchuk, sensor bar, power adaptor, etc). Then again, that might just lead to confusion over which version you need based on what accessories you already own on the Wii (traditional remote vs. motion plus required by NintendoLand, etc).

^
I like being silly. Also, hyperbole.

Wow. To place SML2 above Donkey Kong (94), Link's Awakening, and Wario Land is truly baffling.

I would be charitable and accept that tastes differ, but nope. There is no possible rational logic that could lead towards such a conclusion. I could see maybe putting it above one of those 3 others--provided you're a Mario Land fanatic of the highest order--but putting it above what may be the three greatest titles on the system is just bizarre.

The way Miiverse operates, moderation delays aren't really an issue.

Recall Iwata's statement that the Miiverse will unify "across time and space." What he meant was that the public messages you leave in your games are like notes to future travelers who pass by the same spot. They aren't predicated on the concept of immediate communication. They are messages that will only show to others when they reach the same point or die in the same area.

Now, the messages from your friends should be more immediate, and I doubt that friends' messages will go through moderation. But the wider public commentary that will be open in the Miiverse isn't really about direct messaging or simultaneity at all. It's just a space to leave comments for others, so that everyone can get an amusing sense of how the wider community of players is responding to the game.

These may here be to tie in with the Miiverse feed, which you will eventually be able to check live on your phone much like a Twitter account.

These three need their own weekly sitcom.

That's an awesome shirt. I need him to start his own style and clothing line so I can look that cool.

He's science-ing as fast as he can!

Luigi's Mansion, easy. But Paper Mario follows in a respectable second place.

A... caddy is the best idea they had for golf? What about the whole screen-on-the-floor thing Nintendo has been hinting at all along? That would be a huge step forward for swing detection, since the small screen has a sensor bar and could measure exactly how your swing is oriented as it sweeps across the ball.

Apparently I'm the only one who hates this animation and art style. It's just cheap vector graphics that are being rotated and transformed in various ways to produce movement out of very few unique frames. The backgrounds and layers then saturate you with hazy glows and gradients until it looks impressive enough to trick the untrained eye. But to me, it's just another iOS-style game with Flash style animation and vectors... only, a whole lot more of them.

Sometimes I wish they were a privately held company like Valve instead of publicly traded. Public investors and analysts aren't always the brightest about the future of a complex industry like gaming.

Ew, a Facebook poll.

If it had been conducted on a less horrible part on the internet, you'd have one more vote for the magic of Nintendo Land, from me.

Said this in the chat earlier, but to reiterate: "Nintendo Land" sounds like a Game Boy game. Evidently they've forgotten that ancient land / world naming conventions.

Hm, I think I'd rather keep VC games on my old Wii, hooked up to a classic tube-TV in a back bedroom. The WiiU is there to bask in the HD glory, and classic games look hideous on a flatscreen.

Clearly a 7 out of... WAIT A SEC

Scratch that: 11 out of 10

I think it makes sense as a logical progression. Wii Sports introduced the Miis and was of course very successful, but over time the "Wii" line of family / multiplayer games has sold less and less as the established franchises (NSMB, etc) have sold more. Look at Wii Party--an attempt to shift the Mario Party games into a Mii theme without any remaining Mario elements--and notice that they've reverted it to Mario again with the 9th entry, because that's more popular on the box.

NintendoLand seems like a reasonable middle point. They are still using Miis, but now your Miis will be dressing up as the popular Nintendo characters and engaging in various themed activities from the familiar franchises. It allows them to unify the Mii branding with the popularity of Mario / Zelda / etc.

And it looks far more polished, content-filled, and original than Wii Play. I like Wii Play, but this game looks to be on another level.

I've been dying for a Karaoke game that would let someone sing while others pass the tablet and look up songs... but the song library is the key. This desperately needs a big online library of tracks to download at will from in-game. Then I'll be all over it. A smaller, fixed set of tracks would be disappointing.

This looks amazing.

Bwahaha.

Nintendoland is the best name / thing ever.

I love asymmetry in multiplayer.

Why would anyone be angry about a niche XL model? It's just an alternative either way, and the current "slim" model will continue to be primary.

I love the way Nintendo calmly and philosophically talks through their design decisions. I've never seen another tech related company with even half their Zen level.

@DraculaX Agreed, the backgrounds and colors are indeed very nice. I just had the exact same experience I always have with iPad games: gorgeous screenshots that disappoint terribly in motion, because it's all built on a flash-like system of movement and feels artificial, with the objects and characters animating like weird stretched cutouts and everything lacking weight or substantiality.

@TeeJay

It's smooth, but only in the style of Flash animation. That means that they're using very few unique frames then simply bouncing and stretching them in various ways to produce movement.

That approach has dominated iOS and mobile games for the past couple of years (because it's super cheap compared to drawing multiple frames of animation for every action), and I absolutely hate it. Sure, you can end up with a super high refresh rate, but that's because you're not really animating the characters, you're just bouncing, rotating, and transforming the same small set of images. I hate the look. Compare Mighty Switch Force's animations--which are old-school in the sense of consisting of many drawings per actions--and you'll see the huge difference.

(some people like that style, but I do hate it)

People express their excitement in different ways and degrees.

^ Wario during E3

I've still yet to enjoy any 2D Rayman game. They're just... off somehow. Not my kind of platforming evidently. And despite the praise, I even found the latest HD one to be lackluster. I just hate that flash-animation style they used for it, it feels cheap in movement no matter how colorful or crisp in screenshot form.

Wow, those are some of the top games on each platform. Donkey Kong is one of the finest GB games ever made, Kirby Superstar is amazing, and I've always been a huge fan of Maboshi's Arcade. If you don't have all three of these, you'd best get to downloading right now.

This time of year...

Would they please give us a perfect arcade port (not gimped NES version) of Donkey Kong on the 3DS and use the 3D effect to simulate the curved CRT (as Pac Man: Dimensions does beautifully) ? I'm dying for some classic DK as it was meant to be experienced.

@sinalefa

I also do not have a Facebook account (had one, but grew to hate it, deactivated it a while back).

Huh... the circles in the corners of their current "vault" cover image look strangely similar to the circle pads seen on the first version of the controller.

Left: FB cover image, Right: Wii U

@Chrono_Cross

Whoah, blast from a few days ago. Didn't see response until now.

The commenter said only that Nintendo should make another "open world" Mario game, but also wanted Nintendo to evolve the franchise and introduce new ideas, just as that game did. Ie., a spiritual successor to Mario 64 (open game that moves franchise forward), not a copy of its gameplay elements. That's where you're intentionally misreading him and creating a strawman; he didn't say to repeat Mario 64.

So the Godfather still entertains you, but how about an early film like Birth of a Nation? Based on the way you approach Mario 64, I'm fairly certain you'd say that film is overrated and junk, for if judged by today's standards, it's filled with bad narrative, pacing, questionable historical revisions and political sensibilities, etc. But if you learn to read it on its own terms, you can see where the film was cleverly advancing various narrative and cinematic elements of the medium, and you can enjoy its creativity and cleverness on that level.

You seem to suggest that a "good" classic must be instantly enjoyable by today's standards, but enjoying a historical work requires reading it in terms of its era, and is a shift from passively consuming. Mario 64 is a wonderfully well constructed and clever game that solves more design and gameplay problems than most other games of that era combined. It might feel awkward today, but you're evidently not capable of playing it with an eye to what the language of gaming looked like at that time, by which you'd begin to see the great successes of its design.

That's what I mean by your lack of historical understanding. Let's be honest: The Godfather is easy popcorn viewing for a modern audience, and doesn't require any sense of history to enjoy. The blindness here isn't that of fanboys, which is frankly a rather arrogant attitude; it's the blindness of those that aren't capable of enjoying something that challenges them to shift their perspective and to understand how the work played with and against the context within which it first appeared, or how it shifted the language of the medium at that time.

Time to finally pick up Mighty Switch to reward these guys for updating their game like that. Also, GAME & WATCH !!!

I wish they'd have just clamped the old Gamecube buttons to the Wii U instead of that CC look.

More like this, but with higher quality of course:

GC > Classic Controller

I love the asymmetry of the Gamecube controller. Personally I consider the CC (and now Wii U) layout to be a step backwards in that department. It was wonderful to have the different face buttons (A/B/X/Y) actually feel completely different from one another, making muscle memory of different actions smoother. Similarly I prefer asymmetry for the sticks.