warioswoods

@irken004

Fantastic.

I think I'm in Louvre.

Only if and when the games cease to impress or innovate. And they haven't ceased yet.

There's no way Nintendo would price anything $300.

$299.99 - now that might happen.

The cost estimates based on parts never really make any sense. One of these same "price teardown" articles recently made the rounds suggesting that the Vita and 3DS are significantly cheaper to make than their prices, even though Sony and Nintendo (after price drop) confirmed selling at loss.

So that's where the name comes from... it's the first "open" Mario Tennis tournament since it lets just any ol' Mii come in and compete, not just the usual Nintendo stars.

@FonistofCruxis

Ah thanks, that sounds good. An arrow in the direction of the next important step should be enough to save me if I forget what the heck I was supposed to be doing.

I hope this is one of those games where you don't have to play consistently in order to know what's going on. In other words, since it's so damn huge, there's little chance that I'll finish it within a year, possibly even two. So, I'll be chipping away, often with weeks in between sessions. Will it be clear what I was doing and where I was going, or will I just end up wandering through the same areas every time before realizing my mistake?

@James

No, so I suppose there's still hope. But I find it a stretch to think that they would have kept all screenshots of a story / RPG mode under wraps when trying to hype the game for the past couple of months. I dunno... maybe it'll be a big secret after all.

Nice, but it's still not enough to make me forget the absence of an RPG. :-/

I'd say James has it right. Nothing to add here.

That trivia feature is waaaay too easy on the hardest setting. They need a "Mario Historian" difficulty level for old fans like myself.

Yep, just like Ubisoft was top dogz on the Wii.

The news has been all over the map on this thing, so I wouldn't jump to conclusions.

That being said, I'm sure that Nintendo will be following the Wii's line of thinking and will try to have the all-around cheapest console of the upcoming generation, without quite as much horsepower as the others. And I prefer that, to be honest; they should focus more on what makes the console distinct (that controller and its gameplay possibilities) and leave the arms race to others.

This is why licensing laws are so idiotic.

If you produce a game (or book, or movie) while in possession of a license, you should be able to continue to sell that creation even after the license has moved on — so long as you don't alter it in any way, since of course the license stakeholders are now out of the picture. It's idiotic and kills part of our cultural history when the sale of a license suddenly shuts down created works and makes them permanently dead to the market.

The main aspect I love about this game is its unapologetic corniness and fun. It doesn't try to be particularly coherent or realistic at any point; they just threw in anything and everything that might make the experience more enjoyable.

I honestly think the 3DS vs. Vita thing is overblown. They have very different markets in the end, and much of the respective bases wouldn't cross over.

When Iwata says that Nintendo considers its competition not to be other game consoles but primarily to be other entertainment in general (from YouTube to any other quick distractions), I'd say he's onto something. The 3DS needs to sell consumers on the idea of a fun gadget-toy with some nifty features; it doesn't need to worry about competing for some elusive "gamer" core.

@RR529

That's the first I'd heard of the eShop 3d billiards game that is out in Japan. Looks decent at least; hopefully it will come over.

Back in the 90s, our pool balls didn't even have stripes or numbers yet. Kids today have everything.

I recently came across this hilarious video of a guy wandering through forests and abandoned buildings in Japan using this game and a flashlight. It makes me want it so I can go on a similar expedition. (Skip around a bit to the later half.)

"even navigating menus and selecting customisation options is handled with the buttons"

That is simply unforgivable on any game on a DS system. I've never been able to comprehend why some developers expect me to browse menus using buttons when the ideal interface is already built in via touch.

One very effective move on the part of Nintendo was to ensure that they killed any good reasons for buying the previous DS iterations, since the 3DS is fully backwards-compatible and costs about the same anyway.

Compare that to the disastrous PSP to Vita situation, where the old system continues to outsell the new one and there is little reason for most consumers (particularly in Japan) to consider an upgrade.

Some additional scans have been making the rounds.

For some reason I'm bothered by Scrooge McDuck just standing placidly atop a floating block. It jarringly kills the logic of the scene.

Money isn't the problem for many of us who are older gamers: it's time. I actually want there to be companies willing to take my $40 or more per portable game and give me that high level of quality in return. I'd rather spend money than waste time on anything less than a top-notch, complete product.

We need more 2D platformers on the system. Castlevania, for instance.

Warioswoods: "Mobile Devs Make Me Fear for Human Intelligence"

@Stargazer

Yet in any case it has quite a lot more content and originality than Nintendogs, which was mentioned instead.

When discussing launch games, why do you skip over Steel Diver?

It's still one of my favorites on the system, and believe it or not was by far the best way to wow friends with the 3D effect by giving them the periscope mode (more of a 'wow' than FaceRaiders or any other demonstration). It also has a ton of replay value and, most importantly, is unlike anything else on the market, whereas Pilotwings and Nintendogs were established experiences, just upgraded.

@SanFrisco9er

My DSi also has broken shoulder buttons on both sides but I still kept it for the time being.

I'm gonna be mad if my 3DS follows all my past DS systems and has its shoulder buttons break as well. Surely they fixed it this time.

I've yet to see a well-dressed woman at a coffee shop playing a 3DS so openly.

Huh, you learn something new every day. I'd never heard this "administration" term used in that fashion, but evidently it's akin to what we call the bankruptcy process in the US.

@Some_Chords

Thou shalt not be ungrateful.

...did that help?

Larger image:

http://wiiclube.uol.com.br/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/icarus_infografico_men2.jpg

I haven't been nearly as taken by Pushmo as everyone else. It's charming, but just not as great a puzzler as I was led to expect. Quickly repetitive once you know all the basics.

DOA:D is a far, far better port and package than SSFIV.

I love Steel Diver and would include it on my list.

Good news.

Well, dang, I couldn't pass up Best Buy's deal. I wasn't planning on getting this one at launch, but... it sounds like plenty of fun for $30, so I jumped on it.

So much better when it was Showbiz Pizza. "Chuck E. Cheese" is the most atrocious franchise name in history. It makes their pizza just sound disgusting, compounded by the fact that it's a mouse.

I dig the 3D effect SEGA uses when you go for the unscaled mode. In fact, I've been playing full-on retro style: unscaled, motion blur, and all. I love emulation that truly tries to replicate the feel of old hardware.

@Oddy, @Radixxs

Did you use the tanooki? Just curious. I swore off that power-up after the halfway point of the game and never looked back, because I found that it ruined the fun.

Well, the lack of Skyrim is a plus. I wouldn't even give that mess an honorable mention.

Batman and Portal 2 were great games that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have no problem with awards for those. Skyward Sword should have been recognized for something, though, as it really is the crowning achievement of the motion control that keeps winning in other categories with pure mediocrity (Kinect Sports in "fitness" category, ha!).

@Nightwalker

I have to doubt that you played the super secret final bonus level that requires you've played through the entire game as both brothers and hit all golden flagpoles. If you unlock that level and play it (and it's a long level, equal to about 3 or 4 normal ones), you'll see that it's the hardest level in Mario history, without question. In any case, even without that final challenge level, the difficulty is undoubtedly higher than nearly all previous Mario games, so I don't know what you were expecting unless you're somehow new to the series.

Winner of Mobile / Handheld: Peggle HD.

Oh, my. I was under the assumption that they wanted these awards to be taken seriously... ?

One day when I'm feeling bored, I plan to book a first-class flight and don my best vestments. Once we get in the air and everyone around me is playing with iPads, I shall lower my sunglasses (stored securely on my head) and then proceed to whip this baby out, volume at max.

@supermariolinux

Yeah you need the top of the flag on every level. Usually you can get that easily with a roll-jump combination, or a Tanooki if you want to remove the challenge.
; )

@supermariolinux

(potential spoilers)

Not Bowser's Castle, but the super-secret bonus level that unlocks after you obtain all gold flagpoles and finish all levels with both brothers. It's at the beginning of S8 once it opens, and looks like a giant flagpole on the level select.

I ended up hating the Tanooki tail in SM3DL, mainly because it severely slows down your gameplay and even messes up some crucial speed moves like the roll-jump. It also takes the tension out of the jumps.

After a while, I started intentionally letting myself get hit every time I had the tanooki, so I could lose it and drop back to straight-up platforming bliss. But I did enjoy the fire power and boomerangs just fine. I also found using the propellor blocks to be great fun in 3d.

I'm tempted to say that the final (golden flagpole) bonus level of Super Mario 3D Land may be the hardest single level in any Mario game to date. And yes, I've played through SMB2 (Japan) but still didn't die that many times in a row.

@James and all others who say SMG > SMG 2

YES. Galaxy is a genuine candidate for my favorite game of all time. Galaxy 2... lost some of the magic, particularly in the switch to speed and linearity. Gone were the slower-paced moments where I could stop and marvel at a strange world, and gone was the endearing storybook of childhood loss.

@Stuffgamer1

Fair enough, but the Mario and Zelda teams have also occasionally made references to Nintendo's pressure to move right onto the next sequel each time they complete a game; the difference is that great developers can use the same franchise to push gaming forward in surprising ways, while less talented developers don't know how to combine new ideas with existing elements.

Mega Man is sadly one of the most prominent examples of a franchise that could never figure out how to stay relevant. All the other big games I played on my NES as a kid--Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, more--have managed to cleverly re-imagine and shift their core concepts each generation. Mega Man pretty much ran out of ideas ages ago.

In other words... odd that this guy of all people is taking about a stagnation.