warioswoods

Miyamoto is a true Zen master.

(Your King of Fighters review link takes me to the wrong castle.)

Ok, so I did play the 30-minute trial on OnLive, and it was considerably less interesting than even my low expectations. Sure, my entire play time was eaten up by what I assume is just an intro action sequence in this city, but it was truly god-awful: corny designs and story, awful god-of-war style brawling, and just an overwhelming boredom of repetition that made playing the entire 30 minutes a great chore.

Now, I'm sure it must have better things to offer after that point... but it's hard to trudge through what feels like a lengthy, B-level action / fantasy film in order to reach the parts that might be better. That was as much Darksiders as I'll ever be willing to play.

Wow. After watching some Fez gameplay, I have even less respect for this fellow. His entire schtick is based on a 2d / 3d hybrid trick with graphics reminiscent of the NES.

Um... ever play Super Paper Mario, Mr. Fish? It's not even the best of its series, but still uses that switching gimmick to create a far more charming game than everything I'm seeing of Fez.

And it did it years ago... so where's the innovation? Is Fish proud of combining a gameplay idea from 5+ years ago with retro graphics from the NES days? How are these elements anything but rip-offs of Japan's work?

Seriously, where's a 3DS Castlevania to rival the great DS and GBA games??

Hell, they could probably slap together an anthology of those prior games with added 3D layers and I'd buy it. Or just a port of Symphony of the Night in 3D. Anything!

Um, no. I'd take just the team responsible for say, the Rhythm Heaven franchise over the entirety of FPS devs in the US any day of the week.

In any case, I try not to support idiots, so this one will not go on my buy list.

Masters of the Universe?

@HarpTwins

Oh... so you do use frequent exclamation points in your own writing, not just your speaking. I stand corrected. But I still intend to find a clever way to blame James.

Enjoyable interview and talented duo, but naturally I have a minuscule criticism:

When your interviewees have an enthusiastic way of speaking in general, there's no need to keep using so many exclamation marks. It makes it read a bit strangely when nearly every sentence is marked with that punctuation.

Nobody expects the Spanish defecation!

Wait, were monkeys involved?

You had me at the tag line, but then you had to go and mention Colorforms. Man... now I'll have to take a trip over to ebay and relive my childhood.

Where is the advance warning??

I'm sure gonna give them an earful in my next Club Nintendo surveys. That'll show 'em.

Wii Music's e3 presentation was a huge miscalculation, as WaveBoy noted, but the game itself was bizarrely wonderful. I'm the sometimes-captain of the Wii Music Defense Force, so I should know.

Huh... I always thought this was Nintendo's greatest blender.

These are not all "blunders". This article conflates a few different levels of analysis, citing any move backwards in market share (ie, N64) or any rebuke of the "core" gamer mentality (censorship, Wii casual games) as a mistake without taking into account the positive effects of these on other levels.

N64's cartridges lacked in a number of areas, sure, but they also excelled in ways that PS1 couldn't. Ocarina of Time, to name one, couldn't have run the same way without terrible loading times between all its massive spaces. The avoidance of pre-rendered movies due to limited storage was also not purely a negative, because it meant making huge strides forward in scripted, real-time cutscenes; and in the long run, pre-rendered sequences have become obsolete as games move towards using the in-game engine for storytelling, just as the N64 was doing well ahead of the competition.

Where exactly are we marking a mistake in the case of the Wii? That it widened the base of gamers? No problem there. That it didn't deliver the goods to core gamers? I don't see how one can make that point, as the influx of money for Nintendo made possible the greatest games of recent years. You don't get Mario Galaxy without Wii Sports.

What humorless committee of colorblinds put this brown mess above Rhythm Heaven? >: (

@DarkKirby

Agreed. The current patent law is patently stupid. And counterproductive.

I look forward to this one. Increasing the speed of play is just what the franchise needed. That, and finally taking it away from Hudson (sorry, Hudson).

Oh cool is this some kinda underground indie game? I can tell because of the pixels.

Ooh, I've been meaning to play Radar Mission for a while, so here's my chance.

Why? Because I love Steel Diver. That's right, haters, it's still one my favorite little gems on the 3DS, and I look forward to playing Nintendo's earlier attempt at a sub game, from which they drew certain ideas when making the recent game.

Did somebody say Foucault?

Giving that kind of authentically "transgressive" weight to what the Meat guys do is a huge stretch if you ask me. This sounds like a more apt description of these guys:

"Making transgression a form of identity results in a vacuous and ultimately pathetic spectacle of heroically confronting limits that no longer exist for the subjects in question." (Sergei Prozorov, Foucault, freedom and sovereignty )

... also, the fact that the violent "bro" gamers out there love these games should make anyone suspicious of a genuinely transgressive status.

I think it's a bit of an over-glorification to see this as "art" in any sense of the word.

When I look at Team Meat and every statement or image to come out of them, I see a group of self-important, immature guys who think throwing "edgy" gross visuals into a game makes them somehow transgressive, even though the game engines always have that awful feel of something prototyped as a Flash game. I found this dev immensely immature with the whole meat / veggie thing over their last game, and I see little change now.

Ie., I've hated Team Meat from the first words I ever saw quoted from the devs online, and since that time they've only become more self-inflated without anything to their credit other than over-the-top, failed attempts to be transgressive. I don't see why we should care.

Rawr.

The demo had hands down the most clunky controls I've yet experienced on a Nintendo handheld, and the optional CPP is irrelevant to me. Honestly, after that awkward demo that felt like a broken port, I wasn't expecting better than a 5 for the review.

But evidently this series isn't for me, because I find it corny and ugly. Also, cardboard crocodiles that just whip their tails to knock you over... what?? How can I play this with a straight face?

...is that tagline really a pun on the popular retail chain Bed, Bath, and Beyond? Do you even have those in the UK??? O.o

Tekken 3D looks like the laziest port I've ever seen, so I no longer have any interest in what this guy has to say. He's the last person I'd expect to take advantage of a console's unique features.

Not this nonsense again... this study hasn't done enough work to conclude anything whatsoever. They just threw 2 different kinds of games at kids and then stood back.

If used in the context of the right parental guidance, more active titles can absolutely be helpful for keeping kids from just sinking into the couch with a controller when they get home from school. I've seen all this play out with my younger relatives and their very attentive parents (one of my sisters is in physical education, and she really makes good use of Wii gaming time with her family).

Studies like this one are just looking for a headline, but haven't done much other than take a small sample and run some numbers, without getting into the details of how games of different types can be integrated into parenting.

With all the ambassador games, awesome VC stuff, eShop gems, Swapnote, Streetpasses, and more... my 3DS has truly turned into a little toybox, filled with countless things to do every time I open it up. I'd say it's the most fun I've had with any handheld system.

@JumpMad

Bonfireplacing

@Shworange

No, I demand stylus control (ie, resistive touchscreen). That little preview of someone drawing a pencil-style picture of Link on the system wouldn't even be remotely possible with those awful, imprecise capacitative touchscreens found in other devices.

@Koto

...unless I'm mistaken, the Pokemon Company is directly owned by Nintendo. But I think you're right that GameFreak is actually independent.

Never played the Poke's, but I find this announcement confusing.

@Tech101

Weird, because I registered by OoT3D with Club Nintendo, and got the Reggie one on time. Hmmmm....

I have a hard time believing it will be a big 3DS game announcement, because why would they do that after the big Nintendo Direct PR blast earlier this week? It would have made more sense to announce it last Sunday, then feature more information alongside the other hype in those videos last Tuesday. But... I could be wrong.

I got the Reggie note and I own OoT3D, but this message still hasn't arrived. I want the stationery.

That's strange... I've never known Nikki to be a gossip. I sure hope she doesn't start blabbing about those notes I sent her.

yyeees

Interesting... actual options should be better than having to remember to hold Start or Select every time I boot up a game.

grrr... I don't really care much about the Last Story and probably won't have time to deal with that monstrous Xenogears. This was at the top fo the import list for me, and NOA skipped it evidently. >

That's cool, but I prefer when my special friend Nikki sends them over the recent Reggie messages >_<

Surely this will come to NA, right? right???? I need another great Wii-mote based creepy game, particularly after Silent Hill blew me away.

I don't care about online play, I just want the RPG experience of those early Camelot classics. But sadly I somehow feel certain they'll drop all of that once again, in which case no purchase from me.

Nintendo courting... Comcast ??

Evidently I've been a terrible wingman for my pal Miyamoto. An intervention may be needed at this point.

I do not want my console to be part of some online social profile.

I prefer each game I play to be an experience all its own, with no overarching player profile to somehow tie them all together as part of one identity with stats and shared information. What an irritating thing to maintain.

There's a reason I shut down my Facebook, use different account names on every site I visit, and have multiple unrelated Twitter accounts. I prefer my entertainment to be separated into different spheres. Maintaining an identity is not something I'll do online; you have to meet me for that, or know me through professional connections, which are entirely separate.

Let me tell you, I just was not born for this Facebook generation. I hope Nintendo forgoes named accounts and keeps it like the eShop, but I'm certainly a minority there.

It's the Nintendogs sequel you need, not the one you deserve.

I'M PANICKING

I even updated my avatar for this game. I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go, NOA. Bring it!

Man, this Pokemon thing sure is a lot more complicated than I realized. Now I'm even more wary of ever trying it.

@RedBlueSpot

I think you're looking for LovePlus, out now in Japan.

I've got a secret!