warioswoods

"This is attributed to the fact that the development team didn't see the peripheral until the announcement of Monster Hunter 3 G, an amazing admission considering that this is a Nintendo published title."

It's not amazing. The CPPro was only created to make it easier for certain 3rd party developers to carry over a console-style control scheme for their more traditional fans. There is absolutely no evidence that it will be a part of their 1st party strategy, nor is there any logic at all to believing in this mythical "redesign".

Such a great, under-appreciated series of games, though I'll agree with others that DK '94 may have been the best of them all.

@13

"think of one 3DS game that use Gyro controls for its main gameplay and not just a gimmicky tool to mess with and then get bored in a few seconds."

Zelda OoT 3D.

Once I started using the gyro controls to aim projectile weapons and to look around each new room (yes, with 3D always enabled), I couldn't go back to the circle pad for any of that. My accuracy on the archery minigames was also far, far better than I had on the original N64 game. Nothing is quite so quick and responsive as motion for that kind of gameplay, IMO.

"It might not happen this year, but there WILL be a new 3DS model with the second circle pad included"

Absolutely not. Have you really thought about this?

The Circle Pad Pro (henceforth CCP) doesn't just add a right analog; it also adds a second layer of shoulder buttons and a curved grip - Now, let's think carefully about the implications: how could a redesign even make sense?

First off, the games designed for the CCP absolutely are designed to use the extra shoulder buttons (you need more than 2 buttons to add to your analog, after all, and can't easily use face buttons at all with both thumbs planted), so if you added a new circle pad without the second shoulder row, you'd be breaking backwards compatibility with these. Oops. Not to mention that you'd now have a hard time coming up with any workable control schemes with just 2 shoulder buttons.

So, maybe they'll somehow add those shoulder buttons into a redesign? Let's think about that. You'll have to do one of two things: make the device even thicker--surely a no-no unless this is just a niche XL model--or somehow place the buttons side-by-side. Try imagining it that way. It doesn't work.

Furthermore, you can't just shove a circle pad onto the right half, below the face buttons, and have it work out. Try it yourself: hold the 3DS as if it had a second circle pad placed there. You'll have hand cramps in no time, and you'll barely be able to even use the one existing right shoulder button without great discomfort and awkwardness.

It just doesn't add up, not by a long shot. The CCP itself adds all that bulk because it's necessary if you want a dual-analog control setup. You can't do it shoving one onto the face of the current device. There are even more reasons that this idea makes no sense, but I'll stop there.

@DJ_Triforce

For me, the Zelda series does have a rich background precisely by not limiting itself to one version of events. It's more like mythology than contemporary writing: there are various themes, characters, legends, prophecies, and ideas that draw it all together, but often these are repeated in differing forms and variations. They're connected thematically, yet not necessarily tied to one single authoritative version of events.

Yep. Nintendo is a smart enough developer not to begin with a story; on the contrary, you start with gameplay ideas, let them coalesce around key features, and then begin to craft a story in parallel that will map onto the gameplay and its needs appropriately.

Respecting the canon and its events is not important; maintaining some of the same storytelling elements or characters while moving things in a new direction is all that matters.

It's okay, when it's in a three-way.

@Fuzzy

Well... we do have a kind of hand in our university's web presence, so Google's interfaces and aesthetics come up frequently as a topic.

@Dazza

Only evil people use hex, and those with 8 fingers on each hand.

This has been a subject of much debate around my office: what color is that Google logo in the picture?

Would you call it a variation on red, on orange, or somewhere halfway between the two? Or, would you name it something entirely different?

I find this developer immensely irritating. No thanks.

I'm someone who loathes most of the existing social networking avenues out there (hate logging into my Facebook and rarely do so anymore, despise receiving unnecessary text messages, etc) - so I found Swapnote to be charmingly simple. No complication, just send little drawings to your friends, with enough freedom to be creative and quirky yet not burdened by excessive options and features. It's my favorite item to come out of the eShop so far.

Ah, Ghost Trick. I almost forgot that released this year. It's easily in competition to be my favorite DS game of all time, incidentally.

@40

"I'm not rescuing a princess or saving the world from evil; I'm just grabbing money and treasure and clobbering generic enemies for no particular reason"

Perhaps that's the best part. I tire of heros, personally. Just give me a good cartoonish romp with fun levels and ideas, and don't bother justifying morally why I'm gathering coins or bashing enemies. Mario doesn't do it for the princess either; that's just a ruse. ; )

The greatest portable platforming series, bar none.

Swapnote / letterbox is unbeatable on eShop, I say. Truly charming.

The greatest Christmas games were ones that only used the season as a setting... like Batman Returns (SNES).

The closer to Christmas, the better. They need to generate buzz just as the holidays are closing in.

The more I think about it, by the way, it feels as if Nintendo might be making a brilliant move by pivoting away from motion controls as the selling point. Microsoft has been trying to plug Kinect as the "next big thing" in motion controls this holiday season, and consumers are feeling fatigue with the concept, having seen it year after year, now with different hardware from a different company.

Something truly new for living-room, family gaming will need a different idea to capture everyone's attention again. Motion can be part fo the equation, but it probably won't be enough to create a "hit" holiday item ever again.

@Scissors

I have to agree on a couple of points. Adding a border and subtle 3D like on the GB games would have been easy for them to do, and the fact that these don't let me suspend to return to the main 3DS menu will effectively mean that I will rarely play these, as I don't like having to make it all the way to a save point every time I pick up the system.

Huh, nice equipment. I also would like to reintroduce the bowed-screen effect of a classic TV. Playing VC games on my flatscreen really is quite a terrible thing, looking nothing like the kind of display these games were created for.

I'm thinking of just giving up and hooking the Wii up to a nice, tube-based TV in another room, although that means sacrificing its coveted place in the living room just in order to improve the image... hm, decisions to be made.

When the Wii U comes out, I'll finally be able to have my cake an eat it too, with the Wii U in the living room and the old Wii in a back room on a CRT. yay ; )

Wow, that is a surprisingly awesome selection of games. I couldn't come up with a much better list, myself.

And... WARIO LAND 4! Wooohooo!

Huh, I felt sure they'd move MP9 onto the Wii U, since board games seem perfect for that system. Either way, I look forward to it greatly. It seems likely to be the best Mario Party in ages, given its move out of Hudson.

I <3 Intelligent Systems.

Haha, I hope his "retirement" will mean more candidly bizarre confessions like this one.

"ben drowned" has now made it so that anything from Majora's Mask now makes me a bit frightened and apprehensive.

@Koto

Same here, about 1000 just sitting there unused. But it's too bad I already have most of the digital items listed above (comment #4) :-/ Hopefully they'll expand it.

More power to his apprentices, particularly Koizumi, is a good thing. I'll also look forward to his smaller projects.

Heck, I'm a big fan of Steel Diver, which is exactly the kind of off-beat yet simple and focused kind of gaming that I hope he'll continue to pursue. That and Wii Music 2. Make it happen!

Finally, the quirky Mario Land series dies and is reborn into what it should have been all along.

WarioLand > SML * SML2 * 1000

I love the spring suit. The shoe is great for nostalgia but harder to envision working in 3D.

To be honest, I thought for years that I'd love to see a tanooki revival, but after playing SM3DL I actually feel that the game is far more fun when I avoid the leaves at all costs. Fluttery jumps kill the challenge as well as the pacing; now that I've started avoiding them, I'm back to speedy platforming bliss.

Agree with other commenters: Why no Wind Waker?! And TP, for that matter.

Romulo is absolutely right about WW. Seeing the old kingdom of Hyrule frozen in time deep under the ocean was a staggering moment.

As for TP, becoming a wolf for the first time and finding yourself in that other dimension with Midna is hard to top. It cemented for me the sense that this Zelda game had a tone and sense of mystery unlike any other.

Only second best? 'Tis a sad tale, indeed.

Beaten by your own banana, plunged by your own peel, fried by your own fruit... figged by your own Newton.

@shinesprite

My minor grip is the same; it's just not as dark and night-time-ish enough compared to the original. However, I'm sure it will have a "background dimming" feature like Kirby, in which case it may look just fine and evening-like enough for me.

Huh.

While I actually love the treatment given Kirby, this one seems like a step backward from the NES release, because I have the opposite feeling of Link79: I prefer the "nighttime" feel of the original over these backdrops.

I suppose they had to do have a backdrop in order for the 3D to be meaningful, but now I'm not sure if I like the new aesthetics.

You had me at "win"...

you lost me at "Europe"

Is there any way to ban players from the community, or can anyone play who knows the code?

I'm wondering, if / when hackers or exploiters show up, whether communities will be able to just outright ban them.

@pikky

At the risk of sounding biased (loving NSMBWii and DKCR), my reactions to gameplay videos are exactly the same as yours: it looks impressive technically yet somewhat ugly artistically, and the physics / level design seem incredibly loose compared to other platformers. It looks like a flash-game platformer, if you know what I mean (the approach to physics and graphics, not the overall level of detail or quality).

But with this 10 rating, I should give it a try at some point, if only to prove myself right O_o

In any case, I'm saddened to see this getting 10s across other review sites that didn't award a 10 to DKCR (the greatest achievement in 2D platforming level design in ages).

Huh... I've frankly always disliked both the art style and the level design of 2D Rayman, but I suppose I'll have to look into this one a bit closer before dismissing it.

So... no Mission mode? That's too bad. It's hard to see this package rivaling Mario Kart DS without it.

Never forget:

Nice tagline.

Dang, I was hoping Lakitu64 would show up.

The screenshots continue to underwhelm, as have all the gameplay videos I've seen. Everything seems plastic-y, badly animated, badly textured.

Personally, I'd prefer they went with 30fps with 3D (the oddball 60fps purists can play w/out 3D), if that means polishing up the graphics more. DoA Dimensions looks absolutely gorgeous, as if it were a generation ahead of what I'm seeing here.

"I never had that problem with the original, but yes, for folks who did, then this should help a good deal"

Hey, you tricked me, I wanted to make this about your defective eyes not appreciating the 3D.

Disagree! For me, the 3D effect added makes all the difference in the world.

Original NES titles like this one, using a lot of color and saturated settings, had one big visual problem: distinguishing the layers of foreground and background. I can't tell you how many times in an NES game I thought something was a platform when it was part of the background, or vice versa; everything kind of ran together. The SNES had parallax scrolling to create the necessary separation, but the NES couldn't do much to help itself here.

The 3D effect actually handles the problem even better than 2D parallax, IMO, and makes the layers of the world pull apart like papercraft in a diorama. Everything just looks so much more crisp, clean, and defined than ever before.

This effect alone would make me gladly replay all my favorite NES platformers.

It seems you'll either love the 3D effect in Kirby or be unable to see it. Watch the trailer and decide.

I'm in the former camp; it looks beautiful to pull apart a classic 2d platformer into paper-like layers. Even on the small screen, everything now looks crisper and better defined than ever before possible.

Finally I can play Kirby with a giant pink border.

@Kid_A

Is there any outside factor that effects Wii Motion+ that we know of? That's the only thing I can think of

Incompetence.

@The_Fox

You haven't met me, evidently. I honestly enjoyed playing TP more than I've ever enjoyed playing OoT, even in 3DS remake form (which is fun, but not gripping). Midna is hands-down the best character in Zelda, and the narrative atmosphere was handled far better than the old sages-and-ancient-seals-doth-thou fare from past games that always feels like bad fantasy fiction.

Note that I played it for the first time at least a year after the vocal internet decriers turned on the game, so I went in with an open mind, having heard both praise and criticism aplenty.

@The_Fox

Reviews of Twilight Princess were even more unanimous in praise:

IGN: one of the finest games I have ever played

1UP (who gave SS only a B+): takes all its predecessors' raw ideas, perfects them

It's the usual Nintendo cycle we've seen in recent years:

(1) Nintendo comes up with a new kind of hardware (Motion Plus, 3DS) and crafts a few simple games in order to briefly yet meticulously enumerate all the new things you can do with it (Wii Sports Resort, Steel Diver / Pilotwings).

(2) Then, they sit back and wait for 3rd parties to learn by example and carry these new possibilities into other, more substantial games and genres.

(3) That never happens, and 3rd party developers show themselves to be consistently inept at handling new ideas or following Nintendo's lead.

(4) Finally, Nintendo has to step up again and just do it themselves, creating a sweeping game that shows how the new tech should have been handled all along, and proving that you can make big, traditional games on the new hardware that take advantage of all the unique capabilities (Skyward Sword, Mario 3D Land).

I just wish they'd skip steps (2) and (3) in the future. 3rd party developers will always disappoint when asked to think outside the box, or even just when asked to make use of new tools and tech, even when the capabilities have been demonstrated at length.

Me want Kirby in NA.