wiill

They seriously need new lighting effects, it looks rubbish by 2016 standards

Good to see Nintendo return to coloured buttons in their hardware design, much easier when you're playing with someone not used to Nintendo machines:
Me: "Press the B button"
Dad: "huh?"
Me: "The yellow one!"

I would argue this is all because of the success of Super Mario Maker (and to a lesser extent sales of Disney Infinity)

@DontPlayDumb
That would be lovely. I have a hunch it will happen around March 2016 with the launch of the new nintendo account ecosystem.

Off TV play, free online for 8 players and miiverse make for great additions to this game. Exclusive Nintendo content will knock it out of the park, likewise when the current version (1.6) is updated to the current build (1.8.8) next year.

There actually is touchscreen support for the menus, but they're so tiny it's quite impractical.

Hopefully in future updates we'll see:

• Minecraft realms for Wii U (it's possible, because as far as I know every console owner wants this. Miiverse or nintendo account realms would be astonishing)
• cloud saves (so you can port your game from other versions)
• a dedicated touchscreen menu
• Gyro controls
• a 3DS version
• a Steve amiibo

I have a feeling the last two are very likely if the Wii U version sells well

It's great that we're seeing more collaboration between Nintendo and Square-Enix with Cloud appearing in Smash Bros, a Cloud amiibo, Super Mario RPG on Wii U VC and FF 6 on the Japanese VC

Hopefully there's something big coming down the pipe - starting with more SNES-era RPGs on the VC

Don't really care for Smash Bros to be honest

@Ventilator
Unfortunately that's the story of every third party Wii U port. Except for Arkham City, which no one bought.

SINGS: HALLELUJAH!

"Nintendo and Mojang are also collaborating on new content for Nintendo fans to be released at a future date"

... Please be amiibo... Please be amiibo...

I love it, it looks as if Nintendo are building a fully scaleable OS, PC-style. Play a hi res game at home, play the lo res version on the move on your handheld (and vice versa).
Cluster computing is also the best solution to Wii U's main problems: a power drop off when showing anything on a second screen, and network slowness. 8 machines in a wifi Smash Bros match all lending processor power to the game, so there's no slow down.
Lovely

I actually bought this when it came out (I know), and I can say quite honestly its the best version so far. It's ridiculous fun. But I guess the casual console craze had moved on by then.

Ho hum. Why aren't there DS download titles for 3DS yet?
Maybe in March with the launch of the account system?

I reckon a new handheld will come out in the summer and it'll be compatible with Wii U, then the new home console will come in late 2017

Just a hunch.

@Chandlero
I hear you, I actually prefer casual games ducks behind sofa

Really makes you appreciate how well considered the Nintendo aesthetic is

£209 is great for a Wii U with two of the best games going, but it's the price it should have been at RRP a year ago

It's a very reasonable point, the market is the smallest of the current gen systems, plus nintendo players don't tend to buy annual fifa games

@gatorboi352
Kind of half joking. Kind of.

He's right, if it's easy for developers to port PS4 and XBONE, it'll clean up

BUT, Nintendo don't really care about that. If it was a choice between selling 100million and making something genuinely brilliant and breaking even, they'd pick the latter.

Nintendo are the Woody Allen of video games, they've been around longer than all you turkeys and they'll still be here when you're gone.

I can only see the difference when they're side by side - they need to round out those polygons and add some better light and shadow effects if they really want to bring it up to 2015/2016 standards

It would be cool if you could generate QR codes and share them online.
It would also be cool if you could play your own levels on your 3DS.

Maybe in a future update...

Well it's 13 november now and it's not out, so I think it's an error

Erm, who said they're competing with Facebook?

Nintendo aren't trying to create a worldwide media conglomerate with this, it's a fun harmless app where you use your Mii.

And.
That's.
It.

Everybody chill.

Just in time for StarFox!

I'm absolutely sure of it.

What's more, I am sure that Nintendo, one of the longest-running, most successful companies in the world, knows what it's doing.

This will be huge in Japan, I somehow doubt we're that shy with our friends in Europe and the Americas.

However, the idea of getting casual users to make Miis is a brilliantly simple way to draw them into the nintendo universe. Hopefully we'll see more Mii in more places.

Also I wonder how this will feed into Miiverse as a whole, especially the personal likes/dislikes stuff

I would probably get a 3DS remake, but I wouldn't bother with a Wii U one. It's too recent. Unless its the first nintendo account game and it comes out on both? Now THAT would be awesome!

You put too much emphasis on Nintendo's share price, what really matters is its cashflow

Next month's Splatfest will be Platonic Epistemology v Arisotelian Metaphysics

Nobody made a 'bet my ARM' joke..
disappointed in you lot....

My 10 cents on NX is

• a new $150 portable that's like a more powerful 2DS tablet, call it 4DS
• 6 months later an updated $250 Wii U that is essentially a beefed up system with no disc drive and has a 3DS card slot instead, with a controller that looks a bit like 4DS but with fewer functions: call it Wii X
• turns out you can use the 4DS as a controller on Wii X and play scaled down versions of Wii X games on 4DS, and vice versa upscaled.
• Boom, nintendo sells millions

It's very encouraging to see Nintendo work alongside companies like Google investing in new business

They will make a ton of money with their mobile ventures, if done right, and the amount of time and caution they took before embracing mobiles assures that they are confident it is being done right

@WebHead What's Zen?

I'm liking what I'm hearing - a lot of the concerns of Wii U are being met by the sounds of things.

Look at the manufacturing efficiency of the 2Ds, they're now selling them for £80 and still making profit (I strongly expect the mobile unit to be a 2DS style tablet)

Take the disc drive out (expensive hardware) and you now have a system cheaper and potentially more powerful than Wii U. Third parties have been included early. Looking good so far.

I think they've looked at sales of Mario Maker and Disney Infinity and realised Minecraft could probably would sell well on Wii U, this is a toe in the water

But if you ask me the real target is the amiibo market

Brill! Looking forward to it

If it happened so suddenly and so uniformly across multiple retailers then it's a deliberate strategy by Nintendo. I think this is the first sign of the unified OS, and shows it will be backed up in the retail/marketing side too.

I think it strengthens their brand recognition and it's a very good thing

If you look at the trends in the existing generation, you can see that all 3 are moving towards making their consoles more and more "invisible".

Sony has introduced PlayStation now and ideally wants you to be able to play PS games on the cloud through Sony TVs. Microsoft is letting anyone with Windows play Xbox games. Even Nintendo is building an ecosystem. Takeda designed the Wii U to be an invisible "stage hand"

The interesting difference is that while Sony and Microsoft are integrating their gaming systems into their other existing products, Nintendo faces the challenge of having to justify the purchase of their specialised hardware more and more (I think they can). Fascinating to see what they'll come up with.

IMHO it's a brilliantly made game, and genuinely terrifying. Unfortunately, after a week of playing I had to put it down, because it was too violent for me. The sight and sound of having to crack open granny's zombie skull with a cricket bat was far too graphic for me. But some people will love it.

Assassin's Creed 3 was my early Wii U highlight. I'd never played an AC game before that, and it was simply perfect on the Wii U with the gamepad and miiverse. Bliss.

Nothing for me, but I'm still playing Mario Maker so I don't mind

Nintendo's big holiday push will be its new OS and a slate of mobile games, Starfox doesn't really matter. They'll need something to fill the Q1 gap anyway.

I remember this being a really exciting game in 1995 because of the graphics and music. This year I downloaded it on the Wii U VC and realised it's just a very dull platformer.

Miyamoto should present them

Let's not judge him by his admittedly terribly photo! I remember when Iwata was named, people doubted he had the gravitas to lead Nintendo after the iron hand of Yamauchi. Kimishima-San is incredibly qualified, so Nintendo will be in safe hands for the long term, that's for sure. We will all miss Iwata's personal warmth, but let's give Kimishima a chance to show what kind of CEO he'll be.

My guess is that mario Maker will be such a hit that loads of developers will want to copy it, and Minecraft will come to the 3DS, Wii U or both

Brilliant video! That really brightened my day!

50/50. I thought initally it copied the Wiimote too, and it also copies the touch pad of the Wii U and (the Wii U copying) PS4

But there are elements that are unique - the hybrid of portable and set top box may well predate whatever the NX could be, The "play on iOS/pick up where you left off on your TV" is a great feature that I hope NX will copy. And 3D touch looks really interesting and innovative.

Most importantly of all, Nintendo will be releasing iOS games soon. It will interesting to see if they come out on Apple TV.

@Starwolf_UK
35 is near 40

I'm going to get Mario Maker as a download because I want to have it on my homescreen, I reckon I'm going to play it the most (even when Star Fox and Xenoblade come out)

Plus at £35, it's actually near RRP for once.

Is Sin + Punishment translated from Japanese? That's quite a big deal isn't it?

Wish they'd localised the F-Zero track editor for the 64DD as part of builder's week. Or Sim City 64 for that matter!