Ptazza

I've barely played anything on a console online and I've had a great gaming experience so far. In fact most of the time when I went online I found it a detrimental experience.

HD Golden Sun

EA's currently policy I hear. And anything to distance from them is good.

Well the motion controls are totally optional. I don't use them as they are too sensitive but Mario Kart Wii has tricks and has always had drifting which emphasises skill. The items are fun and make sense (something SASR doesn't have, seriously what is the 'hot rod'?) and even if someone does get a blue shell there is tactics you can take to minimise damage or reduce it entirely. As for graphics I'd say it's more due to the realistic nature of SASR compared to Mario Kart, or more the fact that Mario's graphics are just naturally cartoony, I wouldn't say they were by any means bad, beautiful even but remember Sonic was designed for the likes of PS3, Xbox everything else while Mario Kart was exclusive to Wii. Of course it's going to be more powerful graphically.

What? That sounds like a very admirable goal, playing in a room of friends is a much nicer image than playing with a bunch of random fools online shouting obscenities down microphones? That's always been the goal of the Wii U, to bring people together and play. Sure it might not be the same case for big third party games (Black Ops had online multiplayer yeah?) but I imagine most of Nintendo's first party games will aspire to achieve that goal.

I dunno Zircon I never thought Sonic All-stars clobbered Mario Kart recently. Though this game looks nice though the weird 'close up' slow down on the 3DS when bouncing between areas looks like it could be quite flow-breaking.

Sounds like a colossal failure. I kid I'm sure it's all very impressive.

Err why are they obsolete? The things you complain about them to me seem like exactly what they are meant to do. Create a sense of urgency and hurry you along. The standard 2D scroller Mario games were never that much about exploration, sure there's the Star coins and hidden exits for those who dare but that's still all part of the fun and challenge. Especially in Boo houses where exits aren't always apparent.

Spin offs and memorabilia. I love collecting that junk, Japan gets so lucky with the sheer quantity they get but the occasional specialist shop will have things like that in. They make great gifts for friends and fun little things for myself. Plus manga and novel spin-offs of games can really flesh out a universe and hell in cases where it's doubtful the series will go on it gives you just a little more taste of them. My girlfriend used to tease me that "my room had no soul" referencing Raiden and Rose from Metal Gear Solid 2 because I wasn't really a fan of impractical things like art and posters and had none. Guess I was just waiting for the right kinda thing to clutter my room with.

Yeah I'd love to see an Advance Wars fellah though really I think it's long due a Golden Sun character get a proper appearance in it. Here's hoping Isaac gets promoted from just an Assist Trophy (if a pretty awesome one).

Ok man I've ONLY played NSMBWii with 4 players online (party experience) and still not noticed the lag. Also yeah the memory card thing was a bit of a shame and it happened to mine as well, however I don't expect nintendo to be able to restore what is essentially an experience like that. Everything wasn't logged online like it is nowadays so they wouldn't know what needed restoring or anything like that. Also one year warranties are the standards on nearly ANY electronic device these days. Products will inevitably break, I remember hearing some crazy theory where products are, worse, designed to break at some point so you have to replace them. They aren't running a charity after all people need to get paid for the work. It's not that Nintendo is a shadow of the company so much as your expectations of them are comically high.

*shrugs* I quite liked the Card Game mechanic. Though I'm biased COM was actually my first KH game. Though the system worked well enough and Riku's story was totally fun for me. The story is also critically important due to all the villain-casulties in it that KHII barely mentions.

I could totally see Star Wars getting a World, especially with it's emphasis on the Darkside, seems plausible to me to see Vader commanding some trooper-heartless. As for spinoffs, I think you can miss Coded and Days but I'd say thats it. Though if you get the chance I'd say try Days because it's definitely one of the more emotional stories in KH. BBS doesn't really add that much either but it's got decent gameplay and introduces some important characters. Also: Chain of Memories is awesome don't listen to em.

Yeah thirded, there wasn't any lag and doesn't make any sense for there to be lag because it's all offline. The funny deaths came from a friend stealing a power-up and consequently being thrown down a pit. And no I don't know much about the new game and I ain't overly excited about it (granted I don't own the console yet) but I think it looks nice and pretty. I buy a Mario game for those characters and those environments and places. I think society these days has basically decided change=progress. If a Mario platformer is made as tightly with the same lighthearted colourful fun it's always had, that's what I want from the game. I'm not looking for any radical differences. New set of levels and worlds, and four player co-op in a 3D platforming situation IS still new for them. New suit is a bonus. I buy Mario for essentially Mario, big demands for major improvements and complaints of Mario getting stale...well I just think that's people going on the assumption there needs to be change. The screenshots look beautiful and colourful enough for me, I don't care overly about graphics and a high framerate isn't that necessary in a Mario game (though I haven't seen any framerate issues) so it just doesn't seem that bad to me.

Er...I found NSMBWii an utter blast multiplayer. First couple of times me and my friends found it awkward but hilarious with many trolling opportunities due to the way it worked. However when we put aside our spite and vengeance it really allowed for some great teamwork opportunities to achieve our goals and we went and got every star coin in the game. As for your complaints about Smash bro's graphics...I haven't really paid much attention but so what? Melee on gamecube looked fine for what it needed to be. Snake and maybe Zero Suit Samus were the only realistic characters on the roster in Brawl but with a roster of mostly cartoony characters ultra fine-graphics aren't really needed so long as they are damn fun and Smash bros most certainly is.

Complain all you like about the friendship bit but it's been a fact of gaming Trivia for a long time now. Sure Konami probably collected some royalties too but putting Solid Snake in your game is hardly going to be an unprofitable venture anyway.

Unfortunately I can't agree with you. Neither me nor my friends knew who Roy or Marth were, I'd only played Sacred Stones at the time so I knew the franchise but not the characters even though I liked how they played. As for Lucas (or worse Ness) I had no idea who they were, in fact come Melee's launch I didn't know what Earthbound was at that point. So no I don't think they were exceptionally recognisable.

I like how you ignored me, it makes you look more foolish. Snake may have the slightest of connections to nintendo (though for the record most folks I know like Twin Snakes even if the cutscenes are a bit hilariously OTT) but he was included more because I heard Sakurai was close friends with Kojima and Kojima was begging for Snake to be in Melee but it was too late in development for it to be possible so he was placed in Brawl instead. Snake is an easily recognisable character in the Video Game world and is incredibly popular and most-importantly recognisable to the mass-market. Individual protagonists from a tales game...aren't as recognisable.

It's a fanservice game, sheer popularity is all that's needed to be included alongside a link to nintendo. Sonic, Snake and Megaman are all crazy popular and all have ties to nintendo at one point in their life. Especially Megaman who has spent most of his life there.

Pac-Man would be a weird choice. Though this is still such fantastic news.

Yeah gotta concur that medicines and treatments go through extremely rigorous trials before they are ever accepted for use. I sincerely doubt people would go for a medicine like that if it has potentially fatal side-effects.

That's actually so hilarious. Good on Microsoft for being a good sport.

I'm so glad this song made it to the main site at last it was definitely one of my favourites from the album. I heard Brandon was bashing you about using too many chiptunes for early versions but that bit where you drop it back to the original 8-bit tune is pretty hilarious and awesome so glad you got to keep a little bit in. Great job man.

EA's too much of a whore for exclusivity. If anything the Xbox exclusivity is probably the usual 'one month exclusivity' on DLC and minor features. There's no way EA would do a deal like that, specially not when their Sony games sell fine too.

I like how all your examples of games you gave originated all on other consoles. Y'see I'm more bothered about the kind of games made for phones as opposed to dedicated handhelds, touchscreen-based controls can really irk me if they aren't innovative. I like the feel of buttons beneath my thumbs and find on-screen buttons for an emulator just aren't as effective or precise for me (call it my fat thumbs).