XZero

I'm not trying to debate the game's merits, but I'm just curious: you really don't think so? I know the music is awesome any way you look at it, and maybe I can't take off my nostalgia goggles, but I really liked it. In the interest of full disclosure, it was the first RPG I played through to completion that didn't have the word "Pokemon" in the title, so it holds a special place in my heart. It was also the game that really got me into RPGs in the first place. Oh, and you forgot Mario & Luigi 3 when you listed good DS RPGs on the last page (I know, I know. Your response is "No I didn't.") On the topic of Xenoblade, isn't there some E3-like event coming up in August that Nintendo regularly attends? Stupidity/optimism suggests to me that they realistically have through that event to announce a North American release of the game if they're going to put it out here at all. If they decide against it, I can understand from a business perspective, but it still is somewhat of a middle finger to the fans. I've blindly bought every Nintendo console and handheld except for Virtual Boy all my life. After the giant slaps in the face of the 3DS "launch window," Nintendo's refusal to localize 3 major RPGs, and the fact that the Wii won't likely have a good game in 2011's entirety except for Zelda and maybe Kirby, I'm really considering waiting on a Wii U and sticking with my PS3 for a while instead. If the company really doesn't give a shit about its older (or otherwise non-blue ocean) fans, I don't see much of a reason to give a shit about that company. Years ago I never would have predicted myself saying this, but I really wish Nintendo would just get out of the console business and start putting its games on PS3 and Xbox. Their biggest highlights are their games, and it'd be great if they could put more emphasis on those and less on ridiculous "innovative" control schemes. Video games are about the games, and denying fans the games without at least the courtesy of an adequate explanation is honestly sort of rude.

Hello, S. 978. It's always nice to meet a new bill that either (a) isn't going to go anywhere, or ( will be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Let's you and I be buddies while you're alive because Lord knows it won't be too long =) Cheers!

He's backed up by his supporters GBA and DS.

Do you own any current-gen consoles? I could be mistaken, but by my count, the PS3 has about 3 or 4 solid JRPGs (Star Ocean 4, Eternal Sonata, the forthcoming Tales of Graces F, Disgaea, and arguably FFXIII), a handful of mediocre ones (Atelier Rorona, Ar Tonelico 3, and Trinity something), and some downright crappy ones (Hyperdimension Neptunia, from what I've heard). The 360 isn't in much better of a boat except for it switching out Tales of Graces for Tales of Vesperia. So if you won't buy a console without some solid JRPGs (not disagreeing, by the way ), your best bet seems to be a DS Lite at the moment!

Here's the right link to the final boss theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iFynm-F53c

I can respect that and I have to agree that it would be neat if they pulled off something as cool as you described. The best I can do is present the counterpoint (and my little "In Defense of the Controller" argument ). Right now, I'm studying for the bar exam, which means my days generally consist of about 10-11 hours of studying. The only time I play video games is at night for about an hour before I go to bed. The LAST thing I want to do at that point is talk to my games, stand up to play, or for that matter, move around at all. And after I take the bar, I'll have a job that'll require 50-60 hours per week of work, and again, the last thing I'll want to do is play a game that requires me to move anything more than my fingers. Picture this. You have a Zelda game (yeah, I know it's not Kinect, but just go with it). To play, you have to stand, walk in place, bend down to open treasure chests, swing your hands like you're holding a sword (or hold a plastic sword for the hell of it if you have the space). Couple that with 7.1 surround sound and a 3D display and you have perhaps the coolest game ever. When you walk into Kokiri Forst, you really do walk into the forst, and it's ridiculously immersive. Is what I described really cool conceptually? Absolutely, and it'd be lots of fun to play as a AAA title pulled off correctly. Unless you work all day and gaming is your little way of relaxing after that. And for those people, you need to be able to turn off the 3D and pick up a controller so you can successfully enjoy the game while pleasantly sitting your fat ass down on your recliner. So I guess we both agree that Kinect tech is really cool and has lots of potential. I just hope that the controller isn't dropped completely. Give me a choice to pick up a controller instead of moving around. That way we can both be happy!

Yeah, but it didn't have anything particularly embarassing happening besides Reggie proudly standing up on stage saying, "Wii U" as if the name was a good idea. And that means that while lackluster, it was comparatively better than the other two. Not that that's saying much.

They indirectly announced 2 new Smash Bros. games, but given that the team is still working on Kid Icarus, those don't really count. Its promise of 3rd party content on the Wii U is also pretty big in theory, but it falls short at present since they only mentioned games that will almost certainly be out on PS3 and XBox 360 well before the Wii U launches in 2012, and because realistically, the Wii should have had a way to offer the same content for the last 5 years. Nintendo's show was more about getting a bunch of cool stuff together and saying, "Look at all of this great content! Yeah, we know you knew about it before, but consider it's cumulative impact. Pretty cool, huh?" I still think the best Nintendo-related announcement is one that the showgoers made: Skyward Sword both works correctly and is the first--and only--Wii game to actually deliver on the half-decade old promise of 1:1 gameplay.

There's a huge, huge difference between being underwhelming and "fist bump." At least Nintendo had Zelda.

I was impressed with the Kinect back when they first showed it. I still am from a conceptual level, but there are 2 serious flaws as I see it: (1) the majority of core gamers don't really seem that interested in losing the controller in a video game, and (2) even if they were, you can't deny the stuff they showed off for it was pretty bad. I'll be honest, even the idea of playing Mass Effect 3 by speaking the answers isn't something I want to do; I'd rather just select them. I watch E3 for its impressive games and neat tech. I couldn't agree more that the PS Move is just a toy and Kinect is where the real technology is. But Microsoft isn't using it in any really effective ways. And by the way, on the Star Wars point, that "hold the lightsaber in your hand" gameplay concept that people have been talking about for years and years seems like it would be more fun if you were physically holding something. Hell, even if they put a sensor on a $10 toy lightsaber from Toys R Us, I think it'd be more fun to play with it than to say "Lightsaber On!" and start swinging your arms around pretending to hold something. But that's just me.

Worst of E3 2011? Best of E3 2011! Nintendo's missing, though like the guy who uploaded it noted, they really didn't take any risks on live stuff during their conference (plus all of their games worked this year, unlike last year's Skyward Sword on-stage fiasco). After watching this, I really have to hand it to Microsoft. They get the award for pure and utter cluelessness when it comes to E3. They just don't get that a broken Star Wars game and a whole bunch of garbage for the Kinect isn't quite what E3 followers are interested in.

^^ Not quite *EDIT* Dammit, BlackPanther, you just had to sneak in there and prevent my little arrows from pointing directly to The Damned's post. The rule is that the government cannot, as a matter of law, place restrictions on selling violent video games to minors. I still think the industry has a self-regulation element in place through the ESRB or something along those lines. I know when I worked at GameStop, we had to vigorously card anyone who looked under 30 trying to buy an M-rated game despite my state not having a law. Under this decision, self-regulation is fine (as it should be). State regulation is impermissible. Realistically, this decision is more of a victory for the First Amendment and private citizens' rights than it has anything to do with games. Games just happened to serve as the medium at issue.

The majority opinion was written by Justice Scalia, one of the most conservative justices, and he was joined by 4 liberals. Most people in the legal community anticipated the outcome, but no one saw this lineup of justices coming. By the way, if you care, the gist of the decision is that since this is a content based regulation of speech (only restricting the sale of "violent" games is de facto content-based), California had the almost insurmountable burden of showing that it had a "compelling interest" that it was trying to achieve with the law, and that the law is the least restrictive means ("narrowly tailored") to achieving that objective. When that analysis is applied, the states never win. Scalia noted California failed to show that violent games cause violent behavior. It's the parents' responsibility, not the state, to regulate this access to content.

The Xenoblade localization fan campaign is apparently insanely huge, so much so that Xenoblade is the top-selling game on Amazon for 2 days in a row. If you want this, show Nintendo by preordering it (your credit card won't be charged until it comes out anyway, so there's no risk). Fan campaigns consisting of letter writing, emails, and petitions generally fail because there's no foreseeable money behind them. This is what makes this campaign different. NOA could still say "no," but this is both conceptually and practically the best way fans have of getting Nintendo to release Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower, and Last Story stateside.

I played the demo a couple of days ago. The last Sonic game I played was Sonic & Knuckles. I found the demo very disappointing. Not that the level was bad or the gameplay was in any way problematic; actually, the opposite was true. Why, then, was it disappointing? Because it's like shoving something in Sonic fans' collective faces and saying, "See? We clearly were capable of doing it right all these years! But guess what, bitches! This level is the best thing the game has to offer!" So in other words, this demo is disappointing not because it is in any way flawed, but because no matter how optimistic you are, deep inside you just know they'll find a way to screw it up in the finished product. All they really have to do is replicate what Retro did with Donkey Kong last year in the Sonic world. It really doesn't seem very complicated, and yet somehow it always becomes an issue.

I literally saw this minutes after finishing Jabu-Jabu's Belly, so I went and checked it out. Indeed, the poor guard still dies a lonely death in the back alley. The lines were the same as the video you posted.

I usually go with: sa-RYE-ah deck-oo SKULL-too-la koh-keer-ee Nay-roo fah-roar-ay Ka-kuh-ree-koh High-rule High-lee-ah (though I've heard Hylia pronounced "hill-lee-ah," but I always felt that was wrong)

The first part made me laugh. He's also WAY farther in the game than I am, though I get maybe an hour or two a day to play video games, so I guess that's to be expected. Just curious on that second part, where'd you hear it pronounced that way? I always thought it was deck-oo rather than dee-koo, though I've never seen any official confirmation either way.

Can't speak for other days, but for Zelda, it's probably because it came out on a Sunday.... (doesn't excuse them from shipping it to arrive today).

I'm pretty sure it's the speakers. About half of the time I've played it so far has been with decent headphones and the other half was without, and the music (actually, all of the audio in general) sounded perfect on the headphones, but not quite as good on the speakers.

I do have to agree with that last part about Ganon; no reasonable person could claim that the final battle in Twilight Princess is anything other than completely badass, and the only thing that could have improved that particular point would be if that same song were fully orchestrated. As it stands, either that battle as a whole or the way Link defeats Ganon in Wind Waker would win the award for most epic Zelda moment. On another point, I picked up my copy of Ocarina today and registered it with Club Nintendo for my 50 track soundtrack (which, by the way, doesn't start shipping until July 5th or so, but it specifies that quantities are very limited). I played the game for about 2 hours, which meant beating the first dungeon, getting a heart piece or two, and obtaining Zelda's song on the ocarina. I had 3D on the whole time. I now have the 3DS headache, which manifests, at least for me, when two very precise points in my head, one on the top-left and one on the top-right, started to hurt. I'll play some more later tonight after taking some Advil or something. I find the graphics to be phenominal, especially with the 3D effect turned on. All of those little light things floating around in Kokiri Forest, particularly around the Deku Tree, look really cool coming at you. The history cutscenes talking about the goddesses looked especially neat. The 3D is very well done. From a gameplay perspective, everything works and feels natural from the outset, and this is coming from someone who's played this game on both the N64 and the GCN using a Wavebird. The slider pad works just fine, though it seems a little less precise than a joystick is. The music doesn't seem much different thus far, though I thought I noticed a slightly different instrumentation choice for one of the songs. It's probably something that's always been there but was more pronounced coming out of the DS speakers. Navi's a pain in the ass, as always. My overall thoughts are summed up thusly: anyone who has a 3DS, whether they've played this game before or not, owes it to themselves to pick it up. It's one of the best games ever made, and it looks great--much better than any of its other releases--with or without 3D enabled. But if you don't have a 3DS, I'm not sure I'd recommend buying one just for this game. With Sony's PS Vita price announcement, there's a fair chance Nintendo will drop the 3DS price to $200 to be super-competitive at the holidays. At that point, there should be at least 5 AAA first party titles available: Zelda, Mario 3D, Mario Kart, Star Fox 64, and Kid Icarus, plus anything 3rd parties come up with between now and then. Christmas will probably be a better time to pick up a 3DS, and you can load up on games, some of which will be a bit cheaper since you can find them used. Nonetheless, the bottom line stays the same: whenever you acquire a 3DS, you really, really should get this game.

Twilight Princess, while really good, wasn't really one of the best Zeldas in my opinion. It was long, which is both good and bad insofar as it was almost too long. I also never liked the filter or whatever they had over the graphics. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and play it. There's something not quite ... crisp(?) about it. Ocarina was revolutionary and has held up fairly well. Majora and Wind Waker are those love it or hate it games. Link's Awakening and LttP are generally universally revered. I think you'll find that these generalizations are pretty consistently reflected if you go back and review the last few pages of this thread.

From what I've heard, it looks much better in motion on the 3DS screen. The developers' goal was to make it look more like the promo art back in 1998, which tended to have brighter colors than the in-game graphics.

On the one hand, any artwork from Ocarina is nice. On the other, the picture I linked to on the first page (1st post) would have been greatly preferred. It's actually a new image and looks absolutely beautiful.

Here's some gameplay footage with text in German: No noticeable changes in the music, but the character models look nice. Link got the best upgrade, and the other characters look great as well. The areas look beautiful, particularly the Castle Town. One aside concerning the video. Go to 7:06. I know what it means in English, but it still looks funny to call the Zora area "Zoras Reich."