ocre

I am currently 3 badges in with my team of Leavanny, Azumarill, Flaaffy, Lucario, Swablu and Dewott. Kind of a weird bunch.

Happy Birthday!

And they didn't reuse the same hourly music like they did in the last one (Wii one had the same music they used in Wild World; actually City Folk was pretty much Wild World but prettier, and all the special visitor characters were lopped together and put into the 'city' area of the town, much to the detraction of the village area.) They have fixed that last thing too. All the shops in the city area seem to be new or fresh versions of old stuff, with few or none of the special visitors present. (Gracie and Katrina haven't been shown to be part of the city area.) Wendall, Sahara, etc. are safe to assume still visit your village. Adding to mirby's list, you can customize your village even further this time around by adding decorations to the outside of your home, such as park benches, street lamps, jungle gyms, and more. There's a home customization shop run by Tom Nook, where you can choose your style of home, gate, doorway and other things. You can put up certain items and stuff like pictures up on your walls. Pretty awesome. Lots and lots of new stuff. This is definitely not the half-hearted attempt that City Folk was. It is not a retread of Wild World. If you didn't like the basic flow of the game after playing the other ones and these changes don't interest you, this may not even be the series for you.

Speaking of exciting, I don't mind telling you that makes me all kinds of moist. Particularly the part at the 34:30 mark or so. EDIT: It's the 45-minute long Japanese Nintendo Direct all about Animal Crossing 3DS!

Still, how dare they?! I'm ocre. Asking how people dare is kind of my thing!

Looks about right. That's my favorite NES game! Also, how dare they fail to mention that Harvest Moon A New Beginning is coming out on November 6th! Get hyped!

If anyone wants to save 12 bucks off their $69.99 Wii U games, you can still use the Newegg promo code (EMCJNNH224). Today is the last day. You can use it on multiple games, just be sure and place a separate order per game and remember to use the code each time. Shipping is free! Get on it! Note: the code works toward any preorder over $49.99, so you COULD use it to buy Halo 4 too. If that's your thing.

Nice, Mirb! You got to play three titles I didn't! In the spirit of posting hands on impressions of Wii U games and hardware, I'll be relinking my Wii U Experience experience here. My impressions cover several NintendoLand minigames, Rayman Legends, ZombiU, NSMBU and the Pikmin 3 'challenge mode demo'.

I hope ya have fun. Apparently the crowd is a lot thicker at the California events than it was for the events in the other states. I keep reading about people only getting to play like 2 titles. I hope ya get ta play everything ya want.

Worked wonders for PSP Go. But seriously, it's a pretty nice move that Ninty is offering the option of full Wii U retail games for download. I know it's just first party stuff to start with but I'm sure third party pubs will jump on board as well.

Nope, Reggie said there's more to be shown in the coming weeks. And yeah, the Mii Wara Wara (billboards with Miis around them) portion of MiiVerse is basically the splash screen when you first turn on the system. There's a button on the lower right side that leads to the Home Screen whose UI we haven't glimpsed at but is rumored to be a revamped Wii 'channel' style with a dash of the 3DS home menu thrown in.

Okay, so, recent Twitter activity by a mysterious 'MingyJongo' account(actually an ex-Rare staffer) indicate that he and a group of his old Banjo team members are hoping to come together and create a 'spiritual successor' to the beloved Banjo-Kazooie series - a 3D platformer with 'the same humour, silly characters(copious googly eyes), fun game play, great tunes and all that stuff that we enjoy making.' As the Banjo Kazooie characters are owned by Microsoft, and this project doesn't include MS's involvement, this would be an original game with the same flavor and not a direct sequel. They are currently gauging interest in the project and have hinted that the project will be supplemented by Kickstarter in the future. No platforms have been indicated yet. As some members of the group are currently employed by various companies, they are still trying to figure out if they'd be able to come together to make this happen. The @MingyJongo twitter account has seen growth by about 12k followers in the past couple of days and they have expresses surprise at the outpouring of interest. Grant Kirkhope is on board to provide the music and the lead Banjo series artist is also going to be involved, along with an unspecified number of ex-Rare(possibly still current Rare) staff. I bring this to OCR's attention because I know many many people in the community hold the Banjo games and other Rare games in high esteem. You can show your support at this early stage by following @MingyJongo, @GrantKirkhope and spreading the word that this project is being considered. Thanks for reading.

So how about that Wii U? I'm pretty dang anxious to explore a new system UI, which is one of my favorite things about getting a new system. That and that new console smell. Nerdgasmic! Those of you planning on getting Mario at launch, are you going for the physical retail package or perhaps take advantage of the Premium Network reward program (bundled with the deluxe sku) and build up some points with the downloadable version? Even though I'll be in that program, the retail boxes are just so pretty and it IS the first Mario game pack-in since SM64 on the N64(No I'm not counting Luigi's Mansion; and yeah I know NSMB games aren't main series entries) so I'm more than likely going physical.

I don't claim to know much about upscaling but I think this is probably pretty darn close to an explanation of Nintendo's philosophy on visuals.

You're looking in the wrong place for the 'growing up'(read: evolution) of the Mario franchise if you're looking at the NSMB series. The main series (the latest entries of which being the Galaxy games) which typically gets 1 entry per console is where Nintendo 'grows' the IP. Now if by wanting Nintendo to 'grow Mario up' you mean adding gore or hyper realism and sexual innuendo, you're kind of losing the plot. That said, it's a little dumb to voice an inflammatory opinion(inflammatory in its juvenilia) versus real sales data, business logic and the notion that people above age 18 can enjoy a game that doesn't utilize bleeding edge tech and then act like you're being the sensible one. I dont think anyone is asking you to 'love the Wii U or GTFO', just that you find a way to back up your criticism with something a little more solid than "there's multiplatform games at launch so the system must only be as capable as 6 year old tech" or "PC games blow consoles out of the water, Wii U is doomed."

I got to play some NSMBU at GS Expo and a Wii U Experience event and I can tell you the game plays like all the other NSMB games, which is to say that it's quite fun. Mario feels heavy and controls as responsive as always. Thematically and aesthetically, this new game takes a lot of influence from Super Mario World, such as the fully connected map screen and returning enemies like Tordpedo Ted. The game looks great! Definitely look up a trailer video on YouTube. I know I was still hungry for more 2D Mario after beating NSMB 2 last month. This should do quite nicely while I wait for Pikmin 3! @jnWake: Funny how some people expect a full library of amazing titles right on day 1 isn't it. It surprised me how many people expected a full HD Zelda game so (relatively) hot off of Skyward Sword's release.

To the first point, I say: Because no new system has ever gotten a port of a game from the previous generation, right? The Wii U can do things the current generation systems can't do, period. It's not surprising that we haven't seen what those things are since devs will need to get used to making games from the ground up on Wii U. If most of the games coming out at launch are just ports of current gen stuff, then obviously the developers aren't utilizing the systems full potential yet. And the reason Nintendo is launching with an admittedly not very technically impressive Mario game is because: a) NSMB games sell far better (and sell longer) than any 3D Mario games. NSMB games are easier to make than full 3D (and now advanced HD) Mario platformers(which are still going to be coming out as true entries in the main series). It makes a lot of business sense, regardless if you personally don't find it compelling.

Okay so Wii U's final launch lineup was unveiled earlier and includes 23 games that appeal to a wide range of tastes. I for one will be getting NSMBU and ZombiU. Notably absent is Rayman Legends, which I had reserved and expected on day 1. It was a wise move to distance itself from Mario, to be honest, so I don't mind waiting. No one should be surprised that Pikmin 3 isn't there on day 1. That was never going to happen. Pretty solid release slate, I say.

Mr. ToN, after careful listensideration, I have decided TO endorse your album! I've told you before but it definitely bears repeating: You make magic. Also: Track 5 is my personal favorite, but they're all gems.

They gave out condoms for Wii remotes because it was expensive HD TVs being broken(even with the replacement strap, I guess people were still not wearing them) , not the controllers themselves. Those things are made of indestructible Nintendium. That said, this was brought up earlier in the thread and someone was quick to post an image of that Wii U GamePad cover shaped that that Scribblenauts guy's hat. Not sure we'll see much in the way of officially condoned GamePad condoms.

This was actually confirmed to not be supported at launch, unfortuately. I was looking forward to playing all my old VC games on the controller screen. : { I wonder if they'd be able to implement this with a future firmware update.

Funny, I didn't think the tens of millions of people who bought the Wii and DS had a problem with the 'gimmicks' they've introduced before. Also, as of mid-august, the 3DS has sold upwards of 20 million units worldwide, so the tens of millions figure holds true for it too.

I was being sarcastic with my first two points, you see. You CAN increase the Wii U's internal storage by connecting any external HDD (as I will be doing with the 1TB HDD I already own) and yes, the most powerful system doesn't always win. That's all I'm saying in respose to your post about how the Wii U presumably won't hold a candle to the unseen next PlayStation/Xbox. And PC Gaming hasn't phased out consoles despite offering better technical prowess, so that takes care of your other point. Offering an affordable and still technically very capable gaming option is something I think Wii U will do extremely well. If Microsoft and (especially the predictable as hell) Sony go the tried and true "POWER IS EVERYTHING" route, I can't imagine their systems will be within the 100 dollar range of even the base Wii U package.

Because you can't hook in a 3TB external HDD and the most powerful machine has always been the most successful. If PC gaming is so much better why do consoles still exist (and thrive)?

After actually giving the system a good look(presumably for the first time?), you say the controller actually looks like fun (after claiming Nintendo needs to stop making hardware), then you say they need to convince you that there's games worth playing on the system. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask you if you are even aware of what's coming out for it.