Glen-i

That's really not saying much. That game almost immediately put me to sleep on the first level. It was catastrophically boring!

Actually, I need one for @Ugh first aid. It'd be great if you could give me the other one, please.

That ain't happening. People like the Mii's (Me included) You're in the minority on this issue.

Why? Wii U games are not gonna screech to a stop as soon as the NX comes out.

There is a chance that this will end up having nothing to do with Pokemon OR/AS, but a new Pokemon was revealed earlier today in CoroCoro. It's called Magiana, no confirmation on what type it is yet (I'm guessing Steel will be in there somewhere). It's gonna feature in the newest movie.

No problem, I help whenever I can. Well, not playing Pokemon before is obviously gonna mean you'll have to learn the basics, but I'd say Blue Rescue Team is the best place to start, seeing as it's the simplest in the series. Right now, there's 20 games on the DS VC (Blue Rescue Team will make it 21) So it's not even close to most. You can find a list here.

I'm disappointed in you, @Hero\-of\-Time. You start making puns on each boss, but stop at the fourth one? You know what you lack? Commitment! Anyway, I played a game, you may have heard of it? It's Metroid Prime: Pointy edition! OK, fine. It's Metroid Prime in the Metroid Prime Trilogy collection on the Wii. Metroid Prime Trilogy originally came out 2009 on the Wii. It features all 3 Metroid Prime games enhanced with the Wii controls that featured in the third game. The later 2 are for the future though, let's focus on Metroid Prime. Metroid Prime originally came out in 2003 for the Gamecube. It was a very radical departure for the Metroid series. Mainly because of one aspect, see if you can notice it. It's quite subtle... If you guessed the first person perspective. Well done. That's a keen eye you have there. Now, I mentioned this back when I talked about Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies last year. I generally hate shooters. None more so then those of the first-person variety. The idea of using two sticks to aim and move is nothing but frustration. And yet, I like Metroid Prime. Weird, huh? But is it? What makes Metroid Prime so different to the traditional FPS? So different that it gets me interested? Well, the main reason I would use is that Metroid Prime really isn't a shooter. Not at it's core, anyway. Yes, you do shoot stuff, yes, there's a degree of aiming involved. But there's one big difference that changes everything. The lock-on system. You can use this to focus the viewpoint on an enemy meaning you don't really need to aim at all, you'll probably hit your mark. Instead, the skill comes in knowing what weapon to use and evading enemy fire rather than hitting your target. And that's the biggest reason why I like this game. Of course, it's not the only reason. Plenty of Metroid's mechanics work it's way into this well. The suit upgrades, the copious amounts of optional secrets to find, stuff like that. But one thing that feels very different to the 2D games is controlling Samus herself. Whereas Samus is well known for being fast and athletic, in Prime, she moves really slowly. It's not a bad thing, it works well for the type of the game Prime is. You wouldn't want Samus performing millions of flips every time she jumps, you'd get sick! I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Wii controls, which fit this game like a glove, you point the Wii Remote to aim, and that alone makes it superior to the Gamecube version. Everything about it feels so natural. There's also other things like flicking the Wii Remote to jump while in Morph Ball, meaning you don't have to wait for bombs to explode every time you want to jump. It helps make everything flow much more smoothly. Add to that the fact that I was playing the WiiU download version, which dramatically cuts loading times, and you've got the definitive version of Metroid Prime. Also, the Trilogy is great value for money! Considering that it's actually quite expensive to get a physical copy. Anyway, on to the story. Yeah, Metroid is not a story-driven series (Mostly). So why am I bothering to talk about this? Well, I think Metroid Prime (In fact, all 3 of the trilogy) does a great job of adding backstory to what is currently happening. The actual story takes place after the first Metroid game, the Space Pirates are on the run after Samus destroyed Mother Brain, Ridley and Kraid on Planet Zebes. Samus manages to track them to a frigate orbiting a planet called Tallon IV. Inside, she kills everything, per usual, and can't help but blow the frigate up. During a remarkably early exciting escape sequence, she notices a familiar face. Now hang on, isn't Ridley dead? This makes little sense. So naturally, Samus pursues this Ridley to the actual Tallon IV, but loses track of him. So her job is to find this Ridley and blow him up, maybe the planet too while she's at it. So far, so Metroid. And it pretty much stays like this if you just don't care about optional stuff. Where this game manages to inject some uniqueness is with scanning. Samus is able to scan things in this game. Generally you use this to activate mechanisms and find out enemy weaknesses. But now and again you can scan things that actually provide some backstory to where you are. The most prevalent example are the Chozo Lores. Scanning these gives you some insight into what actually happened here before Samus arrived. Reading these will quickly tell you that there's something far bigger buried in this planet. It gives the story of what happened to the Chozo (You know, the bird race that raised Samus and made her Power Suit) that lived there and their inevitable demise when a Meteor struck. There's also the Space Pirate Logs, which chronicle the more recent point of view of the Space Pirates. From just before the arrival of Samus, to the present. These in particular are note-worthy because it actually provides a little comic relief, especially when you read about what they're trying to do to stop you from ruining everything again. It gets even better when they try to reverse-engineer her Power Suit technology... This is a great way of adding some story to Metroid without getting in the player's way. It's there if you want to find out about it, but you don't have to. Anyway, visuals next. This is one great looking game. Seriously, it's truly impressive how good this game looks. But one thing I'm not a big fan of are the actual enemy designs. Apart from a few exceptions, mostly bosses, the enemy design in this game is pretty forgettable. Especially the Space Pirates themselves. They're too dull. I could describe to you how Space Pirates look in Super Metroid, but ask me about the Prime Pirates and I'd be stuck. It's not a big thing, but it always stands out to me just how little they stand out. Another aspect I'm not a big fan of is the soundtrack. It does the atmospheric sections just fine, but the actual melodic tracks are a bit boring by themselves. The only really memorable song is Magmoor Caverns, which is a remix of a song from Super Metroid, which just proves my point really. Oh, also, the Ridley remix in this sucks, it's easily the worst version (And it gets reused in Corruption...). The fight itself is great though! So that about wraps Prime up. It holds up well, and the brilliant Wii controls and the almost non-existent loading times the WiiU download version provides means there's never been a better time to put yourself in Samus' boots! And with that...

The demo's introduction got me intrigued in the system enough to try it. It was around the second chapter when I got a bit stuck on an optional boss. It was on my third or fourth attempt when I realised that this boss would now and again start defaulting until it saved up 3 turns and then unleash a harsh attack. Once I realised this, I was able to put it to use, by defaulting when neccessary. After that, I tackled bosses by playing it safe, figuring out their pattern and then using it against them. There's more to it as you progress of course, but that's what sold me on the game's mechanics. Mess around with the system, try and get some strategies down.

It didn't tell you about Brave and Default? Huh... The first game's demo had a tutorial on that. Well, that demo is not doing it's job well. Brave and Default makes all the difference. Here's an explanation of the basics.

You're doing it wrong. You've not played Bravely Default, have you? Braving and defaulting is the entire point of the battle system! Knowing when to default and when to Brave is key to survival. Defaulting puts you in a defensive stance and lets you bank a turn. Braving lets you use those stored turns to unleash multiple attacks in a row. Bosses tend to follow a pattern in how they attack, so figuring out these patterns can tell you when they're going to hit you hard (In which case you should Default and save your turns) and then unleash hell or recover massive amounts of health afterwards. (Use Brave) The battle system is the best bit of Bravely Default! I imagine this one will be very similar. Oh, and did you try messing around with the job system, it's very similar to Final Fantasy 3 NES. Maybe you had a bad party setup?

It's a DS game, so it's inevitably gonna look a bit more pixelated than usual, but on the Gamepad, it should look fine. Here's a couple of my Miiverse screenshots of other DS games. It's not the best indicator, but they look OK. Here's a game that uses sprite work, which is how Mystery Dungeon does it. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time And here's a DS game that uses 3D Models... Zelda: Phantom Hourglass You may have noticed that the Phantom Hourglass screen has a smaller map in the top-left corner. You see, in the Virtual Console menu for DS games, there's a number of different screen options for you to choose from which change how the two screens appear. You can have the Gamepad function as the bottom screen while the TV shows the top screen (You can also reverse this, Gamepad shows top, TV shows bottom) or have both screens appear on the same display (With either the top or bottom screen being shown larger) The actual game looks like this on a DS. As you can probably guess, most of the action takes place on the bottom screen. It's perfectly reasonable to play through the entire game without ever looking at the top screen, but if you look in the options menu on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, you can change what gets displayed on the top screen. You can move the map from the bottom screen to the top instead if you like. (Hard to notice, but there's a map overlay on the bottom screen in that screenshot) So technically, you could have the main gameplay take place on a TV with a map or a status screen on the Gamepad. You'll probably have to play around with the settings (Both Virtual console and the actual in-game settings) to find something you like. As for the actual game... As I mentioned before, it's a roguelike (Kind of like a dungeon-crawler) game with elements of the Pokemon franchise (Obviously, knowledge of the Pokemon franchise would help with things like type weaknesses, etc.). The object of the game is to progress through dungeons without getting beaten to a pulp. Everything is turn based, when you move, everyone else does, so patience is a virtue. Success relies on preparation and careful planning as item space is limited, the dungeons are randomly generated and it's your modest party of 1-3 Pokemon against every Pokemon you meet. The game is surprisingly hard, which is pretty unheard of in a Pokemon game. It's very likely that you're going to die, multiple times. And the game punishes you for dying by taking away most of your items and all of your held money. (You can store money and items in a bank/storage system before you tackle a dungeon, those are unaffected) Of course, you can always go to your previous save and retain your stuff, but you'll lose out on any experience points you got. Difficult choice... It's a rewarding game though if you stick with it. Sooner or later the mechanics will click with you (Holding R lets you move only diagonally) and you'll be strutting through dungeons like you own the bloody place. And if you do find yourself dying hopelessly on a dungeon, there's a really cool feature that strangely enough, utilises Miiverse brilliantly. OK, let's say you've just died on a dungeon, before you're booted out and your loot is nicked, you get a message, saying "Would you like to send out a rescue request?" If you choose Yes, the game gives you a code. The idea is you're supposed to give this code to someone else who owns the game, they go through the dungeon you died in and attempt to rescue you. If they're successful, they get a code to give to you. When you enter that code, you get revived right where you were with no penalties. You could then give that player a gift as a thank-you. With Miiverse, you could simply post a screenshot on the Miiverse community and ask someone there to help you. Of course I am assuming it supports screenshots, but why wouldn't it? Sorry for the really long post but this game is definitely worth a look if you've never tried a Roguelike game. I was skeptical back in 2005, but it quickly became my favourite Pokemon series, and that's saying something. The challenge is just right, the story is surprisingly good and it's a perfect fit for the WiiU with Miiverse. Also, the soundtrack is sublime! Oh, and a little protip if you do get the game... Kecleon is the strongest Pokemon in the game, don't annoy it.

Already mentioned it in the WiiU VC thread, but this game is great. If you've never played a Roguelike before, you should give it a try. Fair warning: It's pretty tough!

It's strange though, that normally happens with us as well. But for some reason, GAME wouldn't give us an extra one that day. First time that's actually happened. @Ugh first aid was... less than pleased.

Yeah, I'm pretty damn chuffed! Can't wait! Been holding off on replaying this one in the hopes of a VC release! Such a ridiculously brilliant game! Only downside of the VC version is you don't get to see the genius boxart. The VC Weekly for this is going to be an interesting one. Ironically enough, this game is gonna be the Pokemon game that makes the most use out of Miiverse, due to the rescue system. An 11 year old game is more Miiverse friendly than the 3DS mainline Pokemon games. Kinda funny that. Seriously though, give Blue Rescue Team a go (Red Rescue Team is the inferior GBA version) if you've never played a roguelike before. Sure, it's a dividing game, @Serebii is proof of that, but if the gameplay clicks with you, you're going to love it!

You got lucky. Our GAME told us "1 per customer"

To be honest, if it meant legit English Mother 3 on my WiiU, I'd happily stomach them. Unless you served them with roast potatoes. Then I'd have to throw them back in your face in disgust.

Yeah, the receipt shows that I did redeem it. I just had to go to the actual Corrin page and redownload it from there. Crisis averted! Thanks for the help, everyone!

Bit of a sour note for me now. Like always, I got the new characters on both consoles. So I try to enter the download code for Corrin on the 3DS and after I entered it, I got hit by a communication error. "No biggie", I thought, just enter it again. Thing is, now I'm given a notice saying this download code has already been used. But Corrin's nowhere to be seen on my 3DS version. Yeah, just a little bit annoyed. Anyone got any advice on what I can do?

To be fair, it already took that title back before any of the DLC even got announced. Anyway, Bayonetta is all sorts of awesome to play as. @Ugh_first_aid and I are having way too much fun messing around with her. Definitely requires practice, but the combo potential is insane! Even her recovery is combo orientated! Up-B, Side-B, Air Jump, Up-B again! Jeanne alt has white wicked weaves as well, very nice touch. Oh, and try climbing up ladders with her. Bound to give you a chuckle. And stand right on an edge and see her teetering animation. I'm not 100% sure whether she'll replace Lucas as my main yet, but she definitely is the best DLC Character for the sheer fun of playing as her. Corrin's neat too.

Guys, you're missing the most important detail! This is fantastic news! The Poe hunting might not be the worst side-quest in Zelda history anymore!

I personally like the system it uses. Makes you think about whether you really need that item or not. Although with Mother 3, I believe there's more space. Mother 3 is by far the greatest GBA RPG. Anyone who likes the genre even a little should play it. That's if it does ever get released, I don't wanna get my hopes up too much.

Today's the day! Smash Bros. gets beautiful!

Thanks for reconfirming that I'm a massive nerd. You big, fat nerd.

Listen up, faithful dog friend Cheddar. I'm gonna take this coin, enlarge it to disc-size, and swap it with his copy of Pokken. And the sap won't notice until I'm long gone.

Oh snap! I spaced on Mew! @Dcubed, we've gotta get our codes. Because we're Londoners, and it's reasonable to get a code here!