Strange Cookie

Well, they're selling this very early. A full five days! Not that I'm complaining. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some beating to do.

I think they are going to go OTT with MvC3. I don't see a 'grounded' game pitting Iron Man, Hulk and Wolverine against Ruy, Chris Redfield and Frank West. And judging by the size of that special Hadoken? But I too prefer SFIV gameplay above the cerrrazy vs.-style, but it's a nice change of pace, and complements the more 'calm' style of SFIV perfectly. I do hope it gets more colourful than this trailer. It has too much of a Rise of the Imperfects-style to me. *nitpicknitpick*

Hmmm, interesting...

I hope you're being sarcastic at the trailer for only showing some blink-and-you-miss-it ingame footage? From what I've read so far, it's pretty interesting. I'm thinking of buying part 2 for reallo cheapo now. Is it worth it?

Wow, those reviews are better then I expected. I'm actually looking forward to this game. A Zelda rip-off/tribute it may be, but that's only a plus in my books. And it just looks great! You just gotta love that new retro-charm.

Must resist... Can't... "That's what I expected!" Seriously, it's a shame though, if not really a surprise. If they go down the graphical route of MvC2 and HD'd it, it would be possible even in SD. But if the teaser is anything to go by, I can't see it really happening. TvC is a great game, but let's face it, the 3D-graphics, while nice, isn't really groundbreaking stuff, and I think they want to go pretty big for this one. I'd prefer handdrawn 2D mind. Looking at Blazblue and MvC2, it suits the comicbook-universe perfectly, but it's very timeconsuming. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Frank West? Great news! I just hope he looks and sounds like himself this time around. :p

Wait... Were those... flying pigs that just passed my window? Anyways, this made my day! : peace: "I'm gonna take you for a ride! Tuddum tuddum I'm gonna take you for a ride! Tuddum tuddu tuddum I'm gonna take you for a ride! Tuddum tuddum I'm gonna take you for a ride! Tudududuuuuum" Who knows, they might even give us a second phrase this time around.

Good news for those craving some ol'skool beat'em all from back in the day (or those wondering what the fuzz is about anyway)! Final Fight: Double Impact is available for Xbox Live and PSN. This is the fifth edition of Final Fight I've bought, and boy, isn't this the sweetest one. It's arcade perfect (so far, so Capcom Classic Collection), but the screen filters are awesome. I'm not talking about the screenfilling, HD-ing one, but the arcade cabinet emulator. It's ironic we need consoles as powerful as those today to accurately emulate a ol-fashioned CRT-screen with scanlines intact. :p And added challenges and unlockables in the Vault, optional remixed music and a online mode? Retro-heaven! Oh, and Magic Sword isn't too bad eiter. Even so, SFIII woudn't have been too shabby, or even SFA3. I've heard report that that the PSN-version doesn't work when you're not connected to the internet. While it's a downloadable, it's still odd you can't play singleplayer when your internet goes haywire. I haven't checked this one yet, but anybody else perchance?

I'm fasionably late to the Square-Enix party, but I'm rather blown away. It's way better than I expected! Fun, original, deep and rather gritty. Nice! Only played it for a couple of hours yesterday, but I found it to be addictive as hell. Only now do I understand what all the hype was about. I hang my head in shame... I understand it can become quite a drag when you're 15 hours in, though, So I guess I'll cherish the moments I'm having now.

Big words from the man who gave us WiiMusic. If you take that as a starting point, any way goes up. Seriously, though, he's made some quality titles lately (Galaxy, to name but one), but I felt he was on a winning streak up to the middle of the Gamecube-era. Ever since the late Gamecube-era, it's been going downhill IMO. Not in the regions of bad, but while Galaxy is awesome, where are the Pikmins of this generation? Where are the new games (and not applications or toys, as Miyamoto himself called WiiMusic)? He also said Nintendo has to stay unique. I agree to some point, but 'unique' doesn't mean you can't take a cue from other companies. *cough*online*cough* Nintendo can be very stubborn, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. They have good and unique ideas, but they often seem to believe they are the only ones who have. Still, Miyamoto is a genius and a true asset of Nintendo. That's more than can be said about Reggie, who apart from introducing the DS and making a memorable quote, only act as a talking, walking PowerPoint. Sure, it's PR and a very different branch, but I think in the past 6 years Reggie has done more bad than good for the public image. Just hear him talking during the last few E3's. Painfully dull. And the less said about promoting 3rd-party software, the better. And not releasing Excitebots in Europe, or Disaster and Coded Memory in the States, and (the biggest offender): not releasing Fatal Frame 4 in the West at all? Sure, it wasn't his decision alone, but I've really grown to despise that man. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, eh.

Still undecided whether or not to buy this. I'm not a 'support the team'-guy, so buying for the general good and raising the sales isn't on my agenda. I think the style is pretty good, but while I like Eastern culture and Western, I don't feel like it's really working. It gives me too much of a sunday-morning-cartoon-vibe impression. But I've only watched it in video form, so that impression can be faulty. Is there enough variety, by which I mean, is there general purpose to what you're doing with several interesting situations that require different approaches, or is it simply 'Follow the marker, get in isolated area, bad guys appear, beat bad guys, area opened up, repeat until you get to boss'? Is there any recalibrating required during the game itself?

Looks pretty good! Though I must admit the bitter taste the first one left behind still lingers. Let's hope this one delivers. I seriously hope that's not a warehouse of some sorts in the third pic. If I see one gray corridor, warehouse, explosive oildrum, generic alien (which takes a little bit of everything and ends up looking like nothing) of sunglasses-wearing generic special agent... As for the title, why not pull an Alien? The Conduits. Seems more epic than merely one conduit. :p

Exactly my point. Those are two of the tracks I really like, because they are more for the skilled. This is the first MK where I actually feel relieved to drive on Rainbow Road, because when you fail, you know it's because you screwed up, not some bad luck-karma. Welcome to new Mario Kart. It didn't use to be like this. Anyway, dwarf is right: this is a pointless debate. For every counterargument you've thrown at me, I can counter back, and I bet you can counter those again... and we both are right, because they are both great, if different games. Les goûts et les couleurs ne se discutent pas, as the French say. I everybody liked the same games, it would be very dull indeed. Know that's it's nothing personal, I just like a fiery debate from time to time. Actually, I found this video review, which perfectly expresses my feelings about the game. UPDATE: downloaded it and played it. It's even better than I remebered. I had forgotten so many great things about it: the coins, the drifting, the shortcuts (Yay for feathers!), and really the feeling that when I screw up, I get what I deserve. That said, the music of MK Wii is phenomenal!! Easily on par with MK Super Curcuit! It's got some of the most memorable tracks outthere.

Ah, a Pokémon Noir Story. Now that would be innovation! You are challenged by Hatted Man Quick! A trainer is coming! Learn you standard NPC-lines! Oh, noes! It's Team Rocket, up to no good again! Flirty Lady uses smokescreen! It doesn't affect Hooknosed Trainer. Doubt it. Chaos Black is an illegal hack of the GBA Red & Blue. Nintendo isn't one to react to these sort of games (of which there are a freaking lot, so the chance that there is one with Black in the name is pretty high), and even if they would, now it's so late it's besides the point. It's purely coïncidental. Nope, it's for the current DS, I'm afraid. Guess we'll have to wait for generation six to see them in 3D?

What in the... A typo, surely? Overhere it's easy to find new copies of MGS:TTS for 10 to 15 euro. And they are pretty common in second hand-stores & sites.

Oh, don't let me put on my ranting hat. :p Too late... Actually, I agree with Goron_3. Mario Kart Wii is a great game, but it can't hold a candly to Mario Kart DS or Super Mario Kart, bar ofcourse online functionality for the latter. I don't really like the stunts-mechanism as it simply becomes a habit instead of a true strategic tool. You don't get an advantage if you do it. You simply get a disadvantage if you don't. It's not a matter of being skilled, just a matter of waggling/pressing a button while in the air. Same with the drifting-turbo mechanism. Now it's simply a matter of drifting for a long time, with no counterdrifting needed watsoever. I know this was done to avoid snaking, and that there was no such mechanic to begin with in SMK, but it's made way to easy in the Wii-version. And I think (remember, my opinion) Mario Kart Wii has some of the weakest level designs in the series. Overcrowded roads, nearly unavoidable obstacles, too many 'crazy' ideas that aren't really suited or simply distract from the racing. Together with the unbalanced items and characters, it makes more of a game of cheer luck rather than skill. In previous versions, I felt like there was a good risk-reward-system. Yes, you can take than small pasageway across that final corner. It'll cut you time, but it's risky. In the Wii-verion, it's more often than not a case of having take the risk. There are shortcuts, but these are often even less of a risk than the normal road. In the SNES-version, a red shell was the big daddy. It was also rather rare. Now, it's 'merely' one red shell. Also, no gamebreaking blue shells, which ironically, is a selling point in the trailer of Super Mario Kart. And has the Battle mode from SMK ever been bettered? Nope. It's true some elements of SMK haven't aged well. But the mechanics behind it are simpler, and that makes for a better game IMO. It has more focus on actual racing, without too many distractions like stunts, overpowered items, jumping across muchrooms etc. I also like that once an item box has been used, it remains empty, making items in general more sparse. The DS-version still takes first place IMO. Bear in mind, all MK-games are great.

You've read my mind, on both the drooling and the downloading. The fun thing about Nintendo handhelds is that they are often backward compatible, atleast for the first iterations of a next-gen handheld. GBA was bc with GB/GBC (but not Micro), DS was bc with GBA (but not DSi), DS3 will be bc with DS (but not DS3-brainwave edition?). It'd be a shame you can't play Shantae on the new handheld, not to mention you have to buy it again when you lose, break your current or buy a new iteration of the current DS. You can pop a hardcopy from one system to another. Digital games... not so.

Now you mention it: those shadows are a clear giveaway. Not the right angle, and unrealisticly sharp for normal lightningconditions. Not to mention the awful wood. Guess the general uglyness of the thing distracted me from the surroundings. Also, the screen doesn't reflect anything. Even with specials filters attached to the screen, they can't be so evenly black and non-reflective. I think we have enough evidence to pass a verdict. It's fake. Flameboy, I agree. It's just that I doubt Nintendo will do a design in the direction of this mock-up. It's too fiddly. But I agree with Nintendo's nearly annual new-and-improved strategy.

Now you mention it: those shadows are a clear giveaway. Not the right angle, and unrealisticly sharp for normal lightningconditions. Not to mention the awful wood. Guess the general uglyness of the thing distracted me from the surroundings. Also, the screen doesn't reflect anything. Even with specials filters attached to the screen, they can't be so evenly black and non-reflective. I think we have enough evidence to pass a verdict. It's fake. Flameboy, I agree. It's just that I doubt Nintendo will do a design in the direction of this mock-up. It's too fiddly. But I agree with Nintendo's nearly annual new-and-improved strategy.

This is not the 3DS we're looking for. I don't even know how there even can be doubt this is fake. Let's examine: If this were the real deal, Nintendo would be all over it and the pictures would have been taken down. They're not, so Nintendo doesn't care. Hence, not real. This looks way too finished and working for something that's in prototype-phase at best. Just look at how impractical the thing is! No way present day Nintendo would even consider such a thing, even for a prototype. There is too much of a PSPGo-vibe to it, with it slidey-features. Nintendon't what Sony does, for better and for worse. No Nintendo-logo? Anything, really anything that comes out of Nintendo HQ has the logo branded on it in a very visible way, from prototypes to sandwiches. Noone who works at Nintendo would risk their job with a stunt like this. Smells of photoshop. Just look at the test-screen. Blatant. Is that... an iPhone? 10 for effort, though! However, if this turns out to be the real deal... I'll eat my hat. I'll eat all of them. Look for possibly memorable pics coming E3.

Yep, getting excited now (even though there hasn't been any new info... My excitement-engine needs some maintenance, it seems). I was wondering about one thing, though. It'll have 2 screens, probably tilted in a DS-like way, albeit closer together. I understand from the Sharp-screens (which will likely be the screens used or tech very similar), you have to look at it from a straight angle. No prob on a handheld, but with DS, you don't usually look at both screens straight-on. So I was wondering if the 3D-effect will be implemented to work on both screens at the same time. You'd have to tilt the DS slightly when looking at the other screen to see the 3D in that screen. Ah, speculation. The fuel of internet forums.

Weak as I am, I bought a DS XL after I tried one in the store. While it's in no way essential. the screens are really rather big! In certain games, like Zelda of Mario Kart, this does make a noticable difference. Once you get used to it, it's rather hard to go back.

Why, oh why am I playing more or less the same game as over 10 years ago, and why do I still find it so much fun and addictive? I bought SoulSilver for the Missus. She bought me HeartGold. She better catch and trade me a Meowth pretty fast. =p apparently, The SoulSilver versions are way more pomular then their Gold counterparts. Even the shopkeeper ask me as to why this is. I first thought of the pokéwalker as a useless gimmick, but i'l be damned if I don't slip it in my pocket when I go out. =p

What?? Nintendo is holding a press conference? At E3? Surely this must be some late april fool's? Madness, I tell ye! Luckily we got our notification in time. I can go one better: my crystal ball tells me they might have one at E3'11... and I see several blogs who report live from the event... But then again, I'm merely speculating. Sarcasm aside, isn't it a bit early to promote a live blog a full two and a half months before the event even takes place? I doubt this thread will still be around on the first 5 pages by the time E3 is on the horizon.

Yay, Pokémon will be available in Dutch-speaking regions as of next friday. Nice! A delay of merely a week. Nice!