Lens of Truth

@Animal that's pretty cool! @Josh64 I never knew you were so metro. Rowan the vampire hedgehog. Not too far off. Maybe minus the trainers.

I compared Balloon Fight on the 3DS with the Wii U gamepad and the difference is practically night and day. It looks pixel-sharp and pops with vivid colours on the 3DS and runs at true speed, whereas on the gamepad it looks like a muddy, slow shadow of itself. Some people may not be bothered by it, but as soon as you play the 60Hz original you think "wow so THIS is how the game is supposed to be". I remember the first time I played Sonic the Hedgehog at proper speed. Once done it's tough going back! Hopefully an option will be added in an update. I'm going to badger NoE

Not sure it would require force. Where there's a will there's a way and all that.

Those 3Dish sections give me a slight Clockwork Knight vibe!

God yes! We have non-50Hz versions on the 3DS.. this is so bonkers!

I do see where you're coming from on this and of course I value Japanese mores (in fact I wish such humbleness and respect for your fellow man would catch on elsewhere!); just on a personal level I find corporate/state/media apologies utterly worthless. It's kind of the obverse of the hype/PR guff that Daft was mentioning. I'd rather just see Nintendo remedy it by putting their best foot forward.

We still dont even get an option for 60Hz?? Well the VC's a write-off for me then. Do you think a bombardment of Miiverse complaints is in order?

I didn't quite get the same sense; certainly not about Zelda pandering. What gave you that feeling? Was it the body language? I'll have to check out Aonuma's segment again. Apologies at the start did seem very abject and somewhat cringey. They've clearly been shocked by the overwhelming shitstorm of negativity towards the Wii U and are responding as best they can. As someone said earlier, the Wii U seems to be a learning curve for Nintendo too and I find their frankness refreshing. If I'd been in charge of the script I'd have dispensed with a lot of that stuff, as I think public apologies are a silly modern fetish, and maybe even left out the reasurrances about Mario and MK because it's pretty ridiculous that people have been getting into a tizzy about whether these are in the pipeline or not. Maybe some gamers need to hear sorry In other respects though I thought it was one of their better (non-Shibata) broadcasts Can't wait for X!!

Ah yes, the LTTP remake. That still leaves quite a few unaccounted for. Reminds me of when they said something about Luigi's Mansion 2 being the "beginning of the year of Luigi". Why must they do this?!

They just need to tone down the bloom and perhaps lose some of the shadow gradations on the characters. I think though, as with the Ocarina of Time remake, this'll be divisive in screens, but look gorgeous in the flesh.

Did anyone catch the cryptic bit at the end about upcoming Zelda "challenges" and playing through the whole series? I wasn't really concentrating. What do we make of that?

Yoshi Yarn looked simply gorgeous, Monolith's game gobsmackingly good, Wind Waker U deftly beautiful. Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei was the total surprise I was looking for. Wish we'd had more than words about EAD Tokyo's Mario and MK, but still!

Oh no! Same here Well, I'm ordering the regular edition from Forbidden Planet. You now it might be a blessing in disguise - the LE didn't look much better imo.

The devs themselves have basically said the name was tacked-on, I but I take your points. You do realise I was saying it wasn't a Wii franchise though right? And only speculating/hoping that Xenoblade Chronicles gets a likely-prequel, specifically within the same world (bit different to another similar RPG with the Xeno prefix added ).

It's not really a part of the Xeno franchise though is it? They changed the title from Monado: Beginning of the World simply as compliment Tetsuya Takahashi (and because it's a better title).

I was watching a Dolphin Wind Waker comparison last night and it made me want to replay it in HD so much! I do have a PC that could handle it now, but somehow I just feel so alienated playing games in that manner. Whatever little tease we do get I hope it's something genuinely surprising.

How could I forget Endless Ocean! Never managed to play the second though.

The Wii didn't produce many 'franchises', as most of its original gems haven't got sequels (yet). I'd love to see the Xenoblade universe revisited at some point, but it will probably remain a glorious one off. There were, however: - Lost Winds - Elebits (DS sequel) - Little King's Story - de Blob The latter two both now multiplat. Really does put into perspective the difference in 'approach' between systems!

Those are some great suggestions @darkjak! I agree about Pilotwings needing new islands to explore, with Wuhu perhaps as a bonus. This might be the first time I try chat during an NDirect. Hope there aren't too many meltdowns

Thanks Dcubed, was going to post that too. Ryo Nagamatsu is definitely one to watch. Some of Galaxy 2's most original tracks came from his pen, like Puzzle Plank, Fated Final Battle and particularly... Audio He did a really great job on Nintendo Land - the music is one of the game's (many) strong points. I thought his quasi-orchestral arrangements for Metroid Blast and and the Balloon Trip variations were fantastic. He manages to observe Nintendo's 'house style', while injecting an element of surprise and originality. Frankly, I'd be fine with him taking the helm on 3D Mario or even F-Zero. Looking forward to part 2 of the interview!

I'll take carrots, bananas and anything else Iwata wants to dangle Having said that, I think Retro is probably right on this one, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Woohoo! Get in!

Fantastic news! I'd just about given up on it.

That Digital Foundry article was certainly interesting, but I can't claim I understood all of it. The PS4 seems a much more attractive prospect at this point than Xbox3, with Windows 8 galore, Kinect 2 and a silly projector (although I will say I've been impressed by some of Microsoft's R&D projects of late). I'd be pleased if it had some kind of screen in the controller a la Wii U - I find it improves the usability of the system in so many small ways that add up. I know it's annoying when someone asks this of a new console, but what are the chances of back-compatibility?

E3 2013 has to be better than "not bad" to put the Wii U on a good footing, but I think Grazza's right that they'll do just enough. I've kind of written E3 off now though, seeing as it's expressly for investors and not really core gamers.