Lens of Truth

Fatal Fury is fantastic. Not as rich as SF2, but very satisfying nonetheless.

Yeah, the biggest misfire of all in Sunshine was the end boss.. and the ending itself was a total non-event. I've got a good feeling (esp after watching the opening) that Galaxy will hit all the beats

To be honest, this doesn't seem to have any more or less of a 'story' than Sunshine - in both games what little there is only exists to explain the setting and the gameplay mechanic, that's it.

Completed this about a week ago, and loved every minute of the 25 hours I spent on it. I think it's easily the best PM game. The others are fun but don't have the classic magic and charm. TYD is more develpoed in certain ways but seems confused and rambling (and more 'plasticy' than 'papery'), whereas SPM is a bit shallow compared to its forebears. I never played it on the N64 and I'm so glad I got it for VC!

I've never played the original Kid Icarus but I love this new song!! Very tongue-in-cheek.

Having said all that, it would be great to see Rare develop further for Nintendo. I think they could work wonders on the Wii.. Looks like I'll have to shell out for a 360 for Banjo Threeie..

Just to add my two penneth.. I agree with the more moderate posters here - it's neither a disaster nor a triumph. I think back in the day it played well enough and the graphics were great, but even then I couldn't escape the nagging awareness that it was no more than an inferior and formulaic Zelda-alike. I actually thought the fear test part was an innovative highlight. To sumarise my feelings on the game having replayed it: The Good - Nicely textured characters and environments that still hold up - Good variety of locations - Moments of genuine atmosphere (Krazoa shrine esp) - Solid gameplay mechanics (thanks to Zelda) - Some good background music The Bad - Excrutiatingly linear - Easy puzzles - Too much of a 'collectathon' approach to most aspects of the gameplay - Awkward mess of a story with Star Fox elements shoehorned in The Ugly - Irritating and mawkish (perhaps I mean 'camp') charcter voices - Design of Arwing is completely off

The graphics look great. Very stylised. Shame most of the songs are terrible.

I'll definately be getting it! It looks like it has the kind of quirkiness, charm and polish that we've not seen in games since the snes era (except Nintendo's own of course). Reminds me a bit of the 'Pop'n Twinbee' series.

He might just be right you know..

7. In purchase order: Wii Sports The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Red Steel Excite Truck Sonic and the Secret Rings SSX Blur Mario Strikers Charged They've all been great (apart from maybe Red Steel). And I certainly didn't have as many quality games by this point in the cube's lifespan! I'm keen on the idea of Eledees and RE4, but at the mo I'm saving for Q4's big hitters..

I never got to play ED. But I'd love to see a wii version all the same. I've heard so many good things.

If I'd spent years designing a game world, I wouldn't want players to get a back-to-front experience of it. It makes a subtle mockery of the whole idea of 'design' in games - the carefully considered layout and intuitive feel of things is drastically altered. If you play the gamecube version it makes so much more sense, it feels right (despite lack of widescreen, Navi and waggle).

The sword controls are simple but very satisfying. The only thing that annoyed me about the implementation of the pointer was the totally unnecessary (and nonesensical) appearance of Navi onscreen. Oh, and (this may be a silly question) but why, when Nintendo decided that Link must be right handed, didn't they just mirror Link instead of the whole game??! Wierd.

I think too many studios are trying to rush games out for the (already overcrowded) Q4 slot. This and NiGHTS have so much potential. I'd hate to see it wasted.

Oh dear. Much as I'd like to disagree with that article, having just watched the footage on gametrailers I have to say it's looking a bit shoddy. I'm willing to give it time though before I judge. It's obviously still at an early stage - I mean, it looks worse than SC2 on GC! I assume they've have to build a new engine from scatch. I love the idea of exploring 'behind the scenes' of the arenas etc; they always looked too good just to be backgrounds!

Wow, I hadn't realised the difference was that great! It's amazing how 'vanilla' Melee looks in comparison. Brawl has so much style and character. I love it!!

Agreed on all counts! GX was a looker and challenging as hell, but the tracks weren't as good for me. Oh, and the music in F-Zero X was in a different league.

Wow, PM is brilliant! Downloaded it this morning and played about an hour so far - I think I already prefer it to PM:TYD! It has a more classic feel and the music's great.

Oh God, count me in!!

I wonder if they'll use a similar crowd effect to the one in the excellent Strikers Charged..

Ah, marvelous! This looks more like the real deal. I wasn't sure about Second Opinion as I've already played the Ds one. Can't wait!

Although this looks decent, I have to say it's a bit underwhelming after we've waited so long for a lush sequel. It's very low poly and the textures have that horrible blurry stretched appearance (just look at the columns on the temple-like structures!). And don't tell me the Wii can't do better - we've seen it in Sonic. The odd thing is that the boss stage is brilliant; loads of atmosphere and imagination to the design, not nearly as rough and ready as that first level. Perhaps they're improving things as they go. Frankly, I'd rather they spent some more time developing this potentially amazing title, than just rush it out in less than a year..

Lovely - as long as you don't look too closely.. Some of the textures look suspiciously dreamcasty.

So far I've thoroughly enjoyed TP, Excite Truck, Sonic, SSX Blur, Eledees, Mario Strickers. From time to time I've been revisiting Mario Sunshine, WW, Prime, RE4 (hence prob not getting the wii ed) because they're all amazing games, old or not. And then all the VC content too! This is much more quality material than I had in the first year of owning a cube. If I'm honest, I have been eager to play Super Paper Mario, so the delay has been frustrating, especially as it would have perfectly filled the summer 'hole'. But the thought of having that AND Prime3 AND Galaxy AND Brawl (not to mention Nights, BWii and Sonic and Mario Olympics!) in the run up to xmas is enough in itself to keep me going. I don't think we should really forbid complaints on this score. We're all still a little perturbed by the fact that the Wii didn't launch with its holy trinity of killer aps (yes, TP was a cube game, accept it). But the positive is that it's made me try out certain games that I wouldn't have had the chance to otherwise.