Sheikah

DS games were sold at £30 compared with the £40 of HD console games, despite being much cheaper to make. SD cards are (and were) extremely prolific and as a result didn't cost much. Handhelds were also very much still in and Nintendo produced a blinder with the DS. Combining all these factors, it is hard to see an anywhere near similar result happening this time round using hologram cards.

Never gets old to see the FIFA game of 2012 on Wii U's list again. Like time travel.

Put me down

By AAA do you mean big console-esque titles like Uncharted? I agree with Sony that those sort of games just don't draw the same crowd as they do on console.

Exactly this @killthenet. Like Hero says, they've locked away a fair amount of content before, solely for amiibo owners. As for clutching for straws, I really don't believe I am. I honestly think that someone ignoring all criticisms of this tie-in and seeing it as completely a good thing is a bit concerning (I like the idea of the extra dungeon, just not the amiibo integration). The point is, if enough people aren't bothered about D1 content paywalling then how far will Nintendo take it?

The argument is not whether they could have done something else because you can always do something else. Wii Sports could have been played with a standard controller, using buttons to swing, if Nintendo had made it so. My point was that tying the colour dungeon to that feature made sense because colour actually made it clearer and was a cool theme to revolve around. Tying a dungeon to an amiibo seems quite arbitrary because all you can do with an amiibo is scan it. That is not itself a cool feature. I'm more inclined to think that beyond using it to save some data it is mostly just going to be an unlock pass. Concerning to see this attitude; locking significant day 1 content behind amiibo is not something to revel in. It would be like if anyone cheered that PS Plus became mandatory to play online.

Oh right, I thought you were talking about Four Swords Adventures. Either way, a bad practice in the past does not make a bad practice in the present OK, does it?

It was a 500GB one also, no Y-cable included but powered up fine. I think it depends on how much power the laptop you're plugging it into is giving out through one USB port. Not sure what happened with my link there but you can pick the silver version up off Amazon here for just £5.99: http://www.amazon.co.uk/2588US3-Portable-External-Enclosure-High-speed/dp/B015GMSHMO/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1452813000&sr=8-22&keywords=Orico+hdd+enclosure

The colour dungeon needed colour as it was designed around using the colour screen and colour coded enemies to solve the puzzles; the multiplayer requirement for some of LTTP GBA similarly was the case because it actually had puzzles that were thoughtfully created for multiplayer play. I don't see how you can argue a dungeon would somehow need an amiibo to be cleared or unlocked, at least not in a non-arbitrary way. There is also the issue that if it did center around tapping an amiibo as the main gimmick that it wouldn't be very fun. Think Tesco checkouts meets Zelda. It might be that amiibo will just be the requirement to unlock it. I've noticed that this has caused a bit of a shitstorm on Eurogamer's article feed. Least I'm not the only one to think it.

We're planning it out at the moment, intending to travel throughout Japan with a rail pass (spending a few days in Tokyo). We're going end of March - return tickets were £439 per person going with Air France on both outbound and inbound which seemed really good (Air France also apparently serve Champagne at no cost to all cabins and have an open bar). One stop in each direction with reasonable stopovers. I've ordered the lonely planet Japan guide to give me a better idea of what is worth doing. Any recommendations?

There's simply no proof of that. The only thing we know for certain is that the content is there from day 1 but only people who pay even more get access to it.

It's just about one of the purest examples of pay to win I've seen for awhile. Yeah. If you pay a certain amount of real money you have something that heals you (as much as you want?). I don't see how it could be less pay to win. It can help you literally win fights where otherwise you might have died if you suck.

Well obviously I won't do it. But it is blatant pay to win, used in a pretty crappy way. None of us should be afraid to question or highlight it.

They probably should listen to them if they're not buying their products. Like, really listen. New dungeon sounds cool, but tap amiibo to heal yourself sounds like the kind of thing that I hate to see in games.

I have just bought....tickets to Japan! For 15 days.

This is a really silly thing to say. I'm sure I can speak for most social gamers here when I say that voice chat has done nothing but enhance the games and gameplay that is already there. Destiny 3 man fireteams on competitive Trials of Osiris provides one of the best social and gameplay experiences there is to be had - sharing tactics, information and, most importantly, the laughs, over voice chat makes this all the more fantastic.

£33.95 and in stock at TheGameCollection

Whether or not you see it as shambolic depends on what you expect from an online service (free or not). When it doesn't match up to 3 other competitors (including 1 free) then I don't see any problem calling it shambolic.

Umm... All this started because I said Nintendo don't have a proper online infrastructure. Not that they don't have an infrastructure. The buzz word in this instance is 'proper'. I don't think anyone here will realistically argue that Nintendo have a proper online infrastructure given how severely lacking it is. A shambolic one, but not a proper one. Unless I'm missing something?

Of course it is. Even if not to chat, an OS-level ability to form parties that you can use for the purpose of arranging games is a must.

Here's one I just bought and installed the other day for my sister (although mine was yellow). Cheap and cheerful and works fine.

The gamepad is not a standard controller...it is particularly divisive in fact. While you can buy a more traditional controller the Wii U does not come with one of the box which means less support and less confidence from other parties. Don't you think it's odd that every time you say Wii U has proper online, literally nobody but yourself believes it?

No amount of money is going to save Nintendo when it comes to third party games if they don't sort their next console out. Proper online infrastructure/accounts, hardware parity and standard control setups are what is needed.

Emulators aren't illegal, so of course. Many emulators allow you to play from your own discs anyhow.

@Shorty @Zell @Deathjam @MilaGi @DriftKaiser Just a reminder about continuing the raid tonight on our alts. I am available from half 7.