Sheikah

Impressive for a re-release on a new console really.

Pretty good price on these. Nintendo 2DS Console White+Red / Black+Blue colours each £78.99 new (or £69.99 used) from Grainger Games. Available online and in store.

Hell yeah. Sorry I'm late to the party. This is the best game on the SNES, without doubt. Although my favourite ever game/RPG is FFVIII (probably more due to the time at which I played it - life was sweet), CT is easily a close second. Well, Majora's Mask is in that top list somewhere too. This game took the Final Fantasy archetype and scrunched up random battles, made the characters rather non-serious and made the story far more interesting/makes you give a shit than previous RPGs. And it had the best soundtrack to a game yet. People are still remixing this shit to the day. In many ways, you can look at FF6 and see a lot of precursor to CT in terms of visual style and general modernising of the genre. But CT perfected this and made it really fun. You can play a game like FF5, or those before them, and the games actually feel old. But you can play CT now, and because it does so much right it doesn't feel old at all. Time travel/manipulation is always a risky plot device but it works really well here, and it makes you feel genuinely sad to be visiting the different timelines, assisting the common people and piecing together the story of how everything went to pot. But at the same time you feel empowered - you have the ability to change the future! The game is also full of epic moments that are totally unforgetable. Dat Magus twist, the fall of the 'comet', the discovery on that fateful computer terminal in the future. This was truly great stuff. It's a real shame that Chrono Cross never made it to these shores because it's actually a really, really good game, and has a deep story that is just as sad and endearing. Anyone with a PS3 can setup a US account to get it. It's totally worth it. CT deserves nothing less than a 10 (or 100). It's one of the best games ever made, so the scale would make no sense if it didn't sit at the top.

You don't have to level Ninja very far to learn Utsusemi. Anyone who just hit Chapter 5 and has the airship can find a pretty easy levelling spot outside Starkfort. All the enemies are undead, so you can make one character a spritmaster with white magic secondary ability to easily heal the enemies to kill them off in one go. It gets even more efficient as you go, too - the Spiritmaster's 'Holy One' (2 slots) passive ability makes healing magic do 2.5 times damage, while the white mage ability 'Epic Group Cast' (3 slots) lets you group target all enemies with healing magic. As well as learning higher level white magic as you go. Speed up battles to 4X and you're looking at about 20 mins to master a job on a character when you have a growth egg on (but you're levelling multiple characters at once).

That's a shame. He will forever be the guy that sharted.

Looks good, I'm a fan of that case.

Yeah the same trick for the dragons works. Make all characters ninjas and cast Utsusemi with everyone to gain one complete protection from physical hits (all his hits are physical). Recast when he attacks someone.

The music levels are such fun eh?

Sorry to hear that Jamba. I thought you played really well.

On the Wii U I can't see it looking good playing through the gamepad. On the 3DS I definitely wouldn't. I've already got an R4 for that.

Hey, ninja can be heroes.

Yeah if I moved it'd probably be to work in one of those bioparks so I'd probably locate based on proximity to them.

Oh that's cool. I'd like to live in Cambridge when I finish at the end of this year (hopefully). Such a beautiful place.

Good to hear! You got any plans now?

I can't remember but what level did Super Mario 3D World actually require the Gamepad?

I know his point, it's just that I don't agree that having done something different is necessarily respect-worthy. In my opinion, in the last 2 generations Nintendo have gone down an 'innovation' path with their hardware that has done long term damage to their image as well as put them in the pretty bad position they are in now. And in really pursuing that 'innovation', I think they've lost sight of who they were and what made them special.

I reckon there'll be some pretty good deals on the original Vita after this hits.

Yeah that was one of the reasons I brought it up (not out of trying to be rude to Serebii) - on the surface, the OS looks to be not too heavily tied to the gamepad. Apart from the second screen functionality it seems like a controller could be substituted for a lot of it.

I will just have to disagree with you then. I think Sony have done just as much if not more different with their latest console than the Wii U (off screen play is also one of those things).

Out of interest, why do you think they have more perspective than me? I'm curious.

Except that I'm not calling into question somebody's age, which is in both irrelevant and personal. As long as people stay on the issue of Nintendo's situation then I've nothing to drop, whether it gets heated or not.

One thing I do wonder though...how long would people subscribe for? Unlike Netflix, there is no new content being made, as all retro games have been made. Unless they keep stagger releasing games, but then a subscription for access to reduced libraries isn't as enticing.

Then what point are you trying to make? I made the point that Nintendo isn't really coming up with features that people want, you argue that they are actually innovative and really good. It's all opinion and preference at the end of the day, but I don't think if they were that groundbreakingly innovative / cornerstone to the industry that Nintendo would be faring so badly right now. I really don't rate Miiverse at all. (A small point, but I really don't think you're in the position to be questioning people's maturity).

Fuck me, that is some level of denial. You are right. The world loves Nintendo's hardware/console features. The Wii U has some of the absolute best features and Nintendo should look to differentiate from the PS4 at every turn.

You're saying how important/awesome/innovative/necessary to the industry these features are, yet clearly most people don't agree. Most people probably couldn't give a shit about Miiverse. It's great that you like it, but you're not going to convince me, or the millions of others who are unhappy with the Wii U right now. Quality doesn't always equal success. But quality is usually recognised. Nintendo produce some quality games, but their hardware is pretty turd. And you say the industry needs Nintendo? For all intents and purposes, the rest of the gaming industry has packed up and left the Wii U. It seems to be doing fine to me.