Nicktendo

That's for Nintendo to decide, unfortunately, and highly unlikely in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure some sort of trade-in scheme could work, but I doubt they'd do it. We've already seen King Boo in MK Switch, as well as characters being able to hold 2 items, new tracks have also been rumoured from the leakers, so it looks like there will be some kind of new content, how much is anyone's guess though. In Splatoon we've seen new character designs and a new map, so it seems like that is getting new content as well, but again it depends on the scale of this new content. If Splatoon will be (as rumoured) a pack-in with the system, then I suppose this discussion is fairly redundant as early adopters will be getting it anyway. If they are going down the 8.5 route as opposed to the Mario Kart 9 one for the system's lifespan, then I expect we'll see a healthy amount of bi-annual or annual DLC on top of a huge base game, in which case I'll probably buy it.

I still haven't finished with these on Wii U and would love to keep playing on Switch with the community, but if the titles are going to be full price, Nintendo either needs to include decent number of additions to justify the price or give Wii U owners some sort of discount for me to jump.

I often read the Guardian online, as well as the Independent and occasionally I'll look at UK news stories on RT, as they often cover stuff ignored by our press, or have a different take to the left or right leaning media. I also read Delfi, which covers the Baltics and Russia in both English and Russian, as well as Lenta RU which is a fairly respected independent Russian news outlet which covers global news well. I agree that the Guardian comments section is usually pretty good and attracts a wide number of people both left and right leaning, usually provoking good discussion. I stay away completely from any kind of Facebook news and/or discussion. My main source of news used to be the BBC and the Guardian exclusively, but as time has passed I've been placing less and less trust in them and now read almost every article with a grain of salt while finding myself identifying less and less as a 'liberal', particularly in a post-Brexit / Trump world. My crumbling faith in them is mostly down to their shocking coverage of Russia and how unashamedly they potray everything that happens in that country in a negative light. And it is constant. Unrelenting, especially if one were to compare that with their coverage of China, who our leaders are conveniently more favourable towards. The straw that broke the horses back, so to speak, was when the BBC ran a written article on the currency crisis in Russia, December 2014, when the rouble plunged to 100 roubles to the pound. At the time I was working just off Nevsky Prospect and the BBC were going on about huge queues and a sense of utter panic at the currency exchange bureau right over the road from my work. It was complete bullshit. There was no panic whatsoever, at least that wasn't confined to a bunch of ex-pat teachers. No queues. Nothing. People simply didn't care. People were prepared to ride it out. After already being unimpressed with their underreporting of the riots on George Square during the Scottish Referendum and (what I perceived to be) bias in the run-up to the vote, they had already been on shaky ground with me. Now I am suspicious of everything they write, but still believe it gives a more rounded and generally more impartial view than other media outlets based in the UK. Plus it's fairly good for sport and local news. I still go there, but mostly as a force of habit.

Rabbids Go Home was one of my favourite games on the Wii. Essentially an action adventure game with an amusing premise, very good music and geniunely funny moments. The controls were really tight and the gameplay was challenging. Incidently, I never played the mini-game collection that launched with the system, but I've heard / read it's not any good. If Rabbids Go Home is anything to go by, then this game could be surprisingly good.

Can't say I disagree with this. I wouldn't be happy about paying £100 for potentially incremental updates just so I could continue to play MK, Smash and Splatoon with the Nintendo community. Especially after I spent extra money on the DLC for MK8 and Smash.

Found this on IGN. Ouch, no wonder my mate's mum went crazy over it, she bought it for his birthday which was April 29th (days before the price drop). That price compared with the US and then a "free game" to make up for it is pretty disgusting. Glad I was made to wait If they can get the Switch out for less than £200, I think it will be a pretty irresistible impulse buy, especially at a time where not much else will be happening in the industry. Maybe Nintendo do know what they're doing after all....

Didn't the N64 launch at £349 or something equally crazy? I remember not being allowed one at launch as it was too expensive, but my friend who did get one at launch got a couple of free games off Nintendo when they did end up dropping the price a couple of months later.

I love the Internet.

Yeah, this was the first time I've taken part and it was an awesome experience despite the tiredness, especially in a place such as the Arcade Club. Would be well up for doing something for a good cause next year. Thanks again to everyone in this wonderful community for supporting us and helping us smash our target 3 times over.

The club was crazy busy last night, lots of people stopping by and chatting / watching us play. The raffle was a big success and I think we made well over £100 in raffle tickets and club donations from the public alone.

While these kinds of attacks are disturbing and deeply unsettling, I feel the mainstream media in the US will do the opposite of the UK and continue to promote their country as an open and tolerant one and we won't see the sharp increase in hate crime we saw here. Everyone there is an immigrant after all. The mainstream media, especially television, is mostly liberal leaning in its overall message and it will likely be the less-respected, less widely consumed media sources such as talk radio that could try to fan the flames. What you're very unlikely to have, for example, is a widely consumed piece of mass media pointing out someone's inadequacies to a do job simply because they are gay in front page fashion, as the Daily Mail attempted with the recent high court judges Brexit case, or huge, falsified headlines attacking and blaming people of colour and whipping up a frenzy. The US will end up being the example for the UK in how to handle this kind of situation, because we are completely down the shitter in this respect.

I read this before the election and struggled to find fault with it. http://michaelmoore.com/trumpwillwin/ I despise Trump, and despise his rhetoric. I despise his use of language and what he stands for, but I don't think this will be the disaster some people are making out. The Democrats are in a crisis and are now completely out of power in all aspects of American politics. This is a good thing. Their approach of chasing corporate money and media over working people has been their downfall. This will hopefully inspire them to look at that and come back stronger in four years. I geniunely believe Sanders would have won this election had it not been for the corrupt way the primaries were handled. Look how close it was in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida. Sanders, runnning on a similar but ultimately more tasteful anti-establishment, populist programme could have taken those states and unltimately the white house. American politics is unbelievably tribal, but that would likely have been enough. Furthermore, I believe the global community has less to fear from Trump than they would have from Clinton, despite his character. Obama has basically continued Bush's interventinalist policies and now we live in a world where ISIS exists and the US working man's and Middle Class' (regardless of colour) situation is still as poor as it was 8 years ago. If Trump really does opt to run on an "America first" program and take a more non-interventionalist approach to foreign policy, including resetting relations with Russia and scaling back the number of troops / forces abroad, I think a lot of problems could be solved. If he is successful (and I don't think he will be, for what it's worth) in bringing business, industry and money back to America then it will be a massive success after 40+ years of it leaving. Real wages of working people haven't increased since Clinton the first, and continuing on the already trodden path for another 4 years wouldn't have changed that. Hillary wouldn't have changed that. Let us also remember, as the poster above pointed out that Trump recieved less votes than the previous two Republican candidates. This wasn't a popular uprising. This wasn't a fascist takeover. This was people not wanting Hillary Clinton in the White House. This was Democrats not wanting her in there. Democrats in states where it really mattered. People are entirely justified in their fears in what this means for a liberal, open-minded society, but again - millions of newly justified racists haven't suddenly woken up overnight, no more than there already were, anyway. This is where I think this differs from Brexit. Traditional republicans voted for their candidate as they always do, in less numbers than before and the Democrats simply stayed at home. I don't think American liberal culture will really change all that much. I don't think minorities have anything to fear from their neighbours or the media, certainly not in the way sections of the british press have treated them. I hope that in four years the world will be in a better place than it currently is. I hope Trump can actually deliver on some of his more decent policies which appealed to his supporters who want a respectable wage or a increase in the standart of living, and of course the millions of people around the globe who want America to take a step back in global affairs. His rhetoric was vile and appealed to the lowest common denomenator, respect to Hillary Clinton for remaining classy and stateswomanlike. Hopefully we can put all this sordid unpleasentness behind us and things can be handled a hell of a lot more amicably from now on. The America that voted in Obama 8 years ago has not disappeared, it is still a magnificent country filled with wonderful people who want social and cultual progress, this will not change. It's hilarious how many of our own politicians have u-turned on Trump. I heard Theresa May on the radio yesterday and her speech sounded so prepared and fake. She is awful. Do I worry that this will inspire nationalists and racists in Europe? Yes. But as I have pointed out above, this wasn't a landslide or an uprising. This was people who were turned off by establishment politics, if you look at the numbers. Let's have a look in a year and see where we're at. I assume we'll see a very different picture from "the end of the world". Love still Trumps hate, and will continue to do so.

I put 3 hours into the new update yesterday after deciding not to nuke my town. The thought of their little faces was just too much... Anyway seems like I have a lot to still do in this game and I always enjoy a bit of AC so if anyone wants to visit just let me know. Bring fruit. Maybe we should resurrect the online codes thread from the doldrums?

Definitely worth going for a new 3DS, but only if you will get decent usage out of it, I suppose. It's obviously more portable than the 2DS and faster when performing basic functions, though if you don't plan on taking it out with you, the 2DS may suit you better. I have the new 3DS (not XL) and feel it's a good compromise between the XL and 2DS. All the benefits of the XL and at a cheaper price point. Did I mention the swappable faceplates and the SNES throwback face buttons??

I haven't bought anything on the Wii U VC except for Earthbound. I think I need to make another exception for this. It must be the best part of 10 years since I've played X and Nintendo's Youtube channel confirms it's the 60Hz version!

Aaaahhh! I'll buy it at a high price.

I dont know why I called Paper Mario: Colour Splash Colour Paper Mario or Rayman Legends Rayman Adventures, guess I'm just tired from thinking about ALL THESE AWESOME GAMES. I also missed out Super Mario Maker another one of those famous E3 2014 games, but one that just didn't click with me. I'm not an overly creative person and I just couldn't make anything interesting. Playing user made levels got pretty tiring after a while, especially when a lot of people went for the same cliches. Finding a level which was truly great became a bit of a chore. My biggest disappointment of the Wii U in retrospect. I also forgot to mention Amiibo. I only have 4 in my collection but I do love the idea and the implmentation thus far. They're still just a bit too pricey for my liking. Edit: Bollocks. I forgot about NES Remix 1 and 2 as well. Easily the most challenging games on the system, but I managed to beat them both completely. Bring on the Nintendo Classic Mini. Basically, the Wii U is an awesome system with plenty of great games, so many in fact that it's hard to remember them all! Minecraft.

For the purposes of this post I'm going to change the title to Wii U 2014-2016 - My top 5 games. For the first time since the N64 I hadn't bought a Nintendo home console since launch day. I gave up gaming in 2011 and moved abroad for Uni, then work and I had nothing to play except a couple of emulators on my PC. Then, kind of by chance and boredom, I watched E3 2014 and the entire 3 days of Treehouse Live. I was blown away by what I saw and ordered my Wii U from Amazon Germany about a week later. Having finished Skyward Sword as my 'retirement' (a game which I absolutely adored, despite overall being underwhelmed with the Wii and the direction Nintendo had chosen), I hadn't touched a Nintendo home console game in almost 3 years and I couldn't wait to start playing again. My Wii U arrived with Mario Kart 8 and Rayman Legends and over the next two years I fell in love with Nintendo all over again. 5: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD I didn't really want to include this in the list for the same reasons as Ronnie, but this game is just too good. Arguably the best in the series. The HD upgrade made an already jaw-dropping game even more beautiful. Going through Twilight Princess again a couple of months ago has only confirmed this to me. A fantastic experience with a game world which provides a real sense of adventure and mystery. The upgrades, such as fast sailing and the reduced trifore quest were welcome and I put in 37 hours over 5 days, loving every second of it from start to finish. 4: Mario Kart 8 As someone who hated Mario Kart 64 (Come on, Diddy Kong Racing was waaaay better) and was disappointed by Mario Kart Wii after I felt progress had been made with Double Dash, I wasn't actually anticipating Mario Kart 8 as much as other titles. 100 hours and countless league nights later I can comfortably say this is the best edition of the Mario Kart series to date. Flawless track design, comprehensive DLC and an unforgetable soundtrack make this one not only one of the best Mario Kart games of all time, but one of the best racing games of all time. 3: Pikmin 3 Another game I wasn't massively anticipating but was keen to try having lost interest with the previous entries in the series. By far this is the best looking game on the system and the touch screen controls / map combo was confirmation that the Wii U gamepad was essential to push forward gameplay and seperate Nintendo from Sony and Microsoft as gameplay innovators. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful adventure and beat the game twice in quick succession. The difficulty curve is almost perfect and the game provides a mighty challenge without ever feeling unfairly hard or too easy. Simply sublime. 2: Hyrule Warriors Believe it or not, this was actually the game that sold me on the system. I loved the amount of fan service I saw in the game and was intrigued by mix of Dynasty Warriors and Zelda. I have sunk about 180 hours into this title (alongside the 3DS version) and still to this day haven't finished the adventure mode maps. It doesn't integrate the Wii U's unique features in any special way, but DAMN is it fun! I honestly can't put my finger on what makes this game so great, but every time I put it in the system I lose 2 or 3 hours at a time and never get bored of hacking and slashing hordes upon hordes of enemies. 1: Splatoon Another game from E3 2014 that convinced me to pick up this system and proof, in my opinion, that Nintendo is still the best in the business. A game built for the Wii U which uses the systems features in a way that never feels tacked on or cheap. This is the defining game on the system. New IP, fantastic, tight controls and a game world which oozes class in the way Nintendo games used to. Splatoon was Nintendo's first foray into the busy world of online shooters and this is what they gave us - A budget price, monthly competitions, constantly expanding number of weapons and arenas, free-to-play online, magnificent and well-designed single player experience, excellent ranking and upgrade system which geniunely felt both challenging and rewarding. For a first attempt, this was an incredible effort and easily my favourite new Nintendo IP for the last 15 years. I can't wait to see where they go with this next. ------------------------------ The honorable mentions On a system that easily surpassed the Wii, the Wii U has countless of really great experiences which didn't quite make it into my top 5. Although I don't hold it in as high regard as the N64 or the GameCube (but that just could be age and nostalgia speaking), here are some of the titles I have enjoyed in the past couple of years. The closest to my top 5 was easily Bayonetta 1 and 2, although I didn't get quite as much milage out of them as those on the list, playing through them was an unfogettable experience. Loved the humour, the cinematic experience and the tight controls. I will go back and try to get all the pure platinum medals once I get some other games out the way. My second most played game on Wii U is actually Super Smash Bros for Wii U and this doesn't make the list simply for the fact that I feel Melee was better overall. The single player material was a little bit lacking here, but eveything else was god-tier, a massive improvement gameplay-wise over Brawl, in my opinion. Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn't make the list, simply because I haven't finished it yet. I'm 50 hours in and love it. Including, controversially, the music WAH, TWO, THREE, FOH, I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I CAN'T SEE YOU. Tokyo Mirage Sessions was my favourite JRPG of a long-long time and it was a pleasure to review it for this site. Even though I gave it a 9/10 and loved everything about it, I didn't love it quite as much as the games on the list. Or Bayonetta. The ultimate asymmetrical gameplay experience that is Nintendo Land is also one of my favourite games on the system, plus my non-gamer girlfriend also loved playing this with me which wins it serious points. I don't think there's a bad game in there and the gamepad integration is, obviously, second to none. Personally had I bought the system on launch with this as a pack-in I wouldn't have been disappointed. Both mainline Mario games on the system are also very good Super Mario 3D World being my favourite of the two thanks to it's incredible graphics and music, another game me and my girlfriend played through together. Captain Toad was a joy to play as well. We also enjoyed Yoshi's Wooly World but I didn't think it quite reached the lofty heights of the SNES game, despite being an absolute charm to look at. In spite of the hate, I really enjoyed Star Fox Zero, though fall on the side of the argument that it lost a lot of what made the 64 game special, as well as the controls occasionally being needlessly frustrating. I also couldn't get into Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze quite as much as some people on here did, but it's still a top level platformer which I loved playing through. Finally, Wii Sports Club, Rayman Adventures and Need For Speed Most Wanted were all great titles that I put a decent amount of time into. I haven't even mentioned the E-Shop but enjoyed Shovelknight, of course, as well as Fast Racing Neo, Affordable Space Adventures and Swords and Soldiers. I do have other titles downloaded (about 15 in all), but either haven't finished them or enjoyed them a whole lot. Colour Paper Mario will be my final Wii U game, which I'll buy before the end of the year. Thank you Nintendo for re-igniting my love for this nearly 30 year old hobby of mine. These past two years have been great and I already can't wait for the Switch.

Had there been a Grainger close to me, I would have pre-ordered there, but there isn't. It really is a shame the current state of our high street. The Gamestation in my home town was one of the first in the country back in the mid to late 90s, the staff were always really great and would chat about Nintendo for hours, they let you try games before you bought them and always gave great recommendations back before the Internet took off. As the years went by it all became a bit more corporate and the trade in prices got worse as Game eventually took them over. CeX is great, and I loved working there while I was at uni, but as you say it only deals with the second-hand market. Maybe there is just no money to be made on the high street these days, and people prefer to use the cheaper online services.

At least now I know I'm in a queue and will get the console on release day. Doing this online is not always guaranteed if everyone jumps in when pre orders begin or if you're not near a computer at the that time. What if we see another Wii like shortage? I don't want to pay over the odds or wait potentially weeks. Thanks, but I think going with Game is actually playing it rather safe.

Goodbye money and goodbye Day-1 Switch. I hate Game as much as the next guy, but if you want it guaranteed at midnight what other choice do you have? They are the only high street retailer left. Supermarkets are a possibility, but I doubt they'll have as good a pre-order structure. I think the fact that it's refundable, means in the unlikely event they do go under we, being gamers who actively post online, will get a whiff of it and I'll be able to go in for a refund. I did the same for the GameCube and Wii and never had any problems. So I'm hoping this will be the same.

I'll be at the club, hopefully for the full 24 hours, but if the tournament takes place during those 24 hours then I'm guessing I'll have to run home to take part as there won't be a Wii U set up there? It's only 10 mins by car so it will take me around an hour or so.

Pro-ordered this morning from my local Game. They're asking for £50 but it is refundable. They're preparing for a midnight launch in late March and apparently my local store already had quite a large number of pre-orders.

I will be there for the full 24 hours, depending on when the Mario Kart 8 tournament takes place.

Yep. That's exactly why I still log in everyday.