tapedeck

Cheers HOT. That new Sainsbury's is a Godsend, I used to go in regularly when coming back home from Darlington.

Has this sold out everywhere? Will pick it up in the high street but cba wasting my time on the trek if it's sold out.

Somebody get this man a copy of SMG2!

Thought you loved LEGO Rez? Wy no LEGO City? It's a great little game.

Same difference. All joking aside, I really enjoy Miiverse. it's optional at the end of the day and doesn't interfere with the game like most community aspects do. I'm not a fan of online competitive gaming but enjoy the community and sharing aspect of playing. Miiverse is perfect for this. The worst thing about Miiverse is when developers don't integrate it properly into their games. No screen sharing in Disney Infinity is my recent bugbear. A game crying out for sharing of content/funny pictures. I do think that when communities launch it will be a better service, personalised more by users. It's early days. Nintendo, like all companies don't always get things perfect out of the gate. I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

Check out the Disney Infinity review on N-Europe: http://www.n-europe.com/reviews/disney-infinity

Yeah, Egypt needs to happen. Next gen sand

Care to explain? Not sure what you mean by this. By this logic nothing would improve. Most of the things we call innovations today are taken from previous ideas. If we held everything up against its predecessors we'd never appreciate anything! It's like saying "It's music but it's not The Beatles so it's not as good!" As I said in my Mario Galaxy 2 review for N-E, When Nintendo made that game it was something special in its own right, blowing away perceptions of what a sequel really is: Negatives? We struggled to even stop smiling long enough to think critically. Sure there are re-used assets, but the manner in which they are re-used is like recycling a plastic bottle to make a jumbo jet. Make no mistake, this is the greatest platformer of our time, the greatest Wii title ever created and the greatest journey through space since NASA decided to put man on the moon. It is perhaps in this definition then that, ultimately, SMG2 proves to be one small step for gaming yet one giant leap for platformers. Astounding.

Nintendoland and third party deals bringing Lego City and Bayonetta 2 and the W101 say hi. The Wii was a revolution for Nintendo as much as the industry as Ninty were not only pioneering a new control method, they were subsequently releasing titles as they learnt what motion control could and couldn't do. To reflect on just how well Nintendo did, just look at alternative consoles motion control games where you will see a real difference in execution. Furthermore, Nintendo also made huge strides in digital content and their online presence via the Virtual Console and the various channels they released (Everybody Votes etc.) I think they made larger steps and took bigger risks as a company than during the N64 and the Gamecube years.

It's all about the wilds of America. That's when the game becomes interesting in my opinion. I'd totally forgot about the first few hours due to the world that becomes available later on. As someone fascinated by American history and as someone who has been 'lost' in the wilds of North America in the past, (seriously, bears are terrifying!) this really appealed to me. I think it was the most historically accurate/realised action game I'd played. If they make a free-roaming mode where you can't be killed or start fights this could be a wonderful game to use in teaching kids about what it was like in such times. At times I felt like I was experiencing a living museum at times and it really made an impression. You are right though....it's Hollywood approach actually ends up holding it back from being 'free'. This series has the potential to be so much more but it's hamstrung by it's requirement to be a AAA bad-ass mature action game.

Have a gander at my Mario64 castle remake on the toybox mode of Disney Infinity:

Are they losing interest? They sold 100 million consoles. What separated the Wii from previous consoles was that it was more than just a gaming machine. It was a social gathering. A place where gamers and non-gamers could play together without barriers to entry. Their inability to recreate the buzz or 'lightning in a bottle' is because they are now focusing on a 'new' gamepad device which appeals to the whole 16-35 demographic. (And is just a classic controller with a big ass screen jammed on it). Instead they should approach their software ala Pikmin and say "hey...if you like Wii remotes and gaming in that manner...here, use them" And also release Wii sports 2

What is the difference between a console and a toy? Is a console something laden with cutting edge tech and can play Blurays? Or is it something that breaks easily through overheating? Perhaps a toy is something that gives you hours of playtime and interaction with others through that play. A good toy is timeless too. I think Wii will be remembered fondly. This whole 'Nintendo make toys' thing can be annoying though as it indicates that Nintenso make something just for children. The real children are the ones too embarrassed to play something coloured purple or wave and point a control device at a screen an have...y'know, fun. Yet they are happy to buy an expensive box to play army games and pretend they are a superstar footballer and take their gaming seriously, defending it at all costs. But in the end it's the software that defines the console. Nintendo's content skews toward everyone but not that 'mature' market. Trouble with the Wii was that the vast majority of 'quality' third parties were clueless more than ever when their beloved horsepower was taken away. I personally think the Wii made the industry grow up showing that there is space for alternative options outside of the Western focus of turning games into interactive movies. Even though the media strive to make this approach the de facto standard with reviews based around graphics, sound and presentation. 100 million consoles sold seems to indicate that, when this industry tries to do something different - it can truly shine. Instead it plods on appealing to the 16-35 male demographic. Kudos to Nintendo for really pushing away and out of that. The Wii made gaming truly social. In that regard it was more grown up and less toy-like than its counterparts.

To regard the Wii as a fluke is perhaps not giving Nintendo the credit they deserve. They knew they had to do something different after the GC and did it brilliantly. They also did it right from the start with early software to the adverts shown. It was also 'new' and unique which can have a huge impact on consumers. Over 100 millions consoles sold is phonomonal in the face of powerhouses such as MS and SONY. Also: Many gamers will have grown up on Wii and so Nintendo will also be synonymous with gamers of the future. I don't believe it was a fluke. The Wii U is an amalgamation of Wii and core gamers (dubbed U) so that's the WiiU market. The system has piggybacked on PS3/360 releases like AC/Arkham etc ticking the boxes for U - and this is where the biggest failing has come from, seeing as those titles are already available on other systems which are much cheaper and cater to a more mature demographic. Nintendo have tried to create software that straddles the line of casual and core through Nintendoland and their legacy games like 2D Mario. It works...but Nintendo haven't really made a 'casual' Wii type game using Mii's. I think they've underestimated Wii Sports massively - it's a universal concept as opposed to, say, a 2D platformer or multi-faceted, asymmetrical game like Nintendoland. Wii Sports U for Christmas with more modes/online leaderboards and optional Gamepad integration (using controls on off-TV if you want), would have set the Wii U rolling more than a conceptually confusing (to the casual crowd) 2.5D Mario game. Nintendo doomed themselves when they bought into this whole Wii and U concept (or casual/core division). Instead they should have just kept on focusing on games that sell to get their console off the ground - peppered with their legacy characters in HD. That would have been fine. Instead we've got this confusing scenario where Nintendo dont seem to know who they are appealing to. Strange for a company so focused on making games that encompass every age.

Josh nails it in his review...(one of the best reviews I've seen in a while). I'm busy making Mario64 and Banjo levels in the toybox. My Peach's castle from Mario64 is stunning!

What's Inazuma like? Love football and like RPG's. Hope they make a demo at least as it seems it could be a huge franchise that just doesn't seem to have clicked over here with footy mad kids/adults.

I think this will be a big seller at £99. Sweet price point with a great library of games that little kids could also share with any other sibling/parent 3DS owners. I too was initially shocked by the design but see that this is the perfect system for kids under 7, bridging from devices like V-Tech to the wonderful world of Nintendo gaming. My only concern would be Nintendo skewing even younger with their software due to now targeting this market more aggressively. But I generally love the idea of younger kids having their own version of a system that still plays all of those superb portable games. Great move.

Day one purchase. Love the party games on Wii and have been waiting for something that the whole family can play. Love the idea of using the Gamepad as a stand-alone experience for mini games too.

Great little read from a toy box dev: Evening all- I finally got around to reading quite a few of the published reviews on Infinity. It seems the biggest complaint is you have to buy tons of additional content to be able get all of the toys for the Toy Box. I promise you, this is not the case. You can get the majority of content with the starter pack. But, you need to know where all the content is unlocked from. So, a guide- Play all of the mastery adventures. All the foundational toys you need come from them. In particular, if you want to make your own games make sure you do Creativitoys Mastery. In tests small kids hated creativitoys so we purposely chose to postpone them showing up in the Toy Vault until the player completes Creativitoys Mastery or the player has unlocked 50 other toys. (I’m pretty sure a few of the reviewers didn’t play it and that’s why they never saw those toys. If they did they would get them quickly. Outed!) Find all the spin capsules in the game. The vast majority of them are hidden in the starting Toy Box world. Others are hidden in adventures. On the 360, Wii U, and PS3 make sure to get the patch. (PS3 patch should be gtg now.) Once you have the patch play the adventures. Getting medals in adventures yields spins. Complete feats. They are basically in-game achievements. You can get a bucket load of sparks from them. Which leads me to- There are exploits to getting sparks quickly to aid leveling. Trust me, we found a ton and we purposely didn’t remove most. Creativity deserves to be rewarded. I’m not going kiss and tell, but I will say there is a pretty good clue to one method in one of the videos I posted. Play the play sets. Complete missions, buy items from the catalog, and scour the world for Toy Box capsules. Be smart with your spins. Horde them and randomize the Toy Vault until multiple toys show up that you really want badly. Funny side story- my daughter figured this out and completely stopped caring about getting more toys after she got what she was after. When I asked her why her response was, “I don’t want any of that crap in my world.” (She unlocked almost everything BUT racing and creativitoys.) Ack! I’ve failed as a father. If you do all the above the amount of extra merchandise you, “have,” to buy should hopefully be a lot less than what you want to buy, (just because those toys are so darn attractive;) Good luck everyone!

So yeah, this is pretty special. Definitely an 8/10 game but that added Disney element lifts it somewhat. The music is immense. The graphics are beautifully stylised and varied throughout each world. Their is some slowdown moreso in co-op mode. Doesn't get unplayable though. Toy box is boggling. Lots of stuff is unlocked as you need to 'spin' for items - but....there's a cheeky workaround been found online so I now have hundreds of spins. All in all it's a collectors dream and I'm mesmerised at how good all of the aspects fit. From driving, fighting, platforming, steering vast pirate ships across the ocean and more....it's all solid and that Disney element brings the magic. Just felt a bit awkward asking for a Mrs Incredible figure in GAME...

Caved in and picked it up today. GAME had NO Wii U versions saying the Wii U version wasn't shipped in great numbers. Went to Grainger Games. They had one copy. I had some old titles to trade in - from this the guy said that I still had £20 still to pay. Had a bit craic with him about Wii U and Nintendo in general getting a hard time. He was a fan...so knocked the price down to £8 to pay! Awesome

So...did anyone pick this up? I've read a few reports on the WiiU version presenting a rather large problem: Namely that inside the Wii U package - comes the original Wii version instead! It seems that even factory staff don't know the difference between the Wii and Wii U!

Oldies but goldies: Street fighter IV Ridge Racer Dead or Alive PES 2012 or 13 StarFox OoT 3D Mario (a must have) Mario kart 7 (as above) Pilotwings (good but short) Also - get an e-shop voucher - for under 20 quid you could fill your system with gems like Pullblox/pushblox/steamworld dig and more! Then there's the GameBoy, NES and GameGear classics on there.

Also love this ad from NoA:

According to the fbook page for this it doesn't support the Pro controller. Annoying. Also - toy box mode doesn't have 'goals' you can create to actually start/end games. So it's all reliant on you and your mates just verbally agreeing what the 'rules' would be. EDIT: this isn't the case. Furthermore the Wii version (not Wii U) won't see any updates. Was looking forward to this but the top two bits above (and the £12 price of individual figures) has put me off this. Especially when you need another figure (from its individual playset) to play co-op missions. So that's another £36 quid just for monsters/pirates and incredibles co-op. :-/