Grazza

I deliberately stood in front of a horned animal, though, and it didn't attack me. Didn't have the heart to clobber it!

Gave the demo another go, and I think the charm of this game is working on me! Not that I could get anywhere. In many ways it's a bad demo as it's difficult, it has no tutorial and doesn't support the Circle Pad Pro. On the other hand, it's not too bad a demo as at least it makes me want the game! I know if I bought the whole thing I'd get used to it. The biggest problem is lack of dual analogue. Why oh why, when they had developers willing to make this type of game, did Nintendo not make the 3DS dual analogue? I'd love to play this on the 3DS but I can't really be bothered with the Circle Pad Pro XL and might just get it on the Wii U instead. By the way, in these games, do you have to hunt down the "innocent" creatures? I know it's not real, but I hate the idea of killing the non-aggressive ones!

I've completed the original but I didn't quite "get" it. It was good, but bear in mind reviews were saying it was a mature/grown-up version of Zelda and therefore better than Wind Waker! Nonetheless, I would give the sequel a go. I don't think the listing means it's coming to Wii U, by the way, although considering the first game is all about photo-journalism, the GamePad would probably suit it.

Quite. I keep getting the feeling lately that the 3DS could have a much higher quantity of "impressive" games. It's a very capable machine.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-25-mighty-switch-force-2-coming-soon-to-3ds Sounds promising... And Jake Kaufman returns!!

Out of what I've paid for: Virtual Console = Link's Awakening DX @ 14 hours eShop = Denpa Men @ 28 hours Whilst Link's Awakening is my favourite Virtual Console game, Denpa Men is not my favourite eShop game (so far, it is Mighty Switch Force). But if we're counting Ambassador games (which we're probably not, as they're not on the eShop), Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones is 49 hours and counting!

Hardly ever, to be honest. This is because I (usually) sell my consoles, unless they host a real favourite of mine that I think I won't be able to play in the future. In this regard I've kept my GameCube with Wind Waker, Twilight Princess + Metroid Prime, and my Game Boy Micro with Metroid Fusion + Metroid: Zero Mission. Even then, I tend to play my favourite games several times whilst the games machine is still current. Now remakes and digital downloads are another matter. I loved Link's Awakening back in the day, but sold it years ago. Getting the colourised version on 3DS was a real pleasure. That's what it comes down to, really, for me. I love to play an old favourite when it becomes available again in a "boosted" form.

I'll answer the question about the controller first, because it doesn't affect whether I've got a Wii U or not. Yes, I've played on the Wii U - well, not really "played" it, but used the GamePad to navigate menus. The controller was bigger than I expected, and I don't have small hands (I liked the original Xbox controller). At the moment I'm sceptical that there's a point to the GamePad, but I don't really dislike it. As for whether I have a Wii U yet, no, and that's because: 1) The price. The more I think about it, the more expensive it seems. I can understand Nintendo doesn't want to make another loss, but the reality is it's not going to sell many more at that price (maybe it will when Mario Kart is out, but I doubt it). If Nintendo is waiting for the cost of manufacture to come down, then fair enough, but we have to accept it won't fly off the shelves until then. 2) The games. There is nothing I want to play at all yet - possible exception New Super Mario Bros U, but I don't really play those games on consoles. I can usually get the handheld iterations for about £25, but I looked into getting NSMB U and it was going to cost me about £40. This is one of the reasons I skipped NSMB Wii and other 2D platformers on the Wii. Sorry, but the type of game Nintendo has made so far doesn't make me want to spend my money. 3) A combination of the above. What I mean is that if I could get a Premium Pack with a game I wanted, I might do so, but as yet I haven't seen anything I really want other than Wind Waker HD. That or 3D Mario would make a good bundle. To end on a positive note, I am fairly confident about the future. The "big" Nintendo Direct in January reassured me Nintendo still has top talent working for it. Remaking (fan favourite) Wind Waker might seem an obvious move, but it's how they are doing it that matters. Every bit of colouring and lighting - the clouds, the windmill, the coral reefs - looked just right. In fact, it's the best judgment I've seen applied to Zelda for years! When the Wii U was released I didn't have an HDTV. Now I've got one, so I'm all set. I'm going to buy a PlayStation 3 first and work through Ni no Kuni and a few others, but I'm definitely going to get a Wii U. Maybe it will just take a year or so for the console to be a bit more enticing.

Bought! No, really, I wonder if it'll be a similar formula but with different blocks? I always classified the three types of block in the original as "standard", "reactions" and "puzzle", because that's what they were designed to test, respectively (the last two, I mean). I would actually prefer a more Metroid-like game, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Either way, I'm loading up my 3DS with more points.

I've just got a gut feeling this is going to be awesome, and I'm not an enormous fan of the original either. I liked it, and I loved reading @Hero\-of\-Time's playthrough of it, but it's not a game I'd have asked for a sequel to. I'm glad they've made one though because it looks like it belongs with Super Mario 3D Land in that special class of 3DS game: "Lovingly-crafted, 3D Nintendo Efforts".

But then again, are there any really good RPGs on the 3DS yet? Maybe in Japan, but I don't think there are in Europe. ... Regarding shooters, I just find them callous, to be honest. The Killzone footage was a real low point of the conference to me, although Sony did at least prove themselves masters of irony. "Nintendo is so unoriginal, making all those Mario games. Here's an FPS." But really, I didn't know how they weren't embarrassed to be making a focal-point of something so... repetitive. It was just mindless violence, and the way they introduced it made it sound quite artistic! I don't want to sound like a prude or anything. There's just as much violence in films, if not more. But when so many games are just about guns and violence, I'm thinking to myself "Have we all numbed our brains or something?"

I'd still love to play all those Japanese Mega CD games I saw years ago, especially Lunar: the Silver Star. I know it's been remade a few times, so I'm sure I'll get round to it one day.

Monster Hunter isn't for me but I tried the demo and was impressed with it, technically. It just goes to show what sort of 3D worlds are possible on the 3DS. The next Zelda could be great.

The Sony event made me like the Wii U more, not less! In many ways, it reminded me of the PSOne days, mixed with today's overly-serious, "cinematic" style. All in all, I was desperate for some of that charm that Nintendo seem to find so easy.

Brilliant news about Oracle of Seasons/Ages! Link's Awakening is unbelievably good on the 3DS screen, so I can't wait for these.

The Mega Drive was about atmosphere! My first encounters with it were seeing it in Argos and playing Altered Beast on it Comet. 16-bit, arcade-quality... Was I reading this right?! It was exactly what I'd wanted during the late-80s, when I was always disappointed that the home versions never matched the coin-ops. I was desperate to get one as a Christmas present. I told my friend about it, who was also getting one for Christmas. He informed me that something called the "Super Famicom" was on its way, and that technically it was better. He showed it to me in his "Mean Machines" magazine, and I was jealous at the colours and sprite-quality of Super Ghouls & Ghosts. But this didn't put either of us off. The Mega Drive was exciting enough for us both, and it was here now. At around the same time, I saw a magazine in my local newsagent's called Sega Pro. Well, I was hooked. Reading this magazine was like going into a different world. I'd read the cheats, the letters page - absolutely everything. I learnt of all the Japanese games like Thunderforce, Phantasy Star etc, as well as exotic hardware like the WonderMega and Multi-Mega. There was even a page called "Game Over", which showed you what happened when you completed certain games (something you wouldn't be guaranteed to do in those days). Christmas Day arrived and I got my Mega Drive and a copy of Golden Axe. I can't really explain how much I valued it. In fact, I even took it round my friend's on that day and we played it 2-player, as well as his copy of Streets of Rage. My neighbour got one too, and I borrowed platformers like Castle of Illusion from her. At weekends, we travelled to London visiting relatives. I loved my Mega Drive so much I took it with me. They had an import shop down there, with a Japanese copy of Sonic the Hedgehog (I wondered why it had a different cover) and also a "Virgin Games", which was the forerunner of Electronics Boutique and GAME (if there's a big GAME in your town, it might well have started off as Virgin Games). One day my excitement went through the roof when I saw Golden Axe II in there, and bought it immediately. Why hadn't I seen this in magazines? Well, let's just say the situation was probably the same then as it is today. It's not that I didn't respect the SNES. I did, and so did all my mates, but there was something magical about the Mega Drive. In 1993, Landstalker came along and I was immersed in that world even more than A Link to the Past. Sega were always working on something, and there was always potential for the Mega Drive to improve. Cartridges got bigger and bigger, and there was even a (very expensive) chip called the Virtua Processor (used in Virtua Racing). But no console lasts forever. By the mid-90s the Mega Drive was showing its age and it was time to pass on the baton to newer consoles with CD drives, polygon-handling and better sprite capabilities. All the same, I will never be quite as fond of a console as much as I was the Mega Drive.

I think Miiverse really does have more impact than anything before, for these reasons: 1) Nintendo has to read it. 2) They know everyone who posts there owns a Wii U. It's not insincere propaganda from anti-Nintendo people. Just those two reasons are enough to mean that, whilst Nintendo is not necessarily going to do everything the fans want, they will nonetheless get every message.

Oh, that brings back memories. My college tutors made me phone-up (Super Play writer) Helen McCarthy once to ask whether I could use an image from her magazine, Anime UK. I was nervous about talking to a celebrity whose pieces I'd read a lot of, and my voice was trembling. Naturally, she told me she didn't own the copyright, meaning my tutors had set it all up for nothing! I was a pretty dim 17-year-old!

Oh, this is brilliant! I know some people think the 60Hz issue is a modern, "internet" thing, but it's really not. It was in all the magazines I read throughout the '90s. All I really wanted was to play the proper versions of SNES games, and now it seems I will be able to. If this applies to the others, I will build up a huge collection - Super Metroid, Link to the Past, Super Mario World... Thank you Nintendo!

I think the Dreamcast was a great "arcade" machine. Lots of fighting and racing games, that sort of thing. It's just that I had played relatively involved games on the N64 like Mario 64/Ocarina of Time and I wanted more experiences like that. I thought Shenmue might be the game to do it - lovely atmosphere, but I gave up at the forklift driving! A great console in many ways but I preferred the Mega Drive and Saturn.

Yeah, the Dreamcast was a strange one for me! Brilliant graphics, a lot of good games... I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into it!

Despite being a big Sega fan back in the day, even I can see why they dropped out. The Mega CD is the worst platform I've ever bought. It cost a fortune and literally only had a few good games (in Europe, that is - it might actually have been good in Japan, with RPGs like Lunar: the Silver Star). The 32X had hardly any games (although probably more good ones than the Mega CD, actually!), but everyone knew the Saturn was on its way. The Saturn itself was decent, but again, very expensive initially. I won't lie, I did not like the Wii, but just the fact that you could play great games on it (and quite a lot of them) makes me think Nintendo will never flop like Sega.

Yeah, sorry I couldn't label them. I included the ones I thought would be useful against both the Ice Demon and the final boss. So, there are striped ones, light blue ones and white ones, as well as ones with fire, water and light attacks. A type I think would be really useful (but I don't have) is light blue with either fire, water or light attack.

It is absolutely not a 2D game. Well done. You've just proven that they've been helping out on various games, rather than sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Who'd have thought?

I didn't say it was weird. My point is it's not very good. Nintendo has a team that was excellent at making a certain type of game (2D Metroid), but now they don't get a chance to make that type of game and instead mainly make games that relate to Mario (ie. Wario). If you can't understand that, you're overcomplicating things for the sake of it.