Grazza

Okami's quite a nice game, but it does have a reputation for going on a bit too long.

Re: Skyward Sword, I'm pretty glad it wasn't as big a hit as the others, to be honest. That would send the message it was the way forward (which I don't think it was). Pleasant-enough game for the most part, yes, but shouldn't be the future. Maybe people just didn't want to play it? Every Zelda fan I meet in real life loves Ocarina of Time, and they bothered to play Twilight Princess (GameCube version), but they just will not entertain anything that uses motion control, and I can't blame them. That's actually the sensible thing to do - not buy something you don't like. The point here is that Skyward Sword does not prove "hardcore" or "real" Nintendo fans no longer exist, and the only people left just want Mario. The real fans do exist, but will only buy the games and systems if the quality is there. You're only telling me things I know. For one thing, I said 2D Metroid. Secondly, I know they always make Wario games, but they make far more of them than 2D Metroids. We haven't had one of those since the GBA. That's the whole point of this discussion - everything has to relate to Mario nowadays.

Difficult one. On one hand, I agree with Serebii's opening post. which is perfectly logical. On the other hand, alarm bells are ringing, especially after the last Nintendo Direct. Firstly, I don't think it was like this during the GameCube era at all. Yes, I remember when they started bringing out loads of Mario sports and party titles, but they were just filler and it was obvious that's what they were. It was basically a way for Nintendo to say "You're not excited about the games? What about Mario Baseball?!" But most of that was after we'd had the "real" games like Metroid, F-Zero etc. What's bothering me now is that Mario games, any Mario games at all, seem to be Nintendo's priority. I'm not counting things like Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion 2, because they are lovingly-crafted games. In truth, I much enjoy New Super Mario Bros as well (at least on handhelds). But when we still haven't had a Metroid or Zelda, or a new franchise that's on the same level, something's wrong. I'm also concerned about how all the departments always seem to be helping out on others. I know Alpha Dream probably weren't ever going to be working on anything other than Mario & Luigi 4, same goes for whoever's working on Mario vs Donkey Kong and the Super Luigi DLC, but then look at SPD 1 - the geniuses who used to make 2D Metroids. Now they're working on Game & Wario. My gut instinct is that something's not right.

Excellent point. Nintendo needs as many studios as possible making big, 3D games like these.

Actually, that's the same with me. I think I paid £30 for both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess (GC version). It's just a habit I got into ever since the N64 Zeldas, to think "This was worth the full £50".

I've got a feeling you're right. With the detailed hints Eiji Aonuma gave years ago ("set sail", "voyage" etc), it didn't seem like they were undecided about which direction to take it. So, pretty strange that there's been nothing since.

In Mario Galaxy? I do think there's a big difference with using motion control in games where you hold the Wii remote horizontally, and ones where you only hold it in your right hand. To me, it felt quite natural in Galaxy, but not in Wario Land: the Shake Dimension.

Although I didn't get to watch this yesterday, it sounds like it was a good show. When I came in yesterday I thought the news was pleasing, but unexciting. Now I've seen the videos though it seems like it would have been good to watch at the time. The reality is that Nintendo has an excellent line-up of 3DS games for this year, which needed release dates. It's boring but necessary! Luigi's Mansion 2 in particular looks incredibly good - the next really big 3DS game. And is it right that Etrian Odyssey IV was confirmed for Europe? Excellent news! Code of Princess on its way too. I'm not quite so keen on the new games that were announced. I know they've got their fans, but to me they feel like the sort of games Nintendo releases when they've finished making "big" games for a system. I hope I'm wrong about that. To be quite frank I sense a lack of ambition about them, and this on a system that still doesn't have a Metroid or (original) Zelda... But hey, it was only a Nintendo Direct in February after all. Going forward, I hope to see some better games announced for 3DS, but we do still have GDC and E3 to go. One concern though: We've seen them making Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Luigi's Mansion 2 for years. If that's how long it takes them (and we haven't seen anything newer yet - not huge games, anyway), where are the big Q4 2013 and 2014 games going to come from? In the meantime, I think this year's 3DS titles are good enough to carry the machine.

I've now watched the video and am looking forward to it even more. I think it comes down to this: Yes, if you really want a particular game, you should buy the console it's on (as long as you can afford it). Personally, I didn't want it that much. I quite wanted it, but at that point I was tired of playing on the Wii, only using it for huge games like Skyward Sword. Now it's coming to 3DS I'm going to buy that version instead because: * It (probably) won't have motion controls * I won't have to keep replacing the batteries * I prefer 2D (and 2.5D) games on handhelds, and even prefer handhelds in general * Even though the resolution is lower, it won't look as blurry ... So, I do understand people's points about resources, but I think the benefits of bringing this to 3DS far outweigh the drawbacks.

These are good points, to be fair. When the 3DS launched I had two GAMEs, a GameStation and an HMV in my town (and the 3DS was promoted in all of them). Now I've only got one GAME and an HMV (if that's still there). I agree with all that, but I also think it's quite a lot worse. 3DS had an amazing gimmick (the 3D), Pilotwings Resort at launch and Ocarina of Time just a few months later. The sad thing is I think they did take the 3DS consideration, but came to the wrong conclusions. If anything, they probably tried to make the Wii U more "casual" than the 3DS, and made sure they had NSMB and Nintendo Land ready at launch. Just from E3 2012 it's clear they gave them huge priority. I'm not saying those two games aren't challenging, just that Nintendo aimed at the wrong market. Those games might have sold consoles if they'd become trends, but that wasn't going to happen with a £300 console. What Nintendo really needed were exclusives to make gamers say "Wow, that's impressive". Ni no Kuni entering at No.1 shows there are still a lot of traditional gamers out there. Nintendo could have made games that garnered the same respect as Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX or (as we were anticipating it) Twilight Princess. I remember when that was brewing, everyone took notice. Oh well, the Wii U could still be a great console. People have started asking me about it at work. Whether I'm interested in it, whether it'll be a flop etc. I tell them it has every chance of having awesome games (by the end of this year, even), but it might all happen too late for it ever to be an enormous hit.

Microsoft is the company I'm least fond of. I've got absolutely nothing against them, but they have helped transform the games industry into something that doesn't do as much for me as it used to (in other words, they've Westernised it). I respect them for the high quality of their consoles, but wouldn't mind if they dropped out. Sony is the only company out of the three I've ever disliked, due to the way the PlayStation brand severely damaged Sega and Nintendo. Even now, I don't think I was particularly wrong to see them as "the enemy" in the '90s, which may be childish but it's the truth. But you have to let it go sometime, and when Nintendo annoyed me with the Wii (sorry, but they did), I gave Sony a chance and realised they were more a force for good than bad. I enjoyed the best games on PS2 far more than anything on Wii. PSP, PS3 and Vita show they are pretty much the best at making hardware, and they are far better than Microsoft at securing exclusives that appeal to me. Sony certainly wouldn't be my first choice to drop out. Nintendo is the company I'd least like to drop out. They are the only company that makes Zelda, which has to count for something. I know to some people it sounds ideal to be playing their games on Sony hardware with a traditional controller, but I don't think the reality would be as simple as that. Nintendo tries to be a high-profit company. At the moment, they devote huge resources to making a 3D Mario and Zelda, but that's because they need them to sell consoles. Would they still bother making them if they were a software-only company? It's not certain. I think they would stick to low-cost, high-profit ventures. And it's not just Mario and Zelda. Whilst Nintendo is still standing, there will always be a home for the big 3rd-party content like Dragon Quest. So yeah, I most want Nintendo to keep on its feet, but if someone else did drop out, I'd hope Nintendo would step up to match the remaining company, in terms of tech specs, power etc.

No harm in asking questions about titles you want to know more about, @Woz. Very easy to get these games confused.

I am very tempted to get the Fire Emblem 3DS XL, apart from two facts: 1) I already have an XL (and an original!) 2) I don't know if I could transfer my data to the Fire Emblem 3DS without it overwriting the pre-installed game. Other than that, I'd seriously consider it as it looks fantastic. Also, my XL is Silver, so it wouldn't be too bad to get another one, right?

It would be Mega Drive for me, but I actually slightly preferred the European-styled one. Not the Mega Drive II, just the PAL original.

Generally speaking, £30 on release day if I'm keen, or up to £50 if it's a Zelda. If I just want to give something a go, then £15-20. (I voted £30, by the way )

Well, we did call him "da man"! And, as you say, Virtual Console games are individually emulated, so the few games using this high-res mode could be adjusted. Would be well worth it to have SNES games on there. Anyway, here's what I'm hoping to see: 1) Localisations for Dragon Quest VII, Etrian Odyssey IV and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. 2) Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (a video or more screenshots). 3) Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons and the full range of 1st-party SNES and GBA games on the Virtual Console. 4) Another eShop game by WayForward. 5) Majora's Mask 3D. 6) A 2D Metroid (Metroid V). 7) Zelda 3DS. (Is Nintendo at GDC next month? If they're not, we might well see Zelda, although obviously I won't put my hopes on it.) ... I've kept it modest for now. Will keep the really big lists for E3.

I must admit I haven't been following this, but if the formats aren't known, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was a Durango exclusive - shown to pre-empt the Sony event on the 20th, if you like. I know it's a bit far-fetched to show a game before the console, but if there's one way Microsoft would want to do it, it'd be with a Bungie game.

I'm just curious, is it possible to enter a team that is identical to your opponent's? That was the only way I could win S Rank in Dragon Quest VIII's Monster Arena, and I wondered if Level 5 had repeated that tactic in this.

This is my favourite bit. Other than that, I'm probably in the minority in that I don't think Zelda needs to go that far back. It has been suggested that Zelda needs to learn from the NES original (although not explicitly in this article), but I've never been fond of that one, personally, and I get the feeling Eiji Aonuma is not either (he said it used to be too hard for him). I know a lot of people think Zelda is stale, but to me that's not really the case. I just think some are better than others. Twilight Princess was a dip in the usual quality and Skyward Sword dropped even further. It's an uncomfortable concept that the last two just weren't as good, rather than stale, but to me it's the truth. In my opinion, the five really top class Zeldas are: Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. LttP, OOT and WW were the ones that were a real leap forward. When I played Wind Waker I couldn't wait to see what the next leap forward would be and, in my mind, we still haven't had that. So yeah, I do want a lot less linearity, and a lot more exploration and optional items. I've said it before but Skyward Sword was like a series of scenes set up for you. But if you go back to Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, there was a lot of optional stuff in them (OOT's Ice Arrows spring to mind), and both had a couple of dungeons that didn't need to be done in a set order. I'd like them to get back to that feeling in Wind Waker, where it wasn't all about dungeons and you never really knew which locations were important and which weren't until you'd got to them. I should say I think Skyward Sword's "Trials" weren't a good way to do this, as they were like "scenes" set up for you (and if I recall correctly, they certainly weren't optional). No, I'm really hoping for little things that make a big difference, like no obvious loading times. And more things should happen in various buildings in the overworld, rather than dungeons. Say there's a castle, mansion or windmill etc, they should actually feel like the building they're meant to be, rather than be fleshed-out like a full dungeon that's just themed as a castle or windmill. If there's a castle, I want to be able to climb up spiral staircases and fight knights on the battlements and turrets. When I enter a dungeon, if it can have a really impressive entrance, but still feel like part of the overworld, that'd impress me. If I can look out of windows and see what's really going on outside, that'd be amazing. And if I could enter without a loading time, I'd give them a standing ovation! Overall, I hope the next Zelda is so good, people will be amazed they didn't want one.

And quite possible to save them all too, especially when you've mastered using L and R properly. Why is it walking like that?

Naive or not, I'm going to carry my monster team everywhere with me in the hope of StreetPassing! It sounds like it was very much like VI, where you could max-out everyone as everything. I know they've had a lot of feedback about this, even with IX, where you could keep abilities but not spells.

Yes, at the same time I think the 3DS line-up is excellent this year. I'm going to buy Fire Emblem: Awakening, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Luigi's Mansion 2, and the Pokemon games should be a big hit. 3DS will have been out for two years in March so what I'm looking to now are the games for the middle years - in theory the best ones! GDC is in March and that has traditionally been good for Nintendo handhelds, with the first showing of Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks and Super Mario 3D Land. If Zelda 3DS is not shown I would actually be a little bit surprised.

Merged the Mario topic into this one. 60Hz is a very legitimate issue. The 3DS is the way to go at the moment for 60Hz games, but the Wii U Virtual Console has not fully launched yet, so there's still hope.

It's interesting that they started with a more adult-proportioned Link, then gradually made him more small and squat. I've often wondered how they decide which one to use. Actually, I don't think it's an overstatement to say there's a massive conflict between the two. You couldn't have anything as "cool" as the 2004 Legend of Zelda trailer or the 2011 E3 demo without Adult Link. At the other end of the scale, the three best (arguably) 3D Zeldas have had Young Link in them. To me, OOT is the only one that quite nails Adult Link - it feels really good to control him in that game. Young Link has the advantage of seeing the game through the eyes of a smaller person. I've often wondered if it even has an effect on camera angles, changing how immersive a game potentially is. The Hylian Shield also fits perfectly on Young Link's back, like he's a Ninja Turtle! The reason I'm saying all this is because I think Wind Waker was the point where they hard a hard decision about which way to evolve Zelda. They made a perfect decision with Wind Waker, but I also think the other approach has potential. I even wonder if it could be two separate series.

I thought the 3DS has a really good launch. Pilotwings Resort was a highly decent Nintendo game - I remember being amazed by the 3D, like I was in a different world. And Super Street Fighter II was the equivalent of the 3rd-party ports the Wii U has got (there weren't as many, admittedly). The best thing though was that Ocarina of Time 3D was a real system seller, and it didn't take very long to be released.