Grazza

I was against Dragon Quest IX being on handheld, but it ended up being an amazing handheld experience. Not as amazing an experience as VIII, but something new and "best-ever" for a handheld. On the other hand, if the point of a sequel is to be better than the previous game, then frankly, they failed, and they couldn't not have done. I have to conclude that I'd like a handheld series and a console series. Maybe calling it "IX" was the only real problem?

I loved the line "I'm not really letting you go. It's not Christmas". Matt Smith delivered it brilliantly, with just the right amount of aside to the audience. I've given up trying to understand Doctor Who nowadays, as Steven Moffat's storylines are so complicated. Either I'm stupid or he's not a very good storyteller - no suggestions as to which is the case, please! But it's still good fun. Please tell me next week's is written by Gareth Roberts!

The ideal option would have been to have a full, re-orchestrated soundtrack as default, with the original music accessible to apply in game from an options menu (hidden if necessary).

Might be the height. I had the most luck in the first week, when it was still just about cold enough to wear a jacket. I slipped my 3DS into my breast pocket and it seemed to read behind the desks better. Tagged with loads more shop staff that week.

Ah, we get a raw deal then. Not that I'm nationalistic or anything, or it's a big deal, but it always miffs me a bit when I have to select United Kingdom as a "country", because it isn't one (it's a state - thanks Wikipedia!) England is a country, with regions such as East Anglia, and the smaller counties such as Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex etc. tapedeck, do you carry your 3DS in a case? If so, are you sure there's not metal in it that's blocking the signal?

Yes, I saw an explanation for this once: Great Britain literally means the biggest island in the British Isles. Obviously that biggest landmass is England, Scotland and Wales, although I believe it can include small islands that are counties, such as the Isle of Wight. Great Britain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain British Isles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles UK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland So basically: Great Britain = biggest island British Isles = the group of islands United Kingdom = sovereign state

Even more so than that, I'd say the dragon boss. I'd also say the "sea dragon" boss, but I'm not sure if that's universally agreed.

The thing I most associate with Denmark is the concept of "Hygge", which is meant to be hard to explain. However, I do love the idea and I'm pretty sure we've all felt it, even if we don't have a word for it. One occasion I remember was being on Southend seafront one evening: I was just utterly relaxed and happy to be there with my family. Is that it?

I always wanted to go there to ride Shivering Timbers. Anyway, England for me, Ville. Merry ol' Robin Hood's England.

Oh dear, you're so close as well. Now you've got the Ultimate Key, I suggest unlocking some of the better chests and doors with it, such as these:

I would guess it's something to do with the nice kids still like you, but don't really have the backbone to make themselves stand out by sticking up for you too much. Personally, I became known as a "grass", which I didn't think I was, it's just that if someone did something wrong to me I'd report it and co-operate with the teachers. It's my belief that you shouldn't break your morals and cover for people, but they didn't understand. For example, some of them thought I would grass them up for smoking, and yet I wouldn't (it's up to them if they want to ruin their health). For more on-the-moment things, I would just react with appropriate violence. For instance, it sounds like you're meant to just "take" punches if you want to fit in (I'm not talking about friends playfighting, I understand the difference), but I wouldn't have that for a moment. And the theft. I had a jumper stolen from the changing rooms, then later my Prefect's badge from the same place. That's bad enough, but if teachers let chavs back into the changing rooms before everyone else, that's what's going to happen. What bothers me more is that I had a geometry set stolen when I had to leave an English classroom (the teacher was out too). Now, that room was full of mostly-decent people, and to this day no one has ever told me who stole it. I know it wouldn't have been any of my "mates" (who I am still on good terms with), I just hate the fact that the masses cover for a few scumbags. I see what you mean, but on the other hand, have you been in any situations that were actually as bad as school? I went to college - fitted in, was included, didn't have any problems at all. I've had many jobs over the years - again, fitted in, no one would dare behave like they did at school. Thinking about it, there's something particularly awful about schools. For the record, I went to a Church of England primary school, and yes I was a bit naughty and had arguments here and there, but I basically fitted in well and was friends with everyone. We liked the same TV shows, socialised outside of school etc. Then I went to a Comprehensive (which I am guessing everyone who had a really bad experience did). There must be a core problem with them... I think it's that they "collect" all the local primary schools, so you get the extremes mixing with each other. You had the nice kids from my C of E school and some intelligent kids from another local school, then unfortunately you had the kids from the rougher schools. I don't want to stereotype here, because those schools themselves had nice kids who kept themselves to themselves, but at the same time, all the bad kids came from those schools too. I'm particularly shocked by Rezourceman's experience because it confirms my suspicion that school is basically a place where people will be horrible to you. Thinking about it, going to the local Comprehensive was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. I would try to avoid sending my own kids to one at all costs. I'd rather they grew up spoilt brats than nervous wrecks beaten down by the crap society we have. It's madness that we send kids into this experience. This thread certain hasn't given me much faith in British state education.

I always resent that too. You'd get plenty from me, as only about 1/10 that I buy is a New Piece nowadays. I have hundreds of spares! Not got the Metroid or Mario Galaxy pictures yet. I've got Zelda, Kirby, Super Mario Bros and Pikmin.

I can't remember, but I've got six Miis and they just say "United Kingdom". Maybe because I didn't specify my town I can't see theirs. Agreed. I've started wearing t-shirt colours I think they might want too.

Fire Temple, without a doubt. It's quite intimidating, as it's so tall and claustrophobic, with the rooms seemingly getting smaller the higher you go. You can almost feel the oppressive heat. Then there's this aspect to: [spoiler=]Rescuing the mighty Gorons actually made me feel heroic. Then you fight that boss, arrive in that way and hit it with that weapon... brilliant.

I'm quite bitter about secondary school. I would say I didn't have the stereotypical "terrible" schooldays, but 16 years later I still can't make much sense of it, so perhaps it was worse than I'll admit. I fitted in until Year 8, when I went off the rails, I suppose. Until then I'd been pretty friendly with the intelligent kids and it was a bit like primary school. I then started drifting away from them and became quite unpopular with a lot of the others. One problem is they started to be interested in more "adult" things like alcohol, clubs etc, and I wasn't interested in that. I wasn't bullied, that would give you the wrong impression, but it was violent at times. School taught me that if I left my defences open, I'd be attacked. If I left something unattended, it'd be stolen. If I didn't do the same as everyone else, I wouldn't fit in. If that's what school's for, unfortunately, it worked.

But remember, MM used extra RAM, so technically was already running on better hardware than just an N64. What sort of improvements would you like? I think they could perhaps tinker with the owl statues, so that you don't lose your save. I'm still in favour of a remake though, especially now we know Grezzo, not Nintendo, did OoT 3D.

Brag? You were way out!

That's funny, I don't think I've seen any location data on mine.

The 3DS version is very mysterious. I hope it's not just a poor, polygon-based version of the console game. If it was sprite-based and by WayForward, I'd be interested in that. Check out all the frames of animation on the troll!

Yeah, they really do have a balancing act this year. The 3DS needs to be massively supported, that's simple enough. Project Café will not just be shown, but be playable, so obviously 1st-party developers have been working on it. Finally, you could say the Wii is over, but we all know Skyward Sword is on its way, and some RPGs are to be localised. Plus, as killer kirby always says, Dragon Quest is released on the most popular system in Japan, so as much as I'd like it for Project Café instead, it'll be on the Wii. It'll be a massive game in every way - not just an RPG, but the cream of RPGs.

Doesn't the logo appear when you press "Start" or "A"? Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, that would explain why it appears at different times in these videos.

I don't mind being in the minority. I thought Galaxy's brilliance was its variety, colour and structure. The planetoids I can take or leave.

Bah, I don't even believe in nostalgia or rose-tinted glasses. Or at least, I don't wear them. Make no mistake, Ocarina of Time (the original), however brilliant, has a very low framerate, very low resolution and incredibly muddy textures. I strongly suspect this version will be better. However, it's a form of intellectual dishonesty if you see something, think it looks worse, then pretend you don't. OK, we could just not mention it, but considering no one's been overly negative or said it's a game-breaker, why not? The water looks toxic and one or two colours clash. It's not a big deal, and it's not a big deal to mention it either.

Oh, that. Boost up the mountain, boost down the inside, then learn how he moves round the ruins. I think it was something like bank right, boost, bank left, boost, bank right, boost.

It's pretty bizarre that Nintendo's 1st-party games don't utilise StreetPass, when you think about it. Zelda could have had a figurine collection you could swap or buy with coins. Ideally, Project Café should have something really replayable at launch, like F-Zero.