Grazza

Whilst Epic Games are not my cup of tea, and Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the best thing I've ever played on a handheld, it's good that many developers are interested in the 3DS. I don't care if people think I'm a graphics whore - truly great systems need serious polygon-crunching power. There's nothing shallow about that. Hopefully now Nintendo are releasing a handheld with decent processing and graphical power, they'll be rewarded for it. (By the looks of it, they already are.)

Not at all - I haven't played the 2nd game. You just need to know there's a villain called Fawful who says silly stuff!

Well, it's better, yes. I should put this in a spoiler: [spoiler=]After you get 120 Stars, you get the chance to find "Green Stars". There are two or three in each Galaxy and it's basically a test of your triple jump and wall jump. Personally, I'm starting to get tired of it after 200+ Stars (overall), as some of the World 6 and World S Stars are far harder than getting the first 120 Stars. It's worth it if you want a harder challenge than getting 120, but as it is, I stick to my view that 120 should mean 100% completion in Mario games.

I loved Fluzzard! Did you have trouble with the manta ray in the original Galaxy? It controlled as well as that to me.

[spoiler=]Don't launch yourself from the 2nd swing (you'll go too far and slide down the vine). Instead, take off from the post above it. As for the post-120 Stars content, I've got 200+ and am enjoying it a lot.

But that's what this Ocarina of Time remake is - a console game. Don't you think it would be odd to take a backwards step from it and have the next Zelda as a 2.5D game like Spirit Tracks? For one thing, it'd use the touchscreen and thus not be in stereoscopic 3D.

What excites me about this is not just that Ocarina of Time is a brilliant game, or that this looks better than the original, but the fact that we may now be in the era of full 3D Zeldas on handhelds controlled with the Slide Pad. Spirit Tracks was one last entry for the Phantom Hourglass engine, and they did it proud, but imagine the possibilities from now on!

I think the secret with this is just to buy it if you think it's good enough. I didn't like the DS Phat, so waited for the DS Lite. The DSi was fine, but not tempting enough to upgrade (same for XL). Personally, I'll buy a 3DS on launch and only get a 2nd or 3rd version if it's spectacularly better (like I thought the GB Micro was). Regarding the special features of the graphics chip, I wonder if it specialises in cel-shading? I'd love to see what it could do with that.

Another thing is that, people criticised Sunshine for not having enough "zones" and having too many Shines in each. Well, with the Green Stars, they do pretty much the same thing in Galaxy 2 (except with far more zones, obviously). It's a fantastic game though, had my heart beating like crazy. The Bowser boss fights are genius, the Bowser Jr fights great and I personally felt the World One boss was the most difficult in the entire game! [spoiler=]Apart from the fire version. Galaxy 1 and 2 are just leagues ahead of anything else on the Wii. On the other hand, I feel the next Mario game (on the Wii 2 or whatever) could quite easily be better with more slides and "glides".

I'm very excited about this machine. Graphics are good, game line-up is excellent and the design is OK considering it has to be backwards compatible. However, the one thing that disappoints me is the resolution: 400x240 (effectively) versus 256x192 for the DS Lite. The PSP is 480x272, the iPhone 3GS 480x320 and the iPhone 4 a staggering 960x640. The reason I say this is because the original DS just didn't seem high-enough resolution to me and a vertical resolution of 240 pixels isn't a great deal higher. Hopefully it'll be just enough, but it is well below other devices with the same size screen nowadays. On the plus side, I don't think I've ever wanted more of the upcoming games for any system. When I have a system I'm not too keen on, I generally only want to play the cream of the crop. However, with a portable GameCube, I can imagine I'd want to play almost everything! I hope there are a lot more remakes like Ocarina of Time, as I generally find them much more worthwhile to play than the actual originals.

First of all, it's immensely exciting to have a new Zelda. I've watched the video quite a few times since E3 and my impression is still the same. It looks great, but honestly, it does look like they've just applied a cel-shading filter to Twilight Princess. It's a dream come true to have Adult Link paired with cel-shading, but I do think it needs a bit more cartoonish flair. Wind Waker was envisaged as a cartoon (think of the waves) and thus was stunning, but this does, as I say, look somewhat like Twilight Princess put through a filter. I don't want a different style, I just expected it to be slightly "better" in general, in terms of character models and such. That said, they are definitely on the right track and are very close to the perfect style for Zelda. There is only one thing I actually dislike about the visuals - those bipedal enemies. Please tell me they're not meant to be Moblins! Wind Waker portrayed them perfectly. They are meant to be brutish pig-men. Now my only real concern about this game is harder for me to express, as I've been an advocate of it - MotionPlus. I always thought MotionPlus meant more accurate motion control, and it does. I don't care for motion control, but if it was going to be used, I wanted the peripheral that would make it better. When I got Wii Sports Resort, I thought the sword fighting was a revelation. However, when I got Red Steel 2 I disliked it immensely. The motion control worked fine, but the reality of having to make significant movements during a "proper" game was not fun at all. I tend to rest my elbow on my bed, and making the motions in this position was so unenjoyable I ejected the game and never played it again. My hope with Zelda is that the team don't put large or elaborate movements into it. I can just about cope with "up, down, left, right, thrust", but I really think they should forget about motion-controlled archery and opt for the simpler pointing. Even better, ditch MotionPlus completely! Tilting and pointing are the welcome fruits of motion control, but in the long term I don't think people are going to want the forearm waving aspect of it. That said, I'm sure this game will be excellent, as Nintendo are on fine form at the moment. I wasn't at all excited about Zelda: Spirit Tracks or Mario Galaxy 2, but they both turned out to be stunning and addictive.

I wasn't too excited about this game, but I pre-ordered it anyway and received it last Thursday. Well, it honestly is that good that I've been too busy playing it to post about it! With a lot of Wii games I've played recently (Little King's Story, A Boy & His Blob), I've started off loving them, but ended up disliking and not finishing them. But no, I've now got well over 120 Stars and I can say this game is excellent. Yoshi controls just like in Super Mario World, absolutely seamless. I knew exactly what he could do just from playing the SNES game. The new power-ups are also fantastic, especially Drill Mario. For the first few worlds, it just felt like they were trying to make the levels and power-ups as mich fun as possible. Overall I'd say they tweaked Mario Galaxy and improved upon it. I found this game less frustrating and was particularly pleased at the general lack of untimed purple coin challenges. In the original Galaxy, you could spend hours on a level and fail at the last minute. Immensely frustrating! On a slight negative note, I agree with Ronnie that some of the later levels are less imaginative. I could have done without Flash Black Galaxy, and would have loved more giant slides like Tree Trunk. More levels to make you go "whee!", basically. Also, I personally dislike the way neither Galaxy game is 100% complete after 120 Stars. I get an immense satisfaction from having obtained 120 Shine Sprites in Mario Sunshine, and so it slightly irritates me that I've only got 120+ in Galaxy 1 and 2. The post-120 Stars content is better than the original Galaxy, but it still doesn't seem worth the programmers' time when they could have just made 120 perfect Stars instead. Overall, I'd rate them: 1. Mario Sunshine 2. Mario Galaxy 2 3. Mario Galaxy 4. Mario 64 I'm very fond of Sunshine!

Landstalker - I know about Dark Savior and Alundra, but there was something cool about Nigel from Landstalker. He travelled to an exotic island with a fairy, Friday, in his backpack. She helped out and provided a narrative - and this was years before Navi in Ocarina of Time. How I'd love to see Nigel updated into 3D (and HD), with the same visual style, musical style and general tone of the Megadrive game. It's the one thing that could give Zelda a run for its money. Wonder Boy - There's nothing nowadays quite like Wonder Boy III: the Dragon's Trap or its Megadrive sequel Wonder Boy in Monster World. In terms of structure, they were like Zelda II, except more seamless, and also like Metroid, with the addition of towns and shops. This hypothetical modern sequel should most definitely be side-scrolling.

My problems with GAME nowadays/reasons for their downfall are these: 1) They don't stock the good games (they do online, but not instore). 2) Games in sometimes very poor condition are sold as "new". New & sealed should be standard. 3) Lack of good new hardware recently (hardware is the main thing I buy from them). 4) Competition from online sites and supermarkets. That said, GAME has one of the best websites.

LOL, good one! It would be 8.8, wouldn't it?

Apparently it's coming to the UK in October. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=243473 However, apparently only 8.8% of Japanese consumers want it! http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/only-8-8-of-japanese-consumers-want-nintendo-3ds-684616 If the 3D works well and the design is good, I'm getting one.

Anyone who's guilty of drink (or drug) driving. It's a despicable crime and anyone guilty of it should be very ashamed of themselves indeed. Also paedophiles, although I can't think of any I liked in the first place.

I sort of agree. Out of interest, would you say the weakness was in the acting or the writing? Nonetheless, I loved the scene where Matt Smith said "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks", and then they turned nasty and kept saying "Transmitting Testimony" (or words to that effect). Maybe it wasn't as good as it would have been a few years ago, but in the context of this series I liked it. As for the Daleks not knowing it was a new Doctor, as far as I'm aware they don't know until someone tells them. Remember when they asked Rose (of David Tennant) "Who is he?" When she told them, they physically moved back! I love that! What I'm saying is that even though I didn't need to see them in Seasons 3 and 4, it was only right that they met Matt Smith's Doctor this series.

My theory about the Daleks is that they are absolutely brilliant, but have been misused, rather than necessarily overused. Season 1 and 2 were great, I think most people would agree. Daleks in Manhattan could have been great, but I didn't like the pig men or the Human Dalek (I also thought the story could have been much more of a laugh, given the Broadway setting). The Davros story was slightly better, but I didn't find the resolution very satisfying, what with Half Doctors and Doctor Donnas! Last night's, however, had a tight script with no real "problems" and probably would have been a lot more exciting if the programme still had RTD's verve! I still love them, though, just their voices and their lasers, and I'd miss them if they weren't in it! It's always dramatic when they meet a new Doctor too.

I really enjoyed the Daleks episode - thought it was the best Dalek episode since Season 2. Could have been a bit more exciting, but the script and pacing gripped me. I notice they are taking the Daleks back to how evil they used to be, without the human qualities RTD often gave them - it was very ruthless the way they blasted the "Ironside" Daleks. Having said that, I'm afraid this show is past its best in many ways. Just doesn't have the spark it did under Russell T Davies and Eccleston/Tennant.

For me, art is about wanting to depict something, then doing your best to depict it. If it doesn't look quite how you want, find out why and try to alter it next time. You must enjoy doing it, though. There are many styles out there and nothing is right or wrong. I much prefer Popeye and Asterix to an Alex Ross painting, for instance, but many would feel the opposite. They key is to draw what you like, because if you like it, someone else will too. It's a great thrill when someone you don't know on DeviantArt selects one of your pieces as a favourite of theirs. As for self-doubt... I know I'm not professional standard, but that doesn't stop me because that's not what I'm aiming for. I'm trying to depict what's in my head. I usually think my stuff from six months ago is awful, and yet I thought it was great at the time. That doesn't matter though, because I always delude myself that my current stuff is great! Basically: Enjoyment and Focus.

I've got a Canon PowerShot A470 (approx £50) and I love it. OK, it's cheaper than your price bracket, but it's everything I want from a camera (without getting into SLR territory).

Afraid not, but thanks anyway. Mario games are so "physically" difficult, I don't mind using a guide. Thanks! Well, not really a long time. It was my 2nd playthrough, so I'd carefully put all the skill seeds into the right skills and made all the best equipment via the alchemy. Just checking my old posts actually - I beat the first post-game boss at level 50 and the last one at level 61 (you get Dragon Soul at 65), so yeah, it did take a long time! Awesome, well done. An astonishing feat! LOL. My other one is just completing Metroid Prime 2 on the GameCube. It's probably the hardest 3D game I've played. Oh yeah, also getting 120 Stars in Super Mario Galaxy (thought it was just as hard as the others), although that's not 100% completing it. Grr!

Mine are a bit weak: * Getting all 120 Shine Sprites in Super Mario Sunshine. * Finding it relatively easy to get through all the levels on Ghouls & Ghosts and Super Ghouls & Ghosts (I've never completed them properly because of time constraints). * Defeating all the post-game bosses in Dragon Quest VIII before getting the "Dragon Soul" spell.

I love Miyamoto's best work, but I don't understand his logic here. He seems to be implying that "unusual" games like Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort are better than his previous games, and that future unusual games would be better still. Now, I've got Wii Sports Resort, and whilst the controls are impressive, that doesn't make it better than Ocarina of Time. Miyamoto admitted that he used to be obsessed with 3D worlds, and I'm sorry to say, that is why his games used to be so good and they're not so good now. I hope Miyamoto's best work is yet to come, but if he is to better Ocarina of Time, it will be because a lot of thought has gone into improving the experience, not because of gimmicky controls.