Grazza

That's true. Keeping it Power PC, yet powerful enough to run multi-platform software, would be a "GameCube situation". The drawback to this plan is that, inevitably, some developers won't bother adapting their games to a different architecture. But some will, and the GC really wasn't too bad for that. The alternative is to use x86 and just wait a few generations until Nintendo's hardware is powerful enough to emulate Wii U (and everything beforehand). NX itself wouldn't need to be emulated as long as they keep to the same architecture afterwards (although I'm getting ahead of things there). I'm really not sure which option is best.

Good points from both sides. On the one hand I agree the game is reasonably upfront, plus I'm all in favour of choice. The prizes do actually have some monetary value (ie. you usually have to pay real money for digital "themes"). Instinctively though I agree with H-o-T. This sort of thing aims to exploit completionists and is (in my opinion) quite grubby for doing that.

Yeah, bad phrasing on my part. I meant I was hoping for newer lighting like Wind Waker HD, plus updated models. Couldn't agree more on this! It's superb. All in all, it's a game that really could do with a full remake - models, lighting, music, plus overall "build". I hope they've removed some of the "illusions", such as that balcony in Castle Town with a 2D image of the town square, rather than the real thing.

Yes, it's a very wide issue across Western culture - I've just been researching the Street Fighter V censorship. No one could possibly say that was about the characters looking under 16. There's a bitter irony that as artists get better and better tools (more powerful consoles), they're not actually allowed to use them as much as in the past.

It's crazy, I just don't see other independent studios with such a mastery of 3D graphics as Shin'en.

For what it's worth...

Actually, I'm glad you brought it up, because it proves my point. They censored the bikinis of one character, supposedly because she's meant to be 13. However, not wanting players to see large breasts at all (the exact opposite of the other situation, frankly) suggests there is a Puritanical mindset overseeing this localisation. I'd have made a male avatar anyway, but it's an interesting insight into what they're thinking.

I love GameXplain; they always find things I'm way too unobservant to notice. So I plugged in my headphones and... ...No description! The horse's mane looks good though, the way it falls with gravity, and is it me or is Link looking more masculine than the last footage?

Fair enough. It's just that in my head I had it down as either a simple, (possibly) download-only HD up-rez of the original to pad out the Christmas line-up or a retail game for next year with newer models and lighting like Wind Waker HD. But hey, it's not Nintendo's fault I assumed that. As long as it looks as good as the image @khilafah posted, I'll be happy. It'd be great if Nintendo could release some 1920x1080 stills to reassure on that front.

Ha, I give up. The ongoing bikini/lingerie censorship winds me up (Bravely Default, Project Zero, Xenoblade Chronicles X), but I made myself look like a paedo in the process. I still say in most of the official footage she doesn't actually look like a child, but I'm past caring now. This is interesting though: The 2nd point I assume is about your main player character. Well, I don't understand why they've done that, but there you go. As for the first point, are they actually saying the model has been changed? I wouldn't have thought the bikinis were actually part of the "model"?

I think it's pretty natural to be disappointed with this (regardless of how clean I hope it'll look on my TV screen). The remake of Wind Waker was called Wind Waker HD, despite being a full remaster. Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D also had the same amount of effort put into them. This is the first time Nintendo have made an HD port with such a minimal change, so I think the surprise is genuine and understandable. As I say though, having a crisp, clean HD version of TP is good news to me. Yeah, it's just that a lot of people described the Wii U tech demo as "just the Twilight Princess style in HD", so I suppose I got caught up in that.

Hmm, it's not quite what I expected, but hopefully will look good at 1080p. I can't really understand how they couldn't get it to look as good as the image @khilafah posted in the Nintendo Direct thread (although that was 1920x1080).

(Manly hug back) I'm gonna say it... I can feel the love in this room! Oh man, talk about pick me up when I'm down. The Dragon Quest days are coming back!! PS - @Ike, have you played enough of VIII yet to know all the visible armour? Is the Metal King Armour visible? (Drools at the thought.) It does, yes, brilliant stories. Dark on occasion, sometimes sad, often dramatic and frequently funny.

THE greatest RPG series bar none. IV, V, VI (remakes) and IX are for DS. VII and VIII (also remakes) are coming to 3DS, as is XI (we still need that to be confirmed for Europe). None are in HD, unfortunately, although the PS4 and NX versions of XI will presumably be. PS - Dragon Quest X is an MMO but has not come to the West. I assume some of the versions were HD (Wii U was one), but it's probably best to forget about this one.

Twilight Princess HD - OK, it doesn't look great - yet - and I'm disappointed it doesn't use the 2011 demo style, but it's a game I fundamentally want and I'm hoping they do at least get it looking like a proper HD update. PS - No Grezzo? Zelda U - Well, I was pleased to see this! They at least reassured us several times it's definitely coming to Wii U. Plus, the graphics look great, especially the cel-shading on the horse. FAST Racing Neo - Still looks great, of course. Star Fox Zero - Looks good. Never really saw the problem with it, to be honest. Final Fantasy Explorers - It's good they emphasised there's a single-player mode. Hopefully the A.I. is clever enough to make that a feasible way to play it. Fire Emblem Fates - Bit confused about this one. I'd rather there was an inexpensive (non-collectors' edition) way to play all three stories. I don't want a mixture of retail + digital. Dragon Quest VII and VIII - YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Darn, I remember why I like Shibata so much. A very, very enjoyable Direct. The best I've seen for years.

Aw heck, I'd have to buy my 27th copy of Final Fight!

I haven't been watching avidly this year but I thought the Zygons episode was very good. There's something about Peter Harness's scripts that do it for me (I also loved his episode last year, "Kill The Moon") - they are straightforward-but-entertaining, and he's my number one choice to take over as head writer. It felt like Russell T Davies quality.

Yeah, gotcha. I genuinely don't understand what's going on with the character models though, because in most shots she does look like a kid, but I still say she doesn't in the silver bikini image.

Thank goodness for that. Although I've made myself look "questionable" for nothing.

GameCube Mario Sunshine Metroid Prime Wind Waker Twilight Princess It was the last time they really understood what to go for.

It's not a child though. It's a collection of polygons that, I still say, in the "silver bikini" image I posted looks like a young woman in possession of all the things that (as far as I'm aware) paedophiles aren't interested in. They say she's 13, but we all know Japan has a strange attitude to age, where they design characters like adults, but then say they're much younger. Dead or Alive is a good example. Personally, I care about what I see more than the age they say a character is. Apart from if it's a real person, of course - that's very different. When they take things like this out it does make it less enjoyable, yes, and thus "ruins" it to some extent. However, as I say, if they keep this exact costume for the older female characters, I will accept it was just an age issue. Because I hate the way things are going. I see the World become more and more Puritanical, where less and less is allowed (try and get a nipple on the mainstream internet). People made excuses for Project Zero, they make excuses for this and you know they'll make excuses for the next one (whatever it is). I've had drawings of adult women in bikinis (I never, ever draw children, because those aren't the shapes I'm interested in) taken down... and for what reason? Because someone thinks it's rude. Someone thinks it's pornographic. The human body is being redefined as obscene, to the point where soon we will no longer be able to show an ankle. I didn't have a single sexual thought when I saw the Japanese character; I just thought she looked sleek and the bikini was a good design. In the same way, I'd probably think the male characters had good muscles if they were shirtless. Not everything is sexual. We've adopted such strange values.

This makes me furious. Nintendo has censored the bikini for at least one female character in the West. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/10/nintendo_is_making_female_characters_cover_up_for_the_western_version_of_xenoblade_chronicles_x The image on the right is the Japanese version and (to my eyes) shows a young woman with developed breasts, curved hips and long legs. The image on the left is the Western version which, as well as removing the bikini, they've actually made her look like a little kid! The legs looks shorter and the head far bigger in proportion to the body. People can delude themselves that this is because of the character's age, but after the Project Zero debacle, I'm almost certain it's caused by the prevailing Puritanism of the time. The original character model is beautiful and, to me, doesn't look anything like a child. If the other female characters are allowed the exact same bikini, I'll take it back, but as it is I'm very disappointed Satoru Shibata is letting the European versions of games be ruined.

For me, the quality is there, but the ambition is not. I got into Nintendo for the single-player adventures like Metroid, Zelda and (to a certain extent) Mario more than the fan favourites like Mario Kart and Smash Bros. They set out the right vision at E3 2011 with the Zelda demo, but I'd argue nothing has really matched that. By the time we saw the reality of their retail games at E3 2012 - Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros - I'd argue they continued along those lines rather than bigger-budget ventures. If Twilight Princess HD is released, that and Wind Waker HD will probably be my two favourite Wii U games, which I think is crazy. I'm not bothered about the 3DS situation, even though I agree with most people's analysis of it. The 3DS is old and tired, and nothing would cause much excitement at this stage. If you go back to when Spirit Tracks was on its way, no one was really hyped about that either. The situation just seems more desperate this time because Nintendo's home console is winding down at the same time as its (older) handheld. Personally, I don't feel as cheated as others, and I'm still on board for NX. I just think you have to be realistic about Nintendo nowadays, because if they don't set out a vision of big, ambitious games, they're probably not coming.

We must have a similar psyche when it comes to beat-'em-ups. I remember seeing a preview of this in Sega Pro and became absolutely obsessed with getting it. I found it in a local arcade (Crude Buster), then bought the home version as soon as possible. I actually got the Genesis version, which was very unusual for me, but it was out in America first and I was so keen to have it.

I meant to give some opinions on this when the Blu-ray was released, but I tend to set my expectations too high and overanalyse/moan too much about the details, so I thought I'd wait until I'd given it a 2nd viewing (had to get my £13.50's worth!) As it happens, although I enjoyed it a little bit more the 2nd time around, my thoughts are still the same. The opening sequence is pretty standard, but it at least amuses me that it was filmed in some English woods. My heart sank when I saw Scarlet Witch, because X-Men type powers and abilities are really not my thing; but to be fair, her and Quicksilver are very well acted, so it is what it is. The one thing I like unreservedly about this film is James Spader as Ultron. He's wonderfully sinister, as is the scene where Ultron comes to life and overpowers Jarvis. I'd actually say the next scene, where he gatecrashes the party, is one of the best in the film, as it actually has some meaning behind it. The way Captain America says "Stark?" sums it up, as it dawns on them that he's done something stupid. As I say, I'm not keen on psychic powers, so I wasn't thrilled with the battle where Scarlet Witch causes many of the Avengers to hallucinate. Thor's was alright, but I think we could have done without Black Widow's and Captain America's. I understand they both fleshed out the characters, but it's a long film and I think bits needed to be trimmed here and there. Hulk vs. Hulkbuster is a genuine classic - worth the price of admission alone! Stark repeatedly punching Hulk in the face is easily one of the biggest belly laughs in the film. I don't mean to be unkind, but I often think the dialogue in the Avengers films is not as funny as intended. The visual humour, however, is very, very good. I wasn't a huge fan of the "farm" scene - too slow and dull. Yeah, they needed some respite, but did we need so many heart-to-hearts? I mean, Banner and Natasha talking about (in essence) being infertile... yes, it does flesh out the characters, but perhaps it's a bit dark for a super hero film? Especially as the first film was so silly and light. Things pick up when Ultron tries to take things further, and we have the sequence where Captain America chases the lorry - absolutely superb! Up there with the Hulkbuster scene. The finale is pretty much what you'd expect, although I thought perhaps there were too many "evacuation" shots. It's good to know they're doing that, morally, but I think there comes a point where you don't need to see it all. The one thing I can't let go is the bit where, after a tense moment, Thor explains how Mjolnir works. I'm the first to want more humour in a film, but it seemed out of place and I actually felt sorry for Chris Hemsworth that they made him say it! Overall, a very high-quality film, and you do get your money's worth. My personal preference would be for it to have been 20-30 minutes shorter, and much more light-hearted. It's fine to have a sinister villain (after all, Loki was highly malevolent in parts), and it's never that dark, but my general impression was that it's a bit too long and a bit too gloomy. A film with some great individual scenes, but probably not a great piece of entertainment in its own right.