Grazza

It's strange how the shading drops off at times, too - eg. "You've got a piece of heart!" I don't know why it does that.

Amazing Mirror on the GBA. I genuinely have no idea what to do in that one!

Oh yes, it's a thrill to know you're playing the first HD Zelda! Not only does it look great, it almost feels like it was designed in HD - how far you can see into the distance, for instance. Although it worked fine on GameCube, the high definition visuals give you so much more information about what's in the distance, which platforms you can land on etc. As much as I love OOT, and I really do, I feel it's showing its age a bit in terms of design. With Wind Waker, on the other hand, there are very, very few clues it was designed a couple of generations ago.

So, I finally completed Wind Waker HD! I bought my Wii U last May and, for one reason or another, hardly touched it until recently. Within the last week, though, I decided it was finally time to give this game the attention it deserved. What can I say? Wind Waker HD is utterly, staggeringly good and totally renewed the love for the game I've had since 2003. I rejoined my playthrough after completing the first couple of dungeons, and set about reacquainting myself with the game world. Almost immediately, I encountered something that sums up why I'm so impressed with this game. On Dragon Roost Island, there is a block set high up in the vertical cliff. You know you can't get high enough to pull it from outside, and it seems very unlikely you could lower a platform to its level, so you deduce you must somehow get round the other side and push it out. One way or another, you must get to the block from the other side. So, you make your way around Dragon Roost Island - flying, fighting and jumping - until eventually you find a cave that takes you right through the core, and you can push the block out from inside. That right there is why I love Wind Waker - it's the most "3D" Zelda ever. Twilight Princess had a touch of this with Kakariko Village, but only Wind Waker constantly makes you think in three dimensions. Another thing is the physics. Every drape can be burnt, every wooden panel destroyed and every rock exploded. You can freeze things, or fire arrows imbued with Light. Combine this with the fact you can wield so many enemy weapons - Darknut swords (which you can knock down columns with), Moblin staffs, Bokoblin swords, even Phantom Ganon swords - and you have a Zelda with the ultimate sense of "play". My highlight this time through was the Earth Temple, using the Mirror Shield with Medli. Pulling out all the mirrors and bouncing the light off them/each other is just one of the most awesome puzzles in the whole Zelda series. On the flipside, my lowlight might actually have been the Wind Temple, as the central room is so vast and it's arguably less fun to work with Makar. In my opinion, this dungeon easily rivals OOT's Water Temple as the most confusing. So what about this specifically as a remake? Well, it's an astounding revision of the original game. The Swift Sail means you can get anywhere in no time and the Nintendo Gallery (Pictograph) quest has been made so much more convenient. I finally got all the figurines! My favourite addition, though - believe it or not - is the motion control! When using the Bow, Grappling Hook or Hookshot, a nudge from the gyroscope here and there makes things so much more intuitive. This is motion control done properly! Another addition is the ability to move whilst in first-person, whilst using many of the weapons too. It's no exaggeration to say you can play a lot of Wind Waker HD as an FPS! One thing that struck me is that Wind Waker is so hardcore. Back in the GameCube days, I think many of us saw it as significantly easier than OOT/MM. A couple of generations later, though, it's clear this game truly has more in common with the N64 era than the present day. The puzzles are challenging, knowing where to go can be very obscure and there are several tests of gameplay skill. Even the battles are not all pushovers. Significant aiming skill is required in some of them, especially Puppet Gannon. That's not to say Wind Waker HD is totally perfect. This time round, I actually began to understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea. There are so many sidequests and diversions, navigating the Great Sea (and therefore the whole game) could be seen as totally baffling by some, arguably breaking the pacing of the narrative. To many of us, though, this all part of why we love the experience.

So far I've just been playing Wind Waker HD. For one reason or another, I bought the Wii U in May and hardly touched it after that (very little to do with the console itself). Am getting back into Wind Waker again now, and I'm glad I am because it's stunning. EDIT - And done. Amazing game!

I've been playing about with Mario Kart 8 and the courses are breathtakingly imaginative. Like Wario Mountain, where it's all downhill, through snowy forests and ski jumps. What I'm saying is that Nintendo has so much talent working for it, and are already creating vast, 3D, Mario-themed "areas". A true 3D Mario that was like 64/Sunshine could be absolutely staggering.

But the Bongos were a very specific peripheral for a particular game. They could not and should not have been the GameCube's main controller. In the case of F-Zero, however, it's absolutely crazy that the Wii U doesn't have a feature it needs. All the information was available to them in advance and they still didn't do it.

No, a 3DS one would be an announcement.

1. The Legend of Zelda - Critics are initially more cautious than they were with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. The fans, however, soon take it to their hearts and declare it the huge leap forward the series needed. 2. F-Zero - Fan-pleaser using the Mario Kart 8 engine. 3. Metroid Prime 4 - Retro Studios. Like all my Wii U predictions, will be fully configured for use on the next console. GamePad completely non-essential. 4. New 3DS Zelda - Based on the Link Between Worlds engine. Enhanced for New 3DS. 5. New 3DS Fire Emblem - Reuses assets from Awakening.

Why's that? She may well have been telling you the truth. Well done for asking anyway.

It's a bit confusing. There have been four Nintendo releases of it: Cave Story (DSi) Cave Story (WiiWare) Cave Story 3D (retail, 3DS) Cave Story (3DS eShop) Cave Story 3D was a full retail game with polygons, but I believe is now available to download - I enjoyed it, but the graphics were a bit small. Personally, I would go for the true eShop game (Cave Story +, if you like) as it's the original 2D game, but widescreen.

Really good description of the game, H-o-T. I really liked the same two points about the ending as you. Bravely Default was a reasonable experience - I don't hold a grudge against it or anything like that (if you know what I mean!) It just saddens me that we get this, and probably the sequel, but don't get Dragon Quest any more. It's as though they're thinking Westerners will accept something in the Final Fantasy visual style, regardless of the quality of the game, but not DQ.

I do agree with you, really. It is a bit quick. On the other hand, they probably just want to stimulate sales again, which is fair enough. If it's not selling, it's not selling. It's nice to think you're supporting small/niche studios, but I bought a couple of Atlus' download-only (in Europe) "retail" games and they weren't really worth it. I think the only company I'll continue to "support" on Day 1 is WayForward, as I get enough out of their games for it to be worth it.

Adding up. I don't even know how to do a yearly summary on the 3DS; I just sorted them by "First Played" and excluded any that were before 2014.

Wii U Wind Waker HD - 14:04 Shovel Knight - 9:19 Super Ghouls & Ghosts - 3:11 Metroid Fusion - 0:58 Super Mario World - 0:41 Zen Pinball 2 - 0:29 Mario Kart 8 - 0:24 Contra III - 0:11 So, my first year with Wii U. Wind Waker was a joy. Shovel Knight was good, but I think I enjoyed Super Ghouls & Ghosts the most! Metroid Fusion was an abandoned speed run. The rest of the list is just tinkering about when I got the sudden urge for some SNES games. I enjoyed most of these games apart from Contra III (too hard) and Mario Kart 8 - I'm not saying the latter is a bad entry; I just don't play the series (it was free). 3DS Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl - 154:37 Bravely Default - 86:46 Fantasy Life - 73:52 Senran Kagura Burst - 7:29 Conception II - 6:08 Code of Princess - 5:21 The bottom three weren't really worth bothering with. The top three I obviously spent a lot of time on, but became disillusioned with Bravely Default and Fantasy Life after a while. Etrian Odyssey was genuinely enjoyable until the very last boss. To be honest, I had a very strange year. There's a lot more I need to get out of the Wii U. As for the 3DS, I just don't think it was a very good year as we missed out on Shantae 3 and no one got Dragon Quest VII.

That's actually unbelievable!

I would just like to thank @RedShell again for this thread. It was extremely useful all through the year.

This is one of those things I'm really in the middle about. When I heard Dragon Quest IX was going to be on the DS, I was really against it. I think anyone who truly played DQ VIII would realise what a technical downgrade it was. I mean, honestly, think back to all the terrain, and all the castles you could explore, look down from the battlements etc. But you know what? Dragon Quest IX was a very, very good game. I'm still not sure it was worth the downgrade (in fact, it wasn't - at a push I'd rather have had another the quality of VIII) but I can't help but think they created a new experience - the handheld Dragon Quest. Ever since IX I've wanted that experience again - on the Vita or, yes, the 3DS. Maybe not Dragon Quest XI, but more like IX-2, IX-3 etc. As for Ni No Kuni, I'd say DQ IX was a much better game. The actual towns in Ni No Kuni were good-looking, but they were the only real aspect that seemed PS3-worthy. The overworld and buildings were definitely sub-DQ VIII. I dislike the "graphics don't matter" attitude, but I honestly think we've reached the stage now (at least with RPGs) where the amount of passion that goes into it, along with the size of the budget, are far more important than specs, even in terms of whether it appears technically impressive. None of this means I don't want DQ XI on the PS4, however. I do - I think it's easily the best console for it. I just wouldn't be gutted if it was for handheld again this time round.

There's no conflict within me - designing a console fully around motion controls was a bad idea (for gaming, not commercially) then and it still is. The problem is they threw everything out that they had built up before - the Wii remote and nunchuk combo simply didn't have enough buttons to handle the tried and tested control schemes that had been devised up that the point, hence the Twilight Princess debacle (a much more regrettable incident than Skyward Sword, even though it was a better game). I never gave them a free pass just because it was Nintendo and I won't now. The legacy? Well, it did have a legacy. Most control pads now have a gyroscope in them. I love being able to move about and aim with the gyro whilst I'm playing Wind Waker HD. It's true evolution. The difference now is that - thankfully - the console makers will only include a level of motion control that is practical (and completely optional) rather than let it ruin the whole controller.

In the Ambassador scheme we got F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, whereas this is F-Zero GP Legend.

At a guess, though, part of the gameplay in Captain Toad is working out the puzzles. The person who did the 3 hr 17 playthrough will have worked out the puzzles in advance, not thought them through as he or she made the video. It's like Zelda: Twilight Princess - I thought that was a long, taxing game on my first playthrough - it took me about 55 hours - but after becoming familiar with the puzzles could do it in 14 hours.

I didn't enjoy any of them very much, but I'd vote for Etrian Odyssey Untold if it was there, as it was 99.9% good. By the way, sorry to be pedantic as I know it's a lot of work making these polls, but Conception II wasn't retail - OK, maybe it was download-only retail, but it wasn't as good as Etrian Odyssey anyway.

I'm very interested in three games we haven't got yet - Steel Empire, Azure Striker Gunvolt and (the one I voted for) Shantae. Come on, I can't not vote for Shantae. It's an educated guess that I will very, very likely prefer it to the others (although I'm a tad concerned as to what the delay is actually about).