Grazza

No, it's just that you only get one song a week, and I don't think it's the request song (I requested loads - some correctly-titled, some not). The song I received was K.K. Bubblegum - is that what everyone got today, or is it the first song that everyone gets?

I honestly doubt he still wants to. On a personal level, I like and respect Miyamoto as much as ever, but all creative people change the types of thing they want to express. Miyamoto has said before that he was once fascinated by 3D worlds (and presumably isn't now), which is what once got us games like Ocarina of Time. Realistically, I doubt he wants to do that sort of game nowadays.

I feel the same, with a slight difference. I'm actually still enjoying it a great deal, I just don't know if I can justify the time. This is what I consider the minimum to do each day: * Check the Nook supermarket (whatever it's called). * Find Fossils and have them analysed. * Check what's for sale on Museum's 1st floor. * Visit Island, if only to check what's on sale. * See if there are any visitors (like Redd or Sahara) ...Basically, all the things that won't be the same the next day. It might not sound much, but I definitely need two or three play sessions to fit that in. Musn't grumble though - as I say, I am enjoying it. Finally getting some decent Happy Home Academy points too! My mistake was not having enough furniture sets, and assuming other things would fill the void. From now on, I am actually going to try and have a furniture set in each room (apart from the basement, because it doesn't count). There are a lot of really good wallpapers/floors, like Palace or Imperial, that don't have an official set of furniture to go with them.

My 4th one was like that. It disappeared before I could do anything, but I caught the 5th. The key is definitely to enter "stealth mode" as soon as possible, then just freeze whenever it turns round. I don't really like capturing them, as they're likeable fellas! Amazing! I must be doing something wrong because my score is still 25,000. Don't have any complete sets, but have a lot of the Cabana stuff.

I thought you might like it because the gameplay is real-time and some of it actually takes skill (I believe you don't like turn-based RPGs). You need fast reactions for the fish, stealth for the bugs, and as for the tarantula and scorpion... well, it's not exactly fighting the Metroid Prime, but it's still tense! Speaking of which, I caught a scorpion last night, so that's all the fish, bugs and diving objects that have been available in June/July. I've also maximised my house (just paying off the final loan). Although I love this game, I'll be honest, it took over my life just a bit too much for a while there! It's my own fault for wanting to do it quickly, but I'm looking forward to it being more leisurely from now on.

I'll never have a go at anyone for lack of skill. Super Mario Bros is a very hard game and I've never been able to complete it - think I've got about 75% of the way through, but that's it. It's not like everyone was a skilled gamer when it was originally released either, as it has always been a game people find hard to control. A lot of people must have thought "Games aren't for me", and just forgotten about them from that point on. I'm not particularly blaming Super Mario Bros, because that's just what games were like in the '80s - overly hard, to hide the fact there was not much to them. The much-mocked New Super Mario Bros series, on the other hand, has absolutely perfect controls. Not only that, they often feature some sort of "Super Leaf" if you find the level too difficult. I was genuinely impressed with New Super Mario Bros 2, how the Super Leaf would let almost everyone beat the last boss (you still need platforming skills though). What's more concerning than lack of skill, is when players won't learn good controls. As I say, NSMB has perfect controls, but there will still be some who can't grasp the concept of the run button. Like it or not, we now have less control over Mario and Zelda. In Wind Waker, we could use the C-stick to control the camera and the R-trigger to control the shield. In Super Mario Sunshine, we could explore every nook and cranny with the camera stick and have amazingly precise control whilst hovering via the analogue triggers. Whether functionality of that level will ever come back to Nintendo's franchises, I don't know. It doesn't just give you more control - it actually affects how good level design can be. If Nintendo persists with simplifying controls, and how much control we have over a game, I hope they do so with as much skill as the Super Leaf or Super Guide. Games should be designed to be as good as possible for dedicated gamers, and only then have options to simplify if it doesn't negatively affect the software's highest potential.

8x8 is maximum room size. I've got an Arwing, space, Kart, space and then the Blue Falcon all in a row. Anyway, just caught a diving beetle!

Got mine today! Don't think I'll start it though until I've done everything I want to for the month in Animal Crossing.

I've got a Nintendo museum room - pretty sure it's 8x8. Actually, I'm not sure what to put in the museum. At the moment, all I can think of is Nintendo, Pascal and Gulliver stuff, but I prefer it in my house. All the Pascal stuff is in my left-hand room, like a pirate ship. I really like it, but wonder if it's damaging my house score, as there's no furniture to the set? Oh, also... finally caught a tarantula! Only the diving beetle (not seen) and scorpion (seen twice) to go now.

(Buys two Cadbury's Fudge bars and waves them at Serebii in insulting manner, like how Alan Partridge waved the Twix at Michael.) Ah, crap, you were right. That set me back 40p!! I'm 10p over!

This is gonna be easy... Pilotwings Resort Ocarina of Time 3D Star Fox 64 3D Super Mario 3D Land New Super Mario Bros 2 Fire Emblem: Awakening Animal Crossing: New Leaf Mighty Switch Force Mighty Switch Force 2 Cave Story 3D ...For starters!

If I'm honest, I started off thinking it was very good, but disliked it the more I played. The main problem is that you simply have to use your tools in every bit of space you see - the gameplay never seemed very addictive, and not often very exciting either. There are difficult moments, but they mainly revolve around whether you can avoid contact with ghosts whilst you're trying to capture another. The other problem is the mission structure. Luigi's Mansion 2 is top of my "Average Play Time" chart, but that doesn't reflect the enjoyment I got from it. It is simply because I was stuck in missions for a long time (you can't save during them). There are some long and frustrating ones towards the end (that can go wrong at the last minute), and it really ruined my goodwill towards the game. So, overall I prefer the GameCube original, although I'm not a huge fan of even that. I'm probably in the minority, but I can definitely think of 10 3DS games I prefer.

You'll kick yourself if there's not though. You could have bought a chocolate bar!

Villagers in this game are so fickle. Benedict asked me for a Horned Hercules (one of the rarest beetles). I caught one within 24 hours, and just because it was the next day he forgot he'd asked for it! I got up early for her once, bought 10, then left them on the ground to attract flies and ants!

Whenever a friend brings round a Westernised, multiformat game to show me, it usually goes like this: 1) Cutscene with graphics far better than the machine can do real-time 2) Short tutorial 3) Another cutscene 4) Tutorial 5) Cutscene (always with emphasis on voice acting) 6) Another tutorial 7) More cutscenes ...And so on. I'm not against high standards of presentation, and I definitely don't want everything to be really simple, but too many games seem like they're trying to impress you. "Look at this amazing scene. It's like a film!" Again, I don't want to be a hypocrite because cinematics have been an important part of great games, like the way Miyamoto framed things in Ocarina of Time, or the truly enjoyable cutscenes/voice acting in Fire Emblem: Awakening, but the best games just seem to do it well without worrying whether the wider audience will find it impressive. The modern trend seems to favour presentation over everything else. This year I played Ni no Kuni - a game I had high hopes for - but whilst there is a high emphasis on presentation and story scenes, the game isn't built as carefully as Level-5's PS2 RPG, Dragon Quest VIII, and is nowhere near as good. Worryingly, many reviews seem to miss details like this. There is a danger (well it's not really a danger - it's happened) that games have become more graphically detailed but less interactive. Just give me more games like Wind Waker or Metroid Prime, with immersive worlds to explore and full control over them, because I'm not watching a film, I'm playing a game. I don't really want to be impressed, I want to be enthralled.

It was a pretty even split between SNES and Mega Drive in my area. I would say Mega Drive caused more excitement early on (because it was first), then you had those who waited for the SNES (and were incredibly keen to point out it could display more colours). Still, pretty even, and the big games were respected by all - Sonic the Hedgehog, A Link to the Past... Later on I would say all the excitement was about Donkey Kong Country and the upcoming N64 more than Mega Drive releases like Sonic 3. Shame all that excitement disappeared, because Nintendo had a huge potential audience there. Even so, the N64 is still a classic to many, many people I know in real life. I would have to agree, though, with those who think the games were more impressive at the time. Mario 64 was an amazing experience, but is it that good to go back and play? To me, no. I have it on Virtual Console and didn't finish it, although I still like the N64 Zeldas. I think I am actually a Sega fanboy. Nintendo is the company I "jumped ship" to, but when I play something that captures the feel of Sega, I remember my true colours. Recent example: Mighty Switch Force 2. It may not be for everyone, with its mixture of puzzles and platforming, but when I completed the final level I thought to myself "This is just cool. This is what Sega would be making - the real Sega - if they were still around". I'm not saying Nintendo is "kiddie", but there's a certain "cool" that Sega did better.

Yes, very much agree with this. It would be better if you could rearrange a "phantom" version of your project until you got the right place. Well, that's a shame about the Coelacanth, but they should definitely appear off your coastline when it's raining (shadow is very similar to sea bass, just a bit longer). As for the Napoleonfish, I've caught all mine on the Island (I think in the evening - not too late at night). ... Anyway, on a personal note, I'm obsessed with getting the stuff from Pascal. The left-hand room of my house is like a pirate ship. Think I've now got all the Fish and Diving objects that have been available in June and July, but still need the Tarantula, Scorpion and Diving Beetle. Yesterday I was daydreaming about what I'd do if I encountered the Scorpion - before I knew it, one ran at me and attacked me!! My house must be really rubbish, as they suggest I should be getting 100,000 points, yet my maximum so far is 20,000.

It is very, very hard to argue against that tech demo.

Agree with nando about Nuts & Bolts. Total respect to the talented artists, but it looks too "harsh" to me. I just think Nintendo should have faith in cel-shading. It looked so good in the latest Fire Emblem:

I don't know if I should regret the fact that I pre-ordered this, as I just couldn't get into the demo. ...Actually, forget it. Regret over!

Well, I do agree that people don't care about 3D, and that Nintendo misread the market with the launch price. 3DS, like the Wii U, has tech in that people don't want, and of course it all has to be paid for. I don't blame Nintendo for thinking people would be excited about the Parallax Barrier, though. 3D was all the rage and it was just an amazing bit of technology. Making their handheld 3D may have been a mistake, but it's not one I'll criticise Nintendo for because I would have done the same.

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I honestly can't imagine them making one as complex as TP nowadays. I'm not being revisionist about TP - it doesn't have all the features of Wind Waker - but it still had that basic idea that you used a traditional pad (initially, anyway) and explored a 3D world. It's like they're happy to retain that kind of complexity if it's a remake, but not for a new game. I suppose the real (and boring!) answer is that they should make Zelda Wii U in the style they have a vision for. When I first saw Wind Waker (the website actually), I was blown away by the idea they had for a game set at sea, with the important locations being islands. It was so different from what I knew as Zelda from the N64 era, I couldn't help but be intrigued. Of course, it actually plays in a fairly similar way to OOT, but that's its beauty!

Well, the DS wasn't even very good at doing the Wind Waker style, in my opinion. Something to keep in mind is that Wind Waker HD runs in 1080p, apparently at 60fps. Whilst this is great, it's likely Zelda Wii U will trade that for 720p and 30fps, so I still think it could use more complex lighting and graphics than the GC remake. Has there been enough cartoon? Difficult to say, but when you see how sophisticated the cel-shaded cutscenes were in Fire Emblem: Awakening, being cartoony doesn't mean it will have the same colours or character models as Wind Waker (as much as I like them). I'm sure they could make a really good cartoony Zelda with Adult Link. With technology improving all the time, it'd be a shame if we've already seen the best visual style for Zelda. But do you know what, Wii? I'm going to basically agree with you in that it might be a good idea to keep the styles on different machines. For example: eShop - Link to the Past graphics (the true 2D SNES style) Handhelds - Wind Waker style, fully 3D Consoles - Twilight Princess style Handhelds have become so good, I'd actually be a bit more disappointed to not have a WW style game on 3DS than I would if there wasn't one on Wii U.

OK, I'm genuinely sorry if that came across as blunt. Let me explain... What bothers me about the 3DS is that, for a moment, we had a genuinely hardcore version of Nintendo back. Think back to E3 2010. Everything shown looked good, like Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. Some of it - particularly Kid Icarus: Uprising - was even daring. This was not a conservative Nintendo in action, this was a Nintendo that had listened to fans' complaints that the Wii was "casual" and taken them seriously. I'll never forget how enjoyable it was to own a 3DS in 2011. The first time I fired up Pilotwings, heard the blistering music and, thanks to the 3D, thought I was really there. It was unbelievable. Then there were the times I carried the 3DS around with me, taking 3D photos and trying to get StreetPasses, hoping that it had taken off enough for other people to be using it. I downloaded the freebies like 3D Classics: Excitebike and played them all over the country when I went on holiday. It was just a brilliant little machine to own. But it wasn't all that successful. Nintendo had put its faith in people wanting a hardcore machine, with a genuinely good library of games on the way, but they weren't rewarded for it. "It needs a Mario!" was the cry. Great. Now we have a Nintendo that hardly dares make a game that doesn't relate to Mario in some way. Even though I love the 3DS, what I love most is how Nintendo launched it and planned it in the first place, because there sure isn't the same vibe now. I'm glad people are appreciating true greats like Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing, but the upcoming games don't look anything like as ambitious (incidentally, Animal Crossing was the last game from E3 2010 that needed release). Mario & Luigi 4, Yoshi's Island, LttP 2...? They may be good games, but I can't pretend I'm as excited about them as I was the earlier software. So, next time we think Nintendo is playing it a bit safe, think back to this, because in my opinion almost everything about the Wii U can be traced back to the near-failure of the 3DS.

Considering Wind Waker is my favourite Zelda, I wonder why I want a Twilight Princess style Zelda so much? Probably just because the demo looked so good... but still, I'd be more than happy with another WW style game. The thing that's most important to me (and I'm glad Aonuma mentions it) is the controls. Whatever the graphical style, I really hope it controls the same as Wind Waker. Right-analogue camera control, R-trigger shield control, the Mirror Shield... drool.