Ronnie

It's definitely the hardest of the NSMB games I'd say, I'm only in the third world and I'm finding it tricky.

Nintendo are the masters of controllers, no surprise they've come up with another gem. Another few +'s: + BIG D-Pad, makes such a difference compared to the small one on the Wii remote + Buttons generally feel substantial - As said before, I wish they'd picked a different material

Without any spoilers, what's the game like after you finish the main storyline? Decent special levels or a bit of a letdown?

Ah fair enough, hardcore! Mario U is the only Wii U game that interested me so I HAVE to make it last

I'm taking it nice and slow, don't see the need to rush through it. Just finished the first level of the desert world. I like how each level has it's own unique name, rather than just 2-2, 5-4 etc. Oh and the world map is a beauty.

Great to see some love for Excite Truck, one of Wii's gems especially in it's first year.

The way the pink baby Yoshis sing along to Acorn Plains music is awesome Nintendo magic

Is there an Abridge and Condense button I can click for Mokong's posts? That was a really nice touch.

WTF? The story was one of the best things about the game, as you say FK. "Not even 1%" sounds like total bullshit.

Wind Waker was just lovely. Even putting aside the fantastic tracks from various islands and boss battles, I loved the way they carried on the tradition of weaving music into the storyline. For instance the Medli/Makar moments (with the ghosts of their respective sages). It was just put together so beautifully. How anyone can get bored playing this masterpiece of a game is beyond me. I suppose Skyward Sword sort of had similar moments, but they were just poorly executed/rushed/or totally forgettable by comparison.

Exactly, their locations in the Wind Waker made sense and I was one of the few who found it a lot of fun going treasure hunting for them one by one. Skyward Sword triforce collecting was fairly rubbish and anticlimactic though. I kind of get they were MAYBE going for a silent realm-esq 'room inside your mind' type thing, which sort of makes it ok-ish I suppose ...but still.

Sky Keep always bugged me because of one thing. Here you are achieving the three pieces of the triforce, and the game plays the same jingle it does when you find a new bottle. Just lazy, not to mention the non-descript room and animations.

What I will say is that Fi's Goodbye at the very end is lovely, really really nice. Up there as my favourite Zelda tunes. The rest though just seems like bland filler for the most part, though I do hear what you're saying LoT. That would have been great. Like they altered the Observatory theme in Galaxy 1 over time as you went through the game. Lazy may have been the wrong word to use for the sky theme. I just found it a generic adventure theme that you could apply to lots of game, and it didn't sound it fit in with the Zelda world at all. The way they didn't even bother with changing it for the thunderhead though is what was lazy. Even silence with stormy weather would have been better. Dungeon themes were forgettable, I can't remember any (maybe that's just me though). Faron Woods was nice, but it all just seemed quite weak, when compared to the loud tunes of OOT/MM (love the Deku Palace theme) and WW.

Hard to believe a game gets a shop listing before Nintendo even announces it.

Agree about TP's bosses, they were quite clunky without much flow but there were some nice ideas in there. I wasn't impressed with the Skyward Sword music at all no, some tracks may have been nicely put together but they just weren't memorable in the slightest. So boring and generic compared to the genius of Wind Waker, Ocarina, Twilight Princess etc - For a series that has music at its core, it was a huge disappointment IMO. The sky overworked track for instance was godawful and lazy.

Amazing way to end the game, the editing and the music in particular are stunning. Really fitting with the theme of the game and nice to hear the traditional Zelda tune which we seem to be hearing less and less of these days. On a side note, the end of Spirit Tracks reminded me of this as well, on a smaller scale.

I found the final battle(s) of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess far better personally. The Skyward Sword ones were a bit meh by comparison, at least the Demise bit was.

Yeah I contacted them on their online ticketing system, guess I'll just wait and see if/when they get back to me.

Any guesses if I'll be alright for delivery this week?

D'oh, got an email from ShopTo saying my pre-order couldn't be processed and to login online and check. Noticed that I didn't have a card added (oops, first time ordering from them), so added one and pre-paid the pre-order. Hopefully still means I get it on friday :-(

3D Land is an amazing game, you'll love it. Half Galaxy, half Mario 3 and far far better than the New SMB's.

I didn't know such people existed

I remember thinking the storyline/telling was deeper than the last couple of Zeldas. Fantastic game.

That's because Super Paper Mario was a fantastic game [awaits onslaught of abuse]

Looks fantastic, can't wait. Hope it's nice and long Their 6 part retrospective clips (just before the Wii launched) were great.