daftada

Hope they have a more fleshed-out Combat Training.

Has Koji Kondo retired? Bar a couple of tracks on the Mario Galaxies I don't remember seeing his name on any recent big Ninty titles.

Just realised I didn't factor in licensing fees into my estimates which are £5-8 per unit. The £11-15 a publisher makes might also need to be split with the developer (depending on their contract) so a Publisher may only end up with a fiver from a £50 game. So they'd to sell at least 200k units to break even on a port, and a hell of a lot more on a Wii U exclusive.

It all seemed to pick up a bit at the 'halfway' point, or what I thought was halfway anyway. But yeah, the pacing has been pretty poor throughout. I don't remember Symphonia or Vesperia having the same issue, but I absolutely loved those two so mayve I just didn't notice. Abyss is my least favourite Tales so far (only played ToS 1&2, ToV, ToE) - unforgettable characters, especially outside the main party, dull locations (too many browns and greys), an over-complicated plot, terrible pacing, and no sign of the master chef chap I'll soldier on regardless though!

I've just finished act 2 with about 55 hours on the clock and boy did those last few hours drag on. I'm finding it a bit of a chore now but I don't want to give up. How long is the third act?

I named Barrett Mr T on my latest playthrough, makes his dialogue sooo much funnier!

The original Yoshi's Island is one of my favourite games ever. The incredible presentation, clever level design, constant sense of challenge and achievement, and a seemingly never-ending stream of amazing gameplay ideas mean, for me, it still stands up to modern games. The bosses are also among my all-time faves - how many games have had such ingenious examples for bosses as the likes of Sluggy the Unshaven, Tap-Tap the red-nose (or red-nose the tap-tap, I can never remember his name!), Raphael the Raven, and the two Baby Bowser fights. Only Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country 3 got close the YI's ensemble of bosses. Sadly, I had to sell my mint copy of the rare Player's Guide special edition a few years ago (along with nearly my entire gaming collection) when I was completely broke. I've got a Japanese copy sitting next to me, but it's not quite as awesome as my original (even if the box art is funkier). I bought the GBA one, and have been replaying the ambassador download but it's not quite the same. I think something has been lost in translation in the switch to the smaller GBA screen. I wish Nintendo released the SNES original on the VC so people could savour it on a bigger screen with less cramped controls.

I thought £24 was the average trade price for retailers? After production and distribution fees are taken out they'd be left with a little under £20. But yeah, they wouldn't need to sell many copies to make a straight port worthwhile. Adding Wii U specific content would add maybe £100k on top? So still not a huge risk. It all depends on how many gamers make the Wii U their no.1 core gaming machine. Assassins Creed 3 and Colonial Marines are going to bevwatched closely by publishers I'm sure. (so get you preorders in NOW! )

Nintendo didn't hold any rights on Conker though, that was always going to be owned and published (well, publishing rights) by Rare. I completely forgot to mention Blast Corps and Jet Force Gemini in my last post. Who could take those on now? Maybe Platinum Games taking on JFG?

They should buy the IP, give Perfect Dark to Retro, get Good Feel on to a hand-drawn DKC, and let Monster games work on a new Diddy Kong Racing!

I'd LOVE a Wii U remake with HD Galaxy-style graphics.

Are there any N-E meets planned this year?

The story doesn't support a sequel, but I hope they can resuse the battle mechanics in another game. It's easily the best RPG fighting system I've ever played.

Anyone know who is making Quiz Party? I've done some digging but drawn a blank so far. As far as I can recall this is the first game NoE has ever commissioned by itself, could be a landmark moment, even if it does turn out to be a forgetable game.

I might give the download option a go, what's the biggest SD card the 3DS can handle?

@Fierce_LiNk (and anyone else interested in digging up some hidden gems) I'd recommend checking out both Ghost Recon and Rythym Thief. Ghost Recon is a great strategy game from Julian Gollop, creator of X-Com. I've ploughed 50 hours into it and enjoyed every minute. There's lots of depth to the combat and tonnes of content. Rythym Thief is INCREDIBLY good fun and a perfect handheld title to play in short bursts. I played the demo and was instantly hooked - i've never been a big fan of the rythym genre but this just clicked for me. Both are pretty cheap on Zavvi and Play right now!

That website's probably for Tekken X Street Fighter!

From Maybe we'll soon find out what AlphaDream are up to while Intelligent Systems hog the handheld Mario role-playing glory!

Not on those tables, but twice today on Iron Man a ball has suddenly jumped under a flipper when I've hit it...

Ah, I never completed Risky's Revenge. Got stuck on that timed dungeon run halfway through it!

Wasn't Shantae on DSi supposed to be a trilogy? Maybe that's what he meant by a 'down note'.

Considering how Game etc. try and force you to buy everything from insurance to screen wipes when you buy a new console I'm sure there won't be many people that leave the store without a charger. Personally I'm happy to just have the unit, I have four chargers already no need for another one.

I'm sure NAMCO are involved to help with the graphical assets and to lend support in building a solid online infrastructure. Aside from some balancing issues I don't think the core Smash Bros gameplay needs too much changed. I'd like Sakurai to make these open to updates. Imagine getting a new character/stage/trophy when you buy a new game? When I heard some of the Tales team were involved I did start to hope we might get some kind of RPG adventure in place of the SSE (and of course it paves the way for Lloyd & Kratos to make an appearance!).

I've updated the list with some of the info from this morning's Nintendo Direct. Interesting to see Namco joining Project Sora on Smash Bros