Dcubed

I still play it every now and again. There's still a good amount of people playing it online (though it seems that everyone is godly at this game now! - Everyone seems to be able to do that BS long shot straight into the goal except for me ) I can't stop myself from doing this. Way too much fun!

Alright! I've finally finished the game! And I really enjoyed it You can tell that the game was designed with the story/characters/world in mind first and the gameplay second, but that doesn't mean that the gameplay is lacking. Really, the highlights of the gameplay are the bosses and the tower navigation/exploration (especially the 11th & 12th towers. Very cleverly designed!), though it is a shame that the tower types are recycled once each - it does lead to a feeling of repetition. That's a feeling that does end up prevailing throughout the game unfortunately. The combat doesn't really evolve much from the start and it is rather basic, while the enemies are all kind of samey and don't present much in the way of challenge or excitement (they're just obstacles really) The visual repetition doesn't help much in that respect either (and nor does the fact that every tower uses the same music) It's a bit of a shame that the time limit & day night cycle wasn't exploited fully. I wasn't expecting a fully blown Majora's Mask type experience, but with the time limit being used solely as a means to drag you back to Elena to avoid a game over and the day night cycle only affecting enemy difficulty and item placement, it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. Still, it was clearly designed for a story/emphatic reason and it works well in that respect. The bosses are really good though. While it can feel like a bit of a slog at times when that feeling of repetition gets to you, the bosses definitely make up for it. Clearly taking inspiration from Zelda, like its forebearer, the bosses are elaborate puzzles that require quick thinking and dexterity. They're tough and a lot of fun to fight. A worthy reward for sure! (Shame there's no boss rush mode though ) Aside from the repetitive nature of the visual design (which does however come with the added benefit of practically zero loading times!), it is a good looking game and the arrangements of classical music are very nice. It's a polished experience for the most part (few bouts of slowdown here and there), which is really nice after the mess that was The Last Story! Speaking of story... I'd say it's one of the few examples in gaming of a love story that was actually really well done. You do end up feeling for Elena (as well as others...), the plot is genuinely interesting, the writing is well done (as is the localisation!) and the characters are great (especially Mavda! HE-HE-HE ) There's a real sense of cohesiveness about the world, which is really impressive considering that you don't ever really get to see any of it! Also, without spoiling anything, the endings are really cleverly done. I first finished the game with Ending A (the 2nd best one, I was so close to S!) then quickly finished it again to get Ending S (the best one). The endings change MASSIVELY! It's not just a matter of a few extra bits here and there, but rather they change almost completely. The cool thing about them though is that they actually give you different information; while Ending S is obviously the best ending and the one that is intended to be canon, you wont actually fully understand the story unless you see Ending A as well! (It's a clever way of encouraging you to see all the different endings since they tie together!) Overall, a really good game and a fun ride. It gets to feel samey and repetitive at times, but the payoff is more than worth it. I'd say it's better than The Last Story (yeah yeah, different genre blah blah blah, I still enjoyed it more). It's like a 3D Castlevania game with polish, really fun boss battles and a lot of heart

Soooo, basically a re-badged and tattooed Ice White 3DS? (Honestly, I'd be stunned if it didn't happen!)

TBH, this game is actually closer to Mario Kart 7 than DKR in how it handles the different vehicles. I'm not expecting a Mario Kart/DKR beating game here, but the original was a good game. With them actually bringing something new to the table this time around (Yeah, MK7 did the transforming vehicle thing as well, but this one features actual water/flight handling like DKR, which makes it stand alone) I'm much more interested in this than I was in the original. Rather than compare it to MK/DKR (which it will never beat honestly), why not just appreciate it for what it is? It's not just a poor man's Mario Kart this time around.

The original's DS and Wii versions were excellent (The former being the only version that ran at 60FPS!) I expect just as good a job done on this new game for the 3DS!

I think that the Flame Red's title of Best Looking 3DS Model has finally been usurped! WANT!

Day one. The first game was really good, but this alone makes it a must buy for me! Nice to see them doing something different this time around (with the boating/flying mechanics being very different from MK7 and DKR). The lack of a Wii version is a dead giveaway of a Wii U version incoming (there's your 60FPS console gameplay )

So it's a multiplayer game with a tacked on single player mode... Fair play to them for finally giving the series the shakeup it needed, but still... not sure if want... It's good to see them take the series in a different direction (and the multiplayer does have potential if it follows the kind of Monster Hunter style of progression rather than COD), but it seems so cynically designed; just the words "focus tested" make me cringe in disgust (yes I know that Sony extensively use focus testing in designing almost all of their games, it's the proud mention of it here that bothers me) I guess we'll have to wait and see if it is just another COD alike (in that the game is designed around abusing operant conditioning to strongarm people into not selling their game) I do like the shift in art direction though. Nice to finally have some bright colours!

Oh BTW, just spotted a trailer for Castlevania The Adventure (GB VC) on the Wii's Nintendo Channel. Looks like we'll be getting it pretty soon (going to the game's title info page brings up Brunswick Pro Bowling for some bizarre reason, so it was obviously not meant to be put up yet!)

Yay! VC is back at last! http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/nintendo_download_3rd_may_2012_europe 3DS gets Game & Watch Gallery 2, while Wii gets Super Hang-on (Yeah only almost 2 years after its Japanese VC release, but it got there in the end!)

Woah! That came out of nowhere! Super Hang-on is coming out this week! (Yeah only almost 2 years after its Japanese VC release, but it got there in the end!) Also, 3DS gets Game & Watch Gallery 2 this week

Come on Ghostlight/Atlus!

Seems like it's closer to the N64 game than the GCN one. TBH, that's probably a good thing. I was hoping that we'd see more special modes like Super Mario Tennis though. Power Tennis was very good in that regard, while the N64 title was very bare bones. Sounds like it lies somewhere in between (both in terms of gameplay and content!)

Apparently, the class doesn't actually really matter that much when it comes to 3DS load times. The "Class" on the card only measures the speed in which it transfers large files ( I.e, when you copy a file from your SD card to your PC and vice versa). What really matters for 3DS load times is the random access speed (which the class has no bearing on). In some cases, a class 2 card can be faster than a class 10! (there's a nice comparison spreadsheet of various SD cards that someone compiled here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AjPE3ZAD2eVudE9vZmQ3aHlfTkFvU2J4ZUplRDJQTEE ) That being said, I imagine that faster cards wouldn't make much of a difference, since Nintendo probably hard coded a limit on the highest possible random access speed (to ensure the best compatibility across the different models of SD Card) As long as you're not buying a dodgy knockoff from Hong Kong, most cards will probably give similar levels of performance. I have a few SD/SDHC cards that I've tried out on the 3DS and I've not noticed any big discrepancy in performance.

The more devs that try to ape Skylanders, the faster the fad will die. Skylanders had a brilliantly innovative gimmick to hook people in, but there's only so much room for plastic toy driven games. That being said, there's much more that could be done with NFC than just DLC scams. NFC credit card/phone compatibility has been mentioned before, but what about lego construction? What if that Lego City Stories (or any other Lego game) allowed you to physically build objects in real life and have that object transplanted into the game when the NFC enabled construction was placed on top of the screen? It would be infinitely easier to use and far more approachable than any level editor ever made before!

Until the game is available to buy and I can see it on my Home Screen, I'm not believing a single word of what these guys say. I've spent far too much of my time and effort waiting on their stuff. That being said, I hope it does happen. VVVVVV looks great and Nicalis have done (mostly) good work with their ports before (after it has been patched the first time!)

AC and Demon Training will likely be very small (AC GCN and Wild World were only 32MB! And the Wii one was something like 150MB) Actually, quite a lot of 3DS games are very small. Here's a list of currently known game sizes (taken from GoNintendo/Neogaf) Hell some of those games are smaller than eShop titles! (Mighty Switch Force is something like 300MB odd) And SD cards are dirt cheap. I don't envision it being a major problem. Wii U games on the other hand...

As long as they don't try to Skylanders the series with collectable figurines I'll be happy with whatever they do on Wii U. An AR Card enabled TCG game for 3DS or Wii U would be awesome though!

I wonder if it was you I saw? Maybe we can play some MHFU some time! (haven't got MHP3 yet)

You should go back and try again. It's out in English now and there's usually plenty of people on there (and almost all of them are playing MHFU - with a few Dissidia players on the side) Works perfectly on Vita too (though it doesn't work with native Vita games, only PSP ones) I've even seen some MHP3 rooms on the English one! The Japanese one is pretty much just MHFU, MHP3 (it even has it's own dedicated section!) and a few Peace Walker players.

This is the best part... Reminds me of the Rayman Rabbids Wii kids...

Yep, that was also leaked prior to the Wii's E3 2006 reveal (showcasing a prototype Wiimote as well that still lacked the speaker) BTW, just incase people here don't know, there are other additional features that were leaked via patent filings a whiles back. So we know it also features a magnetometer (like the PS Move) and some internal flash memory. I'm guessing that the "Infrared Communication Module" is the IR port on the back here...

Yeah, the final one will be wireless! :p Nah only joking, I know about him (I do follow that thread as well). I think it's clear from this trailer that the tablet's design won't change much at all in its final form though (any changes will be additional features, rather than aesthetic changes) Edit: Oh shit! I think I might've been right. Gamexplain seems to have caught a glimpse of an extra black strip (IR camera?!?!) on the back of the tablet! http://www.gamexplain.com/article-740-1335520164-wii-u-controller-mystery-feature.html How the hell did I miss that!? It looks like the Wiimote's IR camera!

Smash Bros is gonna be even worse than Pokemon for this...