Dcubed

Results! GP1: GP2: GP3: Thanks for a fun night everyone! : peace:

@nekunando, we're waiting for you! That shunt at the end of Mario Circuit GBA @RedShell! Classic Dat gazump on the end of Ribbon Road! Not a great night for me in terms of performance, but a fun one nonetheless!

Repeated for the new page. I'm giving @Brian58 until 20:00 to accept my friend request and then the room opens, with or without him (come on! get IN!) Edit: Right! The room is now open! Sorry, Brian... Let's start this thing!

Yup, 8PM GMT tonight! @punio75, @Brian58. I don't think I have you on my friends list. Please send me a friend request via Miiverse before 8PM tonight if you want to take part as I am acting as tonight's host! (My NNID is Nuclear_Muffin). I have already sent friend requests to both of you via Miiverse, but since I don't see your NNID listed here, I'm not certain if it was you I sent the request to. Either way, if it was you, just accept the friend request and you're golden : peace: Anyone else who wishes to join, please be sure to send me a Miiverse friend request before 8PM if you do not already have me on your friends list! Edit: It's 19:45 and @punio75 and @Brian58 still haven't added me... I'm gonna give it until 19:53 and then I'm opening the room, so please get in quick guys! Edit 2: Great! I just got Punio! Come on @Brian58, I'll give you a few more mins, but we need to start this thing, so I'm opening the room no later than 20:00!

At least the ORAS ones were funny... RAWR! I'M A GROUDON! And I'm a pathetic excuse for a rival...

Obviously you can have an opinion (and it's very right I might add), but you also have to consider why the choices were made and who they were made for. Let's take the closest example we have, say... the cannon levels in NSMB2. What do you think the purchase rate would be for a mobile game with that level of difficulty? (considering also that you have no buttons and an extremely restrictive field of view since you have to make the game portrait) Probably a lot lower than this game here. Do I like the look of SMR? Not particularly. Is it a smart decision to go with the game as it is? Yeah, probably. The approach taken here in regards to difficulty is actually pretty interesting though. The way that they're re-framing "failure" is pretty novel actually and I think it's worthy of merit. It's an interesting compromise.

We're gonna see those CG shots repeated in every single advert/trailer constantly for the next few months, aren't we?

Exactly. It's about re-framing what "punishment" for failure is. Instead of "punishing" players for failure, it simply just doesn't give them the reward that they would've gotten if they played well. That way, the average player doesn't feel bad for not playing well, while the good players feel accomplished for getting all the coins/high scores. It fits the platform and the audience well.

It's not meant for you... There will be a high score element for those that want some sort of depth, but the game is aimed at Joe and Jane Shmoe, Mobile Gamer Extraordinaire. Making a game where they can die and not make any progress is a sure fire way of putting them off buying the rest of the game ("it's too hard...") and not getting the chance to push them towards buying the real Mario games on 3DS/Wii U/NX (which, along with pushing people onto the My Nintendo and future NX platforms, is the real objective behind these games). It's a necessary concession on a platform that has no means of precise input for action games and for an audience that demands instant gratification in short bursts.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1275556&highlight=pokemon+go You can catch Pokemon and visit Pokestops with the game running in the background (not actively running with your phone's screen on), but you can't hatch eggs with it unless your phone is on (which was kinda half the reason people wanted it no?) Guess that explains why they made the Apple Watch app

Go, Run? NX to be a smart watch confirmed!

Yeah, it's exactly like Pushmo, Project Zero MOBW, or early 90s Shareware. Download the demo, purchase the rest of the game from within. That's the thing... This usually doesn't work out well on mobile at all as the conversion rates for these kinds of games is typically incredibly poor. There's a reason why Free to Play has shot off like a rocket on mobile. People are used to getting something for nothing now. That's why it's so surprising that Nintendo are going this route with SMR.

This is kind of the big sticking point here... The big mobile games make their money off of whales (a small number of people who become addicted and pour thousands of pounds into the game; subsidising the game for everyone else). That being said, Pokemon Go managed to buck the trend and make its main money from a much wider range of people at smaller amounts, something that Iwata stated to be Nintendo's mantra with their mobile efforts. But here with SMR? The business model they're using here is typically one of the least successful ones on mobile... Conversion rates for these kinds of demo-with-full-game-purchase-from-within games is usually extremely poor on mobile, so... yeah... very ballsy move here... With Apple putting their full weight behind it (going so far as to put out a notification system on the App Store for it, a first for any app AFAIK), perhaps they'll buck the trend again? It's great to see that they're dead set on taking the honest route with their Free to Start games (even here on mobile, where said games usually meet a terrible fate), but I'm not sure if they'll pull it off... Still, if any game would ever be able to manage it, it would be this one.

Well that's not quite true... Microsoft have the Xbox One s... (and it has an unexpected feather in its cap now). Also, you have to consider that it's not just the PS4 Pro that would be affected by this... it's the rest of Sony that will feel the brunt (TVs, BDs etc). It comes across as short-sighted, in a product that is focused on the 4K experience, to lack the ability to play the majority of 4K content that will be put out there. Especially when they would've had the PS4 Slim out this Xmas anyway. Why not wait a little longer and get it in there?

TBH, it's the Mario game that literally all of us were expecting. It is more or less the exact game I had in mind when I thought of what Mario would be like on mobile, so this is my surprised face right here What IS actually surprising though is that this is seemingly a paid game/Pushmo style demo-turned-full-game-purchase thing. That's a very ballsy move from Nintendo there... Depends on the final pricing of course, but upfront payment on mobile is a big ask from an audience that clenches their fists tighter than Margaret Thatcher's knickers. Seeing Miyamoto on an Apple Keynote stage is the most utterly surreal thing though. I mean, we've joked about it for years, but seeing it actually happen? Oh man.. Wrong. It's being made by a team within Nintendo EPD, lead by Hideki Konno (Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion etc). Probably only a fairly small one (using cheaply pre-rendered versions of assets from NSMBU and all), but it's still an internally made game.

Agreed. This is targeted at technology enthusiasts first and foremost, the people who are hungry for new tech and (in theory) 4K content. But not only will this decision cost them sales of their console, it'll also cost them sales of their 4K TVs and BD Movies as well. It's a big cock up. 4K support is like the whole point of this thing and to lack 4K BD movies is a big problem. Not just for SCE, but for Sony as a whole. If the price had to go up as a result, Sony should've waited longer for the price to come down, especially since they would've had the PS4 slim out this Xmas anyway. It's such a gaping hole in this thing.

No 4K BDs!? Wow! I am legit shocked! How on earth did Sony manage to blunder that one up!? That's a big disadvantage for them, considering that even the Xbox One S has that and that Sony (the wider company) are desperately trying to push 4K BD content right now... That's a big blow to the company's 4K initiative as a whole. They might not need it for game storage, but 4K is kinda half the whole point of this thing... It's a baffling omission (especially when most games will fail to hit the 4K target with these specs anyway). Also, 310 Watt power consumption!? That can't be right surely? That thing is gonna be an inferno!

Well if Bowser can do it, I don't see why the BBC can't...

You shouldn't talk with your mouth full

Right! Then I'll boast instead of coast. Don't be a ghost! Read this post and add my NNID (that's on the left hand side of the screen BTW, for most) in toast of this week's host! (Please don't roast :p)

I could host this week's one, but I'm not gonna be available to play next week, so I'm far from the ideal host here...

Lets see... Am I in or not? What choice do I make? Do I want to find the answer? Hell yeah, I'm IN!

I'd be happy to join you. Didn't get to play multiplayer much while reviewing it (even the reviewers hardly cared to try the online it seems :p ), so I'll be glad to finally get to try it properly! Gonna be at work for the next few days, but I should be available to join you guys on this Thursday or Friday if you wanna play

You're right on the money, that's exactly what they're doing... Nothing for Wii U this week though, sadly.

Namco are making the other three sports, pretty much what I expected. (When in doubt about a Nintendo collab production, it's usually Namco )