Dcubed

Yeah, this game is great! Waaaayyy better than Island Tour! And probably even better than MP9 so far! The only things that bother me about it are the lack of playable Boo (it's just not quite the same when you don't get to watch the absurdity of seeing Boo fall down holes and ice skate ), the lack of a voice over announcer (seriously!? Nothing at all!? The first ever console Mario Party to not have one!? It's so wrong...) and the really basic and budget looking menus (there's not even a proper title screen!) Otherwise, it's great! I love how it has that meanstreak back that was really lacking from Mario Party 9. Battle games are back, there are all new Steal spaces, Bowser plays a huge role (and his Bowser Space events are proper NASTY!!! - he's not afraid to suddenly just steal half of your ministars, just like that!). It's great! There are plenty of ways of screwing over the other players and it doesn't feel like it's afraid of breaking friendships The minigames are all proper quality as well so far. Not a single stinker! Looking forward to trying out the rest of the boards/minigames and Bowser Party!

I haven't actually played Fantasy Life yet (I do own it though), but I kind of got that impression that it might be a bit like that... I hope that it doesn't drag things down too much... I absolutely hate it when developers use blatant Skinner box tricks like that to artificially pad out their game. I'm playing through Bravely Default right now and the SP Drinks (the paid microtransactions shortcut that they added into the international version) thankfully hasn't really influenced the rest of the game's design (though the in-game messages for it really really rub me badly...). You can tell that the game wasn't really changed from the original version (in fact, the speed up options are a GODSEND! I would not have been able to enjoy the game without them! ). So I like to have a bit of hope that it's not too bad with Fantasy Life...

I'm saving my stars. VC games I can get at any time, that Mario Kart 8 soundtrack CD though? No way is that gonna be made available again!

Nope. PS1. Click Medic in 1999 was their last console game and their last non-Nintendo game (until Tembo - Which actually looks pretty fun! - although it still looks pretty basic for the hardware it's running on, which is pretty funny considering ) Anyway, for me - Nintendo consoles and PC is currently more than enough - it covers virtually everything; save for a few minor stragglers that'll probably make it over to PC eventually (come on Miku!) Before this gen, you'd be missing out on a hell of a lot if you stuck with Nintendo only. Nowadays? There really is precious little worth playing that isn't either multi platform on PC or on Wii U/3DS anyway. MS and Sony's 1st party games have never really appealed that much to me outside of some exceptions (that seem to have all but faded away completely now or in the case of MS, will probably end up on PC eventually anyway). I honestly struggle to think of anything worth playing from an ongoing standpoint that isn't covered by the Nintendo/PC combo

Even if they weren't going mobile, this would be the time where development would start shifting over to the new NX system anyway. I'm sure that we'll still see more unannounced games for Wii U (they've even said as much, with more unannounced Wii U games being unveiled at E3 this year), but after this year, this is the time where development would have to start winding down and moving onto the next platforms anyway.

I suppose that getting negative about things isn't going to help anything. Gotta stay positive. I'm sure that they'll stick it out with dedicated hardware/software for absolutely as long as they're still around - even if it's in diminished form. After all, they're still making Hanafuda cards, even 125 years on! Despite the fact that it's a tiny market, they still make them. Likewise, they've doggedly stuck to making what they want to make, despite the realities of the market. This is the same company that continued to make traditional, quality titles even as the world changed around them - hell this is the same company that made Sin & Punishment 2 for Christ's sake! A full retail, big budget sequel to their worst selling game of all time and even released it worldwide (hell they even upgraded it for its western release, despite the poor sales in Japan!) and the same company that rescued Bayonetta 2 (a game that stood no chance of making its money back) and even got a definitive version of Bayonetta 1 made alongside it! - All after watching The Wonderful 101 crater spectacularily! Every single time they've had the opportunity to give up and take the easy "safe" route, they never have. And while it's crushing to watch them concede defeat here, I don't think it's a sign that they're gonna give up completely. They're the good guys and I reckon that they always will be. I'll end up sticking with them to the very end

They couldn't make a game like that because the only way it could ever make any money is if they designed it like a free to play game. Nobody would ever pay the full retail price that a game like that would demand - the mobile market simply demands bottom tier pricing. Not to mention that it would never control well either and it would also completely devalue the IP - who would buy a 4DS for a new Pokemon game when they can get the "same" experience on mobile?

But they're not looking to make stuff like that. Pokemon Shuffle is the kind of thing they're going to be aiming at making, not something like Sword and Sorcery. The goal is to gain maximum exposure and to rise to the top of the app charts (as anything else below that is basically invisible). That means lowest common denominator gameplay, maximum psychological manipulation and maximum promotion. It means Candy Crush and Temple Run alikes.

No they can't... Only one type of "game" ever rises to the top and that's the exploitative Skinner box type... Incredibly basic gameplay with no depth (the lacking control methods on offer just offer no scope to create anything with any control depth whatsoever - and the lack of touch screen precision disallows anything like what you saw on the DS like with Kirby Power Paintbrush), but laced with carefully placed imagery and reward schedules to release just the right amount of endorphins to get vulnerable whales to open up their wallets. They're nothing but glorified slot machines in sheep's clothing. Doesn't matter if it's a crappy endless runner or a crappy bejewelled clone, they're all the same

Hearing that Nintendo's developers would be working on those mobile games is just depressing Their staff are already stretched thin as it is... (If it really wasn't going to reduce their "passion" for dedicated hardware/software, they would be ramping up their internal development staff to compensate...) The thought that the likes of Miyamoto, Hideki Konno, Eguichi and Aonuma might end up being reduced to working on mobile crapware just makes me want to cry I also don't see this having the effect that Iwata is saying that they're aiming for. I just can't see someone who might play Mario Endless Runner for free to suddenly go out and spend £200-300 to buy a Nintendo console and the new Mario console/handheld game. It's ultimately just going to satisfy their itch. Quality doesn't matter on mobile - why do you think that every single popular mobile game is free to play? The only things that matters are how well you can exploit human weaknesses and how well you can promote your game. I just see it as the beginning of the end. Quality game design outside of independently developed games has its days numbered This fucking world! Nobody appreciates quality anymore!

Pokemon Shuffle. Take it as it is and shove it on there. The sooner that garbage goes where it belongs the better! (Likewise, Denpa Men Free can go ahead and follow).

Probably mobile. It actually wouldn't be a bad fit, considering how incredibly bare bones and basic the gameplay is (and how well it could be exploited for microtransactions, given the gachapon like mechanics already in place) It's really sad that I have to actually consider that as a legitimate possibility now

That being said, the success of the Touch Generations series hardly stopped them from continuing to make more traditional experiences... Historical precedence would indicate that they're not going to abandon their dedicated hardware/software development at least... The thought of Nintendo's IP getting whored out on mobiles just sickens me though! Fucking parasite!!!

That's the only part of this that gives me a glimmer of hope from this... It makes me think that it's not going to take away too much time from Nintendo's developers if DeNA would be the primary developer, with Nintendo staff just giving development advice and guidance... Still... It still feels like the beginning of the end How long until it swallows up the majority of their development staff?

You do realise that NDCube IS Hudson right? (Most of Hudson's staff left to join ND Cube when Konami shuttered them, so the Wii Party and later Mario Party games were all made by the same staff who worked on the earlier ones...) But what's new here? A Mario Party game comes out and gets slammed in reviews? What a shocker If you're a fan of the series, you know what to expect. The things that the series is lauded for (its heavy focus on luck and friendship breaking mayhem) is exactly what it gets slammed for in reviews :p That being said, the comments about the game being lighter in terms of content than MP9 (from the NWR review) are a bit bothersome to me... Also, only 10 Bowser Party minigames seems like a big letdown. I was hoping for many more but we'll see how it feels in the actual game. Maybe it'll end up working out well enough?

Funny you should say that...

YES!! The best of the Metroid style Castlevania games!! Well, it's a toss up between that and Dawn of Sorrow for me really Wii U VC is on a roll!

Not this week sadly (hope I moved up though!)

Yup, just the title screen alone will have you in stitches. The way the logo comes in with that really pathetic sounding fanfare (it's the really cheap sounding instrumentation that slays me) is just hilarious It doesn't even support S3D at all! (despite the fact that it would've been a big help for the BMS songs. As it is, it's a bit hard to keep track of the note charts....) Otherwise, it's more Theatrhythm. The two demo songs are surprisingly hard though! If that's indicative of the general difficulty of the songs in this game, well... oh my...

http://pic.twitter.com/2F5XsVEZeC Affordable Space Adventures comes out on April 9th! Hooray! April isn't barren after all!

Well now, that's much better than I was expecting (was worried that Q2 would mean July-August...) Still think that they should've aimed for March/April. Now they would've had 3 months of nothing for Wii U, then another 2 months of nothing followed by 2 big releases in the same month :p What? Nintendo of Europe, planning release schedules poorly? Well I never

IN for this Thursday

Hence why I didn't mention it here plus it's inevitably going to start up more moaning about prices of Wii games if we mention it here :p

At long last!!!

Looks like Next Level Games are working on a Wii U title... http://www.gonintendo.com/s/248644-next-level-games-working-on-wii-u-project We are about due to see their next project by now. Come E3 this year, it would've been more than 2 years since Luigi's Mansion 2 came out... Hope it's something new from them, rather than a sequel, but I have to admit that I am itching for a new Mario Strikers