Dcubed

Good to see SEGA finally jump into the Wii U VC! Hope that they get M2 working on more SEGA console VC games soonish too... I haven't forgotten that picture of the Saturn sitting next to a Wii U devkit from M2's offices...

Great review! : peace: They really went above and beyond with this one!

Mappy Land and Blaster Master this week Both are US 60hz versions.

Looks like we're probably not getting the release list today because they did that stupid, pointless New3DS specific one. Probably tomorrow then...

Not surprising that they would get turned down. Could you imagine the JK Rowling estate allowing the games to be platform exclusive? Not a chance. Still, NST would've been a good fit for those games... But it also would've meant that none of the Mario VS DK games would've been made, nor Wave Race Blue Storm, or 1080 Avalanche, or any of NST's other works (not to mention their middleware development or even possibly the N64 emulators for GCN and Wii) In the long run, Nintendo won out because the games were still available on their platforms (and generally sold at least as well as on any other console) anyway and they didn't need to use up an internal studio to get them.

If you pair it with a Bluetooth USB adapter, I don't see why not :awesome:

Anyone else here planning on using their Pokemon Typing Adventure keyboard with this game? :p

I've moved up!! WOO! IN this week! I'm clearly on a roll!

Because it's a 3DS game first and foremost? Also 3D adds a lot more than HD does in this case... Just a shame that I have to wait until next week to get the game

Yeah, got that email too. It's nice that they're retroactively including people who bought the Ambassador edition New3DS, they really didn't have to Will probably end up buying it from there now (so it clearly worked on me )

You didn't read what I wrote obviously. I don't value the PS1's library as highly as the ones on the VC, so for those games, the PS3's emulation (note, not Vita - which is considerably worse) is good enough. It's far from ideal, but the problems that those games have are relatively minor - certainly I've never had a game crash on me or get completely garbled like on Vita. Most problems are minor graphical or audio artefacts (it was worse when it first started, with some games like FF5 not even saving properly, but thankfully is at a decent state now) that can usually be worked around when they crop up. But yeah, obviously you're just looking for a fight and don't actually want any reasoned discussion, so I'm ending it here. If you're lucky, I might send you a picture or two of my collection when I get home though if I can bothered though

Well that's the point I was making. For people like you, who fit closer within Sony's target audience, it's "good enough". For people who value what the VC stands for though? Absolutely not! If the VC games started having issues like that? I would be utterly livid! I would just not buy games from there anymore because I highly value the quality of the emulation on there and I am far from alone. I sold that Zelda Collectors Edition disc, despite being a big Zelda fan, because the emulation quality was gobshite. For my PS1 game collection though? The PS3 emulation quality is generally good enough because I don't generally value those games as highly as the ones available on the VC (and when there's a game that is available on both the VC or PSN/XBLA, like Monster World 4, I will always pick the VC version - even if it's more expensive, because the emulation quality is just better there). I would not consider Vita's emulation good enough mind you as it's generally not up to par with the PS3, let alone the VC. So yeah. I value emulation quality highly and so do a big chunk of the VC's target audience. It's two different styles of emulation for two different audiences.

It's a known problem, happens randomly (activating fast disc loading makes it more likely to occur). It's a problem that has been there ever since they added support for PS1 games on Vita and has persisted with every single system update since then (yes I have tried re-installing it many times). Runs much better on PS3 mind you - though not without some minor graphical issues here and there. FF9 has some slowdown issues on PS3 and PSP (particularly when using certain spells like Fira - even the music slows down along with the game!) I can't remember if they persist on Vita mind you. Agreed on all accounts. The input lag also makes Um Jammer Lammy a real chore to play on PS3 as well And the Majora's Mask emulation on the GCN collectors disc was horrible! (Well, what do you expect for a freebie I suppose ) I sold the collection the second that MM came out on the US Wii Virtual Console (which thankfully was a billion times better! Runs, looks and sounds perfect! ) Yeah true. I get that they're trying to emulate the bluring effect that CRTs used to produce on the game visuals, but they just go overboard on the NES games. The SNES filter is much more subtle and does a much nicer job! (and the GBA one is simply amazing!)

Those "problems" are actually accurate. That's how it runs on actual NES hardware. Some people never noticed the "border" because their TV would cut it off due to overscan. That "border" is actually the NES hardware manually drawing each vertical line of the game field to simulate scrolling (because the NES hardware wasn't really capable of scrolling in multiple directions normally). Likewise, slowdown is replicated faithfully (I still own a NES and an original cart of SMB3, so I would know...) Unless you own over 50 downloadable PS1 games via PSN, you'd be dead wrong. It's serviceable for the audience that Sony targets (more on that later), but I would absolutley not describe it as "great". I recently leant my Vita to @Glen\-i (and he will back me up on this), he was playing through FF7 and he had to stop playing on there because the emulation was riddled with problems - garbled graphics, dodgy sound, flickering target icons that went crazy and all sorts. He gave up and played it on my PS3 instead (which is better in general, but still problematic - I could list all sorts of issues I've noticed with various games, like nasty broken audio in Silent Hill, slowdown and graphical glitches in FF9 etc). You also seem to lack reading comprehension. I never said that PS1 games were undesirable (hell, I myself as a person supposedly "firmly in the Nintendo camp" alone am proof of that!), but rather that the emulation quality is a big part of what makes the VC in particular desirable. People who are into the PS1 downloads don't really seem to care much about emulation quality really. They care more about the price and the ability to play a few old favourites on all of their modern devices. For this audience, the emulation quality that Sony offers is "good enough" - after all, nostalgia doesn't play nearly as big a role with Sony's consoles as it does with Nintendo's - so naturally it doesn't really matter all that much. The even lower quality of their PS2 emulation (which I find utterly unacceptable and have refused to purchase a single PS2 Classic because of it) and the reliance on PSNow as a means of getting PS3 games working on PS4 is even further proof that their priorities (and their audience's priorities) simply lie elsewhere. Nintendo however value high quality emulation/native compatibility above all else and so does their audience. The price of their VC games also reflects the worksmanship that goes into each release; they simply can't offer their VC games for as low a price as Sony's because they put much more R&D work/QA testing into each individual release. You only need look at the Miiverse posts for these games and you'll see how many people on there talk about how happy they are about how certain glitches in games still work properly (screenshots showcasing old glitches in general are always really popular in VC game communities), or how they really like certain special effects in old games that are replicated correctly in their VC release, or how important 60hz support is (and while I'm at it, the fact that so many people are raving about Suikoden 1 & 2 being made available in Europe is also proof that people who buy PS1 classics just don't care about things like 60hz support, especially when these games have been available on the US PSN store for some time now...) With their next console however, they should be able to offer the same level of cross-console compatibility without compromising on that emulation/native playback quality, because of their decision to go with Wii U based hardware. That is a good thing! It's the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned! It's just a matter of two different ideologies serving two different audiences. Simple as Edit: And while I'm at it, the accuracy of the VC emulation is what allows NES Remix to work. The game is entirely based on exploiting the little intricacies, exploits, timings and minor aspects that made these games what they are originally. If the emulation was inaccurate, the game would simply fall apart.

Now that the VC games have been made though, there's no way to change it now other than to go back in and re-code them to work with different IOSs, at which point, you might as well just remake the thing for Wii U natively (which they did) With the next console however, that won't be necessary (and thus, no need to charge for the associated labour costs...) I'm not disagreeing with him. It's good that they offer that cross console compatibility, but it comes with a lot of downsides regarding emulation quality; that's the point I'm making. Nintendo's solution however will allow for perfect quality emulation across multiple platforms (on-going support for even further into the future too!) with no per-game work required. It's not about taking potshots, it's about stating facts. There are two different emulation methods being used here and that's the reason why Nintendo can't currently offer what Sony do without compromising on the quality that makes the VC desirable. Despite what it might look like on the outside, Nintendo's methods at work here are actually pretty forward thinking...

I know, but I like to give it anyway because speculating about future hardware is great fun!

Resolution isn't the Gamepad's main issue. They're limited by what video quality they can realistically beam wirelessly at good quality with zero latency. WiFi tech hasn't moved on much since 2011/2012. They're already using a 5ghz chip, so there isn't much room to grow next time round unless there's a sudden breakthrough in wireless tech by the time the next console comes around. You'll get a much more appreciateable improvement in image quality if you invest more bandwidth into the bit-rate than if you chuck more pixels at it (doing the latter wouldn't improve image quality by much, would increase the cost of the Gamepad and also increase the strain on the next console's GPU too - thus lowering graphical quality in general). I reckon that they're better off focusing on things like improving the Gamepad's wireless range, the quality of the video stream, support for additional features like S3D (important if they want 3DS backwards compatibility and support for using the next handheld as a substitute Gamepad for multiplayer) and support for 4 displays instead of just 2. All things that would greatly improve the overall experience of using the console, without greatly increasing the cost of the machine. Since when did I have to pay a fee to play my Wii VC games in Wii Mode? You're talking nonsense. Wii U VC games are seperate products from Wii VC games and you know that full well. True, but the quality is far from what you get on the VC. Also, certain games do not work on PSP and Vita (and let's not even mention the whole PSP game/DLC situation - also, how about them PS2 and PS3 downloads on PS4 eh?) Yeah, because you're supposed to slot your GBA carts into a non-existent slot... How about that UMD slot on that Vita! I love being able to not play my physical PSP games on my Vita ya know! They already have GBA emulation up and running now on Wii U. There's no need to stick with the native functions when VC emulation allows them to do so much more now. Those functions only work on a game by game basis, they're not system wide - that's the problem. You can't get those functions working with individual games without going into each game's code base and remaking it - which is far too much work for each and every single Wii VC game - and still limited by what the Wii hardware is capable of - while also not allowing them to utilise more modern hardware features. When Iwata himself has said that they want to build off the Wii U's hardware architecture? Of course I do! Why else would they want to build off of the Wii U's hardware!? And x86 is hardly "modern", hell it's older than Power PC! They're more likely to move over to ARM than x86 - at least then they could build off of their 3DS tech. Suggesting that they dump everything to start from scratch and chase the PS4/Xbone audience is absolute nonsense. They've already made their future direction clear - a unified OS, with hardware based on the Wii U architecture, that runs the same underlying code (and thus, featuring full BC with everything out of the box from day 1) They would literally be able to launch their next console and handheld with hundreds (if not, possibly even thousands) of high quality games available from day 1, all at very affordable prices (which in this age of heavily price conscious consumers, is a HUGE selling point!), all using controllers that you already own!

Of course it will! It wouldn't be able to play Wii U games otherwise; and backwards compatibility is going to be a huge selling point for the new console/handheld/NintendOS altogether! If they weren't planning on having one with their next console, they wouldn't be doubling down on it with Wii U like they are now. The reason why they're continuing to invest so much into it, despite the low hardware sales, is because it's an investment into their future. All signs point to their R&D going in this direction with their planned unified OS ecosystem. Full BC with every single Nintendo console/handheld and peripheral post N64 era out of the box from day 1 will be a massive selling point! The barrier to entry will be low and the past games (which will be new to a large chunk of their potential audience) will be cheap, with no huge costs associated with getting any of it working for Nintendo - making it affordable and viable for them to do as well! All of their existing controllers will also continue to find new uses as well. You'll still be using your Wii U Pro Controllers, Gamepad, Wii Remote/Nunchuck/GCN controller and even possibly your DK Bongo Drums with the next console and onwards! (No need to buy new controllers also acts to lower the barrier to entry for consumers and continue to allow Nintendo to leverage their myriad of USPs that they've developed over the years )

Of course it will. With the Wii VC, they were stuck with a myriad of limitations that meant that they couldn't have the features that they wanted with them. They could run on the Wii U, but there was no way to run them off USB storage, nor was there a way to add things like Miiverse support, Off TV play, Wii U Pro Controller/Gamepad support or the much requested save state or custom button mapping features. The Wii never had an OS running in the background that could abstract things like USB storage handling and such - it all had to be hard coded into the games themselves (and USB homebrew methods don't work properly with VC or Wii Ware games - so the methods that they use for Wii Disc games on Wii U almost certainly wouldn't work for Wii VC games). That's why they have to run in Wii mode, and why they have to go in and manually upgrade each and every single game's individual VC emulator for their Wii U release. With the Wii U VC however, things are different. Because there's an OS in the background that abstracts all of these hardware features like USB storage, screenshots, game suspension, Miiverse and such - getting these games to work on a future console in the way that you would expect is much easier now, because the OS that's inside the future Nintendo hardware should just be able to substitute for the Wii U's OS and handle all that stuff natively. If they are indeed planning on having the next console/handheld run on a superset of the Wii U's hardware architecture, then all Wii U VC (and Wii/GCN downloads) should just run perfectly out of the box from day 1! I also fully expect the next Nintendo handheld to feature a screen that is the exact same resolution as the Wii U Gamepad (albiet at a smaller size) for this very reason. It would mean that it would be fully equipped to run and display all NES/SNES/GB/GBC/GBA/N64/DS/GCN/Wii and possibly 3DS (depending on how they manage to pull off BC with that machine - the Gamepad's resolution does just happen to be exactly the perfect vertical resolution to display both top and bottom screens 1:1 when stacked vertically, or seperately with a 2x upscale ) right out of the box! It would also be the perfect resolution to act as a Wii U Gamepad itself as well, with no per-game programming/reformatting required! None of that is just a happy accident I'm sure. They know what they're doing here... (and even if for some crazy reason the next console supported 4K output, they still wouldn't have to reformat anything because 720p and 1080p both happen to scale perfectly to 4K as well!) Speaking of the Gamepad... I reckon that with the next console they actually won't increase the resolution of its screen. Instead they will focus on improving the quality of the video stream itself (higher bit-rate), support for full 854x480 x2 for an S3D display (I'm betting that it'll have the same kind of dynamic parallax screen as what's in the New3DS - and what will be in the next handheld) and support for up to 4 displays rather than just 2 (hopefully all running at 60FPS for all four displays instead of the 60FPS X1/30FPS x2 that the Wii U currently maxes out at). The next handheld will also double as a Gamepad substitute, not because the console won't come with one, but for those people who refuse to buy multiple Gamepads for multiplayer games that would require more than one.

I'd trust Nintendo with forward compatibility much more than MS or Sony mind you... After all, they have a perfect track record thus far - unlike MS (who have never maintained any sort of backwards compatibility with digital content - they dumped compatibility for the original Xbox's DL content and now again with the 360) and Sony (who gave partial compatibility with the Vita where some of your PSP games worked, no DLC for the games that did work mind you, and that's it) And with the next systems supposedly being built around the Wii U's hardware architecture, I don't doubt that backwards compatibility will be a big priority for them (after all, why else do you think that they're investing so much into the Wii U's VC services and why do you think they're working to take heavy advantage of the fact that the Wii U can play Wii & GCN games natively? )

That reminds me, I still need to pick up that book!

Hey @Glen\-i! It's your music this week!

I think what they actually mean is that you can buy it with a Russian NNID and then play it under any other account. It's not going to show up in your UK NNID's purchase history because it's a different account being used to purchase it. It's just like how it works on PS3. Any account on the machine can be used to play a downloaded game, but that purchase is still tied to the one NNID used to make the purchase. Personally I'm not gonna bother taking advantage because I want to keep all of my purchases on the one account - I can foresee it being a problem later on down the line if you've used multiple accounts to make purchases when they do cross platform discounts and transfers in the future...

Not gonna watch it (I've seen enough now). I'm just hoping for a release date... Oh and for those people complaining about the doll like faces, have you ever considered the possibility that it has been done on purpose? You do realise that everyone pilots a mech called a "Doll" right? Perhaps there's a story reason why all the humans seem to also look like dolls... (or it could just be artistic license, channelling that Gerry Anderson vibe that Redshell mentioned earlier :p)