Dcubed

I would imagine that it's on legal shaky ground when it comes to those assets... The "game" that they've shown is just the same as that cancelled ED2 prototype (the one I hinted at back then...) that they were pitching to Nintendo back in early 2012, with the assets being directly lifted from that same demo (which was made with stolen Activision money and may possibly fall under some sort of claim by Nintendo). That demo they've shown is also probably all they have to show from the game. They probably spent the last year just dealing with the fallout of the Epic lawsuit and possibly porting the game from the UE3 derived SK engine to Cryengine 3. They really think that they can get the game out by the end of 2014 with just 9 staff members (1 lone programmer, 2 art guys, a sound director and the rest being corporate guys/forum moderators and Dyack himself), when they have so little to show after all this time!? LOL!

The fundraiser site is up now, with a 9 minute long "gameplay" (AKA engine) demo... I admit, it looks like it has some promise but... http://www.precursorgames.com/shadowoftheeternals/campaign/terms-of-use/ err... ...yeah...

Pretty much the same as my list. Just add Shovel Knight onto it for good measure I wish I had more GB/GBC games to look forward to, but sadly Nintendo don't want my money

It's the type of game that you play over and over again for high scores though. Nobody complains about Super Mario Bros, Sonic 1, Contra or R-Type for being short, because they're designed to be short, sweet and replayable...

Nano Assault on 3DS (that's the one you're thinking of) was a retail release in the US and Japan, but got a worldwide enhanced eShop re-release with extra content & better graphics in the form of Nano Assault EX. Nano Assault Neo is a Wii U eShop only sequel to the 3DS game. Oh and I agree with you about Cloudberry Kingdom. Don't like the look of it at all.

Mega Man 5 is also supposedly due this month

Meh week for Wii U... At least there the US versions I guess Nice to see that the NeoGeo Wii VC games are still coming though (hopefully there's still a chance for us to get Twinkle Star Sprites and Money Idol Exchanger! )

Good week for 3DS Will get Damrey and M&DK

Come on Demon's Crest!

For the most part, I feel nothing but pessimism. The industry (or at least the tradidional side of it) is set on a path of destruction and the concept of "gameplay" is getting shown the door as most "core" orientated retail games are becoming nothing more than quasi interactive movies that either play themselves or feature such little player agency that they might as well do so. "AAA" gaming as the industry refers to it is dead to me. I couldn't give a toss about most big budget titles (barring a few exceptions like Nintendo and Platinum's output - as well as the occasional Capcom game, when the corporate suits aren't messing up everything of course...). Same shit, new shiny coat of paint The loss of the "mid-tier" game was the worst thing to happen to the industry. No longer do creative gems like Katamari Demacy have a place on our shelves now (and no, XBLA/PSN is not a viable substitute as downward pressure on prices has forced them to slash their budgets to compensate) Speaking of which, that's another thing that has been destroyed by the rise of the "AAA" game. XBLA & PSN started off as a real save haven for indie developers; a brave new frontier for them. Fast forward to today and it is now largely the playground of the established publishers and the "B tier" titles that might otherwise have been released at retail. As a result, indie devs have completely given up on XBLA (and to a lesser extent PSN) - forced to go PC only (though thankfully Nintendo's own eShop seems to have not fallen to the same fate and is actually looking to be a popular choice with indie devs, so that's a good sign at least ) In terms of the long-term health of the industry, again I feel reason to be pessimistic. Wii U has flopped out of the gates, Vita was DOA and the PS4 and Durango are set to be high priced consoles (probably $500 ish) in a weak economy, that are going up against their established predecessors that; largely offering the same games and experiences. The difference in graphics isn't even that noticeable for the average joe and neither console really seems to be breaking much new ground, so why bother upgrading when they don't offer anything new? It's not like the next COD, GTA or FiFa is exclusive to them. And it becomes all the fouler when you consider the implications of the Durango being always online. It's actively destructive to the historical archiving of games as they will all become coasters when the servers get shut offline. It's tantamount to book burning! (and I'm sure that a good chunk of PS4 games will also suffer the same fate at the publishers' request - for the sake of "parity" ) Perhaps that's what this industry needs though? A good crash and a swift kick up the arse!

That still amazes me. How on earth did they manage to squeeze down MGS2 and MGS3 into just 3GBish, without any noticeable reduction in audio or video quality!? Hell MGS3 on its own on PS2 and 3DS is over 3GB!

Good. I couldn't afford them yet anyway, so this gives me time to save up!

As much as I'd hate to give Kotaku clicks, it's a genuinely fantastic article and a real eye opener... http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny Basically he stole Activision's money and pulled the wool over theirs and SEGA's eyes, much like how Randy Pitchfork/Gearbox screwed over SEGA with Aliens Colonial Marines (yeah, SEGA's been getting ridden doggy style from their partners in recent years )

Would be amazing to see Retro's take on ED, but as great as they are, they're not the original team of writers and the writing is a big part of what made the original ED so good... (Let's at least give the Dyack/SK of 2002 a bit of credit here) TBH, I'd still rather see Retro work on something original if they don't have ED's team of writers to hand. The whole thing just smacks of Tear Ring Saga, only that it's even worse since that they're actually using assets from a cancelled ED2 prototype. While the former got away with being Fire Emblem in all but name (after Enterbrain payed a 76 million yen settlement to Nintendo), I'm not so sure if Dyack will be so lucky (never mind the assets, but there's also the not so small matter of Nintendo having a patent on the game's defining gameplay concept...) With it being an "exclusive scoop" from IGN of all places, I wouldn't be surprised

That's exactly it. Nintendo outright own the ED IP and everything associated with it.

Pretty ballsy move from Dyack there. Taking their cancelled ED2 prototype, made with Activision's Xmen money, pitching it as an actual (not even implied!) sequel to the original ED, while also looking for crowd funding (even after we all found out how they mishandled Xmen Destiny) and blatently defying Nintendo's famous patent over the sanity effect system (that's sure to end well...) All that and they're asking for 1.5 million JUST for the first episode? That's a hell of an uphill battle that he's got there! I don't even think I want it, especially not without Nintendo's guiding hand in place. The Dyack/SK of 2001-2 is not the Dyack/Precursor Games of 2013... Not just that, but this trailer literally just reuses assets from the cancelled prototype that SK created. This whole thing feels scummy and fishy. It's a blatent cash-in and even if they had the cash and personnel to make the game (with Dyack relegated to being a writer and no more), it would still lack Nintendo's influence. They were the ones who came up with the original game's combat and targetting system, Magick creation system and rock-paper-scissors 3 way magical rune system. That's a lot of core game mechanics that came from the Nintendo side, rather than SK and those were much better times for SK too! Frankly I wouldn't trust SK with the game at all, let alone "the ashes of Silicon Knights" (and especially not with Dyack at the helm). He's this industry's George Lucas.

Only a couple of staff members from Brownie Brown were involved, not really many at all. You're right about staff members being able to move around freely within EAD (though rarely do members swap between Kyoto and Tokyo for obvious geographic reasons) but it seems that one team has been larger than the other at any one given time. They've been hiring quite a bit recently, but I would imagine that this has remained the same (with one large team working on the Wii U Mario, while the others were working on SM3DL and later Flipnote Studio 3D and that Mario AR Photo app) Don't forget also that SMG2 was also finished for quite a while before it was released, but was held back for strategic purposes (to cover up the Wii release gap and generate a decently large release gap between NSMB Wii and SMG2)

3D Land wasn't made by the same team as SMG2 and started development before SMG2 was released. It was Mario Kart 7 that was rushed out for the holidays (by Nintendo's own admittance in the Iwata Asks - hence why they needed Retro's help), not SM3DL.

For those worried about this game being "rushed", do remember that EAD Tokyo is a two team studio, whose last games came out in 2010 (Super Mario Galaxy 2) and 2011 (SM3DL), so this game has had plenty of development time. Also, DKCR got the same release treatment. Announced at E3 2010, released at the end of that same year.

Mid November and not a day before.

Gamepad controls are fine, you don't need anything else I would recommend skipping the demo though. It doesn't accommodate newcomers whatsoever and explains nothing about the game. The full game on the other hand does a good job of easing you in. Best to just jump in blind

In terms of retail, I'd go with Nintendo Land, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Sonic Racing Transformed and ZombiU (in that order). eShop wise, go with Nano Assault Neo, Bit Trip Runner 2 and Toki Tori 2 (also consider Little Inferno, if quirky non-gamey games are your kind of thing). Virtual Console wise, get everything on there that you don't otherwise own (except for Pacman, there are much better versions than the NES one out there). Just a word of warning though. MH3U is a massive game that will keep you hooked for hundreds of hours, but it is complex and requires patience & dedication. It's not immediately accessible like Nintendo Land (hence why I suggested that first).

TBH, the US version is probably more provocative than the JPN one There wasn't... Until this game. It's not that bad in FEA, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that what is there is a bit uncomfortable for me as a long-time fan...

Yup, we're not getting much sleep around E3 Still, it's not the same without Nintendo having a conference there Sure it'll be exciting to see two new consoles shown off there, but it still feels as if there's a big void where something should be...

Goddammit! Knew it was too good to be true Oh and fuck you Kadokawa Games! You've screwed everything up here! You would think that Nintendo would step in here and get the game ported to Wii U. Goodness knows that they could do with the support...