Dcubed

No mention of multiplayer or transfer pak support though Maybe when MG64 hits the Wii U VC? Edit: Wow! Australia is getting VVVVVV next week (October 4), damn that's late!

That's almost certainly referring to services like NintendoTVii or BBC iPlayer, which would all be IP locked (as all VOD services are) or certain MMO games like Dragon Quest 10 (where the Wii version is IP locked). The vast majority of games however would be perfectly fine. They're probably just covering their arses and playing it safe with the responses. There's absolutely no reason to believe that they'd use one and indeed no reason to use one. It's completely against their own (and their 3rd party publishers') self interests to do so (and also would make internal testing much more difficult!)

Kirby Superstar Ultra had almost no text to speak of (and even had the original full EFIGS SNES version's localisation already done - which was almost the same as the DS version's text barring a few very minor changes) NOE has always treated the series poorly (Mass Attack and Kirby's Return to Dreamland/Kirby's Adventure Wii being the only exceptions) and even now are not releasing the Kirby Anniversary Collection... Why should we just accept their shabby treatment of the series? Why shouldn't we complain? How is it unreasonable to expect a game with almost no text to get released within a year after its US release? This isn't Animal Crossing GCN we're talking about here!

Now they may have very good reasons for instituting region locking and I perfectly understand why they do it, but that does not mean that we shouldn't complain about hefty delays that happen for no good reason (see Persona 4 Arena) I don't expect simultaneous worldwide releases with every game, but having Europe wait 6-12 months after the US (or even vice versa with recent cases!) is inexcusable. There was no good bloody reason for Europe to have to wait a whole year for Kirby Superstar Ultra to get released in the EU, when that same company was perfectly able to release Pokemon B&W, the Zelda titles and even the last two Animal Crossing games at roughly the same time in both regions!! And for those games which would have no chance of a western release and have little Japanese text, why not just allow people to buy them from an import section on the eShop? (like with Deathsmiles 2 on the 360). Hell they already do it with the VC! Region locking in some form is arguably a necessary evil, but that doesn't mean that there aren't better ways of handling the situation and enabling people to buy and play the games that they would otherwise be unable to.

It's not a lock-on. All it does is make it so that the camera swings to face the monster when you press L (instead of swinging to behind your character like it normally does) and yes, it is entirely optional (when using it, double tapping L makes it swing to face behind your character as normal too!) There's a good video explaining it (and the rest of the touchscreen stuff) here: Skip to about 3:15 for the Target Camera stuff Relax, it's not a Zelda style lock-on; not even close.

You're welcome, oh and before you ask, yes it will work on your UK PS3 perfectly fine without issues

It's not a true lock-on (that would destroy the core gameplay that makes Monster Hunter what it is!) but rather it's an option that makes the camera turn to face the monster when you press the icon (or L) instead of turning to behind your character like it normally does. Don't expect a Zelda style lock-on.

That game is getting an EU release. Currently there are no 3DS games that are either coming out or are already released in the US that aren't also coming to the EU (though the EU does currently have One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP1 & 2 as exclusives that the US doesn't have) The game is already available on the US PSN store. You can just make a US account and get it right now (though you will also need to buy a US PSN store card to add funds to your account) For what it's worth, it's a good game in of itself, but doesn't compare to the original at all IMO. Completely criminal that we never got it though (nor the original - but thank God that they released the original SNES version on the VC over here! 16 years late, but we got there in the end! ) That's the thing though, Nintendo are actually pretty good to importers on the sly. They don't do any IP locking of any kind, they have a backdoor way of using foreign credit/debit cards on foreign stores that they've never blocked (even on the 3DS and they're more than away of it being there!) and they actually even already have a dedicated Import section on the VC! They also happily highlight foreign games, console variants and region exclusive products within their own games (Smash Bros), at trade shows and in the Nintendo World store in NY as well. It just seems stupid that they haven't expanded on their efforts. They already sell untranslated import games on their store, why not just expand it to include un-released retail games as well!? Everybody would win in that case!

Oh I thought you had a UK 3DS...

My US Conquest DOES work on my UK 3DS though. It's something to do with JPN systems that is blocked, US-EU cross region seems to be fine though.

Mind you though, there's a good chance that the US/EU version will be region free - if Pokemon B&W and Pokemon Conquest are anything to go by...

Knowing Nintendo, it'll probably just appear on the eShop next week with no warning whatsoever

http://rareminion.com/betas.html Enjoy! (IOnEI Falcon, you're the man! ) Interesting to see that JFG had almost all of it's soundtrack completely dumped when they redesigned Juno, Vela and Lupus! This beta OST sounds very Perfect Dark esc! Also it seems to run a lot smoother than the final version does... Perhaps it really was designed to use the Expansion Pak first and foremost, before support was dropped for some bizzare reason? (That would explain the mistake on the original box!)

It's a pile of crap and I hate it with every fibre of my being, but it's seen as a necessity because it allows publishers to retain rights control across individual regions. Many times you'll find that the same game can have its publishing rights split across different regions (The Mario & Sonic series is a good example, with Nintendo owning publishing rights in Japan and SEGA owning them in the west) and importing just happens to subvert the control that each publisher has... If they're gonna enforce them, the least they could do is work to get as many games released worldwide as possible and enable importers to easily get the games that don't end up coming out in their regions. Hopefully with Nintendo moving over to an account system, they'll allow us to have different regional accounts on a single Wii U that enable us to access the different regional online stores (ALA PS360) Hell, why not offer import games on the eShop that wouldn't otherwise be released at all!? Stuff like Senran Kagura or the Taiko Drum Master games! It's basically free money that they otherwise wouldn't get!

It'll only be on certain stages. Check your list of Dark Notes and see if it's listed as one of the droppable items (It'll only list one of the possible drops though unless you've completed it multiple times, so if it's not listed, you're plum out of luck I'm afraid - you'll just have to make a note the next time you find one!)

Game Freak are working on getting Harmo Knight out in the west! http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/09/24/game-freak-hopes-to-release-harmo-knight-outside-japan Not that I had any doubt that they'd want to see it get released over here. No reason why it shouldn't happen eventually really. Slightly off topic is another interesting quib from that interview... Interesting to see that Nintendo's 2nd party studios are now taking on the Nintendo SPD model of having very small projects being started by a very small group that expands later on (Rhythm Heaven and its team of 5 people is perhaps the best example!) Here's hoping it makes these kinds of projects much more commonplace at Game Freak!

No I know that, but my point is that Microsoft employ the same overarching strategy across all its divisions and that they all work together towards a somewhat shared goal (albeit oftentimes against each other) If Polygon here were being paid off by Sony Pictures or Sony Music, there would be no real issue, since they are effectively a completely different company to Sony Computer Entertainment. However, Microsoft is just Microsoft. It doesn't matter what product was being sponsored here, there is a clear conflict of interest at play here and their credibility (of what little there is in this sector of journalism ) is shattered completely by this scandal.

Regardless, it's a large amount of money from the very company that they're supposedly completely impartial to (not to mention that IE9 is actually on 360 now anyway...) It's all the same company and the same money. Microsoft is not Sony, their divisions actually work together Precisely my point. It's standard fare amongst the big sites. This is just yet another example of it happening (albeit one of the clearest examples I can think of) and at this point I don't trust anyone (haven't read a review on one of these major sites for years) Has anyone seen any examples of Nintendo doing these sorts of dodgy dealings? Given the contempt for them that is held throughout the media at large, I don't really see anything to suggest this to be the case (aside from the strangely universally positive reviews for SMG2 and Skyward Sword - which I'm sure they had to pay for, regardless if the games deserved those scores or not) I do know that they sometimes hand out some cool swag with the review copies of their games, but nothing of any real monetary value or anything suspiciously influential. Certainly nothing like the $800 swag bags that were given away for Halo 3 reviewers who would treat the game favourably, or those free TVs given out by Sony, or EA's blacklisting of reviewers who looked down upon Battlefield 3... http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/3354/article/ea-caught-attempting-to-manipulate-battlefield-3-scores-in-norwegian-press/

Well it looks like Gamestop will be stocking it in the US at least! http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/06/gamestop-interested-in-ouya/ That's a pretty good sign for its future chances

Way to kill off any shred of credibility before your site even officially launched (For those who haven't followed the story - basically this "independent" VG site recently released a wanky documentary about the founding of the site, never mind the fact that it hasn't even fully launched yet... Turns out that the documentary was bankrolled by Microsoft!) https://twitter.com/expdotzine (Arthur Gies is the Reviews editor of Polygon) The sad part is that I'm not even surprised or phased by this sort of thing anymore. Pretty much every major gaming site is nothing more than a puppet for the big publishers and MS/Sony's PR departments

Still haven't picked it up. Haven't had any free time all week! That will be rectified come tomorrow, which will be La Mulana day for me!

That's not the same game as the 3DS one, it's a spinoff. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see an inferior version hit iOS eventually (like what happened with the first game)

They haven't actually announced game and accessory prices yet (in the EU at least) so whatever you see for them will probably be placeholders.

I miss the old YouTube app Don't like the standard Google one. Maps is a disaster, don't like the updated Music app design, App Store takes longer to load... Just about the only good thing about iOS6 so far for me is the updated Safari app. Really nice upgrade all round (full screen is a god send!)

I think this is granting Nintendo an unlimited use license that they can give out to 3rd party devs for free (like with the Autodesk and Havoc tools). Is Unity usually free of charge for commercial releases? (I'm pretty sure the SDK is at least)