Dcubed

Chance shots are not really overpowered and aren't always the best option to choose at the time. They are also quite easily predictable (using a different shot than the chance one is also a good way to throw someone off!) and a chance shot used against you can be countered by the opposite type of shot upon receiving. I was worried about them too, but I actually quite like them. They're not too powerful and there's quite a bit of nuance in their use! The chance lob shot is a bit overpowered in singles compared to the other shots, but it's not impossible to counter.

Just got Art of Balance Touch. The touch controls work beautifully, perhaps even better than the Wiimote pointer controls! Looks fantastic (rock solid 60FPS in S3D - even with 3D on the bottom screen too, so it's technically rendering 3D graphics at 180FPS!), plays well, tons of content and the new endurance mode is good fun (play through a continous series of stages - see how many you can complete with only 3 tries) Another winner. I loved the Wii Ware game and the 3DS version is even better!

Holy shit! Everybody's Golf Vita, Reality Fighters and Modnation Racers Vita just got reduced to £11.99 on the PSN store! It must be a cockup surely!? That's a bloody amazing price for EG! (I wouldn't imagine it lasting long!) It's currently downloading...

I suspect that it'll see a 3D Classics remake at some point. Considering that it made the SNES' Parallax Scrolling such an integral part of the game's design, with its multilayered dungeons and environments, it's one of THE most obvious choices for a 3D Classics release out of Nintendo's entire 2D catalogue. That being said, it would still be a huge scale remake (the game would have to be remade from scratch, using 2D graphics as textures on 3D polygons after all!) and there's no way that they'd release it at the same kind of price point as past 3DC releases. If it happens, I'd expect it to be around £12-15 on the eShop.

Do note that if you want to turn it off permanently, you have to do it via the Clubhouse option. Doing it via the pause menu will only deactivate it for that match only.

WHITE YOSHI GET! (hold up on the d-pad and press start when selecting your save file to access the QR reader - Just wouldn't be a console style Mario Tennis without a secret menu! ) The Black Yoshi is the one currently being distributed by Asda staff. Still need someone to capture that for us... This one below supposedly unlocks the Yoshi costume, but I can't seem to get it to work (probably because the magazine was bent when the picture was taken). Let me know if you manage to get it working! I get back from work at around 22:30. If you're still there by then, I'll have a few games with you!

Weird, I couldn't see you online at all! Doing a complete taunt without interruption makes your next shot slightly stronger.

Yeah I'm up for a few games! Is it just me or do chance shots appear mostly near to the back of the court? Seems to discourage Net play in favour of Stroke play (Waluigi am cry) I think I actually quite like the chance shots, not nearly as overpowering as I feared and there's quite a bit of strategy involved in using them (the chance shot lob seems pretty bogus though!) Music is epic too! (especially the Tiebreaker and Championship Finals music! - not keen on the game point music though) It's a shame that it doesn't seem to have the wide range of championship victory scenes you got for each character in past MT games. Always loved seeing the scenes you got for each character but in this game, it's really short and not very different for each character (Boo's one is pretty clever though ) BTW the male Mii voice is hilariously gruff and manly

OMGOMGOMG YESYESYES!!! You can run around during celebrations again like in Mario Tennis N64!!! Sooooo happy right now

Damn! Someone need to take a picture of that ASDA QR code! (just pretend that you're lining up the 3DS with MTO, when in actuality you're in the 3DS menu taking a picture!)

Still nothing! Ahh well, at least I got my Mario Tennis Open today (along with a bunch of other retro N64 goodies that I bought off eBay. Happy times! )

WOOT! It's here! Off to hit the greens!

Oh ok, then you're probably just going nuts :p

Did you turn the wireless off maybe? With Wireless turned off, you're looking at a battery life of weeks-months; with Wireless on though, you'll drain it completely within a day.

Come on postie! Don't let me down today! Pretty sweet of Shopto to ship it out early and to have it arrive on my day off too!

LOS2 is supposedly coming to Wii U (as well as all other consoles), with 3DS connectivity to boot!

Tekken 6 shipped around 3.6 million copies and SF4 sold over 3 million. I'd qualify that as "big" BTW, though I'm sure many of you have already seen this, but the entire 8 year business plan for Bungie's new MMOFPS has been leaked (thanks to the courts in the Activision Vs Zampella case) http://documents.latimes.com/bungie-activision-contract/ Long story short: 4 games in the series with 4 expansion packs, all the way up until 2018. The first game is coming to Xbox 360 and 720 in 2013 as a 1 year timed exclusive, following which will see PS3 and PS4 versions. Bungie retain IP ownership and the series is not coming to Wii U in any shape or form So 720 is coming out next year and 3rd party devs are already ignoring the Wii U...

Bam! There goes DMC, off to 2013... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474975 Make that 5 big 3rd party PS360 games left for 2012 now...

Ohohohohoho! There's a second event the day after it seems! Must be a lot to show if it needs its own event!

Sooooo.... that Castlevania Mirror of Faith leak is interesting indeed. Actual proper support from a decent western developer (Mercury Steam) that is not called Wayforward, Renegade Kid, Shinen or 5th Cell!? HOLY SHIT! Maybe Iwata wasn't bluffing after all? If so, who else could we be realistically looking at supporting the 3DS this E3? Edit: e3.nintendo.com is live now and there's quite a little revelation on there! Katsuya Eguchi (head of EAD 2 and director of titles such as Animal Crossing & Starfox 64) is the Wii U hardware producer this time and not Hideki Konno! (the 3DS hardware producer, the head of EAD1 and director of the Mario Kart series) What is going on? Are they leading separate console and handheld hardware teams now?

Was just about to post this! (shakes fist) Another guy mentioned that it has 2D gameplay but uses celshaded 3D polygon graphics. LOS 2 has been rumoured for ages, but it looks like it turned out to be this game instead. Not sure if want... If IGA and the rest of the Japanese CV staff were involved, I'd feel a lot better about this. LOS wasn't bad, but I don't trust Mercury Steam to make a 2D CV on their own. The question also here is what kind of CV will it be? Actionvania or Metroidvania? (Or maybe something completely different!) Update! Looks like it's real! Konami tried to take the original site down, response is here - http://www.n1ntendo.nl/article/38054/1/All/wereldprimeur-artikel-offline-wegens-verzoek-konami They also say that there was a typo in the name; so it's probably called Mirror of Fate rather than Mirror of Faith. Also, apparently a few rumours were swirling around a few days ago about it being a Metroidvania without the levelling up and with Order of Ecclesia style level design (a mix of linear and Metroid style levels). We're supposedly due two CG trailers at E3. One for Mirror of Fate and another for Lords of Shadow 2 (console game) MoF takes place between LOS1 & 2 story wise.

Stereoscopic 3D (The 3D effect) It's less confusing to abbreviate it that way (so you don't get confused about 3D polygons and 3D effects! : peace: ) I hope they let you swap between the new effect and the old (like in SM3DL). The game looked great as it was and it would be sad to see it lost to time!

Yeah me too. I don't see why they feel the need to change it. It's one of the best S3D effects on the platform! It'll be interesting to see what changes... If it's changed for the worse, I could always just delete the update data and play the vanilla version I suppose.

Hmm, that would be an interesting turn of events. SEGA also seem like the kind of publisher that would do something like that. Plus there have been a ton of games that have been delayed from late 2012 to early 2013 recently; Bioshock Infinite, Aliens CM, South Park: The Game, Tomb Raider and seemingly Metal Gear Rising (going by a recently changed Amazon listing http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metal-Gear-Rising-Revengeance-PS3/dp/B006T960GE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337591898&sr=8-1 ) Now there's only 6 big PS360 games left to come out in Q3-4 2012 (Asscreed 3, BLOPS 2, RE6, DOA5, DMC and Tekken Tag Tournament 2). I suppose that GTA 5 is still a possible 2012 release, but I'm not expecting that to hit the Wii U anyway. It's all quite suspicious...

This week's goodies... eShop: Art of Balance TOUCH!, Mighty Switch Force update (5 extra levels, enhanced S3D effect, quick retry option - all for free ) Wii VC: Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo) Good stuff. Didn't expect to see the MSF update so soon!