booopn

How about some technical under the hood improvements like rollback netcode?

Loved the first game, and looking forward to this one

Super Mario Galaxy - Rosalina's Comet Observatory (or Rosalina in the Observatory 1, 2, 3

I didn't have many expectations for Mario Strikers, but I ended up loving that game. It's so well done with good mechanics, plus it was fun online

@GrailUK I loved Burnout Paradise, one of my favourite racing games all time and played on xbox360 with analog triggers. When I bought the spiritual sequel NFS: Most Wanted on WiiU, I couldn't play the game because of the lack of analog triggers. It was so annoying to play with digital triggers, I didn't feel like I had proper control of the car. Maybe ok in racing, but when you are puttering around in a open world, analog triggers are a must.

Can we confirm that it's a port with added characters (inklings, BOTW link, etc)?

I really think using the phones is an advantage. With large groups, it's way easier to have phones than multiple controllers. You can take the switch to any gathering and have everyone play with minimal equipment needed

Score seems low for what is probably best party game on Switch

Unexpectedly bummed out at the digital shoulder pad buttons. Means no effective racing games (other than mariokart) can exist on the system. I understand it may be hard to implement, but a bit of a bummer.

@Hitman1102 I listed a few I could remember, then said too many to remember and moved on. What were they seriously expecting when they designed that survey?

@acegibbo I wanted to pick yarn yoshi, but it wasn't even on the list

@ThomasBW84 Thanks for the tip about the lists format. That way I see all the posts in chronological order

So for me, if they can bring third party support + quality first party games, that is a good base to work from. That necessitates a x86 architecture which sacrifices backward compatibility unless they do emulation like xbone is doing with the xbox360 games now.

From that base they need to differentiate beyond that. How do they do so?

Controller is the obvious way, which has been successful for them in every single past generation.

Ideally they would also innovate in the online space as well, but considering their track record I wouldn't count on it. I'm betting they will bring something unique to the table (like Mii's did during the wii generation), but hopefully they can come up with even better ideas.

Other x-factors include Amiibo support, handheld hybrid, VR, 4K support, mobile phone integration.

Nintendo became very price sensitive after the gamecube flop. They've made sure to be the lowest price console on the market after that fiasco.

Now they have an even bigger failure in the WiiU. I feel like they have gone too far in the other direction, underpowering their machines too much to make them the cheapest console on the market.

Because of the timing in the release cycle (3 years behind everyone else), they need to come out as the most powerful console or else they will fail from the get go. That's the only way that third parties will even pay attention to the console and consider porting their existing successes.

For region locking, they better drop it. NOA is run by lawyers and they love region locking as that gives them justification for their expertise. Nintendo Japan needs to come down hard on this and just get rid of it. Region locking has no place in the gaming world in this day and age.

I'm all for backward compatibility, but if that means going with a non-PC architecture, that's should be sacrificed. It's way more important that this console has a PC architecture so that it will have strong third party support. Ports need be easy to bring to the NX and the only way that is possible is if it is x86 based.

@horizon I disagree on the pro controller. It's decent, but not the best, I prefer the xbox controller for the following reasons:

Convex thumb pads on analog sticks. Play FPS and my thumb kept on slipping off unintenionally. Bad choice as concave is vastly superior.

Digital triggers. I love the burnout series and playing Need for Speed Most Wanted U was a bad experience solely because of the triggers. I find that racing games really benefit from analog control for throttle/brake and this was impossible with digital triggers.

Otherwise the pro controller was pretty good.

Everyone says the graphics are impressive. How does it compare to say Skyrim on PC with ENB?

Honestly hard to blame EA since WiiU does have a small install base. They are a company, just like another other company, whose purpose is to make money. Can't blame them for that.

I bought Need for Speed Most Wanted U and enjoyed it. It was a good port. What actually held it back from complete enjoyment for me is actually a Nintendo mistake....the triggers are not analog which really takes away from full throttle control in a racing game.

I really hope the NX is powerful and based on the x86 platform. Looking forward to that.

These charts would be probably look different if they weren't supply constrained. This doesn't really tell us what the demand is like.

After completing the game with shovel knight, when you start a new game you can choose between shovel knight or plague knight

Note that the TV button on the gamepad accesses the remote control. Honestly one of the best features of the WiiU which I use all the time.

Weird, I haven't had problems previous to last night, but suddenly I was disconnecting from about 2/3rds of the matches I was in, part way through the match. I don't think it's my problem since I didn't have connection problems previous to last night's session

Also note that traditionally Japan doesn't like gaming in first person view and much prefer the the third person view, so Splatoon is appealing to the Japanese market nicely in that way

9 is a really good score. What I'm worried about is the longevity of the title.
Titanfall was really hyped up with innovative gameplay and new mechanics. I bought it day one and loved it, but now the servers are pretty empty. I really hope this doesn't happen with Splatoon, as it has innovative gameplay and new mechanics as well, but I don't see the signs that it'll have longevity.

It doesn't have that much variety of gameplay loadouts as say the pick10 system in COD. Fewer weapons, maps and gear too. It also only has 20 levels of progression. The matches are only 3 minutes which may lend itself to shorter play sessions and then there's the fact that no voice chat means you can't play the game while also hanging out with friends.

Does anyone know if you can "prestige" in Splatoon?

It can't be a huge release otherwise we'd have heard about it's development already. My guess is something at a smaller scale and I'm hoping it's a Mario Strikers for the WiiU. The Wii game was such a refined game with great mechanics, balance, and fun too.

The store shelf space problem and unknown demand can be solved really easily. Just directly sell them from Nintendo directly and ship them to customers. They can better gauge demand and negate the shelf space problem.

Battle Mode all the way!

Seriously, give us battle mode. i guess baby park is almost battle mode, but not quite. Battle mode is an instant buy for me

I don't have a 3DS yet, is it possible for me to select a 3DS game now and once I buy one, redeem the game?

Has another else noticed that the Super Mario line of Amiibos have considerably less detail than their Smash counterparts? Especially Peach. I'm guessing Nintendo is trying to save on production costs

If they keep their quality and standards as high as Nintendo has in the past, there shouldn't be a problem going onto different platforms. If they don't, then that's going to be a problem

"Nintendo has arguably been slightly behind the curve in the online space". Matthew Herst, that's a complete understatement. Be bolder in your writing - Nintendo is objectively the MOST behind in the online space.

I've been trying to just buy ones I like, but there are several I have never seen IN MY LIFE. These include:

Mega Man
King Dedede
Ike
Rosalina
Shulk
Lucario
Metaknight
Captain Falcon
Pit
Little Mac
Marth
Villager

Of those, I would buy Marth, Little Mac, Shulk, Rosalina, Ike on sight. I only currently own Yoshi, Link, Samus, Sheik and Diddy Kong. I saw a whole bunch of Wii Fit Trainers at a store but decided to not buy it. Curse the scalpers!

Definitely a Wii Remote strap, but the picture attached to this article is of the first version. The one Katy Perry was wearing is the latest version where the clip locks into place. Update the photo!

The bowser one looks exactly like the one from the Mario chess set

Can someone from NL confirm how the controllers will be connected? Will 8 wireless controllers work?

This article seems more like a review than a preview. I'm guessing that there wasn't enough time to finish playing it to rate it? Anyway, I hope this does well and I plan to buy it to support a local game developer. Also because it looks fun.

Maybe Nintendo specifically limited the questions NL could ask, because battle mode omission is a big one and there was no direct question on this. It is only indirectly addressed in the last question and poorly answered.

My most vivid memory on the DS is not being able to connect as my router didn't support the outdated WEP protocol. Things like this are what people mean when they say Nintendo doesn't get online.

On the Wii I had much more success. Brawl was a lagfest and broken whenever I tried it. But I did have much happier memories of Mariokart Wii, improving my times for every single course so that I would be in the top 10 percentile. The best feature was being able to watch the top scorers race and learn the best lines through the course.

My other fondest memory is playing Mario Strikers and improving my game by leaps and bounds when I learned new ways of scoring from other people. That game has such great depth and balance and is criminally underrated for competitive play. Most importantly sharpening my skills online enabled me to learn the skills to win the extremely challenging Striker Cup!

Sad to hear the last major 3rd party is pulling out For the record, I love Ubisoft games and bought ZombiU, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rayman Legends and Assassin's Creed III for WiiU.

I makes me so sad to see Nintendo failing

Great feature as we use it mostly for Netflix, this will make it that much easier to start watching video as soon as possible!

If Nintendo wants the WiiU to be a success they have to design more games that take advantage of the asymmetric nature of the gamepad. Leveraging Nintendo's strength of couch coop helps too. Since Nintendo isn't stepping up the plate I'm happy indie devs are

I backed this project pronto. I hope it reaches the goal, good luck guys.

I've seen physical copies of these games new for cheaper. I think Ubisoft is on board with cheaper pricing, judging by their retail pricing but Nintendo should really get its act together and realize there are competitors like Steam that are way more price competitive in the digital space.

I really enjoyed playing Mario Strikers online, that was also a good implementation. Of course MarioKart was good too, and Super Smash Brawl was horrible.

With the Wii and DS backward compatibility as major selling points of the new system you would think they would keep the servers on longer. This will in no way make current owners upgrade to the new systems as I think it's just a cost thing.

Can Nintendo release the server code to allow users to run servers?

Have they used xbox live before? As a service Xbox Live is way ahead of anything Nintendo is doing and perhaps even what they are proposing. There are no games on xbox live for smart phones, but the ease with which you can buy is certainly really well done

If it's not wearable, then what is it? A Kinect???

@jcags You are right I was just copying what was said earlier in the thread. From the numbers I was able to find WiiU is doing slightly better than Dreamcast did in its first year. Maybe NL can write an article with more thoroughly researched numbers?

I will correct my post

I'm a WiiU owner and happy with it (already have 8 games +), but these sales numbers are truly depressing.

• Black Friday sales must have been low. Probably not going to get much better through December.
• Super Mario 3D didn't help and I thought it would (love it, it's a classic already in my books).
• It's only doing slightly better than Dreamcast, although it should be noted that PS3 had a rough start as well
• I have high hopes for MK8 and Smash, but if Mario 3D can't do it, I have new found doubts

I'm nervous about the future of the WiiU. They are going to have to take drastic action soon it looks like, but I don't know what they can do...

• get rid of touchscreen controller?
• release a x86 based console with more power (on par with xboxone/ps4) in a year or two and support the touchscreen controller as an extra?
• take a massive loss on WiiU hardware?
• Buy Oculus Rift

The third party support is getting to an extreme situation now where even first party games are not enough to sell the system. I'm sad

Time just ran an article from Matt Peckham titled:

10 Reasons I’d Pick the Wii U over the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Today
The (strong and getting stronger) case for Nintendo's flagship console in 2013.

A few inaccuracies in the article but makes a good case for the system.