ShatterShock

@InfiniteGeass said:

Didn't the story of Homefront have something to do with him dying?

For shits and giggles, I went onto GameTrailers to check the Homefront backstory trailer. According to the game's storyline, Kim Jong Il dies in 2012. Depending on how you choose to see it, either the game's storyline has been rubbished less than a year after it was released, or it's happening ahead of schedule!!!

...I choose the former.

I hate the fact that more and more games seem to be designed with DLC pre-planned. I'm sure publishers really want to charge people $80 for today's videogames, but instead of coming clean and throwing themselves to the fires by being upfront, they charge you $60 and then nickel and dime the other $20 out of you. As long as they can use the "you don't NEED it!" argument they get away with it.

*Sigh* On the bright side, this just gives you an incentive to hold off on the title until the price comes down or the GOTY edition comes out.

They really missed their golden opportunity to put this out when the movie came out, but I guess this'll be a decent going away present if the show is really about to end.

I don't know if I'll get this, though. I have Final Fight, X-Men and both TMNTs and my nostalgia goggles for arcade beat-em-ups have been thoroughly destroyed.

@Contro said:

Are you seriously suggesting that you've had comparable gaming experience on iPhone?.

The current aim for developers creating software for 3DS and Vita, in light of developments elsewhere in the industry, is to up the quality and experience, far in excess of what's possible on other handheld devices, which I should add lack conventional control methods and unique features which both these handheld's possess. That's exactly what we're seeing now with this move, but it comes at a price. The game is huge and the quality bar is very high (read the forum), this sadly requires Capcom to use a 4GB cart which comes at considerably more cost to them.

A whole lotta love has gone into this game, and resources, the same cannot be said for the vast majority of throw-away gaming experiences on iPhone.

It doesn't really matter if he had a comparable gaming experience as long as he had a satisfying one.

Enthusiasts desire quality and understand that it comes at a price, but the problem is that they are not the majority of potential handheld gaming customers. For people who just want to whittle away time while waiting at the doctor's office or sitting on the bus, a $1 game that they can download to the phone they already have is a much better solution than a dedicated, $170 handheld and $30-50 games.

Then you have to consider that once you're paying that much money for handheld gaming, it becomes easy to just stick with a console and play on something larger than a 3 1/2 inch screen. Dedicated handhelds are the bridge between smartphones and consoles, and that bridge may be giving out.

Well I guess as long as Microsoft continues to get installments in the series it's not a loss for them.

*Clicks the screenshot on the article, browses some of the game's images*

Either Capcom are technological wizards who have squeezed a power out of the 3DS not even Nintendo realizes it has, or those are some of the most amazing bullshots I've ever seen. Seriously, compare these screenshots to Mario Land 3DS.

Gotta hand it to Microsoft, when I first heard of the Kinect I wrote it off as a desperate attempt to answer the Wiimote using Playstation Eye technology. I was certain it'd be as much a failure as the Playstation Move is turning out to be, but not only did the Kinect revitalize the 360 by biting off a bit of the casual market, it will also continue to make Microsoft money in actual work environments. The boys in Redmond struck gold on this one.

My problem is that I cannot figure out who the target market for the Wii U is supposed to be.

Incoming anecdote: earlier this year, my older sister decided to buy herself a Wii after having played The Michael Jackson Experience over at a friend's house. Her friends actually owned the Kinect version, but she settled on the Wii for the lower overall price. Being the knowledgeable person in the family when it came to games, I got to tag along with her while she went to buy herself a system, Michael Jackson, Wii Fit and some other fitness game that she hasn't even taken the plastic wrap off of to this day. She occasionally played with her new toy for a couple weekends and let the thing collect dust. The last time she told me about it, she just wanted me to set it up so she could use it as a Netflix box.

Do I see her buying a Wii U? Nope. She's perfectly satisfied with her current party/exercise/Netflix box and the allure of better graphics mean nothing to her. This is dangerous to Nintendo, as it is people with her her exact mindset that made the Wii into the success that it was. Nintendo needs a way to make the Wii U into as much of a must-have casual party machine as its predecessor, and I just don't see that Wii U controller stirring the imaginations of the Oprah and Ellen crowd like the Wiimote did.

A major focus of the Wii U is to lure the core, male 18-35, dude-bro set back into Nintendo's fold, but how successful will this tactic be? Will people who have been perfectly satisfied sticking to their 360s, PS3s and/or PCs pick up a Nintendo system just because it's finally in HD? Why would they when Microsoft and Sony will be making them drool with tech demos and sneak peaks at their new hardware? The controller will have some great tricks up its sleeves, but only Nintendo and a few experimental third party titles will put a real focus on it. Most third parties will likely do the bare minimum implementation of the controller's features so they can still smoothly release the title on 360, PS3 and PC, which would further feed the stigma that the Wii U is a half-step to the real next generation.

That just leaves the hardcore Nintendo crowd, the loyal fans who'll follow the plumber barefoot into hell. They'll of course get the Wii U because they get all the Nintendo hardware. Nintendo has shown that they can be successful while being limited to this audience; the Nintendo 64 and the Game Cube ultimately made them money, right? It's just that there's no way that the Wii's success could be replicated or surpassed with such a comparatively tiny audience.

Nintendo did an excellent job outmaneuvering its competition this cycle by pushing new, innovative ideas that appealed to a much greater audience. It goes without doubt that the dual screens and touch control of the DS and the motion based gameplay of the Wii combined with broad appeal, inclusive software is what put Nintendo on top. However I fear that Nintendo is out of get-out-of-jail-free cards and will suffer greatly for it. The recent troubles of the 3DS seem to vindicate this thought.

TL,DR: The glory days of the Wii and DS are over and Nintendo has an uphill battle ahead of them in the coming generation.

"while it’s not the reason most never bothered to explore WiiWare.."

Hell, it was for me. The only games I've ever bought from WiiWare were Castlevania Rebirth and Contra Rebirth, two games I could be 100% confident of enjoying. Everything else just wasn't worth the risk when XBLA allows you to try before you buy.