Shinobi and Crush3D delay3D

@skeldare

Same here.

@skeldare

It´s starting to sound that the 3DS could be the big disappointment of nintendo....unless they pull a good hit and fast....

@(Unverified)
It really doesn't. Basically you're saying it's foolish to have devs make games that can be purchased during the holiday surge. It would be better to wait until after the holidays and release the games during the off season and when the market could possibly be more saturated.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

It just shows that devs/pubs are really not interested in the platform and don't have confidence in it at the moment. They're basically saying that they're going to wait and see how the PS Vita does and go from there.

@Mmmmz

Exactly. It's like making a delicious sandwich in a place where there are no sandwiches and then not selling your sandwich because not enough people are eating sandwiches (because there aren't any!).

@A Sandwich
I'm hungry now. Can I take a bite off of you?

@FriedConsole
Third-parties cry that only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo consoles, so Nintendo holds off on its own games to give third-parties a better chance to succeed. Then people complain that there are no games.

I guess Nintendo is damned if you do, damned if you don't.

@FriedConsole
Nintendo DOES need to rely on third party support in a hardware sense. Third party support makes or breaks a platform. The Wii is an anomaly (but it does have third party support, just not quality third parties) but look at the DS, true third party support and it was massively successful.


The other thing is that yeah, games are lacking at every launch but you have concrete details of what's to come. There really isn't that with the 3DS. It's all, "we would like to release this..." "oh, well that release won't happen for a while" So... is it any wonder people aren't hyped about the 3DS? Doesn't help that the graphics are subpar to average (Use 3D as an excuse but it doesn't change the fact when many don't care for 3D, certainly not many of the off-core gamers from the DS) and that many, many people still don't understand that you can turn off the nauseating 3D.

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

I think it has a lot to do with 3rd party developers releasing lack-luster games at launch for the 3DS. I mean all of these 3rd party developers are making a huge mistake by waiting for the holidays to release their games like Cave Story 3D or Tales of the Abyss.

@Scuffles
Why do people always mention Street Fighter?? Dead or Alive is so much greater to look at! ... no, I didn't mean the chest area.

@Rollins

But the iPod doesn't have buttons! Waaah! (DOWNVOTES FURIOUSLY!)

Seriously though, you're not wrong.

@baby sea tuna
Having owned an ios device for years, the lack of buttons is indeed a problem. Angry birds is one thing, but I have a hard time playing anything that's more like a traditional handheld game.

@Rollins

*waves to downvoters*

I apologize for telling the truth! At least, I assume that's what you're angry at me for, since you haven't taken the time to tell me that I'm wrong or anything.

@Rollins
Oh sigh. Tired troll is tired?

On the vague offchance that you're not a troll, here goes - surprise! I have a phone too. There's nothing wrong with the hardware except the lack of buttons - which is a problem for some genres but not others. The consistent problem is that nearly all the games for phone platforms suck - and yes that includes Angry Birds (which I've played a fair bit).

If you want something to play in five minutes at the bus stop then a phone (or iPod if you're a kid in the US whose parents don't want to fork out for an expensive data contract) is just fine. But if you want an actual game to get engrossed in, 3DS is a much better buy - and a key *reason* it's a better buy is that the games cost much more. Because costing more means they stand a chance of being better games.

Obviously there are lots of 3DS games that suck... well that's putting it strongly, let me rephrase... of the very few 3DS games that even exist, most of them suck. But thanks to online reviews and such you can easily avoid those, and the good 3DS games (currently just Zelda: Ocarina of Time, plus SF4 if you like that kind of thing) are worlds ahead of phone versions.

For those who like games (rather than those who have five minutes to kill at the bus stop - btw these are both perfectly valid markets, the second being rather larger, but as this is a gaming blog I'm going to assume the former is more relevant here) phone games will only start offering serious competition to 3DS and PSV games once they start selling for 3DS and PSV game prices.

Incidentally, I love the 'success of the platform' euphemism. It hasn't failed, but what did they really mean - 'the mediocre performance of the platform'? Or to put it in a polite way that might not offend Nintendo, 'the slower than expected initial takeup of the platform'? Why not say so? Sheesh.

@xxxsam
I have a phone and a 3DS as well. I use them for completely different purposes, so I completely agree with you.

@Rollins
You care about the downvoting???

@Mr Khan
Not always true. I think with an obscure game you are probably right - better to get it out when there's no competition - but for a massive game that will hold its own against competition and get its marketing through anyway, it's surely better to release it at least a year or two into the life of the platform. (To put it another way - they'll release an obscure Pokemon title now but the next 'real' Pokemon game will be later.)

@TwEE

That's about the only way I would buy one now. I'm just waiting until the 3DSLite or whatever comes out before I pick one up and by then there will (hopefully) be some pretty good games out for it.

@TwEE

That and make a 2D Metroid game for it. I would have bought a 3DS for MML3... oh well.

@Ospov

See that is another one of Nintendo's problems.

Everyone and their dog knows how they handle handhelds.
Release the handheld
A year later Release the light version of the handheld
A year after that release the "i" version of the handheld
each time dropping the price/value of the original
etc etc etc....

So people this go round are more than willing to wait them out. Not providing a compelling launch lineup nor any real compelling games on the horizon (the only one that comes to mind being MML3 and that was canceled)

@baby sea tuna
The ps2 games were quite nice, if difficult due to the time limits involved. You can find them fairly cheap used.

I mean... you know, shinobi =P

@CaramelZappa
What's the point in reducing the price now when there are still no games for it? Like, woo, you can pay $50 less to play no games than you could pay last week. Who's that going to tempt? The people who were going to buy it regardless of there being no games yet have already bought it.

They should do the $50 price reduction alongside at least one big game release (and er, preferably before PSV comes out).

My guess is either:

a) they will do a price reduction, but a crappy one ($20 or $30)...

or

b) they won't do a price reduction but will bundle a decent game (Mario Kart or whatever) instead.

@dooms33ker
"Here are some examples of some of these games that really belong on a phone."

I'm following you on pricing structure, but this is where you lost me. Sonic Gen, Rayman 3D, Cave Story, Asphalt, and especially RE Mercs would control terribly with a touchscreen. These are games designed to be played with buttons and joysticks, without them they are handicapped, and if they were on a phone they would not only be worth less, but they wouldn't really be worth playing.

Games like this on touchscreen are in the same range as games on the wii that added motion controls for no good reason. Both touchscreen and motion controls can be great, but they require the game be built from the ground up with those controls in mind. Touchscreen only phones won't ever be able to play most of the games you mentioned nearly as well as a dedicated gaming device.

@CaramelZappa

You are correct in pointing out in the deficiency of pure touch screen controls. The problem is paying $30 extra for the buttons and a mostly half baked 3D effect - sans Ocarina of Time, which is amazing on the 3DS.

The problem is that many developers are now peddling mobile phone games on the 3Ds for full price. Nintendo on the other hand are being far too passive and leaving the big guns at home.

Even Nintendo is jumping in on the quick profit bandwagon. OOT is awsome, but it's a 13 year old game, as is Star Fox and Paper Mario.
Nintendogs and cats was largely a rehash of the original and Animal Crossing will likely not add enough content to truly stand out from City Folk. Kid Icarus and the distant Smash Bros seem to be the few titles that could redeem the system.