TrueMuse

360 Version.

I'm a bassist. I'm taking a different route.

Bass solo by Les Claypool in the live version of Tommy the Cat.

It SHOULD be all Gameboy games. I have one good reason inside my head outside of the fact that the Gameboy handhelds have had so many excellent games to add to the Virtual Console Library:

- Release Mother 3 Stateside

Think about it. Lucas is going to be a playable character in Smash Bros. Brawl. American consumers have absolutely no idea who he is. Given the fact that a lot of Virtual Console releases occur before a Wii game to spur interest (Metroid, for instance) and keep the characters fresh in players minds, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mother series (particularly Earthbound and Mother 3 - Zero is a possibility but a stretch) come out on the VC before Smash is released. Keep in mind that HAL Laboratories is responsible for the Mother games, so I bet they would push for these games to be out anyway.

I think this is very possible... And I also really, really want it to happen.

@softgun

Well-written, and yet I disagree with you on certain levels. Your last paragraph sums up my disagreement well, because I don't think that Halo is indicative of media dilution. I think for a first-person-shooter on a console, the developers at Bungie perform the exact opposite of media dilution. They spend a lot of time and effort in concocting a game that has a particular level of depth that rivals other first-person-shooter offerings on consoles - their direct competitors. Forget the comparisons to computer first-person-shooters - everyone knows that computer fps games are superior. On a basis of comparison between Bungie's offerings and what I believe are the truly diluted offerings on the 360 and other consoles, I believe Bungie does a great job in creating a game the casual mass consumer would have a difficult time in learning and playing.

Is this topic worth arguing? The brand loyalty of the vast majority of the posters on this thread (and usually all threads on this website) is claustrophobic. If Halo was on Nintendo, it would be heralded by Nintendo fans as one of the greatest games in existence. The mere fact that the game is a Microsoft offering, not a Nintendo offering, explains why it is loathed so. Conversely, anti-Nintendo sentiment should be welcomed, not chastised. I feel that the gaming community as a whole has delineations as to what constitutes a good game versus a bad game, and the strata for measurement is simply on the biased basis of branding. We all play games, and we should recognize the good games and the bad games, regardless of what system they're sold on. If gamers were able to break from their narrow brand-loyal peripheries, we'd all be better suited to argue and debate topics such as this, because we would actually know what we're talking about. Miyamoto is a superb game designer, one of the best, without question. If he were to put his time and energy into a violent first-person-shooter, I have no doubt that he'd create something great. Those that don't agree aren't ignorant, but stupid.

Obviously, nearly all of you do not grasp the extent of Nintendo's marketing strategy. Your views are as narrow-minded as Sony and Microsoft; which is completely rational, but explains most of the disdain towards Nintendo.

On the flip side, most pro-Nintendo enthusiasts just like Nintendo because it's Nintendo, which I suppose is rational too, but still misses the point of the extent through which Nintendo will change games.

I forgot to add... The build that I played indeed WAS just one on one. And also, the way the game is designed - most notably as it pertains to the camera system - the game concept seems to indicate that it's going to solely be a one-on-one game. I'm telling you, this game was not fun to play. But like I said, EA had time to change a lot of the bad, so there is still hope. But, unfortunately, a lot of the people that were in the focus group with me thought the formula was really good (morons). All they really cared about was the graphics. Most of the questions pertained to the graphics, as well. And by the way, none of us could figure out how to spin the record to reverse the song. So who knows what EA did with our information.

I played Def Jam Icon a month ago in a focus group. I thought the gameplay completely sucked. The environments interacted way too much with the actual fighting. There were too many unnecessary explosions; one particular level was a gas station, and by the end of the fight, there were far too many things going on to really create a strategy. The explosions would really shake things up when the songs got more intense, but this sometimes translated into both characters getting hit and knocked down for no reason. Most of all, I thought the fighting was too slow. There isn't a running option, so the pace is like a turtle. There also wasn't a health bar, so you didn't know who was winning. A character would just stop getting up, and that was it. The graphics were real good though; the style is very interesting when you see the environment interact in congruence with the song title. Again, EA may have improved on the focus group build dramatically, but I thought it wasn't anything worth buying.

I think the console wars this generation are very compelling, because I believe that the market share distribution will be very, very balanced. I say this because the X-Box has the head start; they have the ability to ensure that they'll be successful this way (10 million total consoles to be in households within the coming months)... On the other hand, Wii has proven to be incredibly successful. Not only does Nintendo have the undying support of their loyal fans, but they now are capturing more and more consumers due to the buzz from the press, and the powerful word-of-mouth that has gotten people excited for the system.

People seem to think that PS3 is this awful mess of a failure that has no chance of recovering. Not true. Sony made a lot of mistakes, but they aren't dead in the water; the reason this is such a big deal is because the supposed-#1 of videogame consoles let its guard down and made it possible for the competition to even the playing field. Don't believe for one second that the PS3 will bomb. It simply now has some legit competition.

In the end, us gamers are the winners. Because of the intense competition which is sure to ensue, all three companies are going to try their damnest to secure the #1 market share, which now is up for grabs. The end result? Better games!

#29. Real clever.

For the rest of you, this shouldn't be news to anyone. This shouldn't be shocking, and I'm surprised that people are making a big deal out of this. People that waited in line for the Wii's launch (such as myself), weren't going to be angry, bitter, and 'evil', considering the fact that we all knew we were going to get a Wii. Us early adopters were excited and upbeat, and wanted other people to be as excited and upbeat as we were. This was November 18th.

Fast forward a month later. December 18th. The biggest fear and nightmare of all parents is to be left empty-handed for their kids on Christmas Day. For most parents, if these stories are true, that reality was setting in their minds, allowing thoughts of jealousy and anger percolate to the point that they lost sight of reason and reverted to desperate measures to rid themselves of their own self-guilt.

These crowds are not happy crowds because they knew it was their last chance. Some of them may have lost out on getting Wiis multiple times before, leading up to sunday. They're most likely sick and tired of trying to find it, and built up frustrations will cause people to act in unfamiliar ways, as was reported.