Thanks, guys. I can't wait!

If you haven't noticed, I've been very inactive on the forums for the past couple of months. It's because I've been hardcore job hunting, while taking many minimum wage jobs on the side. However...

I just accepted a full time job position--in my field (Professional Writing)--and it's local! The official title is "Web Content Writer," so I'll be doing a lot of blogging, social media updates, writing articles for their website, creating key words for various search engines, coding in HTML, as well as other writing duties. I start next Monday. SQUEE!

in my opinion, yes. The game is so tedious and boring, that it's a chore to actually play the game. I would watch some walkthroughs on YouTube so see if it's something you're interested in. I completely agree with LM, though. Other Paper Mario games (even Super Paper Mario, which wasn't really a Paper Mario game, but was pretty good in its own right) were hard to put down. I actually wanted to continue to play them. If I could never play Sticker Star again, that would be perfectly fine.

The biggest problem I have with the game is its story progression. Sometimes, the story requires a special sticker in order to progress the plot. That would be fine if the stickers were found in the natural story progression. However, many times it requires backtracking to a level previously cleared to find the hidden sticker. The game gives no clear indication on where to find the sticker in question, so many times the best option would be to go to every cleared individual level and hope that the sticker is hidden in that level--or just use a game guide. There's a difference between being hand holding and overly helpful (Skyward Sword), and not giving you any clear indication on what the fuck to do (Sticker Star). I wish the game had a balance between allowing gamers to explore the world, while at the same time giving them an indication on where to go next.

If you want something like the original or The Thousand Year Door, you've bought the wrong game. Outside of the turn based mechanics, Sticker Star has removed all RPG elements out of the game. There's no party members, no experience points, no character progression, the story progression is confusing and terrible, and the story is horrendous. While I agree that most Mario games do not need a deep story, this isn't just some Mario game. It's a game that's almost entirely based around the story, the characters, the dialog, and the RPG gameplay. The game has removed almost all the staples that are great from the Paper Mario series. What we're left with is a boring, tedious mess of a game.

Since we don't have a dedicated thread to the Wii U, I thought I would start one. However, I'm running a little short on time, so I'll keep this thread brief, while adding some early impressions I wrote for the Wii U a few days ago.

"(Regarding the system update) The system update was as bad as everyone said it was. 40 minutes of downloading on a relatively fast connection, plus a 20 minute install.

The Wii U game pad is very light. I haven't had any discomfort playing New Super Mario Bros. U, though Nintendo Land is an entirely different story.

Overscan is problematic with my TV, which doesn't have an auto fit option. What's funny is you can actually adjust the borders on your TV on Miiverse, but you can't on any other applications. What the hell, Nintendo?! Patch this, ASAP!

Miiverse is actually really cool. I'm having a lot of fun posting messages, "yeahing" comments, following people, etc. I hope they will add a Wii U channel group for discussing the Wii U system, hardware, OS, etc, in the future.

Load times are slow, yes. But I haven't had any 30 second load times like some users have been saying. The most it's been for me is 10-15 seconds. However, it's between 5-10 seconds most of the time.

I really wish you had the option of turning off the game pad screen when you're primarily playing on the TV. It ould save the battery life tremendously, which is about the same as a 3DS of PS Vita (AKA, not good at all). You can turn the screen off, yes, but as soon as you begin using the game pad, it automatically turns back on. I usually keep my screen at the lowest brightness when primarily playing on a TV.

I already knew that there would be no multitouch, but after using it for awhile, I was really starting to miss it, especially when using the internet browser. The single touch zoom isn't terrible, but I would have preferred a capacitive touch screen with no stylus over a resistive touch screen with the option for both.

Gamewise, New Super Mario Bros. U is pretty fun. Yes, it's more of the same, but it's good at what it does. I haven't spent as much time with Nintendo Land, so I can't comment too much. I will say that some of the minigames are boring with one player. I'll try it later when I have friends over to see how it fares in a party environment. The same goes for New Super Mario Bros. U."

Since then, I've played Nintendo Land quite a bit. It's OK with friends, but it's so boring with only one player. Why the game didn't include online multiplayer, I'll never know.

I also finished up New Super Mario Bros. U. While not original, it's a really fun game. Some levels were better than others, however. Multiplayer is good. 2 players is actually preferred, while any more than that it's nearly impossible to play. Some levels are almost impossible to play with more than one person.



Anyway, that's all I have time to write. My gamertag is 'RoboFrogMage,' so add me if you have a Wii U. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

I want to get it for Christmas. I hear it's a great Zelda 2 clone.

It looks like a prequel to Dark Souls. If you've read much of the lore and compared it to the trailer, that seems like the most obvious answer. There are dragons in the game, opposed to drakes, so it would probably be before the time that Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own kind.

Since it was all CGI, nothing is known about how the game will play. However, I'll willing to bet it will be similar to Demon's/Dark Souls, with some tweaks here and there.

I wonder if Wii U gamers will get a chance to die? I certainty hope so. This series needs to be played by all.

Holy dust-magnet, Batman! ...I don't even...

I hope European gamers protest the hell out of this. It's absolutely mental!

http://www.gamespot....-report-6401246

What the hell, Nintendo of Europe?! That's why there are parental controls built into the console! And you wonder why most core gamers don't take you seriously.

If this happens in America, it's going to be war.

There you go!

Definitely a step into the year 2005. Good for Nintendo purists who have been deprived of modern gaming standards.

Most of it I agree with. However, I still play a lot of DDR, so I'm a little biased. I also enjoy Halo's multiplayer, so I'm pretty excited for 4.

For a minute, I thought the topic was about Valve Anti Cheat. lulz

Welcome back, Robo!

The only thing that really caught my eye was They Might Be Giants. I'm honestly a CD type of guy (I love to have tangible media, though I'll buy digital if I can get it dirt cheap), so I'll pass.

The only problem I had with Sunshine was the lack of diversity in the stages. Otherwise, I really enjoyed FLUDD and the other aspects of the game. I wouldn't mind seeing another one.

Pixel Grater is a satire website. Learn to read, people.

Happy birthday, Oddish!

Nah, his topic's just trippin' out on LSD and Ecstasy.

If this "program" you're totally not seeking beta testers for blows up my phone, I'm setting fire to your bombshed! (and running far way for the fireworks)

iPhone 4, because I'm a hipster douche.

Most of ST is in dungeons. IIRC all the stuff outside of dungeons consists of driving around in your little train. There aren't really any large 'on-foot' quests. I didn't mind the train stuff but I can see why it can get frustrating. Temple of the Ocean King was ok...only part I didn't like was having to do previous 5 levels again with new items to get better times because your sand ran out. Oh, and the final boss fight which either had crappy drawing detection or was just glitched. I could not get that shape drawing to work right 99% of the time.

There's only like 5 dungeons and one repeated dungeon in the 20-30 hour adventure. Most of the time is spent on the train, which I really didn't like. I thought PH's sailing was OK, since there was actually some stuff to see, but the "overworld" in ST was barebones. There's some really annoying fetch quests in ST (go get this timber from all the way across the map, while making sure your rider's happy) and tons of other filler. Still, I thought it was better than PH, mainly due to the superior dungeon design.

Crappy dated hardware? Maybe if you like good specs but otherwise I'd say for the majority of people it's quite alright. Most Wii games didn't look that good, sure, but the Mario Galaxy's and co are still impressive IMHO. Probably mostly due to art, but that's part of the other systems visuals too.

I'm not just talking about graphics. For the 3DS, it's a lot of things. The stock battery is freaking terrible. I only get 2 hours of gameplay on my 3DS (3D on, 2nd to brightest setting, connected online), when I get 5 hours with my stock Vita battery (brightness 80%, connected online, Bluetooth off). I still have no idea why they didn't include a second analog stick. Camera control (and not with the freaking touch screen) is mandatory in 3D games, and lack of a second analog stick was a terrible decision. They tried to correct their mistake with the circle pad pro, but that looks like an ergonomic nightmare. Plus, you can't really access your game slot or the volume slider with it on. Friend codes: why do we still have to use you! Let us make gamertags like modern gaming devices use. No achievements/trophies. It's not a big complaint, but they can really enhance the game's replay value. Plus, I can't think of a single modern system/program that doesn't have system/program wide achievements. Also, the design is really dated. The design really cuts into your hands, especially if you're playing a game with the slider/touch screen. It's extremely uncomfortable to play for long periods of time.

The Wii has so many problems. No 3rd party support (because it can't handle modern day graphics), the lack of buttons, no 2nd analog stick, Wi-Fi only online play (which turns into a laggy mess for a lot of games), Friend Codes, flash memory storage for a console, restrictions on the data size of games on the Wii Store, so many peripherals for games, some of which that are required, etc. It looks like Wii U will continue that tradition.

Well, now I'm rambling.

I do like how you bring up the point about 'risks' though... Nintendo does take a lot of risk and is very bold with the hardware, yet on the software side they have been playing it safe for quite some time now as far as their major franchises go. It seems they just tailor their franchises to their systems, hoping the innovation will follow, but often this isn't the case. STILL, I think iterating isn't bad in and of itself. I've cited the example before where everybody goes nuts over something like Rayman Origins, but lambasts NSMB Wii for being iterative. I think NSMB Wii and the Galaxy's are great iterations on a proven concept. (Galaxy's go a bit above and beyond too)

Yeah, innovation doesn't really come when Nintendo scares off any interested 3rd party developers. I can't really comment on Rayman because I've only played the demo (which I thought was pretty good, but that's besides the point). However, I enjoyed Galaxy 2 and 3D Land because the level design felt fresh and interesting. I feel like I'm playing the same NSMB game every time a new one comes out.


I may start a new topic soon about things you like/dislike about Zelda, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and gaming as a whole, since this thread is really off topic. But it's 3 AM, so maybe some other time.

Get that outta town! DS Zelda games are NOT bad! Spirit Tracks has some of the better dungeons in recent memory. The only two faults with them is that they focus too much on the WW mindset: "Giant world with nothing in it" and that some of the dungeons are Room A with monsters > Room B with monsters > etc. > Boss. I do agree with you as far as the story crap and gimmicks in general. That is getting old.

Most of the game is not spent in dungeons. And when it's not, it's a bland, on-rails (pun intended) fetch quest.

I will say that the dungeons are a lot better, longer and less frustrating than those in PH (let's not remember The Temple of the Ocean King), but they're still easy and redundant. However, the missions outside the dungeons are the worst of any Zelda game in recent memory. Well, not counting the CD-i games.

Give me a new Zelda! I don't want remakes! Go in a bold new direction with it! Give me a true legend. The brilliance of the name gets understated and gets snowed under by everything else. Link can be anyone because a legend can be anything within very loose story constraints. Maybe a 'purposely forgotten' legend where Link actually gets defeated? Stupid idea but that's why I don't write stories.

Basically, something new!

Yes, please. Zelda's have become so predicable and boring that they no longer have that sense of magic and wonder they once had. It's because Nintendo likes stick to the formula instead of taking risks. Ironic, considering how they like to take "risks" in the hardware department. I guess they need formulaic, recognizable games to sell their crappy, dated hardware.

Also, more tingle.

I still need to play the games. I watched some of the gameplay, and it's more like an anime than a game.

My brother's friend?

4 AM is also a bad time to need to use the bathroom, only to find out your brother's friend clogged the toilet with 50 pounds of toilet paper.