Yasawas

I didn't mean to but I just finished Ocarina of Time 3D. I had the Shadow and Spirit Temples left and had intended to do one but got a little carried away, and as someone who rarely plays for two hours in a sitting, being compelled and able to do six is kind of rare and awesome in a really geeky way. It's a really good video game. It was an odd feeling as I've completed it once 15 years ago and had tried to replay it about half a dozen times since but given up very early on so from about Jabu-Jabu onward it was all stuff I only half-remembered and to see it again and think back to the time in my life I first experienced those parts gave me a lovely wee nostalgia hit along with it also being a supremely tightly designed game. What a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a Sunday.

The Hyrule Circuit music is rippin'.

The Mute City track will break your heart. It's beautiful and it's close as we're ever getting on this machine. The three tracks from previous games are odd choices - SNES Rainbow Road is fine but I think we already have two RR variations (?) and I would've vastly preferred the first Ghost House one from the original, Wario's Gold Mine is alright and the Yoshi Circuit is a wee bit dull although pretty. For £5.50 it's a cracking piece of DLC all in though.

Mario Kart DLC is quite literally flowing from the internet somehow into my Wii U right now. It's amazing to think that Nintendo of all people have not only made the best online console game this year but have managed to put a major update and DLC out exactly on time and without it fucking up. I have timed this week off work very well indeed.

I tried it in absolute darkness this morning for science and noticed there was a slight red glow around the camera which appeared just after I turned the room light off so there must be some allowance for it, tracking seemed just as good as in daylight to be honest. No noticeable lag in real use either, you can see the flicker as it readjusts if you keep looking away then back at it quickly but for use on bumpy public transport etc it's perfect. Also doesn't seem to impact the battery much like I'd feared. In other 3DS news I started playing Kirby Triple Deluxe yesterday and it's the best, I love Kirby.

Woke up to the FedEx man delivering me this little bundle this morning, an early birthday gift to myself. It is pretty nice. I'd wanted a Japanese one for a while anyway for the numerous interesting exclusives, and with the release of the New model and my Vita being literally unplayable due to the pain it leaves me in to hold it, I decided to sell the later and do a little importing. I went with the regular model as I've only ever used an XL and while it's nice having all that screen I do find it a tad heavy and bulky, and nowhere near as comfy to hold as a DSi or DS Lite, not to mention DS games look pretty rotten on it. This was a bit of a test to see which model I'll upgrade that one to come the European or Australian launch. + The size is personal preference but I think I'm going for the regular myself. It is noticeably lighter, it doesn't give me the cramp some complained about with the OG 3DS, I can reach ZL/ZR comfortably and the screen size is fine really. + You cannot break the 3D effect in this, it's the best thing. The front camera now tracks your eyes and adjusts the 3D display to account for you moving so you don't get the distortion or ghosting you used to. I wish I had Ocarina of Time for this as that was the one that really stood out to me before as looking lovely provided you did not move one millimetre out of the sweet spot but so far I can't fault this based on what I've played and seen. If you look away and glance back quickly you can see a flicker as it adjusts but it's very quick and I can't imagine it'll be a problem. This is how it should have been to start with. + Everything about the OS is faster. You press the Home button and it actually suspends now! It's like using a device from 2014. I'm not crazy about the 3DS OS but this makes it a bit more tolerable. + The face buttons feel a bit more responsive and most importantly are in SNES colours. I like that the gamecard slot is on the bottom left now as I've ejected a few by accident as I tend to lift my system around the middle when it's in sleep mode. + Their eShop has a ton of stuff we're never seeing including 100+ demos, PC Engine and Game Gear games, F2P stuff + Faceplates are rad and it only really strikes me now I see it in the flesh without them. I should have got some and will in my next order. I'm a 33 year old man playing with a child's toy in public, might as well go balls out with it. - Nintendo's insane accounts systems that partly unifies aspects of NNID and Club Nintendo and ties them to Miis and consoles in a way I still don't fully understand is fucking mental in English but oh my god that was an ordeal in Japanese. It was the best part of an hours work to set it up so I could download demos. - The stylus is garbage and kept in the absolute worst place, it pulls down almost directly below the Home button. It's a long time since I've used one but I'm sure it's the same as the original fat DS one. I haven't used that weird C-stick thing yet as I don't have anything that supports it but it's a definite oddity. I didn't realise this but there's no travel in it whatsoever, it's like a touch-sensitive plastic nipple. If there's a Smash demo on the eShop I'll check it out later. Overall pretty happy with it but I'm not sure it's an essential upgrade for existing owners to be honest. I finally get to play Dragon Quest 7 and Daigasso Band Brothers at some point this week and that's good enough for me but it's maybe a hard sell if they don't get more than Xenoblade as exclusives, and I'm not convinced that's a big mainstream title to begin with.

Do you have Pullblox/Pushmo? Different names in Europe/NA but the same games, a lovely wee puzzler from Intelligent Systems with loads of levels and a ton of user-generated content too.

I'm amazed that they're not bringing out Captain Toad in time for Christmas, I can't even fathom the logic at work there. And it's a bank holiday in Scotland on the 2nd so I will need to leave the actual house if I want to get it on release. wtf Shibata. And that European Kirby release date made me so sad. I don't want to be too negative as it was an excellent Direct apart for those two points but man, disappointed at those two.

Glad I stopped playing the N64 VC release after one dungeon earlier in the year now, it was a good game but that era is hard to revisit. Europe's getting a special edition I might actually buy because that steelbook cover they showed was bloody lovely, and I never go for those things. Also we're getting Shovel Knight here finally, like, right now! Just in time for me to go to bed.

There isn't but the act of either doing the transfer or linking your Club Nintendo account to your Wii U (I can't remember which) lets it know that you've already bought it before so it'll show up in teh Wii U eShop at the reduced price. I'm on IE8 at work which doesn't let me enter text below a quoted post for some reason which is why this is the wrong way round.

Transferring Wii VC games to the Wii U equivalent does cost a small amount, yes. Also my Wii was soft nodded and transferred my stuff OK, that bit is not a problem.

Bayonetta. I wasn't sure I would like this having had a spotty record with Platinum (Vanquish is the only one I've loved) and once my tactic of pressing ZR at the last second then mashing the merry shite out of X and A started to fail me then I decided to call it a day. The story was garbage, the setting unappealing, I was crap at the combat and I have a ton of great games I could be playing instead. Glad I got it in that Amazon misprice, I've sold it on for what I paid without any bother. That said I've moved onto Skyward Sword which is probably the most divisive Zelda game as I understand it so I might be back here in a few days saying exactly the same thing.

I'm starting to get into the first game now, I think I'm four chapters in. I can't shake the feeling that it's going to get proper fucking hard at some point though and I'm going to ragequit it.

Yeah, I think it's the one for me. The demo on the EU eShop at least has a lot of content but is limited to 3 (!) launches which made even trying it out pretty stressful but I enjoyed what I played. I just wonder if it's a bad idea starting it now as we're finally getting Shin Megami Tensei IV here on Thursday and I'm pretty hyped for that. I'll probably still pick it up while I can though.

I'm a solo Monster Hunterer, it's perfectly doable to get all the way through it on your own based on the experiences of friends who've lost hundreds of hours to it. Monster Hunter 4 will have normal online play on 3DS and is due out Q1. Is anyone into Etrian Odyssey? I'm having a hard time deciding which one to buy.

That has been my week too. Are you playing on an XL? I'm still wavering on whether to buy a PAL New XL and transfer my shit or buy a wee Japanese New 3DS and having it for exclusives and playing DS games on. I'd want 4G though and I can't imagine Monster Hunter especially works great on that small a screen, but if anyone knows better do tell. I did find time to try out the Etrian Oddysey demo too though and holy smokes I want that very much. Buying that, Shin Megami Tensei, Pokemon and Persona Q in the next month is probably a terrible idea though.

I'm getting back into this and much as I want 4 I'm really going to miss being able to play it on my 3DS on my commute and at lunch through the week and then treating myself to it on the big screen at weekends. I can't see they'll bother porting this one.

Are there any Australians/New Zealanderers here and can they point me towards an online retailer based in their countries that might ship me a New 3DS? Is Mighty Ape my best bet? My post was made before I had tried one of the hard mode scores! My sweet lord. Hard mode in rhythm games is meant to be terrifying though, or so I'm telling myself for now. On normal it is a little disappointing how well I'm scoring on tracks I've never heard before so I'm hoping with a bit of practice hard becomes doable.

Is anyone else playing Theatrhythm Curtain Call? It's fantastic, and I say this a someone who doesn't really care for Final Fantasy and has in fact never beaten one. Well, Mystic Quest, but that was 20 years ago. It's just a very solid music game with a lot of variety, unlockable content and downright clever ideas. It even has an online battle mode and it works and oh wow it's good. In my all time mental ranking of fun rhythm games it's slightly above Gitaroo Man and a shade below Ouendan.

Do you know they're doing another of their free game promotions at the moment? You should be eligible for this unless I'm missing something http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_183469387_6?ie=UTF8&docId=1000831233&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=0747SHS7NS6QXWAX7F5G&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=536073467&pf_rd_i=B00B8QDNVI Edit - I was, I now see it was a used one. Carry on.

I was going to say Tropical Freeze, it's superb. Monster Hunter is too and the Wii U version has online play but I accept it's not for everyone. If you skipped the original Wii and I wouldn't blame you, please be aware Super Mario Galaxy or its sequel is the best game.

Hey Eurobros, Shin Megami Tensei IV is finally out on the 30th. 20 Euro apparently, what does that usually come to in pounds? Bayonetta one week, this the next, then NES Remix 3DS after that... They don't know much about spreading out big releases but I'll take it.

Must just be a Europe thing then. They DO love us! I got one from Nintendolife through Twitter, one each from ShopTo and Amazon for buying/preordering previous Pokémon titles and one from Nintendo maybe for registering one before? I don't know what I was expecting to be honest but it was more than 15 minutes of content, ha! Still on the fence about this, it comes out the same day as Persona Q and Little Big Planet but it is the most Christmassy feeling of games due out before the year end.

I have two spare demo codes if anyone needs one? The fact I got four without doing anything would imply they're hardly in short supply but you never know.

I used that Wiimote transfer thing a few times, you could use it to download Miis from the internet and import them to your console which was neat. I love fighting games and Nintendo and yet had never played a Smash Bros until I bought this at the weekend, I don't know how I managed that either. At first I just found it immensely confusing and even more of a mess than Marvel vs Capcom but I plugged away for a few hours and I think I get it now! I like that I don't know who's considered good or really how to play it so I've been enjoying learning it myself and seeing what I can make work for me, right now I'm doing OK by cuting it up with Kirby and Toon Link but there's loads of characters I haven't touched. It might be the first legitimately good single-player fighter and every time I switch it on there's a neat wee thing I discover that makes me smile - a piece of music, a stage, a bonus game. Lovely stuff. I just wish I was playing it in HD surrounded by Amiibos but I will be soon enough.