PixlBit

Screw these online passes. This is really starting to piss me off.

I love how this article has gotten no responses. I don't care for these games personally, but it was always my impression that they were pretty well loved. Is a fifth game too much? Are people ready for it to go on hiatus for a while?

I am, but this is actually an original production, merely based loosely on the original.

So I just beat this 100%. It was pretty damn tough, but the bonus you get for it is pretty rockin'. I'm incentivized to go back through the whole thing again - but not until I finish Pushmo. Plus Sakura Samurai is dropping this week, so that'll slow me down a bit too.

I think the problem here all comes down to intent. While this may have been planned from the get-go, the intent was to create the downloadable content alongside the development of the main game. At that point, you may as well be including the content right on the disc and giving it to everyone. If your intent is to release the game, then create more content down the road and sell it as an expansion, it's clear that you are trying to expand the play experience and draw players back in after they've completed the main quest.

Regardless of intent, all of this online pass business and day one DLC just seems like a smack in the face to the consumer. If you're not making enough money because you spent too much on the game and need to sell too many copies to break even - start making games differently. Hate to say it, but captialism is getting the better of so many of the game companies out there right now. If you make bad investments and mistreat your customers, you're not long for this market.

I was planning on getting the PlayStation 3 version of this game anyway, so ... hooray!

I really don't like playing games online in general, even less so with random people. I miss  the old days where you'd hit the couch and play with a group of friends all in one room.

Funny enough, as gaming has become more and more socially acceptable, it's become more and more solitary. At a point it was much more social (like in person social) than it is now. We all are really the lone gamers sitting in a darkened room, avoiding the sun and playing games all by ourselves.

As far as monitoring these online communities, I don't think it can be done. Nintendo tried to employ means of limiting the interactions, but the result was a really sanitary experience. Once you let people on the Internet talk and communicate freely, you have to expect the worst. Combine this with the lack of acceptance of any degree of failure and you have a really toxic environment.  

I don't think I personally care too much about the name changing, but I think Nintendo stands to benefit from rebranding. The Wii name doesn't carry much clout with their intended audience and the casual audience has basically left.

I'm not sure what they could call it, but hopefully they understand how to brand it properly to appeal to the core gamer. GameCube wasn't a bad name, but its poor branding and console design (shape, color) really hurt it.

Glad to see Nintendo is finally getting some boilerplate features into the Wii U (and 3DS for that matter). I can only hope that the Nintendo Network is well integrated into the Wii U UI. Right now everything is so disconnected on Nintendo's systems, I'd like to see something a bit closer to Xbox Live in terms of online functionality built right into the dashboard. I could do without the ads though.

The NFC announcement sounds like RFID, though who knows. Hope no one has an RFID credit card - the Wii U tablet is going to eat your monies.

This was a no-brainer, but I am a bit surprised to see it coming to 3DS. I figured the Wii U version would be the first to come.