PixlBit

Now that is a lot of tax payer money to be wasted. It wasn't like California was rolling in the dough so to speak....

Nintendo Cafe. Now you're playing with power...cafe power!

*crickets*

"Public confusion over the Nintendo 3DS has forced a roll out of red box stickers to differenciate from the original DS..."

WTF? How can people get the 3DS and DS mixed up? People need to look at it. Look.At.It.

"This confused many who wondered if it was merely a new peripheral to the existing Wii and this led to the company's share price dropping to a five year low..."

Now investors need to get their ears checked. Did they not hear Iwata at e3? Even if you don't do the investing yourself, didn't your broker do some research, tap sources or something?

What next, shares suddenly spike up because they now just heard Nintendo is going HD?

Looks like a slick piece of machinery. But how are they going to release additional titles? Wonder if it will come stateside?

The most important question: will it have Shock Troopers? For those who don't know, Shock Troopers is a top down shooter with a great cast of characters, who had their own special weapons. It came out for Neo Geo in the mid 90's, its a fun little romp.

Three titles in one year? I doubt it, this is Blizzard we're talking about!

Prove me wrong, Blizzard, prove me wrong...

"Also terrible - the coming soon item:  Super Scope 6 - SNES (Game Only)"

I don't know who's dumber: Gamestop for offering it, or someone actually trading their points for this?

Its like they went back to their Funco Land roots...sort of. For those who weren't around/ have short memories/amnesia, Funco Land was the place to trade in/ buy video games. That and they had kiosks of all the systems at the time. At least in my area. I remember one where there was a NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16 and Neo Geo. I could 'test drive' (including Game Boy, Game Gear, Atari Lynx, but you had to bring those with you) any game they had, and if I liked it, and if my parents were in a good mood, get it for me.

One of the things I remember is that they emphasised you bring in your games for cash, store credit was secondary.  Oh how times have changed...

Wait, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, Killer Instinct for the low, low price of $2,6500. Maybe if they offered up Nintendo World Championship carts, including the gold one, you might see some collectors buying up loads of merchandise....

They got the devkits, so now what are they going to with them? Will they take advantage of the Wii U's abilities, or just crank out slopply 360 ports with obligotory, half-assed, shoe horned touchscreen features?

They should stop numbering them and just have a sub-title. Maybe because I'm old enough to remember the first one, but what about generations after? If FFX was your first one, wouldn't you think, I wonder about the previous nine? They get to down to FFI-III and may go, WTF is this #$@?

Heck there's a generation that was just born when FFVII came out. Still, there's young gamers who popped out the womb when FFX came out in late 2001. The franchise holds a special place in my generation because the titles we played that made an impact on gaming. Getting a rat tail for class change? WTF, but awesome. "You Spoony Bard!"? Engrish at its best moments. The opera scene with a purple octopus crashing the show? Epic. Sephiroth dissaperaing in the flames? Part of the reason the original Playstation went into overdrive...

But what about gamers today? Have FFX-FXIII made the same impact on gamers under 20? I'm not being saracastic here, I genuinely want to know.

I remember seeing Final Fantasy I on the NES at my friends house back in '90. His trick was that he played with one hand on the controller and another with one of his mom's trademark italian sandwiches.

I didn't see FFIV until middle school, but my first impression was that it looked like a bright NES game with killer sound. But I still remember hearing the opening score like it was yesterday...

Cut to high school when FFVII came out in fall of '97. I was like WTF, what happened to IV, V and VI? The budding internet solved that mystery.

My two personal favorites are VI and IX (69 har har har...). A serious, but not too serious story, great supporting cast, and gameplay that balanced the traditional turn based combat while adding new elements that weren't too radical.

Sounds brutal. Still, this more or less politics as usual, only more scandalous now that more people are watching.

A strange departure indeed. Maybe these radical changes went on without his approval (And got approval from the higher-ups), and decided to pack it up?

Wouldn't be surprised if Diablo 3 comes out near the end of the 1st quarter. Companies love to get some last minute steam around that time....

 I'd keep an eye out. They could sneak this in another bill if the public at large isn't looking.

 I know the ESA represent publishers, not the consumers (we have the ECA for that)  but this is bad PR that won't go away anytime soon.