FMW

This looks cool! Metal Gear has a couple of problems. One, Kojima has been looking for excuses to stop making them for years now. Two, the continuity is almost entirely wrapped up so it's pretty tough to justify another sequel. So here we go. Drop Metal Gear "Solid", make a new subtitle. Make the game it's own spin-off franchise kinda like Acid. Give it to another developer. Set it further ahead in continuity than anything else, so it can invent it's own new conflicts and villains etc. Now you've fixed the continuity problem and you're moving the franchise in a direction where perhaps Kojima could go hands off in the future. For all that this solves old problems though, there are some potential new ones. Snake always played sort of a straight man to his completely crazy over the top universe. Sure, a guy is vomiting bees at you, but Snake only has the tools of a normal soldier. That's a strength this game looks to abandon, what with Raiden throwing mechs around and everything. Say, what with Metal Gear becoming an action game and Splinter Cell going MIA after Conviction, are there ANY high profile stealth franchises left? All I can think of that fits the bill at all is Sly 4.

@P4 - yeah, I figured out pretty early that you need to approach it with a dungeon crawler mentality. The "level design" such as it exists isn't about exploration at all. It's all in service of the combat and leveling up and RPG parts of the game. I think that it's a pretty interesting take on level generation for dungeon crawling, but that needs to be what you're looking for. Dungeon Crawling is an itch I only need to scratch once or twice a year, so I guess this just came at a fortunate time for me.

The Game Boy Advance one? Yes, the Game Boy Advance one. GBA backlog FTW! I'd owned that since I got it as a random gift six or seven years ago Maybe now I'll even get back to Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga! Or FINALLY beat Golden Sun 2! (I've tried like a million times, I swear)

I have completed Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I beat both the main story mode and also the Reverse/Rebirth new game plus mode. I like the game quite a bit, it's difficult for me to go back to 3D Kingdom Hearts combat in 358/2 days now because it seems so much sloppier to me. That said, 358/2 days combat is leagues better than Kingdom Hearts 1 combat. And I can only hope that Kingdom Hearts 2 combat will improve things even further!

There shouldn't be any issues ordering online. Even if Gamestop.com doesn't deliver to Canada, Nintendo.com probably does. This game will be available both through Gamestop and Nintendo's online store, so you're probably covered.

Guys, the shield has been overpowered for a long time. Honestly, how many enemies can get around your shield if you have it up? I'm thinking of three in Windwaker, and... only two in Twilight Princess. And the shield is still just as powerful. It can block anything and even give opportunity for counterattack, only in this game you need to time it with the shield bash. To my mind, this game makes fighting in a defensive way actually interesting for once. Rather than just hold the shoulder button while you wait for the enemy to run the animation you're waiting for, you actually need to do something. You need to avoid attacks because the shields break down, and if you can't get out of the way you need to time your counter just right. And you can't just attack all the time because the enemies have electric swords now apparently. Which is 100% unacceptable.

I use my shield a lot in melee combat. I worry that I use it too much, because perhaps I am depending on it too much. I should be mastering the motion controls more. So far every non-boss monster has been easy to defeat with a well timed shield bash. But I guess that "easy way out" is balanced out by the risk of having my shield break and having to do without. That happened to me near the end of the second temple actually, but I survived okay because the boss didn't require much shield work. I guess it's a risk I can live with

I agree. Boss was cool, but too easy. I have a hunch I'll be seeing him again though... and I have a hunch he'll be more difficult when next we meet. As for the aiming thing, there's a reason they didn't just go for more traditional pointer tech where they base the orientation off of the TV screen. There's an item later (I'm not saying what!) that you aim without pointing the remote at the screen.

There's a bit more content than the standard 8 worlds in this one, you don't have much to worry about in that regard. I understand a fair bit of it requires unlocking though, so grab them star coins!

Lol, that'll teach you to telegraph your moves AC.

I'm in the same place as you are, CP. That first boss was enthralling in the way first boss battles very rarely are. As for the Minish Cap music you no longer remember, we can fix that! The Mt. Crenel music is my personal favorite "exploration" piece. It's the track that, to me, best communicates adversity and seeing what's over that next horizon. That track is here: As for cloud tops, it's more of an anthem type thing. It's "hero music". I realize that the Zelda franchise is stuffed to the brim with hero music, but this one is one of my favorites!

The soundtrack CD is very high quality, but not too long. I'll take a quality/quantity trade any day though, so I'm cool with this I guess. Just like everyone else there are a few tunes I would have included in place of a few that did make the cut, but that ultimately boils down to personal preference. Everything in here is good, and I guess Nintendo's favorites aren't exactly the same as mine. Fair enough. If I had my way, Mt. Crenel and Cloud Tops from Minish Cap would have made it into the track list. I feel like those two would have converted to orchestration incredibly well. The first track is indeed the best, it's pretty surreal.

It's cool dude. I definitely never finished all the quests in Twilight Princess. I wouldn't want to. It would kind of kill the appeal for me to have found/done everything in Hyrule. Much of my appreciation comes from discovering more and more on subsequent playthroughs of these games. If ever there were a Hyrule where there wasn't anything new to discover... it doesn't bear thinking about. As for internal politics, I just meant politics within the home. My sister and I split this game 50/50. She's religious and has obligations at church until 2:00 PM. I can't start playing without her. I can pick it up with her between some of these obligations, but there isn't enough space to begin playing. Also AC, it sounds like you'll be facing some internal politics of your own in the near future... http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2235#comic

Due to internal politics, I am unable to buy the game until 12:45 or so. I am then unable to play it until 2:00 or so. It is currently 8:30. I am able to chill with the soundtrack CD between 12:45 and 2:00, so that span of waiting won't be too terrible I suppose. Right now though... eugh. AC, I look forward to comparing notes with you tonight

Is this how it works with online ordering? Did I make a terrible mistake by ordering with my local retail establishment?? I must still wait 46 hours before playing this game! Unacceptable!

Dean, you speak of situations where media is not legally available in a territory. Fine. I'll give you that. No harm is done by watching The Daily Show in England when it isn't available there otherwise. But you don't address either of the following two situations: The media is available in a region, but at a higher price than others. The consumer is poor and can't afford to buy media. I mean, whatever happened to looking after your own budget? I can't afford every game I want, I only buy a new game every month or two. I'm stingy with entertainment spending. So am I justified in downloading all game(s) that didn't make the cut for immediate purchase? I live with only being able to play some of the games I like, and I understand that if I wanted to buy more then I could get a second job to earn more money. If media is available at no cost to people without the means to buy it, then what is the incentive to contribute to an economy? Governments ensure that you won't starve or freeze to death, and you have access to countless high quality movies, games, and television shows. That isn't how capitalism is supposed to work. Lack of luxury goods is supposed to be one of the main motivators in getting people employed. In our economic system, the wealthy have things that the poor do not. Is your argument against this basic inequality? If so, then we're jumping into the deep end of microeconomic theory. I would be happy to argue that poor people not having nice things is good for the system as a whole.

I disagree with the mindset behind this. It is a good idea for a company to be kind to consumers. It increases their profits. Remember though, a company is not required to be kind to consumers. There is no "they are obligated to do this" or "they are obligated to do that" in terms of making products available to a market. They will do as they damn well please, and they must be allowed to. Captialism depends upon it. The nature of international capitalism is that certain markets will always get preferential treatment, and that firms will move to satisfy demand wherever it grows in any significant quantity. It's also the nature of capitalism that poor people won't be able to access all the same luxury goods as rich people. These inequalities are built into the system. It's normal. Do you feel like this should not be the case? If so, what change(s) do you propose to the macroeconomic structure of competitive trade to ensure that all markets and all income brackets have equivalent access to all media?

So you have two choices: get more disposable income or do without. Except I really have a third choice, to pirate. Just because some people would call me evil for it, does not mean it's not a choice. I'll cooperate with the companies as much as I can afford to, as long as they cooperate. When they don't, I'm not just gonna roll over and let them kick me when I'm down. And as long as I'm in this thread, I'd like to jump into this dialogue here. Johnny, a company not releasing a product in your area in a consumer friendly way (or at all) is not "kicking you while you're down". The company is under no obligation to provide anything to you at all. Access to ownership and consumption are not rights you're being denied. That's sort of the downside of letting corporations control as much of good/service distribution as we do in this world. Corporations will provide as much or as little product to you as they feel like, in whatever format they feel like. This is not a personal attack against you. This is a company trying to pursue what it views as it's most profitable prospects. I guess Sweden isn't too high on some company priority lists right now. And that's fine. That's legal and fair.

All this talk of PC emulation before Zelda is even out makes me really sad. The Legend of Zelda games are my absolute favorites. Nintendo has stated that Skyward Sword is their most expensive production ever. This took five years to make, and if it doesn't sell very well then I'm afraid Nintendo won't invest as much into the franchise in the future. Which would mean lower quality Zelda games or longer waits between. If people want to play Zelda, it's important that they buy Zelda. Then there can be more Zelda for them to play in the future. You give some so you can get some I mean, what's the justification for grabbing the game for free online anyway? It's not like the consumer is getting a bad deal by buying the game at retail price. If you pay $70 for the limited edition and play through the game in 35 hours (sounds like it's about that without too much sidequesting) then you're paying only $2 per hour of playtime. If you don't do the rest of the side quests. And if you only play it once. That's a fantastic deal guys. So unless the argument is that the game is poorly crafted and unworthy of even this meager investment, I don't see too much justification here. I see this counter argument coming - "but I don't own a Wii, so I wouldn't buy it anyway. So I'm not altering the game sales by piracy". I smash this counter argument immediately. By this logic it is acceptable to pirate all console software as long as you never buy the hardware. But if you can access all the software without the hardware, then there isn't any reason to buy the hardware. So then when the next game you want comes out, your justified in piracy all over again. It's cyclical logic. Here's how the market works. The price of the Zelda Skyward Sword experience is $170. A used Wii with motion plus and the regular edition of the game. Once you've bought the hardware, the price of other experiences drops hugely. Down to $50 or less depending on the game. Buying hardware is like buying a discount ticket for every other experience released on the hardware. The cost of any experience is the net cost of all the hardware and software needed to play. But your controller, console, and TV don't need to change with each game. So actually you're getting a huge discount on the experience because of all the things you don't need to buy again and again. I argue that even $170 for Zelda isn't an unreasonable value, because that also buys you the "season pass" to discount every other Wii game out there. You are getting more than just Zelda for this high one time cost.

I was absently reviewing my video gaming for 2011 the other day, and I realized that I haven't played anything yet that I like more than Donkey Kong Country Returns from 2010. I cannot wait to see what Retro Studios is working on next, they seem to be able to do no wrong. Of course, I haven't played the new Zelda, Mario, or Mario Kart still scheduled to land this year. I'm not saying I won't find anything I like better in 2011, just that I haven't yet. Trine came close though. Trine is a wonderful thing

That is... fascinating! I don't buy it necessarily, but it's fascinating all the same. I really don't know much about online gaming (or technology at all for that matter) so could you guys answer a few questions please? Assuming this is true and Origin/Steam are going to show up on WiiU: Will PC games on the service be able to be bought and played on the Wii U? Or would they need to be re-programmed significantly and then given another release? Basically, does offering these services give the consumer access to any back catalog of games to be bought? Does this mean that digital product distribution is definitely happening? That's what these services do, right? Does this mean that online games can be played cross-platform (against Playstation players or whatever)? Are the prices for digital releases usually lower than retail discs? Do either Steam or Origin DRM the game files to prevent piracy? If so, would this mean I can't back my games and game saves up? Does this mean definitely and without question no friend codes? This probably isn't enough information to answer all of these, but any insight you guys have would be appreciated.

Looks like review embargoes lifted today. All agree that the controls work well, though some complain of frequent recalibration to keep them in top form. All like the art style, though some complain that the game looks dated regardless. All like the overworld density, though some don't care for some of the fetch questing you need to do as you explore said overworld. All like the music, but some don't much care for the musical instrument Link plays this time around. What's important I think is not that people have complaints. No game is all things to all people. What is significant is that complaints are generally not consistent across the board. That speaks well of the game's quality. You know, in case you were afraid this wouldn't be a quality product.