spurgeonryan asked me to, from an European view, talk a little about Mario Party 9. I will say not everything of the game, but what hitted me good, if i can say so.

First of all i can say that it's for sure a good reboot for the series, still a lot can be done to expand it but it's a fresh start and it's really fun to play.

The story mode is a real challenge for the single player and rewards you well, in Italy they are called "Punti Party" and they are needed, if you go in the museum, to buy a lot of (for once) useful stuff.

The biggest surprise was that the number of boards is not 6, but more. The boards are very similar to a Super Mario 2D game, you from A to B, in the middle you have a fort with a mid-boss then a new, and biggest, area of the board opens and you travel there till the last boss. So this is why they have to do a traveling all togheter. It's good that you can use this change to penalize the others with you.

Most board spaces are new and as "money" we have mini-stars and mini-ztars. The first adds the second not... The boards are very different one from another and can often appear unique spaces and never before seen "things" that will happen to you and your companions/enemies.

For the minigames i will only say, so i don't spoil anything, that are all based on the Super Mario series. Witch makes them great, you will see.

At last, but not least, this game is so like Mario Party 1 in lot of stuff, penalizes you a lot, if you are unlucky you can even get to the point of losing half of your money, and bowser have again that crazy roulette. Also the game does not have special objects because of the massive return of Dices. They are a lot and very different, traveling togheter makes even the 0 or 1 dice useful, believe me.

For me it's a great game, we all wanted a great change a board that it's not slow and there it is, don't be silly and claim that you didn't wanted something new because i heard you.

The Cliffy B interview made me really happy. I think Zelda OoT is a masterpiece, even now just playing OoT 3D, the game is still enchanting.

The Crimson Wing video by that girl gave me chills and made me tear up...

I'm a Zelda fan :) It took me this time to fully realize it. And Wind Waker was awesome (totally random add).

3DS Update:

Inafune's pet project: King of Pirates going Worldwide (source)

At GDC, Inafune, the man who created MegaMan, had this to say about his new pet project King of Pirates, which he began developing after his departure from Capcom.

What has Inafune been up to? (source)

Well, this trailer has the answer.  Since his departure from Capcom he’s been awfully quiet as to what exactly he’s been working on.  Now the silence has been broken.  His next game is called King of Pirates and it’s heading to the 3DS sometime in 2012.  As of right now we only have confirmation of a Japanese release, but Inafune’s been known as someone who definitely doesn’t shy away from the Western market.

I think the Wii U bashing from the Destructoid panel is a tad pre-emptive. If that's the case, why should anyone do anything new, and why aren't we still playing with the NES?

It's stupid logic.

Regardless, you're improving, but you don't need to put a time in. It doesn't matter

Also, yes, I agree that Galaxy 2 is the best Mario, and SS is the best Zelda. Hence they were 1 and 2. But I think Fire Emblem, Xenoblade and Tri especially should have been higher.

Good list, though.

Also, as for your poll:

My brother got one, so I tagged along. It was a DS Phat, and we he upgraded to the Lite, he gave me his DS. Although, he dropped it and broke one of the hinges before...

Nevertheless, that lasted for about 7 months before it completely packed up, when I got a DSi. The year after, I got a 3DS with him.

And then we get to this year.

(This option wasn't in the poll. Why I ask? )

I want that book! O_O

@Feature: Nintendo's Biggest Blunders. Very interesting article! Indeed, Nintendo made a few crucial missteps. For the last part, it begs the question, what could Nintendo have done to cater to the elderly market? How huge is that market?

Though reluctant to change, they love to have fun, they love bowling, bingo, cricket, these kinds of games. Lots of old folks home bought Wiis, so there is still a market there.

Nintendo should pursue them actively and mandate a studio purely to cater to that market and reach them through marketing, really.

That makes total sense. For bold the question is, too busy with what? Some will speculate too busy with next-gen SW, which is likely. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that if Nintendo had continued to ride the Wii wave, they wouldn't have had to worry too too much about support on the next gen platforms. Then again, they didn't want to totally alienate the still voluminous core audience for the sake of the casual. Nintendo could have let 3rd party take care of putting their offerings on their WiiU (thanks to multi-platform development, which was not possible for the 3DS).

@italics. That is so true. It is also a relatively new market, so it's hard to anticipate their purchasing habits/decisions. True, this is round 2 for Nintendo when it comes to the elderly. Hopefully they know what they're doing. But I don't believe the elderly will buy a whole new Wii to play the newwer experience. Nintendo may just need to make  their future elderly games both Wii and WiiU compatible.

@shovelware. Yeah, that was something they just couldn't control, hey.  Luckily the 3DS is still mostly safe from that for the most part.

I think the WiiU's tablet is a good way to cater to that market (scrabble, chess, backgammon, more fitness/health tech), but the Wii is already in their facilities. A good series of Wii compatible games, along with a good marketing blitz, would still today bring some well needed SW revenue to the big N. They abandoned the Wii's market way too fast.

hm, Maple Story could be interesting

New thread? Hopefully I would be able to keep track now