Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

[Sarail]

I think you guys are crazy. Nintendo is sitting right freaking on top of its own Uncharted franchise with Star Tropics.

The ONLY aspect that needs to be retained from the original two games is the notion of room-to-room puzzle solving. Guess what current-gen franchise does this, and has been doing this incredibly well? Yep, Uncharted.

As for weapons and magic, give Mike a modified, current-day yo-yo like type weapon, a baseball bat, and some fire magic, and you're all set. Or just screw it all, and let Mike fight with whatever objects he finds in the environment. That could work, too. But you gotta keep it zany in a semi-realistic world with not-so-realistic monsters.

Those are really the two things that matter most for Star Tropics. But the weapons, not so much. There's free reign there. Remember, Mike even gets laster blaster type guns near the end of the first Star Tropics. Really.. anything goes.

[sebasrd27]

Ideaman on Neogaf:

Expect a tiny bit of info (not a wall of text this time, maybe 2 or 3 sentences) regarding the dev kits, soon :p

I will be following his posts and share the new info when it comes. Hopefully in a pair of days...

[Louieturkey]

I'm anticipating more info on dev kits.  It's more stuff to build up the hype train!

[Snake-Arms]

I just watched some Star Tropics videos for the first time (the game was a little before my time) and it looks like a LoZ/Earthbound mesh.  Witch is amazing.  I'm gonna buy it from VC right now.

[sebasrd27]

Vigil declarations about Darksider 2 WiiU version:

"Visually, for the most part, It will be pretty much the same... You know, so far the hardware it´s been on par with what we have on the current generation"

WTF??? WiiU the same to PS3/360? I wish not, but those words scared me... 

[bustin98]

The key is 'so far'... Meaning it could change. Like they are going to say anything before E3.

[Mop it up]

most of those asking for a new Star Tropics don't even know what the hell they're asking for. ...they're either asking for a Zelda clone

Is Donkey Kong Country a Mario clone? Is Wario Land a Mario clone? Is Kirby a Mario clone? All those series have their differences from Mario that make then unique, just like how StarTropics has its differences from Zelda.

[Luigi Dude]

Vigil declarations about Darksider 2 WiiU version:

"Visually, for the most part, It will be pretty much the same... You know, so far the hardware it´s been on par with what we have on the current generation"

WTF??? WiiU the same to PS3/360? I wish not, but those words scared me... 

Its a third party port, of course it's going to look the same.  Like I've said before, people shouldn't be expecting much from third parties since they just want to port their games as quickly and cheaply as possible.  The only Wii U games that will truly show what the console is capable of will be Nintendo's own games and that's it.

[TJ Spyke]

And haven't almost every other developer been saying how much more powerful the Wii U is compared to current gen systems? I am sure developers putting more effort in will get better results. Remember than some of the Xbox 360 games looked practically the same as the original Xbox versions (like Tony Hawk's American Wasteland).

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm sure everyone remembers this:  Nintendo renaming the Wii U?

http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1217316p1.html

According to IGN there is a rumor going about that Nintendo is considering renaming the Wii U. 

and we all know that gamers around here (and all over) have been quite vocal about wanting a name change for the Wii U

we also know that Nintendo has been having issues getting the proper trademarks for Wii U in several countries outside of Japan:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=36953.0

but today we hear that Regional branches of Nintendo have all been requesting a name change too
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/analysis-nintendo-3ds-one-year-on/093295

“Labelling 3DS a ‘headache machine’ was textbook scaremongering. The real problems Nintendo needs to learn from were the ludicrous pricing and the confusion between DS and 3DS. 3DS followed four iterations of DS – it was all too easy to mistake it for a fifth. No wonder we hear rumblings about regional Nintendo offices wanting to change Wii U’s name.�

So is it possible that Nintendo could actually be considering a name change for their next generation HD Wii successor?

[BlackNMild2k1]

New 3DS Firmware Update Incoming?
with lots of new features on the way...?
http://gamegaz.com/201203247322/

* Ability to access Nintendo eShop account from other internet enabled devices including computers and smartphones.

* This system update will allow users to take pictures of QR codes with the 3DS from the other device’s screen to redeem purchased content.

* This update will add the application "Nintendo Network" to the 3DS.

* Ability to update physical Nintendo 3DS Games via Nintendo Shop (DLC feature).

* A "Game Preview" Mode for the Nintendo 3DS system Nintendo Shop.

* Enhances the speed of the handheld.

* Increases the system security with automatic security updates.

* Nintendo Zone will be automatically added to European 3DS owners.

sounds good to me. Update away!

[GoldenPhoenix]

So if I understand this correctly, if it is true, it would allow for developers to add DLC to their 3DS game even if it may not have been programmed with it from the start?

[Chozo Ghost]

I have no doubt 3DS sales were hurt by a lot of people thinking it was just another revision of the DS. It looks very similar to the DS, and the name doesn't do much to distinguish it as a new system either. People probably just assumed it was the same old DS they already had, but with 3D tacked onto it, and maybe they didn't realize it was a lot more powerful and broke software compatibility.

That's good enough reason for the Wii U name to be changed. Of course, I also just don't like the name and would give anything for Nintendo to change it to something cooler, but putting that aside it still needs to be changed just for the sake of not confusing consumers into thinking its just a Wii revision with HD tacked on.

[TJ Spyke]

I think proper branding and ads can take care of the confusion. People didn't think Xbox 360 was just a re-modeled Xbox even though it could be based on the name.

[MysticGohan]

I wonder what they would re-name it? Nintendo eXpress? Nintendo Abomb? :p Nintendo Fusion? Nintendo Live? NES2? Super Nintendo power to the 9th degree?

[Caliban]

Anything goes, as long as it's not called Super Wii.

[Caterkiller]

I see other forums exploding with cries regarding that latest Darksiders 2 statement. I don't know over all how poweful the Wii U will be but I am super confident in my UE4 source. If the Wii U can't run that next gen only engine I will hang my head in shame and never post on these forums again!

Hahaha, like its some real life changing consequence.

[Mannypon]

I would still love for them to go with nintendo stream.  I think it goes perfectly with what could possibly be one if its biggest selling points. 

[ShyGuy]

You know, Nintendoworldreport.com shows up #6 when you search Wii U on Google. That's really good positioning. I don't know if it's organic or we have Megabyte to thank for SEO, but It's currently in this web site's best interest that the name remain Wii U.

That Vigil/Darksiders thread on GAF is bogus. The article it points to is from June 2011.

I don't think people realize we are seeing diminishing returns with each console generation. The leap from SNES to N64 was bigger than the leap from N64 to Gamecube, and so on.

I don't expect the Next Xbox or PS4 to look extremely better than their predecessors. 10 times the RAM and CPU doesn't mean the games are 10 times better looking.

[MegaByte]

I think those are personalized results. See if it looks the same when you're logged out of Google.

[NWR_insanolord]

I was curious, and googled Wii U without being signed in. NWR doesn't show up until page 11.

[ShyGuy]

Dang it, you can't trust Google page ranking anymore!

[sebasrd27]

New info!! Posted by Ideaman on GAF:

A news concerning the dev kits, as promisedThird-party studios will receive the "v5" dev kits very soon (before the next month). It's even possible that some just got them- They are apparently the dev kits which where in possession of Nintendo lately (whereas third-parties had the V4).

There is a noticeable increase of performances with them, a noticeable but not huge however. We don't know if this amelioration is due to a change of components, tweaking of the previously present ones (frequencies, etc.), or a global & light optimization of the hardware, the dev kit itself, the software development kit that may be linked to it, etc.

Some details about the context and assumptions:- Except maybe big japanese studios (like Capcom), i doubt that other third-parties received these dev kits (much) earlier. It's likely that my sources are one of the firsts to be granted of the latest revisions. This means that all the declarations, the news, from foreign developers, that you've read until now, were in a V4 dev kit context, before the release of these newest ones.
- A previous post of lherre indicated that Nintendo guys were testing an engine and saw slightly improved results on the V5 compare to V4.

Context: it was posted 1 month ago, when lherre decided to come out of his lair in answer to my very first message to confirm that Wii U was clearly closer to "2x than 5x xbox360". And he basically added that the expected more advanced dev kit in Nintendo headquarters at the time that i've talked about will not change dramatically the Wii U power status. So he surely knew of these engine benchmarks before my intervention, maybe some days, maybe some weeks.


Assumption: considering the 1month+ interval between these internal tests and the V5 delivery to third-parties (minus the dev kits assembly and shipping), there's a chance that the V5 dev kits in the hands of foreign studios have received even more hardware refinements and optimizations than the models used for these Nintendo tests some time before.- They could have a different code name, but my sources called them V5, as in "the ones following the V4 that they currently develop on".

Therefore, it appears they are a rather major revision.[Now, a detail that could be important, but i'm not sure at all of it, as what my sources told me isn't clear and rely on subjectivity (maybe they didn't understand well what Nintendo said). Take that with caution, and it would be cool if a developer working on the Wii U could precise this.

- It seems these kits may be "near final"Maybe Nintendo still have more advanced dev kits, but apparently not to a point to constitute a real new future revision (perhaps just small increments in numbers like 5.1/5.2). There may be new dev kit shippings to come but it could point that there is a progressive stabilization in hardware changes.

It could also be a word-confusion from my sources between "last" and "latest", or maybe Nintendo thought that when i gathered these infos (a few weeks) but in fact there will be new revisions in the work because they decided to modify the components again, etc.

So big grain of salt for this part]I hope we'll hear more about these dev kits, what kind of modifications occurred on them, and their performances.

It seems WiiU could be something between x2-x5 more powerfull than Xbox360. I think it will be around x3, or x3.5, and I will be happy whit that!

[Fatty The Hutt]

Hmm, so ideaman is saying that the size=78%.
Veddy Interestink...

[Adrock]

Hmm, with this thing launching in 2012 and probably over $300, I was hoping for a more substantial leap over 360/PS3. If x2 is the minimum expectation, that's probably the more likely end result. I suppose we'll see.