PA:
After an interesting and mostly successful experiment moving Mario vs. Donkey Kong’s marching Minis puzzles into three dimensions in 2013’s Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, Nintendo has made the curious decision to take the series a step back with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, a simple side-scroller for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Indeed, the sixth game in Nintendo’s vaguely Lemmings-ish series looks and feels so much like 2010’s Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem (as well as others that came before) as to come off almost as an expansion to that game, and a relatively small one at that.
1RBC: Nintendo's reputation, by and large, precedes it. Nintendo is the company that made console gaming cool again in the United States in the wake of the industry crash that turned Atari upside down- Nintendo is the company that brought gaming to the masses through the Wii, then somehow squandered their incredible mainstream cultural impact. It doesn't matter what game console you buy- your parents are going to call it the Nintendo- that's the impact that they've had on the industry.
Within the gaming community, Nintendo is beloved, but often pitied because as a company, it seems doomed to repeat embarrassing mistakes. Case in point: the impending shutdown of the Miiverse service. Introduced in 2012 alongside the Wii U, Miiverse is Nintendo's social network made of communities for individual games. Want to talk about Splatoon and share cool screenshots and fan art? You can do so on Miiverse. It seems bizarre that Nintendo is shutting down an active social network that they have total control over, especially when one of the criticisms against their latest console, the Switch, is that its online functionality is severely lacking. It doesn't have the charm- or much of the functionality- of the Wii U.
I find it embarrassing that the only time none-Nintendo gamers have anything good to say about Miiverse is when it's shutting down, when back during the time the Wii U was active, it was just a target for them to ridicule.
That said, I do agree that shutting it down is not a good thing.
Social media is good and all, but being able to interact directly with JUST Switch owners in our own private space where other console players can't intrude, sharing drawings, discussions, and tips, is a pretty nice little experience to have, and is more convenient than some give it credit for.
It brought out a lot of great jokes and tons of creativity, and it will be sorely missed.
We need a "Switch-Verse" of sorts to replace it. That and an in-system messaging option as well as a return to traditional voice chat.
I'm really hoping that Nintendo's not holding all of that back for their subscription program.
$20 a year may be cheap, but that's still way too many things, that most systems have as a standard, locked behind a paywall.
Doing it to online multiplayer was already a big enough sin to earn my disappointment; I pray they do nothing further along those lines.
Since when has anyone who isn't a Nintendo fan needed a legitimate reason to s*#@ on Nintendo?
This is par for the course at this point.XD
As for me, I hope there's a successor at some point. I didn't use it super frequently, but having it there for when I wanted it was still nice.
If the Wii U had a messenger system and the Miiverse had a personal section for us to chat in about games we're playing together, just for us and our friends, then that would have been amazing, and I'd love to see an improved version pop up on Switch for free at some point.
Yeah I hope they do add a successor. I mean part of it is still there through the News Channel for the games.
But no community base hub, I am guessing they are saving it for 2018.
Nintendo fan and article author here; I didn't use Miiverse a lot, but I'm really disappointed for the sake of the folks who loved it.
"Nintendo is the company that brought gaming to the masses through the Wii."
PS1 already did that two generations prior. You don't become the first console to sell over 100 million units and not have it sell to the masses. PS2 further expanded the market immensely.
"It doesn't matter what game console you buy- your parents are going to call it the Nintendo- that's the impact that they've had on the industry."
Nobody generally calls consoles "Nintendo" anymore, especially with the PlayStation and Xbox brands being so prominent. Not to mention the last Nintendo console was such a flop.
"The original Wii, for instance, featured the eShop."
No it didn't. Wii featured the Wii Shopping Channel, which is completely different from the eShop. It even uses a different currency from eShop.
I want Miiverse for switch as well as regular voice chat (Im still not giving up on that) lol
Nintendo's latest console debuted three years ago today and it's seen some great downloadable titles so far. Here, I list the ten best eShop exclusives that came out since Wii U's launch, so clear some internal memory and let the downloading begin!
I've never been able to get my gamepad charged and ready. Every single time I feel like playing a WiiU game, it's dead, dead, dead.
From the review: "Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is enjoyable but rather easy, even in later stages. The main attraction here is the stage builder where after unlocking everything you can build practically any kind of stage you wish. While some people tend to make stages simply to give easy stars in the hopes of getting easy stars in return, there are stages where a lot of thought was put into them and are challenging. If you like the series, you’ll enjoy Tipping Stars, but you might find it a bit too easy."
