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Whoa. Did you know games today cost an average of $10-28 million to develop? Meanwhile something on the scale of Grand Theft Auto V is estimated to cost over $100 million by the time it's finished. That's scary. It's no wonder so many developers like Nintendo choose to play it safe by creating sequels to successful games. When development budgets are this astronomical, one failure can mean the complete destruction and demise of a company.

Only a fool would sink their teeth directly into a Kid Icarus Uprising Choco Snack, packages of which now adorn the shelves of various grocery marts peppering the cities of Japan. Yes, to recklessly crunch right into one of the blackened Medusa droppings is not unlike biting into a gigantic piece of Cocoa Puffs cereal, which I have not eaten in years because Japan does not believe in cereal. You see, a true connoisseur of these gastrointestinal reset bombs foregoes the immediate pleasures of instant gratification, instead opting to let the discolored balls simmer in their mouth as though dropped into their own personal Fiend's Cauldron.

Before you can try a demo, you need first to discover it. Today we discover games by word-of-mouth, a positive magazine review, or a passionate blog post. Later this year, we can add another method to that list: Miiverse. Miiverse will encourage discovery of software through Miis who will congregate around popular games on your Wii U home screen. Once you've taken notice of a game, the next step is finding out if that game is relevant to you.

Reggie you seem confused. You recently told Kotaku that you are "troubled" by the Nintendo fanbase, by their insatiable desire for information. In your dismay, you seemed flummoxed, perplexed, dare I say... befuddled by what gamers want, and why what you offer them does not tittilate them. Let me break it down for you. First, though, let me give credit where credit is due. Reginald Fils-Aime said: One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share information, the perspective is, "

Maybe it's all a figment of my imagination, but much of the gaming-centric media seems to be well and truly caught in that slightly nebulous space between console "generations." It is that tug-of-war space where upcoming content for existing platforms is still widely covered, but where the tantalizing draw of Sony and Microsoft's next-generation hardware (which many believe will launch within the next 18-24 months) absorbs greater time and attention from the gaming press.

In September 1996, I had just entered 8th grade. My freshly sprouted facial hair and deepening voice were no doubt the envy of my classmates. But there was another, far more monumental thing that was about to happen to me. I was on a routine shopping outing with my mother and sister. They loved to shop. I despised it but would occasionally tag along for the opportunity to stop by Toys R Us and check out the latest games for my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

As soon as I saw the weird, tendril-like metal coils, the large, molded handgrip, and the suction-cup button covers, I knew I had to have it. How could something so grotesque seem so exciting at the same time? Not something you play with on its own, the Ultech 3 requires you to bring your own equipment to the party, and this fits right on top of it. That equipment is one standard Family Computer control pad, and that party is about to get frisky.

Hot on the heels of winning a $10 bet about the freshly-announced 3DS XL not having a second analog stick, I am left wondering: how could so many people have had such unrealistic expectations about what this revision would be? The "we know what's best for Nintendo" crowd has been fervent in their prognostications since the Circle Pad Pro was announced months and months ago. Obviously it was just a stop-gap release, a way to appease suckers who bought the original 3DS, and who would be vexed when the inevitable system redesign came with that second circle pad built in.

Pikmin 3 won't have an online mode, and that doesn't surprise me. Nor should it you. During the Wii U re-unveiling on June 3, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed one of his sources of inspiration. He held up Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, a book by M.I.T. professor Sherry Turkle. One of the concerns Turkle raises in her book is that we're missing out on the intimate human interactions that we had before cell phones, tablets and the Internet existed.

Ever wonder what kind of connection the classic Japanese animation series Neon Genesis Evangelion has to EarthBound for the Super Nintendo? No? Who cares! I've found a bone-shatteringly amazing connection between them that probably suggests a couple people on the animation team for Evangelion (which aired beginning in October 1995 on Japanese television) were playing EarthBound (known in Japan as Mother 2) while they worked on the famous cartoon. Mother 2 was released in Japan in August of 1994, meaning that it would be more than likely that animators of the geekier persuasions would have had more than ample opportunities to play the game.