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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

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Home » Nintendo Wii, Online

Brawl online multiplayer: promises, promises.

Submitted by on April 10, 2007 – 11:30 pm4 Comments

fingers-crossed.pngDateline: May 2005. Satoru Iwata has just finished saying that a sequel to Super Smash Bros Melee will appear at system launch, with online play.


Iwata said that Nintendo is hard at work on a Super Smash Bros. sequel that will debut for the launch of Revolution. The system is scheduled to ship in mid-2006, according to reports. Better yet, this new Revolution Smash Bros. will take advantage of the console’s Wi-Fi capabilities for online play out of the box.*

We would later learn that this was not the case. Apparently NOJ president Iwata jumped the gun more than a little, as the game wasn’t even in the planning stages at that point. According to Famitsu, via IGN in December 2005:


Sakurai accepted a proposal by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to direct the title following the surprise announcement of the its development at Nintendo’s E3 press conference (it was a surprise to Sakurai more than anyone, as he hadn’t heard of the project at the time).**

So you’ve got Iwata claiming online play when the game didn’t even have a director. I smelled trouble then and it’s getting stinkier all the time.



Will the game take advantage of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection?

Mr. Sakurai: One of the primary reasons that this game was even created was because Nintendo staff said that when taking the console online, probably the best title to do so would be Super Smash Bros. Because of that, we’re going to try very hard to do that. But, at the same time, I think it would be a lot of work for us to allow four players to play simultaneously and try to find out who’s number one. So, we’re mainly focusing on bringing multiple people together to play simultaneously in perhaps new and different ways.***

I’m not getting a good feeling from this. Here’s my prediction: Nintendo will try to quietly drop online multplayer from Smash Bros Brawl, and will face a serious backlash as a result. The really sad thing about all this is I don’t think online play would work in Brawl unless they go completely nuts with it, allowing in-match voice chat for smack talk, which I don’t expect from Nintendo, friend codes or not.

It’s interesting to see the contrast in the amount of attention Sony’s bull crap gets and how quickly people forget Nintendo’s backpedaling. The only thing people are upset about here is that DVD playback wasn’t in the console? I mean, I’m disappointed too, because I hate my DVD player, but I’m a lot more upset staring down the barrel of this seeming eventuality. At any rate, I loved Smash Bros Melee without online play and I’ll love Brawl the same, but I plan to hold Nintendo to scrutiny if they back over such bluster.

* E3 2005: Smash Bros. For Revolution < IGN.
** Sakurai Elaborates on Smash Bros. Revolution < Famitsu, via IGN.
*** Super Smash Bros. Brawl Developer Interview < Nintendo.com

  • freelancer

    If they don’t release it with online play they may as well not drop it this year. This is a feature that they themselves have hyped up to break their promise now would squander most of the good will most people have for Nintendo. Either its ready or its not and if it isnt they will face a pretty big backlash how can they not for what could be their most anticipated title.

  • http://www.farbot.com/ Paul Munn

    I doubted online play would ever make it into the game not because of anything right or wrong with Nintendo’s strategy or planning, but because fighters just aren’t made to do that yet. Lag is lag, and in a console that doesn’t even have a hard-line ethernet port, you can’t expect a fighter to work with online multiplayer.

    That said a fighter can get major legs with online data transfer support and critical leaderboard support. Local profiles that you can take with you on your Wiimote or via the online service, stats put up on online leaderboards, even ghosts of how you fight so you can hone your skills and poke your online friends to go get your ghost and get taken apart by it, or take it apart for bragging rights. All those things would take a well-balanced fun slap-your-friends around for laughs fighter and put it in true next-gen territory.

    And really, nobody would fault them for no online play if that were available. Look at Tekken on the PS3. It lacks a number of features the PSP version had, which is frankly inexcusable.

  • exkon

    I have to agree with Paul Munn, fighter haven’t fared too well online because of lag issues. And we know how wi-fi can be unreliable sometimes.

  • John H.

    I suspect, from personal experience, that online smack talk would not be good for Smash Bros.

    I once watched a couple of people play Melee at a game tournament (this wasn’t a ranked game, though). Player One, and some friends of his, would hoot, exclaim obnoxiously, act up, and suddenly pause the game for a half-second during his character’s taunts every time his guy scored a kill. The two players were actually pretty evenly matched, but Player One would do these things just to antagonize Player Two, until Two spiked his controller and walked off in disgust.

    I’m not saying this WILL happen if Brawl has voice chat during matches, but I am saying that the culture around voice chat in competitive games is not appreciated by all players. I would very well like to keep voice chat completely out of it.