Topic: Santa's Requests are in: Nintendo Rules

[King Bowser Koopa]

Santa Claus has been keeping tabs on the kids' wishlists this year!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/28785

These holidays, I happen to have had the unique opportunity to chat with Santa Claus and get his personal opinion on what's in and popular this year. Don't ask how, it's a secret to everybody.

Jolly old Saint Nick has been more than happy to disclose some of the intricate details about the gift requests that have been made to him from all the kids lucky enough to be on his Nice List. Now, since I'm on the illustrious NWR staff and all, I thought it'd be a good idea to take note of the frequency in which Nintendo stuff is on the kiddies' wishlists. We already knew the outcome, due to the overwhelming awesomeness that is Nintendo, but here it is, straight from the kids' mouths.

Of the requested Christmas presents Santa was asked for, electronics were high on the list this year. 

"Many children are still asking for those strange iPod devices, but that number has diminished since last year. Now it's all about that new 3DS system."

From the amount of game-related gifts Santa had been asked for, the vast majority was in some way related to Nintendo. Most kids wanted a 3DS or a DSi, while some kids were still asking for the Nintendo Wii. Just below that, an Xbox 360 was another popular choice, though the Kinect peripheral didn't seem to matter so much to them. In fact, one kid specifically stated he wanted his Xbox "without Kinect." The only PS3 game Santa had been asked for (at the time of interview) was Call of Duty 3, while no PS3 consoles nor PSPs were desired at all. 

The most requested game software titles this year were Skylanders, Mario and Sonic at the London Olympic Games, and Mario Kart 7, followed by LEGO Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean.

Some kids asked for Super Mario 3D Land, Sonic Generations, and Moshi Monsters, while much to Santa's disappointment, nobody asked for anything Zelda related at all. 

"I expect that next Christmas they'll all be asking for a Wii U, I just hope it's out in time. Those elves have to secure their manufacturing contracts with the developers well in advance, you know."

Those wondering about the most requested non-game gifts this year: trampolines, scooters, bicycles, LEGO (mainly Harry Potter or Ninjago types) and My Little Pony. A surprising amount of children still hadn't decided on a present even as late as Christmas Eve and simply opted for "anything" or "a surprise."

The most unexpected gift requests for the year included lava lamps, stilts, venus fly traps, a bell from one of his reindeer's harnesses, and one little boy who apparently asked for a real live witch doctor.

[UncleBob]

Wow, Santa... I think this violates some kind of privacy laws or something.

[SilverQuilava]

*Caution* Lots of hate below. Sorry about that   Reached a breaking point and stuff. Again.

Dammit dammit dammit I am tired of fucking Skylanders!!! I have been tolerating horrible Spyro game after horrible Spyro game since the "Legend of" series and the Dragonfly blasphemy, but there is a limit as to how much I tolerate video game companies constantly insulting my third favorite video game series ever. And I don't care how fun the game is, or how many useless characters there are. When you make a beloved video game icon LOOK like THAT, making today's generations remember him as looking like THAT, I mean damn!! They couldn't make Spyro look any more GAY. I'm serious. His eyes are OFF CENTER for Christ's sake! Wouldn't anyone who enjoyed the Playstation 1 Spyro games as much as I did be just as pissed off? Or does everyone give about as much a **** about Spyro as Crash Bandicoot nowadays? And I enjoyed those games too. All I'm saying is, they're taking a random concept, a random video game, and slapping Spyro on the front. OOPS, scratch that. Some elf is on the front instead. If this isn't an attempt to humiliate Spyro forever, I don't know what is.


 ..I wonder what exactly made Sony forget what the roots of video games are. It's like they forgot the PS1 and 2 existed after making the PS3.

[UncleBob]

I have been tolerating horrible Spyro game after horrible Spyro game since the "Legend of" series and the Dragonfly blasphemy, but there is a limit as to how much I tolerate video game companies constantly insulting my third favorite video game series ever. And I don't care how fun the game is, or how many useless characters there are. When you make a beloved video game icon LOOK like THAT, making today's generations remember him as looking like THAT, I mean damn!!

First, you complain about how horrible the "middle" Spyro games are, then say you don't care how fun the new game is?

Your major concern with the game is the sexual preference of Spyro's eyes or something?

[NintendoFanboy]

 nice that santa is willing to give out info on what is wanted, but santa needs to crunch some #'s
on that Windows 7 PC, before setting out with his Zune playing tunes on Christmas eve, keeping
in touch with his windows phone 7 back to home base.  So he can go home play
Wii and 3DS, Wait......  HUMMMMM.
 Crap i just want #'s baby!
LOL

[nhaines]

Just going to say that "gay" is never an acceptable perjorative to use.

Also when I visited with my Wii and Wii Sports Resort a couple weeks ago, it was popular enough with the kids that my friend picked one up with Mario Kart Wii (plus an extra controller and nunchuck) as a Christmas surprise.  Also because they got in on the 3DS Ambassador program just at the price drop, the kids play Super Mario Bros. constantly and in fact the 9yo immediately asked to play Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  When his older brother walked in, he said, "Seriously?  So lucky!"

So while I'm going to lend a couple Wii games (never play, really) and a GameCube controller and Windwaker, I'm also going to gift them Super Mario Bros. for the Virtual Console.

Sometimes the classics really do hold up, and Nintendo has really succeeded there.

[Shaymin]

Wow, Santa... I think this violates some kind of privacy laws or something.

The FTC already fined Santa US $2million.

[Cubelesswonder]

SilverQ: someone who loves purple cartoon dragons and yet is still a homophobe based on 'gay eyes'. It's sort of comforting to know that bigotry has to make such huge leaps these days.

[NWR_pap64]

*Caution* Lots of hate below. Sorry about that   Reached a breaking point and stuff. Again.

Dammit dammit dammit I am tired of fucking Skylanders!!! I have been tolerating horrible Spyro game after horrible Spyro game since the "Legend of" series and the Dragonfly blasphemy, but there is a limit as to how much I tolerate video game companies constantly insulting my third favorite video game series ever. And I don't care how fun the game is, or how many useless characters there are. When you make a beloved video game icon LOOK like THAT, making today's generations remember him as looking like THAT, I mean damn!! They couldn't make Spyro look any more GAY. I'm serious. His eyes are OFF CENTER for Christ's sake! Wouldn't anyone who enjoyed the Playstation 1 Spyro games as much as I did be just as pissed off? Or does everyone give about as much a **** about Spyro as Crash Bandicoot nowadays? And I enjoyed those games too. All I'm saying is, they're taking a random concept, a random video game, and slapping Spyro on the front. OOPS, scratch that. Some elf is on the front instead. If this isn't an attempt to humiliate Spyro forever, I don't know what is.


 ..I wonder what exactly made Sony forget what the roots of video games are. It's like they forgot the PS1 and 2 existed after making the PS3.

Sooooo...

You are openly admitting that you are willing to let your anger and hatred cloud your better sense of judgment because of some insanely high standards you have towards a game about cartoon monsters and toys, and think their design is "gay"?

WOW.... I mean WOW. If this is what gets you mad, then you must be leading the best life ever if this is as worse as it will get for ya. Once again... WOW.

But letting Silver's nerd rage aside, this is a great blog, Andrew! I remember when I used to be friends with Santa, and the kids all wanted a Wii or DS.

[SilverQuilava]

Noone even got what I said. I'm talking about that the ps1 games had the best gameplay and should be kept so with the normal looking Spyro in future games. Not something that looks like it has half a brain.

[UncleBob]

Noone even got what I said. I'm talking about that the ps1 games had the best gameplay and should be kept so with the normal looking Spyro in future games. Not something that looks like it has half a brain.

We got what you said.  You commented how great the gameplay was in the first Spyro games, then went on to say that you didn't care how great the gameplay was in the new one.

[NWR_pap64]

Unclebob already said it. We got what you were saying. That doesn't make it any less irrelevant to the case here.

First off... SPYRO WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AS HE WAS IN THE PSONE DAYS. The original development team has moved on, Sony lost the rights to the franchise. AGAIN, HE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.

If they tried to make a game exactly like the old ones, then they run the risk of either being too derivative or not enough like the original games, which is what happened with the games that came after the PSone games. With Skylanders, at LEAST they decided to get creative and bring forth something unique, captivating and fun.

If you don't care for that, fine. Go download the original games off of PSN on PSP or PS3 and relive what you think was Spyro's greatest moment. Just let kids and other gamers enjoy Skylanders and move on.

Oh and expect to hear more about Skylanders in the coming days, so either deal with it or leave the site altogether. Once more, let us enjoy the game for what it is. It is obvious that nothing we will say will convince you otherwise, so again let people be and MOVE ON.

[King Bowser Koopa]

Tsk... a flame war on an otherwise happy and fun blog post. Santa's watching you know, next year's presents might suck

[TJ Spyke]

Pedro, I don't think Sony ever had the rights to Spyro, all they did was publish the games.

[Ceric]

The funny thing was that the Skylander Development team started with a traditional Spyro game then moved to make a Mature Spyro and even got pretty far.  They hated it.  Went back to the drawing board knowing that they wanted to do something with the License and tried a lot of different things and Skylander Stuck.  Its a really good set of games.  I honestly don't think Spyro really even looks that different.  Especially the Figure.

[NWR_Neal]

Skylanders is way better than any previous Spyro game. Not saying all Spyro games were terrible (earlier ones were fun), but Skylanders is far and away the best Spyro-related game ever made.