Hey guys, I decided to make a thread to call attention to one of our major features here, the Game Database. I'll probably bump it from time to time to let everyone know about new hot games that have been added that you can add to your collections or rate.

First, let me explain a few things about rating games and adding them to your collection. Everyone (yes, even you -1ers!) can rate games and add them to your collection. This is a pretty simple process. Go up to the menu above and select GAMES -> Game Database, or just CLICK HERE. You will see a list of titles you can browse, and you can also search for specific titles with the search feature at the top, and even add games you can't find with the little bar at the top right above the search functionality that says "Submit a Game (keywords)". To add a game to your collection you check the box under "Owned" next to the game, and to rate it you select a number under "You" (you can add without rating and vice versa, if you want to). You can do one game or a whole page at a time, and when you are ready to submit your collection and ratings updates, click the "CLICK TO UPDATE THIS PAGE OF YOUR COLLECTION AND RATINGS" bar that can be found at either the top or bottom. Simple!

You can also rate games and add them to your collection from the individual game pages that you access when you click on any game from the main game page. For instance, if you were on the Mario Party 6 page there is a box in the top right where you can add it to your collection or rate it and click the "PUSH" button to update.

Now, let me explain something about writing game reviews. Again, everyone (yes, even you -1ers!) can write reviews for the site. This is a pretty simple process. Like before, go up to the menu above and select GAMES -> Game Database (or just CLICK HERE. Select the game you want to review (you can use the search at the top to find games quickly) and click on it. Near the top right of the page for that individual game you will see "Add a review" with a little plus next to it. Click the plus, write your review, choose a score (or not, if you don't like scoring reviews) and submit. Easy as pie!

And don't worry about not being formal enough, or sticking to a specific review format, or whatever. As long as you can write a paragraph or two and put your thoughts into a semi-coherent form, everything is good. Also, reviews of older games are totally acceptable, for instance I recently posted a WarioWare: Twisted! review of mine that I wrote like 6 years ago or whatever.

Alright, that's all I have for now. Use the features guys!

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@Mr_Mustache
Actually, after researching it, the PS3 isn't even getting a disc, just a physical box with a pin in it and a download code. I guess it's possible Nintendo made the same deal for the Wii U, but if so, no one else has mentioned it yet. Interesting that there's no XBLA version though.

Game Informer Article Here

Mr_Mustache said:

@Davoid

Still catching up on life. Been outta town the last two weekends. Boxes will have their time in the sun again soon!

It's alright. By the way, I bought "Renegade" this week-end... And I also found out that the boxart was missing.

@Davoid

I think a lot of the deep alphabet stuff is still TBD. It just takes so long. I'll have a nice session soon. I keep saying that..but soon.


Hey. Hey. 2AM is no time to be alone in the subway..

Alright, the most recent page of game additions has the Consoles (discs and cartridges) all taken care of.

Also added for Wii U: Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff. Add to your Wanted List today!!

SteamWorld Dig is in the database, but shouldn't it be fully titled...?

The full title is "SteamWorld Dig ~A Fistful of Dirt~"

@Davoid

I've seen that subtitle in various places, but I don't think it's part of the official title of the game. I've checked several sources, and the official title I always see excludes the fistful of dirt portion.

@roykoopa64 alright then. Did you finish it, btw?

Oh, I actually haven't played it yet! I added it to the database and have heard good things about it; it's a game I may want to check out later on. I notice you're the only who has rated the game so far, though I know at least one other person who has played it (but I suppose they didn't update it in the database).

@Davoid
@roykoopa64

Speaking of official game titles..isn't Super Empire Strikes Back actually "Super Empire Strikes Back" and not "Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back?" Pretty sure my label says SESB...

@Mr_Mustache

The logo sure does it make it confusing:



But you're right, if you look at the cartridge itself, it does say Super Empire Strikes Back on the side:



At nintendo.com it's Super Empire Strikes Back.
At gamefaqs it's Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

I think the official title is Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back like it says in the database, and Super Empire Strikes Back is a shorthand notation (since the full title would be hard to read on the side of the cart?).

@roykoopa64

I think GameFAQs is wrong in this case, actually.

We can leave it though it you want to. It is probably named as such to group them (but a game like Adventure of Link is just called "Zelda II," not "The Legend of Zelda II," so they WOULDN'T be alphabetically together; IronSword and Wizards & Warriors either.).

If we're going to be this technical, then New Play Control! Pikmin is in the database as Pikmin (NPC). This is also true for Pikmin 2, however the North American version dropped the "New Play Control!" label since it's part of the Nintendo Selects line, and is just called Pikmin 2 now. So I don't know which title you'd prefer to use, but it isn't Pikmin 2 (NPC).

I made some big changes to the database preparing to allow for non-Nintendo platforms. Yep, it's on the way in the future. But for now, this.

Basically virtual console is no longer a platform, but is now its own field. I went and updated all of the couple of hundred games we have in our database that are on the various virtual consoles. Hope I didn't miss anything. Not sure how we are going to keep this up-to-date consistently, but there are some nice lists on wikipedia that can be sorted by date and such, so that should help. Of course, if someone wanted to volunteer to check the weekly VC releases and update every week, that'd be kind of neat. I forget who actually has access to editing the game database though.

I also added all of the virtual console platforms to the database as their own platforms. So, starting now, you can add ANY game from those platforms, even if it is not on VC. Just select the "No" option for VC when adding if it isn't on VC yet. We'll roll with this for awhile and make sure everything is working smoothly before adding random non-Nintendo platforms.

I added some new filter options too. One for games on virtual console, of course. Another that is basically for if you only want to see games that can be played on Nintendo platforms, you can just select Nintendo = Yes and it shows all Nintendo platform games + non-Nintendo platform games available on VC. It doesn't really do much yet though, since every game in our database at the moment is either on a Nintendo platform or VC. But it works, I tested it.

I also added a default "No image available" image that will be used for any platform that doesn't have its own default image. I may just get rid of default platform images period and use this image for any game without a cover. Or not. We'll see.

Only Nintendo platform + VC games can be reviewed.

Any game on any platform will be able to have a game discussion thread, but only Nintendo platform + VC games' discussion threads will be on our content pages / feeds.

Etc. blah blah blah. See Stephen, like I said, a lot more work than just flipping a switch! But we're almost there.

If you notice any glitches, missing images, etc., let me know. It's tough sometimes to get every little place first try in the pages and pages of code that hit certain things.

Zero said:

I forget who actually has access to editing the game database though.

Anyone who is -4 or above, soooo..NOT ME.

Oh, and also, "non-Nintendo platforms in the NW database" is the beginning of the end. It was in the Bible, I think.

After some discussion I decided that things like Wii U and Wii U eShop, 3DS and 3DS eShop, etc. will no longer be separate platforms. With a whole bunch of games going both retail and digital now, that line is getting blurred, and will continue to do so even more in the future, so it really doesn't make much sense to keep these as separate platforms. Instead there will be a new "format" field which can be set as retail, digital, or both.

This doesn't mean that we can't filter by eShop (for 3DS eShop, for instance, you would just filter by platform: 3DS, format: digital only (for eShop games not at retail) or format: digital all (for anything on the eShop)), do top 10 lists for eShop, have GOTYs for eShop, etc. I'm still going to keep that around as well, I will just have to change the code a bit to make it work.

@Zero

So..if someone downloads New Super Luigi U, does that qualify as "Both?"

If so: dumb. Just go to Nintendo.com (its their systems, you know), and allow THEM to make the distinction.
They have NSLU as a Console release, and Ken's Rage as a Digitial one. I'm aware this is Console overseas.

Yep, NSLU would be "both".

Not dumb, makes perfect sense for database accuracy.

@Zero

You're right, Nintendo.com is probably wrong.

@Zero What about a DLC category? There's only going to be more of it in the future.

I'm choosing to go with a more accurate designation that allows more filtering options for our users. For instance, someone might be sitting at home thinking "I want a new Wii U game, RIGHT NOW, let me check NW quick and see what there is on the eShop" and if we had NSLU marked "console", it wouldn't show up and they wouldn't know it's also an eShop game.

Also "console" makes no sense as a label since all of the games are on the console. "Retail" versus "digital" makes way more sense.

So yeah, actually, in this case our database will be better designed, for our purposes, than Nintendo.Com's. Theirs may be better designed for their purposes. There is no right and wrong here.

@Mop it up I'll probably add that in the future, but for now I'm just trying to get this transition done. Adding DLC will require a bit more thought of how to link it to the original game, etc.