@juicestand: They're not going to translate an RPG in order to bring it to the 3DS Virtual Console. That would take work, and the Virtual Console isn't about work. It's about throwing mostly-unedited ROMs at the buyers for a quick buck.

@dracosummoner: As I said in a thread further down, simply letting the parents set region-specific parental controls (allow up to a certain rating for Japanese games, a certain rating for American games, a certain rating for US games) would be the best solution IMO.

@Cobaltios: Amazing Japanese games I wouldn't be able to play if the regular DS/GBA had region locking: Rhythm Heaven, Ouendan, Ouendan 2. Not to mention that every time I've visited the US, I've bought a handful of DS games, a lot of which haven't made it here.

@LucerinRed: By the way, it should be said that from what I've understood, regular DS games are likely to be playable regardless of which region you've bought them from. DSi-specific games are apparently region-locked, but you can play any DS games on that platform. So one would think that there's simply no…

@LucerinRed: Good point, actually. I would, however, say that it's no more an issue for the 3DS than it is for the PS3 or Xbox (which is also mostly region-free).

@endaround: Oh, I know the main reason for region locking has always been to prevent people from getting games from cheaper areas. The whole "wah wah imports are costing regional sales" thing. It's another reason why I don't buy the "age rating" crap. It's just an excuse they're using to try to appease critics.

@SenkenZ: Nope, not with the PS3. The issue with MGS4 was that the program downloaded via the European store was set to recognize European gamesaves. Similarly, if there are differences between European and American versions of other games, one might find that downloadable content is set to only work with a…

"Different regions have different ratings systems. The region-locking allows us to provide the different parental controls to deal with the ratings in each territory."

@Salari: Someone else here at least pointed out something I missed: One will be able to map button presses to the touchscreen in Pro Mode. So you can play with 3P/3K mapped to the touchscreen without having to deal with walk-forward Sonic Booms and standing Flash Kicks.

@FlvAvi: Well, the lower screen is the same size as the DSi's screen... Which is to say, it's bigger than the Phat/Lite. This would make for better precision even if the resolution's the same.

@adam483t: Depends. If you're into fighting games, BlazBlue CS is a good purchase. It's the updated version of the game, too. Arkham Asylum should be easy to find cheap as heck these days, especially with Arkham City coming out, so skip that. Red Dead Redemption is one of 2010's best games, so that one's definitely…

@Ari Kagura: Oh, excellent. I missed that... Thought he was still talking about doing that in Simple Mode.

@topgeargorilla: [www.godzillabukkake.com]

@bkld18: This is Ryu we're talking about. You've GOTTA kill the hell out of him to take him down.

Adam's in the game too.

@SixTwoSixFour: I thought I saw Chun Li do a walk-forward Kikoken in the video, though. Considering how playing the charge characters is all about keeping your charge, and playing AGAINST charge characters is all about knowing when they've got charge, this is going to seriously imbalance the game.

Hey, they did what I thought they'd do... Make you able to map 3 buttons to the touchscreen.

Hmmmm. Okay, the fact that they're including Game Boy games instead of (or in addition to?) the usual Virtual Console stuff makes me reconsider my plans to get the US 3DS instead of the European one, if the rumors about region coding are true.

Found WarioWare DIY on the cheap, and thought I'd test out the engine a bit. This was partly a test to see if I could work around the sprite size restrictions. Happily, I could.

So four of the people here basically seem to have this as GOTY already. Looks like you've got your work cut out for you in getting a majority vote for your personal favorites, sirs Crecente, Fahey and Good.