Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Zuljaras I don't like doing that either but if they wont let me buy it but are fine with it streaming then I don't feel as bad.

@TheJGG It wasn't even a Nintendo soundtrack. Just the opening theme to an anime I really like. If I wanted I could pay 43 dollars, plus shipping to import the single on CD from some sketchy 3rd party seller on Amazon and it would arrive around April 25th apparently. Not happening for a single song. I'd be much less annoyed if it wasn't for streaming here. Because then it would just be likely they don't have an international publishing deal. I can understand that. But they are streaming, which means they do have an international deal only is only for streaming for reasons I don't understand.

Japan by and large still gets everything on CD. I've got a small mountain of soundtracks and albums I bought while I lived there. And music CDs have no region locking.

(also don't get me started on "the land of Democracy" @Eel will be forced to shut me down real quick because my honest opinions would not be welcome - spoiler, they're very impolite!)

Oh wow. I removed the Captain Toad cartridge from my Switch and launched Super Mario 3D All Stars for the first time in a really long time, and suddenly the Captain Toad theme starts playing, and it kind of killed my brain for a second.

I just found this about Super Mario Allstars on Wikipedia and I need to share it:
"The SNES version received critical acclaim and is one of the bestselling Super Mario games, with 10.55 million copies sold by 2015. Reviewers lauded Super Mario All-Stars as a must-have representing the SNES at its finest. They praised the effort that went into remastering the compilation's games and appreciated the updated graphics and music, but criticized its lack of innovation."

I'm sorry wtf innovation did you think you were gonna get for remakes on the Super Nintendo? I'm very confused on what critics wanted here.

PSA: When opening a stubborn butter tub, do NOT do it just using your fingernail. X_X Let's just say the top 1/3 portion of my right thumb nail bent itself back a little ways. It's back in place, but it definitely smarts.

@MarioLover92 The card were everywhere! Same with kids playing it on handheld systems. At least until I hit Jr. high and high school; then it became uncool and "kiddy". That was around the time the original muddy gray/brown shooters started taking over. XD I was in a small school system growing up, so there weren't many handheld gamers like yours truly to find past a certain age until I went off to college and found some like-minded folk.

I'll be keeping an eye out for that Mario drawing! Alternatively, you could just @ me. Sometimes I read this entire thread, but other times I'm pretty busy and mostly keep my posts to replies only.

@Zuljaras Haha, good point. Perhaps he'll eventually get used to being handled? I've heard of people keeping hedgehogs as pets, but I don't have any experience with them. It's illegal to own them in parts of the US and Canada. Not sure about their status with my state. From what I'm briefly finding, most domestic hedgehogs are different from your little guy.

@TheJGG I did listen to some of the Death Stranding soundtrack today. In terms of video game music, it's very different from what I'm used to. Not a criticism, just an observation. Unfortunately, I was so zoned into what I was doing while listening that it's hard for me currently to highlight the standout tracks. It makes for some easy listening when one is working! I'll try to pay better attention to which track is which next time.

I can see how both Donald and Goofy's voices would grate after several consecutive hours! Sounds like they've nailed their group dynamic. As you mentioned, it isn't like they've had many games to get this down or anything....

I'm...mixed on the lack of female modesty in some games. By nature I'm a pretty modest person, though I'm not against females being less modest in some games as long as it fits their character, profession, or, as you mentioned, if there's a legit story or in-universe reason. (I went ahead and read the Metal Gear spoiler as I doubt I'll ever get to the series, but I skipped the Torna one) Skimpy outfits just for the sake of it don't do anything for me and seem VERY impractical. For example, while I really enjoy fantasy in general, many, MANY fantasy games out there give the ladies impractical, skimpier versions of the outfits their male counterparts wear.

Looking forward to more Ghosts of Tsushima feedback!

Oh my god bending a nail is absolutely the worst.

I mean it's probably worse to break one off, but I'd rather don't think about that.

@Eel Wow cool, I didn't know Atlus posted albums. I do know Sega post theirs. I have an EP of Sonic GBA music on iTunes, and listen to the Nights Journey of Dreams on Spotify.

@Sunsy I've been able to find stuff from Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, and Etrian Odyssey. It took some digging around though, since some things are in Japanese and are thus hard to search for directly.

Capcom are quite cool in that regard as well, you can basically get every Resident Evil album on Apple Music, and some Monster Hunter ones too. Slightly hard to find too though.

Even the Pokemon Company. They're not up for streaming on Apple Music, but you can get full soundtracks for almost every main series game on iTunes. It's just missing Sword and Shield, and Ultra Sun/Moon. The OG first generation music is part of the Let's Go album, and Gen 2's is part of the HGSS album.

@Sunsy
Speaking about Sonic music.... 🤭

@Eel
I found a lot of Pokemon remixes songs from Youtube, even Super Eurobeat version as my favorite.

@Eel Thanks, I just looked up Pokemon Let's Go on iTunes. So it's called Pewter City theme... I've been calling it the Viridian City theme all these years. It makes me happy to see more game music become available.

@Anti-Matter I'm sorry to say, the remix wasn't my cup of tea. I love cartoons, probably an unpopular opinion, I wasn't into Spongebob.

I decided to take a vote to decide which game i should buy from Ebay (PS2 / PS3 / Wii / 3DS) as i keep struggling to choose 1 game and i got Wii from my vote paper.
Gosh... Wii again.
I think i will choose Spectrobes or Deca Sports games or any casual Wii games.

@Anti-Matter I have fan-made albums on apple music too. In terms of ripping music off youtube and adding it to my library, I did that a few times several years ago. But it's a bit annoying.

@Sunsy
Ow, sorry.
But i think you will like this Sonic Super Eurobeat remix.

@Anti-Matter No worries, I like plenty of cartoons. If you like it, that's cool with me.

Now this is a really cool remix of Hydrocity Zone's music, even Act 2's music which is actually one of my favorite Sonic series tracks.

@Tyranexx Aw jeez, that sounds painful. Glad to hear it's back in place.

And yeah I've seen many kids play Pokemon throughout pretty much most of my school days (before college, especially). I totally remember when shooter games became all the rage as well, especially when the Xbox 360 came out. Many guys were talking about stuff like Halo and Call of Duty as a result. I was made fun of for liking Nintendo as well, some other kid from middle school told me trash like "they make the worst games ever," which is totally untrue. lol

And yes, I'll @ you once it's done! I might have enough time to do more work on it. But it's getting late at my time zone so I should sleep soon.

I'm not going to hate, absolutely not; but I see next to zero appeal in playing retro, and I mean RETRO games on consoles such as NES, 2600, Master System, heck, even consoles like the SNES on a rainy day. Of course, I have a SNES Mini so that last one is very up in the air, and I can say that the quality of the games on SNES is really... really high. I'm not even joking, some of them are legitimately fun.

@MarioLover92 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a port of a Wii U game with all DLC slapped on, sells like hotcakes even now, almost four years after it came out; I think it's sold over twenty million copies, which is just insane considering the numbers for the original Mario Kart 8. It kinda makes sense to port all the good Wii U games to Switch but this can't be their long-term strategy, it screams preservation, little effort, and money, and seemingly leaves artistic merit to die in a fire.

Live chat is a joke, we've established that much at least. I can guarantee you that if we had a Nintendo Direct tomorrow, and Breath of the Wild's sequel was in that Direct, some people, SOME absolutely tiny insignificant minority will find a way to complain. Please keep these words in mind because I will hold myself to them when the game inevitably gets revealed.

In that I'm extremely glad the Smash DLC season is almost over. Ten fighters all done now, and only one to go. No-one will plug that overhype garbage in my newsfeed anymore, thank GOD. Good riddance.

@Heavyarms55 Alright that... that's poor. I can see the merits to having all your (not actually yours) music in one place but if you have an Internet blackout it's all gone. I still have digital copies on computer so it's much more convenient than streaming in one way. Plus if I get a collectors' edition of a game (rarely, unfortunately) I'll use the archaic CD drive, and transfer the songs that way. It ensures significantly good quality. I did it for the Zelda 25th Anniversary Orchestra songs, Xenoblade 2 Sound Selection, and the Twilight Princess HD Sound Selection.

Hope you do find a solution though, that must be a very difficult problem.

@Tyranexx Excellent! Awesome that you managed to listen to some of the licensed music. To be honest I've done the same thing when I have periods of intense pressure, so the music does a good job of making me focus. Of course there's the adverse effect, it could distract you if you get too engrossed in the music, but that shows more about the quality of the music than one's poor attention span.

But all things considered I absolutely agree that it's very unconventional video game music. In the game these songs are coded to play when you enter a specific area. The camera'll pan out, the sound effects will quiet down, and the song plays. I've missed a few of them because I took some rather unconventional delivery routes at times, but they play at the best possible moments. Thing is, they play just once out in the field, and you'll never hear them again like that. Only way to replay them is to find them in your private room music player. It doesn't have the same feeling.

Some of the times they've played changed the very atmosphere of the game in the moment. They change it from the feeling of just another delivery, to something special, something meaningful.

I haven't attacked KH3 since Saturday but all things considered it hasn't put me off permanently. I cleared the Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), so when I get back in I'll have to travel over to the Toy Box to experience the story of Toy Story all over again. Other worlds I've seen in promotional material and gameplay are Monstropolis (Monsters Inc), Arendelle (Frozen), The Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean), The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh, who was censored in China because of his political connotations to Xi Jinping), and San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6, my personal favourite of all and the world I'm most excited to visit).

In researching for the Metal Gear posts I spoilt Quiet's character for me as well. I really like Kojima's game direction style (except for when he really likes to waste your time, like when he throws a 33 minute cutscene at you, or a one hour credits sequence) so I may get into the series. Not necessarily because of Quiet but the naming customs are really strange. You have characters like Hot-Coldman, Fatman, Naked Snake, and a final boss called "The End". If you start the fight, and save during the fight, turn off your console and come back in a week, the boss would have died of old age. I like that.

There's no real solution to female modesty and exposure in video games. If developers stop revealing skin then some people will criticise them for being too politically correct. I'd assume game developers like to take risks and not keep everything the same. Of course if developers begin mo-capping love scenes that's just over the top. Some things have optional workarounds, like... God why am I bringing this up... Cyberpunk 2077. You have the option to blur out male and female modesties. I find the nudity in that game very gimmicky, because for one, even if you spend half an hour customising your avatar it's very difficult to go and take a look at it, since the whole game is in first person view.

In my opinion Cyberpunk's the worst offender in the female exposure debacle, there's no point dodging the target. As you observe and as I use for this argument; there is no reason that this game had to contain full-frontal exposure for either gender. Yes it makes the game more realistic and yes you'll appeal to the LGBTQ fans if particular body parts aren't exclusive to specific genders, but it felt like it was way too much.

Just do the Harry Potter method and give everyone long draping robes that don't accentuate form in any way. Of course hiding oneself isn't the way to go though.

Oh, and get well soon. I don't get into accidents much but when I do they're embarrassing and painful. I was swimming a few days ago and smashed my head into the wall after I finished swimming backstroke. The pool has a shallow area to put your feet in and I got confused.

@Tyranexx Yes most domestic hedgehogs are called African hedgehog. They are white.

Our rascal is European hedgehog and very little percentage of them are used as pets

@TheJGG I like retro games quite a lot personally, especially the 16-bit era. That generation pretty much took what the NES did, except made even better. Both the SNES and the Sega Genesis (you may know it as the Mega Drive) had truly awesome games - some of my favorite games of all time are from those two consoles! Admittedly, part of the reason why was because I played consoles like the SNES and the N64 as a kid. (I was born when the SNES wasn't even a year old in the US.) But yeah, some old games haven't really stood the test of time that well. I find the original Metroid on the NES pretty hard to go back to, for example. Especially since there's a remake that improves on the original in every way (Metroid: Zero Mission).

I'm positive that Nintendo won't keep rereleasing their Wii U classics for long. I feel like they had to do it, solely because the Wii U bombed hard (the poor thing only sold 13.56 million units). If the Wii U became even a moderate success, they wouldn't have done such a thing and we would have gotten stuff like a brand new Mario Kart and the next Donkey Kong Country by now. Those will totally come in due time. We may have to wait for their next console, but they'll come.

Yeah, you're probably right about that BotW sequel thing. Some guys sure love to complain. I'm not one of those guys and I'd like to keep it that way...I like being positive, lol. We've got two more characters to go for SSBU's fighters pass, by the way.

@MarioLover92 I opened a board game cabinet and admired my SNES Mini a few hours ago. It’s such a pristine, solid, well made box with a sleek UI and 21 fantastic games. I want to set it up but every HDMI switch I have is used!

I’ve done a lot of studying into video game history, and am writing a book about it. I came across the Sega-Nintendo console wars in like six or seven different books so I’m very well versed in that. One book I wouldn’t trust is Console Wars because it takes actual factual info from interviews and turns it into a book, surgically subtracting the most important ingredient; accuracy. Every single conversation in that book is made up so I could only use small details like “Kalinske used the Kiss radio station in his Genesis marketing campaign,”. Of course my writing’s better than that but it was frustrating. Either way I’m catching up.

I believe you’re absolutely right about Nintendo’s current strategy. It seems we’ll have to wait to get an actual new game from them. But they must surely... SURELY have something worthwhile under their sleeves. I mean, they had a Paper Mario game, and Age of Calamity under wraps for so long and they were for the most part unleaked.

Two more fighters? Damn that’ll take us to July. More bigotry about fighters. Maybe Sakurai’ll finally budge and give them Waluigi. I say them because at this point I don’t care one bit what fighters get it anymore.

@TheJGG They did say that all the DLC fighters would be available by the end of 2021. I doubt that Waluigi would make it in the game, since he's an assist trophy. Unless they find a way to disable specific assist trophy characters if a certain character is being played.

Cool to see that you're writing a gaming history book. And yeah, the SNES Classic is a nice mini console. It has a good selection of games overall. Kinda wish more of my favorites made it in, but it's definitely a good one. The Genesis Mini is also very good, it actually has twice as much games as the SNES Classic. I was gonna get the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, but decided against it. Whose brilliant idea was it to have games entirely in Japanese???