Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Metroid and Pokemon are pretty much the only series I've seen that really do remakes right (and even then Pokemon peaked with HGSS whereas its more recent remakes have been a bit more lacking, especially LGPE). Those games and SM64DS are the only remakes I've seen that aren't glorified copy/paste jobs with barely noticeable graphical updates that you need a magnifying glass to spot. In general, you can lump remakes in with ports and remasters because they're all just recycling old games and doing next to nothing to legitimately improve the gameplay, design, or content, it's basically the same experience all over again. I want to see what these games would be like if they were designed today, not just play them the same way I did back in the day.

@kkslider5552000

That's not where I'm coming from. It's a complicated issue.

Remakes can be good, in isolation. I'm not denying that. (One of my all-time favorite games is Halo 2, but only the Anniversary edition. The original's rushed, botched art direction is hard to warm up to. Yes, Halo 2 is more of a remaster than a remake, but the re-done graphics are a massive, top-to-bottom overhaul.)

However, from the point of view of videogame preservation and evolution, it's not a scalable prospect. You can't remake every old game out there, at frequent intervals, so they keep up with the times.

More importantly, remakes tend to make the original games obsolete, in terms of availability and the cultural conversation around them. And this, to me, is problematic, because part of the appeal of old games, what makes them meaningful, is that they do things differently. You have to adjust to them and, in the best of cases, learn from that adjustment and be surprised at ideas and mechanics modern games have left behind, not always for the better. Remakes, from this point of view, are a sort of erasure.

I prefer stuff like Sega Ages titles, which might increase the resolution and add quality-of-life options or new modes, but still basically preserve the original experiences, with their historical and artistic interest more-or-less intact.

I think there’s isn’t too much remasters or releases. There are so many games I and many others got to experience on current gen systems that we would have missed out had they not been re-released or remastered. There are some remakes that in my opinion are inferior to the original such as FF7 and Mario 64 DS. There are many more games that should be re-released that gamers born after the 1990s and 2000s would never have played.

@Don

Oh, I agree: the more re-releases, the merrier. I just prefer the Steam, GOG, or --yes-- Virtual Console model, where old videogames are simply available, ready to pick up on the digital store. We don't have to wait around for them to be re-released, remastered, or what-have-you, every five or so years.

Someone in this thread literally just said the opposite happens lol.

Wow...I never noticed that until now.

That is more of a capcom problem than anything. I still feel like they are still on their “we heart the west” kick so onimusha may just be the one re-release. I would do something extreme for a remake like the resident evil games. It borrowed the old RE engine for crying outloud. I would also like a port of onimusha tactics. actually I have a list of games capcom is sitting on.

I think it is fair that some companies re-release the final version of the original game (for instance there are a few version of OoT including one that ticked off a religious group so that version is never to be ported) as the idea is tugging the strings of the person that played the original. QoL features are for remakes and remasters.

I am more surprised we don’t have many collections from IP holders in general. I mean a lot of those aren't bc on last gen (ps4/xbone) so why not? I do wish that Nintendo wouldn’t wait until anniversaries to make collections though. Like isn’t it time for a pikmin collection? Or a full zelda (perhaps in parts) collection?

At this point I'd rather the Zelda collection not happen at all than be as half-assed as 3D All Stars was. I'm not going to buy it because literally nothing about it really differs from what can be accomplished just by emulating those games instead.

3D All Stars might be like easily one of the biggest cash grabs of this entire year next to the MGS GOG ports

@Slowdive It wouldn't be as big an issue if these were the original experience. It's more that in many ways it feels like these games would play better on original hardware.

But honestly, I don't have any interest in the original version of any of those titles. the 3DS / Wii U versions of those 4 titles are strictly superior in my opinion, one that seems to be generally shared amongst forum-goers at least. I have no interest in going back to the N64 version of Majora's Mask or the GCN version of Wind Waker in particular, with both games having many much needed changes in later versions.

@TheFrenchiestFry Nah, 3D All Stars is nowhere near "biggest cash grab". If you want to see what a cash grab really looks like, see the Nintendo system versions of FIFA games, IGN's review of FIFA 21 Legacy Edition perfectly sums it up.

@Grumblevolcano True true EA is full of it.

@Grumblevolcano Important distinction is that Nintendo made a cash grab and EA made an EA game

Whats the latest in the direct thread? Is it happening?

@ToadBrigade Nope, it would not be easier.

Super Mario All Stars is emulated. This means that you basically program a virtual version of the console, which runs the original code.

Now, this is harder than porting of course. But the nice thing about emulation is once you've written the emulator, it can play every single game on the system without any further coding. And having seen the code for this emulator elsewhere, I know they implemented not only features that are required for Super Mario Sunshine (for instance) in the GCN emulator, but also many other more obscure features such as bounding box (which is only used in like, 4 games).

So now, they can proceed to release basically any N64 or GCN game they want (and some Wii), just by tossing the existing ROM file (the data that was on the disc/cart when it was originally released) into the existing emulator. That's how VC worked in previous generations, since they could do one build and suddenly have basically every game on the system working.

That said... Majora's Mask is notably prone to crashing in basically all of NIntendo's official emulations of it, and Twilight Princess is a game that is very difficult to emulate (The minimap doesn't like emulation and the lighting system breaks if you change the resolution of the game), so if we get emulated versions they'll almost certainly be strictly worse than the originals, never mind the prior remakes.

@NintendoByNature Seems like a whole lot of nothing. Wonder if we'll get a Partner Showcase this month or not.

@BenAV I can see that happening in the next week or so. Even a general direct saying what's up for 2021.

@BenAV Well we definitely know there's at least 1 Partner Showcase left before the end of the year given the announcement in the September Partner Showcase. Seems most likely that we get a Partner Showcase by the end of October and then that's it for Partner Showcases this year with any Nintendo event presence in November being a general Direct or Nintendo appearing in the next Xbox event.

The Bethesda purchase and EA Play for Game Pass announcements made me notice that everyone which gets close with Microsoft either gets bought or there's some Game Pass deal of which there's 3 that's not true for currently (Ubisoft, SEGA and Nintendo).

• Ubisoft has focused on Xbox marketing for years now most notably this year when Assassin's Creed Valhalla was hyped up as the big news of the infamous May Inside Xbox and Phil Spencer even appeared on an Ubisoft Forward event. Ubisoft Forward is also an official Xbox youtube playlist.
• SEGA has been closer with Xbox since last year like with Yakuza (0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, Like a Dragon) and Phantasy Star Online 2. This is the closest they've been since the OG Xbox days of exclusives like Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta.
• Nintendo was closer with Xbox since last year. Banjo and Steve in Smash as well as some Xbox exclusives for Switch. Sure there was stuff before then like the Mario Minecraft collaboration on Wii U but I think the more notable signs of being close were during last year and this year.

My guesses are Ubisoft either has Uplay+ on Game Pass or Ubisoft being bought, SEGA having a Game Pass deal including bringing back those OG Xbox exclusives and Switch gets Game Pass/xCloud.

@TheFrenchiestFry 60$ for 60h of my gaming time it is not a cash grab in my books lol

@ToadBrigade I would say you should not expect a collection of HD remakes as they will most likely sell those at 60$ each (only in cartrige space would be quite the task)

The flip side to this is that we know that Nintendo has a clear set of procedures for porting Wii U games to Switch. TP HD and WW HD are likely to be much easier ports than, say, Pikmin 3. Porting those versions also means they don't have to deal with things like the Tingle Tuner references and the more recent code is probably better documented.

I'm certainly expecting that at some point we'll see GCN games on Switch via that emulator. I just don't think that WW and TP will be amongst them. They'd be frankly crazy to when the HD versions exist.

I also think that porting the 3DS games might end up being easier for Nintendo than up-rezzing the original N64 versions and reworking the sprite work (the Mario 64 in 3D All Stars has had some work put into it - it isn't just a ROM chucked into an emulator, even though it is far less work than they could have done).