AtlanteanMan

It's nice. Just not enough to justify the asking price. Once you get into the $20 or $30 range, most shmups simply don't hold enough value for me to click "Buy".

It was a wise call to bundle Wii Sports with the hardware. Not only was it an ideal game to introduce users to the Wiimote, but honestly I doubt that it would have done nearly as well as a standalone product. It was fun for get-togethers and maybe for a little while by oneself, but it simply didn't have enough content or variety to offer any sort of staying power.

Here's another idea: don't announce another Sonic game or compilation until Sega has released at least 3 to 5 games/compilations from OTHER franchises in its vast catalog. Saturn, Dreamcast, Arcade, it doesn't matter, just STOP focusing on only one IP while letting the rest collect decades of dust. Oh, and how about actually making the effort to do them in-house instead of outsourcing them to dubious results (examples: Panzer Dragoon and House of the Dead Remake)?

My personal Wish List:

1) Shining Force III Remake
2) Skies of Arcadia Remaster
3) Sega Arcade Collection (think the size and scale of BOTH of Capcom's Arcade compilations, from Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, and Pengo through the Model 2 days).
4) Dragon Force Compilation Remaster
5) LandStalker
6) Panzer Dragoon Saga Remake

I don't mind Sega making a bunch of Sonic games and remakes; I do mind them doing so while ignoring the rest of what once made their company arguably the most prolific and outstanding publishers in the entire industry...along with countless memories for hobbyists lucky enough to experience them.

UPDATE: "Assisted Mode" supposedly slowly refills hearts and orbs over time. So definitely not the same as Tunic's (a vastly superior game on every level, btw) No Fail mode. I tried it for several minutes with the setting turned on and saw absolutely no difference, and the horrible mechanical issues are still fully present.

In summary, I personally suggest that you don't waste your time; Baldor is still the same broken mess.

If "Assisted Mode" means not dying endlessly to horrible mechanics (like being attacked while you're in the inventory screen or having to stand in place while using an item), who knows, I may just bother to revisit it. Otherwise, Baldo was an immense disappointment with so much missed potential.

I'm honestly not surprised, though it is more than ironic in a time when so many folks are talking about the objectification of women that a lot of Japanese games/IPs get a pass for absolutely flagrant violations. Kitty ears and bunny ears galore, skimpy (or physically impossible) outfits, and let's not forget all those "waifus" that look suspiciously like eight year-olds. "Oh, it's just a Japanese thing", some folks might say as they try to laugh it off, but seriously, a lot of this stuff ranges from obnoxious to downright creepy to simply offensive. Funny that Nintendo delayed a cartoony strategy game like Advance Wars: Reboot Camp over concern for potential sensitivity regarding the war in Ukraine but they're fine with this stuff on a routine basis. Double standards is all I'm saying.

You know, my feelings wouldn't be hurt if they pushed this one back again to address some of this stuff. At least include an option for the ladies to be more tastefully attired, at any rate.

The Konami brand used to really mean something back when they were one of the hobby's top 5 developers. Sadly, they and other Japanese companies like Sega completely lost sight of what made them beloved household names.

I'd go for those. I'd also go for the old Arce coin-op Star Wars and Super Star Wars Arcade, for that matter (of course I'm not holding my breath).

Now if Nintendo would just announce a firm, final, and preferably imminent release date for the Advance Wars title they unwisely "delayed indefinitely" over the war in Ukraine. If videogames got delayed every time some war or act of violence happened many of them would probably never see release, and there are PLENTY of titles and IPs whose themes and graphic violence are far more deserving than a cartoony, bloodless strategy game like AW.

Of course I won't be holding my breath for it to happen. Knowing Nintendo, they may simply never release AW while hoping we all simply forget about it over time.

All of us who were waiting on Advance Wars when it suddenly got pulled "indefinitely" would love to see a similar announcement for that game. Please get it done, Nintendo, and release it SOON.

I'm not "feeling it", really, even though it's on my Wish List. While I played over 200 hours of Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U (my personal introduction to the franchise), neither XC nor XC2 have managed to hold my attention for more than a few hours before I backlog them indefinitely. Maybe it's those battle cries that you have to endure dozens of times during a single fight (let alone hundreds of them), maybe it's the obligatory creatures (whose names I can't even recall, which should tell you how much I cared about them) whose sole purpose for existing is for comic relief and questionable humor, maybe it's the "mash buttons ad nauseam" battle mechanics, but IMHO the mainline series is overrated.

I would actually be stoked to see a Switch version of Xenoblade Chronicles X announced, though; it felt like a better and more realized, offline Phantasy Star in a lot of ways.

Every one of us has his/her personal wish lists. And every one of us knows, deep down, that Nintendo never fails to disappoint when it comes to what "ought" to happen. Some examples: including Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the Mario 35th Anniversary Collection, having no 35th Anniversary compilation for Zelda (or Metroid, for that matter), no DLC boards or characters for either Switch iteration of Mario Party, no ability to permanently purchase individual legacy games instead of getting scalped to subscribe to Switch Online (I personally am NEVER going to bother with the "Upgraded" version), no Xenoblade Chronicles X on Switch (just to tick off Xenoblade completionists), and no option for their consumers to choose for themselves whether a cartoony military strategy title (Advance Wars) was "inappropriate" given the war in Ukraine.

I'm not saying that none of these things will ever happen, but Nintendo's record with the Switch has hit-and-miss in terms of opportunities not explored. Most of all, we should all know full well by now that Nintendo does their own thing, period.
Which is why I don't hold my breath or waste time regarding baseless speculation. I'll become interested once there are actual games/content announced with firm release dates (that don't get yanked at the last week).

I actually learned how to play the board game by playing the Switch version, and the digital iterations have the added bonus of actual bird songs and animations when you place a card. It's a great, relaxing, and deceptively deep strategic card game for 1-5 players (in any combination of human and AI) that I highly recommend, in any version, and I am definitely looking forward to the European Expansion as well as any others that Monster Couch might port down the line.

My Switch is already a one-stop hub for dozens upon dozens of retro games across the Arcade Classics and various compilations.
I have Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 and am looking forward to seeing what this one might offer.

60-plus Arcade coin-ops (not counting their fighting game-centric compilations) by Capcom makes them easily one of Switch's most prolific publishers in this arena, and such efforts have me wishing and hoping others will do more going forward. I really wish Midway would release one as they did for previous console generations, and that Namco would put together a better and more thorough collection than their current one on Switch. But hands down the company with the most still-unreleased Arcade coin-ops is Sega; I would pre-order a thorough compilation of their classics from the early 1980s through the 2000s the instant it went up for sale.

Delaying a cartoony game for having a military theme was, IMHO, just a stupid mistake on Nintendo's part to try and avoid negative PR that would not have happened anyway (and if it did, a huge percentage of overall videogame titles including many that are vastly more graphic and photo realistic would have had to join it). Nobody whose life doesn't revolve around creating "controversy" to suck the joy out of everyone else's would link Advance Wars to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and even if such individuals did crawl out from under their rocks they're not worth listening to because they wouldn't have bought the game anyway.

Fix this mistake and just get this game a firm and FINAL release date, Nintendo (preferably SOON as I had it preordered and am anxious to play it, especially the multiplayer).

@ShadowofTwilight22 Oh, it's you again. What can I say; the validation for my post is literally everywhere: this article, the few Sega IPs that get remakes/remasters being outsourced to third parties or Kickstarters, Sonic movies, Sonic fuzzy controllers, new Sonic games, a Sonic article seemingly every other day here on NL...I could go on, but surely you get my point, whether you agree with or like it or not.

I'm not going away until Sega gets back on the beam and starts becoming a multifaceted, AAA developer/publisher again. And I won't stop "crapping on" Sonic until I see them give me reason to believe their myopic focus on him isn't in the way of that. So you may as well accept it; your responses won't stop me from posting. Have a nice day.

Yet another Sega IP outsourced to other developers, and typically with mixed results. If you want to know why I have come to despise Sonic, look no further than how Sega has treated almost all of their other beloved IPs.

@AlexanderDaniels One has to wonder if perhaps there was deliberate timing by SquareEnix to "correct" their original statement regarding the OST being included until JUST AFTER digital preorders had been locked down on the eShop. In any case, the fact they made such a claim in the first place before redacting it less than a week from release is not a good look at all. How much of an imposition would it really be for them to patch in the option for the OST as a way of saying, "Sorry, we messed up" and making it up to players?

Okay, I've played some of the demo and LOVE the fact that you can switch the language to English (thereby instantly making a purchase from the Japanese eShop viable if necessary). That said, I admit to being a little confused; selecting either Layer Section or Galactic Attack results in seemingly the exact same game coming up onscreen, with the same weapons, enemy patterns, music, etc.. Are these two distinct games or actually two different iterations of the same one?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can explain this situation to me. Aside from this it looks like a solid shooter.

The Sega Saturn is hands down the most underrated console in the hobby's history. Some of the very greatest RPGs and SRPGs like Shining Force III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Dragon Force, great Arcade ports like Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship, and Virtua Fighter 2, a slew of fantastic original titles like Clockwork Knight 1 and 2, Bug!, Burning Rangers, Nights: Into Dreams, 3 Dirty Dwarves, and Panzer Dragoon 1 and 2, amazing shmups like Radiant Silvergun and ThunderForce V, and probably the best WWII-era turn-based strategy title that ever came West: Iron Storm.

Oh yes, there's a compilation's worth of deserving games and then some if Sega would ever just make it (or let someone else do so). And I would grab any and all of these games DAY ONE if they were brought back.

Did anyone else happen to notice that Hamster didn't have an Arcade Archives release this past week? That breaks a streak that had been pretty much since the Switch launched, if memory serves. I really hope it isn't a sign of something bad (like what happened to M2's Sega Ages line WAY prematurely).

@Crono1973 You missed my point; Nintendo hardware has never historically been focused on cutting edge visuals or system power so much as new concepts or gimmicks. With Twilight Princess it showcased the novelty of the Wiimote (and later this was refined in Skyward Sword). With BotW it was a Zelda on a scale never before seen that you could play docked or take with you on the go.

Sure, one could say the same for Super Mario World (SNES) and especially Super Mario 64 (N64) regarding past showcase launch titles, and for similar reasons (Mode 7 for the former and the debut of fully 3D environments and analog stick controls with the latter). But by and large Nintendo has shifted to emphasizing Zelda with system launches since then. Both are evergreen IPs, but there's no question as to which one generates the most passion, excitement, and anticipation for fans. As such, Zelda is the ideal franchise with which to bookend and bridge console generations.

I feel disappointment due to the delay more than some others here because I personally am not interested in most of what Nintendo has so far announced for 2022. It especially stung coming on the heels of Advance Wars' "indefinite" delay, because I was really looking forward to it Kirby's okay so far and I plan to give Mario Strikers a go, and of course I'm already signed up for MK8's Booster Course Pass. Beyond that, however, I have never had any interest in Pokemon, the first two "mainline" Xenoblade Chronicles games couldn't hold my interest so I'm kind of ambivalent about XC3, and Splatoon's "culture" just turns me off. I am looking forward to several third-party releases such as Live-A-Live, Mario & Rabbids 2, the TMNT compilation, and others, but personally BotW 2's delay creates a void of truly flagship-quality games in Nintendo's lineup where I am concerned.

That said, assuming the delay actually is about refining and improving BotW 2 as much as possible before launch (as opposed to say, lining its release up for a "hybrid" launch alongside the Switch's successor), I can live with it. The end result will almost certainly be a polar opposite of 343's Halo Infinite dumpster fire. Disappointing anxious fans by delaying a flagship game in order to make it the best it can be is ALWAYS better than rushing it out before it's truly ready.

Let's not forget that BotW was itself a "hybrid" release for both Switch and the Wii U (and before that, Twilight Princess was timed for both the Wii and GameCube). The Zelda series kind of has a history of that because it is, after all, arguably more of a "showcase" than Mario for any new hardware. As others have noted, it wouldn't be all that surprising to see BotW 2 and/or Metroid Prime 4 turn out to "bridge" the last hurrah of the Switch and the launch of its successor. If so, the question will be how many consumers will even bother to buy them for Switch if that's the case.

While I am disappointed by this announcement, obviously, I highly suspect the end product will be better received by fans than, say, Halo Infinite. There's a way to do flagship titles...taking the time necessary to make them the absolute best they can be and giving the greatest value possible to the end consumer...and there's a way not to do so; we're seeing a clinic on both right now.

Glad that I was able to enjoy TUNIC over the past couple of weeks. Great Zelda-like with its own distinct identity. I highly recommend it if you happen to own either an XBox or Steam.

Unfortunately, it looks as if it will be the closest any of us can get to a "Zelda" fix for awhile now.

@sanderev I'm not into Pokemon at all, and while I added Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to my earlier post, the "mainline" Xenoblade games have so far been unable to hold my interest. As for Splatoon 3, I have played both of its predecessors, but it's a pass for me as well; the "culture" of it has just become a turn-off.

First the "indefinite" delay of Advance Wars (which frankly should never have happened because a cartoony turn-based strategy game was never going to evoke associations with the war in Ukraine), and now this. Not a glowing start to 2022, Nintendo.

I too want BotW 2 to be released when it's as great as can be even if that means another delay, but honestly this one really hurts. Kirby's okay and Mario Strikers looks promising, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is nice even if I can't bring myself to finish either of its two predecessors (I would really love to see X announced, though, as I played over 200 hours of it on the Wii U), and sure, that Booster Course Pass for MK8 gives us something periodically to look forward to, but suddenly Nintendo's first-party offerings for the year are yet again looking second-tier and too few and far between.

Patches are nice, but this game is begging for DLC support in the form of additional boards, minigames, etc.. Given Nintendo's uneven track record on that front, however, I'm not holding my breath.

Hmm, my least favorite of Mario and Zelda...that's tough since generally they're all excellent and have great production values. I guess if I have to qualify such a decision, it would be by which game(s) lost my interest before finishing them, but even then sometimes it wasn't dislike but rather the fact I simply got pulled into other games at the time.

Mario Sunshine was probably the weakest link of that series for me personally. Again, great production values, but the later stages of the game required some insane levels of precision, and the F.L.U.D.D. controls sometimes got in the way of that. In any case, I just lost interest probably 2/3 or so through the game.

With Zelda, it was Majora's Mask, hands down. I realize that many folks adore it, and again, it's a high-quality game with loads of personality, but I fell in love with Zelda for the exploration and (typically) increasingly expansive environments, and personally I prefer to be able to take my time about doing so. Majora's Mask's countdown to the Moon crashing down onto the realm gave it a constant feeling of stress for me, and while the game opened up somewhat as it went on, generally speaking the scope felt far more limited than Ocarina of Time. The Groundhog Day approach began to feel redundant for me quickly, as well. It simply never held my interest through the end.

I voted for Choco Mountain as it was one of my favorites on the N64, I love its music, and they added a couple of new features to it. I really hope that Nintendo will steer clear of the "real world" Tour tracks like Paris and Tokyo in the future, because to be frank they're simply not very good (not counting on it, obviously). I did really like Ninja Hideaway, though; its music was very nice as well, and it actually felt more like a proper Mario Kart track. Coconut Mall is a welcome return, as is Shroom Ridge.

Personally I have a special place in my heart for Choco Mountain as it was one of my favorite tracks in MK 64. I'm willing to give the MK Tour tracks a chance even though I never bother with mobile games, but honestly I'm not thrilled that three of the eight tracks in the first wave are from Tour; the disparity of representation comes off as if the entire Season Pass may end up being a way for Nintendo to quickly recycle (and further monetize) a whole bunch of MK Tour tracks as opposed to offering a truly balanced selection of new and upgraded takes on favorites from previous series iterations. If so, I don't think it would go over well with players.

Just imagine if Nintendo was half as aggressive at issuing C&D orders against projects "inspired by" or that are "homages to" its IPs as they are about shutting down pirates or Youtube videos. The Switch eShop catalog would lighten overnight. Looking over the Giant Pacific Garbage Patch that is the eShop, maybe that wouldn't be all bad.

Que sera, sera. While I would love to see more boards and minigames in particular, I'm not holding my breath.

No mention so far here of the game of Twister your fingers are increasingly forced to play as you progress through Metroid Dread. In a game where you're dealing with opponents that can move/attack as fast as Samus, it was beyond frustrating to die repeatedly because of having to hold down a combination of three or four buttons simultaneously while standing still and/or aiming; I have played countless games since the Atari 2600 days and have rarely ever struggled with mechanics that were too complex for muscle memory. I played deep into the game but simply lost interest because boss/EMMI battles felt more like dying to the controls to me. I understand why Dread gets the praise it does and if others had no issues with the controls/difficulty, more power to them. And maybe someday I will persevere and finish the rest of it, but then again the frustration took away the fun and enjoyment that I play games for to begin with, so I doubt it is even worth it on that note.

Game length is a tricky and sometimes relative subject, particularly when it comes to RPGs. Over the decades I've played and completed a bunch, ranging from around 30 hours to well over 200 in length. Many of the older ones especially were grinders with random encounters; fortunately more modern RPGs have alleviated both in various ways, from visible (and avoidable) enemies to more forgiving progression. Even so, some of them have developed their own issues (depending upon individual players' perspectives), such as EXTENSIVE exposition (example: the Trails series) or padding with side quests, minigames, etc. to help boost the sense of scale (examples: Xenoblade, Tales of Arise, the Trails series...I guess pretty much every modern JRPG in some way or form).

That said, perhaps the most important way I personally place a value on a given game is how much time I spend playing it per dollar invested, whether you're talking about an RPG, a "life sim" like Animal Crossing, an adventure like BotW, or a multiplayer-centric title like Halo. I love shorter games like shmups as well, but typically at a far lower price point. But whatever criteria you use or how much time you have to devote to your games, whether you end up sticking with them or they go onto your "to finish on a rainy day" pile depends on how much they "hook" you; are you having fun doing what the game offers, is it telling a story and presenting a world that engrosses you, does it have characters you actually care about? Or are you becoming bored or even annoyed at things like its mechanics, repetition, or personalities (and let's not forget voices) that grate? An RPG of any length has a tall task of keeping players invested throughout its entire story. But even the busiest of gamers will make time for the truly great ones; the cream always rises to the top.

@GrailUK Bandai-Namco owns the trademark and copyright to Ms. Pac-Man, but AtGames (the makers of the retro Arcade cabinets) owns the royalty rights, so it's tied up in a messy legal battle. While AtGames can and is making Ms. Pac-Man cabinets for its line (I saw some today at Walmart, as a matter of fact), apparently it's prevented Namco from publishing the game in any new form for years now.

@Yosher Ms. Pac-Man had a different set of fruits in its stages that entered and made their way through the maze (unlike those in Pac-Man, which remained stationary in the center of the maze). As Not_Soos mentioned, every third stage introduced a different maze layout, which kept things fresh. It also had different music and introduced little cut scenes (among the very first in videogames) that showed her and Pac-Man meeting and, if memory serves, eventually having Pac-Man Jr.. Personally I've always preferred the gameplay in Ms. Pac-Man, and the quality difference between it and the original Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 was night and day (though it lacked the cinematics and maze layouts of the Arcade version).

Anyway, hope this helps somehow.

"Miserly" acutely describes too many retro compilations and releases for Switch. Not only was the Namco Museum one vastly inferior in terms of game selection to the ones released on XBox 360, XBox, Gamecube, and PS2, but Sega's promising Ages line was cut off WAY before it had come close to running out of genuine classics. And Switch still has yet to see compilations by Midway or Activision, among others. There's plenty of great and deserving retro and Arcade games still sitting in limbo, sadly, some of which (examples: Ms. Pac-Man and Marvel vs. Capcom 2) we may never see again due to licensing barriers.

Aaannd still no Ms. Pac-Man. Glad I have it on XBLA, at least. Licenses and legal red tape are why we can't have so many nice things (anymore).

I get that Pokemon is a huge moneymaker for Nintendo, but it seems the past few months has been downright heavy handed in terms of releases and announcements. Not quite Sega/Sonic levels of myopic focus, obviously, but enough to notice on a system that's seen some lengthy gaps between new and original first-party titles already. For the record I have never played a Pokemon game and have no desire to, but my real gripe here is that, as with too many other deserving IPs across the industry, fans of, say, F-Zero, Star Fox, and others continue to go without a bone thrown their way. It's a shame that so many beloved franchises rarely if ever may be seen again simply because of projected profit margins, even though there's often a glut of the "mainstream" stuff to the point of redundancy.

The answer to the question the article poses is very simple: it's all about control. After taking two entire console generations to tie digital purchases to user accounts instead of a single system (I had to repurchase games just for buying a different Wii after mine bricked), do you think it was an accident that Nintendo replaced the VC with a (grotesquely overpriced) subscription model?

Many (if not most) hobbyists would readily pay a single, one-time price for permanent access to legacy games, whether they're NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, or even Sega, TurboGrafx, or Arcade and so on. But Nintendo has meticulously built an entire formula around not only maintaining "value" of legacy first-party titles (no publisher more rigidly sets the price of current games at stores; sales happen rarely and ONLY by Nintendo's say-so, and even secondary retailers like GameStop have always been obligated to sell retro Nintendo games at close to or even above their original MSRPs), but asking prices for even their oldest games on the VC going for more than many newer third-party releases. Handing consumers permanent ownership of them would deprive them of a major revenue stream.

It's also no stretch to say this desire for control is also behind the push toward digital not just by Nintendo but by the entire industry; the elimination of the entire secondary market is their longtime dream, and in turn it's also why Nintendo in particular is so adamant in policing piracy and emulation as well as taking down any Youtube videos or other stuff that uses their IPs, imagery, music, etc.. CONTROL. Subscription models are the end of basic consumer rights of ownership, and the industry wants to "train" gamers to think it's more convenient to drop continuous money on subscriptions to content they have zero control over.

I would love for the VC to make a comeback, and I would support it vigorously, especially if it included extensive libraries for platforms like the N64, GameCube, Saturn, Dreamcast, and so on. But let's be real; we know that isn't going to happen, because Nintendo has found a more convenient way to get people to pay for retro content...and pay...and pay again to continue doing so.

I've said this before and it bears repeating: these guys are NOT our friends. They're corporations, and corporations are in business for one purpose: TO MAKE MONEY, and as much as possible by any means possible (one need only consider the industry's trend toward NFTs despite overwhelming opposition from gamers). And online functionality and subscription models are just two Trojan Horses by which they've accomplished exactly that.

While I'm glad to see Switch getting some of the more notorious IPs from other platforms, I'll be honest: I'll never buy them for it because I know the Switch is simply less powerful and isn't capable of supporting the visual details of even many PS4 or XBox One titles. That said, neither Switch nor any of Nintendo's consoles have ever really focused on raw power, but rather have been designed around either A) control/interface gimmicks (Nintendo is often described as a toy company, after all) and/or specific in-game aesthetics. It doesn't take as many polygons or require a palette of millions of colors to make a Mario, Zelda, or Metroid game, and those brighter colors and simpler, animated approaches carry their own appeal for an audience that's distinct from those who favor the photorealism (and typically far more violent) games that other platforms like E3 tend to emphasize.

In a sense, Switch's strengths are similar to an unfairly maligned console, the Sega Saturn. The Saturn was largely ignored in favor of Sony's shiny new PS1 and Nintendo's N64, both of which could render (at the time) new-fangled polygons better, but the Saturn was a 2D powerhouse whose superiority was evident when certain cross-platform titles were shown side-by side (example: Mega Man 8). And despite the fact it seems to be treated as the black sheep among Sega's consoles, it still quietly had an incredibly strong and varied library of exclusive games (especially RPGs) thanks to (like the Switch) its first-party support.

Hmm, lemme think this over. $50 for a one-year subscription to SO+Expansion Pack that will need to be re-upped every year in order to maintain access to that "free" content, or a one-time, permanent purchase of the MK 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass for $24.99.

There is no reality where you can sell me on the notion that the former is by any measure a "good" deal, let alone better than owning the DLC outright. In fact, everything Nintendo is trying to justify the Expansion Pack's cost seems to underscore just how grossly overpriced and what an endless black hole for people's money it is.

My first thought upon seeing it at the eShop was, "Yowza, that asking price!!!" Look, I love me some old school schmups, and I know this game touts its pedigrees, but this isn't 1992 and this isn't a Genesis cartridge like we paid those kinds of prices for back in the day (ThunderForce III was $64.99 at Toys R Us as I recall, but I don't regret that purchase for a second). It's 2022 and many if not most gamers place value on a potential purchase by the number of expected hours played per dollar spent. Schmups just don't lend themselves to $40-50 price tags anymore for that reason, even if you're a hardcore fan of the genre.

I Wish Listed this one, but it'll have to come down in price SIGNIFICANTLY before I drop money on it.

@jbreez00 Oh, Konami certainly deserves to be in the conversation; at one time they were one of the most prolific publishers in the industry, offering a wide suite of genres and great IPs including Castlevania, Contra, Axelay, Gradius, Suikoden, Vandal Hearts, and TMNT as well as a ton of great Arcade coin-ops. Like Sega, as they went into decline (and perhaps it actually helped contribute to that decline) they placed way too much of their emphasis around a single franchise (Metal Gear). But at their zenith they were still far behind Sega's absolute mountain of IPs, largely since Sega was supporting their own consoles at the time.

Activision too used to bring a much broader variety of games to the table. As anyone who experienced the Atari 2600 and its contemporaries will tell you, they were unquestionably the leading third-party publisher of that period, and David Crane (Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid, and many others) was a household name. And yes, they abandoned most of that variety in favor of the CoD annual cash cow. But again, they were nowhere near the presence Sega once was, even at their absolute peak.

Please understand that I'm not debating the sheer importance either Konami or Activision once had in either the industry or the hobby; both provided countless great memories. I'm basing my statement solely upon the number of unused, long-dormant IPs that Sega accumulated across multiple generations of consoles as well as their incredibly rich Arcade coin-op history. Would all of those IPs make for profitable projects or meet with high consumer demand? Of course not, but many would, I firmly believe.

I'd love to see all three of these companies return to the variety and quality they once offered; it would be an amazing development for the hobby, for sure. Sadly, the bigger corporations get the tighter they generally seem to become with their money, and perceived profitability and "safeness" tends to overpower originality, variety, and risk-taking. As a Japanese developer supposedly remarked during E3 2010 regarding the glut of FPSes, "You Americans really must enjoy war." That statement preceded a huge exodus of Japanese and foreign developers from the show that helped make it the shell of its former self it is now. Those smaller publishers and "fringe IPs" MATTER. And through a combination of mismanagement and internal issues, both Sega and Konami have become shadows of their former selves, scarcely clinging to continued existence.

The industry has changed over the past 30 years, and it will continue to change, and not always for the better. I realize there are things I and many other longtime gamers love that we'll likely never get to experience again, and that companies tend to leave you behind for new and more lucrative target demographics; that's life, unfortunately, and it's also the history of the videogame industry. But I try to appreciate the memories the hobby has given me, and I still advocate where and how I can for the return of some of those great old school franchises, especially certain RPGs and SRPGs of years past.

If I'm given the choice of making a permanent purchase of an actual remaster of GoldenEye 007 or an emulated version of the original locked behind a (grossly overpriced) subscription, I'm going with the former, full stop. If that means having to buy it on XBox then so be it. Nintendo is leaving a LOT of money on the table by not offering their legacy catalog for actual sale tied to user accounts, but then they've always been more than a little greedy on that front on multiple levels (asking price, tying purchases to a single console on the VC).

One day a lot of folks are going to realize these subscription models aren't as convenient as advertised...probably about the time their subscription runs out and they realize they have to re-up for another $50 US to regain access to games, saves...and let's not forget, those "free" season passes for games like MK8 Deluxe (whose cost for permanent purchase is incidentally half that of a single year's SO+Expansion sub).

I realize this announcement made some folks happy, but I wasn't one of them. I was definitely NOT interested in another Mosou spin-off (which I've tried and found agonizingly dull and repetitive, mindless combat), nor another take on Three Houses. I played through Edelgard's campaign (and maxed out every job with my hero to the tune of well over 100 hours), but its art style (which seemed dreary and drab) and needlessly spread-out and time-consuming monastery component were both turn-offs for me personally. I much preferred the more colorful art direction and storyline of Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, and hope Nintendo might make a compilation of the two for Switch in the near future if they're going to continue to revisit previous iterations.

@ShadowofTwilight22 I'm hard on Sega because I know full well what they used to be and believe they are capable of doing so again with the right combination of effort, genuine passion, and marketing. I air criticisms here and elsewhere because two decades of letters, emails, and survey responses (like those included in each Ages title on the Switch) accomplished almost nothing despite Sega's empty promises to listen to their consumers. A counterpoint to the Sonic-related articles here (and if it's so "bloody tiring" just maybe it's because there are SO MANY OF THEM), even expressed with a negative tone, is my only recourse by now, made in the faint hope that just maybe someone at Sega will read them. It's only responsible for any corporation to listen to and at least consider criticism and constructive feedback, however unpleasant or uncomfortable, and yes, reading industry media and reader responses is a part of that. One thing is guaranteed: nothing will ever change if no one ever voices a complaint or desire for something different.

At least I have a legitimate reason for my complaints. You have been getting the franchise you want (at least in some form) for the past twenty years and by your own admission have made it some sort of personal quest in attacking my posts for being critical, which comes across to me as fanboyism. Maybe my posts regarding Sonic in particular are negative in tone and maybe you disagree with them, but no one is forcing you to either read or respond to them. Agree or disagree, but leave it to the moderators to police what is said or is relevant to the conversation.

@ShadowofTwilight22 Back in the day Sega was at the very pinnacle of the hobby in terms of offering the most diverse range of genres from any publisher. And a fun fact: the Genesis was already neck-and-neck with Nintendo's SNES for probably a full third of its life cycle before the first Sonic the Hedgehog game ever released. That's right, it was accomplishing that on the backs of some of those IPs you referred to as "flops". Was Sonic a revelation when it released with its speed and pseudo-polygonal aesthetics? Absolutely, and no one here is disputing the fact he made for an instant flagship franchise.

I don't know whether you have ever played any of the other games or franchises I mentioned, but yes, each of them are indeed beloved. Maybe not by as many fans as Sonic has, but no less passionate. And here's why: whether you personally experienced them or not, back in the day Sega's development teams, like Team Camelot, poured genuine passion and quality into them. Their RPGs in particular were on par with Square's very best. Long before Western gamers ever got a Fire Emblem localization Shining Force had introduced them to the SRPG genre, and it's an absolute tragedy that most never got to play Team Camelot's Magnum Opus, Shining Force III for the Saturn (the single biggest reason most of these games "flopped" had NOTHING to do with their quality but rather the hardware they were on thanks to Sega's own bungling).

Do I understand that corporations tend to be risk-averse and focus primarily on maximizing profit? Of course. But Sega made themselves a household name by taking risks and pushing boundaries. And yes, some of that came back to bite them hard, but most of the blame rests fully on decisions made on the hardware front, NOT with their games.

Please allow me to pose a question: if Sega ever released the franchises I've advocated for again, would you be opposed to that? I'm not even asking if you would buy/try playing them because I don't know your personal tastes; I just wonder why you seem to want to shoot them down based on a corporate-angled argument (hopefully you're not one of those folks Square's President recently described as "those who play to contribute"). I used to love Sonic, but I also loved a whole bunch of other Sega franchises, and I have the objectivity to recognize when a company has "circled the wagons" and gone into survival mode. Sonic may keep the Sega brand alive for awhile longer, but rest assured it is on the decline, and meanwhile countless IPs that could somehow be contributing to their recovery are being left to rot (I am not counting the ones released recently which they've either outsourced to other developers to varying results or which required Kickstarters to even exist). Sure, taking expensive risks on some of their other IPs may put them under for good; who knows (for that matter, the jury's still out on Sonic Frontiers; for their sake they'd better get it right). But it could also be exactly what would bring them back from the brink.

A prolific Sega that returned to making a wide range of amazing games would be an immense boon to the hobby; I can't imagine why you wouldn't want that, even if your favorite franchise remains Sonic.