BAN

Given that this is a sequel to BotW and Revali is dead and his spirit's reason for remaining behind is now resolved, I would not expect him to have any role in this game, beyond maybe a flashback or two.

It looks as good as a 3D Sonic game can get. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a knock, to be honest. But it doesn't look terrible. Just Sonic of the Wild, really.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Either you aren't aware of the full story or you're willfully posting fake news.

@mereel Bugs have always been a thing, QA has always been a thing. If anything, QA has only gotten MORE robust over the decades, to a significant degree.

The issue is that games are also significantly more complex and data-rich than they were in whatever era you're envisioning. When you make boats longer and put more windows on them, that means you have more chances to spring a leak.

@Arminillo That's a good question. If you were to take the sound effects from any generic film or tv show and put them up against the appeal and value of a James Earl Jones, then I would say no, it's probably not as big a draw for that project as James Earl Jones.

However, when you consider just how iconic the sound effects are in the Star Wars franchise, and how ultra-iconic/important/famous the lighstaber sound by itself is, then I'd say the foley artists who worked on those films were as critical to the film's long-term success as the voice actor behind Darth Vader. Those are some extremely valuable artists to that production. Just googling "lightsaber" brings up a google suggestion for "lightsaber sound". I would honestly bet that literally billions of people have gone around imitating that sound, just as often as they'd said "Luke, I am your father!"

But more to the point, it's just my opinion that if the voice artist in this case is arguing for the fair value of those who work to produce video games, then her assertion that "I'm THE voice of Bayonetta, I should get special treatment and be paid like I'm famous!" defeats her argument of fair pay for hours worked for all parties, and her call for a boycott damages that claim even further because now she's putting her ego over the success of her peers. And her rate might seem low based on our preconceived notion that a character being famous should mean its VA is paid like they themselves are famous, but it's a good standard rate for the amount of voice work she was going to be doing.

Should she get some small piece of the royalties based on her contribution? I think that would have been an incredibly nice and appropriate token of appreciation by Platinum, but that would have been an extremely rare perk and she shouldn't have expected it. VA's almost never get that. Especially when dealing with Japanese studios, who like to keep their budgets as buttoned up as possible and aren't known for gestures like that.

”Taylor…has a much more evident claim on the character than, say, an animator who worked on her transformations, or the artist who textured her infamous pistol shoes.”

I wouldn’t think that. The devs working behind the scenes on things like this toil away on the character far longer than a voice artist, hate to say it. Her job is highly visible but is, to put it bluntly, the briefest and easiest link in the chain when it comes to producing a video game.

Should the actors be paid more, maybe get royalties? Perhaps. Probably. But calling for boycotts on the work of hundreds of other people not long before release just because you feel personally slighted just seems a bit childish to me. Just my take though, as a software developer who has worked on video games in the past.

@somebread I mean, Disney has been doing this with their animated movies literally since the 1930's and no one seems to mind that. Granted, the modern iteration of this style can be pretty obnoxious at times, and a lot of big CGI films have foregone musical numbers, but I'm willing to give it a shot. It's nothing new or unique. It's practically the standard for animated films.

@wuntyme8 Rube Goldberg machine*. And given that it's made in 3D animating software and not real, I'm guessing it took a lot of time to animate it but only one run of the final product.

If I'm forced at the end of a gun to choose, I MIGHT have to say DKC2. But really I have several Nintendo soundtracks that rank roughly that high. Super Mario World, Mario Galaxy, pretty much any Zelda. The Pikmin series has some subtly great music that I'd consider to be in "favorite" territory. Hell, even Nintendo Land knocks it out of the park. This is like asking me to pick my favorite pet, you know?

@CharlieGirl lol oh I'm sure.

@Arawn93 I'm not a big Chris Pratt fan but this take is just extremely unreasonable. He had like one very short line and a couple of grunts. There is no way anyone can judge it yet.

I honestly don't get how anyone can fully judge it one way or another, he said like five words in the entire trailer. But from what little we heard, it sounded okay.

@nessisonett Haaaaave you seen long facial hair before? Hate to say it, given my status as a bearded man, but most men's facial hair is dark and coarse and somewhat crinkly and a cynical person could say that for a lot of men it's similar to that hair of which you speak.

Honestly, I think it looks really good! Or as good as it can when you consider we only saw like one minute of footage. And visually it looks great, ESPECIALLY considering the fact that it's an illumination production and could have gone very wrong.

I also think Mario's design really works. It's different, but when has there ever been one consistent Mario design over the last 40 years? They made him look like Mario but with much more personality and expressiveness, which he needed for a movie. And I think it's more accurate than Sonic's movie version, even the redesigned version that everyone loved. All in all, I'm very relieved.

I think it's fine. And I think that some of the "weirdness" people are sensing might just be due to the angle/perspective. The test will be to see it in motion. It has to have Mario's characteristic expressions.

Mario's missing cake is the only thing wrong with it imo.

Definitely in the "relieved" camp. Because it all looks basically accurate to official Nintendo designs.

@sneaky_sasquatch Preference? Ability? Things like that.

@PtM There are many, many more people out there who own Switch than there are that own Steam Deck.

@Ryu_Niiyama Very well put, on all points. People are just really caught up in the popular mantra right now that all corporations are evil, and they’ll do or ignore anything necessary to prove it.

@strollin_stu Correct. They are not your friends. They're your employer, and as is the case in virtually every job on the planet, they tell you up front what you can and can't do and that if you violate your employment contract they will fire you. Who's actually struggling to understand this concept besides people that have never had a job?

@dartmonkey Were they a contractor or weren't they? Because your own article uses the term contractor. So which was wrong, the article or the headline?

"For a game that caused many to question the validity of its own existence"

lol I think "many" is a stretch. Also, why would I care to see Xbox do well in Japan? Am I the only one here who doesn't give a crap about that?

Imagine making an obscenely obvious breach of your contract which even a child could understand why it's wrong, getting fired for it, making up a conspiracy theory as an alternative explanation because you don't want to admit that you blew it, and then having people write articles defending you. Must feel good to get away with stuff.

@Unapologetic You're totally right! Nobody should ever question anything. They should just take everyone's claims as 100% fact, so long as they confirm their personal feelings on the matter.

@Serpenterror Don't hold your breath.

I refuse to believe that Hey! Pikmin wasn’t what Miyamoto was talking about when he said Pikmin 4 was almost done. I think this is a completely different game than he was referring to.

I’ll buy it and probably play through a good deal of it, but god am I sick of rogue-anything.

Okay, so the "finished/ready to release" Pikmin 4 that Miyamoto was talking about years ago really was Hey! Pikmin.

@Mortenb What…?

@iLikeUrAttitude It’s literally just targeting modded versions of the game, because the blatantly obvious implication is that mods can be used to cheat, as everyone knows.

And given how prevalent and obnoxious cheating has been in the previous two games, a zero-tolerance policy on these people is the only acceptable/workable option. The system that’s designed to catch modded games isn’t going to discern if someone’s “just tinkering around for fun” or weigh whether or not they deserve to get banned for it. If you want to have fun, don’t do it in a way that can ruin everyone else’s fun.

@boxyguy People get tired of a Negative Nancy. If that's your entire identity, people will eventually figure that out and move on.

@Rika_Yoshitake That's how this site operates nowadays. It's really just a husk of its former self.

@DK-Fan That is literally his entire shtick. If it weren't for the puppet gimmick, no one would even know he exists. He'd be ignored like he should be.

Obviously I'm glad this shiz is finally coming out, but they're going to need to REALLY pick up the pace if they're going to meet their declared release timeline of end of 2023 for all the waves.

@WoomyNNYes The thing has sold like 50 million copies, which makes it the best selling title on Switch by a long shot, so yeah I'd say it's a flagship. That said, it sold that well WITHOUT anything new being added to it, so clearly they feel no rush to tack more onto it. As stupid as that is.

I love stuff like this, would look great in my game room, but seriously how do people bring themselves to spend so much money on these things? Could I afford to pay for it? Yes. WOULD I pay for it? No.

"The technology of the CD-I wasn’t meant for such interactive gaming" and that's ultimately the biggest problem with the games on the platform... "but we overcame that obstacle" yeah, no lol.

Good, he deserves more attention than he's gotten. Really overlooked player.

@RareFan Calling Nintendo "slow" for not emulating what virtually everyone else does is like calling those other studios "forgetful" for not making games that appeal to traditional gamers who don't give a sh*t about things like cutscenes, voice acting, and online multiplayer.

It's not an issue of ability, it's an issue of choice. Studios choose to do or not do certain things based on their own internal culture and who they want to appeal to. They don't all have to be the same, and I thank god that they're not, because we certainly have more than enough games that come from the non-Nintendo development dogma.

Sweet! Would have been super fun to work on the production of these films.

I mean, what else would they prefer to work on? If I were a Retro dev I'd have been stoked. One, it's a change of pace from their other games. Two, it stands out on a resume/portfolio. But also it's a freaking Mario Kart game, what developer wouldn't want the opportunity to make official Mario Kart tracks??

@ClamDown I like how just being an ignorant edgelord is now being called "critical thinking" lol

@kobashi100 For sure.

@Ryu_Niiyama Glad to see there's someone else here with common sense! There's a lot of very young, very naive people on this site who think their own personal ideals should be the law of the land, and arguing with them is like trying to reason with a brick wall by ramming your head against it. It's frustrating.

And honestly, at this point I don't understand how anyone still takes the likes of ign and kotaku seriously. They're both essentially activist rags by now.

@johnedwin I will be massively surprised if a new Switch comes out next year, unless it's yet another version of the current model.

What are the signs that Switch has passed its peak? It's sold what, 21 million units per year and Nintendo forecasts another 21 million this year. And that's amid a component shortage that's causing demand to outstrip supply. Games are coming out and selling in droves for the system. I think we're still in the peak.