Comments 4,363

Re: Poll: Okay, It's Time To Ask The Obvious - Will We Get Donkey Kong 64 On NSO?

Banjo-

@AG_Awesome I beat it and unlocked everything (101%, was it?) on Wii U. I had to do it as a Rare fan. There are some sections and mini games that are really hard and frustrating because of the controls and camera. I borrowed the N64 cartridge from a school friend, but of course I could not finish it in a week. I never understood why Dixie was not there.

Re: Sony May Be Plotting A New PSP To Compete With Nintendo's 'Switch 2'

Banjo-

@Tyranexx Right. The portable market is shared with handheld PCs and partly mobile gaming, e.g., those playing Call of Duty and Fortnite on their phones. 10% of the massive Steam user base plays on Steam Deck. It's true that Nintendo is the winner of the last generation after Wii U thanks to Switch and it's true that Nintendo's games are not available on other platforms, but Nintendo is not alone in the handheld market, less now than in 2017, and it will be very interesting to see how the market is shared after Switch.

Re: Sony May Be Plotting A New PSP To Compete With Nintendo's 'Switch 2'

Banjo-

@fenlix "I think Sony could take advantage of the Xbox Series S existence. I imagine a portable PS5 would have similar specs, and therefore studios could use Xbox Series S versions of games as the base for the portable PS5 ones."

The problem with that is that Xbox consoles run Windows and PS consoles don't.

Re: Sony May Be Plotting A New PSP To Compete With Nintendo's 'Switch 2'

Banjo-

@Friendly Thanks. There are also interesting thoughts that others have posted, like:

· How could Sony feed a handheld with exclusives when they barely can release new games for PS5?

· How could it run PS5 games natively?

· Unlike Xbox and third parties, Sony is as restrictive as Nintendo, but Nintendo sells its exclusives massively and has only one platform since Switch, while only 6.8% of the PS5 software sales were first-party in the last quarter.

· That 6.8% of first-party sales on PS5 is going to be available on Windows, so you can play Sony's games on third-party handheld PCs and maybe on a future Xbox handheld, on top of the Windows/Xbox games.

Re: Japanese Charts: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake's Launch Sales Are Astronomical

Banjo-

@The-Chosen-one I loved Octopath Traveller I and II, especially everything related to the gameplay and the graphics (absolutely gorgeous on Series X). I like a well-made single story, but the different small stories are also nice. I prefer that over the bloated stories that are purposely long and complex to intrigue -or confuse- players.

Regarding playing on Switch, I play docked 99% of the time, so that and the technical limitations of Nintendo's hardware explains why I always choose the Xbox version if available, but I understand that some people enjoy playing in portable mode. After all, the small New Nintendo 3DS is one of my favourite consoles ever.

Re: Japanese Charts: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake's Launch Sales Are Astronomical

Banjo-

@Astropez Right. I haven't played the PS version of FF IX, but when I tried the "HD" version on Xbox it looked quite ugly. I read other comments like yours saying that it looks worse than the original version, but I don't know why.

The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection and Trials of Mana (remake) were a commercial success, so I hope that they keep doing this. Well, then there's Octopath Traveller I and II that also did well and Dragon Quest III remake that has been received with open arms.

I tried Legend of Mana on Xbox, but honestly it didn't look right to me, that combination of sprites and backgrounds... Besides, I had no idea what to do. I didn't find the gameplay or story very good either.

Re: Japanese Charts: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake's Launch Sales Are Astronomical

Banjo-

I'm thrilled that Square Enix is being so successful with the classics and remakes. I have also enjoyed Octopath Traveller I and II a lot (on Series X), much more than the Bravely Default games for some reason. Now that Square Enix has rejected any more PS exclusivity and has finally ported the Pixel Remaster collection to Xbox, we should expect the successor of Switch to host the games Switch missed because of technical limitations and contracts with Sony. It would be great if they remade more Dragon Quest games and what about Final Fantasy IX? The HD version looks so ugly. They could remake it like the excellent Trials of Mana (remake).

Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's Game Boy Library With Another Classic

Banjo-

@N00BiSH Yep. The Donkey Land trilogy is impressive considering the hardware, but it would be much better with colours. If I remember well, Donkey Kong Land 3 had a Game Boy Color version in Japan. I don't know if they had more colours on Super Game Boy, but I think they should have been added by now for the new releases. I own the three titles on Nintendo 3DS and it's just the lack of colours what disappoints after growing up playing the SNES masterpieces.

Re: Nintendo Says Switch Online Expansion Pack Subs Are "Steadily Increasing"

Banjo-

@BTB20 You misunderstood the quotations.

"In saying this, there has been a "year-over-year decrease in memberships"

· This means that the number of subscribers has decreased.

"Fortunately for Nintendo, the number of 'Expansion Pack' subscribers apparently steadily increasing since the launch of this higher-tier"

· This means that a greater amount of the decreased number of total subscribers (a higher percentage) is paying for the expansion option.

Re: Nintendo Says Switch Online Expansion Pack Subs Are "Steadily Increasing"

Banjo-

@SabreLevant I agree with you and with 95% of the comments here. The value is extremely poor. Nintendo shouldn't charge for online gaming when only a couple of games support it and when the online services and servers are bare bones. The perks are ridiculous: demos and a couple of micro games. They are also charging for cloud saves, something that only Sony did until then. The biggest selling point is the retro library, but that consist in renting spotty emulation of very old roms released in dribs, with every alternative being a better option.

Re: It's Official, 'Switch 2' Will Be Backwards Compatible

Banjo-

I'm late as usual so I don't know if anyone will read it, but I assumed that the successor would be backwards compatible because, apparently, they showed developers BotW or TotK running on the new hardware. Besides, the Nvidia chip they used for Switch was already dated in 2017, and Nvidia has made much better mobile chips since then. I'm shocked to hear that this has only been confirmed now to appease the shareholders.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@Toastmaster Right, the Gold Edition is included in Ubisoft Plus and that is available on Xbox, but not included in Game Pass Ultimate, that's EA Play, my mistake. I mixed EA Play and Ubisoft Plus up. 😂

I didn't know that Ubi made so many PC exclusives, that's interesting. I know that Sega develops a lot of games for PC and their games are usually Play Anywhere, so you can get the Xbox and PC version with no additional payment.

Indeed. PC is the biggest gaming market worldwide, leaving mobile aside which is a different, more casual thing. Consoles have become additional income, but not the main. Even Xbox and Sony need PC now to survive! I think it's good because it ends the stupid console wars.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@Toastmaster It's also included in Game Pass Ultimate because it includes EA Play, but when I played it, the DLC wasn't there, so I didn't bother.

I also think that the next AAA Assassin's Creed will be huge and polished, but then they are going to give it a break and diversify development. Too much money invested in each and too many games being released. I think that the next one after Shadows will be the rumoured Black Flag remake/remaster.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@Maxz I agree with you completely. I think it was NEStalgia who defined them as a skeleton (I agree), compared the size of Ubisoft with Nintendo and also the revenue (Nintendo #4, Ubisoft #13). I'm not against Nintendo outsourcing, they do that ocassionally since Nintendo 64, although I miss the in-house development and, most of all, the masterminds that are no longer involved in development but are now consultants at best. I can feel that difference and I miss them.

I think that Nintendo's outsourcing is too much now. Keeping teams small has advantages and disadvantages, as you said. No question about Nintendo doing great financially, although as a gamer, I worry more about the games than about the wealth of shareholders. 😂 Thanks for replying, in between.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@Toastmaster Yep, Sony's list of closures is very long and they just closed two more. Now that you mention Crystal Dynamics, that's an excellent studio that Square Enix acquired and then sold.

@Kingy You probably know this, but Square Enix announced that they are fully multiplatform now and Sony's own exclusives are going to PC. You are right that third-party support/exclusives/marketing was what drove PS sales so high, while whatever Nintendo achieves is on their own.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@BTB20 They don't have as many developers considering the gigantic size of their business, fourth largest video game company by revenue. Ubisoft has many more employees and it's the thirteenth. Thus, Nintendo has been outsourcing most first-party games for a very long time, so it's not related to Switch 2. Nintendo can do whatever they want. I don't think they are worried about what you and I think, so it doesn't matter if we approve it or not. I'm just describing their business strategy.

Re: Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions

Banjo-

@Not_Soos I agree, but they are conservative and they are obsessed with minimising costs and risks, which is why they haven't grown, outsource games instead and almost never acquire a studio, even after many years working together on exclusive games and Nintendo IPs. It's difficult to understand, because they could not have been more financially successful. Alpha Dream actually made the best, in my opinion, Mario & Luigi game, Superstar Saga.