Probably Hollow Knight or Breath of the Wild, as the newest games in my likely top ten.
That said, most of my recent "discoveries" and new favorites are on the older side: Doom, Half-Life, Final Fantasy VII, and the original The Legend of Zelda.
I don't think videogames are getting worse (or better, for that matter). Every era has its classics. But with mainstream videogaming being over 40 years old by now, if your gaming diet is wide-ranging, you're going to end up with a lot of "retro" favorites, because there's just more there than whatever's come out in the last few years.
I will likely buy it on the strength of its legacy. I'm more tolerant of old-school jankiness than most and modern polish doesn't matter to me that much. Its luster fades within an hour anyway.
Yeah, it's awesome. I was a first-time player, but it looked so unique I had to get it. The art style's on point. I was playing it and when I told my girlfriend it was a game from before we were even alive, she was like, "Huh, it looks like a modern game doing retro and not an actual retro game." Which she meant as a compliment.
I really appreciate what Hamster are doing. I bought several of their games, from In The Hunt to X-Multiply and Moon Patrol. I really liked them all, especially Moon Patrol. Of course, not everything Hamster releases is "for me," so to speak, but when they put out so many titles, that's to be expected. I'm just glad they're rescuing these games from oblivion and letting new audiences find them through legal means.
Yeah, this doesn't work that well with Mario 64. The art style isn't a good fit with it.
Realistic lighting isn't always going to be an artistic triumph. Extreme example, but: no one looks at Picasso's Guernica because it's an accurate depiction of how a bombed-out town looks when you turn on a lamp.
If the port's good, I'll buy. I'm doing the same waiting game with Subnautica. I can play them on PC, but obviously they're more comfortable to have on the Switch.
Ah, perfect. I'll take the plunge on Final Fantasy XII. I finished VII last week for the first time and I'm hankering for more Final Fantasy experiences. I have VI on the SNES Mini, XIII on PC, and playing XII on the Switch would be great.
This review brings to mind an old Insert Credit article by Brandon Lee, about why videogames will never have their Citizen Kane:
"And here then, is the sticking point; the reason that gaming as is will never have its Kane: Those industry jokes I mentioned --Takeshi, Desert Bus — are not fun games. If they were, they'd be entirely above any type of criticism. This has always been the deciding factor; if a game is fun, it's a good game. If it's not fun, it's bad. This, though, is an almost farcically bad way to judge art. Art is as expressive as language itself — more, even."
Personally, I categorically do not think the purpose of videogames is to be fun. The purpose of videogames, like the purpose of all art, is to be interesting and meaningful. Being fun is one way to accomplish this, but there are many other ways.
I liked them and often miss them. Beyond the nostalgia and their physicality, the manuals also affected gameplay and pacing — sometimes for the better.
Since so much information could be dumped into the manuals, that meant games could hit the ground running instead of spending their first two or three hours (or more) guiding you through every button press in lengthy tutorial areas or devoting entire rooms so you can learn how to jump and crouch.
Also, the lack of a handy manual means that, if you've forgotten how certain menu options or movements operate — in, say, a menu-driven game like Fire Emblem or a Platinum action game with lengthy move sets — you don't have a quick way to just consult the information you want by flipping through the manual. Instead, you have to dive into a series of nested in-game menus, which may not necessarily have the best UX design in the world.
If they remake it, they'll have to re-do everything, not just the sound. The gameplay is built around the fixed camera angles and stylized simplicity of the graphics and geometry. It works in the original context, but it wouldn't work with, say, MGS V mechanics.
At that point, though, it'd just be a different game. Kind of like how Final Fantasy VII Remake is not really a replacement for the original.
I have to say, this sounds appealing. It's one of those 6 scores that, if you're a certain kind of gamer, actually reads like an 8 or even a 9.
I'm about to finish Final Fantasy VII for the first time on the Switch, so I'm itching to play more Square JRPGs from that era. This sounds quite different to Final Fantasy VII, though, because Final Fantasy VII is pretty linear and NPCs always tell you where to go next. This seems like a much more open-ended (and evidently confusing) affair.
I'm also intrigued by Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story, but I'm not sure if I should nab them on my dusty PS3 while I still can or wait for a remaster. Probably the first option...
Very true. Ocarina of Time does things with sound design, music, architecture, and color that are extraordinarily effective. I like Mario 64 very much (played it for the first time last year), but it's clear to me that Ocarina of Time was a massive aesthetic leap for Nintendo (and the Nintendo 64). The reason your first walk into Hyrule Field is so emotionally resonant is not because Hyrule Field is an exciting place (it isn't) but because of how carefully the game leads up to that point, after hours running inside a tree or around a small forest village closed in by foliage. And when you enter Hyrule Field, you don't immediately emerge into the wide expanse but have to walk down a hedged-in corridor first, ensuring maximum effect when the horizon finally stretches out in front of you. It's like a musical composition but with architecture and level design. That kind of thing goes a long way towards elevating the early 3D graphics.
Ocarina of Time, along with Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, is partly (if not largely) to blame for kickstarting the games-as-art debate. From the vantage point of 2021, we have the perspective now to say that, well, in terms of game design and overall flow, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening (and I'd also go to bat for the first Zelda) are at least as good if not better than Ocarina of Time. But when it came out, Ocarina of Time was a real eye-opening moment for a lot of us. Its influence cannot be overstated and its DNA is all over other games that were, in turn, also massively influential, including Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls. It was a game that suggested the Dream of Videogames — a fully-immersive virtual world that contains all other art forms and modes of expression — was close at hand. In part because graphics had advanced to the point that it was possible to build "cinematic" interactive experiences. And the comparison to cinema, an established artform, gave weight to videogames' claim to artistic integrity. Now that we're enlightened 2021 gamers we can go back to, say, Pac-Man from 1980 and go, yes, this is obviously art. But back in 1998, we needed Ocarina of Time and its brethren to spur the conversation.
I think both lock-and-key and creativity-first approaches have their places. The lock-and-key approach really works when you want to make elaborate, multiple-part (and even multi-room) puzzles, and convey the idea that you're in this foreboding ancient temple with an exact configuration of traps and challenges. The creativity-first shrines in Breath of the Wild (and in stuff like Portal) favor smaller, tighter puzzle design, with different solutions and a shorter running time. I think the Divine Beasts tried to combine both approaches, but didn't quite get there. (Though I still find them a lot of fun.) Part of what makes the dungeons in, say, Ocarina of Time so memorable is the drama and architectural narrative of your movement through them. I've been watching speed runs of it lately and stuff like the Forest Temple feels as powerfully atmospheric as ever. And this emotional, narrative component is key to Zelda dungeons, not just their complexity and interactive opportunities. (Though speed-runners have certainly broken even the most linear, rigid dungeons out there.) Conversely, Breath of the Wild's shrines and beasts are not quite as memorable, but, during my current Master Mode run, I've still found them beguiling. I really, really like how each shrine has an optional chest with, usually, an optional puzzle attached to it. That reminds me of the special challenges in Portal, forcing you to re-solve the puzzles in harder, more efficient ways.
This game sounds brilliant and by all accounts it is. I'll almost assuredly buy it.
As for those saying, "This seems like a commitment. I can play so many other games in that time." Well, you can. The clock runs no matter what. You can dip in and out as you please and check in on the little shade.
I have it on PC and played a bit. It's brilliant, but I never really bother to hook up the PC for long play-sessions unless it's some immersive cinematic experience like Death Stranding. Or if I want to replay all of Half-Life, for some reason.
On the Switch, though, it's another story. Yeah, I'm double-dipping on Fez.
"The sidescrolling 'Metroidvania' is a style of game that's been very well served on Nintendo Switch, which is especially useful as Konami doesn't seem interested in making any games like that."
I like manuals, but it's also true that games now just drop the manuals into the game. This is kind of annoying for replays, though, because you need to sit through the tutorials, whereas old games are often pretty replayable precisely because they dumped all their hand-holding into the manuals and, for replays, you can just get going immediately after starting up the campaign without going through the training stages, because there aren't any.
Zelda doesn't need distant, museum-like respect, though. It's just an all-time great.
Sure, it took me a little getting used to at first. Your movement is more limited than in A Link to the Past. And you need to read the instruction manual before playing.
But after that adjustment period, I just loved the difficulty, freedom, and sense of adventure, which aren't always there in later Zelda titles.
It benefits from the current renaissance of old-school sensibilities, though. The way you lose in The Legend of Zelda while retaining rupees (which function as experience points, since you need them to buy weapons and armor) leads to a very Dark Souls-style progression early on. And the dungeons are much like today's rogue-likes, with rooms of enemies you have to clear before progressing. I felt right at home after my 40 hours with Hades.
I would like to point out, though, that "linear, simple corridor design" is not really old school. The concept became popular in the early 2000s largely thanks to Half-Life, although its imitators failed to see how Valve's level designers keep things fresh through frequent and drastic changes in scenery and gameplay. (Also, Halo — but Halo's gunplay and sense of scale save its most repetitive sections.) However, in the era of "Doom clones" before Half-Life, most FPSs didn't really do linear corridors. They did sprawling, complex labyrinths. That's what "old school" FPS design means to me.
In a larger sense, though, the pure value judgement of how-good-is-this-game-out-of-ten is totally meaningless. I write movie reviews for a film website here in Argentina, where I live, and I hate doing star ratings. I have to, because of editorial policies, but it's pointless. The stars don't mean anything. There's a reason I'm bothering to type down all those words up above!
Ultimately, I think criticism, as a practice, is more interesting when it's asking The Big Questions, and these Big Questions have to do with history, culture, the advancement of the medium, popular reception, the context, the work's meaning, and so on and so forth. That's juicy stuff that makes we want to read words or listen to podcasts or watch videos — and you can't summarize any of it in a number.
I mean, I'm binging on Tim Rogers's stuff right now, and sometimes, like, it doesn't even matter whether he thinks a game is good or not. You're hearing about the experience of gaming, about game mechanics, about the social impact of this or that classic, and even when Tim talks about how a game is personally relevant to him, you always get the feeling that what he's really getting at is the relevance of videogames in our lives. And there's no putting a number next to that.
I think scores are usually completely meaningless, unless you have a very personal scale that doesn't grade games like we're at the Olympics or something and you're tallying up the amount of flaws and counting down from a perfect ten.
I've seen reviews even on this site which are, like, "This game is a tremendous, life-changing experience. It will solve poverty in at least a dozen countries. However, some players may experience frame-rate stuttering on the 17th level. And the prevalence of the color green in overworld maps can be distracting. 8/10."
You also at least need to have purchased or claimed the game on Steam. And the amount of hours played feature alongside the user's review. It's not a perfect system (you can have played the game on a platform other than Steam, after all) but it's better than whatever Metacritic has going on. Of course, review aggregators like Metacritic run into this issue no matter what. It comes with the territory. Rotten Tomatoes has the same issue with movie reviews.
I have to admit, suspicious Metacritic reviews do sound better in Italian:
"Balan Wonderworld è un’opera d’arte, un monumentale esempio di game design e storytelling, una testimonianza per le future generazioni della grandezza di un sviluppatore leggendario, Yuji Naka, che ha firmato molti dei più grandi capolavori usciti nel corso degli anni sulle console Sega. Esatto, è proprio così, ed è bene proclamarlo ad alta voce e subito, prima ancora di qualsiasi descrizione e spiegazione, o di qualsivoglia analisi critica, in modo che il giocatore, anche il più distratto o superficiale, sappia immediatamente di fronte a che genere di gemma preziosa egli si trovi davanti, un oggetto che, sempre che non detestiate visceralmente il genere dei Platform con elementi GdR, non può neanche lontanamente essere ignorato, a meno di non volersi perdere il più grande videogioco mai uscito su Next Gen. E attenzione: persino i più feroci hater di Sonic, Mario, Crash o di questa tipologia di videogiochi dovrebbero seriamente considerare di dare una chance a questo episodio della lunga serie di successi di Yuji Naka, poiché molto probabilmente non avranno un’opportunità migliore di scoprire un universo spettacolare e meraviglioso e, in definitiva, convertirsi a Balan."
I wish Nintendo would revive Star Fox with an honest-to-goodness, truly ambitious title, as ambitious as the original was on SNES hardware; and, in turn, retire Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers, because I'm not sure where else those franchises can possibly go that they haven't already.
That's never gonna happen, of course, because those are Nintendo's two most profitable franchises and everyone loves them. But genies also don't exist, so this is where I stand on my fantasy island.
That said, given the apparent linearity and lack of a map, is it really a Metroidvania? Still, I'll be the lookout.
I have to mention, though, this game looks a whole lot better in motion. The filter is a bit much, no doubt about it, especially in still images. But you can appreciate the design work a lot more in the trailer.
Eh, "mind-blowing revolutions" are overrated. I mean, any aesthetic emotion that can't survive more than a handful of years or even months is not worth getting bent out of shape about.
I do like playing once-revolutionary retro games from a historical perspective, and I find that's plenty stimulating. But ultimately the real question is whether the game is good or not, full stop, and how well it works within its limitations. And I loved Mario 64 as a first-timer in 2020. Just like I loved Half-Life, The Legend of Zelda, and Doom, other first-time experiences from this and last year.
Of course, from my modern point of view, I can't see these games as "revolutionary" any more. But I can certainly notice plenty of other things that are just as exciting: the sheer openness and constant sense of danger and adventure in The Legend of Zelda, which not even Breath of the Wild really emulates; the almost Zelda-like dungeon exploration in Doom and the sophistication of its labyrinths, especially in the wildly experimental (if uneven) Doom 2; the careful balance between Doom-style exploration and modern linearity and scripted sequencing in Half-Life, which its sequel and its imitators lost sight of (in favor of increased scripting and linear progression); the jazzy freedom of Mario 64 and its bite-sized but open playgrounds, which are as well-designed (because Nintendo) as they are unrefined (because it's still an early 3D game), a strange and probably impossible-to-reproduce mixture that only adds to the experimental vibe.
There's more to videogames than a technical "wow" factor that's short-lived by definition.
I think game studios need to step up in terms of games preservation. However, I also think the culture at large needs to reassess how it thinks and talks about old games. Even — or especially — professional critics.
For every nuanced assessment of an old videogame (say, by Tim Rogers or DF Retro) you have droves of critics tut-tutting a 20-year-old game for being 20 years old. The mere recognition that a game clearly isn't from our own era is perceived as a negative. This leads to a lot of really bad takes, which would get you thrown out of any book club or film forum, but apparently help pay the bills in the world of videogames.
Metacritic is an aggregator. You don't "listen" to it; you just use it as a gateway for the actual reviews. There's a valid discussion to be had about exactly which reviews are aggregated. And it's certainly problematic how Metacritic tries to homogenize the rating systems of a variety of media under a 1-100 scale. But it doesn't have opinions of its own and there's nothing scientific about it, in the sense that it doesn't reveal the "true" quality of anything. It's useful for picking up the pulse of the overall critical response. Which isn't a minor thing and I find it very interesting.
The cluelessness of some posters here when it comes to mods is astounding.
Mods are not "stealing." You're working with assets from an existing game, but it's a very creative field. You're also not affecting the original game's sales, because you typically need the original game files to even run the mod. Nintendo might not like it, and that's a risk the mod's creators are taking, but that doesn't say anything about the conceptual validity of the mod scene. (Valve, id Software, and Bethesda owe many millions of dollars to it, incidentally.)
Also, the claim that modders lack creativity or should be doing something else with their time is weird when you look at the actual history of mods, and realize some entire genres — like the "walking simulator" — emerged from (Half-Life 2) mods. The only reason we're even having this discussion is because mods aren't established in the console space. I can't imagine this discussion happening in the Rock, Paper, Shotgun comments, for example.
Pricing is a different discussion. We're debating the validity and existence of ports. Most run for about 10 or 20 bucks, and the Mario 3D Collection technically followed suit.
I agree with the gist of the article: more risks, more new experiences, etc.
But here's my counter-argument: we need access to videogame history. I haven't played the Metroid Prime Trilogy, I haven't played Chrono Trigger, I haven't played Super Mario RPG... I'd like these on Switch.
People who buy ports are often people who never played those old games to begin with. I didn't buy the Super Mario 3D collection for the nostalgia. I had never played any of those titles before.
Until backwards compatibility is a regular fixture in the console world — or until the return of the Virtual Console — , ports are going to be necessary.
To be fair, the tension between "open Zelda" and "linear Zelda" has been going on since A Link to the Past streamlined the original Legend of Zelda. It's a pendulum the franchise has always been on.
Yes, about 90% of my screenshots on the Switch are from Breath of the Wild.
I think the reason for this Twitter trend is that Breath of the Wild is one of the few games I can think of where much of the art direction — including graphical style, lighting system, how the environment "frames" certain locations, color, weather systems, etc. — is specifically built for beauty and emotion. Not in the look-at-the-textures-on-this-thing sort of way but in a more nuanced, artistic sense. It's also more subtle than Okami, of course, which took the playable-painting thing more literally.
The reason we see so many ports nowadays is because, well, with every passing year videogames have more history. And we absolutely need that history available.
In the world of PCs, it's a bit simpler because games are simply available on GOG and Steam for years and decades. You may need to patch up some older titles (and there are many gems from the 90s and 80s that rest in obscurity and legal hell) but for the most part, much of videogame history is within reach.
The reason someone downloads Deus Ex every time anyone mentions it — as the meme goes — is because you don't need to "port" Deus Ex. It's just there.
That is beautiful and healthy. I didn't have to play a "port" of Deus Ex when I discovered it in 2007. I just bought it and played it and loved it.
But with consoles, a lot of great games are locked within their specific systems and environments. And that's not healthy for videogames. Not everyone can just purchase every piece of hardware in order to play every console game they might be interested in. Especially if they're old pieces of hardware not even being manufactured anymore.
So ports are necessary and we need to get used to them.
Heck, my entire gaming diet right now — between the original Zelda on the NES app, Pac Man and Tank Force on the Namco Collection, and the Castlevania games on the Konami Collection — is made up of ports of games I've never played before. (Yes, that includes Pac Man. I didn't like it as much when I was a kid, so I mostly ignored it. But Tim Roger's three-hour video on it turned me around.) And I'm thankful for that.
Yes, part of the appeal of Ocarina of Time fishing is: 1) how absolutely competent it is and 2) how unimportant it is. I mean, there are secrets, hidden lures, fish tiers, tactics and strategies... But it didn't have to be that involved. It's not more or less important than fishing in, say, Hades. But in Hades it's very simple, just a short press-the-button-when-you-get-a-bite mini-game. Or the fishing in Okami, where it's just a connect-the-dots affair that's wholly unexciting. Ocarina of Time went the extra mile when nothing was expected.
It's the overuse across centuries and different media that makes it problematic. In isolation, "saving the girl" is not a problematic motivation. It even sounds reasonable. But when it turns up over and over again in books, videogames, and movies, you start thinking it's not a coincidence.
I don't mind the art-style and, as someone who's never played Pokemon, I was waiting for something more classic-flavored (i.e. not Let's Go) to understand what the series is supposed to be about.
The fact that I have Breath of the Pokemon to look forward to after finishing this, well, that's the icing on the cake.
Sure, but we're discussing the specific appeal of the damsel-in-distress trope, so my take hinged on that.
Obviously, "saving the world" is still a thing in fiction. But as @nhSnork suggested, even in those cases, there's often something personal that makes the drama more immediate and tangible for the protagonist (and for readers, viewers, and players). Think of Tidus's dad in FFX, Luke's Tatooine family in Star Wars, the fate of the Shire in Lord of the Rings, the initial demon attack on the village in Princess Mononoke, etc.
Saving the world is too abstract. (How do you go about saving a whole world, anyway?) Saving the "woman you love" is more immediate and visceral. The power fantasy involves fulfilling male imperatives, like being protective and strong, and having women "need" you.
That's the appeal and rationale. It's a transparently problematic trope, of course.
As a fan of the franchise, they're hard games to rank.
Ocarina of Time made me a gamer. Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past are the most elegant and fine-tuned. Breath of the Wild obviously has the best exploration. Majora's Mask has the most interesting vibe and themes. Wind Waker is the most loveable. And the original Legend of Zelda is still the most adventurous and pure Zelda experience.
Never played this! Looks good. Very mid-2000s, with obvious Half Life and Halo influences. Will be interesting to compare with 1995's Dark Forces, which is a more Doom-like flavor.
Comments 753
Re: Talking Point: When Was The Last Time A Game Cracked Your Top Five?
Man, that's a tough one.
Probably Hollow Knight or Breath of the Wild, as the newest games in my likely top ten.
That said, most of my recent "discoveries" and new favorites are on the older side: Doom, Half-Life, Final Fantasy VII, and the original The Legend of Zelda.
I don't think videogames are getting worse (or better, for that matter). Every era has its classics. But with mainstream videogaming being over 40 years old by now, if your gaming diet is wide-ranging, you're going to end up with a lot of "retro" favorites, because there's just more there than whatever's come out in the last few years.
Re: Review: Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - The Best Version Of An Ageing Classic
I will likely buy it on the strength of its legacy. I'm more tolerant of old-school jankiness than most and modern polish doesn't matter to me that much. Its luster fades within an hour anyway.
Re: Review: Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - The Best Version Of An Ageing Classic
I play old games because they're dated.
Re: Koei Tecmo's Guzzler Joins Hamster's Arcade Archives Range On Switch Today
@Tandy255
Yeah, it's awesome. I was a first-time player, but it looked so unique I had to get it. The art style's on point. I was playing it and when I told my girlfriend it was a game from before we were even alive, she was like, "Huh, it looks like a modern game doing retro and not an actual retro game." Which she meant as a compliment.
Re: Koei Tecmo's Guzzler Joins Hamster's Arcade Archives Range On Switch Today
I really appreciate what Hamster are doing. I bought several of their games, from In The Hunt to X-Multiply and Moon Patrol. I really liked them all, especially Moon Patrol. Of course, not everything Hamster releases is "for me," so to speak, but when they put out so many titles, that's to be expected. I'm just glad they're rescuing these games from oblivion and letting new audiences find them through legal means.
Re: Random: There's A Project Aiming To Make Super Mario 64 Fully Ray Traced
Yeah, this doesn't work that well with Mario 64. The art style isn't a good fit with it.
Realistic lighting isn't always going to be an artistic triumph. Extreme example, but: no one looks at Picasso's Guernica because it's an accurate depiction of how a bombed-out town looks when you turn on a lamp.
Re: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 Gets Its Nintendo Switch Release Date
If the port's good, I'll buy. I'm doing the same waiting game with Subnautica. I can play them on PC, but obviously they're more comfortable to have on the Switch.
Re: Square Enix Switch Sale Discounts Lots Of Final Fantasy Games, Balan Wonderworld And More (North America)
Ah, perfect. I'll take the plunge on Final Fantasy XII. I finished VII last week for the first time and I'm hankering for more Final Fantasy experiences. I have VI on the SNES Mini, XIII on PC, and playing XII on the Switch would be great.
Re: Review: The Longing - Tedious By Design, And Incredibly Successful At It
This review brings to mind an old Insert Credit article by Brandon Lee, about why videogames will never have their Citizen Kane:
"And here then, is the sticking point; the reason that gaming as is will never have its Kane: Those industry jokes I mentioned --Takeshi, Desert Bus — are not fun games. If they were, they'd be entirely above any type of criticism. This has always been the deciding factor; if a game is fun, it's a good game. If it's not fun, it's bad. This, though, is an almost farcically bad way to judge art. Art is as expressive as language itself — more, even."
Personally, I categorically do not think the purpose of videogames is to be fun. The purpose of videogames, like the purpose of all art, is to be interesting and meaningful. Being fun is one way to accomplish this, but there are many other ways.
Re: Talking Point: Do You Miss Instruction Manuals?
I liked them and often miss them. Beyond the nostalgia and their physicality, the manuals also affected gameplay and pacing — sometimes for the better.
Since so much information could be dumped into the manuals, that meant games could hit the ground running instead of spending their first two or three hours (or more) guiding you through every button press in lengthy tutorial areas or devoting entire rooms so you can learn how to jump and crouch.
Also, the lack of a handy manual means that, if you've forgotten how certain menu options or movements operate — in, say, a menu-driven game like Fire Emblem or a Platinum action game with lengthy move sets — you don't have a quick way to just consult the information you want by flipping through the manual. Instead, you have to dive into a series of nested in-game menus, which may not necessarily have the best UX design in the world.
Re: Rumour: The Voice Of Metal Gear Solid's Snake Hints That A Second Remake Is On The Way
I'll just buy the original on GOG.
If they remake it, they'll have to re-do everything, not just the sound. The gameplay is built around the fixed camera angles and stylized simplicity of the graphics and geometry. It works in the original context, but it wouldn't work with, say, MGS V mechanics.
At that point, though, it'd just be a different game. Kind of like how Final Fantasy VII Remake is not really a replacement for the original.
Re: Review: SaGa Frontier Remastered - A Cracking Update Of An Infuriating Cult Classic
I have to say, this sounds appealing. It's one of those 6 scores that, if you're a certain kind of gamer, actually reads like an 8 or even a 9.
I'm about to finish Final Fantasy VII for the first time on the Switch, so I'm itching to play more Square JRPGs from that era. This sounds quite different to Final Fantasy VII, though, because Final Fantasy VII is pretty linear and NPCs always tell you where to go next. This seems like a much more open-ended (and evidently confusing) affair.
I'm also intrigued by Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story, but I'm not sure if I should nab them on my dusty PS3 while I still can or wait for a remaster. Probably the first option...
Re: Feature: 'Breaking' Shrines Was Maybe The Coolest Thing About Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
@Cyz
Very true. Ocarina of Time does things with sound design, music, architecture, and color that are extraordinarily effective. I like Mario 64 very much (played it for the first time last year), but it's clear to me that Ocarina of Time was a massive aesthetic leap for Nintendo (and the Nintendo 64). The reason your first walk into Hyrule Field is so emotionally resonant is not because Hyrule Field is an exciting place (it isn't) but because of how carefully the game leads up to that point, after hours running inside a tree or around a small forest village closed in by foliage. And when you enter Hyrule Field, you don't immediately emerge into the wide expanse but have to walk down a hedged-in corridor first, ensuring maximum effect when the horizon finally stretches out in front of you. It's like a musical composition but with architecture and level design. That kind of thing goes a long way towards elevating the early 3D graphics.
Re: Feature: 'Breaking' Shrines Was Maybe The Coolest Thing About Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Ocarina of Time, along with Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, is partly (if not largely) to blame for kickstarting the games-as-art debate. From the vantage point of 2021, we have the perspective now to say that, well, in terms of game design and overall flow, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening (and I'd also go to bat for the first Zelda) are at least as good if not better than Ocarina of Time. But when it came out, Ocarina of Time was a real eye-opening moment for a lot of us. Its influence cannot be overstated and its DNA is all over other games that were, in turn, also massively influential, including Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls. It was a game that suggested the Dream of Videogames — a fully-immersive virtual world that contains all other art forms and modes of expression — was close at hand. In part because graphics had advanced to the point that it was possible to build "cinematic" interactive experiences. And the comparison to cinema, an established artform, gave weight to videogames' claim to artistic integrity. Now that we're enlightened 2021 gamers we can go back to, say, Pac-Man from 1980 and go, yes, this is obviously art. But back in 1998, we needed Ocarina of Time and its brethren to spur the conversation.
Re: Feature: 'Breaking' Shrines Was Maybe The Coolest Thing About Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
I think both lock-and-key and creativity-first approaches have their places. The lock-and-key approach really works when you want to make elaborate, multiple-part (and even multi-room) puzzles, and convey the idea that you're in this foreboding ancient temple with an exact configuration of traps and challenges. The creativity-first shrines in Breath of the Wild (and in stuff like Portal) favor smaller, tighter puzzle design, with different solutions and a shorter running time. I think the Divine Beasts tried to combine both approaches, but didn't quite get there. (Though I still find them a lot of fun.) Part of what makes the dungeons in, say, Ocarina of Time so memorable is the drama and architectural narrative of your movement through them. I've been watching speed runs of it lately and stuff like the Forest Temple feels as powerfully atmospheric as ever. And this emotional, narrative component is key to Zelda dungeons, not just their complexity and interactive opportunities. (Though speed-runners have certainly broken even the most linear, rigid dungeons out there.) Conversely, Breath of the Wild's shrines and beasts are not quite as memorable, but, during my current Master Mode run, I've still found them beguiling. I really, really like how each shrine has an optional chest with, usually, an optional puzzle attached to it. That reminds me of the special challenges in Portal, forcing you to re-solve the puzzles in harder, more efficient ways.
Re: The Longing Makes You Wait 400 Real-Life Days To See The End, Launching On Switch Today
This game sounds brilliant and by all accounts it is. I'll almost assuredly buy it.
As for those saying, "This seems like a commitment. I can play so many other games in that time." Well, you can. The clock runs no matter what. You can dip in and out as you please and check in on the little shade.
Re: FEZ Will Bring A Cool Hat And Gameplay To Switch Today
I have it on PC and played a bit. It's brilliant, but I never really bother to hook up the PC for long play-sessions unless it's some immersive cinematic experience like Death Stranding. Or if I want to replay all of Half-Life, for some reason.
On the Switch, though, it's another story. Yeah, I'm double-dipping on Fez.
Re: The Skylia Prophecy Begins Its Quest On Switch Soon
"The sidescrolling 'Metroidvania' is a style of game that's been very well served on Nintendo Switch, which is especially useful as Konami doesn't seem interested in making any games like that."
Neither does Nintendo.
Re: Random: A Switch Owner's So Fed Up With Games Lacking Manuals That They Made Their Own
I like manuals, but it's also true that games now just drop the manuals into the game. This is kind of annoying for replays, though, because you need to sit through the tutorials, whereas old games are often pretty replayable precisely because they dumped all their hand-holding into the manuals and, for replays, you can just get going immediately after starting up the campaign without going through the training stages, because there aren't any.
Re: Feature: Best NES Games
@MontyCircus
Zelda doesn't need distant, museum-like respect, though. It's just an all-time great.
Sure, it took me a little getting used to at first. Your movement is more limited than in A Link to the Past. And you need to read the instruction manual before playing.
But after that adjustment period, I just loved the difficulty, freedom, and sense of adventure, which aren't always there in later Zelda titles.
It benefits from the current renaissance of old-school sensibilities, though. The way you lose in The Legend of Zelda while retaining rupees (which function as experience points, since you need them to buy weapons and armor) leads to a very Dark Souls-style progression early on. And the dungeons are much like today's rogue-likes, with rooms of enemies you have to clear before progressing. I felt right at home after my 40 hours with Hades.
Re: Review: Star Wars: Republic Commando - Not An Elegant Weapon, But Still A Blast
Sounds good.
I would like to point out, though, that "linear, simple corridor design" is not really old school. The concept became popular in the early 2000s largely thanks to Half-Life, although its imitators failed to see how Valve's level designers keep things fresh through frequent and drastic changes in scenery and gameplay. (Also, Halo — but Halo's gunplay and sense of scale save its most repetitive sections.) However, in the era of "Doom clones" before Half-Life, most FPSs didn't really do linear corridors. They did sprawling, complex labyrinths. That's what "old school" FPS design means to me.
Re: Check Out Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster's "World's Rebirth" Story Trailer
If the Japanese release had technical issues, I hope they've fixed those since. I'm really looking forward to this.
Re: Balan Wonderworld Is Getting A Suspicious Amount Of 10/10 Metacritic User Reviews
@JayJ
In a larger sense, though, the pure value judgement of how-good-is-this-game-out-of-ten is totally meaningless. I write movie reviews for a film website here in Argentina, where I live, and I hate doing star ratings. I have to, because of editorial policies, but it's pointless. The stars don't mean anything. There's a reason I'm bothering to type down all those words up above!
Ultimately, I think criticism, as a practice, is more interesting when it's asking The Big Questions, and these Big Questions have to do with history, culture, the advancement of the medium, popular reception, the context, the work's meaning, and so on and so forth. That's juicy stuff that makes we want to read words or listen to podcasts or watch videos — and you can't summarize any of it in a number.
I mean, I'm binging on Tim Rogers's stuff right now, and sometimes, like, it doesn't even matter whether he thinks a game is good or not. You're hearing about the experience of gaming, about game mechanics, about the social impact of this or that classic, and even when Tim talks about how a game is personally relevant to him, you always get the feeling that what he's really getting at is the relevance of videogames in our lives. And there's no putting a number next to that.
Re: Balan Wonderworld Is Getting A Suspicious Amount Of 10/10 Metacritic User Reviews
@JayJ
I think scores are usually completely meaningless, unless you have a very personal scale that doesn't grade games like we're at the Olympics or something and you're tallying up the amount of flaws and counting down from a perfect ten.
I've seen reviews even on this site which are, like, "This game is a tremendous, life-changing experience. It will solve poverty in at least a dozen countries. However, some players may experience frame-rate stuttering on the 17th level. And the prevalence of the color green in overworld maps can be distracting. 8/10."
Re: Balan Wonderworld Is Getting A Suspicious Amount Of 10/10 Metacritic User Reviews
@JayJ
You also at least need to have purchased or claimed the game on Steam. And the amount of hours played feature alongside the user's review. It's not a perfect system (you can have played the game on a platform other than Steam, after all) but it's better than whatever Metacritic has going on. Of course, review aggregators like Metacritic run into this issue no matter what. It comes with the territory. Rotten Tomatoes has the same issue with movie reviews.
Re: Balan Wonderworld Is Getting A Suspicious Amount Of 10/10 Metacritic User Reviews
I have to admit, suspicious Metacritic reviews do sound better in Italian:
"Balan Wonderworld è un’opera d’arte, un monumentale esempio di game design e storytelling, una testimonianza per le future generazioni della grandezza di un sviluppatore leggendario, Yuji Naka, che ha firmato molti dei più grandi capolavori usciti nel corso degli anni sulle console Sega. Esatto, è proprio così, ed è bene proclamarlo ad alta voce e subito, prima ancora di qualsiasi descrizione e spiegazione, o di qualsivoglia analisi critica, in modo che il giocatore, anche il più distratto o superficiale, sappia immediatamente di fronte a che genere di gemma preziosa egli si trovi davanti, un oggetto che, sempre che non detestiate visceralmente il genere dei Platform con elementi GdR, non può neanche lontanamente essere ignorato, a meno di non volersi perdere il più grande videogioco mai uscito su Next Gen. E attenzione: persino i più feroci hater di Sonic, Mario, Crash o di questa tipologia di videogiochi dovrebbero seriamente considerare di dare una chance a questo episodio della lunga serie di successi di Yuji Naka, poiché molto probabilmente non avranno un’opportunità migliore di scoprire un universo spettacolare e meraviglioso e, in definitiva, convertirsi a Balan."
Re: Balan Wonderworld Is Getting A Suspicious Amount Of 10/10 Metacritic User Reviews
LOL @ ""Egregious and absolutely stunning game"
Re: Talking Point: Which Old Game Series Would You Like To See Revived?
I wish Nintendo would revive Star Fox with an honest-to-goodness, truly ambitious title, as ambitious as the original was on SNES hardware; and, in turn, retire Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers, because I'm not sure where else those franchises can possibly go that they haven't already.
That's never gonna happen, of course, because those are Nintendo's two most profitable franchises and everyone loves them. But genies also don't exist, so this is where I stand on my fantasy island.
Re: Review: Narita Boy - Pay Homage To The '80s In This Marvellous Metroidvania
Looks sick.
That said, given the apparent linearity and lack of a map, is it really a Metroidvania? Still, I'll be the lookout.
I have to mention, though, this game looks a whole lot better in motion. The filter is a bit much, no doubt about it, especially in still images. But you can appreciate the design work a lot more in the trailer.
Re: Feature: Can't Buy Super Mario 64 On Switch Anymore? Psst! The N64 Original Is Better
@Wavey84
Eh, "mind-blowing revolutions" are overrated. I mean, any aesthetic emotion that can't survive more than a handful of years or even months is not worth getting bent out of shape about.
I do like playing once-revolutionary retro games from a historical perspective, and I find that's plenty stimulating. But ultimately the real question is whether the game is good or not, full stop, and how well it works within its limitations. And I loved Mario 64 as a first-timer in 2020. Just like I loved Half-Life, The Legend of Zelda, and Doom, other first-time experiences from this and last year.
Of course, from my modern point of view, I can't see these games as "revolutionary" any more. But I can certainly notice plenty of other things that are just as exciting: the sheer openness and constant sense of danger and adventure in The Legend of Zelda, which not even Breath of the Wild really emulates; the almost Zelda-like dungeon exploration in Doom and the sophistication of its labyrinths, especially in the wildly experimental (if uneven) Doom 2; the careful balance between Doom-style exploration and modern linearity and scripted sequencing in Half-Life, which its sequel and its imitators lost sight of (in favor of increased scripting and linear progression); the jazzy freedom of Mario 64 and its bite-sized but open playgrounds, which are as well-designed (because Nintendo) as they are unrefined (because it's still an early 3D game), a strange and probably impossible-to-reproduce mixture that only adds to the experimental vibe.
There's more to videogames than a technical "wow" factor that's short-lived by definition.
Re: Dress Like A Character From Disco Elysium With This New ZA/UM Fashion Line
That pilot jacket is incredible. Also incredibly expensive and sold out.
2021 goals.
Re: Talking Point: Are You A 'Complete-In-Box' Or 'Loose Cart' Retro Gamer?
Oh, I'm a my-parents-accidentally-donated-my-whole-cart-collection-while-I-was-off-to-college kind of guy.
Re: Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection Includes Sigma Editions Because The Originals Were Unsalvageable
@BloodNinja
Yeah, I agree.
I think game studios need to step up in terms of games preservation. However, I also think the culture at large needs to reassess how it thinks and talks about old games. Even — or especially — professional critics.
For every nuanced assessment of an old videogame (say, by Tim Rogers or DF Retro) you have droves of critics tut-tutting a 20-year-old game for being 20 years old. The mere recognition that a game clearly isn't from our own era is perceived as a negative. This leads to a lot of really bad takes, which would get you thrown out of any book club or film forum, but apparently help pay the bills in the world of videogames.
Until that changes, code will continue vanishing.
Re: Sega Tops Metacritic's 2020 Publisher Rankings, Nintendo Squeezes Into Top Ten
Metacritic is an aggregator. You don't "listen" to it; you just use it as a gateway for the actual reviews. There's a valid discussion to be had about exactly which reviews are aggregated. And it's certainly problematic how Metacritic tries to homogenize the rating systems of a variety of media under a 1-100 scale. But it doesn't have opinions of its own and there's nothing scientific about it, in the sense that it doesn't reveal the "true" quality of anything. It's useful for picking up the pulse of the overall critical response. Which isn't a minor thing and I find it very interesting.
Re: Introducing Second Wind, A "Free Large-Scale DLC" Expansion Mod For Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The cluelessness of some posters here when it comes to mods is astounding.
Mods are not "stealing." You're working with assets from an existing game, but it's a very creative field. You're also not affecting the original game's sales, because you typically need the original game files to even run the mod. Nintendo might not like it, and that's a risk the mod's creators are taking, but that doesn't say anything about the conceptual validity of the mod scene. (Valve, id Software, and Bethesda owe many millions of dollars to it, incidentally.)
Also, the claim that modders lack creativity or should be doing something else with their time is weird when you look at the actual history of mods, and realize some entire genres — like the "walking simulator" — emerged from (Half-Life 2) mods. The only reason we're even having this discussion is because mods aren't established in the console space. I can't imagine this discussion happening in the Rock, Paper, Shotgun comments, for example.
Re: Soapbox: I'm Tired Of Ports And Remakes - Where Are All Nintendo's New Ideas?
@Donnerkebab
Pricing is a different discussion. We're debating the validity and existence of ports. Most run for about 10 or 20 bucks, and the Mario 3D Collection technically followed suit.
Re: Soapbox: I'm Tired Of Ports And Remakes - Where Are All Nintendo's New Ideas?
@Bass_X0
Having games locked into obsolete hardware is not availability.
I'm trying to look beyond 2021. How are we going to play those old games in 2025? In 2035? That's what I'm worried about.
Re: Soapbox: I'm Tired Of Ports And Remakes - Where Are All Nintendo's New Ideas?
I agree with the gist of the article: more risks, more new experiences, etc.
But here's my counter-argument: we need access to videogame history. I haven't played the Metroid Prime Trilogy, I haven't played Chrono Trigger, I haven't played Super Mario RPG... I'd like these on Switch.
People who buy ports are often people who never played those old games to begin with. I didn't buy the Super Mario 3D collection for the nostalgia. I had never played any of those titles before.
Until backwards compatibility is a regular fixture in the console world — or until the return of the Virtual Console — , ports are going to be necessary.
Re: The Creator Of Broken Sword Is Bringing Cyberpunk Thriller Beyond A Steel Sky To Switch
The original is awesome and I credit it with getting me into "games not of my current era" (i.e. retro games).
We'll see how this turns out.
Re: Nintendo Plugs Skyward Sword HD With "Elements" Later Adopted In Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
To be fair, the tension between "open Zelda" and "linear Zelda" has been going on since A Link to the Past streamlined the original Legend of Zelda. It's a pendulum the franchise has always been on.
Re: Feature: People Are Sharing Their First Four Zelda Screenshots On Switch, And We Wanted To Join In
Yes, about 90% of my screenshots on the Switch are from Breath of the Wild.
I think the reason for this Twitter trend is that Breath of the Wild is one of the few games I can think of where much of the art direction — including graphical style, lighting system, how the environment "frames" certain locations, color, weather systems, etc. — is specifically built for beauty and emotion. Not in the look-at-the-textures-on-this-thing sort of way but in a more nuanced, artistic sense. It's also more subtle than Okami, of course, which took the playable-painting thing more literally.
Re: Video: Ten 3DS Exclusives That Could Be Better On Nintendo Switch
@BloodNinja
This, absolutely.
The reason we see so many ports nowadays is because, well, with every passing year videogames have more history. And we absolutely need that history available.
In the world of PCs, it's a bit simpler because games are simply available on GOG and Steam for years and decades. You may need to patch up some older titles (and there are many gems from the 90s and 80s that rest in obscurity and legal hell) but for the most part, much of videogame history is within reach.
The reason someone downloads Deus Ex every time anyone mentions it — as the meme goes — is because you don't need to "port" Deus Ex. It's just there.
That is beautiful and healthy. I didn't have to play a "port" of Deus Ex when I discovered it in 2007. I just bought it and played it and loved it.
But with consoles, a lot of great games are locked within their specific systems and environments. And that's not healthy for videogames. Not everyone can just purchase every piece of hardware in order to play every console game they might be interested in. Especially if they're old pieces of hardware not even being manufactured anymore.
So ports are necessary and we need to get used to them.
Heck, my entire gaming diet right now — between the original Zelda on the NES app, Pac Man and Tank Force on the Namco Collection, and the Castlevania games on the Konami Collection — is made up of ports of games I've never played before. (Yes, that includes Pac Man. I didn't like it as much when I was a kid, so I mostly ignored it. But Tim Roger's three-hour video on it turned me around.) And I'm thankful for that.
Re: Feature: Forget Saving Hyrule, Zelda: Ocarina of Time Is All About Fishing For Me
Good essay.
Yes, part of the appeal of Ocarina of Time fishing is: 1) how absolutely competent it is and 2) how unimportant it is. I mean, there are secrets, hidden lures, fish tiers, tactics and strategies... But it didn't have to be that involved. It's not more or less important than fishing in, say, Hades. But in Hades it's very simple, just a short press-the-button-when-you-get-a-bite mini-game. Or the fishing in Okami, where it's just a connect-the-dots affair that's wholly unexciting. Ocarina of Time went the extra mile when nothing was expected.
Re: Hamster Confirms Two More Coin-Op Classics For Its Arcade Archives Range On Switch
@BlubberWhale
It's the overuse across centuries and different media that makes it problematic. In isolation, "saving the girl" is not a problematic motivation. It even sounds reasonable. But when it turns up over and over again in books, videogames, and movies, you start thinking it's not a coincidence.
Re: Sinnoh Confirmed: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl Officially Announced For Switch
I don't mind the art-style and, as someone who's never played Pokemon, I was waiting for something more classic-flavored (i.e. not Let's Go) to understand what the series is supposed to be about.
The fact that I have Breath of the Pokemon to look forward to after finishing this, well, that's the icing on the cake.
Re: Hamster Confirms Two More Coin-Op Classics For Its Arcade Archives Range On Switch
@Ryu_Niiyama
Sure, but we're discussing the specific appeal of the damsel-in-distress trope, so my take hinged on that.
Obviously, "saving the world" is still a thing in fiction. But as @nhSnork suggested, even in those cases, there's often something personal that makes the drama more immediate and tangible for the protagonist (and for readers, viewers, and players). Think of Tidus's dad in FFX, Luke's Tatooine family in Star Wars, the fate of the Shire in Lord of the Rings, the initial demon attack on the village in Princess Mononoke, etc.
Re: Hamster Confirms Two More Coin-Op Classics For Its Arcade Archives Range On Switch
@Ryu_Niiyama
Saving the world is too abstract. (How do you go about saving a whole world, anyway?) Saving the "woman you love" is more immediate and visceral. The power fantasy involves fulfilling male imperatives, like being protective and strong, and having women "need" you.
That's the appeal and rationale. It's a transparently problematic trope, of course.
Re: Feature: We Worked Out The Best Zelda Game Once And For All, Using Maths
As a fan of the franchise, they're hard games to rank.
Ocarina of Time made me a gamer. Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past are the most elegant and fine-tuned. Breath of the Wild obviously has the best exploration. Majora's Mask has the most interesting vibe and themes. Wind Waker is the most loveable. And the original Legend of Zelda is still the most adventurous and pure Zelda experience.
I give them all the #1 spot. That's my list.
Re: Star Wars: Republic Commando Is Landing On Switch This April
Never played this! Looks good. Very mid-2000s, with obvious Half Life and Halo influences. Will be interesting to compare with 1995's Dark Forces, which is a more Doom-like flavor.
Re: Tony Hawk Has Heard About Crash 4 Coming To New Platforms, Wants His Own Game To Follow
Great, this is a done deal based on the official brand accounts jumping in on the fun. Will probably be buying.