If they bring back the Monastery (or something like it), I do hope they liven it up a little. I mean, I loved walking around and talking to people in Three Houses, but the artificiality of NPCs standing in random corners or wandering in tiny circles diluted the immersion. I'm not asking for Clock Town from Majora's Mask here but... Some conventions that look fine in top-down traditional RPGs just translate weirdly into 3D space. Probably because in 2D, the game world looks more like what it is: a game board. Whereas in 3D space, you start to see it as a realistic narrative space, and expectations change.
I prefer this to the original. In fact, I consider it one of the best games I've played. For newcomers, though, a few points: 1) Definitely wait for the DLC. This game's legacy was hugely improved by the fan restoration project, which the DLC is based on. The original release is essentially incomplete. 2) Get out of the starting area. It's a huge drag and a terrible way to start the game. It lasts forever, too. The pace picks up after you leave. 3) The way the virtual world is put together, well, it requires a certain level of abstraction to appreciate. NPCs just sort of lifelessly stand there. Battle arenas are just connecting hallways. This is partly because the bones of KOTOR are the isometric RPGs from the 90s, like Fallout and Baldur's Gate. And a lot of stuff that worked fine from a distant isometric perspective looks really awkward and stiff in proper ground-level 3D. The writing in KOTOR and especially KOTOR II are really good, though, so you still get immersed. Just keep in mind that, mechanically-speaking, you're walking around a glorified game board. It's always been this way. That's just KOTOR.
I mean, whatever. Bayo 3 I'm looking forward to, but the footage they showed last time was, uh, rough, and not quite at the level of the spectacular Bayo 2. Not giving up on it, though: Bayo 2 and Astral Chain are my two Platinum games on Switch and they're both amazing.
Metroid Prime 4 I'm obviously looking forward to but, um, and this will sound sacrilegious coming from a guy with a Super Metroid avatar, but I never actually played the other Prime games. So maybe re-release those first?
I'm mildly curious about trying out this game. I never picked it up when I was a kid because, well, it wasn't exactly well-regarded back then. And it came out around the same time as Ocarina of Time, so, you know, priorities.
A delay won't change anything. It looks fairly polished already. The problem is what it fundamentally is. Empty plains with soothing music works for Zelda because that's all about exploration. With Sonic, it's not working for me. To be frank, Odyssey had the same issue. Some of the bigger levels were too spread out for what Mario gameplay is about. Not everything has to be big and sprawling.
Yeah, that method is how I play most N64 games on NSO, especially Zelda. Even with Banjo, where mapping the camera to the right control stick felt theoretically natural, I still reverted to holding ZR, simply because the game would often interpret my left and right inputs as up or down, and zoom into or out of my character, which got really annoying. Holding ZR and pressing actual buttons to control the camera, as in the original N64, worked better for me.
I don't think "advances in modern first person shooters" matter much, because I played Doom, Quake, and Half-Life in the past two or three years and those are all 10s in my book. That being said, Goldeneye is a game I didn't really love back in the day. (I was more into Perfect Dark.) I had a lot of problems with Goldeneye's graphics and art design back in the late 90s. That being said, Goldeneye was also my first FPS (though I did play Duke Nukem and Quake 2 at a friend's house) and I had no context for it. Now I do, so I'm interested in giving it another shot. John Linneman has a really interesting video on Goldeneye over at DF Retro and he mentions how its design is informed by the fact that, originally, it was going to be a light-gun game. This, combined with certain aspects of its level design, actually make Goldeneye (and Perfect Dark) kind of unique in the history of first-person shooters. I think people sort of overstate the impact of Goldeneye. Yes, the control scheme, the multiplayer, the fact that it was the first console FPS that made a dent in the gaming culture... Not downplaying those achievements. But I feel the evolution of the genre was really happening on PCs at the time, as Half-Life reinvented the Doom-clone in 1998. So Goldeneye and everything it was doing, in terms of flow, enemy encounters, mission-based structure, and so on, remains a kind of rarity along the genre's evolution. I would say Halo was the real trend-setting console FPS a few years later, as far as actual gameplay mechanics and level design are concerned. even if Goldeneye's success is responsible for making Halo a viable proposition.
Does this release include a classic graphics option? I tend to really dislike the trend of brightening up graphics for remasters or remakes. I feel it almost always loses atmosphere. The worst offender is probably Halo Anniversary, but you can switch to classic graphics with the touch of a button.
Interesting match-up. I'd definitely say Final Fantasy 7 is sad in very explicit, obvious ways that everyone can agree with.
Super Metroid, on the other hand, I don't know. I obviously love it, and that ending is an all-time videogame moment, but I wouldn't associate "sadness" with it. I mean, it's emotional, but it's also rousing and heroic.
You can still soft-gate portions of the world, even if it's open-world. Breath of the Wild does this. You can technically head straight for the icy mountains, but you'll have a hard time of it if you don't first acquire a fire sword, learn how to cook up cold-resisting potions, or find the right armor. In something like Witcher 3, you can technically take on quests far above your level, but you'll also get clobbered immediately, so you probably should reserve those for later. And so on.
Not talking to NPCs is a stumbling block many people encounter with older titles. In today's games — partly because virtual cities are so densely populated now you can't expect players to talk to everyone — important NPCs are clearly singled out with an icon or in-world signposting. So modern gamers are conditioned to ignore all NPCs that aren't marked as quest-relevant. Today's games also have mountains of disposable sidequests, flavor text, and lore, because they have memory space to spare — in comparison to the 90s, anyway — so they can throw much more content at the player. This means the critical path has to be highlighted more clearly. To compound this issue, there are more games available now competing for our dwindling time, so developers are — rightly — terrified of losing players if they can't figure out where to go next. So they just point them in the right direction, sometimes with literal arrows. (Unless it's an open world game like Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild, where every direction is valid, so there's less navigational frustration. There's a catch to this, though: if every direction is valid, there's less to "figure out." You tend to walk around aimlessly. It's fun, too, but a different sort of fun to navigational detective work.) In this context, 90s games that expect you to talk to every NPC, made for audiences that knew they had to do this, are in a problematic spot, because modern gamers are sidestepping all the hand-holding, all the tutorials, and all the hints. For me, "figuring out where to go" is one of my favorite game challenges. (Hence the avatar.) I like what 90s games were doing and regularly discover new gems. But I understand why design trends have shifted, even if I don't celebrate the reason.
Most old turn-based RPGs I've played are kind of a slog at first because you can't do much other than just attack, receive damage, and heal yourself. The battle systems only show their true colors once you get more skills and party members, and that only happens a number of hours into the game. This progression can be interesting, though, which is why I play old RPGs. The stark transition from slow start to explosive end pays dividends from a storytelling standpoint.
I think audiences back in the day more willingly put up with this slow-burn structure because, if you wanted interactive storytelling on a grand scale, RPGs were the only genre actually delivering on that, along with point-and-click adventure games. (And cinematic platformers, I guess, but there weren't as many of them.) Now we're regularly playing interactive prestige movies with near photorealistic graphics. Even something like Final Fantasy has basically become that. I don't know if it's better or worse. (Heck, after playing FF7 and FF7R last year, I actually liked the original much better.) But it's certainly different and going back does require an adjustment.
KOTOR games were always clunky. I have no idea what game people thought they were playing back in the day if they're just discovering this now. KOTOR II is especially janky because it was basically unfinished when it came out, but the story's dope and I do consider the game to be an all-time fave, over and above the first one. That being said, word of warning to newbies: it's got the most relentlesly boring opening to an RPG that I know of, bested only by Fallout 2, another janky masterpiece with a famously bad opening.
Awesome. I finished the game the other day. Wonderful experience and the underwater levels were a highlight... except for this bug. Thankfully I knew about it and powered through with save states. Usually don't use them but in this case it was warranted. The fix will be useful to 100% the game .
Pinball looks neat. I think I remember playing that as a kid. The two SNES additions, though, seem like the sort of middling stuff I avoided back in the 90s. They seem to have their fans, though, judging from the YouTube comments, so maybe I shouldn't prejudge. (Congo's Caper, especially.)
I've always been one to value re-reading, re-watching, and re-playing. A teacher in high school once told me, "It's better to re-read a great book ten times, than to read ten books." I haven't exactly followed that advice to the letter, but I also haven't forgotten it. Many of my favorite whatevers — books, films, videogames — became favorites after revisits, not the first time out the gate. Sometimes you miss stuff during that initial run. Or time passes and you change as a person. Revisiting can be like visiting it for the first time. Even games I thought I knew as much as someone can know a game, like the Nintendo 64 Zeldas, I'm now playing them very differently than I did twenty years ago. I'm older, I don't get stuck on puzzles anymore, I figure stuff out quicker. The pacing of those games has changed dramatically because I've changed. Sidequests I gave up on I now deeply enjoyed. I'm more patient. My entire gaming life can be divided into pre-Dark Souls and post-Dark Souls. Some of the games I've come to love since then, from Bayonetta to Hollow Knight to the original 1986 Zelda, Mario 64, and recently Alien Soldier, I would have never stuck with had it not been for Dark Souls teaching me how to approach games, new and old, with a different mindset. This is all to say: revisiting games isn't always about sticking to your comfort zone. Sometimes it's about realizing how far outside your comfort zone you've managed to come in the intervening years.
I mean, I know every old game inhabits its own bespoke swamp of rights disputes, missing files, technical hurdles, galaxy-brain publisher un-reasoning, and opaque economic prospects, but it's absolutely wild to me that I can play this on the Switch and not, say, Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Super Mario RPG.
Videogame preservation is in a weird place. Industry-shaking classics from that era or later haven't been re-released in forever, but whatever this is gets a lavish Criterion Collection-style treatment. Alright, then.
I would personally go with Mario 3 or World. Mario 3 ultimately feels more inventive and varied to me, so it slightly beats out World's polish and atmosphere.
And then either 64 or Galaxy. 64 is the roughest 3D Mario, but the limitless skill ceiling and space for creativity means it's the one I replay the most. Galaxy is way more accessible, but also more limited in moveset and how much fun you can have with the more linear level design. It's quite a trip, though. Sublime music.
Not a fan of Odyssey or Sunshine. Odyssey is better and approaches 64's jazzy experimentation, but the flatter, challenge-free level design and deluge of collectibles hinders my enjoyment. It was my first 3D Mario, but I far preferred Galaxy and 64 when I got to them.
I agree with many of the comments here. I'm one of those gamers who doesn't mind sticking around with a game until it gets really good. Sometimes with older classics, I need to give them some time to get into the mindset of, say, a gamer from the 1980s. But that usually takes, like, you know, 30 minutes to a couple of hours. No biggie.
Some of these Games as a Service, though, they require a degree of time investment that is simply astonishing. I've read fans of Final Fantasy XIV or Warframe say, without a shred of irony, that they get really good after hour 60 or hour 100. Everything before that is basically a tutorial. And that's... that's a bit much.
I think there's plenty still, but they'll have to start including deep cuts or more Rare titles.
You know, stuff like Silicon Valley, Mischief Makers, or Body Harvest, or Rare games like Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker... Many of the N64's heavy-hitters were, admittedly, Rare games, so they'd have to continue what they started with Banjo Kazooie for the service to feel complete.
I'm in an odd position, because I absolutely think NSO can be better and offer superior emulation right out the gate, but I'm also playing the heck out of it across all the apps, so I can't really say the service isn't paying itself for me. I'd rather own many of these games, sure, but the "rental" model does mean I'm trying out stuff like MUSHA and Alien Soldier and being blown away, and those games I may have never bought in a traditional purchase system. My ideal, though, would be a mix of subscription and purchase, which is essentially how Game Pass works.
The best from the showcase. Just from the trailer alone the mechanics seem polished and fun. And the retro art style may be cliché at this point, but when it fits the material, it fits. And it certainly fits here. Really excited to try it out.
Sort of. I was just poking fun at the obsession with "datedness" in videogame criticism. To me, "datedness" is a neutral term. All games are products of their time. If you think about it, there's a lot about Breath of the Wild that is pure 2010s, whether it's the open-world-with-towers concept, the prevalence of repeated enemies and samey-looking ruins to pad out the landscape, the simplistic sidequest design, and the somewhat uninspiring main quest narrative. These are all common issues in modern open-worlders, even the best ones. We may not call Breath of the Wild "dated" just yet because it's still relatively close to the date we're living in, but we will in 2030. And you could say the same thing about Ocarina of Time being very much a late 1990s 3D game. But where does that leave us? Are you really doing justice to Breath of the Wild's immersive, sweeping overworld exploration, ambience, and physics system? Or Ocarina of Time's incredibly consistent succession of memorable dungeons and vibes? I think understanding a game's context and date of release is important, sure, but ultimately the art, the heart of the game, the experience it gives you, that's where it's at, that's what matters.
Um, they're not throwing shade. They're just pointing out that Ocarina of Time is, like, important. In a long-lasting kind of way. You know, like the millennia-spanning Bible. I'd have gone with something like "the Citizen Kane of videogames" myself, but I'm not Flint.
Ocarina of Time has aged better than Breath of the Wild.
Yeah, I know, clickbait title. But I'm tired of the "hasn't aged well" discourse. Played it last year, twice. Still rocks. Definitely plays like a late 90s game. Because it is.
An acceptable choice. Frankly, it's hard to pick just one. All the mainline games bring something to the table. Breath of the Wild is tied with Ocarina for me, even though they're basically opposites. (What Ocarina does well is what Breath doesn't, and viceversa). I'd only place A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask above those.
We've been burned by this prediction a million times already. I think there's a good chance, with no Zelda game coming out this year. I'm interested, at any rate: Twilight Princess is the only mainline non-portable Zelda (except Zelda 2) that I've yet to play all the way through. And as it's my favorite franchise, I'd like to complete it.
This looks grand. I'll probably get it. Most of the shooters I love — whether that's Ikaruga or Star Fox 64 — go heavy on the cinematic flair, and if that's this game's strong point, then I'm in.
It's a tough one, because none of these games would sell very well, so either you port them as they are — and get a bunch of genius galaxy brainers pointing out that the graphics and UX in these games are "long in the tooth" or "showing their age" — or you remake them from the ground up, at which point they wouldn't even be the same games anymore because the whole vibe and point of stuff like Fallout and Deus Ex is their specifically 90s feel, warts and all. Either you roll with that or you're better off playing something newer. (I'm in the "rolling with that" camp.)
Thankfully, you can run most of these games on a potato and they're (mostly) widely available on PC, for very cheap.
It's not really that type of game. I probably got Steam achievements or whatever from some of the endings, but it's more about just exploring all the possibilities. Keep in mind that every "play through" takes around 5 to 10 minutes. (Though some paths can take longer and get pretty elaborate and through-the-looking-glass weird.) You then "start over," but the flow isn't like a rogue-like, because you're always finding new branching paths, so there's not actually a lot of repetition. (And even if you do repeat part of a path, the game is often self-aware about it and will comment on it.) Also, you don't "die" in the traditional video game sense. You simply reach an ending, some of which are painful.
It's basically a walking simulator. Along with Dear Esther, it arguably invented the genre. (Both started life as Half-Life 2 mods, fulfilling the story-focused promise of that game's opening 10 minutes.)
That said, unlike most walking simulators, there's a huge amount of non-linear interaction here. You're still just walking and occasionally pushing a button, but there are dozens upon dozens of branching paths. Every version of the game (and I've played most of them, including the mod) has you start out in an office. You walk away from your computer and start poking your nose around the building, all while listening to a narrator who describes your character and what you're doing (and who sounds just like Alex's imitation in this review). It all gets very meta, very quickly, as you start going against the narrator's wishes, get him really pissed off, discover new areas, and drop down the rabbit hole of questioning the concepts of free will and choice in video games. (Not unlike Portal — except here it's not subtext, it's the actual text.) It's also frequently surreal and surprising. You'll "die" a lot, of course, but there are like a million endings (slight exaggeration) and you're supposed to discover them all.
The original is really good. And I'm speaking as someone who only played it for the first time recently. But the frame rate's rough. I don't mind the retro-cool polygonal aesthetic. In fact, I really like it. I just wish it ran faster.
Star Fox 64 is amazing, though. I've always kind of underestimated it, because it was my first N64 game and the second one was, well, Ocarina of Time. So that kind of overshadowed it. But I went back to SF64 this year to finally get all the medals, and it was an incredible experience. Beautiful pacing and stage design, with one or two exceptions.
Chrono Trigger, but that's mostly for convenience. I have it on PC.
The real choice is Panzer Dragoon Saga, a legendary game I've never played — and difficult to come by. I'd love a Sega Ages treatment, not so much a remake or remaster.
I was kind of dismissive of Mario sport games back in the day, but I have to admit I'm having an absolute blast with Mario Tennis on NSO. So I'll definitely give this one a whirl.
The issue I have with the "foundation" metaphor is that it doesn't quite mirror my own experience of the medium.
When I played Doom 1993 for the first time a few years ago I didn't think, "Wow, this is like Titanfall 2, but more basic." Rather, I found a very specific game doing very specific things that aren't done that way anymore. There was a brief window of time in the 90s when the market was saturated with Doom-clones, but then, around the time of Half-Life, the entire genre — now first-person shooters — diverged from the "foundation" and went elsewhere. So going back to Doom was more of a revelation. What I was actually thinking was, "Wait, this is basically a series of Zelda temples but with shotguns. I love it."
It's not so much that new games are built on top of the old. It's more like they're visiting the old house, picking up a bunch of bricks from it, and then building something different, somewhere else. I think that's great! More innovation! But it also means old games have their own unique flavor that isn't really replicated.
Depends on the series and on the gamer. Playing old games requires curiosity and open-mindedness. Most games are made for their own times. We don't usually have a problem with modern games because they're made for us, right now. But a game from the 1980s was made for an audience that doesn't exist anymore. For example, the 1986 Zelda expects you to read the instruction manual and in-box physical map. That's where the onboarding and item descriptions are. Today you'd get the same information in-game, within a modal window or start screen menu. So if you go back to a game like that, you have to shift your mindset a little. Otherwise you're wasting your time. I'm used to it because I've been retro gaming since college. Putting up with "dated elements" is how I've discovered most of my favorite games. But it takes a little work, sure.
All that being said, regarding the subject of this article: one useful metric would be to see when the series hit its stride. I don't think Metroid on the NES is the best starting point for its franchise. I'd probably recommend Super Metroid, instead. Mario, though, you can comfortably point a newcomer to the NES originals. They're timeless. Zelda? It's a tough one: the 1986 original is a masterpiece for me, but it's also a far more challenging affair than later Zeldas, so it's not really a good representation of the rest of the franchise. (What I kept thinking of when playing it for the first time, back in 2019, was not Breath of the Wild but actually the Souls games.) I would probably point to A Link to the Past as the best introduction. Or maybe Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, for 3D. Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda, but it doesn't work as an intro. (You should at least play Ocarina of Time before it or you'll miss much of the point.)
In all seriousness, I do think there's a place to discuss the actual port and release. A lot of reviews of classic film DVDs or Blu-Rays do this: they differentiate between discussing the film itself and discussing the specific release, sometimes splitting the write-up in half. Digital Foundry Retro does likewise in their video reviews.
I'm guessing it's different reviewers with different perspectives, even if it's the same outlet. I thought FF7 was a 10 when I played it last year. A 5 as a software product, though (?)
If you approach this game as a software product, then it's clearly not up to the standards of the modern market. If you approach it as art, then my previous sentence is nonsensical. That's the rift here.
I think the mindset is because it's old, so reviewers aren't used to these game mechanics and flow. They have different mental models about how videogames are supposed to feel. So they'll complain about the battles here but then run down much longer corridors and fight many more enemies for hours in Final Fantasy VII Remake and won't have an issue there because, while the experience is fundamentally more monotonous and long-winded, at least it's snappier!
I wish the SP additions were, you know, actually interesting. Say, the 64DD version of F-Zero X. Or the Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Or the Satellaview versions of Zelda and F-Zero. Those would get me excited. We'd be talking about practically new games or expanded experiences. These save states, on the other hand, are a waste of space.
Comments 753
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Leaker Shares Details Of A New "Finished" Fire Emblem On Switch
@Bizaster
If they bring back the Monastery (or something like it), I do hope they liven it up a little. I mean, I loved walking around and talking to people in Three Houses, but the artificiality of NPCs standing in random corners or wandering in tiny circles diluted the immersion. I'm not asking for Clock Town from Majora's Mask here but... Some conventions that look fine in top-down traditional RPGs just translate weirdly into 3D space. Probably because in 2D, the game world looks more like what it is: a game board. Whereas in 3D space, you start to see it as a realistic narrative space, and expectations change.
Re: Somehow, 'Prison Life Simulator 2022: World FIGHT Battle GTA ULTIMATE' Is An Actual Game On Switch
@nhSnork
Great Thieves Association, surely.
Re: Review: STAR WARS: Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - Always Two, There Are
I prefer this to the original. In fact, I consider it one of the best games I've played. For newcomers, though, a few points: 1) Definitely wait for the DLC. This game's legacy was hugely improved by the fan restoration project, which the DLC is based on. The original release is essentially incomplete. 2) Get out of the starting area. It's a huge drag and a terrible way to start the game. It lasts forever, too. The pace picks up after you leave. 3) The way the virtual world is put together, well, it requires a certain level of abstraction to appreciate. NPCs just sort of lifelessly stand there. Battle arenas are just connecting hallways. This is partly because the bones of KOTOR are the isometric RPGs from the 90s, like Fallout and Baldur's Gate. And a lot of stuff that worked fine from a distant isometric perspective looks really awkward and stiff in proper ground-level 3D. The writing in KOTOR and especially KOTOR II are really good, though, so you still get immersed. Just keep in mind that, mechanically-speaking, you're walking around a glorified game board. It's always been this way. That's just KOTOR.
Re: Bump Your Enemies Off The Edge In 'Motos', The Next Arcade Archives Game
Never heard of it, but the gameplay hook is pretty neat.
Re: Feature: Will We Finally See These Games In The Not-E3 Nintendo Direct?
I mean, whatever. Bayo 3 I'm looking forward to, but the footage they showed last time was, uh, rough, and not quite at the level of the spectacular Bayo 2. Not giving up on it, though: Bayo 2 and Astral Chain are my two Platinum games on Switch and they're both amazing.
Metroid Prime 4 I'm obviously looking forward to but, um, and this will sound sacrilegious coming from a guy with a Super Metroid avatar, but I never actually played the other Prime games. So maybe re-release those first?
Re: Glover Gets The Limited Run Games Treatment With A Surprise N64 Rerelease
I'm mildly curious about trying out this game. I never picked it up when I was a kid because, well, it wasn't exactly well-regarded back then. And it came out around the same time as Ocarina of Time, so, you know, priorities.
Re: Talking Point: Should Sonic Frontiers Be Delayed? We Discuss Its Bizarre Debut And Fan Reaction
A delay won't change anything. It looks fairly polished already. The problem is what it fundamentally is. Empty plains with soothing music works for Zelda because that's all about exploration. With Sonic, it's not working for me. To be frank, Odyssey had the same issue. Some of the bigger levels were too spread out for what Mario gameplay is about. Not everything has to be big and sprawling.
Re: GoldenEye 007's Return Could Be Close
@nocdaes
Yeah, that method is how I play most N64 games on NSO, especially Zelda. Even with Banjo, where mapping the camera to the right control stick felt theoretically natural, I still reverted to holding ZR, simply because the game would often interpret my left and right inputs as up or down, and zoom into or out of my character, which got really annoying. Holding ZR and pressing actual buttons to control the camera, as in the original N64, worked better for me.
Re: GoldenEye 007's Return Could Be Close
I don't think "advances in modern first person shooters" matter much, because I played Doom, Quake, and Half-Life in the past two or three years and those are all 10s in my book. That being said, Goldeneye is a game I didn't really love back in the day. (I was more into Perfect Dark.) I had a lot of problems with Goldeneye's graphics and art design back in the late 90s. That being said, Goldeneye was also my first FPS (though I did play Duke Nukem and Quake 2 at a friend's house) and I had no context for it. Now I do, so I'm interested in giving it another shot. John Linneman has a really interesting video on Goldeneye over at DF Retro and he mentions how its design is informed by the fact that, originally, it was going to be a light-gun game. This, combined with certain aspects of its level design, actually make Goldeneye (and Perfect Dark) kind of unique in the history of first-person shooters. I think people sort of overstate the impact of Goldeneye. Yes, the control scheme, the multiplayer, the fact that it was the first console FPS that made a dent in the gaming culture... Not downplaying those achievements. But I feel the evolution of the genre was really happening on PCs at the time, as Half-Life reinvented the Doom-clone in 1998. So Goldeneye and everything it was doing, in terms of flow, enemy encounters, mission-based structure, and so on, remains a kind of rarity along the genre's evolution. I would say Halo was the real trend-setting console FPS a few years later, as far as actual gameplay mechanics and level design are concerned. even if Goldeneye's success is responsible for making Halo a viable proposition.
Re: Here's How The Klonoa Collection Stacks Up Against Wii And PS2 Counterparts
Does this release include a classic graphics option? I tend to really dislike the trend of brightening up graphics for remasters or remakes. I feel it almost always loses atmosphere. The worst offender is probably Halo Anniversary, but you can switch to classic graphics with the touch of a button.
Re: Feature: The Saddest Games On Switch - Games To Make You Cry
@mauhlin12
Interesting match-up. I'd definitely say Final Fantasy 7 is sad in very explicit, obvious ways that everyone can agree with.
Super Metroid, on the other hand, I don't know. I obviously love it, and that ending is an all-time videogame moment, but I wouldn't associate "sadness" with it. I mean, it's emotional, but it's also rousing and heroic.
Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Described As "The First Open-World RPGs In The Series"
@UltimateOtaku91
You can still soft-gate portions of the world, even if it's open-world. Breath of the Wild does this. You can technically head straight for the icy mountains, but you'll have a hard time of it if you don't first acquire a fire sword, learn how to cook up cold-resisting potions, or find the right armor. In something like Witcher 3, you can technically take on quests far above your level, but you'll also get clobbered immediately, so you probably should reserve those for later. And so on.
Re: Backlog Club: EarthBound Part Two - Bees, Backtracking, And Biscuits
@-wc-
Not talking to NPCs is a stumbling block many people encounter with older titles. In today's games — partly because virtual cities are so densely populated now you can't expect players to talk to everyone — important NPCs are clearly singled out with an icon or in-world signposting. So modern gamers are conditioned to ignore all NPCs that aren't marked as quest-relevant. Today's games also have mountains of disposable sidequests, flavor text, and lore, because they have memory space to spare — in comparison to the 90s, anyway — so they can throw much more content at the player. This means the critical path has to be highlighted more clearly. To compound this issue, there are more games available now competing for our dwindling time, so developers are — rightly — terrified of losing players if they can't figure out where to go next. So they just point them in the right direction, sometimes with literal arrows. (Unless it's an open world game like Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild, where every direction is valid, so there's less navigational frustration. There's a catch to this, though: if every direction is valid, there's less to "figure out." You tend to walk around aimlessly. It's fun, too, but a different sort of fun to navigational detective work.) In this context, 90s games that expect you to talk to every NPC, made for audiences that knew they had to do this, are in a problematic spot, because modern gamers are sidestepping all the hand-holding, all the tutorials, and all the hints. For me, "figuring out where to go" is one of my favorite game challenges. (Hence the avatar.) I like what 90s games were doing and regularly discover new gems. But I understand why design trends have shifted, even if I don't celebrate the reason.
Re: Backlog Club: EarthBound Part Two - Bees, Backtracking, And Biscuits
Most old turn-based RPGs I've played are kind of a slog at first because you can't do much other than just attack, receive damage, and heal yourself. The battle systems only show their true colors once you get more skills and party members, and that only happens a number of hours into the game. This progression can be interesting, though, which is why I play old RPGs. The stark transition from slow start to explosive end pays dividends from a storytelling standpoint.
I think audiences back in the day more willingly put up with this slow-burn structure because, if you wanted interactive storytelling on a grand scale, RPGs were the only genre actually delivering on that, along with point-and-click adventure games. (And cinematic platformers, I guess, but there weren't as many of them.) Now we're regularly playing interactive prestige movies with near photorealistic graphics. Even something like Final Fantasy has basically become that. I don't know if it's better or worse. (Heck, after playing FF7 and FF7R last year, I actually liked the original much better.) But it's certainly different and going back does require an adjustment.
Re: Review: Wonder Boy Collection - Four Well-Presented Wonders In A Stingy Standard Package
I've been meaning to get into this series, but will likely wait for the other games to be added as DLC.
Re: Aspyr Is Bringing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II To Switch This June
KOTOR games were always clunky. I have no idea what game people thought they were playing back in the day if they're just discovering this now. KOTOR II is especially janky because it was basically unfinished when it came out, but the story's dope and I do consider the game to be an all-time fave, over and above the first one. That being said, word of warning to newbies: it's got the most relentlesly boring opening to an RPG that I know of, bested only by Fallout 2, another janky masterpiece with a famously bad opening.
Re: Game-Breaking Bug Discovered In Switch Online Version Of Kirby 64
Awesome. I finished the game the other day. Wonderful experience and the underwater levels were a highlight... except for this bug. Thankfully I knew about it and powered through with save states. Usually don't use them but in this case it was warranted. The fix will be useful to 100% the game .
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Three More Titles
Pinball looks neat. I think I remember playing that as a kid. The two SNES additions, though, seem like the sort of middling stuff I avoided back in the 90s. They seem to have their fans, though, judging from the YouTube comments, so maybe I shouldn't prejudge. (Congo's Caper, especially.)
Re: Soapbox: Leaving The Comfort Zone - A Quest To Find My New Favourite Games
I've always been one to value re-reading, re-watching, and re-playing. A teacher in high school once told me, "It's better to re-read a great book ten times, than to read ten books." I haven't exactly followed that advice to the letter, but I also haven't forgotten it. Many of my favorite whatevers — books, films, videogames — became favorites after revisits, not the first time out the gate. Sometimes you miss stuff during that initial run. Or time passes and you change as a person. Revisiting can be like visiting it for the first time. Even games I thought I knew as much as someone can know a game, like the Nintendo 64 Zeldas, I'm now playing them very differently than I did twenty years ago. I'm older, I don't get stuck on puzzles anymore, I figure stuff out quicker. The pacing of those games has changed dramatically because I've changed. Sidequests I gave up on I now deeply enjoyed. I'm more patient. My entire gaming life can be divided into pre-Dark Souls and post-Dark Souls. Some of the games I've come to love since then, from Bayonetta to Hollow Knight to the original 1986 Zelda, Mario 64, and recently Alien Soldier, I would have never stuck with had it not been for Dark Souls teaching me how to approach games, new and old, with a different mindset. This is all to say: revisiting games isn't always about sticking to your comfort zone. Sometimes it's about realizing how far outside your comfort zone you've managed to come in the intervening years.
Re: SNES Platforming Shooter 'Jim Power: The Lost Dimension' Returns On Switch
@Silly_G
I mean, I know every old game inhabits its own bespoke swamp of rights disputes, missing files, technical hurdles, galaxy-brain publisher un-reasoning, and opaque economic prospects, but it's absolutely wild to me that I can play this on the Switch and not, say, Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Super Mario RPG.
Re: SNES Platforming Shooter 'Jim Power: The Lost Dimension' Returns On Switch
Videogame preservation is in a weird place. Industry-shaking classics from that era or later haven't been re-released in forever, but whatever this is gets a lavish Criterion Collection-style treatment. Alright, then.
Re: Video: Just What Is The Best Super Mario Game Of All Time?
Hard to choose.
I would personally go with Mario 3 or World. Mario 3 ultimately feels more inventive and varied to me, so it slightly beats out World's polish and atmosphere.
And then either 64 or Galaxy. 64 is the roughest 3D Mario, but the limitless skill ceiling and space for creativity means it's the one I replay the most. Galaxy is way more accessible, but also more limited in moveset and how much fun you can have with the more linear level design. It's quite a trip, though. Sublime music.
Not a fan of Odyssey or Sunshine. Odyssey is better and approaches 64's jazzy experimentation, but the flatter, challenge-free level design and deluge of collectibles hinders my enjoyment. It was my first 3D Mario, but I far preferred Galaxy and 64 when I got to them.
Re: Soapbox: Free Game Updates Are Fantastic For Everyone, Except New Players
I agree with many of the comments here. I'm one of those gamers who doesn't mind sticking around with a game until it gets really good. Sometimes with older classics, I need to give them some time to get into the mindset of, say, a gamer from the 1980s. But that usually takes, like, you know, 30 minutes to a couple of hours. No biggie.
Some of these Games as a Service, though, they require a degree of time investment that is simply astonishing. I've read fans of Final Fantasy XIV or Warframe say, without a shred of irony, that they get really good after hour 60 or hour 100. Everything before that is basically a tutorial. And that's... that's a bit much.
Re: Review: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Kirby's First Brush With 3D Is Still A Charmer
Looking forward to it!
It's one of those N64 games I missed out on. Sin & Punishment was another one — and that was awesome when I tried it on the NSO app.
Re: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards Joins Switch Online's Expansion Pack Next Week
@Scapetti
I think there's plenty still, but they'll have to start including deep cuts or more Rare titles.
You know, stuff like Silicon Valley, Mischief Makers, or Body Harvest, or Rare games like Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker... Many of the N64's heavy-hitters were, admittedly, Rare games, so they'd have to continue what they started with Banjo Kazooie for the service to feel complete.
Re: Nintendo President Says "Most" North American Switch Online Users Have Upgraded To The Expansion Pack
I'm in an odd position, because I absolutely think NSO can be better and offer superior emulation right out the gate, but I'm also playing the heck out of it across all the apps, so I can't really say the service isn't paying itself for me. I'd rather own many of these games, sure, but the "rental" model does mean I'm trying out stuff like MUSHA and Alien Soldier and being blown away, and those games I may have never bought in a traditional purchase system. My ideal, though, would be a mix of subscription and purchase, which is essentially how Game Pass works.
Re: ElecHead Zaps Mega Man-Inspired Puzzle Platforming Onto Switch This Summer
The best from the showcase. Just from the trailer alone the mechanics seem polished and fun. And the retro art style may be cliché at this point, but when it fits the material, it fits. And it certainly fits here. Really excited to try it out.
Re: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Is Finally Part Of The Video Game Hall Of Fame
@BTB20
Sort of. I was just poking fun at the obsession with "datedness" in videogame criticism. To me, "datedness" is a neutral term. All games are products of their time. If you think about it, there's a lot about Breath of the Wild that is pure 2010s, whether it's the open-world-with-towers concept, the prevalence of repeated enemies and samey-looking ruins to pad out the landscape, the simplistic sidequest design, and the somewhat uninspiring main quest narrative. These are all common issues in modern open-worlders, even the best ones. We may not call Breath of the Wild "dated" just yet because it's still relatively close to the date we're living in, but we will in 2030. And you could say the same thing about Ocarina of Time being very much a late 1990s 3D game. But where does that leave us? Are you really doing justice to Breath of the Wild's immersive, sweeping overworld exploration, ambience, and physics system? Or Ocarina of Time's incredibly consistent succession of memorable dungeons and vibes? I think understanding a game's context and date of release is important, sure, but ultimately the art, the heart of the game, the experience it gives you, that's where it's at, that's what matters.
Re: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Is Finally Part Of The Video Game Hall Of Fame
@Not_Soos
Um, they're not throwing shade. They're just pointing out that Ocarina of Time is, like, important. In a long-lasting kind of way. You know, like the millennia-spanning Bible. I'd have gone with something like "the Citizen Kane of videogames" myself, but I'm not Flint.
Re: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Is Finally Part Of The Video Game Hall Of Fame
Ocarina of Time has aged better than Breath of the Wild.
Yeah, I know, clickbait title. But I'm tired of the "hasn't aged well" discourse. Played it last year, twice. Still rocks. Definitely plays like a late 90s game. Because it is.
Re: Random: WWE's Stone Cold Steve Austin Says Breath Of The Wild Is The Best Zelda Game
An acceptable choice. Frankly, it's hard to pick just one. All the mainline games bring something to the table. Breath of the Wild is tied with Ocarina for me, even though they're basically opposites. (What Ocarina does well is what Breath doesn't, and viceversa). I'd only place A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask above those.
Re: Altus Releases 'Accolades' Trailer For 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
I know I'm getting this. It's just a matter of when.
Re: Reggie Thought Game Boy Micro Was "A Nonstarter" But Was "Forced" To Launch It
@Lordplops
No, silos is right. It's extremely common business-speak for teams working in relative isolation and not communicating with each other.
Re: Rumour: Could Switch Get Zelda: Wind Waker And Twilight Princess This Year?
We've been burned by this prediction a million times already. I think there's a good chance, with no Zelda game coming out this year. I'm interested, at any rate: Twilight Princess is the only mainline non-portable Zelda (except Zelda 2) that I've yet to play all the way through. And as it's my favorite franchise, I'd like to complete it.
Re: Review: Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute - A Solid Switch Port For An Epic Space Shmup
This looks grand. I'll probably get it. Most of the shooters I love — whether that's Ikaruga or Star Fox 64 — go heavy on the cinematic flair, and if that's this game's strong point, then I'm in.
Re: Feature: Will These 10 Classic Western RPGs Ever Come To Switch?
It's a tough one, because none of these games would sell very well, so either you port them as they are — and get a bunch of genius galaxy brainers pointing out that the graphics and UX in these games are "long in the tooth" or "showing their age" — or you remake them from the ground up, at which point they wouldn't even be the same games anymore because the whole vibe and point of stuff like Fallout and Deus Ex is their specifically 90s feel, warts and all. Either you roll with that or you're better off playing something newer. (I'm in the "rolling with that" camp.)
Thankfully, you can run most of these games on a potato and they're (mostly) widely available on PC, for very cheap.
Re: Review: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - A Mind-Bending Mess Of Wonderment
@russell-marlow
It's not really that type of game. I probably got Steam achievements or whatever from some of the endings, but it's more about just exploring all the possibilities. Keep in mind that every "play through" takes around 5 to 10 minutes. (Though some paths can take longer and get pretty elaborate and through-the-looking-glass weird.) You then "start over," but the flow isn't like a rogue-like, because you're always finding new branching paths, so there's not actually a lot of repetition. (And even if you do repeat part of a path, the game is often self-aware about it and will comment on it.) Also, you don't "die" in the traditional video game sense. You simply reach an ending, some of which are painful.
Re: Review: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - A Mind-Bending Mess Of Wonderment
@russell-marlow @Picola-Wicola
It's basically a walking simulator. Along with Dear Esther, it arguably invented the genre. (Both started life as Half-Life 2 mods, fulfilling the story-focused promise of that game's opening 10 minutes.)
That said, unlike most walking simulators, there's a huge amount of non-linear interaction here. You're still just walking and occasionally pushing a button, but there are dozens upon dozens of branching paths. Every version of the game (and I've played most of them, including the mod) has you start out in an office. You walk away from your computer and start poking your nose around the building, all while listening to a narrator who describes your character and what you're doing (and who sounds just like Alex's imitation in this review). It all gets very meta, very quickly, as you start going against the narrator's wishes, get him really pissed off, discover new areas, and drop down the rabbit hole of questioning the concepts of free will and choice in video games. (Not unlike Portal — except here it's not subtext, it's the actual text.) It's also frequently surreal and surprising. You'll "die" a lot, of course, but there are like a million endings (slight exaggeration) and you're supposed to discover them all.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Star Fox Game?
The original is really good. And I'm speaking as someone who only played it for the first time recently. But the frame rate's rough. I don't mind the retro-cool polygonal aesthetic. In fact, I really like it. I just wish it ran faster.
Star Fox 64 is amazing, though. I've always kind of underestimated it, because it was my first N64 game and the second one was, well, Ocarina of Time. So that kind of overshadowed it. But I went back to SF64 this year to finally get all the medals, and it was an incredible experience. Beautiful pacing and stage design, with one or two exceptions.
Re: Feature: Will These 10 Classic JRPGs Ever Come To Switch?
Chrono Trigger, but that's mostly for convenience. I have it on PC.
The real choice is Panzer Dragoon Saga, a legendary game I've never played — and difficult to come by. I'd love a Sega Ages treatment, not so much a remake or remaster.
Re: It Looks Like Nintendo's Game Boy Emulator For Switch Online Just Leaked
I completely missed out on Nintendo's entire portable library, so I'm definitely intrigued, especially the Zeldas and, obviously, the Metroids.
Re: Review: Mario Golf - Strait-Laced Fun On The Fairway
I was kind of dismissive of Mario sport games back in the day, but I have to admit I'm having an absolute blast with Mario Tennis on NSO. So I'll definitely give this one a whirl.
Re: Talking Point: Is It Ever A Good Idea To Start At 'The Beginning' Of Series Like Zelda Or Dragon Quest?
@Pak-Man
The issue I have with the "foundation" metaphor is that it doesn't quite mirror my own experience of the medium.
When I played Doom 1993 for the first time a few years ago I didn't think, "Wow, this is like Titanfall 2, but more basic." Rather, I found a very specific game doing very specific things that aren't done that way anymore. There was a brief window of time in the 90s when the market was saturated with Doom-clones, but then, around the time of Half-Life, the entire genre — now first-person shooters — diverged from the "foundation" and went elsewhere. So going back to Doom was more of a revelation. What I was actually thinking was, "Wait, this is basically a series of Zelda temples but with shotguns. I love it."
It's not so much that new games are built on top of the old. It's more like they're visiting the old house, picking up a bunch of bricks from it, and then building something different, somewhere else. I think that's great! More innovation! But it also means old games have their own unique flavor that isn't really replicated.
Re: Talking Point: Is It Ever A Good Idea To Start At 'The Beginning' Of Series Like Zelda Or Dragon Quest?
@HeadPirate
I would have been deprived of many of my greatest video game experiences if I had only "looked forward."
Re: Talking Point: Is It Ever A Good Idea To Start At 'The Beginning' Of Series Like Zelda Or Dragon Quest?
Depends on the series and on the gamer. Playing old games requires curiosity and open-mindedness. Most games are made for their own times. We don't usually have a problem with modern games because they're made for us, right now. But a game from the 1980s was made for an audience that doesn't exist anymore. For example, the 1986 Zelda expects you to read the instruction manual and in-box physical map. That's where the onboarding and item descriptions are. Today you'd get the same information in-game, within a modal window or start screen menu. So if you go back to a game like that, you have to shift your mindset a little. Otherwise you're wasting your time. I'm used to it because I've been retro gaming since college. Putting up with "dated elements" is how I've discovered most of my favorite games. But it takes a little work, sure.
All that being said, regarding the subject of this article: one useful metric would be to see when the series hit its stride. I don't think Metroid on the NES is the best starting point for its franchise. I'd probably recommend Super Metroid, instead. Mario, though, you can comfortably point a newcomer to the NES originals. They're timeless. Zelda? It's a tough one: the 1986 original is a masterpiece for me, but it's also a far more challenging affair than later Zeldas, so it's not really a good representation of the rest of the franchise. (What I kept thinking of when playing it for the first time, back in 2019, was not Breath of the Wild but actually the Souls games.) I would probably point to A Link to the Past as the best introduction. Or maybe Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, for 3D. Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda, but it doesn't work as an intro. (You should at least play Ocarina of Time before it or you'll miss much of the point.)
Re: Review: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - A Fair Port For Chrono Trigger's Follow-Up
@Astral-Grain
In all seriousness, I do think there's a place to discuss the actual port and release. A lot of reviews of classic film DVDs or Blu-Rays do this: they differentiate between discussing the film itself and discussing the specific release, sometimes splitting the write-up in half. Digital Foundry Retro does likewise in their video reviews.
Re: Review: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - A Fair Port For Chrono Trigger's Follow-Up
@Astral-Grain
I'm guessing it's different reviewers with different perspectives, even if it's the same outlet. I thought FF7 was a 10 when I played it last year. A 5 as a software product, though (?)
Re: Review: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - A Fair Port For Chrono Trigger's Follow-Up
@Astral-Grain
If you approach this game as a software product, then it's clearly not up to the standards of the modern market. If you approach it as art, then my previous sentence is nonsensical. That's the rift here.
Re: Review: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - A Fair Port For Chrono Trigger's Follow-Up
@Expa0
I think the mindset is because it's old, so reviewers aren't used to these game mechanics and flow. They have different mental models about how videogames are supposed to feel. So they'll complain about the battles here but then run down much longer corridors and fight many more enemies for hours in Final Fantasy VII Remake and won't have an issue there because, while the experience is fundamentally more monotonous and long-winded, at least it's snappier!
Re: Nintendo Adds Super Mario World And Super Punch-Out!! Switch Online Special Versions
I wish the SP additions were, you know, actually interesting. Say, the 64DD version of F-Zero X. Or the Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Or the Satellaview versions of Zelda and F-Zero. Those would get me excited. We'd be talking about practically new games or expanded experiences. These save states, on the other hand, are a waste of space.