A very cool idea. This rather cheap "console" is perfect for many of the more causal players around that would like to play some games from their past or do have an interest in the games Nintendo made before. I love the fact that they have only included "restore states" and not save states so that people won't ruin their experience by save-scumming. Especially for the kids who are new to these games and who might be influenced by people like some Nintendo Life editors who recommend just save-scumming to the end of difficult games.
The game selection is great too. There is a lot of really fun games there and only one that I would not want to play. I especially like the great variety of games that are included from the great arcade ports ports the system had in the beginning like Galaga and Gradius to some very nice RPG and action-adventure games to the magnificent Ninja Gaiden, one of the best platformers for the system. And there is a lot of 2-player games here, I'm counting 8, which would make a second controller a good pickup if the system is a gift to a child who has siblings. Of course I would pick a different set of games if I could choose, especially if I wouldn't have to care about recognizability and licenses, but the games that are here are really great.
The sad thing about the system is that there is no "new old" games, all of the above have already been released on the virtual console before, which does not seem to imply any new NES games for the virtual console on Nintendo NX in the beginning at least.
I wonder how the quality of these new NES controller will be. It would be cool if they were as good as the old NES controllers. Of course they would never be a permanent replacement for the PS4 controller i use on the PC, but once in a while it would be nice to play NES games with something like the original gamepad. Perhaps I should instead just hunt down an old one that has been used gently through ebay instead.
A very cool idea. This rather cheap "console" is perfect for many of the more causal players around that would like to play some games from their past or do have an interest in the games Nintendo made before. I love the fact that they have only included "restore states" and not save states so that people won't ruin their experience by save-scumming. Especially for the kids who are new to these games and who might be influenced by people like some Nintendo Life editors who recommend just save-scumming to the end of difficult games.
The game selection is great too. There is a lot of really fun games there and only one that I would not want to play. I especially like the great variety of games that are included from the great arcade ports ports the system had in the beginning like Galaga and Gradius to some very nice RPG and action-adventure games to the magnificent Ninja Gaiden, one of the best platformers for the system. And there is a lot of 2-player games here, I'm counting 8, which would make a second controller a good pickup if the system is a gift to a child who has siblings.
Of course I would pick a different set of games if I could choose, especially if I wouldn't have to care about recognizability and licenses, but the games that are here are really great.
The sad thing about the system is that there is no "new old" games, all of the above have already been released on the virtual console before, which does not seem to imply any new NES games for the virtual console on Nintendo NX in the beginning at least.
The Super Nintendo had nowhere near the wealth of excellent shoot 'em ups that it's competitors, the Mega Drive and PC Engine had, and it could even be argued that the NES (in it's heyday) was a far better system for the genre.
But, in fact there are several good and great shmups on the system, more than the system seem to get credit for.
In addition to the already mentioned Axelay, Super Aleste, R-Type 3 and Scrambled Valkyrie I think the two AAA shooting games from the SNES early days should be mentioned. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type. Excellent graphics, excellent gameplay and excellent music by Irem and Konami, masters of the genre. There are only two things that both these games could be criticized for and that is that they are really difficult as well as the slowdown both games suffer from. This slowdown was do doubt one of the mains reasons that both developers and game players came to regard the SNES as a bad system for shoot 'em ups. But as we would see with many later releases, good coders if given time and experience could make impressing games in the genre without any slowdown. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type are emblematic of the SNES troubled relationship with shooters and that may be (in addition to their great challenge) why these two games are often forgotten when people reminiscence of the great games on the system, for they are both truly great games.
Compared to the arcade games they are based on, there are both things that are missing and worse and things that have been added or improved so I would say that those are different, but not necessarily better.
And really difficult games like many shoot 'em ups are, aren't necessarily made to be completed, but they offer really intense, rewarding and quick playthroughs, where you have great opportunity to get farther ahead than last time, or perhaps a higher score.
But there are other great shmups on the system as well! There are three different Parodius releases, and while all of them are about equally excellent, the first one Parodius-da! (or "Parodius - Non-Sense Fantasy" as it is known as in PAL territories) is the most classic, while the other two, Gokujou Parodius and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius have much more ships to choose from. If you have ever played a Gradius game (and liked it) you owe it to yourself to play one of the Parodius games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flf3lQSuB5E
UN Squadron is fairly well known today so there is nothing more I need to say other than that it is a Capcom quality game!
Spriggan Powered by Naxat (Japan only unfortunately) is merely average in shoot 'em up gameplay (which means that it is great fun) but it has cool music and some very cool graphics. Take a look at this video from level 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJAV3PIOxc
The mode 7 effect used there reminds me of Axelay. If I had played this game back in the day when the Super Nintendo was new, I think I would have been really impressed by it. (Even though it looks totally unrealistic.)
The theme of the game is robot-anime and while that is something I don't normally like I have found that I do enjoy it in 16-bit games! Especially shooters.
Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% and Choplifter III are supposed to be good as well, but I haven't played those. Thunder Spirits is good, but the Mega Drive version (Thunderforce III) has better music and no slowdown.
There are some games you should stay away from as well. The Raiden port (Raiden Trad) is horrible, the PlayStation and Mega Drive versions should be chosen instead. Phalanx is not a bad game, but it feels so generic and uninspired. You would think it would be really something by the cover art: http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/phalanx/cover-art/gameCoverId,194083/
But no.
Darius Twin is the most boring and uninspired Darius I've played. All the other Darius games are much more fun than this. You would think diving into the sea and fighting robotic fish and sealife would be fun, and it even has a two player simultaneous option! But no.
All in all, the SNES was a much better system for other types of action games like Run and Gun and platform games. But while the above mentioned shooters are not many, all of them are worth playing.
@Darktalon A 1:1 resolution is not the best way to play old console games that is just a common misunderstanding today. Those games never were 1:1 before on the CRT televisions and they were not designed to be viewed that way.
For example the internal resolution of the SNES was 8:7, but when you hooked the Super Nintendo to a TV set it was stretched to 4:3. And this was the way, at least most of the artwork was made to be seen, so when you are seeing the pixel perfect picture, which you can do with the right combination of emulators and screen, you are not really seeing it as it was intended to be. (By pixel perfect I also mean upscaling a resolution to it's quadruple, like 256x224 upscaled to 1024x896.)
Also, like you are probably aware, the CRT screen were really crappy compared to our great LCD screens, but those game were made for those crappy CRT monitors, so when you are playing the games on a modern LCD screen you are missing out on some of the picture. The best way to see how the games really were supposed to look would be to use a real CRT screen, but not many of us do want a monster like that in our house!
The next best thing is to use a filter that tries to emulate the look of a CRT screen (and I'm not talking about the joke of a filter that SEGA's M2 releases use) But to be able to use such filter you have to have a screen with a high resolution, so it is not something for small handhelds.
To hunt for a pixel perfect picture for these old games, is a strange obsession. It is far more important, at least to me to be able to see the artwork in the games large enough so that you are immersed in the game. Would you play a game like Dark Souls 3 or GTA 5 on the small screen of the 3DS XL? If that was your only choice you probably would, and it would still be a great experience, but if you had the option, would you not play it on a large screen?
I guess the important difference is if you still consider the games a "living games" that you want to experience, or museum pieces that are interesting as relics of the past, but not usable today.
The first Sonic game was really influential in the platform genre. Perhaps the most influential platform game after Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong? But it was mostly other things than pure game mechanics (or gameplay as some people call them) it influenced the genre with.
But I guess this Hall of fame does not look upon influence as the only criteria for selecting the games since there are probably several hundred videogames that are more influential than Sonic the Hedgehog. (It's still a great game which I would recommend anyone who likes games to play!)
@forestdonkey I guess didn't explain myself very well there. What I was trying to say is that while you seem very concerned about preserving the exact relationship the pixels have between them I think it is more important to be able to see what the pixels are supposed to look like in a large enough screen so that you are immersed in the game.
In my opinion, the 3DS XL screen is too small for NES, SNES and Mega Drive games to be properly enjoyed while of very suitable size for the old handhelds which had a much lower resolution. The sprites and backgrounds just become to small. Just imagine how much less involving it would be to play a modern action game like Dark Souls 3 or GTA 5 on a screen as small as the of the 3DS XL. It would still be a nice experience, if that was the only way you could play them, but if you could choose to play it on a large screen instead, wouldn't you do that?
I think it the difference between us is that I still like to really get immersed in the 8 & 16-bit games while you look upon them as fascinating relics of the past not suitable for use today, but really good looking in your personal museum. I'm sorry if I have totally misunderstood you though.
Regarding the ratio of the pixels the most important thing to me is to preserve the horizontalvertical ratio, so that you do not get art which is stretched out beyond what it was meant to be.
These games were never intended to be played pixel perfect, and thus their artwork was not created to be viewed that way either. For example the internal resolution of the SNES was 8:7, but when you hooked the Super Nintendo to a TV set it was stretched to 4:3. And this was the way, at least most of the artwork was made to be seen, so when you are seeing the pixel perfect picture, which you can do with the right combination of emulators and screen, you are not really seeing it as it was intended to be. (By pixel perfect I also mean upscaling a resolution to it's quadruple, like 256x224 upscaled to 1024x896.)
Also, like you are probably aware, the CRT screen were really crappy compared to our great LCD screens, but those game were made for those crappy CRT monitors, so when you are playing the games on a modern LCD screen you are missing out on some of the picture. The best way to see how the games really were supposed to look would be to use a real CRT screen, but not many of use do want a monster like that in our house.
The next best thing is to use a filter that tries to emulate the look of a CRT screen (and I'm not talking about the joke of a filter that SEGA's M2 releases use, or those horrible hq4x or similar type of filters that are popular with some people that use PC emulators.) But to be able to use such filter you have to have a screen with a high resolution, so it is not something for small handhelds.
What I'm trying to say is that to hunt for a pixel perfect picture for these old games, is a strange obsession.
@forestdonkey Home console games with a 1-to-1 pixel ratio is something you should avoid at least. The current size of the 3DS screen is too small to show the games as they are supposed too look. This is especially true for the NES games with their small sprites and tile based backgrounds, but also many of the SNES and Mega Drive games look quite bad compared to how they do on a large or medium sized screen.
The size of the 3DS XL screen is a perfect fit (apart from being widescreen) for the old game boy and game boy color games and it would probably be the best way to play gameboy advance games (apart from the real thing of course), which have to small resolution to look good on a medium or large screen. But those are of course not run with a 1-to-1 pixel ratio.
@Mooey Why do you say that this is the best rendition of DKC2 to date? Surely that would be the original SNES game connected to a CRT television, or the Wii Virtual Console version, connected to a modern television, or a version running emulated on a computer connected to a modern LCD screen.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this version as it is, but SNES and Mega Drive games does not look their best at such a small screen as that of a 3DS. (They do look better than NES games however, which really need a large screen to do them justice.)
But there is one thing that is much better with the game on a 3DS, as compared to how we played them back in the day and that is that most people use headphones, when playing their 3DS at home, which gives you great sound. When we played SNES games as children I think many of us probably used "cheap" mono sound televisions, so many of us get far better sound today.
Comments 10
Re: Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition Coming This November, Ships With 30 Games
A very cool idea. This rather cheap "console" is perfect for many of the more causal players around that would like to play some games from their past or do have an interest in the games Nintendo made before. I love the fact that they have only included "restore states" and not save states so that people won't ruin their experience by save-scumming. Especially for the kids who are new to these games and who might be influenced by people like some Nintendo Life editors who recommend just save-scumming to the end of difficult games.
The game selection is great too. There is a lot of really fun games there and only one that I would not want to play. I especially like the great variety of games that are included from the great arcade ports ports the system had in the beginning like Galaga and Gradius to some very nice RPG and action-adventure games to the magnificent Ninja Gaiden, one of the best platformers for the system. And there is a lot of 2-player games here, I'm counting 8, which would make a second controller a good pickup if the system is a gift to a child who has siblings.
Of course I would pick a different set of games if I could choose, especially if I wouldn't have to care about recognizability and licenses, but the games that are here are really great.
The sad thing about the system is that there is no "new old" games, all of the above have already been released on the virtual console before, which does not seem to imply any new NES games for the virtual console on Nintendo NX in the beginning at least.
I wonder how the quality of these new NES controller will be. It would be cool if they were as good as the old NES controllers. Of course they would never be a permanent replacement for the PS4 controller i use on the PC, but once in a while it would be nice to play NES games with something like the original gamepad. Perhaps I should instead just hunt down an old one that has been used gently through ebay instead.
Re: New NES Mini Console Won't Get More Games, Cartridge Slot To Remain Shut For All Eternity
A very cool idea. This rather cheap "console" is perfect for many of the more causal players around that would like to play some games from their past or do have an interest in the games Nintendo made before. I love the fact that they have only included "restore states" and not save states so that people won't ruin their experience by save-scumming. Especially for the kids who are new to these games and who might be influenced by people like some Nintendo Life editors who recommend just save-scumming to the end of difficult games.
The game selection is great too. There is a lot of really fun games there and only one that I would not want to play. I especially like the great variety of games that are included from the great arcade ports ports the system had in the beginning like Galaga and Gradius to some very nice RPG and action-adventure games to the magnificent Ninja Gaiden, one of the best platformers for the system. And there is a lot of 2-player games here, I'm counting 8, which would make a second controller a good pickup if the system is a gift to a child who has siblings.
Of course I would pick a different set of games if I could choose, especially if I wouldn't have to care about recognizability and licenses, but the games that are here are really great.
The sad thing about the system is that there is no "new old" games, all of the above have already been released on the virtual console before, which does not seem to imply any new NES games for the virtual console on Nintendo NX in the beginning at least.
Re: Review: Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie (SNES)
The Super Nintendo had nowhere near the wealth of excellent shoot 'em ups that it's competitors, the Mega Drive and PC Engine had, and it could even be argued that the NES (in it's heyday) was a far better system for the genre.
But, in fact there are several good and great shmups on the system, more than the system seem to get credit for.
In addition to the already mentioned Axelay, Super Aleste, R-Type 3 and Scrambled Valkyrie I think the two AAA shooting games from the SNES early days should be mentioned. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type. Excellent graphics, excellent gameplay and excellent music by Irem and Konami, masters of the genre. There are only two things that both these games could be criticized for and that is that they are really difficult as well as the slowdown both games suffer from. This slowdown was do doubt one of the mains reasons that both developers and game players came to regard the SNES as a bad system for shoot 'em ups. But as we would see with many later releases, good coders if given time and experience could make impressing games in the genre without any slowdown. Gradius 3 and Super R-Type are emblematic of the SNES troubled relationship with shooters and that may be (in addition to their great challenge) why these two games are often forgotten when people reminiscence of the great games on the system, for they are both truly great games.
Compared to the arcade games they are based on, there are both things that are missing and worse and things that have been added or improved so I would say that those are different, but not necessarily better.
And really difficult games like many shoot 'em ups are, aren't necessarily made to be completed, but they offer really intense, rewarding and quick playthroughs, where you have great opportunity to get farther ahead than last time, or perhaps a higher score.
But there are other great shmups on the system as well! There are three different Parodius releases, and while all of them are about equally excellent, the first one Parodius-da! (or "Parodius - Non-Sense Fantasy" as it is known as in PAL territories) is the most classic, while the other two, Gokujou Parodius and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius have much more ships to choose from. If you have ever played a Gradius game (and liked it) you owe it to yourself to play one of the Parodius games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flf3lQSuB5E
Pop'n Twin Bee is a surrealistic and colorful shooter of great Konami quality. It was released in Europe as well as in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9vh3nTdMhw
UN Squadron is fairly well known today so there is nothing more I need to say other than that it is a Capcom quality game!
Spriggan Powered by Naxat (Japan only unfortunately) is merely average in shoot 'em up gameplay (which means that it is great fun) but it has cool music and some very cool graphics. Take a look at this video from level 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJAV3PIOxc
The mode 7 effect used there reminds me of Axelay. If I had played this game back in the day when the Super Nintendo was new, I think I would have been really impressed by it. (Even though it looks totally unrealistic.)
The theme of the game is robot-anime and while that is something I don't normally like I have found that I do enjoy it in 16-bit games! Especially shooters.
Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% and Choplifter III are supposed to be good as well, but I haven't played those. Thunder Spirits is good, but the Mega Drive version (Thunderforce III) has better music and no slowdown.
There are some games you should stay away from as well. The Raiden port (Raiden Trad) is horrible, the PlayStation and Mega Drive versions should be chosen instead. Phalanx is not a bad game, but it feels so generic and uninspired. You would think it would be really something by the cover art:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/phalanx/cover-art/gameCoverId,194083/
But no.
Darius Twin is the most boring and uninspired Darius I've played. All the other Darius games are much more fun than this. You would think diving into the sea and fighting robotic fish and sealife would be fun, and it even has a two player simultaneous option! But no.
All in all, the SNES was a much better system for other types of action games like Run and Gun and platform games. But while the above mentioned shooters are not many, all of them are worth playing.
Re: Review: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (New 3DS / SNES)
@Darktalon A 1:1 resolution is not the best way to play old console games that is just a common misunderstanding today. Those games never were 1:1 before on the CRT televisions and they were not designed to be viewed that way.
For example the internal resolution of the SNES was 8:7, but when you hooked the Super Nintendo to a TV set it was stretched to 4:3. And this was the way, at least most of the artwork was made to be seen, so when you are seeing the pixel perfect picture, which you can do with the right combination of emulators and screen, you are not really seeing it as it was intended to be. (By pixel perfect I also mean upscaling a resolution to it's quadruple, like 256x224 upscaled to 1024x896.)
Also, like you are probably aware, the CRT screen were really crappy compared to our great LCD screens, but those game were made for those crappy CRT monitors, so when you are playing the games on a modern LCD screen you are missing out on some of the picture. The best way to see how the games really were supposed to look would be to use a real CRT screen, but not many of us do want a monster like that in our house!
The next best thing is to use a filter that tries to emulate the look of a CRT screen (and I'm not talking about the joke of a filter that SEGA's M2 releases use) But to be able to use such filter you have to have a screen with a high resolution, so it is not something for small handhelds.
To hunt for a pixel perfect picture for these old games, is a strange obsession. It is far more important, at least to me to be able to see the artwork in the games large enough so that you are immersed in the game. Would you play a game like Dark Souls 3 or GTA 5 on the small screen of the 3DS XL? If that was your only choice you probably would, and it would still be a great experience, but if you had the option, would you not play it on a large screen?
I guess the important difference is if you still consider the games a "living games" that you want to experience, or museum pieces that are interesting as relics of the past, but not usable today.
Re: The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog Are Inducted Into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
The first Sonic game was really influential in the platform genre. Perhaps the most influential platform game after Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong? But it was mostly other things than pure game mechanics (or gameplay as some people call them) it influenced the genre with.
But I guess this Hall of fame does not look upon influence as the only criteria for selecting the games since there are probably several hundred videogames that are more influential than Sonic the Hedgehog. (It's still a great game which I would recommend anyone who likes games to play!)
Re: Talking Point: Retro-Focused, Innovative and Inexpensive Portables Should Be Part of Nintendo's Future
@forestdonkey I guess didn't explain myself very well there. What I was trying to say is that while you seem very concerned about preserving the exact relationship the pixels have between them I think it is more important to be able to see what the pixels are supposed to look like in a large enough screen so that you are immersed in the game.
In my opinion, the 3DS XL screen is too small for NES, SNES and Mega Drive games to be properly enjoyed while of very suitable size for the old handhelds which had a much lower resolution. The sprites and backgrounds just become to small. Just imagine how much less involving it would be to play a modern action game like Dark Souls 3 or GTA 5 on a screen as small as the of the 3DS XL. It would still be a nice experience, if that was the only way you could play them, but if you could choose to play it on a large screen instead, wouldn't you do that?
I think it the difference between us is that I still like to really get immersed in the 8 & 16-bit games while you look upon them as fascinating relics of the past not suitable for use today, but really good looking in your personal museum. I'm sorry if I have totally misunderstood you though.
Regarding the ratio of the pixels the most important thing to me is to preserve the horizontalvertical ratio, so that you do not get art which is stretched out beyond what it was meant to be.
These games were never intended to be played pixel perfect, and thus their artwork was not created to be viewed that way either. For example the internal resolution of the SNES was 8:7, but when you hooked the Super Nintendo to a TV set it was stretched to 4:3. And this was the way, at least most of the artwork was made to be seen, so when you are seeing the pixel perfect picture, which you can do with the right combination of emulators and screen, you are not really seeing it as it was intended to be. (By pixel perfect I also mean upscaling a resolution to it's quadruple, like 256x224 upscaled to 1024x896.)
Also, like you are probably aware, the CRT screen were really crappy compared to our great LCD screens, but those game were made for those crappy CRT monitors, so when you are playing the games on a modern LCD screen you are missing out on some of the picture. The best way to see how the games really were supposed to look would be to use a real CRT screen, but not many of use do want a monster like that in our house.
The next best thing is to use a filter that tries to emulate the look of a CRT screen (and I'm not talking about the joke of a filter that SEGA's M2 releases use, or those horrible hq4x or similar type of filters that are popular with some people that use PC emulators.) But to be able to use such filter you have to have a screen with a high resolution, so it is not something for small handhelds.
What I'm trying to say is that to hunt for a pixel perfect picture for these old games, is a strange obsession.
Re: The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog Are Inducted Into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
While I find this Video Game Hall of Fame a little weird, some of the comments are much weirder.
Re: Talking Point: Retro-Focused, Innovative and Inexpensive Portables Should Be Part of Nintendo's Future
@forestdonkey
Home console games with a 1-to-1 pixel ratio is something you should avoid at least. The current size of the 3DS screen is too small to show the games as they are supposed too look. This is especially true for the NES games with their small sprites and tile based backgrounds, but also many of the SNES and Mega Drive games look quite bad compared to how they do on a large or medium sized screen.
The size of the 3DS XL screen is a perfect fit (apart from being widescreen) for the old game boy and game boy color games and it would probably be the best way to play gameboy advance games (apart from the real thing of course), which have to small resolution to look good on a medium or large screen. But those are of course not run with a 1-to-1 pixel ratio.
Re: Review: Donkey Kong Country (New 3DS / SNES)
An awesome trilogy. Great gameplay, great graphics and wonderful music.
Re: Review: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (New 3DS / SNES)
@Mooey Why do you say that this is the best rendition of DKC2 to date? Surely that would be the original SNES game connected to a CRT television, or the Wii Virtual Console version, connected to a modern television, or a version running emulated on a computer connected to a modern LCD screen.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this version as it is, but SNES and Mega Drive games does not look their best at such a small screen as that of a 3DS. (They do look better than NES games however, which really need a large screen to do them justice.)
But there is one thing that is much better with the game on a 3DS, as compared to how we played them back in the day and that is that most people use headphones, when playing their 3DS at home, which gives you great sound. When we played SNES games as children I think many of us probably used "cheap" mono sound televisions, so many of us get far better sound today.