BoilerBroJoe

@Juga_Juga British English, maybe? Anyway, wishful thinking, but I voted for January.

No more subscriptions, arrrggh!

2017 - remake every RPG in HD-2D!!
2024 - is eight games too much?

No, HD-2D doesn’t need to a break. In fact, I’d say Dragon Quest barely qualifies, since it seems to use a lot of standard polygonal assets. Of course the market will have the last say, but in my opinion, it’s a beautiful art style that can have just as much freshness going forward as pixel art did for an entire generation (and continues to).

Trends can get tiresome of course, and breaks can be warranted. But give me another 30 HD-2D games first; then we’ll talk.

Maybe someone mentioned this but I didn't see it anywhere. Wouldn't the best solution be to toggle a filter that hides games with fewer than a certain number of downloads/wishlistings?

Maybe that's confidential information or something, I don't know, but I think that would solve the problem much more than hiding certain publishers or genres, which will almost certainly be worked around by developers. Sure, some cheap stuff may sucker enough people to break a given threshold. But for the most part, consumer knowledge, word-of-mouth, and sites like this will do the job of separating the wheat from the chaff, as long as there's some convenient way for us to see what everyone else is playing.

The same way we were convinced we'd get Super Mario Galaxy 2 as long as we all quickly shelled out $60 for a predatory, artificial scarcity release?

[grumbling intensifies]

Nintendo should release a line of NinTelevisions: various sizes of 4K TVs that can easily be rotated on their stands to Tate mode.

I jest… mostly… but it’s the only perfect solution.

Give us the option to download and keep a couple games each month and I’d sign up in a heartbeat.

Seriously, Nintendo Life. We won’t let you pull the Wool over our eyes!

@FRBA94 I'm not saying I support the changes, just that I don't care. Clearly, people can disagree with you about what was "fine". Cowboys and "Indians" was considered "fine" for kids in the 1950s; later on it was seen as kinda messed up. Apparently Sega thinks punching a male character in the face is "fine" for kids; people 20 years from now may see that differently too. There are some instances where I'd likely agree with you on this kind of thing and some instances I would not, or at least be indifferent, like in this case.

If you don't like how a company treats its IP, one solution would be to advocate for a much shorter length of copyright ownership. I'm sure there are plenty of left-leaning and third party candidates in your district who would be happy to tackle that issue. Donate, organize, and vote!

I really don't mind that they're adjusting for sensibilities in a game that, let's face it, is for children. Though it is kind of funny how assaulting Knuckles for laughs is the scene that doesn't cross their red line. Kind of a sign of where we are as a society.

9/23 Switch 2 reveal for Nintendo’s 135th birthday. Start asking your job for the day off, folks!

I'm only really noticing this now, but does anyone else think that this doesn't actually look like the HD-2D style we've seen before? In Octopath Traveler and Live A Live, all of the assets looked like pixel art, specifically the environments. Here the environments look like pretty conventional 3D assets, maybe with a bit of an anime aesthetic. It's only the character and enemy sprites that look like pixel art. Don't get me wrong, I still think it looks very pretty, and the sprites on the 3D background do retain a certain style. But I will be slightly disappointed if future HD-2D titles move in this direction and away from that pixel/pop-out book aesthetic that was so uniquely beautiful.

60 is the new 40.

@larryisaman Good to hear! Thank you!

I'm... confused. Do people not know what an orchestra is? Like, for example, that it's not a setting on your keyboard?

I seem to recall Playtonic pulling this mischief when they first promised an orchestral score as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter. Whatever, I'm happy to see this, but unless there's music coming that we've yet to hear, please just call a synthesizer a synthesizer.

@AlanaHagues The "best Mario RPG"? The "best Mario RPG"?? My arthritis-riddled hands are crushing my SNES controller in indignation!

Okay, we got our remaster too, so I can't really complain. But if this were a year ago, hoo boy, I'd be getting quite obnoxious right about now!

reads
Oh!
reads more
Excited!
reads more
Excited!!
only available in Japanese
........<sigh>

I'm sure some of these games can be played in Japanese - I know the PC Engine games on Wii never got translated. But I still feel like it's a major pain, at least for RPGs. I really hope they offer English downloadable patches down the line, otherwise, not sure I'll bite.

With the amount of games I've purchased for the Switch, backwards compatibility on a new system can literally make the difference between buying it as soon as it releases, versus buying it years down the line. Nintendo actually has a good record for backwards compatibility when it's not shifting from cartridges to discs (or back). So I'm really hoping this is a no-brainer for Nintendo.

I don't care if it's illogical. My feelings matter, and they're hurt!

I know I say this every year, but…

give us the option to buy!!

"If you recognise the main character, Miyamoto Musashi, don't be surprised. He's actually modeled after Toshiro Mifune, a legendary Japanese actor who starred in classics such as Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Throne of Blood"

Notably, Toshiro also played Musashi Miyamoto in the 1954-1956 Samurai trilogy (in glorious Eastman Color!)

Godspeed to the man, but to me Mario was always Captain Lou Albano.

My regret isn't something I sold or gave away but something I didn't buy. I was mere millimeters away from clicking "buy" on an ebay listing of Super Mario RPG's original CD soundtrack in 2006. But having just graduated college, I couldn't justify $100 for something I already "had" via ye olde Napster.

That CD would have been brand new. Today, it's selling pre-owned for $850.

Sigh.

I unironically adore this movie. Would probably see it once a year in theaters if I could.

Well, great. Now naming my four children Fox, Prix, Grand, and Star just feels stupid.

Clearly (though unsurprisingly) this is dovetailing far beyond the scope of a comments section. If I gave the impression I'm opposed to this game existing or what it's doing, that's not the case. I'm just saying I understand how some others might be, and how they might see it as more than just a stance against bigotry or a thoughtful commentary on science-denial. If I haven't articulated that well enough up to now, I probably won't be able to.

@Phostachio I'm very sorry about your father-in-law. It's a reminder that this is heart-breakingly serious stuff and that it hasn't gone away. And I hope my comments don't come off as disrespectful of that fact.

@Phostachio "bigotry and taking a stance against bigotry are not equal"

I agree, and I tried to make that clear in my comment. But too often any kind of nuance or concession to an opposing viewpoint is accused of "both-sidesing". This game is taking a stand against more than bigotry. Bigotry is in there, yes, but it's also lumping a whole lot of other identities that it codes as conservative. And is there really no argument to be made that a game where you beat up Christian congregants might be read as bigoted?

Again, pushing envelopes is fine and important but let's at least acknowledge when an envelope is being pushed.

I do agree that games are art and should absolutely be satirical and ideological when they choose to be. But I do think those of us on the left should acknowledge that if this game had been infused with politics from the “other” side, most of us would be calling it beyond the pale. Imagine a game about “beating the hell” out of mask-wearers, activists or caricatures of any religion that’s not Christianity? You may feel that power and privilege make some forms of mockery acceptable and others dangerous, a position I hold myself, but you can’t presume that your definitions of those things are established, unquestionable fact. At some point, the excuse for left-wing critiques being different from right-wing ones moves from well-argued to suspiciously convenient.

We also need to acknowledge, I think, that for complex reasons the majority of people designing games likely identify as liberal more so than conservative and that “politics in games” is going to lean disproportionately to one side for that reason. Again, nothing wrong with that in my view, but the frustration from conservatives is coming from something real.

All that is to say this game’s hard politics look justifiable to me, but we may want to pause before claiming that justification is self-evident.

What's sad is that 99% of people won't even watch to the end and notice the earth-shattering secret hidden within.

@Picola-Wicola “The word soccer is an abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in English private schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker").”

I agree that it’s silly for us Americans to try to claim the word football to the exclusion of other sports, but there’s nothing wrong, or even distinctly American, about the word soccer. It’s just a slang term for the sport that dates back to its inception and that became the standard in American English in the same way other words diverged across the pond. And the American “football” was originally just rugby, coming from the word “rugby football” as opposed to “association football”. So if we really wanted to set some kind of grammatical standard across the board, it would make more sense to call the three sports “soccer”, “rugby” and maybe “gridiron”, all under the common family of “football”.

Oh yeah, that sucks about Sports Story.

@Azuris Yeah, that should be public domain in pretty much any part of the world. Getty likely offers a high quality print or scan as a service and doesn’t own the image. The watermark would be there just to dissuade people from downloading it and not buying the scan. Clearly that didn’t work this time!

Some have already said it, but the option to purchase and keep retro games (and preferably to have it recognized long term, across devices, like Steam does). Knowing I could play those games without a subscription would actually make me more likely to stay subscribed, since I would know I’m gaining more and more value the longer I stay. No one ever asked us to return all of our Nintendo Powers after our subscriptions ended, did they?

Why should Warner Bros. worry about making Casablanca available when they can instead focus on making Aquaman 2?

The movie was bad because it was written and directed by Alex “this story doesn’t actually make any sense now that it’s over” Kurtzman.

And yes, the game was awesome. The music slaps, as the kids say.

She’s SAG according to her Twitter profile. Sounds like the union really needs to do better for their lowest paid actors. I can understand $4000 being standard or even high for an equivalent amount of work on a first time basis, but they need to figure out a way to ensure first right of refusal and at least a five figure number for returning leads in a production that earns half a billion dollars. I fully support her.

@nymbosox well there’s Bob Hoskins and Captain Lou Albano, both of which did NY accents (well, one of them was his real accent). But as I’ve said elsewhere I prefer that (Mario is from Brooklyn, not Italy!) so I’m fine with Pratt’s version, at least conceptually.

I'm no fan of Chris Pratt playing Mario (for me it's just a matter of over-saturation of the guy), but that said, hot take alert:

Charles Martinet < Chris Pratt < Captain Lou Albano

I'm not sure why most people didn't seem to hear it, but it's obvious Chris Pratt is doing a Brooklyn accent, which is at least a step back in the right direction after 25 years of "insane Venetian gondolier". We'll see how he actually sounds for a sustained 100 minutes but for now I have no real issue with it.

But I think the truth of the matter is that, when all is said and done, people will remember the gloriously bonkers Super Mario Bros. (1993) long after Super Mario Bros. (2023) is gone and forgotten. Eccentricity, however hard to swallow at the time, will always outlive contemporary broad appeal.

For many years I would have said “Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon” because it got very lukewarm reviews when it was released (a 7.1 from Nintendo Power if I remember correctly, and that was just a glorified advertising firm for games appearing on Nintendo systems) and because I adored that game in ways that kind of formed who I am today. But because it has such a healthy cult following even now I’m still not sure that it qualifies. So if I had to think of a game that seems to be considered pretty bad but that I kinda love and keep going back to again and again, it would probably be Jaws for the NES.

I'm almost positive what happened is that whichever manager they were speaking to had no idea what a "Nuzlocke" was and hearing the word "lock" assumed it has something to do with glitching the game in order to cheat. Honestly that still shouldn't be something they ought to oppose, but it's at least believable that they would view that as akin to hacking. And in typical managerial fashion, it's likely any attempt to explain or clarify was quickly shut down (especially when losing ones job is being mentioned or implied). Of course it's possible that Kit and Krysta aren't accurately representing the exchange, but I certainly find it entirely plausible.

Where's the original Monkey Islahehhehhendddd?? 😭 😭

@silverninja And if it's absolutely necessary, you could always just invent an army of "good" ninjas, perhaps former followers of Hamato Yoshi, depending on the mythos you're going with,.

@silverninja That's true. I guess I kind of imagined it as being just the hero characters versus an opposing army, since I never really felt that the allied soldiers did much. Admittedly, my only musou experience is Hyrule Warriors. But I think it would still work with a few playable hero characters per mission.

@Aventurier Yeah, I was trying to think of how a 3D brawler may work well and then suddenly realized a TMNT Musou game is something I would really want. It's perfect for the big cast of characters as well.

Calling it: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Musou game!

I'm watching the digital event now, and it's fantastic. Strangely enough, I know the exact episode he's referencing (or at least one of them) when he says that "people coming from overseas in search of used cassettes are sometimes interviewed TV programs". It was an episode of the show "Why Did You Come To Japan?" and they followed around two friends who had arrived in Tokyo to track down a copy of Gimmick. It was a fun episode.

"The best Mario is not the man who seeks Mario, but the man who has Mario foisted upon him"

HR is paid by the company. Their job is to to protect the company from its employees. A union’s job is to protect the employees from the company. They need a union.

@Tyranexx yeah I would think it might be considered condescending (or even a little aggressive) if you were to, say, run ahead of someone to grab and hold open the door for them. Especially if you’re only treating women that way. I respect that some people still like to perform a few gender roles, but I imagine a good rule of thumb for strangers is to treat them the same way you’d treat anybody, equally.

I hope you make it to NYC! I like to say NYC is just like any Main Street, USA. It’s just a whole bunch of them next to one another!

@Tyranexx I've held the door for everyone I see in NYC. No complaints yet.

Sounds like a labor union is in order, both at Nintendo and Aston Carter. Employees shouldn't need to wish or even publicly complain for better treatment by their employers, they should be able to demand it collectively. A union may not be receptive to every worker's needs, but at least it's an organization in which you can vote for or remove representatives. A company is just a cronyist regime.