Comments 410

Re: Video: How To Play Rare And Expensive Nintendo Games On A Budget

Buizel

Regarding the mortality of piracy...

Generally with old games I ask myself the question: "is there a way I can purchase this legitimately, in which my money will go to the publishers/developers of the game?"

If the answer is yes, I'll use the best purchase option available to me - usually some form of digital store e.g. virtual console.

If the answer is no...my first option would be the seek out the game in the second hand market. If it's unaffordable...I honestly don't see much of an issue in someone pirating the game, as the publisher/developer won't be getting any money regardless.

In practice this isn't something I resort to. There are too many current games that interest me for me to go back digging through games that I can't easily access. That said, I am a bit of a collector and for some consoles that I absolutely adore or have a sentimental attachment to (e.g. Gamecube) I own a few rare specimens.

Re: Games Within Games - The Best Video Games In Other Video Games

Buizel

Not Nintendo, but my favourite is Space Harrier in both Shenmue and Yakuza. I'm not old enough to have played this when it came out, but the version within these games' respective arcades is a great distraction from otherwise interesting games.

And as impressive as it was that Iwata squeezed Kanto into Pokemon GSC, and as shocking as it was at the time, I personally wouldn't count it. I recently replayed Gold and outside of the novelty of revisiting a beloved region, everything about it is pretty stripped back and dull IMO.

Re: Talking Point: Everyone Has A Bad Game They Love, So What's Yours?

Buizel

Sonic R and Sonic 06.

Sonic R was the first Sonic game I owned and its just so unique that I can't not love it. I would love to see someone have another go at an on-foot Sonic racer (and bring back tag and the balloon hunt!). Plus it was the first fully 3D Sonic game which was mind blowing at the time.

Sonic 06 is like watching a train wreck. It's also the closest we've had to Sonic Adventure 3 and did have a few neat ideas hidden behind its awful execution.

Re: Talking Point: Should We Be Worried About Screen Burn-In With Switch OLED?

Buizel

Weird to have this come back as an issue, given that it was a problem with CRTs back in the day.

That said, I've never experienced burn-in on any device I've had, whether it's an old crt or a modern oled phone. I think it's easy enough to avoid if you don't leave static images on for hours.

If you're gaming for hours on end on any device (moreso a handheld), chances are you should be more concerned about your health than your OLED.

Re: Where To Pre-Order Nintendo Switch OLED Model

Buizel

@RupeeClock Game charge the £309.99 retail price plus an extra £9.99 for either standard delivery or collection, bringing it to £319.18 =/

I'll look out for pre-orders on the Nintendo UK store or Amazon as they will undoubtedly offer free delivery.

Re: Where To Pre-Order Nintendo Switch OLED Model

Buizel

"Good old GAME" seem to be charging a minimum of £9.99 on top of the retail price (for standard delivery or collection), as well as charging you right away (unsure about this last one).

It's no wonder I've not used this company in years...

Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch

Buizel

No Sonic Boom?

At this point, I'm only really waiting for the Zeldas and Xenoblade Chronicles X from the list. Although I do hope for the latter that they make the UI look better in handheld mode than it did on the gamepad - the text was always way too small.

Yoshi's Woolly World would be great as well, especially if we don't see another new Yoshi game on the system. But that game's already received plenty of attention.

The biggest thing I'd like to see from the Wii U however is the virtual console. If they brought all of those games to Switch my Wii U would be nothing more than a HDMI-enabled Wii.

Re: Hideki Kamiya Shares Irritation At Speculation Over Bayonetta 3

Buizel

Have to agree with Kimiya on this one. I think it's clear that Bayonetta is progressing steadily...people are just impatient and entitled. When they want to show something, they'll show it. It's not like we've all individually commissioned the man to make this game and he's not delivering. We'll get it when it's ready.

Re: Nintendo Doesn't Have Anything Else Planned For Zelda's 35th Right Now

Buizel

I believe that we'll be getting these games at some point, but was always skeptical about this year. Certainly didn't expect an announcement before Skyward Sword is out, but Aonuma's wording in the direct (or at least the translation of his wording) seems to imply that they won't come this year at all.

Also - can we stop taking everything "insiders" say at face value? I'm willing to accept that they know more than the average person, but I think they've been wrong enough (or moved the goal posts enough) to make it clear that nothing that they say is a given.

Re: Talking Point: Do You Replay Games?

Buizel

I'd say probably around half the time I spend playing games is replaying old favourites.

There's just something nice about the comfort of playing a game I know I'm going to enjoy, plus also reliving some of the moments that might not be so fresh in my memory.

I almost always have a Pokemon replay somewhere in the background (I must've played through Gen 1 dozens of times, and the generations probably follow the geometric progression in replays thereafter). I've played through the Spyro trilogy to completion maybe three times now, and Mario Galaxy the same. I'm very tempted to give Mario Odyssey a third go. And perhaps the new reigning champions for stealing my life away are Persona 5 Royal and and Fire Emblem Three Houses - the calendar systems in these games (plus the class system and split pathways in the latter) really encourage repeat playthroughs.

Regarding the books: I only read non-fiction (I prefer other forms of entertainment to novels) so will only reread something if I need to refresh my memory!

Re: Feature: Nintendo Hardware Refreshes Through The Ages

Buizel

I voted GBA SP purely based on the backlight and the rechargeable battery - both were a big deal at the time, and make going to any earlier models a bit of a pain these days.

That said, I'm not a big fan of the form factor (the original GBA feels much better), nor the clamshell design which would be standard until the Switch (the hinges would frequently get too loose, plus it simply just doesn't feel as good to play on a system with a clamshell design IMO).

Re: Rumour: Valve Is Working On A "Switch-Like" Portable Gaming PC

Buizel

I'm only interested if games work out the box. I enjoy PC gaming (PC is my second platform after Switch), but currently it's the antithesis of the Switch. Whereas Switch is perhaps the most accessible console ever made, PC gaming still suffers from unexplained crashes, compatibility issues, need to set up / calibrate a lot of things, etc. If all of this can be streamlined in Valve's device I'm all for it, but will believe it when I see it.

Re: Talking Point: When Was The Last Time A Game Cracked Your Top Five?

Buizel

My top 5 has seen a lot of change in recent years. I don't have a de facto list, but Persona 5 (Royal), Mario Odyssey and Fire Emblem Three Houses are all strong candidates for my top five (with Final Fantasy VII Remake a runner up), and they were released in the past 5 years. I don't believe I've ever enjoyed gaming more than I do now, and I'm always discovering new titles to fall in love with.

That said, there is at least one game (Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver) which will be difficult / impossible to knock down. But we'll see...

Re: Soapbox: Be Happy, This Is The True Golden Age Of Gaming

Buizel

Generally agree with the premise of this article. Sure, there are loads of negatives at the moment (Nintendo ignoring legacy content, Xbox buying up previously multiplatform studios, Sony making some questionable business decisions and abandoning Japan, many issues with the AAA industry), but the industry was never 100% perfect and I think it's easy to forget those negatives in hindsight.

But games have never been more accessible and we've never had more choice. Personally the Switch is my favourite Nintendo console of all time, combining almost everything I love about the company into a compact package.

That said...I don't think there's ever been a "bad" time to be into video games for the past 3 decades or so. There's always been a wealth of diverse content to enjoy and that only continues to this day.

Re: Talking Point: New Super Mario Bros. Is 15 Years Old, And It's Still Fantastic

Buizel

New Super Mario Bros was a great game that was highly praised, and a massive deal at the time. And it still holds up today IMO.

I think the main reason people dislike it is because of the many sequels it got which are thematically pretty much the same. It's a shame because prior all 2D Marios had their own unique identity.

I hope Nintendo manages to do something to shake 2D Mario up again in the future. Personally, I think Super Mario 3D World is the best 2Dish (or "course completion") Mario we've had in years (despite it technically being in 3D). Perhaps this could be the future of course-completion Mario?

Re: Rumour: Get That Salt Ready, Apple Is Reportedly Working On A Nintendo Switch-Style Hybrid Console

Buizel

@OldMcGroin Competition can benefit the consumer by expanding choice and forcing companies to be...well, competitive.

But it can also have downsides, especially in a market rife with exclusive content. Publishers/developers may only have limited capacity to bring their content to different platforms - and if they decide to bring something to Apple's new handheld instead of my preferred platform in the Switch, that's a problem for me. In the seventh generation, we saw the majority of Nintendo's third party support migrate to a new competitor in Playstation. Even worse, a competitor may buy up studios to ensure exclusivity of content (as seems to be Microsoft's approach this generation).

That said, I'm not worried about this with regards to Apple. The Switch is a well-established console under the all-time handheld market leader, so I don't see many publishers opting to release on an Apple console over the Switch on their own accord. Apple buying studios is a possibility (especially since they have so much money)...but considering they have no experience in the industry, this seems like a costly and risky move for them. We've already seen how Google's done trying to get exclusive content...

Re: Random: There's A Project Aiming To Make Super Mario 64 Fully Ray Traced

Buizel

Nice proof of concept, but agree with many that it looks quite ugly. Maybe it's the weird mix of higher-poly models with the low-poly backgrounds and low res textures, or maybe it's that ray-tracing doesn't do much for a game with such low detail to begin with.

Show me ray tracing in Super Mario Odyssey and then we're talking.