Camjo-Z

Lumping the two Arrangement games together like they're two halves of a whole is doing the arcade game a disservice. 1996 Arrangement is one of the finest Pac-Man games ever produced thanks to its fluid gameplay, fantastic visuals/music, and strategic level gimmicks, as well as the addition of a fifth permanently blue ghost in the maze that can either power up the other ghosts by touching them to give them special abilities, or serve as a walking Power Pellet to give you an edge if you can catch him.

Meanwhile, the PSP game of the same name is a completely different (and far worse) game only vaguely based on the arcade iteration with incredibly unthreatening ghosts and boring, overly segmented maze design that ensures you're almost never in any danger. It's a dull wannabe compared to the infinitely replayable arcade game, the comparison made even more unfavorable now that the real deal is included in the same package unlike the original Pac-Man Museum.

Also, Pac-in-Time really isn't that bad. I'm surprised the review doesn't mention at all that it's heavily based around using a grappling hook to swing Pac-Man around the stages like a little yellow Umihara Kawase. Sure, the character control is incredibly bouncy and slippery, and it's a little too easy to accidentally take damage from an enemy, but once you get used to the quirks it's quite a unique and fun game. It's definitely not for everybody though, which is why I find it slightly amusing that they chose to lock most of the amazing 40th anniversary remix songs in the jukebox behind demonstrating proficiency at Pac-in-Time. "You get good with that rope or you don't get to jam out to Ladies and Pac-Man!"

I get the sense that the reviewer did not actually play this game in multiplayer given that all the screenshots in this review are from single player and the only mention of two player is breezed over in a brief paragraph, which is a bit of a problem considering Snow Bros was always designed as a co-op arcade experience. The bosses in particular start to become massive difficulty spikes starting from Floor 40 when playing alone since you have to beat them with just three lives, whereas in co-op you can both revive infinitely as long as you don't lose all your lives at the same time.

I doubt they played far enough to discover this though, because aside from the boss difficulty not being mentioned at all, the claim that the enemies simply "potter about" is flat out wrong beyond the earliest levels. The enemies all have very unique movement and attack patterns, which is the whole selling point of Monster Challenge mode. It's a lot of fun to use their overpowered abilities against them - though I fully agree it should have been included in the base purchase rather than tacked on as DLC.

There are certainly some valid criticisms to be made (a thin amount of content for $20, no way to save your progress to pick up later, poor difficulty balancing for a solo player), but I don't think Nick & Tom were given a fair shake for this review.

Even the music sounds like it's taking some "inspiration" with that lawyer-friendly version of Wario's Gold Mine.

Who is this mythical fan so hardcore into Pokemon that they feel the need to fill the entire Pokemon Go Pokedex, but not hardcore enough to buy a Switch to play the latest game in the series?

The lack of localized XX instills a deep sense of rage in my soul, but the fact that we're at least getting Stories should manage to quell it... FOR NOW!

A level editor as Day 1 DLC is pretty lame IMO. Only a fraction of the people who would have created levels will bother to now.

Not a terrible idea, but there are cheaper ways to learn hiragana and katakana. In fact, you could easily find a chart online right now and memorize it all before this game even releases.

@FNL ...Isn't this article literally about how the latest NX rumors are unverified speculation and that people shouldn't be talkin' about and/or clickin' them?

Not really sure how 3D would improve Columns but hey, I'll take it... if it ever leaves Japan, that is.

@YoshiParty Kokopolo is no mo' on the eShop, got delisted a while ago. Fun game though.

Rabi Laby 1 and 2 are some of the best puzzle-platformers on the system, and RL2 is a mere $2 for those on the fence. No reason to not grab them before the shutdown!

Digging that Swirls theme, I prefer an uncluttered top screen since it tends to be covered by some icon anyway. Probably going to grab that whether it's the free one or not.

@Drumpler "No developer wants to talk to a site that attempts to embarrass them either. I think you don't realize how this has made some in the Nindie community reconsider their relationship with the site."

The only reason anyone in the Nindie community should be reconsidering their relationship with the site is if they pull the same shenanigans outlined in the article. Most don't.

@AcclaimDev Here's a question for you. Do you like it when someone tries to sell you a retro game that cost $15 at launch on eBay for $200? No. Is it completely legal and above board to do so? Yes. The same applies here. It's technically fine to release licensed game templates on the eShop, but it leads to a deluge of intentionally low-quality games that decrease visibility for other games that may have actually had effort put into them - which nobody should like.

@Monkey_Balls I don't think anyone is looking at this from a legal standpoint, because it's been clearly established in the article that this isn't illegal.

And yes, asset flipping to this degree is the very definition of "cashing in".

@samuelvictor I agree that there's nothing inherently wrong with using licensed assets. That being said, I don't see why you'd want to play devil's advocate for a dev who blatantly abuses them. It might be allowed but it's still a lazy practice that deserves to be shamed. Devs should make games because they want to create something fun and enjoyable, not because they think they can make a quick buck tricking casual gamers into buying a thinly-veiled Construct 2 tutorial.

@samuelvictor "Great point about Doom. Many, many other examples of stone cold classic games who have used assets."

How many "stone cold classic games" can you name that are entirely comprised of flipped assets? There's a vast difference between using some stock sound effects and just straight up slapping your logo onto a premade game and putting it up for sale.

This is literally charging money for a free browser game that lasts 5 minutes. Regardless of how cheap the price, this kind of shameless practice should get an automatic 0/10. You can already play this on your phone/tablet if you want Off-TV play, and button control(s?) are pointless since there's only one input. So what reason was there to port this to Wii U besides pure greed?

If you liked the tunes that much, definitely check out Drop It: Block Paradise whenever that finally comes out, cuz I did a bunch more for that one. It will be downright FUNKY, yo.