Damo

@PBandSmelly Revealing a source is a great way to not have that source talk to you ever again.

@thugpipe Not slow at all, we didn't see the video until Hackaday reported on it on the 24th of August: https://hackaday.com/2021/08/24/game-boy-advance-sp-case-mod-adds-battery-capacity-and-modern-interfaces/

@Folkloner We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. It totally looks like Splatoon if you ask me

@Richnj Metroid Dread is a great-looking game that, within the side-scrolling 2D genre, looks set to impress. Super Mario 3D All Stars, despite its shortcomings, still contains some of the greatest video games ever made.

So your comparison with Pokemon doesn't really hold water - what we're saying here is that visually, this is what people should be expecting from a next-gen Pokemon. Gameplay? Well, that remains to be seen, but in terms of visual impact, this is pretty impressive.

@Folkloner I was referring to the visuals, not the gameplay.

@Folkloner The visual style / clothing / cityscape is very close to that of Splatoon, don't you think? Some of the weapons look like ones from Splatoon as well – and some of the enemies even have ink-based visual effects.

@Bunkerneath Amazon UK has it listed but it's unavailable, so Steam might be your next best bet? I'm sure it's available elsewhere. You can also get it on Blu-ray.

@dew12333 "If this thing made £10m for this man via his patreonage account do you think Nintendo would go after him? But let's face it, it's a grey area, so lets just agree to disagree."

Is there any evidence of him actually doing that, though?

@Rhaoulos Modding and creating something from scratch are two very different things, and, as I alluded to earlier, many of the world's best developers began their careers in the modding community. It's seemingly an excellent way of getting involved with the world of games development.

@aznable 'Mod' indicates that this isn't an official endeavour. There's nothing even remotely bait-y about the title.

@dew12333 These mods aren't being sold, though?

@Terra I've added that in - thanks!

@lordofthescarf Apologies, that has been edited for clarity.

@dew12333

"all these fans that do it for the love of the game, my arse!"

So... someone would spend weeks of their time modding a game like Zelda BOTW to add new features or extend its longevity because they DON'T love it?

That doesn't seem to make any sense to me, personally?

@carlos82 Exactly!

@Krull I want to know the answer to this myself

@Coach_A We covered the connection between education and games many times in the past: https://www.nintendolife.com/search?q=University+&submit=Go

@Coach_A History has taught us that modding is a legitimate route into game development. We don't make a habit of covering every Nintendo-related mod, but these Zelda ones really are extraordinary - so it stands to reason we'd want to share them with our audience. Not everyone will have the means to play them of course, but they're still of interest (as you can see from the other comments here).

@Warbeard You don't think representation in games is important because I'd wager you're not one of the people who is under-represented.

@BloodNinja A high level of comments doesn't always equate to high traffic. This piece, for example, is currently being beaten by the story about Jungle Book coming to Switch.

However, we're not posting these pieces to generate clicks in the way you're insinuating. Representation is a very important topic (not just in video games, I might add) and, as you can see from the numerous positive comments posted here, it is resonating with a lot of people.

It might not resonate with you personally, but is that reason not to run it? Of course not.

@TheTinfoilTitan Thanks for the well-worded comment!

@johnvboy It comes in other colours, that was just the one we were sent to review.

@Hck That's a good point - I've edited to the title to make that more clear.

@PoliticallyIncorrect Well, within reason. Our community rules state:

"Do not post - unless you have something useful to say; Only post when you have something meaningful to say or something that will contribute to the discussion"

Comments which are dismissive or fail to add anything to conversation generally derail the thread and aren't helpful or productive, so try to avoid them if possible. Thanks!

@PoliticallyIncorrect ...so why leave a comment?

@Respawn He was responding to the previous comments which were clearly designed to generate a hostile reaction. I've removed the comment, however.

@darkswabber Not much, some offensive comments have been removed. If they keep getting posted then bans will be the next step.

@RadioShadow We try to keep headline lengths as compact as possible as they get pushed out to platforms like Twitter, where there's a word count.

@AtlanteanMan For the record, I'm a Catholic who attends church every Sunday, and I'm the person who reviewed this. I didn't take offence even remotely; the game is too absurd to be offensive. If you actually play it you'll soon realise that.

@BloodNinja "What was disturbing to me, was the comment from Damo mentioning white privilege regarding representation in games:
"It's a right that most straight, white men have become far too accustomed to having over the past few decades (myself included) and it's high time it changed."
The way he chose to demonize whites made me take pause with the legitimacy and fairness of the site. You don't fight racism by being racist in return!"

I haven't demonized anyone - my point is that straight, white males are massively over-represented in video games (and other media as well, to be honest).

Next time you're in a video game store, take a look at the shelves and tell me how many covers either feature A) white male protagonists or B) white female protagonists wearing revealing clothing.

And I should reiterate here, I'm not saying either of those things are 'wrong' as such, but would it hurt to also allow people other than straight white men to get some representation in video games? That's really all that is being asked for in this piece, and for some reason, some individuals have taken that to mean we're calling or Mario to change the colour of his skin or every video game character to be black. That's not the case.

Regretfully, we've taken the decision to lock comments on this piece again.

@Einherjar I certainly think the way Germany is often instantly associated with evil acts could be seen as offensive to Germans. It's reductive to make that association, just like it's reductive to say Indians like wearing skulls around their necks.

Stereotypes of all kinds are pretty negative, tbh.

@Einherjar As I said, on the Retronauts podcast a person of Indian heritage stated that Dhalsim was offensive to Indian people.

@BloodNinja I asked you in good faith to provide me with research that backed up your claim, and you couldn't produce it. If you can provide any valid research which proves otherwise, please do so - I'd be honestly very interested to read it.

@Crono1973 Literally the first hit on that Google search is The Guardian, which says there IS a pay gap between men and women:

"...the figures are an important indicator of structural inequality. The data shows eight in 10 companies pay male employees more, and some companies pay the men twice as much as women on average. The median gap is a blunt tool, but a powerful one"

But anyway! Back on topic...

@BloodNinja Exactly, the 'research' you mention simply doesn't exist.

@Einherjar "Wouldn't this line of thinking also lead to Blanka being offensive to Brazilians because he's designed malformed and brutish?"

Exactly.

"Couple of Turkish friends celebrated SF IV's Hakan and his characteristics could be considered offensive as well."

What is offensive about that character, though? He's wearing traditional Turkish dress, that's all. Capcom has moved with the times when it comes to character design.

@Crono1973 "The pay gap is a myth long since debunked"

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gender_pay_gap_statistics

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/

@BloodNinja Can you point me towards the research which proves your claims, please? Genuinely interested.

@Crono1973 How do you explain the pay gap between men and women, then? Or the fact that most of the global positions of power are held by men?

@BloodNinja "That's an extremely dangerous and unverifiable claim"

As are the claims you're making; you don't seem to be able to see that.

@bobzbulder "That thinking also essentially says “no” to creativity"

How is it more 'creative' to have games filled with straight, white men?

@Crono1973 In my experience, the world is predominantly pro-male. Perhaps you've just become numb to it?

@moodycat I've added that one to the post!

@Crono1973 "You won't see articles on a video game website about better representation for men"

That's because most video games feature male characters in positions of power.

@HamatoYoshi @Einherjar

"In early developments of Street Fighter X Tekken, footage was shown of Ryu and Chun-Li's win quotes to Poison (i.e. "Your looks really can be deceiving. I'll be careful not to fall into your trap" and "You're not very lady-like at all! I felt like I was fighting against a guy..." respectively). Other characters were later revealed to have quotes along the same lines, some even worse, including Kuma outright saying Poison smells like a man and doubting she's in any way a woman. Sometime after the footage was shown, a prominent LGBT rights group contacted Capcom about the dialogue, stating that it was highly offensive, ignorant and insensitive towards trans individuals. Capcom agreed to change the quotes, leaving only Yoshimitsu's remark about her being a "freshly-recruited kunoichi", Craig Marduk's more vague comment that he doesn't sweat the small stuff and only cares that she's attractive, and Poison's mirror match quote where she tries to recall a song, "The something-or-other in the mirror", referencing Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror.""

Source: https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Poison

Regards to Dhalsim, I was listening to Retronauts just the other day and Shivam Bhatt (who is of Indian descent) stated that although he thought the character was cool as a kid, the fact that he had shrunken skulls around his neck is offensive to Indian people.

SF2 is actually packed with cultural stereotypes so it's evenhanded in that respect, at least.

@gaga64 Hey, it's fine - and I'll certainly be more mindful of using that expression in the future!

@MsJubilee "does it hurt you to know the fact that Poison & Dhalsim are fan favorites? They're loved by many, and also Dhalsim is an OG"

The fact that straight white males love these characters doesn't automatically mean they're no longer offensive to transgender or Indian people, sadly.

@HamatoYoshi "Open your eyes man, look on the internet and you’ll find plenty of transgender people who look like poison. Your comment actually insults transgender people - can’t they look super attractive with great body’s?"

You might want to read up on why Poison was, and still is, a massively controversial character.

@gaga64 My understanding is that the 'cack' means 'awkward'?

"According to Merriam-Webster and American Heritage, the cack in cack-handed comes from English dialect keck, meaning awkward, which in turn came from Old Norse keikr, meaning "bent backward.""

Nonetheless, this could be the British meaning of the word so I apologise to your wife!

@HamatoYoshi Nobody is contesting that video games offer an escape from reality, you're misunderstanding the topic here. Most video games feature human beings, and the moment you put a human being on-screen, you have the question of representation. It's unavoidable.

As I said before, straight white males don't see representation as an issue because 90% of video games over the past few decades have showcased straight white men in the lead roles.

Wanting better representation in video games isn't about fantasy or fun, it's just something that we perhaps take for granted (myself, at least, as a straight white male).