Darknyht

I think everyone involved is part of the problem to a differing degree. The developers (really the marketers) have been spinning tales since the Intellivision age, so anyone that believes them still deserves what they get. Gamers are to blame because we keep purchasing sight unseen or based on preview articles from people that frankly game in a different reality than most people (who else crams 40+ hour games into a weeklong marathon to write a preview/review article). Media are the blame for creating a who is first gets all the rewards system that punishes publications that do long-form writing or waits to publish a more complete and thoughtful review.

I need to go back and finish Earthbound Beginnings, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Mario Galaxy 2, Earthbound, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and a bunch of games I bought in clearance at the end of the console (Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, ZombiU, and more).

@kkslider5552000 I have NSO online for the SNES/NES games and the backups. I generally don’t play games that require NSO online. I did appreciate the few games that have been free for a week to confirm I have zero interest in them.

The $35/yr I now pay so my kids and parents can play animal crossing together has been worth it. Especially this last year and I have few complaints. I spend more on soda (almost a single soda these days) in a month than the $3/mo. I pay for it.

Picked up Rayman Legends and Saga Collection this month, so I am good. Also went back and started playing Mario + Rabbits again (never finished it). Kingdoms of Amalur looks interesting as I missed it on 360 and to be honest Monster Hunter Rise is calling but I am trying to finish a fairly large backlog.

@Clyde_Radcliffe I don't buy EA games for a lot of reasons, but to name a few:

• Their "exclusive" deals that stifle competition and bring crap games to market.
• Their buying and destroying smaller studios I loved.
• Forced Multiplayer, Server shutdowns (w online passes) and other DLC non-sense like loot boxes over the years.
• Online Passes, cannot be condemned enough.
• Mass Effect 3's non-sensical ending and their middle finger to me by releasing only 3 on Wii U, then the trilogy for the same price on every other system.
• EA's overall treating Nintendo gamers like second class citizens, giving us things like FIFA '16: Roster 2020 Update Edition for $60.

So yeah, I will support companies other than EA (and Tencent/Epic).

Thanks but no thanks, I picked up Rayman Legends on Ubisoft Connect for $10.20 yesterday. It's on sale for -66% off, and I would much rather support them than EA.

It's not a bad game, I probably will replay the demo and intentional get lost to see what it offers fully. But there is a lot of Ubisoft feeling to this game, much like Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, and Starlink. The UI and Gameplay just have that same sort of look and feel. Not a bad thing but you can tell this is a Ubisoft game.

@dumedum It's obvious that you have drank the kool-aid so argument isn't going to persuade you to change your mind. But here is some facts to dispute your rose-colored views. https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-11-14/wealth-in-america-inequality-persists-in-household-wealth#:~:text=The%20bottom%2050%25%20of%20wealth%20holders%20saw%20their,about%2032%25%20of%20all%20household%20wealth%20in%202019.

"Due to the increase in value of investment assets commonly held by higher income groups, the top 20% of income earners have seen their net worth grow 78% since the recession. Their share of the nation's wealth grew from 64% to 72% during that period. At the same time, the bottom 20% of income earners have seen their wealth drop by 30%."

Basically in America, 32% of the total wealth is held by 1% and roughly 70% is held by the top 20%. Meanwhile the rest of the country is left to fight over decreasing scraps.

"When looked at as a group, American households are worth more than they were during the Great Recession. However, with growth strongest in investments held by higher income groups, like mutual funds, and weaker for investments held by lower income groups, like mortgages, this growth has not benefited households equally. While the wealth of the top 40% of income earners has increased, the bottom 60% has stagnated, with wealth falling for the lowest 20% of income-earners."

So you might have more dollars in your paycheck, but those dollars do less than they did. The pity tax cuts we got were basically breadcrumbs to trick you while they walked away with the entire banquet. It benefitted the 100k earners and above way more than those at the bottom (and they got our pity breaks just the same as us too).

But enjoy your delusions of prosperity, while a lot of our fellow citizens are struggling to put food on the table ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/02/food-bank-shortage-feeding-america/ ), and affordable housing is becoming a crisis ( https://archive.curbed.com/2019/5/15/18617763/affordable-housing-policy-rent-real-estate-apartment#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20is%20facing%20an%20affordable%20housing,not%20be%20cost-burdened%29%20in%20exactly%20zero%20counties%20nationwide ).

@dumedum https://www.politifact.com/article/2017/dec/19/who-wins-and-who-loses-tax-bill/ as they point out, it is people making $100k and above that benefit from the cuts. As for the amount of taxes they pay, the honest rich like Gates point out they should be paying more taxes. Even Warren Buffet pointed out it was wrong that he paid less in taxes than his secretary. The system has been rigged and their talking heads have convinced you that what is raining down on you from them is lemonade.

Progressive liberal policies are broken, but so are ultra conservative ones. Look at history and there has always been a social contract between the rich and non-rich. For the benefit of their status they deal with the problems of society. When they fail to do that society fails. We worship GDP as if that is the only measure of success and ignore the mom that stays at home and raises successful children. There is a philosophy called the donut theory. Too many people in the hole means too many failing at basic life essentials, too many outside the donut is consuming too much. The US primarily exists with people in the hole, a dwindling number headed for the hole and a fraction off the donut. As a country we exist off the donut consuming everything like locusts.

Go visit West Virginia where your capitalism has ran the state for years. They have the best government a coal baron could buy. Their governor makes a living from extracting wealth from the ground people live on, destroying the environment and then bankrupting the company to avoid taxes and paying the workers. Their dependence on a single industry has led to everyone skilled fleeing if they could and their workforce being drained. Now it is the land of dollar stores and poor people trapped with a few exceptions for old retired people and a few counties near better managed areas. Moral capitalism isn’t a problem (just like moral communism isn’t bad, in fact it is the biblical model for Christians in Acts), but we don’t live in a moral society.

@dumedum you have an idealistic view of capitalism. In our world the capitalist does everything to increase profit and reduce expenses. So when that Walmart job becomes too expensive, they offshore it somewhere else (or automate it with a machine). They benefit from infrastructure paid by taxes, but offshore profits to avoid putting back into the system. They pay for lobbyists to make it all legal. Look at the opioid epidemic and the billionaire owners that pocketed all the money and bankrupted the company to avoid paying for the damages their direct actions caused.

People are selfish, and capitalist are supremely so. It is only because of blood soaked workers fighting against armed corporate thugs for unions that we have what rights we do (and yes, unions can be their own societal problem usually from the same selfish tendencies). The last tax cut we “got” was nothing but a 1%’ers wish list, while we suffer from broken infrastructure and failing public institutions. But hey, Jeff Bezos has more money than most countries.

I have mixed feelings on this as a lot of the examples given don't really require much grinding. Final Fantasy IV for example can be beaten by just the random encounters you hit along the way if you learn how to use items, spells and exploit weaknesses. I usually play through it without power leveling unless I am going after the optional quests.

Dragon Quest I, II, and III was designed with death as a feature, with the player pushing as far as the could before death and then taking another run at it. It was our aversion to death that makes it into a grindfest.

So sometimes the grinding we complain about is our own making and not due to design. A lot of modern games however pad their gameplay with grinds, and it seems to have become popular in the N64 era especially.

Bowser's Fury sounds interesting, but still not enough to justify $60 again at this point. Perhaps when we get Super Mario 3D All-Stars 2 in 5 - 10 years I will be more inclined to double-dip.

My hardcore game Link developed survivor’s guilt when told his past, and wondered his way to the beach. He fishes, cooks and pretty much stays away from combat. But he pretty much wants nothing to do with facing those horrible mechanical demons again. He is thinking of becoming a traveling merchant or pirate.

I owned all three of these on the original hardware back in the day, and he is the best way I can summarize them:

Saga 1: Extremely basic RPG that was released in the first year of the Game Boy. It lays the foundation down for the games that follows with concepts like limited use items, meat mechanic for monsters, and mutant abilities being random. It was designed to be re-playable, short and difficult. Contemporary to Dragon Quest/FF1 in presentation/complexity.

Saga 2: Refines the concepts of the first and adds more story. Introduces temporary party members, Robots and an optional "Nasty Dungeon" to the mix. Plays like a late NES RPG like Dragon Quest 3/4. This is the only one I never completed.

Saga 3: Overhauls the Meat/Parts system to create 5 types of characters that you can switch between (each with their own systems for growth). Weapons/Spells no longer break, growth is now level based for default class. This is probably my favorite of the three, and I would compare it to FFV in structure and feel.

I have played these games a lot over the years and I am happy that I can play them again as my original cartridges were stolen. But this quirky jRPG is not for everyone, and it can be a strange frustrating series at times.

It sounds like a good way for Nintendo to get sued, as would have inevitably happened when someone broke their N64 using the "feature". Seems like something that could have been easily handled by just using the Controller Pak for storage and swapping between games.

@Rhaoulos Xenoblade Chronicles X is best viewed as Final Fantasy I, III, V in that it is systems driven with a lite story. It is the combat system, skell system, world progression, and a thousand side quests that make the game. For the most part you fill in the details between the story beats given. It’s not for everyone, but I grew up with the story plots of NES Dragon Quest.

That is part of the reason it was X and not 2. I hope they eventually go back and make an X2 to fill in some of the missing/cut story given the ending.

@p0cketpingp0ng I originally played it mostly on the gamepad and occasionally on a 720p 27” TV. When we finally upgraded the tv to a 1080p 40” the difference was amazing. I am always amazed what Nintendo gets out of their low powered consoles.

I spent a few hours playing Xenoblade Chronicles X again. Took it a bit to remember how to play, but the game still looks amazing.

It’s nice to see they did it, but the distribution part of their plan will probably end with a lawyer from Nintendo about copyrighted stories and characters.

I just replaced the battery in my Gamepad because the kids still regularly play the system. I really need to go back and finish my second play through of Xenoblade Chronicles X. I was attempting to only use the assault rifle skills which makes the game a lot more difficult than cheesing it with longsword skills.

Looked over the list and realized I own 40 of the titles on the list, and only don't own the others because I never had any real interest in them. It's a shame that it didn't get the attention it deserved from people or Nintendo.

I remember getting one of those boxes the first Christmas it was out. That was such an amazing little machine with a headache inducing blurry screen, but man did I play a lot of great games on it. Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land 2, Final Fantasy Legend III are still some of my favorite games, despite (or perhaps because) of their simplicity.

But I am not going to lie, I was very happy when I opened up the Super Game Boy a few Christmases after that one.

I am not going to break my neck to get them, but there has been some stuff I have enjoyed on My Nintendo. But it is still a poor substitute for the old system.

Kirby Super Star was the first Kirby I actually completed. Everything else has been spin-offs of the main series because Kirby64 and Dreamland 3 were just not fun.

I think the New-Style NES (NES-101) is my favorite, sort of how I like the PSOne over the original.

@AlienigenX I am happy that more people will get to play the game, but Nintendo is pretty bad at expecting another $60 for minor improvements (or just porting services to a new console) on games we already purchased. As I said, they could have released Bowser's Fury as a standalone and offer a discount if you pick up the rest of the game and made those of us that already own it happy.

But I am happy more people will enjoy the game. At the same time this might be the first Nintendo console in a long time where I own very few first party Nintendo titles due to the sheer number of ports they have done.

@Kalmaro Yes, I want a stand-alone version because I am not spending $60 again to access a short adventure tacked on to a game I already own and all but completed (two stages shy of everything).

They could have released the DLC as a $10-20 standalone, and won a lot of goodwill (same with Pikmin 3 [Stupid Autocorrect]). Even throw in a discount for the full game if you bought it and you have got a great PR boost. But Nintendo will almost never do that because they feel entitled to me paying $60 again. Mostly because anytime they re-release something we collectively run out and drop $60 for it. So in a way we are as much to blame for it.

Yes but it probably will never happen.

@nukatha I agree. If they would release the extra stuff as an eShop extra I might be tempted, but I just played the game on the Wii U a few days ago. It isn't worth $60 for a "Short Adventure".

The change that prevents "free" if you bought a previous title will be a killer for companies like Qubic games, whose entire business model seemed to be using free giveaways to get games to the top of the charts.

I think the price bottom will fix some things and break others. It will not help discoverability, but it will make a lot of $1.99 unable to be put on sale or drop price in order to manipulate the charts. So a lot of those developers will either have to improve the product or find another method of selling.

Thankfully, you can still get a used physical copy of the game $10 - 15. Stinks that the publishing agreement ended, but I have an easier time accepting this than when Nintendo pulls a game they made because they re-released it on Switch.

I don't play everything because sometimes I just buy something that looks and sounds good only to discover I hate it. Overcooked and Crypt of the Necromancer were two of the more recent games to end up like that.

I did buy 40 eShop titles, 51 Wii U Retail Titles, 46 Virtual Console titles, and 16 Wii Titles during the Wii U era and probably only played about 75% of them. I have been a little more picky with the Switch as I am trying to only purchase games I want.

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Paladins
3. Dragon Quest XI S
4. Idle Champions (well, it was idle a lot....)
5. The Outer Worlds (which honestly surprises me since I bought it in October).

The Wii U is still regularly used in the house and hooked up to the primary TV. I own a Switch and I use it, but it has been hard to find things I don’t already own on Wii U that are interesting.

If this was an attempt to free people from Fortnite, I could get behind that. Sort of like the #deleteFacebook trend, but this is a scummy corporation upset at another mega-corporation.

If they really wanted just the fees to be dropped, they would have been happy with the changes Apple made. Instead they have shown that what they really care about is they want to be the entity making the % on all the sales. It always has been about money: the money that Epic could make on IAP vs. the money that Apple takes in on IAP.

@gcunit XCX addressed that a little in that there was a mission where you could spare the creatures. If you did, they attacked people later killing them. They also had passive creatures that wouldn’t attack unless provoked, while others attacked on sight.

I wouldn't mind Game Pass (or something similar) as my income available for games has decreased over the years. Game Pass is an incredible value for what it is, and a lot of my friends are Xbox Gamers so the ability to play something with them is a plus. At the same time, I would love to see Nintendo actually get the Nintendo Switch Online service to a level that isn't just sad. They have a huge library of smaller games that they could offer, but they seem to want to drip feed them out.

I will probably download it. Need to pick up Doom 2 at some point when it goes on sale again.

I remember renting and beating this not long after getting my SNES. I tried to go back and play it not to long ago, and was shown just how much my skill (or dedication to trying again) had deteriorated.

@ChaosBadger777 I understand. Since I only have the Switch so I don't typically pay attention to other consoles that much. Part of my year this year was going back and rediscovering Dragon's Dogma again and replaying some old classics I've missed when I was growing up.

@ChaosBadger777 This hasn't been a bad year for me, but I have slowed down on game purchases these days. I used to pick something new up every month, but now it is a major release every season with eShop stuff in between when it is priced right.

Just to put that into slightly better perspective, Animal Crossing released almost 9 months ago, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released 2.5 years ago (technically 5.5 years ago). Yet they are outperforming recent releases with the exception of two games.

Seems like a fairly peaceful protest to me. Nintendo has a right to takedown copyright violations, but we have a right to voice our displeasure over the fact that we cannot legally purchase and listen to the music.

Well, at least I know what I will probably finish sometime next winter (or maybe the one after that). Animal Crossing for me is a very slow burn, and I like it that way.

Looks like nothing for me this week. I finally picked up Pokemon Sword (last Pokemon game I bought was Pokemon Colosseum on Gamecube, not counting the puzzle games) so I am probably good for the next few months as I attempt playing through it using only normal Pokemon (using only Galar exclusive Pokemon was proving too easy).

@roboshort there hasn’t been or will be a civilization that doesn’t or won’t have many things that are broken about it, because humans are by default motivated by their own selfish desires and tribal mentality. We in the US have a willful ignorance of anything that doesn’t directly impact us individually (for the most part), and seem to form our opinions based on what opinion commentators pretending to be new anchors or just straight up by entertainers that say what they get paid to say (or know will get them continued paying jobs in their chosen profession or depend on our being divided to stay in power) tell us to think. We believe a short tweet from both celebrities and politicians blindly even when Twitter notes the originator didn’t even bother to open/read the article they retweet/comment on. And as a country we blindly believe we are the best (and everyone should be like us) while ignoring the injustices happening right outside our on front door as we slowly become little more than indentured servants of the ultra rich.

In short, perhaps we collectively need to work on getting our own crap together before we start demonizing everything and everyone else. Most countries have enough internally broken crap to keep them busy, but it is easier to drag others down and point out their flaws than to honestly take a hard look in the mirror and realize you are just as screwed up in your own way.

So in short, it sounds like if you have means to play this elsewhere on a more powerful console you will get a better visual spectacle. If all you own is a Switch, then this is still a good, enjoyable game for the console, and why care about how it looks on something you do not own?

I think Nintendo as a company does something few else does in that they focus on the entire family. The M-Rated market space for video games is oversaturated, with each company having to out mature the next one to get any attention. Their philosophy seems to be in software what it is in hardware, do something different than the competition. In this case, it is focusing on entertainment the entire family can enjoy and let the rest of the market fight over a single segment of it.

There's a new icon? Does it let me sort by genre or put games into folders? 'cause otherwise I don't really care.

@Rypopo it does for me. I’ve been going back and revisiting some of the c64 stuff through VICE and YouTube.

It amazes me what they did with just 64k for memory and a 8-bit processor. But then I have always been fascinated with seeing how far people can push or laterally think with withered technology.