Dr_Lugae

I've been saying that since New Super Mario Bros DS and Pokemon RBY got slapped with a 12+ on 3DS/WiiU virtual console. (Which would be 18+ if they had tried to do it now)

Games like Balatro and Pokemon's fake gambling are getting higher ratings only as smokescreen for PEGI too look tough on childhood gambling.

While the actual gambling w/ lootboxes like EAFC being rated 3+ actually get to make money off children.

Obviously there's a conversation to be had if Balatro or Pokemon's slots are appropriate. But its BS while they're letting toddlers potentially wager endless amounts of real money on Lootboxes.

Hard to believe, and I don't really trust IGN either.

Tbh in an environment where games are allowed to be "revealed" without any actual gameplay suspicion is 100% warranted.

I don't think it's wrong to be quick to assume the worst, when the worst is so often allowed to run rampant in gaming nowadays. Often peddled by the biggest sites and influencers.

This is advertised as a hyper realistic, open world pet raising sim MMO that's somehow playable on PC, console and somehow smartwatch. Even without AI accusations this already sounds like a load of nonsense.

Why are they messaging Nintendo and not sending CGI Labs a Cease & Desist?

I agree the clone shouldn't be there and the eShops a nightmare. But really it's not on Nintendo to police other people's copyrights and trademarks for them.

8 Mario games in the UK top 40 must be a record or something that's 1/5th of the chart.

Makes sense, the only dodgy thing is that its Sony and they disproportionately are given awards by TGA's. Like 2022 where God of War walked away with more awards than the actual GOTY.

It's a bit hard to gauge because Odyssey came out in 2017 alongside BOTW. But if the next 3D Mario came out and got the same critical reception as Astrobot or even Odyssey it wouldn't be winning nearly any awards.

And if a Mario game sold less than 2million like Astrobot did. Does anyone believe it even be nominated for GOTY?

This feels like an award that would be out of grasp for Nintendo for making this exact kind of game. Like if Astrobot didn't come out and a new 3D Mario did I could see Elden Ring, FFVII Rebirth taking it.

@Glasso Name one, and no not the image.

Name one Pokemon, the Dragon Quest monster and why exactly you think that one Pokemon is infringing on DQ and what parts of the design have been copied.

@Lizuka If it was overreach Pocketpair wouldn't have changed their game.

I like how the rhetoric has switched from Nintendo having no case to them being evil or something now that Pocketpair have practically admitted they originally plagiarised the mechanics.

I hope the injunction gets granted and this creatively bankrupt Palworld gets stamped out.

I wouldn't watch it even if it wasn't at 1am.

I'm not interested in Geoff handing rewards to a predetermined set of games by the exact same publishers, just so it can be announced Astrobot or whatever won 5+ awards or Elden Ring won GOTY twice.

Maybe if it was an award show that recognised wide array of games for excellence in different ways rather than set up for a very small number of studios to win a very large number of awards an nominations.

@N00BiSH IMO that's a bit unfair, the Mario Movie it's about establishing key elements of Mario to an audience who hasn't necessarily played the games, and proving to the exusting audience that they get Mario (necessary given the original live action one didn't). Those remember this scenes are "this is what can happen in Mario's world" to a newcomer.

The Switch Mario games had a big boost from it so the movie was successful in attracting new fans.

"Elsewhere, Mario & Luigi: Brothership has continued its downward trend"

It literally sold more than last week lol.

@Not_Soos Yeah I see what you mean its movement is erratic and like you said before they're a bit too humanoid.

It makes the characters come off as unhinged rather than charming. Even the idle animation is too much lol.

@ChromaticDracula I think it's more due to the production values. Mario & Luigi was known for intricate pixel art and animation and Alphadream's animators/pixel arts were blown to the four winds.

It was probably very difficult to convert that to 3D while only having a handful of the old developers to work on the new game AND retaining the charm.

@FragRed tbf neither Nintendo or SEGA should have went ahead with Sony's agreement for the disk drive. Sony with their disc drive are pretty much the wicked Queen with her poison apple.

Partnering with Sony for the disc drive relinquished the game licensing process exclusively to Sony. Which would have meant Nintendo, SEGA and all 3rd parties would deal with Sony for licensing and CD Printing.

Had Nintendo or SEGA took them up they'd gave became essentially a 3rd party on their own system. And by the PS2 Sony will not have needed Nintendo or SEGA because Sony would be the one w/ all of Nintendo/SEGA's previous 3rd party deals.

Though both Nintendo and SEGA made a series of mistakes that lead to Sony ending up with almost all of the 3rd party support, it's still better than them just straight up handing Sony them.

@JJtheTexan It's a bit frustrating because it's hard to get a Switch Dev kit.

I suspect what happens is these companies propose 1 legitimate game (this one probably that drone racing game), get approved then there just may not be any stringent standards once you've got the dev kit and are licensed. So the floodgates open.

They unironically had the right idea back in the NES-era where they imposed yearly limits for publishers to prevent a flood of low quality games (Maybe with a whitelist for established trustrd ones this time lol, i think they can trust Ubisoft, Konami, Square, Capcom,etc. to have an unlimited release).

The eShop wouldn't be filled with as much garbage if smaller publishers could only release a limited number of games per year. But I see no good reason a small publisher like this spamming AI garbage shouldn't be limited to publishing 3 games a year.

AI art is such a blight.

@Darknyht If that's your solution to piracy that's what you always should have been doing in the first place lol.

If you don't want to pay for the games then yeah you shouldn't get to play them.

@nhSnork Yeah I wonder if they just don't notice it from within the piracy communities. I mean they used to pretend they were just emulating their own copies, not pirating.

But the escalation of brazeness of pirates who think they're sticking it to the corporations by doing all this stuff so publicly and for money is staggering.

Modern pirates acting the way they do is the biggest gift Nintendo could get when tackling pirates.

Feels a bit like China leveraging control over their own market. China's started to see big hits such as Genshin Impact and Wukong.. now suddenly for mysterious reasons Tencent decides the system which doesn't host these games isn't going to be allowed to sell any games digitally in the country.

(or maybe Nintendo are allowed to in a legal sense but no company is going to actually host the e-shop in China for them going forward)

Sony really are just making up numbers now aren't they? lol

I'd wager they'll do it again. If you pay now you'll pay later when there's more packs.

I enjoy the game but personally can never justify paying for microtransactions in any game. Like why would I pay real money for something (open card packs) the game already let's you do?

Yeah it's faster, but the moment you're spending real money to speed up a games process are you really going to go back to waiting?

I'd rather pay for full games or substantial extra content. Not to use a basic game function quicker.

Tbh the Mario & Luigi sales in the UK are almost pointless. If Dragon Quest 3HD is even lower than Brothership's shows how little being an established JRPG series actually means here.

There's just less demand for the genre here compared to Japan, the US and France. Those will be the most important countries in whether it does well or not.

@somnambulance Yeah its unironically the most ambitious Pokemon game they've made. While it could have ran better.

It delivered the traditional formula along with new ideas in an open world in a way even Legends had to compromise on.

Honestly they should just stop this foolishness. They describe piracy as a hydra. But when sticking your neck out costs you millions why would you choose to be the next head for Nintendo to chop off?

Modern emulation is NOT preservation it's just stupidity and greed, driven by donations to facilitate piracy to access the new hotness.

Note how older emulators continue to fall under the radar?

@FishyS Yeah I suspect Nintendo will win nothing this year. So that it can be reported Astrobot won most of the 7 nominations it has.

I'm not going to bother watching this stuff because it's all about awarding a small handful of studios like Sony and From Software as many awards as possible every year they have a game instead of giving a diverse set of games recognition for diverse set of awards?

I'd bet Astrobot, FFVIIR, Elden Ring and Balatro will manage to collectively win more awards than every other game nominated

@garfreek Yet the Switch is the best selling console since PS2 and even in its 8th year games like Mario Party and Zelda: Echoes have sold better selling than the likes of FFVIIRebirth or Astrobot.

Sales shouldn't be everything but I think there's something weird when like in 2020 Animal Crossing managed to sell like 30million copies to TLOU2's 4million. The latter was apparently the Game of the Year with the most awards ever received by a game despite reviewing worse than its predecessor. Being given awards as if TLOU2 had surpassed its predecessor regardless of the fact it actually fumbled.

While Animal Crossing: New Horizon was the game people were actually playing, and was more popular than its predecessor, and more reflective of what games people were playing in 2020.

The FFVII remake series is floundering and Square is struggling for relevance, but it still has a strong showing at these award shows. Like it seems more like these shows are a manufactured vision of what the popular games should be rather than what they are.

Surely this can't be even be possible. I remember reading that in the 2000s Nintendo was blocked from acquiring Bandai (before the Namco merge) under anti-monopoly laws.

How could Sony be allowed to buy a company that big?

Expansions can be good, sometimes as good as if not better than the base games, but these award shows already have a bad habit of making sure a few games take up many of the nominations. Just look at when GoW : Ragnarok and Horizon 2 came out they both took up like half the slots in the categories and were both from the exact same company.

If two years later Elden Ring is just picking up yet more awards over the new games.

It's just devolving into the FROM software, Sony, Kojima and whatever indie game had the multimillion budget awards

@Lyrania Originality isn't a black and white though. Though there's a wide spectrum between being entirely original and say copy-pasting or tracing a design. I think it's worth pointing out the Palworld mons look far closer like a Pokemon than any Pokemon looks like a Dragon Quest monster.

Having the same theme or animal isn't the same as having a creature with the same shape and proportions as another. Pokemon , Dragon Quest and Digimon often have similar concepts for their monsters but with distinct designs for each. Outside of playground arguments I haven't really seen someone saying that either Agumon or Charmander are a rip off of each other despite both being fire breathing reptiles .

The extent Pocketpair went to copying Pokemon monster designs go so far that people can visibly identify which body parts of a specific Pokemon or multiple Pokemon were Frankensteined together to form a Pal in Palworld.

Like even if it isn't copyright infringement it still is plagiarism and I think it's fair to look down on them for it.

Also your conclusion makes no sense given Nintendo are suing Palworld based on patents for 2022's Pokemon Legends Arceus. If Pokemon hadn't changed and evolved their formula then those patents wouldn't even exist for them to sue with.

"This aligns with Sega's comments about how it would channel Sonic's history to pave the way for his future."

I know the question was about remakes. But they've been doing that for 14 years since Generations and it hasn't even produced a single widely critically acclaimed Sonic game that isn't just about celebrating how great the 90's sonic is.

Is it too much for them to make one really good Sonic game that isn't leaning on its past to prop itself up? I think the original Colours is the last time they even approached that distinction.

How can they move forward if they never stop looking back?

Yeah likely protective measures to stop people using it to rehost the emulator or using the site to redirect to another one.

@Glasso tbh Palworld's is no where near as successful as any one mainline Pokemon. Palworlds sales include at least 7million Gamepass players so aren't actually 25million sales. And the lowest selling mainline Pokemon game this gen Legends Arceus sold 15million at $60 vs Palwords $30.

So unless Palworld sold another 13million it won't have grossed as much as Pokemon Legends Arceus. Even then Pocketpair would have to pay 30% royalties to the platform holders which Nintendo don't have to.

@Superyoshibros I think if Palworld's best response is attempting to make it look like the patents were newer than they actually are. Then I doubt they're actually be able to win this.

They can fool twitter users but they aren't going to fool the courts.

@Lofty1985 The guy getting sued thinks exactly as you do. You're not being principled, you're being petty and entitled.

You're owed nothing from Nintendo. So if you think they dont deserve anything, just don't play their games period.

If you continue to play their games, you obviously see value in playing them. Which undermines any point about them not deserving anything.

Well-deserved, the modern social media obsession of broadcasting your piracy is pathetic.

If you get warned by company you stop then. He obviously thought he'd just keep getting a slap on the wrist, but appears Nintendo were just letting him continue to incriminate himself and pushing his penalty ever higher.

@RubyCarbuncle I'd say Palworld isn't innovating anything other than how much you can get away with taking from other games before getting sued.

@Solomon_Rambling I think the injunction against selling the game it would be the bigger hit against Palworld than the compensation. (even if the sales have slowed down considerably)

@Duncanballs Oh yeah I forgot about DQ3, that'll definitely knock Mario Party down for a bit.

SEGA, the masters of reselling the exact same set of Genesis games for decades.

If they want something to sell, they should make hard-to-get Saturn games like Shining Force III (and translate scenario.2 & 3) and Panzer Dragoon available.

I think Jamboree is going to rule the Japanese charts til January. Mario & Luigi will probably beat it 1st week but JRPGs are front-loaded and party games are evergreen.

I could see Jamboree being the Switchs 2nd last 10million+ seller, with Pokemon Legends ZA being the last before Switch 2.

I don't know, between Donkey Kong Arcade to the N64 (barring cartridges) and greenlighting Pokemon.

Until the Gamecube You'd have thought Miyamoto was a time traveller in how well he seemed to see the direction of gaming and consistently lead the pack in terms of game design and recognising what IP had potential.

Like arguably yeah he might not be a traditional genius, Miyamoto wasn't like Iwata who was a literal genius level coder who also lead programming.

But Miyamoto and his teams displayed consistent genius in understanding what made a fun and engaging game even when working in new frontiers like 3D for Super Mario 64

I'd point out Sticker Star sold 1.97million in the same time span on 3DS. So at this rate TTYDs is selling slightly slower than Sticker Star and may not catch it up.

Sticker Star...

Yeah that Sticker Star

@Eggolor Or while its a good game. It wasnt THAT special to begin with and being on the Gamecube didn't limit its sales much.

I know the 1st time I played TTYD back in 2004 I dropped it for a few months after Chapter 5 because I was bored of it. That generation I found FFX, FFX-2, Fire Emblem 7, 8 and 9, Tales of Symphonia, Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, Fire Red/Leaf Green. FF1 & 2 Dawn of Souls and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga to be more engaging RPGs. Only FFXII bored me more.

I'm quite glad they remade TTYD, I replayed it and yeah it's still good I probably have more patience as I didn't drop the remake.

But I think the remake also accomplished bringing the game down to Earth. Now more people can play it they can see its not some mindblowing experience, and the sales showcase that there isn't overwhelming demand above the modern entries.

It almost feels like the fact Nintendo never re-released it til now build up some untouchable mystique behind the game that it really never deserved. But in practice It's only barely keeping up with Sticker Star...

Sticker Star...

Yeah that Sticker Star.

@Maulbert and #5 is a homage to those same 30 year old games and some now 20 year old games for good measure lol.

IMO they should just do a sequel contuing from Star Fox Zero with a control scheme that works for Switch but still with the transforming R-Wings.

But just call it Star Fox 3 and include the SF2 characters and people will be calling it a return to form.

@SillyG You can legally get Croc 1 to play now if you wanted from from the internet archive because it was abandonware and declared public domain.

https://archive.org/details/croc-legend-of-the-gobbos-win-en-definitive-edition-version-130

Not too sure how long for though with this new release lol/

How can they charge so much for something people know isn't that good?

Probably someone with a chip on their shoulder that Nintendo is hiring amid a lot of the industry having mass layoffs

After playing Shadow the Hedgehog I've learned Shadow is three things:

1.Good
2.Evil
3.Neutral

@Arkay I made it through Chapter 2, I like the gameplay but I dislike a lot of the characters.

It feels like you've seen some of the characters for minutes. Then they attempt an emotional crescendo for these characters you've barely grown attached too.

I think Sakurai is probably a workaholic. Like if he had have 3 months downtime and he decide to make 260 videos instead of going on vacation because he thought his cat will get sad.

It's not because he's tormenting himself. It's more likely because he's driven and compelled to be occupied with a project, possibly at all times.

I'd be more concerned about him when he's at retirement age and falls into a situation where he still wants to do the work but may not be physically capable.

I think Nintendo should hire him on as a creative fellow/supervisory role like Miyamoto when he's in his 60s just to make sure he has something to do. Because it's not like he can step back from leading projects at Sora when he's the only employee.

@Zeebor15 The UI for Sakurai's games (not even joking)

I'm glad I'm a lapsed Sonic fan who lost faith in it ~10 years ago so I'm not that bothered by SEGA continuing to make terrible decisions for Sonic lol.

Fans will always complain at changes and Sonic fans always argue with each other about canon.
SEGA probably thought putting a fan in charge of writing was a smart move, but its not. Making a fan the writer for all new games and giving him the ability to rewrite pre-existing scenes in a port/remaster is a powder keg waiting to blow.

If Ian Flynn makes changes to canon to satisfy himself rather than the wider fanbase. It just risks pissing off more players than a writer who isn't as invested in the fandom and therefore not invested in making contentious areas reflect their headcanon over other fans.