@Kirby_Girl Again, and you are the one obsessing over it. Is shirtless, muscle packed Zeke distracting? Are Nomura's perfect pretty boy antagonist beefcake's in skintight bodysuits distracting? And it's also not Nia the cat girl, Poppy the maid / idol, Pandoria the nerd, Morag in her military uniform or any other fetishy trope that's distracting, nope, it's always just the boobs.
Sounds a tad misogynistic if you ask me... And if you're not at work, look up Pyra/Mythra cosplay, it shows that the in game designs are pretty tame in comparison...
My point is: Criticism about "oversexualisation" is all well and good and should definitely be brought up. But it's always brought up one dimensional and shallow. There are plenty of fetishized character design tropes to be found here among both the men and women, but it's always "eww, boobs" that gets pointed out.
And i stand by it, if that's the only thing you notice, focus on and get distracted by, it might be you who has an issue with the female form, not with oversexualized character designs in general, because there are plenty other examples around.
@Ghostchip I'd still say that if their design "distracts" you, that says a lot more about you than the designer. No judgement whatsoever, but if your mind zeroes in on these things to the point that it's all you see, it might be you, not the design... Especially if it's the occasional risque joke that's distracting from the "serious story", not the giant, talking British butler cat, the mad scientist / weeb mascot / furball, or the "Zekenator" and his trusty pocket turtle...
I think you get the idea. You probably wouldn't say that the way Zeke is portrayed as overly silly and stupid, with his super hero speeches and poses and his love for his pocket turtle while looking manly and cool distracted in anyway from his character, arc and dark backstory. Yet, you get distracted simply by how a female character looks.
Again, don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to point fingers here in any way, i'm merely trying to make a point. No matter how a character is designed, it's the observer who chooses to obsess over it.
After all this time, it's still fascinating to have people look at this games artwork, zero in on any cleavage and accuse others of being horny...
Similar nonsense happened with Bayonetta as well. Well, at least until they found out that the character was designed by a woman who defended her designs against the men on the team...
If only you people weren't so deathly afraid of woman... You might even get to enjoy some genuinely great characters if you manage to look past their cleavage from time to time...
"Each country has their own unique culture" Being deathly afraid of the female form, in a fictional form no less, is not a form of culture, its simply idiocy. And it's pretty sexist in its own right.
I'm perfectly fine with localization efforts taking certain sensibilities into consideration. But patting a woman on the head is not a "cultural sensibility" unless we, a.e. "the west" developed into a culture that can't stand to see the female form in any way...
Technically pretty well done, not gonna lie. But no technically impressive port can hide that hideous and ill fitting main character... Whoever's responsible for that haircut, please proceed to design characters for radio plays only...
I'm still a bit sad that they never finished the Sonic trilogy. Replacing the soundtrack would have been a fair compromise in my book.
My personal favorites from the recent AGES series have to be Phantasy Star and OutRun. Both excellent (definitive?) versions of each game with some very welcome bonuses.
And i would have loved to see a release of Galaxy Force 2, my all time favorite "Super Scaler" game.
@eboreg Fair enough, but Age of Calamity is not a sequel to the first Hyrule Warriors in any way. Hyrule Warriors was a completely self contained new story.
Age of Calamity pretty much is what many hoped BotW's DLC would be: The story about how the Champions got their titans.
And from what i've heard (mild spoilers ahead) it even offers different endings to either make it self contained or directly lead up to BotW.
I'm far from finishing the game myself, but other than the new little guardian companion, so far, nothing really contradicts any of BotW's story. Which would be pretty hard to begin with, given that everything was wiped out before it anyways with a time gap of 100 years.
The DLC model is, if done properly, a win-win deal. For the devs and publishers, it's quite a lot less work and investment. And in a perfect world, it's Mario Kart 8 DLC, a.e. You get 50% more game for 25% of its price. Or The WItcher 3, where 20 bucks of DLC, 1/3rd of its initial price, added content well worth a full price standalone release.
And it can work well for Pokemon as well, basically replacing the full price "bridge releases" (Crystal, Emerald etc.).
Now, WIth Pokemon S/S we already run into some bumps. Like the fact that each version requires it's own season pass, bumping the price back up to ~50bucks if you play both versions. Given that the DLC route potentially changes a little less than a bridge release would have done, you end up with less for the same price. scratching one "win" from the win-win equation.
DLC needs to be handled carefully to work out and imo, it's not quite there yet.
It's another FE game i picked up because "so many people can't be wrong about the series" and "i generally like trpg's"...
And much like every other FE i played, it lasted only a few hours before it was shelved again. The series simply doesn't manage to hook me in any capacity whatsoever. This constant balancing act of trying to level this absurdly huge roster equally in case one of them gets axed in an unforeseen ambush simply gets on my nerves. Three Houses gets extra points for its time management aspects, which i generally dislike in any game (The reason i never got into the Persona (3-5) series. I love the SMT gameplay, but the social stuff is just not my cup of tea)
Congrats to Nintendo for yet another 1st. party smash hit and i'm happy for everyone who enjoyed it but i fear that FE and i will never be friends
@Damo "Zion's feature did exactly that" If you ask me, it frankly did not. The headline alone, "Don't underestimate Bakugan" implies that the overall opinion of the material seen so far was unjustly lower than the title might deserve. And as it turns out, it was not. What people saw was as unappealing at first glance as the final product turned out to be.
The headline alone implied that there should be more interest than there was. In my book, that's not a "giving a feel for upcoming titles" preview, it's an opinion piece.
And personally, i don't even mind it, as long as the author is aware that things like that might get the meme treatment if it backfires At the end of the day, it's all in good faith. And maybe even a learning experience about any kind of interest in licensed shovelware toy commercials ^^
Anything Mega Man and anything Dynasty Warriors for me. Two series i pretty much grew up with from their first iterations. It's the comfort of nostalgia and familiarity ^^
Emulating alive systems will always be iffy. I'm a big fan of emulators and especially the scene behind. Plenty of super enthusiastic and clever people that oftentimes not only find ways to preserve old hard/software but also make it better.
That said, emulating a live system is a big no no for me. And drawing this much attentions is probably get them in trouble now :/ If you're moving in legal gray areas, so it under the radar.
Misunderstood? I'm pretty sure plenty of people understood how bogus Zelda 2 can be at times. The core gameplay idea is great, but its dreadful combat system and it's wonky balancing kept it from being as well remembered as other entries in the series.
Much like Castlevania 2 actually. Some minor tweeks, a few script touch ups and you have a fun, early explorationvania. But in its vanilla state it's just too much of a chore to be actually enjoyable casually.
Soo, if some early gamelay footage uploads aren't BS, it's running at 60FPS and is based on the US Wii version, a.e. Blood, decaps, missing limbs etc. and also not the slightly more buggy PS3 port. Also, it supports both motion control and standard control schemes.
"Maybe offer a fire stick solution to play it on a TV" Soo...kinda like the docking station then? Just with more strain on the system and dependency on its battery life? And without the Switch's modular controller that made games like, say, Okami HD such a joy to play since it combines the basic pad controls of the PS2 original, the motion controls of the Wii version and new touch screen controls, offering something for everyone?
Man, Pachter is a genius! If only more companies would take his advice!
I mean, if you simply do the exact opposite of what he "analyzed", you'd pretty much be golden. How is this bloke still relevant in any way?
@Wexter Now that you mention it, all limited content so far is either emulated retro console stuff and/or bound to NSO. And a while back, they mentioned that they had plans to revamp the system. I think you might actually be onto something here.
Gave it a shot when it was part of a humble bundle on PC and i have to say, i quit it a couple of hours in.
The story and the way it was presented really missed the mark with me.
The gameplay is pretty solid from what i've played (People aren't kidding when they say the opening is long...) and the artstyle, while certainly not reinventing the wheel in regards to pixelart, has some really neat tricks up its sleeve.
One of the earlier segments presents you with some basic platforming on a cliffside.
All platforms there are paralaxed subtly, making them seem three dimensional. It's a neat touch and looks pretty impressive.
But yeah, the overall drawn out, monotone and somewhat stiff presentation lost me pretty quick, and the overall Pinochio-esque story didn't manage to grab me either.
There might be a really good platformer in there eventually, but it was buried unter things that never managed to entice me to dig for it.
@Wexter Plus, her nickname consists mostly of her real first name, Imane. She not necessarily associated / promotes or sells unlicensed merch and Nintendo would need to file a claim based on phonetics alone, and i'm not even sure if you have a base there.
The head of the german game studio Daedalic (Edna & Harvey, Deponia), Jan Müller-Michaelis, also goes by the nickname of "Poki". Again, purely phonetic and without any direct brand association.
I reckon that if she didn't sell unlicensed merch, her username probably wouldn't have caused issues. It's most certainly the direct brand association that bit her in the butt.
"At least one new mode" Imo, that's exactly the issue. The series is one of the biggest and most consistent money makers in the industry, coming from a publisher sitting on Scrooge McDuck's money vault, adding/changing things that don't require full re-releases for full price.
"A mode or two" is, at least in my opinion, not much less of a problem if said modes are sold for full price, not to mention the MTX shenanigans on top of all this.
If there's one game or genre, where a season/battle/subscription pass model would make sense, it's sportsball stuff covering minor changes with the occasional DLC mode.
Imo, a full, new release is only really warranted if there are major changes. New engine, vast render or gameplay overhauls or if the patchwork framework simply can't be tinkered with anymore.
The switch version definitely is a fringe case and they don't literally "release the same game over and over" normally. The same is said constantly about UbiSoft and even Nintendo as well, much to the same effect.
But let's not kid ourselves here, what they are releasing, especially considering the price point, is not too far off of that claim.
Sooo... Claimed a brand name too similar to an existing brand Sold unlicensed merch of protected IP's Works in the adult entertainment industry promoting brands aimed at children.
Yeah, you need to be pretty blind to not see this one coming for you sooner or later. The copyright stuff alone is pretty thin ice, especially if you call attention towards you by trademarking your pokemon inspired username...
Also, maybe it's because i'm getting old, but i find it kinda strange that everyone and their mother (sometimes...literally...) is selling their body now O.o Oh well...different can of worms i guess.
But yeah, had it coming for her, lesson learned, move on.
With the actual team behind it reforming and the rights being owned by the publisher (so i've heard), there's at least a slim chance that the title can be salvaged through contract work.
Making a bit of ruckus around 505 about it will probably help to show that there's demand, especially since the brunt of the work is mostly finished already.
If 505 ignores this possibility, especially ignoring backer perks might put a dent in their reputation.
Let's hope the best for the new studio, there's certainly a lot of talent to be found there.
Yeah...no. Licensed toy commercials with generic, stiff visuals and gameplay that couldn't look less appealing even if it tried. Try as you might, but drumming up hype for this with anyone over 10 years old won't be an easy feat.
It's a brilliant little game and a crying shame they already plan its shutdown. Stuff like this is imo a great incentive for Nintendo's online subscription. Tetris 99 and Mario 35 are unique experiences that managed to provide a unique online spin without sacrificing the game itself.
And again, it's absolutely baffling that they already have a definitive termination date set...
Looked into it for a couple of rounds out of curiosity and deleted it after that. Typical mobile game nonsense. Heavy focus on FOMO and aggressive monetization.
As always, had potential as a nice time-waster game if it was handled as such and not as the usual whale milking scheme
Oh well, as long as people are willing to sink money into it before it inevitably goes the way of the dodo, more power to them ¯(ツ)/¯
Ironically, that's the reaction many people have when revisiting Sunshine. It's all shining nostalgia and good childhood memories until you're confronted with it's completely borked physics in a day and age where 3D platforming has come a long way ^^
@Menchi The only difference is that Fludd now uses two separate buttons instead of the two-stage one on the GC controller. Everything else is just the same janky and slippery mess it has always been ^^
"Beat / Finished / Completed" is pretty clearly defined in my book:
Beat: See the ending, simple as that. Finished: Done everything major: All quests, stories, modes etc. Completed: Done everything: Collectibles, journal entries, achievements, all the small nitty-gritties.
Ahh, "incomplete" Shmup collections... For ~40 bucks, it's no Darius Collection, but it's not cheap either, and since it's missing two of its most famous entries (Musha Aleste and Super Aleste), that's a pretty hard sell to be perfectly honest.
Now i'm waiting for a CAVE Shmup collection without any (Do)DonPachi...
"Despite Being Another 'Legacy' Reskin" Implying that the rest isn't...
As many others already said, whoever still buys into this is part of the problem. It sucks that EA has no competition and that fans of sportsball games are more or less dependent on their releases, but there comes a point where you just have to say no.
Ayup, called it. Spoke to a friend who works at a big electronics retailer around here and he said they can't even stock it because there's such a massive shortage of it.
The physical version will be mostly scalper material.
If only i liked Puyo Puyo :/ Bought the first one because the concept sounded amazing and, well, never really played it much because i quickly realized that i not only suck at Puyo Puyo but also dislike it enough not to learn it properly.
A shame really, since the games overall presentation is pretty top notch!
@Joeynator3000 Have you given Shovel Knight Showdown a whirl? That one's a blast! Super fun and varied characters, stages can be a bit hit or miss due to their gimmicks but it's super fun overall. Plus, it has plenty of content and a rewarding unlockable system ^^
Just saw a stream of it and...yeah...it's about as bad as it gets. Animations are floaty and have been done via some form of Live 2D / Cubism (Basically taking a static image and manipulating it to mimic movement.), there's virtually no impact or feedback to any move, the hiboxes are questionable, the screen is constantly bombarded with visual clutter and noise pretending to be special effects...
It's shockingly bad...and it's pretty fair to say that you can find more polished Smash clones on Newgrounds and Co....
Fixing a fundamentally broken product...yeah, have fun with that :/
Rereleasing a game build upon local multiplayer without it, botching the substitute online multiplayer as well, having server issues on top of all that and launching with an overpriced catalog of DLC nonsense...
Fixing the game is hard enough, fixing a first impression like that? That would take some "No Man's Sky" level of dedication and work...and we're sadly talking about SquareEnix here...
A leaflet with a "35 years of Mario history" timeline would have been a nice little extra for the occasion. For that price and the ruckus of it being limited, it feels kinda lackluster. Oh well.
@RareGames I'm with @C-Daddy on this one. Sunshine has a fantastic, inviting setting and Fludd is a welcome change of pace. But it's core physics are broken beyond repair.
It's a perfectly fine game if you just want to finish it with the bare minimum of shines. Plenty of good and fun levels to do. The jank comes in if you want to see all of it. The aforementioned Sandbird and Pachinko stages alone cause people nightmares to this day, as do many of the toybox courses.
Mario's surface tension on anything not 100% flat and even is almost completely unpredictable and unrelyable. He either sticks to a surface like glue or slips off of it like it's buttered. There rarely is any in between.
And all of that is super fun in the open. Creating puddles and doing high speed belly slides and such. But the game insists on pretending to be a precision platformer constantly, which it simply isn't. Not with iffy physics like that.
All games have their stupid levels and gimmicks. No questions about it. But most critique towards Sunshine isn't aimed at those, it's aimed at the fact that Sunshine has an abundance of stages and challenges it simply isn't good at (again, like the toybox segments).
@glenny3214 Well, it's certainly not difficult, but definitely a lot less intuitive. Just like the Galaxy touchscreen pointer solution. It works, but barely.
But that's sadly the crux of Nintendo's recent gimmicks. They're all clever and good in their own right...until you need to emulate them without the respective hardware
@hrafnkell That's actually a good point, but then you run into the problem of: What to do with the Switch Lite?
One option would be to map the Z-button (which opened a menu if i remember correctly) to one of the stick buttons, and use L/R for soft, ZL/ZR for hard sprays, which would be a little awkward but doable.
@VulgarProfessor Man, i completely suppressed any memory of that darn pachinko stage... The one stage where Sunshine's already wonky and unpredictable physics engine has a complete seizure...
But seriously, SMS might be the only platformer without any surface tension whatsoever. It's super fun in open and somewhat flat levels. But as soon as precision platforming is involved, that game really takes a steep nosedive in the fun department for me...
@wummle Yup, the link is dead over here.
So they just use the same store entries that already existed (The ones where id is shown as the publisher) and simply updated them?
Weird... Would have expected these releases to get their own store ID...
To think that these ports were an absolute laughing stock not too long ago and are now almost THE best way to play these games...
All i'm wondering now is when the Steam versions are going to drop in Europe (GER). As of yet, Doom 2 is still missing (The DOS version was never put on Steam due to being indexed at the time) and Doom 1 is still the DOS Ultimate Doom version published by id themselves.
But yeah, kudos. These ports, especially for their asking price, feel like a steal. They keep on getting better and better.
I'm much more interested in how they tacked the analogue shoulder button issue in Sunshine. The pointer controls can be somewhat decently emulated as many games have proven by now (still doesn't hold a candle to the sensorbar setup, but better than nothing).
@Anti-Matter As many already said, if Galaxy was too hard for you, steer clear of Sunshine. Due to Sunshine's wonky physics and it's over reliance on precision and twitch platforming, some levels can be downright sadistic (Looking at you Sandbird...).
@NintendoPok Who ruined your breakfast today? Jeez, for someone complaining about "them whining fanboyz" you're awfully aggressive around here my friend...
The issue isn't that it's a limited sale per se, the issue is that we live in times where not everyone is swimming in money at the moment and several stores have a hard time getting their stocks in time or at all.
This could mean that a physical version is simply out of the question for some. I'm not getting my hopes up that the few shops that survived around here will be getting it at all. Limited sales during times like these is just a bad decision ¯(ツ)/¯
But you do you. Keep being angry at people being angry ^^ Have fun!
Ahh yes, limited distribution in times where a pandemic already caused massive issues in getting things shipped... This is really mind boggling...
And as many said, the omission of Galaxy 2 is strange indeed. I really hope that people here are right in that the limited offer specifically means the collection package and that the individual releases are to follow, including Galaxy 2.
Their MTX shenanigans sadly completely killed my enjoyment for the game. The tournament unlocks being timed exclusives with some ridiculous ingame money prices (Which conveniently became purchasable for real money shortly after, instead of changing the ingame rates) severely kicked my FOMO.
The low payout plus the wonky internet connection meant that i would have to spend ridiculous hours with the game to get all tourney unlocks in time, which i just wasn't willing to do.
The game was great, but not that great... So yeah, this nonense sadly made me shelf it entirely. A shame really...
Comments 3,888
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Character Designer Celebrates Third Anniversary With Some New Artwork
@Kirby_Girl Again, and you are the one obsessing over it.
Is shirtless, muscle packed Zeke distracting? Are Nomura's perfect pretty boy antagonist beefcake's in skintight bodysuits distracting?
And it's also not Nia the cat girl, Poppy the maid / idol, Pandoria the nerd, Morag in her military uniform or any other fetishy trope that's distracting, nope, it's always just the boobs.
Sounds a tad misogynistic if you ask me...
And if you're not at work, look up Pyra/Mythra cosplay, it shows that the in game designs are pretty tame in comparison...
My point is: Criticism about "oversexualisation" is all well and good and should definitely be brought up.
But it's always brought up one dimensional and shallow.
There are plenty of fetishized character design tropes to be found here among both the men and women, but it's always "eww, boobs" that gets pointed out.
And i stand by it, if that's the only thing you notice, focus on and get distracted by, it might be you who has an issue with the female form, not with oversexualized character designs in general, because there are plenty other examples around.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Character Designer Celebrates Third Anniversary With Some New Artwork
@Ghostchip I'd still say that if their design "distracts" you, that says a lot more about you than the designer.
No judgement whatsoever, but if your mind zeroes in on these things to the point that it's all you see, it might be you, not the design...
Especially if it's the occasional risque joke that's distracting from the "serious story", not the giant, talking British butler cat, the mad scientist / weeb mascot / furball, or the "Zekenator" and his trusty pocket turtle...
I think you get the idea.
You probably wouldn't say that the way Zeke is portrayed as overly silly and stupid, with his super hero speeches and poses and his love for his pocket turtle while looking manly and cool distracted in anyway from his character, arc and dark backstory.
Yet, you get distracted simply by how a female character looks.
Again, don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to point fingers here in any way, i'm merely trying to make a point.
No matter how a character is designed, it's the observer who chooses to obsess over it.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Character Designer Celebrates Third Anniversary With Some New Artwork
After all this time, it's still fascinating to have people look at this games artwork, zero in on any cleavage and accuse others of being horny...
Similar nonsense happened with Bayonetta as well.
Well, at least until they found out that the character was designed by a woman who defended her designs against the men on the team...
If only you people weren't so deathly afraid of woman...
You might even get to enjoy some genuinely great characters if you manage to look past their cleavage from time to time...
Re: Atelier Ryza Developer Clarifies Its Stance On Video Game Censorship
"Each country has their own unique culture"
Being deathly afraid of the female form, in a fictional form no less, is not a form of culture, its simply idiocy.
And it's pretty sexist in its own right.
I'm perfectly fine with localization efforts taking certain sensibilities into consideration.
But patting a woman on the head is not a "cultural sensibility" unless we, a.e. "the west" developed into a culture that can't stand to see the female form in any way...
Re: Video: Immortals Fenyx Rising - Switch VS PlayStation 5 Graphical Comparison
Technically pretty well done, not gonna lie.
But no technically impressive port can hide that hideous and ill fitting main character...
Whoever's responsible for that haircut, please proceed to design characters for radio plays only...
Re: Sega Ages Team Reveals The Most Popular Games In The Series
I'm still a bit sad that they never finished the Sonic trilogy. Replacing the soundtrack would have been a fair compromise in my book.
My personal favorites from the recent AGES series have to be Phantasy Star and OutRun. Both excellent (definitive?) versions of each game with some very welcome bonuses.
And i would have loved to see a release of Galaxy Force 2, my all time favorite "Super Scaler" game.
Re: Random: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Might Include A Popular Zelda CD-i Reference
@eboreg Fair enough, but Age of Calamity is not a sequel to the first Hyrule Warriors in any way.
Hyrule Warriors was a completely self contained new story.
Age of Calamity pretty much is what many hoped BotW's DLC would be: The story about how the Champions got their titans.
And from what i've heard (mild spoilers ahead) it even offers different endings to either make it self contained or directly lead up to BotW.
I'm far from finishing the game myself, but other than the new little guardian companion, so far, nothing really contradicts any of BotW's story.
Which would be pretty hard to begin with, given that everything was wiped out before it anyways with a time gap of 100 years.
Re: Why Pokémon Sword And Shield Got DLC Instead Of A Standalone Follow-Up
The DLC model is, if done properly, a win-win deal.
For the devs and publishers, it's quite a lot less work and investment.
And in a perfect world, it's Mario Kart 8 DLC, a.e. You get 50% more game for 25% of its price.
Or The WItcher 3, where 20 bucks of DLC, 1/3rd of its initial price, added content well worth a full price standalone release.
And it can work well for Pokemon as well, basically replacing the full price "bridge releases" (Crystal, Emerald etc.).
Now, WIth Pokemon S/S we already run into some bumps.
Like the fact that each version requires it's own season pass, bumping the price back up to ~50bucks if you play both versions.
Given that the DLC route potentially changes a little less than a bridge release would have done, you end up with less for the same price. scratching one "win" from the win-win equation.
DLC needs to be handled carefully to work out and imo, it's not quite there yet.
Re: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series
It's another FE game i picked up because "so many people can't be wrong about the series" and "i generally like trpg's"...
And much like every other FE i played, it lasted only a few hours before it was shelved again.
The series simply doesn't manage to hook me in any capacity whatsoever.
This constant balancing act of trying to level this absurdly huge roster equally in case one of them gets axed in an unforeseen ambush simply gets on my nerves.
Three Houses gets extra points for its time management aspects, which i generally dislike in any game (The reason i never got into the Persona (3-5) series. I love the SMT gameplay, but the social stuff is just not my cup of tea)
Congrats to Nintendo for yet another 1st. party smash hit and i'm happy for everyone who enjoyed it but i fear that FE and i will never be friends
Re: Review: Bakugan: Champions Of Vestroia - The Kids Deserve So Much Better
@Damo "Zion's feature did exactly that"
If you ask me, it frankly did not.
The headline alone, "Don't underestimate Bakugan" implies that the overall opinion of the material seen so far was unjustly lower than the title might deserve.
And as it turns out, it was not. What people saw was as unappealing at first glance as the final product turned out to be.
The headline alone implied that there should be more interest than there was. In my book, that's not a "giving a feel for upcoming titles" preview, it's an opinion piece.
And personally, i don't even mind it, as long as the author is aware that things like that might get the meme treatment if it backfires
At the end of the day, it's all in good faith.
And maybe even a learning experience about any kind of interest in licensed shovelware toy commercials ^^
Re: Hori Releases Accessibility Controller For The Nintendo Switch
I always love seeing these things pop up.
Kudos for covering it!
Re: Talking Point: What's Your Comfort Food Game?
Anything Mega Man and anything Dynasty Warriors for me.
Two series i pretty much grew up with from their first iterations.
It's the comfort of nostalgia and familiarity ^^
Re: Switch Emulator Adds Online Support, Then Loses It Double-Quick In Embarrassing U-Turn
Emulating alive systems will always be iffy.
I'm a big fan of emulators and especially the scene behind.
Plenty of super enthusiastic and clever people that oftentimes not only find ways to preserve old hard/software but also make it better.
That said, emulating a live system is a big no no for me.
And drawing this much attentions is probably get them in trouble now :/
If you're moving in legal gray areas, so it under the radar.
Re: Review: Bakugan: Champions Of Vestroia - The Kids Deserve So Much Better
Well, and here i was, not underestimating it.
This is why you don't write shill articles drumming up hype for a barrel of dead fish.
Re: Spiritual Successor To "Underrated And Misunderstood" Zelda II Could Be Switch-Bound
Misunderstood?
I'm pretty sure plenty of people understood how bogus Zelda 2 can be at times.
The core gameplay idea is great, but its dreadful combat system and it's wonky balancing kept it from being as well remembered as other entries in the series.
Much like Castlevania 2 actually. Some minor tweeks, a few script touch ups and you have a fun, early explorationvania.
But in its vanilla state it's just too much of a chore to be actually enjoyable casually.
Re: Retro Studios Is Remodelling Its HQ In 2021 To Aid Development Of Metroid Prime 4
I really really hope this pays off. This dev cycle has been a mess and a half so far.
Re: No More Heroes 1 & 2 Are Both Available Now On Switch
Soo, if some early gamelay footage uploads aren't BS, it's running at 60FPS and is based on the US Wii version, a.e. Blood, decaps, missing limbs etc. and also not the slightly more buggy PS3 port.
Also, it supports both motion control and standard control schemes.
Re: "Nintendo Isn't That Smart": Pachter Says Nintendo Should Scrap Switch And 'Only Have Switch Lite'
"Maybe offer a fire stick solution to play it on a TV"
Soo...kinda like the docking station then? Just with more strain on the system and dependency on its battery life?
And without the Switch's modular controller that made games like, say, Okami HD such a joy to play since it combines the basic pad controls of the PS2 original, the motion controls of the Wii version and new touch screen controls, offering something for everyone?
Man, Pachter is a genius! If only more companies would take his advice!
I mean, if you simply do the exact opposite of what he "analyzed", you'd pretty much be golden.
How is this bloke still relevant in any way?
Re: The Original Fire Emblem Is Coming To The West For The First Time Ever On Switch
@Wexter Now that you mention it, all limited content so far is either emulated retro console stuff and/or bound to NSO.
And a while back, they mentioned that they had plans to revamp the system.
I think you might actually be onto something here.
Re: The Original Fire Emblem Is Coming To The West For The First Time Ever On Switch
Sooo...again limited to March 31...
What the heck happens on that date? This seriously gives off some "planned obsolescence" vibes for the system...
Re: Review: Horace - A Heart-Warming Nostalgia Trip And Must-Play Masterpiece
Gave it a shot when it was part of a humble bundle on PC and i have to say, i quit it a couple of hours in.
The story and the way it was presented really missed the mark with me.
The gameplay is pretty solid from what i've played (People aren't kidding when they say the opening is long...) and the artstyle, while certainly not reinventing the wheel in regards to pixelart, has some really neat tricks up its sleeve.
One of the earlier segments presents you with some basic platforming on a cliffside.
All platforms there are paralaxed subtly, making them seem three dimensional. It's a neat touch and looks pretty impressive.
But yeah, the overall drawn out, monotone and somewhat stiff presentation lost me pretty quick, and the overall Pinochio-esque story didn't manage to grab me either.
There might be a really good platformer in there eventually, but it was buried unter things that never managed to entice me to dig for it.
Re: Popular Twitch And TikTok Star Pokeprincxss Has Been Sued By Nintendo
@Wexter Plus, her nickname consists mostly of her real first name, Imane.
She not necessarily associated / promotes or sells unlicensed merch and Nintendo would need to file a claim based on phonetics alone, and i'm not even sure if you have a base there.
The head of the german game studio Daedalic (Edna & Harvey, Deponia), Jan Müller-Michaelis, also goes by the nickname of "Poki". Again, purely phonetic and without any direct brand association.
I reckon that if she didn't sell unlicensed merch, her username probably wouldn't have caused issues.
It's most certainly the direct brand association that bit her in the butt.
Re: Review: FIFA 21 - EA Insults Switch Owners Yet Again With This Half-Baked Effort
"At least one new mode"
Imo, that's exactly the issue.
The series is one of the biggest and most consistent money makers in the industry, coming from a publisher sitting on Scrooge McDuck's money vault, adding/changing things that don't require full re-releases for full price.
"A mode or two" is, at least in my opinion, not much less of a problem if said modes are sold for full price, not to mention the MTX shenanigans on top of all this.
If there's one game or genre, where a season/battle/subscription pass model would make sense, it's sportsball stuff covering minor changes with the occasional DLC mode.
Imo, a full, new release is only really warranted if there are major changes. New engine, vast render or gameplay overhauls or if the patchwork framework simply can't be tinkered with anymore.
The switch version definitely is a fringe case and they don't literally "release the same game over and over" normally. The same is said constantly about UbiSoft and even Nintendo as well, much to the same effect.
But let's not kid ourselves here, what they are releasing, especially considering the price point, is not too far off of that claim.
Re: Popular Twitch And TikTok Star Pokeprincxss Has Been Sued By Nintendo
Sooo...
Claimed a brand name too similar to an existing brand
Sold unlicensed merch of protected IP's
Works in the adult entertainment industry promoting brands aimed at children.
Yeah, you need to be pretty blind to not see this one coming for you sooner or later.
The copyright stuff alone is pretty thin ice, especially if you call attention towards you by trademarking your pokemon inspired username...
Also, maybe it's because i'm getting old, but i find it kinda strange that everyone and their mother (sometimes...literally...) is selling their body now O.o
Oh well...different can of worms i guess.
But yeah, had it coming for her, lesson learned, move on.
Re: 505 Shuts Down Indivisible Production After Lab Zero Closure
With the actual team behind it reforming and the rights being owned by the publisher (so i've heard), there's at least a slim chance that the title can be salvaged through contract work.
Making a bit of ruckus around 505 about it will probably help to show that there's demand, especially since the brunt of the work is mostly finished already.
If 505 ignores this possibility, especially ignoring backer perks might put a dent in their reputation.
Let's hope the best for the new studio, there's certainly a lot of talent to be found there.
Re: Esports Life Tycoon Puts You In Control Of A Professional Esports Team
Looking at the scene, especially it's FTG circles, this is probably a nice crime syndicate simulator...
Re: Feature: Don't Underestimate Bakugan: Champions Of Vestroia - It's Shaping Up To Be A Cool Switch Exclusive
Yeah...no.
Licensed toy commercials with generic, stiff visuals and gameplay that couldn't look less appealing even if it tried.
Try as you might, but drumming up hype for this with anyone over 10 years old won't be an easy feat.
Re: Super Mario Bros. 35 Is Now Available On The Nintendo Switch
It's a brilliant little game and a crying shame they already plan its shutdown. Stuff like this is imo a great incentive for Nintendo's online subscription.
Tetris 99 and Mario 35 are unique experiences that managed to provide a unique online spin without sacrificing the game itself.
And again, it's absolutely baffling that they already have a definitive termination date set...
Re: Poll: It's Been One Year Since Mario Kart Tour Was Released, Are You Still Playing It?
Looked into it for a couple of rounds out of curiosity and deleted it after that.
Typical mobile game nonsense. Heavy focus on FOMO and aggressive monetization.
As always, had potential as a nice time-waster game if it was handled as such and not as the usual whale milking scheme
Oh well, as long as people are willing to sink money into it before it inevitably goes the way of the dodo, more power to them ¯(ツ)/¯
Re: Random: Switch Owners Are Discovering Just How Frustrating Super Mario Sunshine Can Be
Ironically, that's the reaction many people have when revisiting Sunshine. It's all shining nostalgia and good childhood memories until you're confronted with it's completely borked physics in a day and age where 3D platforming has come a long way ^^
@Menchi
The only difference is that Fludd now uses two separate buttons instead of the two-stage one on the GC controller.
Everything else is just the same janky and slippery mess it has always been ^^
Re: Feature: Video Game Vocab To Spark Forum Wars - Ten Of Gaming's Trickiest Terms
"Beat / Finished / Completed" is pretty clearly defined in my book:
Beat: See the ending, simple as that.
Finished: Done everything major: All quests, stories, modes etc.
Completed: Done everything: Collectibles, journal entries, achievements, all the small nitty-gritties.
Re: M2 Is Bringing Aleste Collection To Nintendo Switch
Ahh, "incomplete" Shmup collections...
For ~40 bucks, it's no Darius Collection, but it's not cheap either, and since it's missing two of its most famous entries (Musha Aleste and Super Aleste), that's a pretty hard sell to be perfectly honest.
Now i'm waiting for a CAVE Shmup collection without any (Do)DonPachi...
Re: FIFA 21 Costs £45 On Switch, Despite Being Another 'Legacy' Reskin
"Despite Being Another 'Legacy' Reskin"
Implying that the rest isn't...
As many others already said, whoever still buys into this is part of the problem. It sucks that EA has no competition and that fans of sportsball games are more or less dependent on their releases, but there comes a point where you just have to say no.
Re: Online Retailer Cancels Orders For Super Mario 3D All-Stars Due To "Woefully Short" Supply
Ayup, called it.
Spoke to a friend who works at a big electronics retailer around here and he said they can't even stock it because there's such a massive shortage of it.
The physical version will be mostly scalper material.
Re: Sega Shares Details On Puyo Puyo Tetris 2's Adventure Mode And Pre-Order Bonus
If only i liked Puyo Puyo :/
Bought the first one because the concept sounded amazing and, well, never really played it much because i quickly realized that i not only suck at Puyo Puyo but also dislike it enough not to learn it properly.
A shame really, since the games overall presentation is pretty top notch!
Re: Review: Bounty Battle - A Reprehensible Indie-Infused Take On Super Smash Bros.
@Joeynator3000 Have you given Shovel Knight Showdown a whirl?
That one's a blast!
Super fun and varied characters, stages can be a bit hit or miss due to their gimmicks but it's super fun overall.
Plus, it has plenty of content and a rewarding unlockable system ^^
Re: Review: Bounty Battle - A Reprehensible Indie-Infused Take On Super Smash Bros.
Just saw a stream of it and...yeah...it's about as bad as it gets.
Animations are floaty and have been done via some form of Live 2D / Cubism (Basically taking a static image and manipulating it to mimic movement.), there's virtually no impact or feedback to any move, the hiboxes are questionable, the screen is constantly bombarded with visual clutter and noise pretending to be special effects...
It's shockingly bad...and it's pretty fair to say that you can find more polished Smash clones on Newgrounds and Co....
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
@hrafnkell Oh, right. L didn't have analog functions. Yeah, that sounds about right and is probably what they did (if they are sensible).
Re: Director Of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remaster Will "Try To Put Things Right"
Fixing a fundamentally broken product...yeah, have fun with that :/
Rereleasing a game build upon local multiplayer without it, botching the substitute online multiplayer as well, having server issues on top of all that and launching with an overpriced catalog of DLC nonsense...
Fixing the game is hard enough, fixing a first impression like that? That would take some "No Man's Sky" level of dedication and work...and we're sadly talking about SquareEnix here...
Re: Get A Closer Look At Super Mario 3D All-Stars In This Nintendo Unboxing Video
A leaflet with a "35 years of Mario history" timeline would have been a nice little extra for the occasion.
For that price and the ruckus of it being limited, it feels kinda lackluster.
Oh well.
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
@RareGames I'm with @C-Daddy on this one.
Sunshine has a fantastic, inviting setting and Fludd is a welcome change of pace.
But it's core physics are broken beyond repair.
It's a perfectly fine game if you just want to finish it with the bare minimum of shines. Plenty of good and fun levels to do.
The jank comes in if you want to see all of it. The aforementioned Sandbird and Pachinko stages alone cause people nightmares to this day, as do many of the toybox courses.
Mario's surface tension on anything not 100% flat and even is almost completely unpredictable and unrelyable.
He either sticks to a surface like glue or slips off of it like it's buttered. There rarely is any in between.
And all of that is super fun in the open. Creating puddles and doing high speed belly slides and such. But the game insists on pretending to be a precision platformer constantly, which it simply isn't. Not with iffy physics like that.
All games have their stupid levels and gimmicks. No questions about it. But most critique towards Sunshine isn't aimed at those, it's aimed at the fact that Sunshine has an abundance of stages and challenges it simply isn't good at (again, like the toybox segments).
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
@glenny3214 Well, it's certainly not difficult, but definitely a lot less intuitive. Just like the Galaxy touchscreen pointer solution.
It works, but barely.
But that's sadly the crux of Nintendo's recent gimmicks.
They're all clever and good in their own right...until you need to emulate them without the respective hardware
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
@hrafnkell That's actually a good point, but then you run into the problem of: What to do with the Switch Lite?
One option would be to map the Z-button (which opened a menu if i remember correctly) to one of the stick buttons, and use L/R for soft, ZL/ZR for hard sprays, which would be a little awkward but doable.
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
@VulgarProfessor Man, i completely suppressed any memory of that darn pachinko stage...
The one stage where Sunshine's already wonky and unpredictable physics engine has a complete seizure...
But seriously, SMS might be the only platformer without any surface tension whatsoever. It's super fun in open and somewhat flat levels. But as soon as precision platforming is involved, that game really takes a steep nosedive in the fun department for me...
Re: Hell Yeah! New DOOM And DOOM II Update Adds Gyro Aiming And Widescreen Support
@wummle Yup, the link is dead over here.
So they just use the same store entries that already existed (The ones where id is shown as the publisher) and simply updated them?
Weird... Would have expected these releases to get their own store ID...
Whelp, no DOOM II on Steam for us then sigh
Re: Hell Yeah! New DOOM And DOOM II Update Adds Gyro Aiming And Widescreen Support
To think that these ports were an absolute laughing stock not too long ago and are now almost THE best way to play these games...
All i'm wondering now is when the Steam versions are going to drop in Europe (GER).
As of yet, Doom 2 is still missing (The DOS version was never put on Steam due to being indexed at the time) and Doom 1 is still the DOS Ultimate Doom version published by id themselves.
But yeah, kudos. These ports, especially for their asking price, feel like a steal. They keep on getting better and better.
Re: Nintendo Explains How Motion Controls Work In Super Mario Galaxy On Switch
I'm much more interested in how they tacked the analogue shoulder button issue in Sunshine.
The pointer controls can be somewhat decently emulated as many games have proven by now (still doesn't hold a candle to the sensorbar setup, but better than nothing).
@Anti-Matter As many already said, if Galaxy was too hard for you, steer clear of Sunshine.
Due to Sunshine's wonky physics and it's over reliance on precision and twitch platforming, some levels can be downright sadistic (Looking at you Sandbird...).
Re: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Lands On Switch On 18th September, And It's A Limited-Time Thing
@NintendoPok Who ruined your breakfast today? Jeez, for someone complaining about "them whining fanboyz" you're awfully aggressive around here my friend...
The issue isn't that it's a limited sale per se, the issue is that we live in times where not everyone is swimming in money at the moment and several stores have a hard time getting their stocks in time or at all.
This could mean that a physical version is simply out of the question for some. I'm not getting my hopes up that the few shops that survived around here will be getting it at all. Limited sales during times like these is just a bad decision ¯(ツ)/¯
But you do you. Keep being angry at people being angry ^^
Have fun!
Re: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Lands On Switch On 18th September, And It's A Limited-Time Thing
Ahh yes, limited distribution in times where a pandemic already caused massive issues in getting things shipped...
This is really mind boggling...
And as many said, the omission of Galaxy 2 is strange indeed.
I really hope that people here are right in that the limited offer specifically means the collection package and that the individual releases are to follow, including Galaxy 2.
Re: Crash Team Racing Dev Tells Fans It's Done With Updates (Again), Now Busy With "Some Other Things"
Their MTX shenanigans sadly completely killed my enjoyment for the game.
The tournament unlocks being timed exclusives with some ridiculous ingame money prices (Which conveniently became purchasable for real money shortly after, instead of changing the ingame rates) severely kicked my FOMO.
The low payout plus the wonky internet connection meant that i would have to spend ridiculous hours with the game to get all tourney unlocks in time, which i just wasn't willing to do.
The game was great, but not that great...
So yeah, this nonense sadly made me shelf it entirely. A shame really...