It's not always going to be the case that you'd get the same kind of content by playing games ten+ years ago as you would by paying for them now. That might be true with some developers, but I'm in no way ignorant to the fact that game assets cost money to make, game developers are running a business and they need to keep the lights on, and I'm okay with market segmentation as a general practice.
As a consumer, I think the games industry has trended overall toward more and better quality for the player. Even in the realm of DLC releases, predatory developers are an exception, not the norm. Would I like to be able to get four extra characters just by beating arcade mode with the existing roster? Yeah. Do I feel ripped off as a consumer because I was only able to unlock a lousy sound test mode or a single picture in gallery mode instead, and I need to pay actual money for the fighter? Eh. Not really. A game doesn't need more than 8 playable (12 total) fighters to be more content rich than the original version of street fighter 2, which cost a lot of money when it was released for the SNES.
There are limits. Street Fighter 5 had a bad launch, but my solution for that was to not buy Street Fighter 5 until after the release of arcade edition, at which point my $40 got me quite a lot more content (28 characters and a story mode) than $60 at launch would have done (16 characters).
That said, I very strongly dislike that the FGC has become so much about preorder hype culture and always looking for the next hot new DLC.
@personauser93 When the original Smash Bros came out 20 years ago Ness and Captain Falcon were certainly not icons. Look at what Smash did for them. And what Melee did for Fire Emblem games in the west. I'm glad that after literal decades, Smash can still be about a character on the roster that makes me say "who the F is that," and then I learn about some really incredible games that I missed when I was younger.
If you've never played the games that some of these more obscure smash characters are from, go do yourself a favor and try them out. KoF XI is one of the best tag team fighters I've ever played, and I played it for the first time just three weeks ago. Just like Super Metroid, F-Zero X, Earthbound, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, ROB and Game & Watch, I learned about it from Smash first.
I answered the poll even though it asks the wrong question: I've had the fighters pass since a few days after hero released.
As far as playing Terry, yes. I've been SUPER HYPE for him and even though I don't have time for Smash lately, I stayed up late to play 3v3 and 5v5 squad strike at KoF Arena with Terry in rotation, with my roommate. Good times. That stage really favors heavy characters though.
Because of joy con drift I bought a wired $30 PowerA controller for playing on the couch. I'm happy with my purchase. And any time I play handheld mode I have a strong preference for games I can play without joysticks.
Keyboards working via the USB port on the switch dock is something that's been known about for a while. It's not even the first time it's been a source of controversy.
This game is so hype, I cannot wait for the switch release.
On topic: I would rather have an imbalanced game with lots of unique characters than a balance game with a bunch of clones. Of course, if the imbalance is so bad that your friends only pick one specific character, there's no point in creating all the variation since nobody will use it. Gotta at least aim for a little bit of balance.
All top 10 are first party titles. I wonder if that means the third party stuff can't even approach 1-2 Switch numbers? Or if it's just that the list is looking at Nintendo games specifically?
This one is going on the list but the price puts it behind several others.
And for the price you might as well dip into the street fighter 30th anniversary collection, and learn fighting games with the original street fighter II, which is also a pretty simple and rewarding game.
@Dualmask Digital content has some major advantages, especially for fighting games like this that will be in heavy rotation. I get that digital isn't for everyone, but $50 isn't too pricey for digital imo.
With EVO coming up and this game on the main stage, I just bought this game and found this article. Honestly I'm hyped but a little nervous about the lack of 1 player content. I'd much rather play an AI that I'm relatively matched with, than a stranger online who I'm never gong to see, who might as well be a really damn good AI.
Here's hoping I can play with Heart! I loved the Arcana Heart games.
I don't necessarily care to defend smutty games lol, but as far as Senran Kagura goes, I think Marvelous and XSeed deserve due credit: they do more than throw a coat of sexy paint on a bad game. Their underlying gameplay (whether it's a rhythm cooking sim, a brawler, pinball game, or 3rd person arena shooter) tends to be at least average.
@sketchturner totally agree. I loved my GBA but don't have the library anymore (no idea where it went). For the price I might as well spend $170+ on virtual console downloads.
IMO Nintendo was best in show by a country mile. If nothing else, then for the sheer amount of content announced.
This summer is completely stacked with releases. And there's plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year. I'm also convinced that we're going to get another direct with news about holiday releases since the holiday season is still a little sparse.
Loved the first OPUS game but the pricing info has been released and this collection clocks in at a whopping $40. The digital versions combined aren't more than $15 total. Anybody know if they've sweetened the deal with any physical collectibles or anything?
@TJWorks the original mario maker was so random. A Super famicom Logo appearing in a Nintendo game is more predictable than the Rave sound effect or the trampoline costume that appeared in the original.
I'm content with the current service. Would I like Nintendo to leverage more of their back log? Of course. I understand that's something people want and I don't disagree. It would be nice to have SNES, 64, GBA, GC games on switch (I would die for a Path of Radiance switch release).
But the way I see it is I'm paying $20 a year to use their servers for online multiplayer, and I bought it to play with my family living in Japan, and potentially my friends living in Seattle. $20 is not a bad price. For me, the games are free. I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.
This Chinese small print is probably just a legal disclaimer for compliance with commercial regulations. Even if it's not, I won't be upset if NES games stop getting added. I'll play what's there, or find something else to do.
Unrelated, but has this game's camera tracking been updated since launch? Something about the way the camera follows the character made the game so unappealing at launch.
Particularly noticeable when you stood on the edge of some geometry and your entire screen would shake to keep your character centered while the game couldn't decide whether to place your character high or low.
If the camera has been redone I might be able to give this game another try.
Looks excellent. Link's awakening was one of my favorite game boy games and I missed it on the color. Even if I could get the deluxe version on the 3DS for cheaper, I'd be content to get this one on switch for $60.
That said the story, dungeons and enemies are already designed so I wouldn't be surprised if this were a $40 game.
"Nintendo saw the crazy feminists coming and shut them up.
Feminists 0 - 1 Nintendo"
I think you misunderstand and/or underestimate the people you are calling "crazy feminists."
Just to play devils advocate here, I'm sure there are people out there who would have a problem with the jilted language of this translation, and who would also claim that the company is actively demonstrating their biased beliefs about the roles of men and women in the workplace when they say things like "the fact that our technology is unique makes room for women in the hardware department." So... What, like, there isn't room for women to comfortably contribute to the development of straightforward but powerful hardware? Because an angry feminist will certainly tell you that there is: that women don't need to be more creative or fanciful than men to be successful, and that this statement from Nintendo is founded on the prejudiced expectation that a woman's role in the workplace is to be an abstract creative thinker (designer) rather than an analytical problem solver (engineer).
I'm not taking sides here, all I wanted to do is point out the counterargument. I don't agree or disagree with the "crazy feminist" perspective, nor do I really have much of an opinion on whether this is a "win" for Nintendo. Frankly I think it's all down to interpretation.
But it is worth saying, I think, because whether you agree or disagree with the feminist perspective, feminist discourse and objectives have been sorely misunderstood for years, and especially in gaming.
@StephenWolf TBH, they went above and beyond in your case. Seems to me like the baseline for acceptable customer service is a lot lower than (1) getting free hardware, with (2) preloaded custom data, and (3) without verifying the issue.
And I recognize you aren't making an argument for baseline customer service (that's all me) but I hear your story and think "wow that's good customer service."
Am I the only one who is actively hyped for mario all stars? SMB1 needs its old school skin but all stars is my favorite way to play SMB2, 3, and it's the only way I ever played lost levels.
@GameOtaku they're talking about translating the little blurb/description in the game select screen. The one that tells you how cool super mario world is and why you should care about it.
@quinnyboy58 I don't have hands on experience with this (waiting for Christmas) but my understanding after reading a few articles is that there IS a ranking system. And it's kind of opaquely designed so people don't totally understand what the triggers are to graduate into the "elite" category where the more competitive player clump. Anyway the online match maker has some kinks to work out, and the P2P computing results in instability and lagggggggggg. If you really want to make the experience enjoyable you'll need (1) a very fast, reliable internet connection; (2) enough luck to get an opponent who's got one too; (3) skill; and (4) patience.
It sounded to me like it would be much easier to have fun with local multiplayer.
@rjejr you may be waiting for Santa, I feel like I'm waiting for Satan, lol. I just want to play! It's a conspiracy I tell you. I pre-ordered this game and I have been hyped for it since the end of November. I couldn't pick it up in time because I've been totally slammed with long nights in the office. Best Buy refunded my pre-order and I have since discovered that my wife fixed the problem by going and buying it. But now it's a Christmas present so I can't touch it. 😣
The track list is old, but pop music has been pretty unremarkable imo since about 2011 anyway, so I'm glad to see these songs on the list rather than new stuff that's not as interesting.
I agree, this seems more like conservative demand estimates than actively leveraging limited supply. I may be wrong (I frequently am) but I surmise that artificial scarcity only increases profit if the manufacturer sets higher prices than the market would usually bear. I don't see that here. Amiibo aren't outrageously priced compared to other collectibles. (At retail anyway...)
I account for probably $30US of revenue since the game launched in February 2017. None in the past 6 months, and I intend to keep it that way.
It was a good game at launch, especially for something you could use a single hand to play, and play even if you only had 3 or 4 minutes to spare. It's still good IMO, which is why I keep playing. But at this point it's WAAAAY over designed.
For the record not all micro-transaction games are on equal footing in terms of being exploitative.
Gacha games and loot boxes IMO are worse than "pay 99 cents to refresh your stamina" type micro transactions. The first type is like a slot machine, in several ways. The second is more like any normal arcade game.
I'm totally okay with micro transaction games like king of thieves too, where you know what you're buying. Not my thing exactly but it's not nearly as predatory as "blind" random purchases.
@DaNintendoyle excellent choice. No video game would be better for this than EarthBound.
I am a huge fan of EarthBound. And the story would only be improved with your knowledge of where the game has been.
And if through some freak accident this game were to end up in orbit, or even if it were to escape the Earth's gravity, I wouldn't even be mad. 😃 No game is more capable of defying realistic expectations, and no game is more deserving of space travel.
@jn2002dk what is the point of drawing the distinction between piracy and theft if you agree that it's immoral either way? Please understand, I'm not writing to attack you or even your position, but I'm very against piracy and I feel like even a vague suggestion that it's a "victimless crime" deserves a response.
The argument about devs and publishers not getting their cut is only part of the story. Piracy is anti-competitive and ultimately bad for not just devs, but consumers too. Even if you don't assume that a single pirated game equates to one lost sale, it has a tangible financial impact.
1. Devs spend $1mil building a game.
2. They think they can sell 200k copies at $60, for $1.2mil revenue, or $200k profit.
3. Devs don't build any piracy countermeasures because they naively believe people won't copy and redistribute the software.
4. The game becomes very popular, enjoys a robust fan base, of no less than 300k regular users.
5. But the game falls short of sales projections. Devs sell only 100k units, generating revenue of $600k, for a loss of -$400k on the project. The game is pirated at a 2:1 ratio of unlicensed to licensed users.
6. The developer axes the IP and halts all further work because they are bleeding money (This is EXACTLY what happened with EA's Spore).
7. For their next project, devs have two choices. A) increase the budget to build in piracy countermeasures; B) reallocate their money away from programming, QA, or art direction in order to fund piracy countermeasures.
8. They now need to either A) sell more units at $60 in order to turn a profit; or B) plan on less sales because the game has known issues from a lack of funding for QA or development (funding went to combat piracy instead) which make the game worse.
8. Either way, as a direct result of piracy, it is harder to greenlight production of new software with a price of $60 per license.
9. As a result, one of two things will happen. Either the cost of software will go up, or the amount of software on the market will decrease because it's not financially viable to sell something people can get for free.
Push it to the extreme. If developers didn't have the exclusive right to dictate the terms of software distribution, then the only way they could earn any money at all would be to sell the first copy of their game (the only copy they're guaranteed to monetize) to some "philanthropic" pirate for an exorbitant price. And what incentive would he have to distribute copies for free anyway? Capitalism doesn't work that way. He'd keep a copy for himself, and then compete with the developer for further sales.
The conversation about the costs and benefits of piracy look very different from the inside of a developer's board room. You aren't depriving anyone of anything directly, but there are a lot of moving parts and Piracy affects the industry in a lot of ways. Piracy could easily be used to justify an industry wide increase of the retail cost of games. And if the cost of a game goes up to $70, the people who are shelling out are going to feel like their extra $10 subsidizes other people's illegal behavior. Not a good public image for pirates, and those purchasers won't care if you call it theft or not. They'll feel the same as if those pirates reached into their wallets and took the $10 themselves.
FE Heroes is great and I'm happy that the developers are so generous. Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the monetization model is anti consumer.
@Aneira but that's like, literally all of video game reviews from every website. IMO there are only actually 6 scores on a 1 to 10 scale, and not all of them are best described with numbers. The scores are 10, 9, 8, almost an 8, not good enough to buy, and genuinely bad.
Count me among the people who were completely uninterested in this game when it was announced. Having someone describe the gameplay actually makes this game very interesting.
Purchased this game yesterday (well after the review came out).
If I had seen this review first, I might have taken it seriously and not purchased. Goes to show that reviews are just opinions, raised up on a pulpit, which anybody is free to disagree with.
Hopefully this game's mixed reviews don't hurt the marketability too much, because the studio deserves some kudos and I hope we'll see more releases like this in the future. Koi DX is an excellent tool for catharsis and escapism. As a busy professional, father, spouse, and owner of two dogs, I have enough stress in my life. Even without complicated, violent, or difficult games. This game was very relaxing and I look forward to the next time I get to turn on my nintendo switch — because it will be for this game.
@QBertFarnsworth - "Better upload it before the professional game makers' levels get more popular than mine due to things like better press coverage and/or level design."
A little bit of merit won't go as far as a lot of publicity. The "Star" system has turned Mario Maker into a popularity contest. These particular levels look pretty good, and I especially like that the end of Ham's level forces players to do something they expect is bad, only to experience a reversal of fortune. It actually reminds me of Thomas Was Alone.
But most of the time, people have been getting rewarded for being well-known personalities in the online gaming community, rather than making the types of levels that might actually be fun to play.* There is a lot to criticize in the top starred levels of all time.
For example, Rubber Ross from Game Grumps has over 5000 stars as of last night for a troll level called "very simple" that would have taken minimal effort to create and play-test. I'm not saying it's a terrible level, but it's definitely not for me. And more to the point, if I had made that level, it would have gotten nowhere.
@MrRight "Putting unforeseeable traps around every corner is not challenging, it's just stupidly cheap and ruins your stage + the enjoyment of anyone playing it."
YES! "Expert mode" is not fun for me. Only frustrating. Having looked at the youtube video, I will play PangaeaPanga's "P-Break" willingly, a few times. But the sorts of things you seen on expert mode are not like that. I think it's cheap and not in the spirit of good design to force a player to spend an extra life gathering information. It's one thing if you have an opportunity to escape, like the NWC level with 8 doors. It's another thing entirely when you fall helplessly into a spike trap, and the only thing you can do to prevent yourself from losing a life is to hold the minus button and skip the level.
My most popular level was the first one I ever made. It all went downhill once I figured out how to use the level editor, probably because I forget that I'm pretty good at Mario, and I make the sorts of levels that I personally would enjoy playing.
I'm revising a formula right now to check level difficulty while still making something interesting for advanced players. I've decided that from now on, every level that I upload until I get my next medal will be beatable even if you don't know how to run.
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Re: Feature: Samurai Shodown Director "Cried Out In Surprise" When He Saw The Switch Version
I've got this on preorder and if there were a Garou reboot, I would dive straight into the deep end.
Re: SNK Reveals Second Season Of DLC Fighters For The Samurai Shodown Reboot
@Mando44646 it's been on the market for about 7 months.
Re: SNK Reveals Second Season Of DLC Fighters For The Samurai Shodown Reboot
@Heavyarms55
It's not always going to be the case that you'd get the same kind of content by playing games ten+ years ago as you would by paying for them now. That might be true with some developers, but I'm in no way ignorant to the fact that game assets cost money to make, game developers are running a business and they need to keep the lights on, and I'm okay with market segmentation as a general practice.
As a consumer, I think the games industry has trended overall toward more and better quality for the player. Even in the realm of DLC releases, predatory developers are an exception, not the norm. Would I like to be able to get four extra characters just by beating arcade mode with the existing roster? Yeah. Do I feel ripped off as a consumer because I was only able to unlock a lousy sound test mode or a single picture in gallery mode instead, and I need to pay actual money for the fighter? Eh. Not really. A game doesn't need more than 8 playable (12 total) fighters to be more content rich than the original version of street fighter 2, which cost a lot of money when it was released for the SNES.
There are limits. Street Fighter 5 had a bad launch, but my solution for that was to not buy Street Fighter 5 until after the release of arcade edition, at which point my $40 got me quite a lot more content (28 characters and a story mode) than $60 at launch would have done (16 characters).
That said, I very strongly dislike that the FGC has become so much about preorder hype culture and always looking for the next hot new DLC.
Re: Reminder: Puzzle & Dragons GOLD Is Out Today, Celebrate Its Launch With A Limited-Time Discount
@Farts_Ahoy thanks forthe heads up.
I will probably get this anyway but expectations are tempered.
Re: Poll: Come On, Tell Us If You've Been Playing As Terry Bogard In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
@personauser93 When the original Smash Bros came out 20 years ago Ness and Captain Falcon were certainly not icons. Look at what Smash did for them. And what Melee did for Fire Emblem games in the west. I'm glad that after literal decades, Smash can still be about a character on the roster that makes me say "who the F is that," and then I learn about some really incredible games that I missed when I was younger.
If you've never played the games that some of these more obscure smash characters are from, go do yourself a favor and try them out. KoF XI is one of the best tag team fighters I've ever played, and I played it for the first time just three weeks ago. Just like Super Metroid, F-Zero X, Earthbound, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, ROB and Game & Watch, I learned about it from Smash first.
Re: Poll: Come On, Tell Us If You've Been Playing As Terry Bogard In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
I answered the poll even though it asks the wrong question: I've had the fighters pass since a few days after hero released.
As far as playing Terry, yes. I've been SUPER HYPE for him and even though I don't have time for Smash lately, I stayed up late to play 3v3 and 5v5 squad strike at KoF Arena with Terry in rotation, with my roommate. Good times. That stage really favors heavy characters though.
Re: Nintendo Comments On How It's Handling Joy-Con Drift
Because of joy con drift I bought a wired $30 PowerA controller for playing on the couch. I'm happy with my purchase. And any time I play handheld mode I have a strong preference for games I can play without joysticks.
Re: Hand Cramps Won't Be A Problem With This New Switch Lite Grip Case
@RiggsHB I'm using the same grip and I also really like it.
Re: Random: Superhot Trailer On European Switch eShop Causes Some Confusion
@Mountain_Man
Keyboards working via the USB port on the switch dock is something that's been known about for a while. It's not even the first time it's been a source of controversy.
But I think it's software dependent.
Re: Samurai Shodown Director Says A Perfectly Balanced Fighting Game Would Be Boring
This game is so hype, I cannot wait for the switch release.
On topic: I would rather have an imbalanced game with lots of unique characters than a balance game with a bunch of clones. Of course, if the imbalance is so bad that your friends only pick one specific character, there's no point in creating all the variation since nobody will use it. Gotta at least aim for a little bit of balance.
Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of June 2019
All top 10 are first party titles. I wonder if that means the third party stuff can't even approach 1-2 Switch numbers? Or if it's just that the list is looking at Nintendo games specifically?
Re: Review: Fantasy Strike - Taking The Fighting Genre Back To Basics
This one is going on the list but the price puts it behind several others.
And for the price you might as well dip into the street fighter 30th anniversary collection, and learn fighting games with the original street fighter II, which is also a pretty simple and rewarding game.
Still, for a finely tuned piece, $30 isn't bad.
Re: Review: BlazBlue Centralfiction Special Edition - Well Worth The Wait For Fighting Game Fans
@Dualmask Digital content has some major advantages, especially for fighting games like this that will be in heavy rotation. I get that digital isn't for everyone, but $50 isn't too pricey for digital imo.
Re: New Challengers Approach In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle This Month, Including Persona's Teddie
With EVO coming up and this game on the main stage, I just bought this game and found this article. Honestly I'm hyped but a little nervous about the lack of 1 player content. I'd much rather play an AI that I'm relatively matched with, than a stranger online who I'm never gong to see, who might as well be a really damn good AI.
Here's hoping I can play with Heart! I loved the Arcana Heart games.
Re: Review: Lust For Darkness - A Clumsy Trip Through A Depraved Hellscape That's As Sexy As It Sounds
@commentlife
I don't necessarily care to defend smutty games lol, but as far as Senran Kagura goes, I think Marvelous and XSeed deserve due credit: they do more than throw a coat of sexy paint on a bad game. Their underlying gameplay (whether it's a rhythm cooking sim, a brawler, pinball game, or 3rd person arena shooter) tends to be at least average.
Re: Give Your Game Boy Advance Library An Airing With GBA Consolizer
@sketchturner totally agree. I loved my GBA but don't have the library anymore (no idea where it went). For the price I might as well spend $170+ on virtual console downloads.
Re: Dr. Mario World Racks Up Two Million Downloads In Its First 72 Hours
@Kang81 I personally prefer the original Dr. Mario to Tetris. But YMMV. This version is like a cross between Dr. Mario and Candy Crush Saga.
Re: Dr. Mario World Only Launching For Specific Mobile Platforms In Some Countries
@MaciejKuczynski have Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia adopted regulations banning gachapon/loot boxes as "games of chance?"
Because that might explain why Belgium got called out specifically.
Re: The Wii U Just Received Its First Firmware Update For 2019
Love my Wii U. It's still hooked up and I still have lots of stuff to play on it. Also the Gamepad is my TV remote. 😎
Re: Nintendo's Market Value Drops By $1 Billion After Animal Crossing Switch Delay
@Old_Man_Nintendo
Your purchase list looks a bit like mine.
IMO Nintendo was best in show by a country mile. If nothing else, then for the sheer amount of content announced.
This summer is completely stacked with releases. And there's plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year. I'm also convinced that we're going to get another direct with news about holiday releases since the holiday season is still a little sparse.
Re: OPUS Collection Will Bring Both Games In The Series To Switch In One Physical Package
Loved the first OPUS game but the pricing info has been released and this collection clocks in at a whopping $40. The digital versions combined aren't more than $15 total. Anybody know if they've sweetened the deal with any physical collectibles or anything?
Re: Super Famicom Logo In Super Mario Maker 2 Has Fans Speculating
@TJWorks the original mario maker was so random. A Super famicom Logo appearing in a Nintendo game is more predictable than the Rave sound effect or the trampoline costume that appeared in the original.
Re: Super Famicom Logo In Super Mario Maker 2 Has Fans Speculating
@PapaPedro those were my favorite parts lol
I had to rewind it just to make sure I heard them correctly when they said "mad lad"
Re: Indie Game Removed From Switch eShop After Dev Reveals It Contains A Hidden Code Editor
@Yorumi I bet you 5 cents he violated the terms of service somehow.
Edited for clarity.
Edit again just did a little more reading. This entire thing is silly. Seems like he's been totally misunderstood.
Re: Indie Game Removed From Switch eShop After Dev Reveals It Contains A Hidden Code Editor
@xanderten50 I could be wrong but that looks to be like one of the characters from sin and Punishment.
Re: Random: Nintendo Reminds Us That Yes, Switch Will Eventually Stop Getting NES Games
I'm content with the current service. Would I like Nintendo to leverage more of their back log? Of course. I understand that's something people want and I don't disagree. It would be nice to have SNES, 64, GBA, GC games on switch (I would die for a Path of Radiance switch release).
But the way I see it is I'm paying $20 a year to use their servers for online multiplayer, and I bought it to play with my family living in Japan, and potentially my friends living in Seattle. $20 is not a bad price. For me, the games are free. I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.
This Chinese small print is probably just a legal disclaimer for compliance with commercial regulations. Even if it's not, I won't be upset if NES games stop getting added. I'll play what's there, or find something else to do.
Re: Yooka-Laylee's Demastered Nintendo 64 Mode Is Out Now On Switch
Unrelated, but has this game's camera tracking been updated since launch? Something about the way the camera follows the character made the game so unappealing at launch.
Particularly noticeable when you stood on the edge of some geometry and your entire screen would shake to keep your character centered while the game couldn't decide whether to place your character high or low.
If the camera has been redone I might be able to give this game another try.
Re: Talking Point: Is The Remake Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Worth $60?
Looks excellent. Link's awakening was one of my favorite game boy games and I missed it on the color. Even if I could get the deluxe version on the 3DS for cheaper, I'd be content to get this one on switch for $60.
That said the story, dungeons and enemies are already designed so I wouldn't be surprised if this were a $40 game.
Re: Takahashi, Miyamoto And Shiota Discuss Proportion Of Female Employees In Nintendo’s Development Departments
@mist
"Nintendo saw the crazy feminists coming and shut them up.
Feminists 0 - 1 Nintendo"
I think you misunderstand and/or underestimate the people you are calling "crazy feminists."
Just to play devils advocate here, I'm sure there are people out there who would have a problem with the jilted language of this translation, and who would also claim that the company is actively demonstrating their biased beliefs about the roles of men and women in the workplace when they say things like "the fact that our technology is unique makes room for women in the hardware department." So... What, like, there isn't room for women to comfortably contribute to the development of straightforward but powerful hardware? Because an angry feminist will certainly tell you that there is: that women don't need to be more creative or fanciful than men to be successful, and that this statement from Nintendo is founded on the prejudiced expectation that a woman's role in the workplace is to be an abstract creative thinker (designer) rather than an analytical problem solver (engineer).
I'm not taking sides here, all I wanted to do is point out the counterargument. I don't agree or disagree with the "crazy feminist" perspective, nor do I really have much of an opinion on whether this is a "win" for Nintendo. Frankly I think it's all down to interpretation.
But it is worth saying, I think, because whether you agree or disagree with the feminist perspective, feminist discourse and objectives have been sorely misunderstood for years, and especially in gaming.
Re: Game-Breaking Bug Found In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story On 3DS
@StephenWolf TBH, they went above and beyond in your case. Seems to me like the baseline for acceptable customer service is a lot lower than (1) getting free hardware, with (2) preloaded custom data, and (3) without verifying the issue.
And I recognize you aren't making an argument for baseline customer service (that's all me) but I hear your story and think "wow that's good customer service."
Re: Rumour: SNES Games Might Be Coming To Switch Sooner Than You Think
Am I the only one who is actively hyped for mario all stars? SMB1 needs its old school skin but all stars is my favorite way to play SMB2, 3, and it's the only way I ever played lost levels.
Re: Rumour: SNES Games Might Be Coming To Switch Sooner Than You Think
@GameOtaku they're talking about translating the little blurb/description in the game select screen. The one that tells you how cool super mario world is and why you should care about it.
Re: Smash Bros. Ultimate Sold 1.2 Million Copies In Japan During Launch Week
@quinnyboy58 I don't have hands on experience with this (waiting for Christmas) but my understanding after reading a few articles is that there IS a ranking system. And it's kind of opaquely designed so people don't totally understand what the triggers are to graduate into the "elite" category where the more competitive player clump. Anyway the online match maker has some kinks to work out, and the P2P computing results in instability and lagggggggggg. If you really want to make the experience enjoyable you'll need (1) a very fast, reliable internet connection; (2) enough luck to get an opponent who's got one too; (3) skill; and (4) patience.
It sounded to me like it would be much easier to have fun with local multiplayer.
Re: Export Your Smash Bros. Ultimate Replays Quickly, They're Getting Wiped Next Week
@rjejr you may be waiting for Santa, I feel like I'm waiting for Satan, lol. I just want to play! It's a conspiracy I tell you. I pre-ordered this game and I have been hyped for it since the end of November. I couldn't pick it up in time because I've been totally slammed with long nights in the office. Best Buy refunded my pre-order and I have since discovered that my wife fixed the problem by going and buying it. But now it's a Christmas present so I can't touch it. 😣
Re: Nintendo-Published Fitness Boxing Gets Free Demo On Switch eShop, Full Pricing Revealed
The track list is old, but pop music has been pretty unremarkable imo since about 2011 anyway, so I'm glad to see these songs on the list rather than new stuff that's not as interesting.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Piranha Plant amiibo Could Cause Some Trouble For Collectors
@Kawaiipikachu
I agree, this seems more like conservative demand estimates than actively leveraging limited supply. I may be wrong (I frequently am) but I surmise that artificial scarcity only increases profit if the manufacturer sets higher prices than the market would usually bear. I don't see that here. Amiibo aren't outrageously priced compared to other collectibles. (At retail anyway...)
Re: Fire Emblem Heroes Earns $16.8 Million In The Month Of September
I account for probably $30US of revenue since the game launched in February 2017. None in the past 6 months, and I intend to keep it that way.
It was a good game at launch, especially for something you could use a single hand to play, and play even if you only had 3 or 4 minutes to spare. It's still good IMO, which is why I keep playing. But at this point it's WAAAAY over designed.
Re: Fire Emblem Heroes Earns $16.8 Million In The Month Of September
@BensonUii
For the record not all micro-transaction games are on equal footing in terms of being exploitative.
Gacha games and loot boxes IMO are worse than "pay 99 cents to refresh your stamina" type micro transactions. The first type is like a slot machine, in several ways. The second is more like any normal arcade game.
I'm totally okay with micro transaction games like king of thieves too, where you know what you're buying. Not my thing exactly but it's not nearly as predatory as "blind" random purchases.
Anyway. FWIW.
Re: Random: High School Student Sends EarthBound Cartridge Into Space
@DaNintendoyle excellent choice. No video game would be better for this than EarthBound.
I am a huge fan of EarthBound. And the story would only be improved with your knowledge of where the game has been.
And if through some freak accident this game were to end up in orbit, or even if it were to escape the Earth's gravity, I wouldn't even be mad. 😃 No game is more capable of defying realistic expectations, and no game is more deserving of space travel.
Re: Switch Piracy Tool Could Brick Your System Because It Contains (Wait For It) A Piracy Countermeasure
@jn2002dk what is the point of drawing the distinction between piracy and theft if you agree that it's immoral either way? Please understand, I'm not writing to attack you or even your position, but I'm very against piracy and I feel like even a vague suggestion that it's a "victimless crime" deserves a response.
The argument about devs and publishers not getting their cut is only part of the story. Piracy is anti-competitive and ultimately bad for not just devs, but consumers too. Even if you don't assume that a single pirated game equates to one lost sale, it has a tangible financial impact.
1. Devs spend $1mil building a game.
2. They think they can sell 200k copies at $60, for $1.2mil revenue, or $200k profit.
3. Devs don't build any piracy countermeasures because they naively believe people won't copy and redistribute the software.
4. The game becomes very popular, enjoys a robust fan base, of no less than 300k regular users.
5. But the game falls short of sales projections. Devs sell only 100k units, generating revenue of $600k, for a loss of -$400k on the project. The game is pirated at a 2:1 ratio of unlicensed to licensed users.
6. The developer axes the IP and halts all further work because they are bleeding money (This is EXACTLY what happened with EA's Spore).
7. For their next project, devs have two choices. A) increase the budget to build in piracy countermeasures; B) reallocate their money away from programming, QA, or art direction in order to fund piracy countermeasures.
8. They now need to either A) sell more units at $60 in order to turn a profit; or B) plan on less sales because the game has known issues from a lack of funding for QA or development (funding went to combat piracy instead) which make the game worse.
8. Either way, as a direct result of piracy, it is harder to greenlight production of new software with a price of $60 per license.
9. As a result, one of two things will happen. Either the cost of software will go up, or the amount of software on the market will decrease because it's not financially viable to sell something people can get for free.
Push it to the extreme. If developers didn't have the exclusive right to dictate the terms of software distribution, then the only way they could earn any money at all would be to sell the first copy of their game (the only copy they're guaranteed to monetize) to some "philanthropic" pirate for an exorbitant price. And what incentive would he have to distribute copies for free anyway? Capitalism doesn't work that way. He'd keep a copy for himself, and then compete with the developer for further sales.
The conversation about the costs and benefits of piracy look very different from the inside of a developer's board room. You aren't depriving anyone of anything directly, but there are a lot of moving parts and Piracy affects the industry in a lot of ways. Piracy could easily be used to justify an industry wide increase of the retail cost of games. And if the cost of a game goes up to $70, the people who are shelling out are going to feel like their extra $10 subsidizes other people's illegal behavior. Not a good public image for pirates, and those purchasers won't care if you call it theft or not. They'll feel the same as if those pirates reached into their wallets and took the $10 themselves.
Re: News: Fire Emblem Heroes' First Anniversary Update Detailed by Nintendo
FE Heroes is great and I'm happy that the developers are so generous. Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the monetization model is anti consumer.
Re: Review: Floor Kids (Switch eShop)
@Aneira but that's like, literally all of video game reviews from every website. IMO there are only actually 6 scores on a 1 to 10 scale, and not all of them are best described with numbers. The scores are 10, 9, 8, almost an 8, not good enough to buy, and genuinely bad.
Count me among the people who were completely uninterested in this game when it was announced. Having someone describe the gameplay actually makes this game very interesting.
Re: Review: Koi DX (Switch eShop)
I agree with 10-zx.
Purchased this game yesterday (well after the review came out).
If I had seen this review first, I might have taken it seriously and not purchased. Goes to show that reviews are just opinions, raised up on a pulpit, which anybody is free to disagree with.
Hopefully this game's mixed reviews don't hurt the marketability too much, because the studio deserves some kudos and I hope we'll see more releases like this in the future. Koi DX is an excellent tool for catharsis and escapism. As a busy professional, father, spouse, and owner of two dogs, I have enough stress in my life. Even without complicated, violent, or difficult games. This game was very relaxing and I look forward to the next time I get to turn on my nintendo switch — because it will be for this game.
Re: Super Nindie Maker: Curve Digital's P-Switcheroo and Déja Boo
@QBertFarnsworth - "Better upload it before the professional game makers' levels get more popular than mine due to things like better press coverage and/or level design."
A little bit of merit won't go as far as a lot of publicity. The "Star" system has turned Mario Maker into a popularity contest. These particular levels look pretty good, and I especially like that the end of Ham's level forces players to do something they expect is bad, only to experience a reversal of fortune. It actually reminds me of Thomas Was Alone.
But most of the time, people have been getting rewarded for being well-known personalities in the online gaming community, rather than making the types of levels that might actually be fun to play.* There is a lot to criticize in the top starred levels of all time.
For example, Rubber Ross from Game Grumps has over 5000 stars as of last night for a troll level called "very simple" that would have taken minimal effort to create and play-test. I'm not saying it's a terrible level, but it's definitely not for me. And more to the point, if I had made that level, it would have gotten nowhere.
Here is "Very Simple"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULLahhxs6nM
I felt cheated when I died.
If Ham's level gets half as many stars as "very simple", I'll be surprised. But they'll all be well deserved stars in my opinion.
*disclaimer: what is fun for some is not fun for others.
Re: Takashi Tezuka Gives His Opinion on Hard Levels Made with Super Mario Maker
@MrRight "Putting unforeseeable traps around every corner is not challenging, it's just stupidly cheap and ruins your stage + the enjoyment of anyone playing it."
YES! "Expert mode" is not fun for me. Only frustrating. Having looked at the youtube video, I will play PangaeaPanga's "P-Break" willingly, a few times. But the sorts of things you seen on expert mode are not like that. I think it's cheap and not in the spirit of good design to force a player to spend an extra life gathering information. It's one thing if you have an opportunity to escape, like the NWC level with 8 doors. It's another thing entirely when you fall helplessly into a spike trap, and the only thing you can do to prevent yourself from losing a life is to hold the minus button and skip the level.
Re: Takashi Tezuka Gives His Opinion on Hard Levels Made with Super Mario Maker
My most popular level was the first one I ever made. It all went downhill once I figured out how to use the level editor, probably because I forget that I'm pretty good at Mario, and I make the sorts of levels that I personally would enjoy playing.
I'm revising a formula right now to check level difficulty while still making something interesting for advanced players. I've decided that from now on, every level that I upload until I get my next medal will be beatable even if you don't know how to run.