HyperSonicEXE

@R-L-A-George
@MetalKingShield
While I would understand some measure of concern making sure that Shantae and co. are not -oversexualized- in the first multi-platform launch for the franchise, no, nothing has gone awry just yet. And given that the concept of Shantae is fairly rooted in a realistic clothing design and having been created by Erin Bozon, I do not believe anything ill will befall the project. Additionally, the current myriad of prototype artworks and character designs uphold WayForward's balanced stance heretofore with nothing changed, and they seem very keen to understanding that sexualized character designs may hamper popularity and sales, particularly in the family-friendly case of Shantae.

Yes, although, send very few copies to the stores, and keep the rest on their own site, with some CE's and LE's.

And yes, physical needs to happen, because all these reports of poor SD Card performance are just tragic, and harmful to their brand.

Yep, I need those Rosalina cards.
Not want.
Need.

"We went pretty wide with the designs at first, and by going too wide, we lost some of the spirit of the character and had to rein it in."
The moment they lost the spirit of the character in the designs SHOULD have been their cue to pack it up and go home.

Ugh, I feel bad for Iizuka. Having to sit in on children's designs being touted as "professional."

@Damo
They don't have to be jacked under a suit of power armor.
Besides, just like feminism isn't about what males think of female objectification, the same applies here. If men are bothered by the over-muscular portrayals in media, that's our grievance - no one else gets to determine that, we do. This street goes both ways.

@Peach64
Actually, male objectification is MORE prevalent in the West, but men just aren't vocal about it. Cars, movies, underwear ads, cologne ads, vomit-inducing displays in the front of Abercrombie and Fitch and other stores of its ilk, comics, videogames, a plethora of places.

Anyway, I really am disappointed in even the thought to call for a boycott on Senran Kagura, a game that's clearly and unabashedly tongue-in-cheek and certainly geared at male gamers (though I'd love to play it with a female). On top of that, it's bloody censored, which is part of why I haven't bought it. All of these squabbles and feelings are getting in the way of artistic expression. This already damaged MN9, and I'm just praying it doesn't affect Shantae: Half Genie Hero.
I hope this is the last of the clickbait.

I am unbelievably happy to see this illustration style back!

@RupeeClock
Definitely. Anyone who's played these games like we have can see those blocks and elements are stretched wider, and are spaced further apart visually than normal.

I do like being able to see the whole level, no Trial-and-Error guessing, but trying to convert and play a game like SMB1 isn't practical. Certain levels spawned enemies at correct times for the platforming challenge based on the scroll distance, and looping segments like certain Bowser Castles would be tricky and possibly fatal for the player since Mario will suddenly appear a screen away.

Still very neat, would love to see other games get this kinda love if possible. Mega Man and Sonic would be harder with their vertical designs.

Oh come on, I need to get my hands on best Blue Shell!!!

Yes, but there are no ads for generating even further revenue.

Obviously any Nintendo franchise could be diluted and damaged on a mobile platform. That's been established.

But why Nintendo decided against ads in these F2P's (and only EVER in the F2P's), I really don't understand. Companies would pay premiums for that kind of marketing. It could be done tastefully too - in the F2P baseball game, make some banners and billboards.

Nicalis?
You mean the ones that butchered Cave Story 3D?

Opinion invalidated.

There is no WAY I'm missing this! I've been conjuring this idea in my head since I was little.

There are lots of plush Shells and such, I've got a green one that makes sound. Couldn't the RFID chip be implanted in that?

This is still a good thing. Shantae and RR probably come across as dated to the modern market. Anything that gives this game the graphical edge it needs to wow people and be considered modern is alright by me.

Ah, this quite clearly explains the difference between Sakurai-Kirby secrets and Nintendo-Kirby secrets.

Sakurai hid treasures and main items in the environment to be discovered by diligence and exploration, or behind midbosses (emphasizing gameplay).

Nintendo's Kirby games show you the object(s) you need to collect, but might let you fail once, and scratch your head as to how to get to it. Once you do that, you've learned another way of looking at things (emphasis on learning).

Interesting stuff.

You might say this poor bloke's been...

...busted.

Stock Market crash, please, so we can put idiots like this out on the street begging for change.

@Kyloctopus
It's not that, now they're going to make her the SILLY BOYS-type girl that always gets annoyed and is condescending or derisive.
That's how, and I quote, "strong, independent" female characters wind up in these kinds of narratives. It's already started - she lands on her feet from that fall while STK land on their faces.

Cubot and Orbot? Why? That Robotnik was working perfectly by himself.
Oh, and Amy's ruined.

The Genesis gameplay was awful. Throwing apples makes sense against, say, guards, but that's it. The scimitar is out of place compared to the majority of the movie. On top of that, the levels were a clusterfluff, and don't get me started on the carpet level.

The SNES version was more colorful, the HUD was more streamlined, and the music was better. Yes, it's easier, but that's a small price to pay for more fun and accuracy.

@HADAA
Oh god, that's funny!

No, eShop won't tide people over. F2P won't help if no one wants to play the darn things.
This is Nintendo's chickens coming home to roost for not focusing on all of their IP's for a decent release schedule.

And no ads? Seriously?
Nobody's going to pay just to have the extras! Ads are the major reason for F2P.

Final Boss:
Slippy Toad in the Blue Marine

I don't know which one to pick! Lemmy or Roy...

W-what???
This has to be market testing.

I'm bummed that the top screen stylus never went through. Don't want kiddos scratching the top screen. Probably interfered in too ugly a way with the 3D, too.
Still!

True, most apps do not make any money, or barely any.
The success of games such as Angry Birds, Temple Run, and Candy Crush, who maximized their brand recognition, saw great revenue.

Granted, they will probably only be popular for a short time, compared to the lives of Nintendo's properties.

In a one-generation cycle, Nintendo could generate much revenue for itself with its already-high brand recognition, and then simply bow out of the market and cite technological changes, rather than their IP's being damaged by cheap, fast games by sharing the limelight with many "burning out" brands.

@Interneto
That's not a valid argument.
The whole reason for giving Sonic and co. bandages was, assumedly, to appeal to an active, younger generation, specifically, tween boys. Humans. That's in the slideshow. Now, I may not be in high school, but I have nieces and nephews and I often show up at anime and game stores where this audience shops — I've not seen bandages as part of the fashion.

It's just silly, and out of touch.

"Since we wanted to push the characterisation of Sonic and friends to fit our narrative,"

FAILURES, THE LOT OF YOU!!!
They're not your OC's, they're storied, beloved, already existing characters! You DO NOT morph a successful character into something that "fits your narrative" - DeviantArt, Newgrounds, and the like have done that already and it's awful every time, because IT'S INCONSISTENT. Tails' flight gear and Amy's dress pass, because it makes sense for the characters. The stray spikes on the back of Sonic's head were already a fantastic touch and distinguishable. But Sonic and Knuckles' "morphing" of their frames and these stupid bandages (WHICH NO ONE WEARS IN REAL LIFE) are absolutely out of left field.

I wish the best for the game, but I wouldn't be hurt if this got scrapped, as-is. Worse, now Knuckles is a "big" character, which also means he's going to be outright stupid in order to fit their narrative.

If the cyan one had Rosalina on it, I'd be all over that.

YAY SHANTAE!

Good call. Really, I can't think of another Sega character that'd work as mascot. Certainly nothing human.

@rjejr
Precisely, and actually, Captain Toad's Adventures is a perfect example of a game that might translate well, though they can't expect immense revenue from it. People who played SM3DW were generally pleased with those levels, even the veterans, and actually wanted more. This is the perfect way to provide that, with tilt controls (or optional gamepad) controlling Captain Toad who would only walk at one speed, and finger swipes controlling the camera.
The thing is, this is a complex game, people like games that they can put down at any time. It's convenient. Even a pause function doesn't help - the mass market wants to be able to completely back out of the game with no penalty exvept redoing the level. A quick save function won't help either because the levels take too much time, and people have to keep that on their brains in addition to their work schedule, soccer practice, or whatever else people do these days. It may be that, in order to make the hundreds of levels that it takes to make a Smartphone game successful, that the levels are watered down for a while with varying numbers of Stars to collect. Then the surprise and variability can come from stage layout, and only throw in new mechanics or platforms every once in a while.

@bloodycelt
TLoU and VC, I can go with, but the other two? Eh. Even Castle Crashers just doesn't have the polish of the games it serves to homage (and why do it and Dragon's Crown even have RPG-esque Level stats? What in the, why????).

Nintendo is the niche console, already, ever since late N64. They're already squeezing blood out of the Niche Orange - that's precisely why they took on the Wii's strategy. They can't force all developers and consumers to use only their hardware, otherwise, they'd be profitable. The '90's and '80's, Nintendo was pretty much the only way and certainly the easiest way to make those kinds of games. Not so much any more.

@rjejr
I agree. As TRT and I discussed, there is some question as to whether they have the resources and programmers skilled enough in those platforms to do so.
But I believe it's more of a question of -if- they want to do that. I suppose there is a school of thought that says, "If Nintendo software ever appears on a third-party hardware platform, it will damage their value and reputation as an integrated software-hardware maker, because they're having to rely on someone else's convenient or more desirable hardware."
I'm in the school of thought that says, "That was a relevant concern before our phones became portable desktop PC's. This is a hardware segment that the consumers do not want Nintendo to try and develop for, mostly, but the convenience of having their software would be more than welcome with open arms by the same crowd of children and consumers that enjoy bright, colorful worlds and characters." There is an element that says Angry Birds and Candy Crush only made it because they were unknowns, American capitalist spirit, blah blah, and to some minor extent, that is true. But the success is really more due to a combination of aggressive marketing, the public utilizing the advertising with friends aspect to continue to play the game for free, and the fact that the games are fairly solid and intuitive (granted these exact games have been around long enough, as Trebuchet and Bejeweled, that it should be a simple task to polish the gameplay).

@TheRealThanos
Indeed, same as always. I'm hoping MK8 and SSB4 solve MK7's and Brawl's problems.
Most of these calls for Nintendo to make a presence on mobile are mostly armchair investors who just wanna make a quick buck on Nintendo riding a fad, not thinking about things like resources or IP Preservation.

@TheRealThanos
Yeah, it's not even a solution to a problem, just supplemental revenue. Short to mid term.
True on all of that. Comparing salary expenses and employment levels to past years' statements within the company doesn't even tell a complete story for a creative industry, and comparing to peers to try and wrangle an answer is futile.

@TheRealThanos
True, but it's difficult to think that Nintendo doesn't have the number of employees needed for multiple focuses. Especially when so many smartphone games get churned out with minimal resources. I'm not saying full, console-like games yet, just casual versions. And this revenue, as opposed to not getting anything. I really don't see Nintendo doing anything on mobile phones to convince people to switch, ever, and not for lack of trying. Convenience trumps fullness with the mass market.

But since Iwata mentioned it as a limitation specifically, and thinking to the current problem of sparse first-party releases by Nintendo, that must be a factor. It just seems like an odd problem for a storied company to have. I suppose the late nights and short staff are how Nintendo has driven development costs down as well.

@rjejr
Fair enough, but I can't recall any upcoming tech that's affordable that would replace this very widely used round of smartphones, and I see no reason that Nintendo couldn't put minimal to moderate effort into the platforms and make Rovio/King amounts of revenue.

"However, only two years ago, many people urged Nintendo to follow other companies into what was then a very lucrative area, but no one says so any longer. In a similar vein, those who now claim that we should make games for smart devices might or might not be saying so in three years. It is our determination for our mid-term future to make efforts to devise our own solutions different from others."

Yes, they are, you're just not listening, Iwata.
And, I'm sorry, did I miss a memo or something? Is something going to perceivably replace smartphones/Android/iPhone within this decade? Because the current smartphones are a standard, and those take a while to collapse. Not to mention Google Glasses and such aren't getting good feedback.

I can't imagine playing any video games other than Nintendo's. Some PS2 titles were cool, but no one makes games like that any more. I tried a host of analogous titles on XBL, and they're just lame, either in tryhard graphics interfering with the gameplay, an overall aesthetic and scenery theme that fails to deliver, or the controls not being tight enough.
Nintendo's just gotta shake this slump, they just have to make a SNES/N64-solid library.

@cookiex
It wasn't just the short term strategy, I mean, those suck when talking about "making do with what you've got" anyway. That's expected.
But the mid-term and long-term strategies, based on past business, just aren't viable. QOL and Wii U/DS are just extensions of current product lines. NFC and the tablet functions of the GamePad are in fact fads that Iwata contradicted himself in his own presentation and said Nintendo doesn't try to follow those. Extending IP's to third parties is extremely risky business, although sometimes, it brings tremendous things such as F-Zero GX, Kirby's Epic Yarn, the LoZ Oracle series, etc. But for those few good examples, there are many damaging examples (chief among them being Other M, in my book). And they kept avoiding mobile on the grounds that "Well it's not our strength as a hardware/software company."

Well, the hardware part of that strength is failing on multiple levels. The Wii bucked the negative revenue trend, and then after ignoring consumer desires, the Wii U is falling right back into that negative trend where it left off. On top of that, the handheld console is their only solid leg - consoles are no longer convenient or State of the Art, and easily replaced by cost-savvy smartphones or PC's.

I applaud the QOL approach, and I'm excited to see them leaping ahead two hardware forms,and Zelda Musou looks promising, but the rest of that presentation was business-school level status quo baloney.

@unrandomsam
At our cost, if profitable. It didn't even do anything except be a space-wasting grip.

@TheRealThanos
No one knows what's going on -internally-.
Is it the entire dev team agreeing to a project? That's different.
Is it a few executives handing down damaging mandates? Yes, that seems plausible given Japanese business culture, but it could also just as easily be a symptom of a much larger problem of the entire Nintendo development process being out of touch with what consumers want.

On paper, no, one firing doesn't make a lick of difference. But again, if said person or persons are high up enough that it is beneficial to cut them from the creative and administrative process such that the company's resources aren't poured into failing products, employees make more meaningful and desirable games and have greater say and satisfaction, and the consumers don't have to wait out a bad release for something actually worthwhile or waste money on an unoptimized or rarely used peripheral, without negatively impacting internal morale, then yes, it's extremely worthwhile.

That's a lot of if's, but I don't need my MBA to see the benefit of that sort of move.

@TheRealThanos
No one knows what's going on here, that's the problem. Some very terrible uses of company resources are being made, and whoever's making the decisions have had plenty of chance to stop, starting as far back as Wii Music, GBA F-Zero games, the e-Reader, and the Wii Zapper.

A few mistakes, a Virtual Boy here and there, well, it happens. I didn't call for this on the 3DS, just like I don't think the Wii U is doomed, because Nintendo's software is unmatched. But, somebody, or a couple of somebody's, have greenlit some projects that would blatantly not sell.

I would like to know whom.

The board takes cuts. Okay, whatever.
I want to see who greenlit the GamePad and two Yoshi games in a row, as well as pushing Steel Divers. Sticker Star.

I want this person's name out in the open, and canned.

The Gamepad is both a blessing and a burden for me.

Saved my ass from boredom any number of times that my nieces/nephews/wife have been using the TV.
But at the same time, it's become such a habit, that I never just enjoy a game on my good, big screen, any more. Or it could certainly end up that way.

I don't think Nintendo should abandon the Gamepad, for the same reasons the DS improved gaming controls, but I definitely think it should become completely optional and support Gamepad-Only Display at all times, just because that is its most useful function.
And this will bridge the gap for a while, until Nintendo shuffles what they need to, in order to make the console/handheld fusion. Somewhat like Vita TV (except, say, an HDMI cord would plug directly into the 3DS).

Buy the biggest most obnoxious EX card to win.
No thanks.

At the Wii U's launch, Nintendo was very proud about toting how they "listened" to smaller third-party developers regarding the Wii U's specs, and what would be most affordable and beneficial to their development. It's almost comical, now, that Nintendo is surprised that it's losing market share to the major third-party developers that draw crowds and sell consoles, who are complaining about the lack of spec. To make things worse, small devs seem to have some trouble working with Nintendo's kits, and big devs won't be able to keep up their big budgets much longer.

Thankfully, a lot of those AAA games aren't worth noting to Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy and core market, and after many generations of trying to work with and appease third-party developers with much confusion and missed sales projections, bringing them in-house is the right move (so long as the new IP's and quality are well-managed).

@unrandomsam
True on both accounts, but I had an Xperia Play for a year. In that year, the phone was slow as molasses to do, well, anything really. The hardware buttons' chrome wore off to ugly plastic, one shoulder button failed completely, and the D-Pad was starting to stick. There were also no good original games for it - I tried many demos.

I'm optimistic about Nintendo slaughtering the pitfalls of the gaming phones. I don't know if a phone could split resources well enough between phone functions and gaming functions, but there are visual processors and then the new 64-bit systems, so I think it could definitely happen, and 64-bit is the best time for Nintendo to jump in while there's a new "breakthrough."

Software buttons, oh god no.

Analyst is partially right in that it's advertising the games and especially the characters. It would have a small pull, though nothing major. And using only retro games is just going to make Nintendo seem that much more washed up. Nintendo needs new IP's and remakes of older games to start off their own phone with good hardware buttons. Can't believe how bad the Xperia Play was...

There's no defending this. He still has to clear the book's content through Nintendo. Unless Earthbound's localization was just a completely unsavory of upended tea tables, numerous love hotel business meetings, and illegal snail fights, there's no reason this book can't be made.
And it'd come at a good time too, when gaming is so bland. Maybe some devs could learn from it.

@unrandomsam
You'd think they'd be able to find out for themselves, but people don't really research for videogames like people might dor a car, house, or appliance. That's where good solid advertising comes in.