It seems unlikely a decent 3D development interface could be scaled down to an interface like the Mario Maker games, at least presented the way NIntendo would likely want to. “Dreams” did provide a 3D toolset, but it gets much more involved than MM does and you would get way too much rubbish if they offered the same sort of sharing options.
As much as they gave us with Mario Maker, there was already a ton of things Mario games have nearly always had that were impossible to do with it. Levels routinely had larger set piece areas and mechanics MM didn’t try to replicate. Think of how often in Super Mario World that large slabs of path moved back and forth against each other to create routes that opened and closed and gave you safe spots to wait until the openings line up. Or even all the pendulum platforms that only move when you stand on them.
Now that Wonder has raised the bar even further for level specific gimmicks and physics, a potential Mario Maker 3 would have it’s hands full just trying to come close to providing the full range of possibilities even the 33 year old SMW had. And the way NIntendo stopped supporting MM2 with updates so fast makes you wonder if continuing Maker titles is a high enough priority to them.
I’d be happy to see anything they might do in the future, but I won’t hold my breath expecting they’re preparing to give us new keys to go even deeper.
Ubi soft has already shown what they’ll do if they have an continued influence over a game you supposedly have. For anyone who enjoyed the original 2 Rayman mobile runner games, they pulled support and disabled them, probably to assure that people would instead go sign up for Apple Arcade to get access to Rayman mini. Tough luck if you liked the first two, they’re just gone now.
And streaming services can’t claim to take the place of a physical DVD library, because I don’t have a monthly list of what discs will be leaving my shelves. But most streaming services shed movies and shows as regular function. Subscriptions and online access can be a great compliment to a physical library, but there’s too many shortcomings for it to be a complete replacement of it.
I know the studios and companies that control games and video and music would love to keep us on the streaming leash, but how do they hope to do that by offering us less than we already have?
Not entirely sure how a Switch game can get an unofficial “leaked” version to begin with. How is it playable? Do you use a computer to put it on an SD card and transfer it that way?
It certainly looks like everything is shaping up well with the look of it. Mario’s design is well adapted for a feature film appearance.
I’m sure much attention and criticism will be leveled at the voice. I hope most people will be open to the tweaking that basically had too happen. Let’s face it, the classic, Charles Martinet Mario is what we know, but it would have been a very difficult thing to flesh out on this scale. It’s an ethnic stereotype caricature voice, and what works in little phrase bites in the games would have a harder time not being offensive to some when stretched out into conversational character dialogue.
Which is the other concern. Video game characters are often best served by not speaking. They’re an avatar for the player and it’s easiest to slip into their role if they’re not chatting it up and reminding us that they’re somebody other than us. Sonic was long ago a little spoiled by Sega giving him a rad dude voice first chance they got, so his movie debut didn’t shock us much. In the beginning, though, Sonic also worked better keeping his mouth shut and letting us slip into his skin with our controllers.
Mario has always been a bit more of a Harpo Marx/Charlie Chaplin kind of figure, who is best served by not constantly articulating his thoughts and having an attitude. Spinning a modern CG feature out of such a character is possible, but that would be a trickier movie to make and certainly not what any film studio would set out to do. And you’re not going to get a marquee star just to have him say “Mama Mia” and “woohoo” a couple of times. Might be best to look at it like an alternate universe type of thing. In one world, Mario remains the quiet observer we can identify with and see as an extension of ourselves, in another, he’s chatty and shows a range of thoughts and emotions that we watch from a third party perspective.
The plain fact is, if we want a Mario movie, then we’re going have to get on board with a movie Mario.
It would seem like a book aiming to cover platformers in general would be better served with a more generic image. Yooka Laylee does at least have one foot in each style of platformer (between side scroller and 3D), but it hasn’t really gained a wide enough popularity to represent the entire subject matter over the more obvious choices.
A cover featuring multiple games may have been a legal or logistical problem, and Mario or Sonic may have been too on the nose or also a rights issue. Something with a generic character jumping on floating platforms might have been better, but they probably were afraid it would seem too vague or bland.
Or maybe they could have gone extra obscure and just slap Rocky Rodent on the cover. That would sure sell some books...
The one area where Sega seems to squander their place as a game publisher is in bringing much of their library to current systems. Even compared to Nintendo’s online libraries or VC when that was a thing. I know old games take an amount of time and effort to port, but it still seems like Sega lets a lot of properties stay in the past.
Of course we’ve gotten Sonic a number of times, and the Genesis/Mega minis trot out a roster that also seems full of repeats. But many haven’t been seen since they debuted on whatever short-lived Sega system they were made for.
Where’s Nights, Astal, Bug!, Clockwork Knight, Billy Hatcher, Knuckles Chaotix, Tempo, and of course, Jet Set Radio? It’s fairly well proven that re-releases for newer systems shake some more profits out of old titles, but they seem happy enough to let quite a few of their own games remain on the shelf, even though many of them didn’t get a chance to sell to a user base any larger than the one Sega system they were on, and since absolutely everyone had a 32x, maybe they feel that was enough?
They’ve done a great job both extending the game with a whole new final phase, and filling in a few blanks in their spot-on tribute to the classic cartoon era. They were able to add in some staple themes from that period like westerns and snowman beasts and bulldogs that they missed before, while adding a whole new fourth isle “world” that measures up to the original three.
Since isles 1 & 2 each had 5 bosses, this equals those. And since these bosses are a bit “grander” than some of those, it brings it a notch closer to isle 3’s 7 bosses. The secrets and King’s challenges stand in for the Run n’ Guns well enough. And the finale gave them the opportunity to raise the animation level to include something on the scale of early animated features of the era.
The whole package is now a more solid full game, and it’s still more of a bargain at $26 instead of all the $60 games out there. My sympathies to those still holding out for that fabled physical cart version. It sounds like they still aim to do it but it doesn’t sound like it will be speedy. I wonder if they can manage to match the price of the digital version, though. Even if they came in just under $40, it would still be a value title. Bravo, indeed!
Ok, now that I’ve seen a recent interview with one of the key creators, there’s a bit more detail on the amount of content. I’m not quite sure how you could describe it as the biggest island, though, since she claimed it’s 5 bosses, and NO new Run n’ Gun. She did say that there were some new ways to earn coins that she wouldn’t reveal just yet (but perhaps the internet will spoil before the 30th). She called the bosses “super sized”, but if they also need to be beaten within the same two minute window, what would that mean?
We were also told that Ms Chalice has to be equipped through the charm slot, so she can’t be used with any other charms but has built in abilities that sort of take the place of the extra heart and smoke dash.
I’ve had a feeling the whole time they were going to ditch the Run n’ Guns, so it’s not a big surprise but a bit of a let down. Interested to see what new ways of earning coins will be, but slightly nervous it might be frustratingly difficult new mechanics involved.
Still, even though it’s not free (roughly half the cost of the original game), it still looks worth it.
Everything I’ve seen so far all looks great, and I’m looking forward to 20 days from now to dig in, but I’m still not too sure I should believe the claims I’m hearing that it will be bigger than any other island. Island 3 had 7 bosses along with 2 Run n’ Guns, and we’ve only seen evidence of 4 new bosses. This latest glimpse shows just how much more is in one of the levels we’d seen before, but if this comes out and it winds up only being the 4 we’ve had previews of, it’ll be a bit disappointing.
I’m one of the few that really want to see at least one new Run n’ Gun, but they’ve kept it real quiet if there are any to be had. It seems as if they still have had control over what gets shown, and I’d like to think they’re just intentionally limiting the amount of battles they’ll show for now to preserve some degree of surprise. We’ve been shown Pork Rind’s with new items for sale. How are we supposed to pay for those, for example? I’d actually be happy with it even if it isn’t much more than they’ve hinted at, but making claims that it’s the biggest island yet might be oversell unless they’re going to whip out another 4 bosses they hadn’t told us about yet.
I’d expect that as we get into the last week that the press and the privileged streamers will get early copies and start spoiling, but for now I’m just hoping they’re trying to keep a few things secret as long as they can.
Well, it sure seems like the SNES online service has the whole caveman game thing covered by now. So many titles we’ll never see on there, yet there’s now 4 games in this one “genre”. Maybe they’ll give us the Flintstones game and Super Bonk next.
They sure don’t take the time for frequent updates, so it’s good to hear at least they think it’s 6 more months instead of the more vague answers last time they surfaced.
It’s probably not a popular opinion, but I still don’t see any sign of even one new run n’ gun level. Frustrating as they can be, they do help the pacing by breaking up the set piece bosses. If there are new weapons as they’ve said, do they just give them to you or wouldn’t you need some more coins to get them, in which case that’s another purpose they served.
Either way, as much as I admire the creator’s standard of quality despite their smaller size as a studio, they sure temp the fate of the platforms they’re developing for being outmoded before they can deliver.
There seems to be some decent ideas in here, but it’s definitely sketchy as to what it will really wind up being as far as what’s free and what’s fee.
But, unrelated to the game, watching this preview I can’t help but wish we could be done with the goofy style of cutting to side views of the “host” while they still look toward a front camera. Everyone does it now and I’m sure it’s considered stylish but it’s always just odd and distracting.
The lack of voice acting is not at all surprising. These characters span a 30 year period and many are voiced by fairly big names in the field. Performers that may be a bit above grunting and hollering for a mid-level game production. Poor imitations would probably be worse than nothing at all so they really made the better choice by skipping the issue. It’s a pity, because this would have been a lot more lively with the full personalities intact, but I can see how nearly impossible that would have been.
The music is a different issue though. I’d guess that’s the usual problem of rights and just would have pushed the budget through the roof. Much easier to get recordings or even record new versions that would have been fine, but over a dozen different rights holders looking for hefty payment rules that out.
With all that to consider, it seems this is the only option they really had to get this project made, leaving the mechanics as a focal point of the design. Going by the reviews I’ve been seeing, it seems they did well there. Still not so sure I want to lay down money on it myself though. Maybe if they had made a beefier single player experience it would be more tempting.
I certainly don’t mind if game publishers want to branch out to other systems with games made for Apple Arcade, but good luck to them trying to do so. I’d have to guess plenty of them are tied to exclusive deals to help drive Apple Arcade subscriptions.
What I DO mind is that the Apple service killed games I already had just to steer me into signing up. The 2 Rayman runner games I had no longer work, and have disappeared entirely so that “Rayman Mini” doesn’t have the competition from them. “Mini” might be fun as well, but it’s just not worth a monthly fee to me. I liked having Jungle Run and Fiesta Run at the ready but they’ve been disabled now that they’ve set up a way to charge for “free to play” mobile games.
So, sure. If anyone can strike a deal to have a game of theirs that Apple is using to drive subscriptions also on Switch, I hope they can. At least the eShop doesn’t charge a membership fee. Yet...
It sure seems like this article was prepared prior to the reassignments. It seems to take place in a world where this type of game is valued in its own right, and where the specific talents at Toys For Bob could be put to use properly.
Maybe NL didn’t want to bum us out by including reminders that imaginative talents have been folded into a support team for s series that has nearly nothing to do with what they excel at.
I really have to wonder what factored most in the the apparent “failure” of Crash 4 in Activision’s eyes. How much did they need it to sell to prove that not everyone wants play as a gun barrel floating around in a bombed out war zone landscape? Did they even give the Switch version enough time to boost its profile? And why were sales low enough to cause this reaction? Did word of the difficulty scare off too much of the N Sane Trilogy audience?
@arnoldfranklin No doubt, and it’s even too soon to say if the Switch version and the PS5/PC ports won’t continue to bring more sales. It’s just not enough for companies that want EVERYTHING to sell like whatever is topping the charts. If all their eggs aren’t in the best selling basket then they want to toss out all the other baskets.
The shame for me, and anyone else who values the style of game TFB just delivered on Spyro & Crash, is that it’s a double blow. You lose the thing you like while the thing you don’t like gets strengthened from it. I’m not a sports guy, but it’s like having having your favorite player suddenly drafted onto the team you’ve always hated. Or if the Beatles came back and their label forced them to only record covers of current hits with auto-tuned raps because that’s what seems to be selling now.
Publishers knuckling under to current trends helps steer the buying public further into those trends by making it the only choice. At least NIntendo still has a reputation for not always being scared of not following trends.
Well, that’s disheartening. I know the Call Of Duty series is extremely popular, but it’s just not my thing. What is my thing is games like Spyro Reignited and Crash 4, so I hate to hear that they are considered “underperforming” by the publisher. I was looking forward to whatever might have been the next project from TFB, but I guess now it won’t matter because they’ve been folded into a series that has nothing to do with the kind of style they were so good at.
I guess the Call Of Duty fans still have plenty to look forward to, since the buying public is still supporting them.
Games becoming virtually extinct has been an issue for the entire history of gaming consoles. Other than trying to maintain classic systems and working game cartridges, there are tons of titles that can’t be played anymore, and many that have no chance at being reissued in any form. It’s fortunate that games featuring licensed characters were frequently not very original or memorable because those licenses expire and you won’t find any company willing to put the kind of money into reviving them. That’s why one of Nintendo’s early arcade games that was right up there in the arcades with Donkey Kong and did get an NES release but won’t get the “Arcade Archives” treatment due to the licensed character, Popeye. There are loads of other games from over the years that also used characters that present rights issues, from Cool Spot to Chester Cheetah or Simpsons and Nickelodeon characters, if you have fond memories of any of them and wanted to go back and run through it again, you’ll need original hardware or some kind of unofficial ROM rip. The NIntendo classic mini systems kind of point out what we can expect to see by way of retro reissues, for a system that had several hundred titles during its time gets reduced to 20 or 30. Nope, not going to be able to fire up “Plok” on that one.
Games are even harder to preserve than other media because the hardware they’re made for gets replaced nearly every 5 years. Not quite like record or CD players, or even home video. It’s outmoded so quick it’s like sidewalk chalk art during rainy season.
Just trying to imagine what someone who would pay 2,500 would actually do with it. Just to play it? That would almost certainly feel like a letdown. Maybe just to keep it as a collectible? It’ll likely never really be worth what they already paid for it.
Either way, I’d like to think some of the scalpers will have copies they can’t unload for years.
By now it seems pretty unlikely ever seeing any high profile non first party titles on this service. Even if there are no other plans in the works for them, Earthworm Jim and Clay Fighter are properties that were big enough that they wouldn’t just add them to a lineup of free to play titles. I don’t know enough about Prehistorik Man to dismiss it outright, but it sure looks like it wasn’t the first thing we needed on a roster that already has Joe & Mac.
There are more NIntendo titles they could mine, but I expect only the most obscure games and nothing featuring licensed characters or basically anything the owners of would prefer to sell, even if they’re not trying to sell it currently.
I guess there’s no relation to the fact that the pre-order download just appeared on my home menu. I just noticed it popped up last night. It’s saying the game is about 2.8 GB in data mgmt. There aren’t any exploits that trick a system into playing it, are there? I’m patient enough to wait, but I’ve wondered how secure the practice of pre loading is against hacking.
I see quite a lot of positive reactions to this, so I’m happy for everyone who’s happy with it. Afraid I’m just not one of them. These humanoid Anime sword swingers all look and play too similarly for me. I guess they’re set apart from each other by some of their specific special moves, but it’s not really my thing to begin with so they all seem like the same thing over and over. I suppose the amount of them in Smash is proportionate to how popular the games they come from are, though. Hard to argue that Final Fantasy isn’t big enough to warrant it.
I’d have preferred Crash, but I guess to some he would be the redundant one, just another cartoon animal mascot jumping and bopping around. To each his own.
By the way, what’s up with all the discontinuation of Mario on March 31st? 3D All Stars, Mario 35, now this. Are they going to take the old games off the Switch online service next? Maybe on midnight April 1st everyone playing a Mario game will suddenly get a big “Time’s Up!” on the screen as Mario drops into the void...
I guess that means if you pick up a used Wii U and a copy of the game disc, you won’t have any of the course parts added through updates, or any of the costumes added.
As the systems and games from the age of online content start getting old enough to enter the “retro domain”, they may not be as collectible as old NES & SNES systems and games. Physical copies won’t let you keep the entire game anymore.
At least Mario Maker lives on for now with 2, which fortunately was a “sequel” that basically contained the game it was a sequel of (minus the dropped features like costumes). Now the question is how long will NIntendo support the Mario Maker concept? Will there be a future sequel to keep it in the library of whatever might replace the Switch one day, or will the whole idea phase out by then.
I'm just wondering about the image used for this article. At what point did they create a gallery of Sega characters that gave such a prominent position to Billy Hatcher?
I actually enjoyed that game, but it's another one of those Sega entries that they seem to have no interest in re-releasing, like Bug!
There seems to be enough clues to point to some kind of high end version coming. The reports of "4k ready", and the recent patent images of a rounded Joy Con type controller type suggest something like that is forming. Add in the weird cut-off timing of March 31, and you might think it all means something.
I just hope it isn't time to produce software that won't play on the existing Switches already. When the "New" 3DS came out they pulled that trick, having certain titles that wouldn't play on the older ones. Time never stops marching on in the game industry, after all.
Could they have in mind a 3 tiered platform, with the Switch Lite as the simple handheld focus, the original Switch as the all-purpose, and a new high end home console with home theater specs?
Just got back from Best Buy with my reserved copy. I was the first one to pull into the lot, but the 5th one to get out of the car and stand in line like cattle. It seems like I didn’t need to be quite that persistent to beat out the competition because it really was reserved in this case. It actually had my name printed on a sticker, so the pre orders were more locked in than expected. I just didn’t want to chance a “should have got here sooner” situation.
Still not too fond of the limited release nature of it, though. I may have gone digital if not for that but it seemed a little more solid to get an actual cart if they’re going to play it that way. So now I’m off to dip into the thing. I’ll probably go a little ways into each and switch it up back and forth. I can’t imagine waiting to try the others while doing complete playthroughs one at a time.
I should have guessed. I haven't gotten a physical game in a while, but with the limited run of this one I wanted to go that route. I thought just maybe, since the games are older and should't need updates, that a cart would have everything needed on them.
Now before it even arrives it becomes another incomplete cart, dependent on having whatever console it's played on containing the missing code. This is why I usually just go digital now, the carts are always out of date.
Makes me miss the days when consoles weren't online, and the cart or disc had the whole game in one place
Sadly, they can never come up with a way to prevent this. There’s no way to ever get everyone to just be cool and let an opportunity to hustle people go. You can’t get all retailers to agree on sales limits, and those limits do effect people who want to buy extra copies for less selfish reasons.
Sure, I usually want to strap these vultures into a machine that never stops punching them, but it’s just the way of the world. I also wish we could just starve them out by not buying from them and say “enjoy playing your 50 copies of that, Mr KaChing, you bought ‘em!” But in the end they force people into it. They might as well stand outside a GameStop and mug people going in to buy theirs.
I’ll just have to hope the pre-purchase order # I have saves my place in line, and they actually hold one in the location given while ordering (that’s how Best Buy does it, at least). If I can’t make it at fisherman’s hours I hope they don’t just give it to some chucklehead grabbing 20. It sure seems like you’re RESERVING a copy and not just pre-paying going by the ordering process. We’ll see, I guess.
It’s a shame, because it nearly makes you wish NIntendo wouldn’t release anything too special because it might become a bitter struggle to get it rather than simply something that’s released and you can go get yours. Within seconds of any big announcement of something I’d like in my mind I’m already rolling my sleeves up anticipating a tussle. I hope this limited time thing won’t apply to 3D World when that comes out.
While it’s possible it runs faster, this is Gamexplain. They tend to wildly speculate about every detail in these videos as if what’s on screen is 100% how the game will perform. The game is 5 months away, and there’s no proof that these shots aren’t somewhat “staged” for presentation. There isn’t even any kind of HUD present. Go back and watch a old Gamexplain video on a title that’s since come out, and you’ll see them bring up ideas that turn out to be wrong guesses.
We won’t know until more people get some hands on time with it. I’m just waiting to find out how all the Gamepad elements will be treated. Gone? Some kind of Joy Con tricks? Handheld mode only? As long as we don’t get an annoying blue tinker bell on screen I’ll be happy.
Ok, maybe my griping was a little overboard, since I seem to have gotten a preorder set with Best Buy. I still don't like the limited edtion routine, because it only benefits the scaplers/resellers and hurts the honest customer that just wants a copy at the true price. I guess Nintendo has their reasons, though. And it wouldn't be a Nintendo joint unless they throw in a little disappointment.
A visual makeover for 64 would have been nice. What was impressive 24 years ago is a mess of dancing triangles today. I guess purists would prefer it, but I'd love to see the game look as good as 3D World. Wondering why they couldn't even make it 16:9. Maybe that would break some areas for the camera.
I'd say the odds are slim to none that what they're calling "Galaxy" would be both rolled into one, but what does this mean for Galaxy 2? Orphaned and abandoned?
There’s still one question they’ve never addressed - why is Mario’s cat suit yellow, but every other character is matched to their regular color? Shouldn’t Cat Mario be red?
Not to say I mind the way it is. A red cat suit wouldn’t look as good as the yellow one. I guess Cat Mario is closely connected to Builder Mario.
What on earth is the reason for the limited availability? Seriously? Why doesn't Nintendo just ship them ALL to the eBay pirates so we can enjoy paying $500 for them? What possible reason could they have for imposing a limited window on this? Now I'll have to amend my expectations to IF I can get it, instead of when I get it.
Were they worried they might make too much money if they didn't slap a cap on it? Really, after months of speculation as to whether these would be real or not, who expected the issue to shift to "oh by the way, it's actually a collector's item you may never be able to find because people snap up as many as they can to resell at a profit"?
Maybe I'll try to get it, but I truly hate these frustrating struggles to find an available copy when they make limited editions. But I'll bet the resellers are already drooling in anticipation, and I guess they'll wind up making more money than Nintendo from this.
Way to let some air out of the tires before going for a ride. Instead of giving that video announcement it's own fresh article, you just tack it onto the most recent rumor report like an afterthought? Sort of gave it a bit of a sneak attack, though.
Mostly good to see, but I'm sure many will find things to be disappointed with. 3D World still 5 1/2 months away? No Galaxy 2? 3D "remasters" not given any real makeovers? Iguess we'll stop seeing the tons of speculation videos on YouTube about these, but they'll be replaced by gripes about what they didn't do with them.
And thanks to months of rumor milling, it's even difficult to trust what I just watched was real. It's not April 1st, so I guess it was...
They could just browse Mario Maker 2 and recruit a few of the best creators there. I’m guessing they’re looking for LEVEL designers since they use that term. Regardless of whether the goal is new game in a franchise or new IP, you would think they have that part covered and want some new blood setting up nuts and bolts level ideas. Plenty of talent giving them a run for their money there, they just have to wade through a lot of sloppy slap togethers to find them.
What they’re actually looking to do is something to ponder, though. If you look at what the Switch already has:
Mario: Between NSMBUD and SMM2, and all the 8 and 16 bit games in the online, they kind of dilute the specialness of putting out a new 2D Mario (unless they go for a whole new style, I’d like a Cuphead approach but I don’t see them imitating an indie game with their star character)
Donkey Kong: The odds of this are better, but with Tropical Freeze selling even less on Switch than on Wii U, they may be nervous to put money into a follow up.
Yoshi: So far, no system has gotten more than one of these, and Switch already has Crafted World (and the original with the online).
Kirby: Well, Kirby games never seem to rate in the same space as the above franchises. They seem to be their own thing, almost like the Sesame Street of platformers.
Something NEW: So, when’s the last time NIntendo rolled out a new 2D IP? I’d like to see what they’d do, though. They’ve milked the ones they’re known for for so long, it’s hard to picture what they’d do as a fresh concept.
Whatever their plan is, it’s good to see the intention to create new 2D games. 24 years since Mario 64, and it’s still pretty clear that 3D can’t completely replace 2D game design.
I've just been replaying TF the last couple weeks. It would be great to get a follow up, but high selling games is what motivates them to make sequels. Unfortunately, Tropical Freeze can't seem to catch a break with a wider audience. At the moment, it seems like the Switch version sold less than the Wii U version, so that's not a good sign.
What is it about this game that keeps it from bigger sales? We all blamed the Wii U before, but since it didn't do any better on Switch, what's the reason? Does the title put people off? "Sounds like it's full of snow and ice levels, those aren't my favorites". Well, that sure isn't the case, plenty of variety to the levels.
Donkey Kong Country Returns did much better, but TF improved on it. But the problem is Returns was on Wii, so it had a much bigger install base. So, another game in the series would be welcome, but I don't know if Nintendo would find it worth doing after the lukewarm response to the Switch version.
I was certainly able to get into it when it came out. I've been less motivated to try another full go round on the mini or online, though.
The one thing I always felt, though, which I see echoed in this article is that it never deserved the subtitle of SMW 2. It's Yoshi 1, plain and simple. Sure, they probably didn't know they were starting a new franchise at the time, but it's far more the start of the Yoshi games than a follow up to Mario World. Everything this game brought to the table carried on into the Yoshi platformers that followed, while the original Mario World has more in common with the NSMB titles. Wooly World is the one that carries on from Yoshi's Island, and to an extent, Crafted World feels similar in ways to Yoshi's Story.
The thing is, it’s not as hard as it’s reputation. A lot of it requires study and learning patterns. It would be a really short game if it was made any easier. What you’re getting isn’t just a romp to blast through in one sitting. You’re meant to spend a little time with each new boss learning it’s moves, and which weapons to equip. Then go back and try to improve the score. Like games used to be about.
The original Donkey Kong was just 4 single screen challenges to repeat, yet they made a movie about marathon players grinding away at it. Cuphead gets it’s mileage out of giving you a reason to spend plenty of time on challenges you’re meant to do in less than 2 minutes each.
Of course, if you’re trying to get the black & white filter, now we’re talking hard. Doing all the run and gun levels without the gun part gets pretty difficult.
Ok, now we have the official word. And it’s maybe the least exciting item on the list, except for people who only have PS4. And the Netflix show looks a bit better than I was expecting, but I knew they wouldn’t be able to control themselves and make a show that continued to look as authentically 1930s as the game does. They just can’t resist more modern pacing and framing. It’s good that it won’t look just like a Flash cartoon, but it still looks more 2020 than 1930.
No mention of why the official site is saying “available now” about something they still can’t even commit to a release date on. At least we got to try a brief moment to see what it might feel like to find out the DLC is live, but it’s not as much fun when it’s quickly followed by the disappointment of a big ol’ shrug for when to really expect it.
So now the question is - delayed until 2021, or 2022?
Well, thanks for getting my hopes up through a long system update, but I don’t see any sign of the DLC being available for the Xbox version. Sure, there’s a pulsing “click here” announcement if you go to the game’s page, and if you click on it, you get the same trailer we had last year.
So what’s changed to make someone think anything new has happened? I even had a 30 mb “update” that supposedly applied itself when I tried to launch the game, then up comes the same game I’ve had since the Mugman update.
Please update this article to prevent others from thinking the DLC went live only to find the only game to play is still the waiting game. I appreciate the work they put in to make this game as good as it is, but after it took them 3 years longer than expected to make it, why would we expect the extra material to not go through the same excruciatingly slow development?
Odd. I saw plenty of YouTube videos posted over the weekend by people that were sure there would be announcements of the Mario remasters today, yet no one here has even brought them up.
I guess all those Mario posters are just too disappointed to even comment yet.
All well and good, maybe DKC should have been there already, but the other titles sort of point out the eventual problem with third party games. Sure, when they first come out, they bolster the lineup with a variety of games you wouldn’t usually get from NIntendo, but the best ones become important titles to owners of that system. But fast forward to the future, where they can put a virtual version of the system in their current console, and those third party titles that were once so important can’t make their way back as easily. I can think of a lot of titles I’d rather see than “Natsume Championship Wrestling”, but that’s what they can get their hands on.
I think we know by now we’ll see Super Mario World and Link To The Past every time they bring out the old titles for a new console, but there sure are a lot of other games we plugged into a SNES in ‘93 they we’ll never see make a comeback. Even NIntendo can’t put out ALL of their old titles these days (Popeye, anyone?), so we’ll never see any “virtual console” setup giving us everything we’d want.
There's certainly plenty to choose from if you're looking for retro titles. The main issue might be a matter of preference in what type of retro you want, and a bit of frustration in what gets repeated and what gets skipped. Want the classic Pac-Man? Take your pick, it's going to be in every one of them in some form. You just need to choose between arcade or NES versions. Other titles may only appear in one form or the other.
Or, if you're like me and want to play the true classic arcade version of Nintendo's "Popeye", you have a choice between time-traveling to 1982 or tough luck.
I guess there’s some value for anyone just looking to play it that doesn’t have an official NIntendo platform to play it on. It’s a little interesting seeing the sharper image, but in a world where Odyssey exists, or even 3D World, seeing 25 year old polygons all spruced up is a bit less than eye candy. If NIntendo chose to go all in and rebuild the graphics to current standards I’d be up for the ride, but it’s hard to get too excited over a 4K version of a round pipe made of straight edges. The gameplay is classic and timeless, but unless NIntendo gives it a proper makeover, I’m afraid SM64 is too quaintly ugly to go hi def.
This article may be too old now to still comment on, but there’s a question I’ve had ever since SMM2 came out that I’ve never seen answered anywhere - What is the difference between the footprints on the course info screen and the number that appears in the clear rate? The latter is always a higher number. As an example, one of my courses shows a clear rate of 2 out of 37, but the footprints is 11. So which one is the number of plays? I assume it’s saying only two out of 37 plays were cleared, but then what is the 11?
Does it mean that 11 different players tried a total of 37 times and it only resulted in 2 clears? I went through all the info screens in the play guide, but it’s never clearly said what these mean. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a “boo!”, since that has its own icon. (I’ve never given a boo, either. If you can’t say something nice, etc...). I take the footprints to represent “foot traffic”, rather than saying that amount of people “walked out” on the course instead of finishing. But why is there a higher number in the clear rate? I realize it would feel out of place to have an exhaustive list of stats so they go with little icons and simplified accounting, but it should at least be clear what all of these numbers mean.
Either way, I know I’m one of those creators that can’t really break through to higher numbers and get on any of the “hot” or “popular” lists, but I can never really tell just how many people tried a given course. It does seem like each upload gets a little attention the day it goes up, so they must appear on the “New Courses” list at least until they’re pushed out by newer ones.
And I’ve never seen one of my own on any list. Is that even possible, or does the game filter your own courses out when you search? That’s another question I’ve never seen anyone ever answer.
Not surprisingly, I notice I've been getting "___ played your level" notifications about the first couple levels I put in my world. I don't see them continue too far in with the same player names, though, so I guess they're trying a couple levels and then bailing on it. So that's something to consider when building a world, you need something to hook them quick or they'll move on. So don't try to start slow and build to your best stuff in world 7, or they'll never see it.
It's to be expected, though. It's one thing to post single courses and hope people will find it and have the patience to see it through, but to have a whole game's worth when players know there's so much more to choose from? Imagine if MM2 didn't exist and Nintendo put out a new Mario side scroller title. You'd get it and probably play all the way through. Ok, now imagine if they put out a couple MILLION new Mario games all at once. Gonna play 'em all? That's the drawback to Mario Maker in general, you'll likely NEVER play everything that's there, just the ones you get codes for from either friends or recommendations, or random ones from the lists that are like a Mario lottery system.
So, consider yourself a pretty good designer if you get someone to stick around and finish your world, but don't feel like a failure if they only sample the first few, because there's too much temptation to see what else is out there, because there will ALWAYS be a ton more waiting for you no matter how much you play (ok, maybe half are auto-play levels or speed runs, but still).
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's some "Ultra-Completionist" out there attempting to finish ALL of MM2. What to you think the total speed run time on THAT would be?
Really, the lives don't matter or carry over? I thought I saw that they did. Then why can you set how many to start with, to give a total amount up front?
Anyway, I just went the way of stringing along the levels I had already posted into worlds. I tried to make them relate to the themes as much as possible, but they weren't made with that in mind. I tried to concentrate on the SMW levels at the start, to try to give it that feel, but the other themes start kicking in for the later worlds. I usually aim for a medium difficulty level, with some areas requiring thought or skill but nothing too hardcore precise. What I don't do is all the specific "Mario Maker" type things- auto run, trolling, floating pipes and pits filled with enemies and stars. I try to make ones as if I'm on the Nintendo team, with a little license to put my own ideas in, and make levels that have plenty of ways to fail but never make it nearly impossible to succeed.
I'd like to find out how the whole one-at-a-time thing works, though. Can you post a world, then work on a better version of it that uses a lot of the same levels then replace it with your "new and improved" world? I could almost see Nintendo imposing a restriction that you can't use the same course twice. Not really sure why we needed a restriction like this in the first place. Is it just to keep the initial wave down and then they'll expand it the way they went from 32 to 64 to 100 course uploads? You can't really say there would be too many worlds to store if you can have the same amount of levels posted as single courses. It's just a filing system for grouping the access codes that gets attached to your profile. If the limit is 100 courses, You should be able to post at least two worlds of forty and still have twenty left. I hope they at least lift it to two after a while.
If interested, my maker code is QPH-6RK-B9G, And my current world is 7 worlds/34 levels. I'll work on some more individual courses and upload a revised world in a while if it works that way.
Comments 271
Re: Soapbox: Are We Ready For A 3D Super Mario Maker?
It seems unlikely a decent 3D development interface could be scaled down to an interface like the Mario Maker games, at least presented the way NIntendo would likely want to. “Dreams” did provide a 3D toolset, but it gets much more involved than MM does and you would get way too much rubbish if they offered the same sort of sharing options.
As much as they gave us with Mario Maker, there was already a ton of things Mario games have nearly always had that were impossible to do with it. Levels routinely had larger set piece areas and mechanics MM didn’t try to replicate. Think of how often in Super Mario World that large slabs of path moved back and forth against each other to create routes that opened and closed and gave you safe spots to wait until the openings line up. Or even all the pendulum platforms that only move when you stand on them.
Now that Wonder has raised the bar even further for level specific gimmicks and physics, a potential Mario Maker 3 would have it’s hands full just trying to come close to providing the full range of possibilities even the 33 year old SMW had. And the way NIntendo stopped supporting MM2 with updates so fast makes you wonder if continuing Maker titles is a high enough priority to them.
I’d be happy to see anything they might do in the future, but I won’t hold my breath expecting they’re preparing to give us new keys to go even deeper.
Re: Players Need To Start "Feeling Comfortable" With Not Owning Games, Says Ubisoft Subs Boss
Ubi soft has already shown what they’ll do if they have an continued influence over a game you supposedly have. For anyone who enjoyed the original 2 Rayman mobile runner games, they pulled support and disabled them, probably to assure that people would instead go sign up for Apple Arcade to get access to Rayman mini. Tough luck if you liked the first two, they’re just gone now.
And streaming services can’t claim to take the place of a physical DVD library, because I don’t have a monthly list of what discs will be leaving my shelves. But most streaming services shed movies and shows as regular function. Subscriptions and online access can be a great compliment to a physical library, but there’s too many shortcomings for it to be a complete replacement of it.
I know the studios and companies that control games and video and music would love to keep us on the streaming leash, but how do they hope to do that by offering us less than we already have?
Re: Super Mario RPG Switch Leaked Online Ahead Of Next Week's Release
Not entirely sure how a Switch game can get an unofficial “leaked” version to begin with. How is it playable? Do you use a computer to put it on an SD card and transfer it that way?
Re: Super Mario Bros. Wonder: World 1 - Bulrush Express
Work in progress, it seems. So, you’ll be back to add in a part about the s*cr*t exit, right?
Re: Poll: So, What’s Your Verdict On The Mario Movie Trailer?
It certainly looks like everything is shaping up well with the look of it. Mario’s design is well adapted for a feature film appearance.
I’m sure much attention and criticism will be leveled at the voice. I hope most people will be open to the tweaking that basically had too happen. Let’s face it, the classic, Charles Martinet Mario is what we know, but it would have been a very difficult thing to flesh out on this scale. It’s an ethnic stereotype caricature voice, and what works in little phrase bites in the games would have a harder time not being offensive to some when stretched out into conversational character dialogue.
Which is the other concern. Video game characters are often best served by not speaking. They’re an avatar for the player and it’s easiest to slip into their role if they’re not chatting it up and reminding us that they’re somebody other than us. Sonic was long ago a little spoiled by Sega giving him a rad dude voice first chance they got, so his movie debut didn’t shock us much. In the beginning, though, Sonic also worked better keeping his mouth shut and letting us slip into his skin with our controllers.
Mario has always been a bit more of a Harpo Marx/Charlie Chaplin kind of figure, who is best served by not constantly articulating his thoughts and having an attitude. Spinning a modern CG feature out of such a character is possible, but that would be a trickier movie to make and certainly not what any film studio would set out to do. And you’re not going to get a marquee star just to have him say “Mama Mia” and “woohoo” a couple of times. Might be best to look at it like an alternate universe type of thing. In one world, Mario remains the quiet observer we can identify with and see as an extension of ourselves, in another, he’s chatty and shows a range of thoughts and emotions that we watch from a third party perspective.
The plain fact is, if we want a Mario movie, then we’re going have to get on board with a movie Mario.
Re: 'Jumping For Joy' Leaps Into Platforming History, With Plenty For Nintendo Fans To Enjoy
It would seem like a book aiming to cover platformers in general would be better served with a more generic image. Yooka Laylee does at least have one foot in each style of platformer (between side scroller and 3D), but it hasn’t really gained a wide enough popularity to represent the entire subject matter over the more obvious choices.
A cover featuring multiple games may have been a legal or logistical problem, and Mario or Sonic may have been too on the nose or also a rights issue. Something with a generic character jumping on floating platforms might have been better, but they probably were afraid it would seem too vague or bland.
Or maybe they could have gone extra obscure and just slap Rocky Rodent on the cover. That would sure sell some books...
Re: Feature: SEGA's Astonishing GameCube Rebound Following Defeat In The Console Wars
The one area where Sega seems to squander their place as a game publisher is in bringing much of their library to current systems. Even compared to Nintendo’s online libraries or VC when that was a thing. I know old games take an amount of time and effort to port, but it still seems like Sega lets a lot of properties stay in the past.
Of course we’ve gotten Sonic a number of times, and the Genesis/Mega minis trot out a roster that also seems full of repeats. But many haven’t been seen since they debuted on whatever short-lived Sega system they were made for.
Where’s Nights, Astal, Bug!, Clockwork Knight, Billy Hatcher, Knuckles Chaotix, Tempo, and of course, Jet Set Radio? It’s fairly well proven that re-releases for newer systems shake some more profits out of old titles, but they seem happy enough to let quite a few of their own games remain on the shelf, even though many of them didn’t get a chance to sell to a user base any larger than the one Sega system they were on, and since absolutely everyone had a 32x, maybe they feel that was enough?
Re: Review: Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course - Short, Sweet, And Utterly Essential
They’ve done a great job both extending the game with a whole new final phase, and filling in a few blanks in their spot-on tribute to the classic cartoon era. They were able to add in some staple themes from that period like westerns and snowman beasts and bulldogs that they missed before, while adding a whole new fourth isle “world” that measures up to the original three.
Since isles 1 & 2 each had 5 bosses, this equals those. And since these bosses are a bit “grander” than some of those, it brings it a notch closer to isle 3’s 7 bosses. The secrets and King’s challenges stand in for the Run n’ Guns well enough. And the finale gave them the opportunity to raise the animation level to include something on the scale of early animated features of the era.
The whole package is now a more solid full game, and it’s still more of a bargain at $26 instead of all the $60 games out there. My sympathies to those still holding out for that fabled physical cart version. It sounds like they still aim to do it but it doesn’t sound like it will be speedy. I wonder if they can manage to match the price of the digital version, though. Even if they came in just under $40, it would still be a value title. Bravo, indeed!
Re: Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Serves Up Icy New Gameplay Footage
Ok, now that I’ve seen a recent interview with one of the key creators, there’s a bit more detail on the amount of content. I’m not quite sure how you could describe it as the biggest island, though, since she claimed it’s 5 bosses, and NO new Run n’ Gun. She did say that there were some new ways to earn coins that she wouldn’t reveal just yet (but perhaps the internet will spoil before the 30th). She called the bosses “super sized”, but if they also need to be beaten within the same two minute window, what would that mean?
We were also told that Ms Chalice has to be equipped through the charm slot, so she can’t be used with any other charms but has built in abilities that sort of take the place of the extra heart and smoke dash.
I’ve had a feeling the whole time they were going to ditch the Run n’ Guns, so it’s not a big surprise but a bit of a let down. Interested to see what new ways of earning coins will be, but slightly nervous it might be frustratingly difficult new mechanics involved.
Still, even though it’s not free (roughly half the cost of the original game), it still looks worth it.
Re: Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Serves Up Icy New Gameplay Footage
Everything I’ve seen so far all looks great, and I’m looking forward to 20 days from now to dig in, but I’m still not too sure I should believe the claims I’m hearing that it will be bigger than any other island. Island 3 had 7 bosses along with 2 Run n’ Guns, and we’ve only seen evidence of 4 new bosses. This latest glimpse shows just how much more is in one of the levels we’d seen before, but if this comes out and it winds up only being the 4 we’ve had previews of, it’ll be a bit disappointing.
I’m one of the few that really want to see at least one new Run n’ Gun, but they’ve kept it real quiet if there are any to be had. It seems as if they still have had control over what gets shown, and I’d like to think they’re just intentionally limiting the amount of battles they’ll show for now to preserve some degree of surprise. We’ve been shown Pork Rind’s with new items for sale. How are we supposed to pay for those, for example? I’d actually be happy with it even if it isn’t much more than they’ve hinted at, but making claims that it’s the biggest island yet might be oversell unless they’re going to whip out another 4 bosses they hadn’t told us about yet.
I’d expect that as we get into the last week that the press and the privileged streamers will get early copies and start spoiling, but for now I’m just hoping they’re trying to keep a few things secret as long as they can.
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Three More Titles
Well, it sure seems like the SNES online service has the whole caveman game thing covered by now. So many titles we’ll never see on there, yet there’s now 4 games in this one “genre”. Maybe they’ll give us the Flintstones game and Super Bonk next.
Re: Cuphead's 'Delicious Last Course' DLC Launches Next Year On 30th June
They sure don’t take the time for frequent updates, so it’s good to hear at least they think it’s 6 more months instead of the more vague answers last time they surfaced.
It’s probably not a popular opinion, but I still don’t see any sign of even one new run n’ gun level. Frustrating as they can be, they do help the pacing by breaking up the set piece bosses. If there are new weapons as they’ve said, do they just give them to you or wouldn’t you need some more coins to get them, in which case that’s another purpose they served.
Either way, as much as I admire the creator’s standard of quality despite their smaller size as a studio, they sure temp the fate of the platforms they’re developing for being outmoded before they can deliver.
Re: MultiVersus From Warner Bros Is A Free-To-Play Platform Fighter, Skipping Switch
There seems to be some decent ideas in here, but it’s definitely sketchy as to what it will really wind up being as far as what’s free and what’s fee.
But, unrelated to the game, watching this preview I can’t help but wish we could be done with the goofy style of cutting to side views of the “host” while they still look toward a front camera. Everyone does it now and I’m sure it’s considered stylish but it’s always just odd and distracting.
Re: Review: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - A Strong Platform Fighter With Polish Problems
The lack of voice acting is not at all surprising. These characters span a 30 year period and many are voiced by fairly big names in the field. Performers that may be a bit above grunting and hollering for a mid-level game production. Poor imitations would probably be worse than nothing at all so they really made the better choice by skipping the issue. It’s a pity, because this would have been a lot more lively with the full personalities intact, but I can see how nearly impossible that would have been.
The music is a different issue though. I’d guess that’s the usual problem of rights and just would have pushed the budget through the roof. Much easier to get recordings or even record new versions that would have been fine, but over a dozen different rights holders looking for hefty payment rules that out.
With all that to consider, it seems this is the only option they really had to get this project made, leaving the mechanics as a focal point of the design. Going by the reviews I’ve been seeing, it seems they did well there. Still not so sure I want to lay down money on it myself though. Maybe if they had made a beefier single player experience it would be more tempting.
Re: Talking Point: Do You Want To See More Apple Arcade Games On Switch?
I certainly don’t mind if game publishers want to branch out to other systems with games made for Apple Arcade, but good luck to them trying to do so. I’d have to guess plenty of them are tied to exclusive deals to help drive Apple Arcade subscriptions.
What I DO mind is that the Apple service killed games I already had just to steer me into signing up. The 2 Rayman runner games I had no longer work, and have disappeared entirely so that “Rayman Mini” doesn’t have the competition from them. “Mini” might be fun as well, but it’s just not worth a monthly fee to me. I liked having Jungle Run and Fiesta Run at the ready but they’ve been disabled now that they’ve set up a way to charge for “free to play” mobile games.
So, sure. If anyone can strike a deal to have a game of theirs that Apple is using to drive subscriptions also on Switch, I hope they can. At least the eShop doesn’t charge a membership fee. Yet...
Re: Feature: Toys For Bob On Crash 4 For Switch And The 'Dream' Of Smash Bros.
It sure seems like this article was prepared prior to the reassignments. It seems to take place in a world where this type of game is valued in its own right, and where the specific talents at Toys For Bob could be put to use properly.
Maybe NL didn’t want to bum us out by including reminders that imaginative talents have been folded into a support team for s series that has nearly nothing to do with what they excel at.
I really have to wonder what factored most in the the apparent “failure” of Crash 4 in Activision’s eyes. How much did they need it to sell to prove that not everyone wants play as a gun barrel floating around in a bombed out war zone landscape? Did they even give the Switch version enough time to boost its profile? And why were sales low enough to cause this reaction? Did word of the difficulty scare off too much of the N Sane Trilogy audience?
Re: Toys For Bob Is Now A Support Developer For Call Of Duty: Warzone
@arnoldfranklin No doubt, and it’s even too soon to say if the Switch version and the PS5/PC ports won’t continue to bring more sales. It’s just not enough for companies that want EVERYTHING to sell like whatever is topping the charts. If all their eggs aren’t in the best selling basket then they want to toss out all the other baskets.
The shame for me, and anyone else who values the style of game TFB just delivered on Spyro & Crash, is that it’s a double blow. You lose the thing you like while the thing you don’t like gets strengthened from it. I’m not a sports guy, but it’s like having having your favorite player suddenly drafted onto the team you’ve always hated. Or if the Beatles came back and their label forced them to only record covers of current hits with auto-tuned raps because that’s what seems to be selling now.
Publishers knuckling under to current trends helps steer the buying public further into those trends by making it the only choice. At least NIntendo still has a reputation for not always being scared of not following trends.
Re: Toys For Bob Is Now A Support Developer For Call Of Duty: Warzone
Well, that’s disheartening. I know the Call Of Duty series is extremely popular, but it’s just not my thing. What is my thing is games like Spyro Reignited and Crash 4, so I hate to hear that they are considered “underperforming” by the publisher. I was looking forward to whatever might have been the next project from TFB, but I guess now it won’t matter because they’ve been folded into a series that has nothing to do with the kind of style they were so good at.
I guess the Call Of Duty fans still have plenty to look forward to, since the buying public is still supporting them.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo And The Industry Needs To Get Serious About Game Preservation
Games becoming virtually extinct has been an issue for the entire history of gaming consoles. Other than trying to maintain classic systems and working game cartridges, there are tons of titles that can’t be played anymore, and many that have no chance at being reissued in any form. It’s fortunate that games featuring licensed characters were frequently not very original or memorable because those licenses expire and you won’t find any company willing to put the kind of money into reviving them. That’s why one of Nintendo’s early arcade games that was right up there in the arcades with Donkey Kong and did get an NES release but won’t get the “Arcade Archives” treatment due to the licensed character, Popeye. There are loads of other games from over the years that also used characters that present rights issues, from Cool Spot to Chester Cheetah or Simpsons and Nickelodeon characters, if you have fond memories of any of them and wanted to go back and run through it again, you’ll need original hardware or some kind of unofficial ROM rip. The NIntendo classic mini systems kind of point out what we can expect to see by way of retro reissues, for a system that had several hundred titles during its time gets reduced to 20 or 30. Nope, not going to be able to fire up “Plok” on that one.
Games are even harder to preserve than other media because the hardware they’re made for gets replaced nearly every 5 years. Not quite like record or CD players, or even home video. It’s outmoded so quick it’s like sidewalk chalk art during rainy season.
Re: Surprise, Surprise! Super Mario 3D All-Stars Prices Skyrocket As Scalpers Set Up Shop
Just trying to imagine what someone who would pay 2,500 would actually do with it. Just to play it? That would almost certainly feel like a letdown. Maybe just to keep it as a collectible? It’ll likely never really be worth what they already paid for it.
Either way, I’d like to think some of the scalpers will have copies they can’t unload for years.
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Four More Titles
By now it seems pretty unlikely ever seeing any high profile non first party titles on this service. Even if there are no other plans in the works for them, Earthworm Jim and Clay Fighter are properties that were big enough that they wouldn’t just add them to a lineup of free to play titles. I don’t know enough about Prehistorik Man to dismiss it outright, but it sure looks like it wasn’t the first thing we needed on a roster that already has Joe & Mac.
There are more NIntendo titles they could mine, but I expect only the most obscure games and nothing featuring licensed characters or basically anything the owners of would prefer to sell, even if they’re not trying to sell it currently.
Re: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Leaked Online A Week Before Launch
I guess there’s no relation to the fact that the pre-order download just appeared on my home menu. I just noticed it popped up last night. It’s saying the game is about 2.8 GB in data mgmt. There aren’t any exploits that trick a system into playing it, are there? I’m patient enough to wait, but I’ve wondered how secure the practice of pre loading is against hacking.
Re: Sephiroth From Final Fantasy VII Joins Super Smash Bros. Ultimate This Month
I see quite a lot of positive reactions to this, so I’m happy for everyone who’s happy with it. Afraid I’m just not one of them. These humanoid Anime sword swingers all look and play too similarly for me. I guess they’re set apart from each other by some of their specific special moves, but it’s not really my thing to begin with so they all seem like the same thing over and over. I suppose the amount of them in Smash is proportionate to how popular the games they come from are, though. Hard to argue that Final Fantasy isn’t big enough to warrant it.
I’d have preferred Crash, but I guess to some he would be the redundant one, just another cartoon animal mascot jumping and bopping around. To each his own.
Re: Super Mario Maker Online Services To Be Terminated, Will Soon Be Removed From Sale
By the way, what’s up with all the discontinuation of Mario on March 31st? 3D All Stars, Mario 35, now this. Are they going to take the old games off the Switch online service next? Maybe on midnight April 1st everyone playing a Mario game will suddenly get a big “Time’s Up!” on the screen as Mario drops into the void...
Re: Super Mario Maker Online Services To Be Terminated, Will Soon Be Removed From Sale
I guess that means if you pick up a used Wii U and a copy of the game disc, you won’t have any of the course parts added through updates, or any of the costumes added.
As the systems and games from the age of online content start getting old enough to enter the “retro domain”, they may not be as collectible as old NES & SNES systems and games. Physical copies won’t let you keep the entire game anymore.
At least Mario Maker lives on for now with 2, which fortunately was a “sequel” that basically contained the game it was a sequel of (minus the dropped features like costumes). Now the question is how long will NIntendo support the Mario Maker concept? Will there be a future sequel to keep it in the library of whatever might replace the Switch one day, or will the whole idea phase out by then.
Re: Random: Microsoft Shuts Down Rumours That It's Buying Sega Next
I'm just wondering about the image used for this article. At what point did they create a gallery of Sega characters that gave such a prominent position to Billy Hatcher?
I actually enjoyed that game, but it's another one of those Sega entries that they seem to have no interest in re-releasing, like Bug!
Re: Online Retailer Adds Mention Of 'Switch Pro Consoles', But Does It Mean Anything?
There seems to be enough clues to point to some kind of high end version coming. The reports of "4k ready", and the recent patent images of a rounded Joy Con type controller type suggest something like that is forming. Add in the weird cut-off timing of March 31, and you might think it all means something.
I just hope it isn't time to produce software that won't play on the existing Switches already. When the "New" 3DS came out they pulled that trick, having certain titles that wouldn't play on the older ones. Time never stops marching on in the game industry, after all.
Could they have in mind a 3 tiered platform, with the Switch Lite as the simple handheld focus, the original Switch as the all-purpose, and a new high end home console with home theater specs?
Re: Poll: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Is Out Today On Switch, Are You Getting It?
Just got back from Best Buy with my reserved copy. I was the first one to pull into the lot, but the 5th one to get out of the car and stand in line like cattle. It seems like I didn’t need to be quite that persistent to beat out the competition because it really was reserved in this case. It actually had my name printed on a sticker, so the pre orders were more locked in than expected. I just didn’t want to chance a “should have got here sooner” situation.
Still not too fond of the limited release nature of it, though. I may have gone digital if not for that but it seemed a little more solid to get an actual cart if they’re going to play it that way. So now I’m off to dip into the thing. I’ll probably go a little ways into each and switch it up back and forth. I can’t imagine waiting to try the others while doing complete playthroughs one at a time.
Re: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Will Launch With A Day-One Update
I should have guessed. I haven't gotten a physical game in a while, but with the limited run of this one I wanted to go that route. I thought just maybe, since the games are older and should't need updates, that a cart would have everything needed on them.
Now before it even arrives it becomes another incomplete cart, dependent on having whatever console it's played on containing the missing code. This is why I usually just go digital now, the carts are always out of date.
Makes me miss the days when consoles weren't online, and the cart or disc had the whole game in one place
Re: Scalpers Are Already Listing The "Limited" Switch Release Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Sadly, they can never come up with a way to prevent this. There’s no way to ever get everyone to just be cool and let an opportunity to hustle people go. You can’t get all retailers to agree on sales limits, and those limits do effect people who want to buy extra copies for less selfish reasons.
Sure, I usually want to strap these vultures into a machine that never stops punching them, but it’s just the way of the world. I also wish we could just starve them out by not buying from them and say “enjoy playing your 50 copies of that, Mr KaChing, you bought ‘em!” But in the end they force people into it. They might as well stand outside a GameStop and mug people going in to buy theirs.
I’ll just have to hope the pre-purchase order # I have saves my place in line, and they actually hold one in the location given while ordering (that’s how Best Buy does it, at least). If I can’t make it at fisherman’s hours I hope they don’t just give it to some chucklehead grabbing 20. It sure seems like you’re RESERVING a copy and not just pre-paying going by the ordering process. We’ll see, I guess.
It’s a shame, because it nearly makes you wish NIntendo wouldn’t release anything too special because it might become a bitter struggle to get it rather than simply something that’s released and you can go get yours. Within seconds of any big announcement of something I’d like in my mind I’m already rolling my sleeves up anticipating a tussle. I hope this limited time thing won’t apply to 3D World when that comes out.
Re: Super Mario 3D World On Switch Appears To Be A Lot Faster Than The Wii U Original
While it’s possible it runs faster, this is Gamexplain. They tend to wildly speculate about every detail in these videos as if what’s on screen is 100% how the game will perform. The game is 5 months away, and there’s no proof that these shots aren’t somewhat “staged” for presentation. There isn’t even any kind of HUD present. Go back and watch a old Gamexplain video on a title that’s since come out, and you’ll see them bring up ideas that turn out to be wrong guesses.
We won’t know until more people get some hands on time with it. I’m just waiting to find out how all the Gamepad elements will be treated. Gone? Some kind of Joy Con tricks? Handheld mode only? As long as we don’t get an annoying blue tinker bell on screen I’ll be happy.
Re: Nintendo Announces Super Mario Remasters And Much More In Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct
Ok, maybe my griping was a little overboard, since I seem to have gotten a preorder set with Best Buy. I still don't like the limited edtion routine, because it only benefits the scaplers/resellers and hurts the honest customer that just wants a copy at the true price. I guess Nintendo has their reasons, though. And it wouldn't be a Nintendo joint unless they throw in a little disappointment.
A visual makeover for 64 would have been nice. What was impressive 24 years ago is a mess of dancing triangles today. I guess purists would prefer it, but I'd love to see the game look as good as 3D World. Wondering why they couldn't even make it 16:9. Maybe that would break some areas for the camera.
I'd say the odds are slim to none that what they're calling "Galaxy" would be both rolled into one, but what does this mean for Galaxy 2? Orphaned and abandoned?
Re: Cat Mario And Peach Amiibo Will Claw At Your Purse Strings Next February
Obviously I failed to read all the other comments before posting. I wasn’t the first to bring up the colors.
I guess they can’t replace the blue toad with a yellow one this time, though.
Re: Cat Mario And Peach Amiibo Will Claw At Your Purse Strings Next February
There’s still one question they’ve never addressed - why is Mario’s cat suit yellow, but every other character is matched to their regular color? Shouldn’t Cat Mario be red?
Not to say I mind the way it is. A red cat suit wouldn’t look as good as the yellow one. I guess Cat Mario is closely connected to Builder Mario.
Re: Nintendo Announces Super Mario Remasters And Much More In Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct
What on earth is the reason for the limited availability? Seriously? Why doesn't Nintendo just ship them ALL to the eBay pirates so we can enjoy paying $500 for them? What possible reason could they have for imposing a limited window on this? Now I'll have to amend my expectations to IF I can get it, instead of when I get it.
Were they worried they might make too much money if they didn't slap a cap on it? Really, after months of speculation as to whether these would be real or not, who expected the issue to shift to "oh by the way, it's actually a collector's item you may never be able to find because people snap up as many as they can to resell at a profit"?
Maybe I'll try to get it, but I truly hate these frustrating struggles to find an available copy when they make limited editions. But I'll bet the resellers are already drooling in anticipation, and I guess they'll wind up making more money than Nintendo from this.
Re: Rumour: Super Mario Remasters To Be Announced This Month, But Won't Launch On Mario's 35th
Way to let some air out of the tires before going for a ride. Instead of giving that video announcement it's own fresh article, you just tack it onto the most recent rumor report like an afterthought? Sort of gave it a bit of a sneak attack, though.
Mostly good to see, but I'm sure many will find things to be disappointed with. 3D World still 5 1/2 months away? No Galaxy 2? 3D "remasters" not given any real makeovers? Iguess we'll stop seeing the tons of speculation videos on YouTube about these, but they'll be replaced by gripes about what they didn't do with them.
And thanks to months of rumor milling, it's even difficult to trust what I just watched was real. It's not April 1st, so I guess it was...
Re: Nintendo Is Recruiting Level Designers To Work On New 2D Action Games
They could just browse Mario Maker 2 and recruit a few of the best creators there. I’m guessing they’re looking for LEVEL designers since they use that term. Regardless of whether the goal is new game in a franchise or new IP, you would think they have that part covered and want some new blood setting up nuts and bolts level ideas. Plenty of talent giving them a run for their money there, they just have to wade through a lot of sloppy slap togethers to find them.
What they’re actually looking to do is something to ponder, though. If you look at what the Switch already has:
Mario: Between NSMBUD and SMM2, and all the 8 and 16 bit games in the online, they kind of dilute the specialness of putting out a new 2D Mario (unless they go for a whole new style, I’d like a Cuphead approach but I don’t see them imitating an indie game with their star character)
Donkey Kong: The odds of this are better, but with Tropical Freeze selling even less on Switch than on Wii U, they may be nervous to put money into a follow up.
Yoshi: So far, no system has gotten more than one of these, and Switch already has Crafted World (and the original with the online).
Kirby: Well, Kirby games never seem to rate in the same space as the above franchises. They seem to be their own thing, almost like the Sesame Street of platformers.
Something NEW: So, when’s the last time NIntendo rolled out a new 2D IP? I’d like to see what they’d do, though. They’ve milked the ones they’re known for for so long, it’s hard to picture what they’d do as a fresh concept.
Whatever their plan is, it’s good to see the intention to create new 2D games. 24 years since Mario 64, and it’s still pretty clear that 3D can’t completely replace 2D game design.
Re: Ex-Rare Composer David Wise Says He Would Be "Delighted" To Be Involved With Another Donkey Kong Country Game
I've just been replaying TF the last couple weeks. It would be great to get a follow up, but high selling games is what motivates them to make sequels. Unfortunately, Tropical Freeze can't seem to catch a break with a wider audience. At the moment, it seems like the Switch version sold less than the Wii U version, so that's not a good sign.
What is it about this game that keeps it from bigger sales? We all blamed the Wii U before, but since it didn't do any better on Switch, what's the reason? Does the title put people off? "Sounds like it's full of snow and ice levels, those aren't my favorites". Well, that sure isn't the case, plenty of variety to the levels.
Donkey Kong Country Returns did much better, but TF improved on it. But the problem is Returns was on Wii, so it had a much bigger install base. So, another game in the series would be welcome, but I don't know if Nintendo would find it worth doing after the lukewarm response to the Switch version.
Re: Soapbox: 25 Years On, I Still Can't Get Into Yoshi's Island
I was certainly able to get into it when it came out. I've been less motivated to try another full go round on the mini or online, though.
The one thing I always felt, though, which I see echoed in this article is that it never deserved the subtitle of SMW 2. It's Yoshi 1, plain and simple. Sure, they probably didn't know they were starting a new franchise at the time, but it's far more the start of the Yoshi games than a follow up to Mario World. Everything this game brought to the table carried on into the Yoshi platformers that followed, while the original Mario World has more in common with the NSMB titles. Wooly World is the one that carries on from Yoshi's Island, and to an extent, Crafted World feels similar in ways to Yoshi's Story.
But "Super Mario World 2"? No, not at all.
Re: Cuphead's 'Delicious Last Course' DLC Will Arrive 'When It's Ready'
The thing is, it’s not as hard as it’s reputation. A lot of it requires study and learning patterns. It would be a really short game if it was made any easier. What you’re getting isn’t just a romp to blast through in one sitting. You’re meant to spend a little time with each new boss learning it’s moves, and which weapons to equip. Then go back and try to improve the score. Like games used to be about.
The original Donkey Kong was just 4 single screen challenges to repeat, yet they made a movie about marathon players grinding away at it. Cuphead gets it’s mileage out of giving you a reason to spend plenty of time on challenges you’re meant to do in less than 2 minutes each.
Of course, if you’re trying to get the black & white filter, now we’re talking hard. Doing all the run and gun levels without the gun part gets pretty difficult.
Re: Cuphead's 'Delicious Last Course' DLC Will Arrive 'When It's Ready'
Ok, now we have the official word. And it’s maybe the least exciting item on the list, except for people who only have PS4. And the Netflix show looks a bit better than I was expecting, but I knew they wouldn’t be able to control themselves and make a show that continued to look as authentically 1930s as the game does. They just can’t resist more modern pacing and framing. It’s good that it won’t look just like a Flash cartoon, but it still looks more 2020 than 1930.
No mention of why the official site is saying “available now” about something they still can’t even commit to a release date on. At least we got to try a brief moment to see what it might feel like to find out the DLC is live, but it’s not as much fun when it’s quickly followed by the disappointment of a big ol’ shrug for when to really expect it.
So now the question is - delayed until 2021, or 2022?
Re: Cuphead's 'Delicious Last Course' DLC Might Be Arriving Very Soon
Well, thanks for getting my hopes up through a long system update, but I don’t see any sign of the DLC being available for the Xbox version. Sure, there’s a pulsing “click here” announcement if you go to the game’s page, and if you click on it, you get the same trailer we had last year.
So what’s changed to make someone think anything new has happened? I even had a 30 mb “update” that supposedly applied itself when I tried to launch the game, then up comes the same game I’ve had since the Mugman update.
Please update this article to prevent others from thinking the DLC went live only to find the only game to play is still the waiting game. I appreciate the work they put in to make this game as good as it is, but after it took them 3 years longer than expected to make it, why would we expect the extra material to not go through the same excruciatingly slow development?
Re: Watch: Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase July 2020
Odd. I saw plenty of YouTube videos posted over the weekend by people that were sure there would be announcements of the Mario remasters today, yet no one here has even brought them up.
I guess all those Mario posters are just too disappointed to even comment yet.
Re: Donkey Kong Country Swings Onto The Switch Online SNES Service Next Week
All well and good, maybe DKC should have been there already, but the other titles sort of point out the eventual problem with third party games. Sure, when they first come out, they bolster the lineup with a variety of games you wouldn’t usually get from NIntendo, but the best ones become important titles to owners of that system. But fast forward to the future, where they can put a virtual version of the system in their current console, and those third party titles that were once so important can’t make their way back as easily. I can think of a lot of titles I’d rather see than “Natsume Championship Wrestling”, but that’s what they can get their hands on.
I think we know by now we’ll see Super Mario World and Link To The Past every time they bring out the old titles for a new console, but there sure are a lot of other games we plugged into a SNES in ‘93 they we’ll never see make a comeback. Even NIntendo can’t put out ALL of their old titles these days (Popeye, anyone?), so we’ll never see any “virtual console” setup giving us everything we’d want.
Re: Review: Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 - A Great Way To Rediscover Namco's Classic NES Titles
There's certainly plenty to choose from if you're looking for retro titles. The main issue might be a matter of preference in what type of retro you want, and a bit of frustration in what gets repeated and what gets skipped. Want the classic Pac-Man? Take your pick, it's going to be in every one of them in some form. You just need to choose between arcade or NES versions. Other titles may only appear in one form or the other.
Or, if you're like me and want to play the true classic arcade version of Nintendo's "Popeye", you have a choice between time-traveling to 1982 or tough luck.
Re: Super Mario 64 PC Port Shows The Game Running At 4K And With Ultra Widescreen Support
I guess there’s some value for anyone just looking to play it that doesn’t have an official NIntendo platform to play it on. It’s a little interesting seeing the sharper image, but in a world where Odyssey exists, or even 3D World, seeing 25 year old polygons all spruced up is a bit less than eye candy. If NIntendo chose to go all in and rebuild the graphics to current standards I’d be up for the ride, but it’s hard to get too excited over a 4K version of a round pipe made of straight edges. The gameplay is classic and timeless, but unless NIntendo gives it a proper makeover, I’m afraid SM64 is too quaintly ugly to go hi def.
Re: Community: Tried Super Mario Maker 2's World Maker Yet? Share Your Codes Here
This article may be too old now to still comment on, but there’s a question I’ve had ever since SMM2 came out that I’ve never seen answered anywhere - What is the difference between the footprints on the course info screen and the number that appears in the clear rate? The latter is always a higher number. As an example, one of my courses shows a clear rate of 2 out of 37, but the footprints is 11. So which one is the number of plays? I assume it’s saying only two out of 37 plays were cleared, but then what is the 11?
Does it mean that 11 different players tried a total of 37 times and it only resulted in 2 clears? I went through all the info screens in the play guide, but it’s never clearly said what these mean. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a “boo!”, since that has its own icon. (I’ve never given a boo, either. If you can’t say something nice, etc...). I take the footprints to represent “foot traffic”, rather than saying that amount of people “walked out” on the course instead of finishing. But why is there a higher number in the clear rate? I realize it would feel out of place to have an exhaustive list of stats so they go with little icons and simplified accounting, but it should at least be clear what all of these numbers mean.
Either way, I know I’m one of those creators that can’t really break through to higher numbers and get on any of the “hot” or “popular” lists, but I can never really tell just how many people tried a given course. It does seem like each upload gets a little attention the day it goes up, so they must appear on the “New Courses” list at least until they’re pushed out by newer ones.
And I’ve never seen one of my own on any list. Is that even possible, or does the game filter your own courses out when you search? That’s another question I’ve never seen anyone ever answer.
Re: Community: Tried Super Mario Maker 2's World Maker Yet? Share Your Codes Here
Not surprisingly, I notice I've been getting "___ played your level" notifications about the first couple levels I put in my world. I don't see them continue too far in with the same player names, though, so I guess they're trying a couple levels and then bailing on it. So that's something to consider when building a world, you need something to hook them quick or they'll move on. So don't try to start slow and build to your best stuff in world 7, or they'll never see it.
It's to be expected, though. It's one thing to post single courses and hope people will find it and have the patience to see it through, but to have a whole game's worth when players know there's so much more to choose from? Imagine if MM2 didn't exist and Nintendo put out a new Mario side scroller title. You'd get it and probably play all the way through. Ok, now imagine if they put out a couple MILLION new Mario games all at once. Gonna play 'em all? That's the drawback to Mario Maker in general, you'll likely NEVER play everything that's there, just the ones you get codes for from either friends or recommendations, or random ones from the lists that are like a Mario lottery system.
So, consider yourself a pretty good designer if you get someone to stick around and finish your world, but don't feel like a failure if they only sample the first few, because there's too much temptation to see what else is out there, because there will ALWAYS be a ton more waiting for you no matter how much you play (ok, maybe half are auto-play levels or speed runs, but still).
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's some "Ultra-Completionist" out there attempting to finish ALL of MM2. What to you think the total speed run time on THAT would be?
Re: Community: Tried Super Mario Maker 2's World Maker Yet? Share Your Codes Here
Really, the lives don't matter or carry over? I thought I saw that they did. Then why can you set how many to start with, to give a total amount up front?
Anyway, I just went the way of stringing along the levels I had already posted into worlds. I tried to make them relate to the themes as much as possible, but they weren't made with that in mind. I tried to concentrate on the SMW levels at the start, to try to give it that feel, but the other themes start kicking in for the later worlds. I usually aim for a medium difficulty level, with some areas requiring thought or skill but nothing too hardcore precise. What I don't do is all the specific "Mario Maker" type things- auto run, trolling, floating pipes and pits filled with enemies and stars. I try to make ones as if I'm on the Nintendo team, with a little license to put my own ideas in, and make levels that have plenty of ways to fail but never make it nearly impossible to succeed.
I'd like to find out how the whole one-at-a-time thing works, though. Can you post a world, then work on a better version of it that uses a lot of the same levels then replace it with your "new and improved" world? I could almost see Nintendo imposing a restriction that you can't use the same course twice. Not really sure why we needed a restriction like this in the first place. Is it just to keep the initial wave down and then they'll expand it the way they went from 32 to 64 to 100 course uploads? You can't really say there would be too many worlds to store if you can have the same amount of levels posted as single courses. It's just a filing system for grouping the access codes that gets attached to your profile. If the limit is 100 courses, You should be able to post at least two worlds of forty and still have twenty left. I hope they at least lift it to two after a while.
If interested, my maker code is QPH-6RK-B9G, And my current world is 7 worlds/34 levels. I'll work on some more individual courses and upload a revised world in a while if it works that way.
Re: Super Mario Maker 2's Final Major Update Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@Euler As a playable variation, maybe so, but try letting a couple baseballs hit the toad house in the new mini game. It may attract some attention...