Kaze_Memaryu

Yeah, I've been on the receiving end of such accusations, as well. Granted, I'm pretty cynical and aggressive in my viewpoints, but even much more forgiving or well-intended reviews get a lot of undeserved hate lately.

The big issue is something I've talked about before in a forum: people think that giving a game a mediocre or bad rating equals to telling people not to like a game. But that's where they're horribly wrong: no review tells people not to have fun with games like Animal Crossing or Devil's Third, or even Metroid: Other M, despite their flaws. A review is mostly an attempt to summarize the mechanical and technical quality of a game, and whether these mechanics work well together or not. It's not an entertainment certificate, it's a quality gauge that, under optimal circumstances, has a very low influence from personal preference.
Of course, such reviews may end up being lacking by neglecting certain aspects of a game (like the Senran Kagura 2 review on this site), or just handling false information, but that's why people should always look for multiple reviews on a game and try to find common points to orientate from, and then try the game themselves.

Is this the year of censorship trolls or what?! What's next? Banning Lucky Luke? Media outrages over carnival/halloween costumes? Relabel Shadow Hearts: Covenant as racist? Goddammit, we need to tell them off before worse things happen!

@YorkshireNed While it's an interesting read, I don't see the issue at all. Barely any catholic member ever complained about fictional characters wearing traditional pope garbs, like the religious representants in many Tales of games, or the Healer from Dragon Quest III, but now natives start whining over the representation of their culture?!

Whenever EA presents the next excuse for not being pro-consumer, I have to hold back my laughter. They've talked so much idiocy in the last few years that I'm flat-out unable to believe a single word they forward to the public. And this lazy excuse comes off as especially petty when we consider how low-effort EA's most-selling games are (especially their sports games), and how much money they rake in.
With a little bit of honesty and dedication (that wouldn't cost them remotely as much as thry like to pretend), they could've established a very solid following on the WiiU, but being honest and dedicated isn't really EA's thing. They prefer swinging the whip and lying with straight faces.

Whenever I read or hear "preorder bonuses", I wanna strangle the developers for that nonsense, especially when it involves exclusive items and/or content! It's such a lousy lever to make people preorder, instead of simply leaving it to the game being interesting enough!

@Einherjar Ah, wasn't aware of that. What a shame. What a sham.

Thanks, Capcom. Thanks for half-baking the deal. Well, no difference for me, though.

@Einherjar Well, and then there's the NES Remix-style challenges, but I don't see that as an incentive to get it, honestly.

@kobashi100 I never said anything about elongating last gen consoles. What I'm talking about is their exaggerated jumps in tech that skipped over feasible steps in advances. Instead of being smart about their latest room heaters, they threw the same laughingstock campaign that made SEGA infamous in the 90's. All they did was dishing out hardware specs that not only mean nothing due to the inability of both the console itself as well as developers to actually make more out of than 30FPS upscales, but also simply fail to work together properly to begin with. Both PS4 and XBone mark the foolish trend of trying to compete with the insurmountable force of gaming PC's, but the end result was that they dragged everything down, especially with certain multiplatform titles inexplicably having laughably sloppy PC ports that are all tracked down to laziness or marketing not wanting too big of gap between PC and console versions, and that doesn't even take into consideration how glitchy the games are across all platforms.
If anything, Sony and Microsoft would've been better off staying with their original architectures to distant themselves from PC gaming, because now they're being embarrassed by lazy developers who use the different architecture they never had any issues before when developing for consoles, instead of keeping a good competition with Nintendo.

Meh, nothing of value was lost. We already have a Minecraft clone, and another one is approaching, so I don't see the point of releasing Minecraft on WiiU at this point, or why people still want it. It has basically no advantage over the other game, except for some iconic things that don't make for better gameplay. It's probably just brand obsession.

As others mentioned, Project CARS was a really crushing example of a developer who doesn't know where the limit is. However, these guys seem to know what they're facing, as they not only state that the WiiU architecture is the most complicated one to them, but also that the WiiU version will be the last one to arrive. I'll wait patiently, but I'll be cautious, no offense fo the dev team...

@kobashi100 Or blame Sony and Microsoft for the ridiculous arms race that they push without rime or reason, or the team behind HOVER not using engines and environments that require less maintenance between platforms. There's always multiple sides to the argument, just pointing fingers at one party isn't gonna solve anything.

@CrazedCavalier I understand the WiiU part, but the TotA 3DS port was really bad, which is rather ironic when the game itself already sucks. They hardly care at all, and even their Tales of strategy game is going nowhere.
As for Hearts/Innocence R, I don't know how well they sold, but I always question ports to VITA when it's not even selling in japan anymore, but developers insist on it being the best choice, instead of a dual release or somesuch shenanigans.

I was always under the impression that "Link" isn't the actual canonical name of the hero in the Zelda series, but more of an identification of the character who inherited the triforce of courage, yet this name is never mentioned in any legends. Because, technically, every Zelda game allows the player to pick a name of their liking, making "Link" an obsolete name for their specific adventure.
With that out of the way, "Linkle" is indeed a very dorky name, but it's a very distinct name that identifies this young girl as a standalone character. The inspiration of her having originally been envisioned as a female Link is still noticeable, but several things about her are still different enough. She's no longer "Link as a girl", she's herself, and that's enough for my taste.

@AlexOlney As far as I remember, they didn't make the game. Monolith is the creative group behind the game, and they added the bust slider for higher customization. What people do with it is none of Nintendo's business.
This thing was in the game, and then removed for literally nothing! This isn't even a wannabe-controversy like with Lyn, it's just arbitrary censorship! They don't have any right to do this for that very reason! They don't break a law, thy don't do anything special, but they still cut it for a quick laugh and safety from whiteknights!

I don't mind these games coming out on Sony consoles, but skipping Nintendo for it despite having had their original launch on a Nintendo system is pretty cheap, kinda like how NamcoBandai ported pretty much every Tales of game on Nintendo consoles to PS3/VITA (sloppily, if I might add), but flat-out ignored 3DS and WiiU - not a big loss, but it's matter of principle.

Okay, seriously, how can anyone say that this isn't a problem? If you people allow a company to go that far, they'll just go further and further, step by step, until every character is just a big black censor bar! Stop being so goddamn gullible and speak out against censorship already!

Like seriously, I'm strongly considering cancelling my pre-order at this point! What freaking right does Nintendo have to do this?! I'll tell you: none! This is pissing me off beyond belief!

@CB85 What critics say is hardly ever reliable (see COD: Ghosts, Assassin's Creed Unity, or Skyrim being lauded as polished, for example, despite their uncountable bugs), and Splatoon having good singleplayer is a flat lie. It's over in less than 2 hours, has no impacting characters, and serves only as a glorified tutorial. And the whole plot is a shoddy excuse that never makes any difference to anything, as the "lack of power" is entirely ignored in both the plaza (where only the big Zapfish is missing, but everything is still fine), and the overall narrative never even acknowledging this oh-so-important theft outside of the singleplayer campaign.
As for Smash, Brawl had an actual story (which wasn't all that great, but had a lot of unique content), and both the original Smash and Melee offer a passive narrative that is lampshaded by its trophy theme, with Melee at least offering new locations in Adventure Mode. This is degenerated into a little collectathon gimmick with Smash 4, with nothing within the unbalanced
Classic Mode playing into the existence of trophies, only showing them as a part of the "arena" that tells you what characters you fight next, and the Master Core being completely nonsensical, not to speak of the entire content of the game containing nothing that is special or intended for singleplayer experiences.
Then, calling Triforce Heroes innovative is really sad irony when nothing about the games' puzzles has any depth or creativity, but just the totem gimmick shoehorned in even in the most nonsensical places. All of it is in plain sight, and nothing poses any difficulty. And the whole "challenge" boils down to lazy enemy spam. And, not to forget, the game is extremely clunky when playing alone, heavily contradicting the intention of a portable system. For fanservice, look no further than the costume system that makes no sense (how do they know who the costumes originate from, and why do they give Link special powers?), as the specific outfits are almost entirely reliant on fan recognition, and look rather awkward otherwise. Also, I didn't mention A Link Between Worlds because it's not a recent title that has experienced a much more subtle recognition point of simply being a Zelda adventure that gives players everything they need to have fun all on their own, and the other two are remakes that change nothing except the visuals.
Now, Super Mario Maker is a more complex case, and I see you don't get it, but what I mean is that the entire game is constantly advertised through user-generated content, never mentioning Nintendo's levels as a part of the game. Furtthermore, gauging the game by these levels doesn't work, since user-made levels are the point of the game, nonetheless. That means all that can be gauged is the editor, which a UI, but there's no common content to base the game on from a quality standpoint. Now, for the omitted features, I admit to having portrayed my complaints very sloppily, but nonetheless, you cannot use the cape to fly any more, you don't get the iconic Tanooki Suit with the stone statue transformation, you don't get Mini/Mega Shrooms, and as far as I remember, adjusting scrolling directions in autoscroll to dynamic directions isn't possible, either.
And Fire Emblem Awakening still provided smart designs that properly reflected the fact that all these individuals wereat war, with a few exceptions. But FEif literally throws some of the most worn-out animé clichés into the party, both in design and writing, and thinks it's being witty when it's just a fanservice stand of the most unoriginal variety.

@Xenocity That has nothing to do with what I mean. I'm talking about the complete lack of depth Nintendo has developed recently. Just look at their recent "successful titles":

• Splatoon: basically worthless without multiplayer; meanwhile the Singleplayer content is just boring and unbelievably short
• SSB4: same issue as Splatoon, except that any sense of narrative was thrown out for no reason other than saving the need to justify design decision on top of that
• TLOZ Triforce Heroes: no actual sense of adventure, no world to explore, overly simplistic dungeon designs, inexplicable return to the Wind Waker artstyle
• Super Mario Maker: DIY level editor that lacks key features (like spin jumps, powerups, and autoscroll features), and simply dodges critical voices by pointing at everything being user-made
• Mario Party 10: streamlined to the point of event control, with planning and chaotic fun being rendered impossible
• Fire Emblem if: nonsensical fanservice designs, dumbed down gameplay, overpriced title

The Pokémon games don't fare much better, but that's TPC's fault, for the most part.
I'm not saying there's no quality left, but it's decreasing steadily to provide the playerbase with what seems to work better: by giving them controlled content instead of custom choices, and fun content with proper replayability. Instead they rely on what I like to call "blockbuster features" - stuff like online modes, superficial collectibles, toy integration, and extra content often serve as codewords to instantly raise attention, but not provide much substance otherwise, similar to how badly-made AAA titles manage to manipulate their fanbase into a purchase, except that Nintendo hasn't abandoned proper game design entirely yet.
The consequence often means that a quality singleplayer experience is simply disregarded. And that means I'm no longer part of their target field.

You don't have to understand what I mean, but rest assured that I'm not losing my trust in Nintendo because they didn't give me exactly what I wanted from them, but because they're not up to their on standards anymore in my eyes, and I stand firmly by that statement.

From an objective standpoint, the Direct was very informative. However, I personally am majorly disappointed by how uninspired and lazy Nintendo titles are becoming.
The direction Nintendo is taking moves them away from innovative fun, and more into fanservice hell, slowly losing the style of their titles in favour of widespread recognition that isn't backed up by good game design anymore. This Direct reinforced my impression, and before I end up loathing Nintendo, I'd much rather just distance myself from their shenanigans.
Most things Nintendo showed since the end of last year further reassured my intention to quit console gaming with the WiiU, and this Direct gives me the feeling I'm not gonna miss anything worthwhile once WiiU and 3DS are obsolete.

@melvin2898 The Dark Mewtwo design looks like a 6-year-old trying to make an edgier version of it, not like a smart design in any sensible way. And the game looks nice, but I've seen several conclusions on the balancing, and it's just bad. A fighting game that has no balance is awful by default.

@Tempestryke Pokémon Stadium is simply a 3D environment for your Pokémon to fight in the same way as you know. This game, however, is a fighting game. Which means you fully control your Pokémon in real time.

@Xenocity I've seen full playthroughs of the japanese "versions", and all it amounts to is that they took the fraction choice that several FE games had before, and made that a forced gimmick to demand twice the price.
Besides, it's meaningless how much "more" this game has. By that logic, Pokémon HG/SS should've cost 80$ each. They made this game in a single development cycle, and then arbitrarily impose a limitation on the entire content to extort more money for a game they just cut in half. And to add insult to injury, the third "path" cost another handful!
Say what you will, but this is ruse is just lousy.

Man, I was psyched when the logo showed up - and then the game looked like a cheap upscale, except for the character models that aren't Link. Like seriously, the resolution seems all over the place! Ground and wall textures looked incredibly ugly, but Zelda, Midna, And Zant were extremely polished! But Link was unnervingly bad! He was the center of almost half the shots, yet he looked like he was ripped right out of the original version and kept as is!

I don't know what to think anymore, but good work looks different.

Still looks dumb as hell. But hey, it fits. Awful design for an awful game.

I'm willing to bet that Nintendo is publishing these - Squenix showed several times that they're too cheap to do it themselves (TecmoKoei had to do the whole localization for Dragon Quest Heroes by themselves, and still had to print that Squenix logo on the box), even going so far as to state that they don't believe in DQ's success in the west, despite both DQVIII and IX proving them otherwise.

Damn, this game looks awesome! The trailer blew any of my concerns (except for the lame HUD) right out of the window, into orbit, and crashed them straight into the sun! Praise Shin'en!

The name "Linkle" is beyond stupid, but goddamn she shows some really awesome Gun-kata action! I'm really curious to see her in the WiiU version!

And with that, I lost my last bit of respect for GameFreak and The Pokémon Company. Releasing the most bugged, imbalanced, and ugly Pokémon games as VC games has no respectable reason except for a cheap nostalgia cash-in.
Plus, they basically confirmed that Nintendo was just flat-out too lazy to bother implementing multiplayer features for every other 3DS VC game that used to have such. Great job...

Not really excited, since Cloud is such a lame character in FF7, and Squenix is a dead zone to me, anyway. Oh well, whatever...

I can't believe they're pulling this ruthless ripoff on all regions. This is just off-puttingly greedy.

I'm surprised! The content wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined, though I wouldn't exactly say it's a fair price either way. Still, neat stuff!

I'm always excited for new Splatoon content, especially since any update could be their last one. The "half-year" suport is basically over by now, so it's nice to still see more stuff coming!

Well, I don't really care. Monster Hunter is the only Capcom title I'm interested in at all, and that IP is safely sitting on the 3DS - for now.

@ricklongo I'd imagine they try to prevent a disaster akin to the WiiU launch, where several 3rd-party dev's first assured vast support of the platform, only to then retreat cowardly after the lackluster launch, with Nintendo being blamed for their false promises.

@rjejr Not sure, actually, but I believe E3 was an exception due to being an international-targeting presentation. Otherwise, every Direct got separate versions for each region, except Australia, who get the EU one, despite differences in release dates.

Hopefully we get more monsters, as in, WAY more! Not all of the 2000+ shenanigans on the mobile version, but at the very least twice as much, and no Mario Bros. Edition in exchange.
However, I highly suspect that a SMB side will be part of the deal, and with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. closing in, we might get a wide variety of Paper Mario characters added to the fray.

@rjejr They always do, just like we also get separate Directs for US and EU. And even when you don't understand a word, thejapanese Direct still interesting to watch, since the topics tend to differ greatly from the western versions.

I'm not a fan of BO III at all, but hell if it doesn't make me happy to see Disney get slapped!

@TheWPCTraveler I belive that wasn't entirely his fault, but yes, that very Urushihara. A great artist with way too few opportunities to show his talent.
If I remember correctly, he isn't really interested in doing game art anymore (rumor has it that he doesn't wanna compete with Taka Tony), so it was probably impossible to get him for this reboot, anyway. Which is sad, since the art in this game doesn't even begin to compare to Urushihara's unique and beautiful style.

@Damo I'm pretty sure Urushihara likes doing hentai art (judging from the fact he's still active for certain japanese magazines as a cover artist), but yeah, it would be cool if that artstyle found more representation in less NSFW kinds of ways (by comparison, that is).

I'd have preferred to see the characters designed by Urushihara, but hey, it still looks like an interesting game, so I'll hold out for an EU release confirmation.

@aaronsullivan The thing is, it's nothing special as a game by itself. But the badges the game has on offer make the game something special, as it's quite possibly the only concept that actively involves the HOME Menu, which is the last place one would expect to have fun at. But arranging elements from various games to replicate certain scenes, or even just creating a unique scene in general, has a very charming appeal to it.
Granted, it's not everyones cup of tea, so don't expect a world of change, but as a time-waster, this game offers more substance than any other title on the 3DS

Friggin' finally! This is the first ripoff since the Splatoon HOME Theme that has me excited! This will be loads of fun to play around with!

All I need to know is that I'll keep calling them Dolls, not "Skells". The rest will be a fresh experience for me. No guides, no spoilers, no trailers. Just raw excitement.

Well, wouldn't be my first imported 3DS game. But 120$? I'm not enough of a MegaMan fan to even consider that price for what the LE offers. That's way overpriced!

Depends, what's the tracklist? Cause I wanna see Hello Kitty smile sunshine into that camera to Back At The Funny Farm!

If Nintendo were to make a "Zelda Maker", it would be difficult, indeed. Just implementing the various puzzle events and making sure that connecting events to certain actions doesn't get too complicated will be a big problem. And then there's the problem of less consistency with both enemy movements and attacks, since they follow randomized patterns, making enemies much less of an integral part, but almost entirely an obstacle. And let's not forget that Zelda games are full-on adventures - sharing single dungeons would by far not be enough, and sharing whole worlds would be complete overkill.
Despite thinking it would be cool to make my own Zelda world, I don't think that will ever be a thing. The intricacies of using tools you found for puzzles further down the line would be impossible to uphold, and without that, it wouldn't have much of a Zelda feel to it at all.

The Konami-antithesis, SNK faces a venture that moves them forward internationally, but poses risks for the japanese market. I'm kinda excited, since this means more 2D fighters for the future!

Would it really have been that hard to pack a code with the physical version for the Theme? I mean, there's an entire option for that which nobody seems to use at all!

When Konami starts their confirmation of a new entry to the only IP that wasn't violently butchered by them with a "large-scale investment" as a necessity, it's pretty obvious they haven't learned a goddamn thing.

Dear god, just when Tales of Zestiria raised a tiny bit of hope in me, NamcoBandai has to invent a completely new level of stupid. As if "Ash Greninja" wasn't enough of a tasteless reject already, now we get complete nonsense into this... serves me right for trusting them to not suck.

Woo, it's my favourite tutorial character! This just makes me want a Nikki-centered Streetpass game more than ever! But hey, if Nintendo doesn't do anything with her, fans will keep her active!

Very nice! All I hope for is a retail release, anything else would be overly generous - just don't make it an eShop-only release, NIS!

I found ZombiU to be one of the best survival games in a long time. The theme of survivors trying to continue surviving was explored to great depths, the combat felt desparate and harsh due to zombies being rather relentless, and the prerequisite of needing to preserve as much stuff as possible amplified the desire to stay away from zombies even further. It's an unbelievable shame that this wasn't more successful.

@MitchVogel I think Resident Evil by now is more of an action horror game. The survival aspects have been reduced to only the environment (traps and enemies), while ammo and recovery items are common enough to allow a good margin of wastefulness. The horror itself stems more from the imagery than the actual atmosphere, sadly.

So far, the game looks phenomenal! I hope Shin'en stylizes the HUD a bit to fit the futuristic setting, but the WIP demo looks pretty damn presentable otherwise!
One thing that slightly irritates me is this specific track in the video. Seeing hyper-futuristic hoverjets chase over an asphalt track looks a bit weird, tgough I assume that the individual track design will be very different. I'll wait for a demo or review before getting it, but I really want this to be a great game, for the sake of Shin'en and anyone hyped for it.

Well, that was to be expected. Nothing schocking, and not really impacting, either. Cue next year, everything will probably be fine.