Here's my problem: if it costs as much as a PS4 but is less powerful than a PS4, do I really want to put those dollars toward portability rather than graphical power? I am a one-platform-a-generation kind of guy for reasons of time and money.
I love my 3DS, and I play it on the go everywhere, but I think I love it most for the great gimmick (glasses-free stereoscopic 3D), the duel screens, and the unique suite of games it has attracted. All these excellent JRPG's and stellar first party titles that make use of the display. The techniques employed in Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (those gorgeous and detailed dioramas) really deserve further iterations. During the last generation, those were the games that further cemented my view of Nintendo as the Pixar/Disney of gaming. The originality on display made up for the lack of graphical power.
I was very disappointed when the new 3DS was released; it was a confusing iteration but it actually may turn out that a new 3DS would be my preference as Nintendo sits on further information about the promising but possibly fatally flawed Switch concept. I should say that just because it may be fatally flawed as relates to my gaming preferences doesn't mean it won't explode in a broader demographic - and I would be glad of that. Pokémon Go is that kind of phenomenon for me.
The Wii U also had fantastic titles but the lack of 3rd Party support kept me focusing on my 3DS and the only Wii U I purchased was during year-one but for my brother. I assumed I'd get one too, but then with no Zelda, few strong one-player experiences, and most of all, a total drop off in 3rd party games, occasionally playing excellent multiplayer-focused titles like Smash, Super Mario 3D World, and Hyrule Warriors, etc. at his house was enough. Still, if I had known that titles like Gotham City and additional Assassin's Creeds would either not be practical on the system or would have to be dumbed down to make the cut I probably would have waited and gotten him a PS4 to begin with. I was ignorant of specs and fooled by early 3rd party releases.
I don't want to be fooled again and I hope the storage rumors are false but I'm beginning to think that this might actually turn out NOT to be the best of both worlds, but the worst. An underpowered home console that can't score AAA releases that is simultaneously an overpowered portable with low battery life, no 3D, no duel screen, and what I think may turn out to be an underused gimmick in the West (multiplayer on the go).
I hope I'm wrong, but unless they really pull some new information out I'll be waiting for the game catalogue to flesh out before I purchase this one...if I don't purchase a PS4 first. I don't want to be stuck with this kind of scenario again:
Shortly after the reveal Nintendo made the clarification that the docking station will only be used to physically dock and charge the Switch portable system with no additional functionality other than display output. I wish it had storage, backwards compatibility, and additional graphical power as well though.
I'm waiting to see. If it is a supplementary console I will likely just, finally purchase a PS4. I was so hoping for Fallout on Nintendo. I have been holding out for them but they may just have a different consumer in mind and my gamer heart is breaking. I'm a one-console a generation kind of guy for budget and time and last gen it was the excellent 3DS, not the Wii U, although I bought my brother a Wii U and played at his house. We both loved it but were hoping for a higher powdered console. All of the gamers I know could care less about a portable console and though it is right up my alley and I hope it does excellently, I'm tired of missing out on top tier AAA experiences like Fallout, Red Dead, and Final Fantasy.
The quoted text in the article was apparently from Nintendo itself to Eurogamer and not from a paid actor: "Nintendo has also passed a comment to Eurogamer regarding the nature of the game footage."
I have tried demo after demo of the main MH series. There is clearly a lot to sink your teeth into but I used to complain about the low quality of their free offering because there was no direction. Dropping a player new to the series into that mess rudderless seemed like a bad way to introduce the series, but I now understand that it's actually very indicative of the games themselves.
I'm one of those that can see the appeal from a distance but can't really find an entry point. I don't think it's my thing. I felt hints of an enticing collect-a-thon creeping in and could sense the shadow of the complex gear creation beckoning but it didn't quite grab me.
Regarding action, leaping on the backs of those monsters in the more recent entries was satisfying but the animations between attacks, while clearly tightly designed with great variety from character class to character class, made every blow seem like a ten minute process. I appreciate this high risk/high reward mechanic in theory but these games have an interest-holding threshold starker than any I've played. When you're unskilled and can't even tell if that massive swing; which, took forever to set up and execute in the first place even did any damage at all, there is a huge incentive to quit. I expect it's one's reaction to their first encounter with that feeling; which, separates the true monster hunter from the rest of us. The slow grind and steep learning curve is just unbearable for me.
On the other hand, this colorful, JRPG-style entry looks like just the thing.
Seriously, it seems to have depth but approachability. I really hope it's localized. Still, I was hoping it would be MH-lite. Something that would act as a friendly primer to the main series but it looks to be its own thing. I guess I'll have to remain on the outside looking in.
Multiplayer on handheld is pretty unappealing to me - I actually just prefer having co-players in the room - old fashioned I know. But most of the reviews have vindicated this title and I'm glad. I also wish Nintendo would do something with Samus but spin-offs are welcome, especially from talented development teams.
I have always been curious about Dragon Quest. I especially remember coveting the smooth cell shading and massive world of Dragon Quest 8 back in the GameCube vs. PS2 days so when 8 was announced for the 3DS I was excited, but I'm becoming more and more interested in this as well. What a great opportunity to finally play some of my back catalogue the DS iterations have been (FF III & IV...even a Tales game) and now this.
@Lucina I think the narrator is serviceable for kids, but he's clearly not a professional. You are spot-on about grown-up Nintendo fans wanting to be the audience for everything Nintendo does, but that is a separate issue from using a staff member to voice a trailer. We've all become used to amateur videos through YouTube and some amateurs have become millionaires. I expect Nintendo feels that it's a quick way to save a buck in the current digital climate. I just don't like the idea of offering kids lower quality than you would adults in general, but this is a minor, if humorous (alt: humourous) offense.
@BakaKnight, I think that strategy only works for new iterations of already successful (in the case of Apple, massively successful) hardware. The NX is a completely new and unknown product following up a barely, modestly successful one.
Alternatively, I doubt Nintendo expects to, over the next six months, drum up so much buzz solely on mobile that the general market will be so clamoring for any information as to make an Apple-style conference and release effective.
@Arctic_Nights,
This is what nobody seems to be talking about; Nintendo has also said that the NX will be something totally different but the current rumors are really just a more powerful Wii U that you can walk out the door with.
I hope they don't market it that way. I think it has to be totally divorced from the Wii in public consciousness.
@ThanosReXXX,
I have 0 contacts and take this back-and-forth with a grain of salt but a lot of what you say makes sense simply in light of my comments above.
@Bolt_Strike
I am torn about this. I have never played fan created games, I guess because I didn't want buggy software on my computer and I also may have an overinflated fear of malware, but I love the idea of fan-created content because sometimes there are true diamonds in the rough.
I would love it if Nintendo created a space to vet these projects and release them as a collaboration. I think it would be good for fans and for the company.
Still, the idea that not using one of your properties should give anyone the right to simply take it demonstrates a blatant disrespect of intellectual property in general. No matter how well intentioned the effort is or how true-to-the-franchise the results turn out to be your idea sets a precedent that would see countless creators of properties large and small lose their original ideas.
I'm not sure where you developed this particular ethic. It seems to be born out of an admirable love of creator-made games and some kind of distortion of the "use it or lose it" clause brought to popular attention regarding the X-men and Spider-man franchises. In the case of the above two properties; however, that contingency was set down as conditional during the licensing phase. The parent company, Marvel, chose to farm out its creations to Fox and Sony respectively in order to have a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Fan-made video game projects are different, especially these particular cases because the creators are smaller and the parent companies appear to many (often including myself) as vultures waiting to swoop down and destroy the very creativity that they themselves engendered by way of quality inspiration, but in order to keep intellectual property as safe as physical property, exceptions can only be made by the creators themselves.
Fan-made games in particular are a special case because they can, unlike fan-films, achieve a high level of quality at minimal expense if monetary investment is eschewed for time. This is another reason why I think that a "safe harbor" (@aaronsullivan) of some kind may be worth persuing for Nintendo and others. Sega's arrangement with fan-developer Whitehead to co-create Sonic Mania is a good example of collaboration and is also, I assume, a stellar and lucrative opportunity for a small creator whose fidelity to the source material was a quality homage to the original copyright holders. But it was still up to them to embrace or reject it. And yes, sometimes big companies misuse the creations of their employees, who lose control. This is a problem that shouldn't be ignored, but it does not justify the mentality that seems to be developing.
So are there some situations where Nintendo could turn a blind eye in order to foster some cred with no-budget indie developers and the modding community? Perhaps, but if this idea that they should lose any say at all because of disuse, or because of a popular perception of misuse is pervasive than that is reason enough for Nintendo to take a stand on behalf of intellectual property owners everywhere.
@rjejr,
Hey friend! It is confusing; if the WiiU had been at least as successful as the 3DS then many of these titles would most likely have been cross-platform releases to begin with. As it was Nintendo did what it had to in order to differentiate the struggling WiiU with exclusives.
Now with that strategy largely obsolete it does make sense to port games and create original content within winning franchises over to the larger install base that may have missed out on certain things.
I think you can put aside worry about this being Pikmin's new direction by the way. It's clearly an offshoot.
That being said, this move also illuminates the practicality of consolidating handheld and console development while at the same time casting doubt on the rumor that the NX is a hybrid. Why would they spend all of this effort on the current handheld during months that will reportedly overlap with the release of a brand new handheld?
Perhaps it makes sense to support existing income streams at a time when the release slate has been largely stagnant and during a quarter marked primarily by the uncertainty of a major console unveiling.
I think a lot of these NX rumors make sense especially with regard to development consolidation, but I also don't understand why no one mentions the disparity between Nintendo's claims that the NX will be a driven by a novel concept and the Eurogamer description which is conceptually, essentially an upgraded WiiU; only now you can walk out of the house with the gamepad. The games will be larger and the graphics upgraded but the concept is unavoidably an outgrowth of the WiiU. This may line up with certain business moves within the company but not with their own assertions.
Additionally, I keep hearing talk within the Nintendo community of this being successful as another accompanying system but it is a small segment of the market that owns more than one console.
Maybe they can push a paradigm shift but I'm basically waiting on the reveal to decide between an NX or finally getting a PS4. If everyone had the time and money to invest in every system then it wouldn't be an issue. It is possible that I may fall outside of Nintendo's target audience in both hardware and software for the first time.
I love Nintendo and hardware innovation in general and I love my 3DS (and the WiiU I bought for my brother but never pulled the trigger on for myself) but the bottom line is I want to play some of the third party games I've been missing.
@ShaneBrunswick It seems like people have some vocabulary problems around here accompanied by some severe 'tude. I don't play GO but I've followed the craze and this kid is talking about his suburban environment. I can't vouch for him but why is everyone assuming "suburban" either means his house, his yard, or his development. Shane, I assume you've tried school, some parks, maybe some parking lots, malls, or friend's houses? From what I've read, certain areas are pretty dead in the suburban US even if you travel a bit. It appears to be a valid point so no need to assume people who encounter it are self imposed shuttins.
It's awesome, and I have plenty of NES carts to play, but it's a different breed of collector willing to plop down more money than a current gen console costs to play the classics.
@HeroOfTime32 I don't disagree about Nintendo's desire to protect their novel ideas, but MOVE and Kinect came out four years after the Wii released and ended up making minimal impact on the market.
The airship was such a welcome surprise in the EO IV demo that I got on board the franchise and have remained, but after having played the Untold titles; which I loved, I was ready for a return to a broader world.
The demo will have a more difficult job to do this time as it is no longer a day-1 purchase for me; I just can't imagine the dungeons being "evolved" enough to scratch that itch. Bah humbug.
That being said, the demos are always generous, and EO is always visually and sonically gorgeous. It was the joy of discovering EO IV that sold me on the power of demos.
More recently the excellent demo to Bravely Second caused me to go back and purchase the original whose demo had not impressed.
...EO V could very well still win me over if it follows suit.
What confuses me is that they have been saying this is a whole new concept. It may be implemented better than, say, PS3 remote play on Vita but it is basically a powerful Wii U game pad that can leave the house. This is the evolution of the duel screen approach they have been touting for over a decade. I'm not saying that it will be implemented as a duel screen device at all or that it won't be successful but it does not seem novel to me in the slightest. Also, if this is the main concept and there is no other hook, then the power needs to be high. I would rather play 3rd Party games on the highest powered home console than on-the-go on a slightly less powerful one. I have been holding out this generation for the NX reveal but if this is all it is then I may be up for a PS4. We'll see. I do love portable gaming but I will miss my stereoscopic 3D.
Yes it does seem like a conflict of interest. It is a precarious relationship. I kind of made it sound like NATO is an arm of the UN and although it sometimes is used as one I didn't mean to.
@Kirk,
You are NOT wrong here, but neither are most of the people that disagree with you.
I hate to launch into what will seem like a lecture and I apologize to anyone that may have made these points but I think it's important. Again, I am not trying to patronize but I think neither side is hearing the other as is common on message boards and that this is a worthwhile discussion in any context.
This argument is a small version of the same arguments which have been playing out since people within the United Nations drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after WWII and we should all know what we think about them as well as what we think of the United Nations. If I get anything wrong please comment. Maybe we can create a Nintendo Life declaration of our own.
The main thing to remember is that the United Nations is essentially an idealistic entity whose position has always been to steer world events and influence the quality of life for people around the world by facilitating discourse that, ideally, leads to common, core values. It then strives to build coalitions between nations willing to stand up for those values whether through new laws within those individual nations, or as a last resort, through allied military intervention through NATO.
The UN is not a "one-world-government" but different members see its role in that regard on a sliding scale of sovereignty. Some think it is the ultimate power while others think it is a lot of hot air. The truth is that the power they have to champion or enforce any of their positions relies entirely on the unity (complicity) of member nations who are still sovereign.
When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified by enough member nations it gained the force of international law which basically means NATO could enforce it. The thing is that a lot of nations didn't sign on. To return to this case, Singapore's independence is complicated by British colonialism and Chinese occupation and they did not really gain independence until around 1965 but, nevertheless, the nation is not listed among the signatories. Not to get into the nitty-gritty of this individual case but just to relate back to what started this discussion.
So the bottom line is that we have to decide whether the ones that do sign get to enforce their values on the rest of the world. Many Muslim nations in particular were not happy with the Western bent of the laws. They could argue the paradox: that the very act of writing it invalidated it because it took away any dissenters' rights just by existing.
We have to decide what we think of these laws, as Kirk seems to have done, and then decide how far we think the UN should be able to go in enforcing them.
Edit: I thought I should add a link to Amnesty International, which works to monitor and champion the human rights listed in the declaration: https://www.amnesty.org/en/
Even if the NX was overpriced, if it was overpowered I'd get it. The Wii U would have killed this generation if it had just been able to keep up with new 3rd Party AAA releases. The game pad was a good concept and was underused because no one wanted to waste time developing for a console that had no power (and thusly no install base to speak of) so its potential stagnated. Unless Nintendo can capture lightening in a bottle a second time; which, is still possible - I think a system that can't handle the next wave of big 3rd party games, and the one after that...will fail. I doubt I'll even get it and there is nothing I want less than that.
So many fellow gamers keep saying we should just get multiple consoles. Most peoples' wallets and schedules can't afford that. Nintendo HAS to attack the red and blue oceans.
No one ever mentions that the whole point of earning XP is to make the next battle better; stickers served that exact purpose with varying degrees of success in Sticker Star.
If there is progression than the battles are not pointless, but in this case just perhaps not complex enough for some. An essential motivation for playing an RPG fun battles and an immersive world.
Now if the battles are boring, that's another story. I didn't think they were boring at all but they were too simplistic and there were too many of them so you had to do too much sticker collecting to compensate and that simply got old.
That said, while I enjoyed large sections of the game, especially its visuals and animations, my biggest problem with Sticker Star were the obscure, counter-intuitive puzzle sections where you needed a sticker but didn't know where or what.
But the bottom line in any RPG is whether or not the battles are fun and many of Sticker Stars' battles were fun if not complex. They were just over-saturated and that drove your preparation (a la collect-a-thon) to exploration/story ratio up too far.
I would prefer a more complex and more traditional entry in the series but Color Splash has charm and beauty galore so if they have tweaked the ratio here and added a bit more depth to battles it looks like it could be a solid entry.
I actually think that a Zelda JRPG would be a thing of beauty. I know it was tried but that was a very long time ago - and actually, I played through half of Zelda II with Virtual Console save-assists and I was able to appreciate it the way I always wanted too. There is potential there.
@rjejr,
Read post #202. Zoom out for a second in your thinking. The mechanic, at least one of the core mechanics, is exploring, making use of, and battling the wild. It is not Breath of the WIND. If that's not enough for you I get that but Zelda is always at its best when taking something relatively simple and drilling down to find its possibilities.
@KH22,
99% of the commenters are not part of this website's team. I'm sure that the editors are well aware that you wear Pikachu underoos - in fact I'm sure a few of them have Pokeball panties.
@JaxonH I agree with most of the Grumplestiltskins around here regarding the game needing a bit more visual polish but picking on what appears to be THE or at least A core mechanic of the title (the collection and use of varied objects within the environment) is an illogical criticism of a Zelda title.
Firstly, Zelda has always been at its best when the designers took a relatively simple concept and drilled down to find its possibilities. The first 3D games in the series took the 2D entries and expanded those great concepts to fill the new dimensions available. The dynamic highlighted in this demo is a logical step and it is true to the franchise and to the style of its evolution over successive iterations.
I get that other games have used the mechanic, but Zelda did it, arguably, first in a 3D world and with aplomb.
What we see within Breath of the Wild is an extension of an element already within the series at least starting with its 3D entries.
Ocarina of Time boasted a minor element that was used to varying degrees to make use of Link's move set and it saw the player acquiring either Deku Nuts or sticks from Deku Babas depending on their position when struck (attacking or idling) as well a how Link struck them (with a vertical or horizontal slice).
In terms of gear upgrading both Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time sported cool upgrade side-quests that earned you excellent optional swords and who can forget the Fierce Deity Mask?
An even more appropriate example, if less dynamic, is simply stealing those big tasseled spears from Moblins in Windwaker.
All of these examples were minor aspects of their larger game but they added a sense of depth and emmersion that made their discovery exciting and very memorable. It is a perfectly reasonable game element to expand upon even if Nintendo is late to this particular party - they kind of hosted it in the first place.
Now a lot of folks may be played out on Skyrim-like collection (as brilliant as it can be) and in that regard perhaps Nintendo should have capitalized on their own ideas with this earlier, but again, in many ways Zelda began it.
I do share some apprehension about the apparent loss of specific items that stick with you throughout the game and can be explored for their myriad uses. An environment rich with loot does run the risk of making certain items feel more generic. For instance, I'm not sure yet how I feel about the Sheikah stone upgrades playing the role that the discovery of ability-rich, iconic items played in earlier entries but it's an intriguing twist and far from a deal-breaker for me.
To sum up, what makes Zelda different is the way that the designers take a mechanic and craft it to explore its depth and breadth. A game where there are multiple practical uses for that stick you found, or that pot lid is just the Zelda team making its own ideas from early in the franchise count in a deeper way. That's good design.
@shani I am excited too, but to be clear, the reason no one could explore fully during E3 is because there was a "Thank You For Playing" time-limit. It is still vast and so people would potentially (definitely) have stood at their demo screen for hours and hours so Nintendo stopped play at about 10 minutes.
Exceptional format and great looking games. Call of Duty is as Call of Duty does but that space marines ship-to-ship action was a game-changer. I was hoping it was Battlestar until the reveal.
And the VR titles look amazing: Star Trek, Star Wars, Arkham, and a Metroid-Prime-like or two --- all the right properties and concepts to prompt adoption (too bad about the price point though). Not to mention a Final Fantasy with VR capability. Remains to be seen if regular console releases are enhanced by VR or if it's just gimmicky but there is a ton of promise.
Still, this E3 without Nintendo brings into stark focus the charm that Nintendo alone brings to the scene. The other two are simply lacking that particular kind of essential magic. And I mean essential to the industry not necessarily to the success of a console. Sony's and Microsoft's parallel evolution is exciting and necessary to the medium, but it is a standard path. Nintendo needs to dip into that while maintaining their innovative nature in order to succeed.
Sony and Microsoft indeed have their own kind of magic but I didn't see much other than gritty realism, especially in Sony's VR offerings. Where are the Fantasia-likes, the Studio Ghiblis, the Nights Into Dreams-style free-flying emmersive fantasies with stunning animation and responsive orchestration? VR has the potential to tell so many stories beyond military and I know it's early days but experimentation with genres and stylish, visual variety is glaringly absent from the field.
Lots of people begging for this one; it's always nice to see some wishes coming true. I'll have my eyes out for a hardy demo and'll give that a try based on the word-of-mouth.
They're already spread too thin. Can you imagine the delays for a Zelda FILM? The Legend of Zelda, coming 2095.
I expect they mean to create animated films. If they make some nice anime versions of things, that's fine. Anything else, especially in-house, would put the entire company in development hell.
I was hoping for stellar swan songs and/or continued support of the 3DS while the veil remained in place across the NX and its potential peripherals so I think that part is fine. Teasers would still be good but the concept is probably intuitive and a teaser would basically give it all away.
The Zelda-only E3 is the problem. This year Nintendo's should be a big show full of pretty things that are unapologetically on-show and planned for release as a "farewell celebration" to the Wii U and/or the 3DS; give the impression that a great final year is building toward a huge NX evolution in Nintendo gaming.
Zelda should be a strong piece of that goal but only a piece. Hopefully the only PLAYABLE game will not be the ONLY game because it doesn't take prescience to know how very widely unpopular that will be (already is) with fans. Some for whom this may be a must-play may even wander away to avoid spoilers leaving them open to the sultry tones of a remade Final Fantasy VII at a vulnerable time.
With regard to the general media, if Nintendo does not paint the vision of an exciting transition that is backed by some great end-of-an-era reveals they will squander an opportunity to appear relevant at the very least. I actually think that Nintendo has the chance to, at the realistic best, display stability and momentum.
To spell it out as armchair PR (sic. fan-fantasy) they could take this opportunity to say, "The Wii U was a disappointment to many in some key areas and we hear you so our next hardware release will answer this generation as Nintendo always does: with innovation. The NX will be unmistakably Nintendo in character and this new hardware will bring you cutting-edge visual experiences backed by powerful processing. We're excited to show you more in the coming months but that's not all the coming months have in store. We are also still proud of the Wii U and are excited to send it off in style this year."
That's the message.
They probably don't have the goods to back up all of that idealism but I think it's really what has to happen in order for Nintendo to decidedly re-assert itself. Otherwise the NX really better be able to run its own press when the time comes.
So what I'm saying is that if Nintendo does nothing but show a delayed Zelda in June the NX had better be the world's first AI.
I have faith. I would love to return to Nippon, but he COULD be bold and change the art style and culture to explore, say, Norse mythology as so many cultures have epic wolf tales. I understand his reticence though. He went all the way with his core concept the first time.
@allav866, you are right about the graphical rough edges but only if you are making a contemporary comparison. At the time of release Ocarina of Time boasted what were then very striking visuals and lighting effects.
Graphically, Twilight Princess simply attempted to keep up with its contemporaries (and mostly succeeded).
Regarding the fields, Ocarina was the first of its kind, while TP should have been more of an evolution. I made a choice to enjoy the vast emptiness as well but I have not read or heard that the designers intended that. I would have preferred more bustling variety.
Frankly, Nintendo released a game with crisp but blocky, dated visuals. I like what they did add to the gameplay but the resolution alone is not enough to make me buy and play Twilight Princess for a third time. I understand, and respect maintaining the spirit of the original but TP struggled to do what it set out to do even back upon original release. Its two biggest flaws were the rough graphical edges and the emptiness of those Hyrulian fields. Together these issues robbed it of its goal of recapturing the magic of Ocarina of Time.
These fans are really putting forth more solid development effort into the remake than Nintendo was willing or able to allocate the manpower for and they might be wise to leverage the skills of people like this given the profitability of remakes. Will TPHD make a lot of money? I expect it will, but if it looked like this it would surely make a significant amount more.
My personal tastes aside, if it taps into Ye Olde Blue Ocean it could prove to be a brilliant strategy.
On the other hand, while I like Miis, it may look to most like a cheap combination of the Sims, and any one of the many texting apps like Facebook Messenger, only here your conversation is shoehorned into banal territory; ooo, a Freshman Orientation get-to-know-you-game app. Fun.
Interested to know how many people of my generation (I'm a millenial-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth, being born in 1981, and so nearly 35) are Pokémon people. I have always loved gaming, so when I saw the kids at the daycare where I had an afterschool job playing...no, obsessing...over this relatively new Game Boy game I was intrigued and asked a lot of questions. I remember being invited to play one battle, which I did, but the next time I personally picked up and played any form of Pokémon game was fifteen years later when the X and Y demo released on the 3DS. Needless to say it didn't woo me. Even at the tender age of 18, when our N64 rarely cooled down and collectothons were my theezy, my interest in Pokemon turned out to be primarily anthropological. This is not to say I don't respect it. The blend of collecting, exploring, and roll playing seems like it should be right up my alley, and I've revisited back-catalogue games from the '90's like Super Metroid and the Finals Fantasy VII-IX (Sonic caused a brief lapse from Nintendo in the early 90's, and as I said, for me gaming's name was N64, not Playstation, in the mid to late part of that decade) becoming a massive fan in retrospect. Still, somehow along with Fire Emblem, to Pokémon I remain a sideline semi-fan. Anyone in my age range want to tell me what exactly, and how much I've missed?
@Novanon, what was the Ambassador edition? I was christened one long ago and always will remain a 3DS Ambassador but heard nothing about it. Shoddy treatment. My Game Stop either didn't offer it or lied about it. I was absolutely going to upgrade if there was an offer.
Comments 186
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch Game Cards To Boast 16GB "Standard" Capacity
@TechJunkie69,
A modest added cost will be no problem for me if I can indeed play Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Red Dead Redemtion 2 on a Nintendo console.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch Game Cards To Boast 16GB "Standard" Capacity
Here's my problem: if it costs as much as a PS4 but is less powerful than a PS4, do I really want to put those dollars toward portability rather than graphical power? I am a one-platform-a-generation kind of guy for reasons of time and money.
I love my 3DS, and I play it on the go everywhere, but I think I love it most for the great gimmick (glasses-free stereoscopic 3D), the duel screens, and the unique suite of games it has attracted. All these excellent JRPG's and stellar first party titles that make use of the display. The techniques employed in Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (those gorgeous and detailed dioramas) really deserve further iterations. During the last generation, those were the games that further cemented my view of Nintendo as the Pixar/Disney of gaming. The originality on display made up for the lack of graphical power.
I was very disappointed when the new 3DS was released; it was a confusing iteration but it actually may turn out that a new 3DS would be my preference as Nintendo sits on further information about the promising but possibly fatally flawed Switch concept. I should say that just because it may be fatally flawed as relates to my gaming preferences doesn't mean it won't explode in a broader demographic - and I would be glad of that. Pokémon Go is that kind of phenomenon for me.
The Wii U also had fantastic titles but the lack of 3rd Party support kept me focusing on my 3DS and the only Wii U I purchased was during year-one but for my brother. I assumed I'd get one too, but then with no Zelda, few strong one-player experiences, and most of all, a total drop off in 3rd party games, occasionally playing excellent multiplayer-focused titles like Smash, Super Mario 3D World, and Hyrule Warriors, etc. at his house was enough. Still, if I had known that titles like Gotham City and additional Assassin's Creeds would either not be practical on the system or would have to be dumbed down to make the cut I probably would have waited and gotten him a PS4 to begin with. I was ignorant of specs and fooled by early 3rd party releases.
I don't want to be fooled again and I hope the storage rumors are false but I'm beginning to think that this might actually turn out NOT to be the best of both worlds, but the worst. An underpowered home console that can't score AAA releases that is simultaneously an overpowered portable with low battery life, no 3D, no duel screen, and what I think may turn out to be an underused gimmick in the West (multiplayer on the go).
I hope I'm wrong, but unless they really pull some new information out I'll be waiting for the game catalogue to flesh out before I purchase this one...if I don't purchase a PS4 first. I don't want to be stuck with this kind of scenario again:
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/04/ghostbusters_delta.jpg
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch Will Support Micro SDXC Cards Up To 128GB In Capacity
@Progniss,
Shortly after the reveal Nintendo made the clarification that the docking station will only be used to physically dock and charge the Switch portable system with no additional functionality other than display output. I wish it had storage, backwards compatibility, and additional graphical power as well though.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Switch Will Support Micro SDXC Cards Up To 128GB In Capacity
@Freeon-Leon,
If they want to offer Skyrim and any similar successors they will be huge.
Re: Talking Point: Imagining a Future Nintendo Switch Budget Spin-Off - A Non-Switching Microconsole
I'm waiting to see. If it is a supplementary console I will likely just, finally purchase a PS4. I was so hoping for Fallout on Nintendo. I have been holding out for them but they may just have a different consumer in mind and my gamer heart is breaking. I'm a one-console a generation kind of guy for budget and time and last gen it was the excellent 3DS, not the Wii U, although I bought my brother a Wii U and played at his house. We both loved it but were hoping for a higher powdered console. All of the gamers I know could care less about a portable console and though it is right up my alley and I hope it does excellently, I'm tired of missing out on top tier AAA experiences like Fallout, Red Dead, and Final Fantasy.
Re: Fans "Shouldn't Assume" That The Nintendo Switch Reveal Trailer Features "Actual Game Footage"
@Lucina,
The quoted text in the article was apparently from Nintendo itself to Eurogamer and not from a paid actor: "Nintendo has also passed a comment to Eurogamer regarding the nature of the game footage."
Re: Guide: Everything We Now Know About the Nintendo Switch
Is the site stuck in desktop on anyone else's mobile?
Re: Michel Ancel Gets Fans Excited With Apparent Beyond Good & Evil 2 Tease
Somehow this single piece of art expands the possibilities of the Beyond Good and Evil universe in a very exciting way.
Re: First Impressions: Monster Hunter Stories Borrows Liberally From Iconic Nintendo Franchises
I have tried demo after demo of the main MH series. There is clearly a lot to sink your teeth into but I used to complain about the low quality of their free offering because there was no direction. Dropping a player new to the series into that mess rudderless seemed like a bad way to introduce the series, but I now understand that it's actually very indicative of the games themselves.
I'm one of those that can see the appeal from a distance but can't really find an entry point. I don't think it's my thing. I felt hints of an enticing collect-a-thon creeping in and could sense the shadow of the complex gear creation beckoning but it didn't quite grab me.
Regarding action, leaping on the backs of those monsters in the more recent entries was satisfying but the animations between attacks, while clearly tightly designed with great variety from character class to character class, made every blow seem like a ten minute process. I appreciate this high risk/high reward mechanic in theory but these games have an interest-holding threshold starker than any I've played. When you're unskilled and can't even tell if that massive swing; which, took forever to set up and execute in the first place even did any damage at all, there is a huge incentive to quit. I expect it's one's reaction to their first encounter with that feeling; which, separates the true monster hunter from the rest of us. The slow grind and steep learning curve is just unbearable for me.
On the other hand, this colorful, JRPG-style entry looks like just the thing.
Seriously, it seems to have depth but approachability. I really hope it's localized. Still, I was hoping it would be MH-lite. Something that would act as a friendly primer to the main series but it looks to be its own thing. I guess I'll have to remain on the outside looking in.
Re: Metroid Prime: Federation Force Version 1.1 is Now Live
Multiplayer on handheld is pretty unappealing to me - I actually just prefer having co-players in the room - old fashioned I know. But most of the reviews have vindicated this title and I'm glad. I also wish Nintendo would do something with Samus but spin-offs are welcome, especially from talented development teams.
Re: Interview: We Embark On A Dragon Quest With Noriyoshi Fujimoto
I have always been curious about Dragon Quest. I especially remember coveting the smooth cell shading and massive world of Dragon Quest 8 back in the GameCube vs. PS2 days so when 8 was announced for the 3DS I was excited, but I'm becoming more and more interested in this as well. What a great opportunity to finally play some of my back catalogue the DS iterations have been (FF III & IV...even a Tales game) and now this.
Re: Video: Nintendo Releases Showcase Video for Paper Mario: Color Splash
@Lucina
I think the narrator is serviceable for kids, but he's clearly not a professional. You are spot-on about grown-up Nintendo fans wanting to be the audience for everything Nintendo does, but that is a separate issue from using a staff member to voice a trailer. We've all become used to amateur videos through YouTube and some amateurs have become millionaires. I expect Nintendo feels that it's a quick way to save a buck in the current digital climate. I just don't like the idea of offering kids lower quality than you would adults in general, but this is a minor, if humorous (alt: humourous) offense.
Re: Analysts Expect Nintendo NX Reveal by Early October and Make Bold Super Mario Run Predictions
@BakaKnight,
I think that strategy only works for new iterations of already successful (in the case of Apple, massively successful) hardware. The NX is a completely new and unknown product following up a barely, modestly successful one.
Alternatively, I doubt Nintendo expects to, over the next six months, drum up so much buzz solely on mobile that the general market will be so clamoring for any information as to make an Apple-style conference and release effective.
Re: Wall Street Journal Reports That Nintendo NX Will Indeed Use Flash-Based Game Cards
@Arctic_Nights,
This is what nobody seems to be talking about; Nintendo has also said that the NX will be something totally different but the current rumors are really just a more powerful Wii U that you can walk out the door with.
I hope they don't market it that way. I think it has to be totally divorced from the Wii in public consciousness.
@ThanosReXXX,
I have 0 contacts and take this back-and-forth with a grain of salt but a lot of what you say makes sense simply in light of my comments above.
Re: Nintendo of America Issues Takedown Request on AM2R, Ending the Project
@Bolt_Strike
Did the kid create the ball in the first place? How about the idea of "ball"?
Re: Nintendo of America Issues Takedown Request on AM2R, Ending the Project
@Bolt_Strike
I am torn about this. I have never played fan created games, I guess because I didn't want buggy software on my computer and I also may have an overinflated fear of malware, but I love the idea of fan-created content because sometimes there are true diamonds in the rough.
I would love it if Nintendo created a space to vet these projects and release them as a collaboration. I think it would be good for fans and for the company.
Still, the idea that not using one of your properties should give anyone the right to simply take it demonstrates a blatant disrespect of intellectual property in general. No matter how well intentioned the effort is or how true-to-the-franchise the results turn out to be your idea sets a precedent that would see countless creators of properties large and small lose their original ideas.
I'm not sure where you developed this particular ethic. It seems to be born out of an admirable love of creator-made games and some kind of distortion of the "use it or lose it" clause brought to popular attention regarding the X-men and Spider-man franchises. In the case of the above two properties; however, that contingency was set down as conditional during the licensing phase. The parent company, Marvel, chose to farm out its creations to Fox and Sony respectively in order to have a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Fan-made video game projects are different, especially these particular cases because the creators are smaller and the parent companies appear to many (often including myself) as vultures waiting to swoop down and destroy the very creativity that they themselves engendered by way of quality inspiration, but in order to keep intellectual property as safe as physical property, exceptions can only be made by the creators themselves.
Fan-made games in particular are a special case because they can, unlike fan-films, achieve a high level of quality at minimal expense if monetary investment is eschewed for time. This is another reason why I think that a "safe harbor" (@aaronsullivan) of some kind may be worth persuing for Nintendo and others. Sega's arrangement with fan-developer Whitehead to co-create Sonic Mania is a good example of collaboration and is also, I assume, a stellar and lucrative opportunity for a small creator whose fidelity to the source material was a quality homage to the original copyright holders. But it was still up to them to embrace or reject it. And yes, sometimes big companies misuse the creations of their employees, who lose control. This is a problem that shouldn't be ignored, but it does not justify the mentality that seems to be developing.
So are there some situations where Nintendo could turn a blind eye in order to foster some cred with no-budget indie developers and the modding community? Perhaps, but if this idea that they should lose any say at all because of disuse, or because of a popular perception of misuse is pervasive than that is reason enough for Nintendo to take a stand on behalf of intellectual property owners everywhere.
Re: A New Pikmin Game is Coming to 3DS
@rjejr,
Hey friend! It is confusing; if the WiiU had been at least as successful as the 3DS then many of these titles would most likely have been cross-platform releases to begin with. As it was Nintendo did what it had to in order to differentiate the struggling WiiU with exclusives.
Now with that strategy largely obsolete it does make sense to port games and create original content within winning franchises over to the larger install base that may have missed out on certain things.
I think you can put aside worry about this being Pikmin's new direction by the way. It's clearly an offshoot.
That being said, this move also illuminates the practicality of consolidating handheld and console development while at the same time casting doubt on the rumor that the NX is a hybrid. Why would they spend all of this effort on the current handheld during months that will reportedly overlap with the release of a brand new handheld?
Perhaps it makes sense to support existing income streams at a time when the release slate has been largely stagnant and during a quarter marked primarily by the uncertainty of a major console unveiling.
I think a lot of these NX rumors make sense especially with regard to development consolidation, but I also don't understand why no one mentions the disparity between Nintendo's claims that the NX will be a driven by a novel concept and the Eurogamer description which is conceptually, essentially an upgraded WiiU; only now you can walk out of the house with the gamepad. The games will be larger and the graphics upgraded but the concept is unavoidably an outgrowth of the WiiU. This may line up with certain business moves within the company but not with their own assertions.
Additionally, I keep hearing talk within the Nintendo community of this being successful as another accompanying system but it is a small segment of the market that owns more than one console.
Maybe they can push a paradigm shift but I'm basically waiting on the reveal to decide between an NX or finally getting a PS4. If everyone had the time and money to invest in every system then it wouldn't be an issue. It is possible that I may fall outside of Nintendo's target audience in both hardware and software for the first time.
I love Nintendo and hardware innovation in general and I love my 3DS (and the WiiU I bought for my brother but never pulled the trigger on for myself) but the bottom line is I want to play some of the third party games I've been missing.
Re: Random: Disgruntled Young Pokémon GO Fan Makes Satirical Game About Playing in the Suburbs
@ShaneBrunswick It seems like people have some vocabulary problems around here accompanied by some severe 'tude. I don't play GO but I've followed the craze and this kid is talking about his suburban environment. I can't vouch for him but why is everyone assuming "suburban" either means his house, his yard, or his development. Shane, I assume you've tried school, some parks, maybe some parking lots, malls, or friend's houses? From what I've read, certain areas are pretty dead in the suburban US even if you travel a bit. It appears to be a valid point so no need to assume people who encounter it are self imposed shuttins.
Re: Forget The NES Classic Edition Mini, Here's The Analogue Nt Mini
It's awesome, and I have plenty of NES carts to play, but it's a different breed of collector willing to plop down more money than a current gen console costs to play the classics.
Re: Nvidia Formally Ditches SHIELD Tablet Successor, Reinforcing NX Reports
@HeroOfTime32 I don't disagree about Nintendo's desire to protect their novel ideas, but MOVE and Kinect came out four years after the Wii released and ended up making minimal impact on the market.
Re: Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure May Be One to Watch on the 3DS eShop
This actually looks pretty good. And D. Bradley Baker!
Re: Video: New Metroid Prime: Federation Force Trailer Arrives, and It's Still Fighting Dislikes
I live in the West; other than game critics and serious, serious fans, no meaningful number of adults play portable multiplayer games.
Re: Japan Weekly: Famitsu Fuses Dragon Ball Fusion and Etrian Odyssey V Into a Worthwhile Issue
The airship was such a welcome surprise in the EO IV demo that I got on board the franchise and have remained, but after having played the Untold titles; which I loved, I was ready for a return to a broader world.
The demo will have a more difficult job to do this time as it is no longer a day-1 purchase for me; I just can't imagine the dungeons being "evolved" enough to scratch that itch. Bah humbug.
That being said, the demos are always generous, and EO is always visually and sonically gorgeous. It was the joy of discovering EO IV that sold me on the power of demos.
More recently the excellent demo to Bravely Second caused me to go back and purchase the original whose demo had not impressed.
...EO V could very well still win me over if it follows suit.
Re: Poll: The Nintendo NX - Where Do You Stand on the Future of Nintendo?
What confuses me is that they have been saying this is a whole new concept. It may be implemented better than, say, PS3 remote play on Vita but it is basically a powerful Wii U game pad that can leave the house. This is the evolution of the duel screen approach they have been touting for over a decade. I'm not saying that it will be implemented as a duel screen device at all or that it won't be successful but it does not seem novel to me in the slightest. Also, if this is the main concept and there is no other hook, then the power needs to be high. I would rather play 3rd Party games on the highest powered home console than on-the-go on a slightly less powerful one. I have been holding out this generation for the NX reveal but if this is all it is then I may be up for a PS4. We'll see. I do love portable gaming but I will miss my stereoscopic 3D.
Re: Random: Australian Man Sacked For Moaning That Pokémon GO Isn't Available In Singapore
@PlywoodStick,
Yes it does seem like a conflict of interest. It is a precarious relationship. I kind of made it sound like NATO is an arm of the UN and although it sometimes is used as one I didn't mean to.
Re: Random: Australian Man Sacked For Moaning That Pokémon GO Isn't Available In Singapore
@Kirk,
You are NOT wrong here, but neither are most of the people that disagree with you.
I hate to launch into what will seem like a lecture and I apologize to anyone that may have made these points but I think it's important. Again, I am not trying to patronize but I think neither side is hearing the other as is common on message boards and that this is a worthwhile discussion in any context.
This argument is a small version of the same arguments which have been playing out since people within the United Nations drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after WWII and we should all know what we think about them as well as what we think of the United Nations. If I get anything wrong please comment. Maybe we can create a Nintendo Life declaration of our own.
The main thing to remember is that the United Nations is essentially an idealistic entity whose position has always been to steer world events and influence the quality of life for people around the world by facilitating discourse that, ideally, leads to common, core values. It then strives to build coalitions between nations willing to stand up for those values whether through new laws within those individual nations, or as a last resort, through allied military intervention through NATO.
The UN is not a "one-world-government" but different members see its role in that regard on a sliding scale of sovereignty. Some think it is the ultimate power while others think it is a lot of hot air. The truth is that the power they have to champion or enforce any of their positions relies entirely on the unity (complicity) of member nations who are still sovereign.
When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified by enough member nations it gained the force of international law which basically means NATO could enforce it. The thing is that a lot of nations didn't sign on. To return to this case, Singapore's independence is complicated by British colonialism and Chinese occupation and they did not really gain independence until around 1965 but, nevertheless, the nation is not listed among the signatories. Not to get into the nitty-gritty of this individual case but just to relate back to what started this discussion.
So the bottom line is that we have to decide whether the ones that do sign get to enforce their values on the rest of the world. Many Muslim nations in particular were not happy with the Western bent of the laws. They could argue the paradox: that the very act of writing it invalidated it because it took away any dissenters' rights just by existing.
We have to decide what we think of these laws, as Kirk seems to have done, and then decide how far we think the UN should be able to go in enforcing them.
Here's a list of the original signatories:
http://unethiopia.org/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-signatories/
Edit: I thought I should add a link to Amnesty International, which works to monitor and champion the human rights listed in the declaration:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/
Re: First Impressions: Exploring Whether Toad is a Fungi in Mario Party Star Rush
Too bad I have 0 real-world friends with a 3DS.
Re: Let Yacht Club Games Know What Game You'd Like Next
Shovel Kart would be awesome but a Yacht Club Zelda, Contra, or Metroid would be too good to be true too. A whimsical RPG? Yes please.
Re: Hands On: Painting the Walls Red with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
This and Yooka-Laylee are my two most anticipated games for the coming year (other than Zelda and Final Fantasy 15).
Re: Witcher Studio Says Nintendo NX "Will Be Fantastic", Claims To "Know Things"
Even if the NX was overpriced, if it was overpowered I'd get it. The Wii U would have killed this generation if it had just been able to keep up with new 3rd Party AAA releases. The game pad was a good concept and was underused because no one wanted to waste time developing for a console that had no power (and thusly no install base to speak of) so its potential stagnated. Unless Nintendo can capture lightening in a bottle a second time; which, is still possible - I think a system that can't handle the next wave of big 3rd party games, and the one after that...will fail. I doubt I'll even get it and there is nothing I want less than that.
So many fellow gamers keep saying we should just get multiple consoles. Most peoples' wallets and schedules can't afford that. Nintendo HAS to attack the red and blue oceans.
Re: E3 2016: Check Out the Paper Mario: Color Splash E3 Trailer
No one ever mentions that the whole point of earning XP is to make the next battle better; stickers served that exact purpose with varying degrees of success in Sticker Star.
If there is progression than the battles are not pointless, but in this case just perhaps not complex enough for some. An essential motivation for playing an RPG fun battles and an immersive world.
Now if the battles are boring, that's another story. I didn't think they were boring at all but they were too simplistic and there were too many of them so you had to do too much sticker collecting to compensate and that simply got old.
That said, while I enjoyed large sections of the game, especially its visuals and animations, my biggest problem with Sticker Star were the obscure, counter-intuitive puzzle sections where you needed a sticker but didn't know where or what.
But the bottom line in any RPG is whether or not the battles are fun and many of Sticker Stars' battles were fun if not complex. They were just over-saturated and that drove your preparation (a la collect-a-thon) to exploration/story ratio up too far.
I would prefer a more complex and more traditional entry in the series but Color Splash has charm and beauty galore so if they have tweaked the ratio here and added a bit more depth to battles it looks like it could be a solid entry.
I actually think that a Zelda JRPG would be a thing of beauty. I know it was tried but that was a very long time ago - and actually, I played through half of Zelda II with Virtual Console save-assists and I was able to appreciate it the way I always wanted too. There is potential there.
Re: Poll: Did Nintendo Triumph With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3?
@rjejr,
Read post #202. Zoom out for a second in your thinking. The mechanic, at least one of the core mechanics, is exploring, making use of, and battling the wild. It is not Breath of the WIND. If that's not enough for you I get that but Zelda is always at its best when taking something relatively simple and drilling down to find its possibilities.
Re: Poll: Did Nintendo Triumph With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3?
@KH22,
99% of the commenters are not part of this website's team. I'm sure that the editors are well aware that you wear Pikachu underoos - in fact I'm sure a few of them have Pokeball panties.
Re: Poll: Did Nintendo Triumph With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3?
@JaxonH I agree with most of the Grumplestiltskins around here regarding the game needing a bit more visual polish but picking on what appears to be THE or at least A core mechanic of the title (the collection and use of varied objects within the environment) is an illogical criticism of a Zelda title.
Firstly, Zelda has always been at its best when the designers took a relatively simple concept and drilled down to find its possibilities. The first 3D games in the series took the 2D entries and expanded those great concepts to fill the new dimensions available. The dynamic highlighted in this demo is a logical step and it is true to the franchise and to the style of its evolution over successive iterations.
I get that other games have used the mechanic, but Zelda did it, arguably, first in a 3D world and with aplomb.
What we see within Breath of the Wild is an extension of an element already within the series at least starting with its 3D entries.
Ocarina of Time boasted a minor element that was used to varying degrees to make use of Link's move set and it saw the player acquiring either Deku Nuts or sticks from Deku Babas depending on their position when struck (attacking or idling) as well a how Link struck them (with a vertical or horizontal slice).
In terms of gear upgrading both Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time sported cool upgrade side-quests that earned you excellent optional swords and who can forget the Fierce Deity Mask?
An even more appropriate example, if less dynamic, is simply stealing those big tasseled spears from Moblins in Windwaker.
All of these examples were minor aspects of their larger game but they added a sense of depth and emmersion that made their discovery exciting and very memorable. It is a perfectly reasonable game element to expand upon even if Nintendo is late to this particular party - they kind of hosted it in the first place.
Now a lot of folks may be played out on Skyrim-like collection (as brilliant as it can be) and in that regard perhaps Nintendo should have capitalized on their own ideas with this earlier, but again, in many ways Zelda began it.
I do share some apprehension about the apparent loss of specific items that stick with you throughout the game and can be explored for their myriad uses. An environment rich with loot does run the risk of making certain items feel more generic. For instance, I'm not sure yet how I feel about the Sheikah stone upgrades playing the role that the discovery of ability-rich, iconic items played in earlier entries but it's an intriguing twist and far from a deal-breaker for me.
To sum up, what makes Zelda different is the way that the designers take a mechanic and craft it to explore its depth and breadth. A game where there are multiple practical uses for that stick you found, or that pot lid is just the Zelda team making its own ideas from early in the franchise count in a deeper way. That's good design.
Re: Poll: Did Nintendo Triumph With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3?
@shani I am excited too, but to be clear, the reason no one could explore fully during E3 is because there was a "Thank You For Playing" time-limit. It is still vast and so people would potentially (definitely) have stood at their demo screen for hours and hours so Nintendo stopped play at about 10 minutes.
Re: Reminder: Catch the Sony E3 2016 Press Conference With Push Square
@pandarino I agree. The Last Guardian is gorgeous and hopefully narratively rich but I was referencing VR specifically with that particular criticism.
Re: Reminder: Catch the Sony E3 2016 Press Conference With Push Square
Exceptional format and great looking games. Call of Duty is as Call of Duty does but that space marines ship-to-ship action was a game-changer. I was hoping it was Battlestar until the reveal.
And the VR titles look amazing: Star Trek, Star Wars, Arkham, and a Metroid-Prime-like or two --- all the right properties and concepts to prompt adoption (too bad about the price point though). Not to mention a Final Fantasy with VR capability. Remains to be seen if regular console releases are enhanced by VR or if it's just gimmicky but there is a ton of promise.
Still, this E3 without Nintendo brings into stark focus the charm that Nintendo alone brings to the scene. The other two are simply lacking that particular kind of essential magic. And I mean essential to the industry not necessarily to the success of a console. Sony's and Microsoft's parallel evolution is exciting and necessary to the medium, but it is a standard path. Nintendo needs to dip into that while maintaining their innovative nature in order to succeed.
Sony and Microsoft indeed have their own kind of magic but I didn't see much other than gritty realism, especially in Sony's VR offerings. Where are the Fantasia-likes, the Studio Ghiblis, the Nights Into Dreams-style free-flying emmersive fantasies with stunning animation and responsive orchestration? VR has the potential to tell so many stories beyond military and I know it's early days but experimentation with genres and stylish, visual variety is glaringly absent from the field.
Re: Stardew Valley is Digging Its Way to Wii U
Lots of people begging for this one; it's always nice to see some wishes coming true. I'll have my eyes out for a hardy demo and'll give that a try based on the word-of-mouth.
Re: Yo-kai Watch Sold Less Than Half a Million Units in North America
@Mogster Sad that Xenoblade sold poorly. Hopefully a revitalized install base could mean an NX re-release...
Re: Yo-kai Watch Sold Less Than Half a Million Units in North America
Lovely looking game, charming stereoscopic zoom-ins, lame gross-out humor and a brain-dead battle system.
Re: Nintendo is Getting Into the Movie Business
They're already spread too thin. Can you imagine the delays for a Zelda FILM? The Legend of Zelda, coming 2095.
I expect they mean to create animated films. If they make some nice anime versions of things, that's fine. Anything else, especially in-house, would put the entire company in development hell.
Re: Reaction: Nintendo Shakes Up E3 With No NX and a Focus on Legend of Zelda
I was hoping for stellar swan songs and/or continued support of the 3DS while the veil remained in place across the NX and its potential peripherals so I think that part is fine. Teasers would still be good but the concept is probably intuitive and a teaser would basically give it all away.
The Zelda-only E3 is the problem. This year Nintendo's should be a big show full of pretty things that are unapologetically on-show and planned for release as a "farewell celebration" to the Wii U and/or the 3DS; give the impression that a great final year is building toward a huge NX evolution in Nintendo gaming.
Zelda should be a strong piece of that goal but only a piece. Hopefully the only PLAYABLE game will not be the ONLY game because it doesn't take prescience to know how very widely unpopular that will be (already is) with fans. Some for whom this may be a must-play may even wander away to avoid spoilers leaving them open to the sultry tones of a remade Final Fantasy VII at a vulnerable time.
With regard to the general media, if Nintendo does not paint the vision of an exciting transition that is backed by some great end-of-an-era reveals they will squander an opportunity to appear relevant at the very least. I actually think that Nintendo has the chance to, at the realistic best, display stability and momentum.
To spell it out as armchair PR (sic. fan-fantasy) they could take this opportunity to say, "The Wii U was a disappointment to many in some key areas and we hear you so our next hardware release will answer this generation as Nintendo always does: with innovation. The NX will be unmistakably Nintendo in character and this new hardware will bring you cutting-edge visual experiences backed by powerful processing. We're excited to show you more in the coming months but that's not all the coming months have in store. We are also still proud of the Wii U and are excited to send it off in style this year."
That's the message.
They probably don't have the goods to back up all of that idealism but I think it's really what has to happen in order for Nintendo to decidedly re-assert itself. Otherwise the NX really better be able to run its own press when the time comes.
So what I'm saying is that if Nintendo does nothing but show a delayed Zelda in June the NX had better be the world's first AI.
Re: 10 Years On, Hideki Kamiya Still Doesn't Think He Could Better Okami
I have faith. I would love to return to Nippon, but he COULD be bold and change the art style and culture to explore, say, Norse mythology as so many cultures have epic wolf tales. I understand his reticence though. He went all the way with his core concept the first time.
Re: Fan-Made HD Twilight Princess Update "On Hiatus" Following YouTube Takedowns By Nintendo
@allav866, you are right about the graphical rough edges but only if you are making a contemporary comparison. At the time of release Ocarina of Time boasted what were then very striking visuals and lighting effects.
Graphically, Twilight Princess simply attempted to keep up with its contemporaries (and mostly succeeded).
Regarding the fields, Ocarina was the first of its kind, while TP should have been more of an evolution. I made a choice to enjoy the vast emptiness as well but I have not read or heard that the designers intended that. I would have preferred more bustling variety.
I am a fan of both games.
Re: Fan-Made HD Twilight Princess Update "On Hiatus" Following YouTube Takedowns By Nintendo
Frankly, Nintendo released a game with crisp but blocky, dated visuals. I like what they did add to the gameplay but the resolution alone is not enough to make me buy and play Twilight Princess for a third time. I understand, and respect maintaining the spirit of the original but TP struggled to do what it set out to do even back upon original release. Its two biggest flaws were the rough graphical edges and the emptiness of those Hyrulian fields. Together these issues robbed it of its goal of recapturing the magic of Ocarina of Time.
These fans are really putting forth more solid development effort into the remake than Nintendo was willing or able to allocate the manpower for and they might be wise to leverage the skills of people like this given the profitability of remakes. Will TPHD make a lot of money? I expect it will, but if it looked like this it would surely make a significant amount more.
Re: Feature: Getting Friendly in Surprising Ways With Miitomo
The news of limited micro-transactions is extremely welcome.
Re: Video: Explore The Appeal Of Miitomo With This New Launch Trailer
My personal tastes aside, if it taps into Ye Olde Blue Ocean it could prove to be a brilliant strategy.
On the other hand, while I like Miis, it may look to most like a cheap combination of the Sims, and any one of the many texting apps like Facebook Messenger, only here your conversation is shoehorned into banal territory; ooo, a Freshman Orientation get-to-know-you-game app. Fun.
Re: Why We're Still Playing… Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Interested to know how many people of my generation (I'm a millenial-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth, being born in 1981, and so nearly 35) are Pokémon people. I have always loved gaming, so when I saw the kids at the daycare where I had an afterschool job playing...no, obsessing...over this relatively new Game Boy game I was intrigued and asked a lot of questions. I remember being invited to play one battle, which I did, but the next time I personally picked up and played any form of Pokémon game was fifteen years later when the X and Y demo released on the 3DS. Needless to say it didn't woo me. Even at the tender age of 18, when our N64 rarely cooled down and collectothons were my theezy, my interest in Pokemon turned out to be primarily anthropological. This is not to say I don't respect it. The blend of collecting, exploring, and roll playing seems like it should be right up my alley, and I've revisited back-catalogue games from the '90's like Super Metroid and the Finals Fantasy VII-IX (Sonic caused a brief lapse from Nintendo in the early 90's, and as I said, for me gaming's name was N64, not Playstation, in the mid to late part of that decade) becoming a massive fan in retrospect. Still, somehow along with Fire Emblem, to Pokémon I remain a sideline semi-fan. Anyone in my age range want to tell me what exactly, and how much I've missed?
Re: Feature: Looking Back at the New 3DS Launch, Nintendo's Perfect Valentine's Day Gift
@Grumblevolcano, Thanks. Deal wouldn't have done it for me anyway.
Re: Feature: Looking Back at the New 3DS Launch, Nintendo's Perfect Valentine's Day Gift
@Novanon, what was the Ambassador edition? I was christened one long ago and always will remain a 3DS Ambassador but heard nothing about it. Shoddy treatment. My Game Stop either didn't offer it or lied about it. I was absolutely going to upgrade if there was an offer.