Comments 29

Re: Starfox's Official Switch 2 Box Art, Price And Estimated File Size Revealed

MegaJ

I am so excited for this! I might actually preorder a game for the first time since Mario Maker, I think? I just wanna play this so much! I LOVE Lylat Wars, it's one of my all-time favourite games, and it looks like it's fleshing that out beautifully while keeping what makes the gameplay so good fully intact! And you can even play it with the N64 controller! Feels like they really GET what I love about the original, from all the footage they showed in the direct!

Re: Poll: How Do You Pronounce These Pokémon?

MegaJ

Silvally's ability "RKS System" and its connection to Arceus should make the pronunciation of Arceus obvious once you're aware of that. Ryan Reynolds even pronounced it incorrectly as "arsey-us" in the Detective Pikachu movie.
And for Silvally itself, it's 'silv-ally'- it's a silver ally- for stuff like this, you often have to take into account the intent of why the Pokémon was named the thing in the first place, instead of just raw syllables. Lots of different pieces of words used for Pokémon names- and many not even English words in the first place. And English is a frankenstein language anyway.

Re: Talking Point: Is Legend Of Zelda's Link Left Or Right-Handed? Let's Look At The Evidence

MegaJ

It's... really obvious. Link has always been left handed, they only changed it to right for games with motion control (and by extension any game with that same version of Link, like Hyrule Warriors games or Smash Ultimate), because more people are right handed, and they wanted it to match up with as many people as possible control-wise, without having to redesign everything.

Is... is that not clear to people...? That's always been a characteristic of Link. They only switched it up for motion gameplay convenience. Case in point- they mirrored the entire GAME for this for convenience, between the original Gamecube version of Twilight Princess and the Wii version. And even then, you could argue that they should have given players the option to select their dominant hand- but of course that would have added a lot more into development consideration for something relatively trivial, in the scale of a whole game.

And the "they're different people!" argument doesn't hold water, when every other look and characteristic of Link (outside of art style) is identical every single time. Singling out only his handedness and nothing else as a difference just reads as bizarre, in that case.

Just think it through.

Re: Talking Point: Do You Play Zelda Games For The Story?

MegaJ

I do indeed play this story-based game series with more worldbuilding than most other games put together for the story (as well as other things like the excellent gameplay, obviously). The Zelda series (especially a few specific games) is a masterclass in subtext- I love that it's one of the few story-based series which trusts the player enough to not just shovel everything into their mouths, and let them actually pick up on it and experience it firsthand. That's rare and special. That's exactly what a Legend should be- and it lives up to the name.

Re: Review: Pokémon Champions (Switch) – The Most Accessible & Flawed Competitive Pokémon Has Ever Been

MegaJ

I always think it's weird when Pokémon seems to go out of its way to remove the training and catching and bonding with your Pokémon aspects. I mean... that's like the main thing that makes Pokémon, Pokémon. I don't see the appeal when it's just handed to you- I don't know these Pokémon, I don't have any attachment to them- they're basically just piles of stats and moves now. It removes the human element.

Re: Talking Point: Which Zelda Game Would You Most Like To See Remade?

MegaJ

I'm honestly so sick of remakes at this point. I'd love gaming to go for a few years without remakes- they can be good, but if done badly, they kind of tarnish the legacy of the original. I'm at the point of getting remakes shoved into my face when I'm still not done with the originals, and that ain't fun- it makes the original feel 'incomplete' and the FOMO about not playing the more complete package of the remake nags at you. It makes you feel like you've wasted money and/or time. And there should be a rule for not remaking something that's already been remade- so no Ocarina or Majora's Mask or Link's Awakening, please.

And we already got a "remake" of Zelda 1- it's called Breath of the Wild. A Link Between Worlds is also halfway between a re-imagining and a weird sequel to A Link to the Past, so we've had enough time in that version of Hyrule already- even Four Swords Adventures was very A Link to the Past-like in its world and overall production.

I would be up for ports- those are good! Those give people more access to the originals without scrubbing out what they were! And if we must do remakes- pick the ones most interesting to give a second shot! Stuff like Zelda II - though I still say that it's way better than most people remember.

Re: Feature: Our Top Ten Favourite Easter Eggs In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

MegaJ

I liked how the casino scene (which basically shoved pretty much all of Super Mario Bros. 2 into one scene, lol) was all Peach beating practically everything that game throws at you, which is... totally accurate, she's by far the best character to play as in Super Mario Bros. 2, so that almost felt like an acknowledgement of that. Like an 'if you've played SMB2, you know' kind of thing!
"CONTRIBUTOR
PRINCESS"

Re: UK Charts: Pokémon Pokopia's Physical Troubles Continue As It Slips From The Podium

MegaJ

This kinda proves that game key cards are not a replacement for physical media, and that that's what people actually want.
I'm not as against game key cards as other people seem to be- they're still a step up from pure digital- they at least give the customer more agency than a download- but they're certainly just a compromise. I still find myself strongly repelled against buying any, though. Customers (and people in general) have WAY more power than they realise- so of course exercise that when it feels right to you to do so. Game key cards aren't evil, though- they're actually a greater level of transparency on what is actually on the physical media being sold- take Starlink: Battle for Atlas on Switch, for example- it's an original Switch game, and basically the ENTIRE game is a download- we've basically had stealth 'game key cards' for years now, at least Nintendo are just making third parties be transparent about it now. I'm just a little disappointed that this is kinda the first time Nintendo has made one of their own games a game key exclusive, I wasn't expecting them to actually use them themselves.

Re: New Survival Game 'Pickmon' Is Just Asking To Be Sued Into Oblivion

MegaJ

I've also been saying for years that 'gaming has an incest problem'. By that I mean- so many games seem to be trying to be other games. Even some of the good ones I like! The very fact that we name subgenres 'x-likes' and 'metroidvanias' and such is symptomatic of this. Iteration and mixing of ideas can be fantastic- but the problem is when so many don't even TRY to be authentic and just settle with 'ehhhh, we'll just change the designs as little as possible from what we're inspired by to not get sued, it'll be fine'. That's how creativity dies. Not by AI, but by not caring about any kind of creative vision. AI is all too often just used as a scapegoat for that- creatively bankrupt developers are the issue, not the tools they use. And we shouldn't let that scapegoat distract us from that lack of earnesty and creativity.

Re: Pokopia Joins A 3DS Entry As The Highest-Rated Pokémon Game On Metacritic

MegaJ

X and Y were the last truly good mainline (non-Legends) Pokémon games, honestly, so that makes sense. Declining quality of subsequent generations + recency bias (relatively speaking, obviously).
Also- mainline Pokémon games have always struggled with 3D. X and Y were the first (and last, so far) of the mainline games to actually do well with it (Legends Arceus excluded- I'm only talking about regular mainline games, as I said). Even Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon started to struggle with it, it started becoming noticeable with them, as much as they're still solid games overall. But Sun and Moon especially had so many elements which felt downright unfinished- unfinished planned areas walled off, that whole random Elite Four member who was a golfer which was a whole planned trainer class which was cut etc. The point is, as good as the games still were- this is where we started to see that they were shovellin' them out in terms of development at that point.

Re: Forget The Talking Flower, This Is The Cutest Upcoming Mario Toy

MegaJ

This would be cool, but it feels like too much of a cynical one-time deal due to the breaking shell. They could, for example- have designed the shell like a 3D jigsaw puzzle of sorts which you could reassemble and repeat, that would have been cool. But it breaks once, and then it's just done? That's kind of a bummer. Which makes me sad, because having a Yoshi hatch like this in a realistic way is super cool. Also... it doesn't even really sound like Yoshi? The tone is wrong, like someone doing a bad Yoshi impression. Why not use actual Yoshi sound clips? There are tons of those!

Re: Nintendo Shares More Artwork Of Diddy Kong's Brand New Design

MegaJ

My only real issue with Diddy is that he looks 100x creepier with his mouth open with teeth, where before, his open-mouthed expressions looked super friendly. The teeth where no teeth were visible before makes it look like more of a gurning expression instead of just- "Yay!"

Re: Nintendo Shares More Artwork Of Diddy Kong's Brand New Design

MegaJ

@Alckemy Absolutely. That perilous atmospheric vibe is what made me LOVE the Country/Land games so much. (I love the gameplay too, though.) And I adore DK64, and while it didn't get rid of those feelings entirely (Gloomy Galleon, Frantic Factory especially- the castle level too, but it felt a bit more "halloween" while still being creepy) it did definitely dial back on them overall, compared to the Country/Land games.

Re: Talking Point: Will You Be Buying Any Game-Key Card Switch 2 Games?

MegaJ

It's ironic that Nintendo are getting the blame for this, as it's literally what all other platforms have been doing for at least a full console generation now- Nintendo are just making it required on their platform to be upfront about it. AND they themselves seem to be doing a much better job at actually putting their whole games onto the actual cartridges too, as opposed to so many of these third party developers.
I remember when I got Starlink: Battle for Atlas for Switch 1, and the required update was truly GIGANTIC- it was extremely obvious that that was the game, rather than on the cartridge. This has even been happening on Switch 1, so- again- this is just Nintendo forcing developers to be honest about it. It's actively pro-consumer, yet they're getting burned for doing the right thing, and that really bothers me. Just know the full context, whatever you choose.

Re: Mailbox: Switch 2 Price Drops, Remake Replacements, Pokémon Acquisitions - Nintendo Life Letters

MegaJ

The intro and ending of the Switch Link's Awakening Remake being in a totally different and more realistic art style was done on purpose- it gives everything in between portrayed in that toy-like in-game art style an otherworldly dream-like quality. The GBC DX remake even kind of did this as well with the chibi art style of all the in-game photo events compared to the intro and ending of the game where Link looks totally different. It's subtext- it was done on purpose.