I'm one of the rare (ahem) players who came at Banjo-Tooie having not played Banjo-Kazooie. Not a wise choice. Possibly due to getting lost in the sheer size and number of tasks, I never did finish it.
And yet, I still remember having a lot of fun playing it and being tickled to death by the hilarious character moments! Far more than in DK64, the side quests feel purposeful and enjoyable. There's a clear cause and effect to how the levels open up before you.
It's kind of miraculous how smooth many of the minigames are to control, too, given the struggles the team had with the development tools. I love wielding Kazooie like a shotgun-- it's actually made me hungry for more cartoony deathmatch games. (It's cute while being just a tad morbid!)
The team's insights here are invaluable. This is the era of video games I miss-- when we didn't think we knew everything and there were so many possibilities to explore. I think that's why the magnitude of Rare's work for the N64 still blows my mind to this day.
@SamSt565 Actually, that's a valid question, and you got me to thinking about why I'm such a dyed-in-the-wool nostalgic. The fact that "they don't make games like they used to" isn't a bad thing. But when I think about the last deathmatch games I really enjoyed being TimeSplitters Future Perfect and Star Wars Battlefront II (the first Battlefront II, mind), a light snack of a game like Tokyo Wars suddenly seems more appealing than a bunch of COD wannabes that use every damn button on a modern controller including L3 and R3. An obsessive learning curve is a dealbreaker for me, and older action games-- especially arcade games-- manage to avoid that.
Still not jumping out of my seat to buy Tokyo Wars. There are better games for 17 bucks.
One more thing about that replay value... the games they've released from Namco so far are ridiculously short on tracks, maps, etc. For later, more fleshed-out titles like Dirt Dash and Motocross Go, with multiplayer tacked on, I'd say $15-17 is a bit more fair. For the one track in Ridge Racer, it's preposterous.
I also agree with a lot of users here that playing games in a big pack adds a lot of novelty. Hopefully Hamster is aware of this and will start packaging the 3D entries together in due time... but I'm sure Bandai Namco has a say in that too. 🫤
I was one of the players who excitedly wrote Hamster asking for split-screen play on future titles, and I'm glad they implemented it. I'm less glad that it's only available on the latest-gen consoles. Doesn't it seem like they're shooting themselves in the foot, excluding their install base from a feature that's easily implementable?
I love these kinds of games, but I would be lying if I said I've ever been good enough to rank. Regardless, the camp-horror aesthetic is plenty of motivation for me to give this a go. 😎
Nope, never owned an NES. Went straight on to the Super. And the quality-of-life features we've come to expect from games since has made a lot of NES games a grind for me.
But the original Super Mario Bros. 3 has my undying adoration... I love it more than World in some ways!
Talaka, Tossdown, and The Prisoning looked pretty cool to me. None of that really has to do with the Acclaim name as much as the developers responsible for them-- but if they can't use their old IP and licenses, they may as well embrace it, right?
At this rate, I wish they'd bite the bullet and port The Grid. It's not a deep deathmatch game by any stretch, but it's still way more fun than Mythologies, smolderingly cheesy FMV aside.
Still... Mythologies is very much a historical document of that era, and it might give us the same morbid glee we get from movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space. The controls might make it a little harder to get to the end, that's all.
I do like the Midway history timeline that's shown off in the video above. Hopefully there's a solid amount of supplemental material for arcade history buffs!
Hoooo boy... I want to like this, but I'm not sure I will.
I've seen the game they're porting in arcades, and unless they pull tracks from their other racers like they did for the Switch port of Cruis'n Blast, this is going to be a pretty thin cash-in, no matter how well it performs on the higher-spec platforms.
And as good as the driving was in Blast (praise God, no more pointless spinouts!), you know what I do miss from the earlier games? No stock library abuse. The landscape and music in Raw Thrills' recent racers are canned as hell, and the aesthetic is jumbled as a result. The flatulent faux-trap loop on the above trailer is not what I call inviting.
As cheesy as it is to go for bat for anything related to Cruis'n, 1) I'm cheesy and 2) this looks about as compelling as the first F&F port to Wii. It's really sad to see Eugene Jarvis settle for less, even where his brand of mindless fun is concerned.
You bet your butt I'm buying this! I hope we can wishlist it soon.
I love (and still play!) M2's G-Darius remaster, which skews more colorful and fanciful with all the cybernetic sea life. R-Type's art direction is almost the opposite-- a Gigeresque nightmare that ascended to beautiful chaos in the PS1 era. Kind of proves that you can slap a lot of different aesthetics on a classic gameplay loop and make them uniquely compelling.
I've been wondering where the heck Tekken 8 was at launch. Switch 2 already feels a bit crippled, but then again, I haven't been happy with the industry emphasizing sheer graphic detail over everything else, to the point that specs are practically unaffordable to developers and consumers.
I liked Tekken 8 enough when I played it with a friend on her PS5 a while back. I didn't think the mechanics were as pure as classic Tekken (read: anything up to Tekken Tag 2), since the Rage meter is really intrusive. But 8 has personality in spades and some wonderful new characters.
Keep in mind, I played it before the Season 2 patch came along. I wasn't aware that everyone hates it now. 🫠
Ima say it again... Sega's current retro 'effort' sucks. Aside from the programmers handling the Club Sega parts of the Yakuza games, they've been retreating where Namco and Capcom seem happy to advance. They've decided there's more money to be made licensing the classics out to other studios to potentially butcher them, rather than spending the money to accurately port and preserve them. It seems Lizardcube knows what they're doing, but Forever clearly doesn't.
Also, I continue to be bugged by how murky these remakes look. Why add all this graphic detail if the environments are sparse and the lighting is so dim?
1. The new Katamari looks fine, but the series isn't really exciting anymore. I still remember the original designer dropping out to work in other media after We Love Katamari because he was wary of Namco milking it too much.
2. I know they were just speculating, but once one of the NL editors suggested that Rare Replay might show up, I couldn't get that off my mind. Rare's audience is still with Nintendo gamers in their 30s. How is nobody banking on that? (Besides Miyamoto's prideful self, of course.)
For that matter, there were no release dates for upcoming retro games I'm genuinely excited for, but still in the dark about-- R-Type Delta HD and Mortal Kombat among them.
3. Goodnight Universe sounded like an interesting, poignant premise, but after seeing the footage, the game seems to be a lot sillier than the blurb printed in this article entails. Which is fine, I guess. That's in keeping with a lot of indie titles. Maybe the game will surprise us.
4. Still slim pickings where top third-party games are concerned. I wouldn't care about this on Switch 1, but their framerates looked choppy as all get out. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is eight years old for chrissakes. With more partner showcases like this, the Switch 2's success is going to rest solely on the shoulders of Nintendo games... which I'm sure is fine with them.
Everybody's going to rant about something in this Direct, because it just wasn't very good. But I'm sure there will be interesting third-party games coming down the pike if publishers actually accept the Switch 2 as a unique piece of hardware. Clearly, they've learned from their mistakes with underestimating the first Switch and emphasizing higher specs over truly novel ga--
@Anti-Matter You make a good point. Open-world, nonlinear games themselves are not the problem-- it's the AAA mentality behind their production in the industry at large. Not everything can be Skyrim. Not everything should be Skyrim.
If the aspirations of these games were realistic or intelligently contained and the visuals were more stylized, maybe these publishers wouldn't be laying off so many people a year.
@Yoshi3 Couldn't agree more. Heh, maybe I agree too much, with my fondness for arcade games dictating much of what's in my Switch library.
But in the end, whether or not a game can sustain an audience beyond the initial purchase comes down to game feel and fun mechanics, which Nintendo swears by. The Switch sold like hotcakes, and the Switch 2, despite my grave reservations about pricing, is off to a great start-- and neither of those are dependent purely on open-world Zelda sales. (Or open-world Mario Kart sales, but come on, it's a new Mario Kart either way!)
And Zelda already had a long history of strong mechanics to put into an open world. When will AAA publishers and developers take a freaking hint?
If everything is open-world just for the sake of being "SO F**KIN' BIG," that's a good way to collapse the industry. Not even AI will save you, because then the customers will notice the game sucks. 🙄
Yokoyama threatening to shut the project down if it's not good enough sounds like a nothing-burger, but there may be a point. Releasing a halfhearted sequel and tanking the series further would only add to Sega's long list of franchise casualties.
This one needs to be a hit, and another bog-standard VF entry is not gonna overshadow Tekken in the public consciousness. Tekken is too indelibly over-the-top.
I remain hopeful because that brief concept trailer looked incredible-- an exaggerated, fast-paced depiction of martial arts, sure, but not absurd. Hitting that sweet spot will make a new VF stand out.
Yeah, it took me a minute, but I realized that it's dubious at best for SAG-AFTRA to rally behind the case of Jones' voice when he isn't even alive to benefit from a win. There are more pertinent cases with living, working actors getting replaced that they could be suing over instead.
Still... I want Epic and the chatbots to win even less.
@SaltySpitoon957 Something tells me they knew it wasn't. They just wanted to release some broken crap that would trend until people rightfully complained.
My most recent console is a Switch. My latest full-price purchase is the preorder of Capcom Fighting Collection 2, which I am glad was announced before the Switch 2, lest Capcom would get the idea to sell it for more than $40. Retro games tend to be bargain-priced anyway, but shoot, imagine what a 'bargain' will look like in 2026.
The Switch 2 remains a hard sell for me. So do the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. I had a 10-year streak working in the increasingly unstable entertainment industry until last November-- so even without the economy s***ting itself, I'm not in an ideal position to keep buying brand-new systems that only support a sliver of titles I can learn and enjoy quickly.
As a matter of fact, I recently booted up the Wii and enjoyed a Grand Prix race in F-Zero GX. It was great to remember how much I loved and missed that game, but it was even better to do it out of spite for it being an NSO game on Switch 2. I intend to keep physically owning that game, thank you.
@vincentgoodwin @yamber Totally valid-- thank you for clearing that up. I'm still adamant in my other concerns about the format (and the erosion of physical media in general), but if we can still borrow games from friends in a post-digital landscape, that counts for something.
@AussieMcBucket I appreciate your taking the time to reply, but I'm still confused. If it's a key to download the game to your system, which still takes up space, what makes it so special compared to a code in a box? What are the advantages of having a Game-Key Card rather than just downloading the game from the eShop-- or for that matter, buying a code in a box? And if Nintendo can squash a game like Mario Kart World into a functional cartridge, what compression technology are they not sharing with developers? Keeping that big a secret doesn't sound like a way to make anybody happy.
It may just be that I was in a haze over the controversy of the Switch 2 Direct and I couldn't process what Game-Key Cards are meant to accomplish, but I still don't see the advantages.
I'm beginning to wonder why Nintendo even brought this heinous 'format' into existence. We have two flavors of code-in-a-box now, and that's two flavors too many.
...All snarking aside, this is making Nintendo's handling of the first Switch seem so much more careful and ambitious in hindsight. The Wii died with diminishing support from Nintendo and general disinterest from third parties. The Switch, meanwhile, will have new titles coming down the pike for a while, and it's already outlasted two new PlayStation launches by its sheer down-to-earth nature.
I can't forecast whether the Switch 2 will fail or not-- Nintendo's cruel bet on price hikes and 'Nintendults' to buoy sales may yet yield profit-- but I'm beginning to realize we had no idea how good things have been. And the mixed messaging about what the new console can and can't do is placing them on increasingly shaky ground.
Pfff, Nintendo didn't need to plan this launch! They have a loyal userbase and have bumped up the tech exponentially. This is gonna go over ten times bigger than the first Wii-- I mean, Switch. Did I say Wii? I meant Switch.
Praise jeezus! I've been wanting a proper Offline Versus mode for a while, and playing the upcoming CFC2 at the Dreamcast's internal resolution would have made me wince a bit. Glad they're doing this 😁
So let me get this straight... to qualify more highly, I have to currently have a 12 month subscription with 50 total gameplay hours? What is this classist BS?
I'm kidding with the word 'classist', but I'm also not... customer loyalty to a multibillion-dollar corporation should never be the driving force.
I don't even use my Switch that much, but the Switch 2 is shaping up to be an insult to its legacy.
@Samalik True, I'd still like the game to the point that I wouldn't care that much about the ending. I'd still buy the collection. But I wouldn't tear down Capcom's decision to make changes, either, however cold and financially motivated it may be. Just because Japanese gag comics, which tend to take a disturbingly light attitude towards sexual menace, still do jokes about female shame and subjugation doesn't make them timeless. Sweet lord.
You're at least right that fighting game endings tend to be lame. Beating the boss(es) will always be more satisfying than a bunch of jpgs passing as an epilogue.
So I was just watching the endings to Power Stone on YouTube, because I knew those were undergoing edits. When I saw Rouge’s ending, I understood why. If any of you ‘originalists’ laugh at or get off on a cutscene like that, I’ll happily accept the censorship.
Just because they’re classic games doesn’t mean we have to make new audiences squirm. The originals, warts and all, are worth documenting-- that's one reason game preservation efforts are so important. Maybe by including the warts in this collection, Capcom would be more accountable to its past. Maybe, conversely, they'd turn people off to what was good about these games in the first place.
The gameplay is timeless. I can live without the smut.
@Tempestryke I have indeed been asking for it, rabidly! But I was a latecomer to that game.
I didn't play Power Stone, let alone have a Dreamcast in my possession, until... 2006? Seven years after that system was off the market, I was still curious about it. And although Power Stone ended up feeling a little different than playing a 3D Smash Bros., I loved it-- I was not disappointed.
My hope is that collections like this will not only satisfy fighting-game fans, but also create new ones. The genre can include so much more than just Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and that deserves to be seen and appreciated.
@PKDuckman Yeah, that struck me as weird too. I'm guessing... that they're guessing... that if anyone has nostalgia for Plasma Sword, it's on the Dreamcast. But it seems like unnecessary fuss to just rip the options menu and other modes out of a console version.
I'm still stoked for this anthology. I'm over the moon about playing Power Stone the first again, which is the purest and most fun arena fighter I can think of to this day, barring SSBM. But I do wish they'd packed in the console versions of every dang one of these. Taito did it with G Darius HD, and I'm pretty sure they have less cash coming in than Capcom.
The only thing I wish they would include (and given previous collections, they probably won't) is the ability for winners to change characters in offline matches. When I play friends at fighting games, we always like to pick someone new just to shake things up-- we trust each other not to spam or cheat. Barriers to that should only be enforced online, says I.
But who am I kidding? There's so much in this collection to crow about that I probably won't miss it. 😎
I look back on the SNES era not just with nostalgia, but also with a much deeper sense of admiration, for how many vastly different kinds of games Nintendo cranked out in that system's lifespan. The DS, 3DS, and Wii provided them similar latitude to experiment and collaborate with ambitious third-party teams.
So it strikes me as ironic that, for all their emphasis on unique gameplay experiences and ambivalence to higher tech specs, Nintendo has provided Switch owners with an increasingly safe and conventional lineup over the past few years. They've been the industry leaders by a few laps, simply by meeting the markets that Xbox, Playstation, and Mountain Dew don't care about. But now they're acting like they could lose everything, allocating more and more resources to Mario spinoffs and remakes, always rendered and visualized with care (except the DKCR remake... oof) but designed with a lot less ingenuity.
Then again, the Switch continues to sell, so they certainly know their audience. And they have, indeed, almost lost everything a few times. The Wii U wrecked the previous generation's goodwill. The GameCube (much as I love it) came in last in its own console war. I don't blame them for getting cold feet. But I still find it disquieting that they've focused so much on tentpole releases and so little on lower-budget, more creatively challenging oddities.
Whether or not ARMS sold well-- and it certainly didn't perform to their satisfaction, or we'd have seen more-- I am beginning to think that Nintendo projects like that and Part Time UFO were the last of their kind.
Finally, I would like to reinforce how much I appreciate Imamura's mix of humility and candor as he reflects on NIntendo's past, present, and future. I don't think we'd be hearing half of that if he wasn't now a free agent.
First: I've been wanting a back-to-basics Mario Kart for ages, because 'ages' is how long Mario Kart 8 has been out. The character/vehicle/stats balance was always a headache for me to figure out. I hope this entry reclaims 64 and Double Dash's level of accessibility.
Second: To everyone hating on the look... why? Not the tech, mind you, but the style.
The lack of antialiasing is a red flag, sure. It doesn't raise my hopes for the Sw2tch beyond a smoother fps on most games. Hell, this system might be two Switches duct-taped together like the Wii's 'upgrade' from GameCube, and if that's the case, it's gonna go bad real fast for Nintendo.
But if this clip is anything to go by, I actually like the art direction a lot. It's a good blend of cartoony and tactile. The characters look like they belong in this environment, much more than in 8. I'm not sure why Mario seems to have acorns in his cheeks, but the primal, more exaggerated DK design is perfect — and even as a fan of the DKC series, I hope they stick with it.
I will admit: I love the controls, motifs, and character designs of the old DKCs so much (especially DKC2) that it kind of blinds me to the DKCR series. I was never gonna buy it, so I hardly need to boycott it.
Also, it took me a minute to realize that omitting OG staff credits has been common for some time, even on games I have praised loudly from the rafters-- such as Sega's lightgun remasters in the Wii era.
And yet, with the Retro Studios logo gone from this release altogether, it does make me think. You've still got Rare logos present and that KI machine lounging around Cranky's shack in DKC2... even on Switch Online. So why can't Nintendo be bothered to put the logo of a studio they own on the front of a game that studio primarily developed? It's gotta be some bad blood or an attempt to put Retro Studios in their place. After all, if Nintendo wasn't generally fond of putting other companies in their place, they would have released the PlayStation.
So, either Nintendo is being exceptionally unkind to their developers just to assert themselves, or I need to crinkle this tinfoil hat into a looser fit. 😅
I'm not surprised or anything, just disappointed. Nintendo, for all their pride in internally developed projects, has a legacy of leaving 'other' studios high and dry, even down to simple things like acknowledgement.
I've kinda known that since Rare walked off in 2002.
@gojiguy You and me both. Each wave of Sega management seems more and more apathetic toward the games people remember them for. They keep trying to be EA... and failing spectacularly at it.
Wow, did the first hack job really sell enough to warrant the go-ahead on a second entry? 😳 I know they announced they were doing both some time ago, but the fact that a substandard HOTD2 remake will exist when the Wii remaster was already fairly immaculate is kind of confounding. And to be honest, I hate the art direction of these remakes. With this much grime and bloom lighting, it looks like they're trying to cover their work up, even though the models and animation are actually fine.
Yeah, if you can't build a career without insulting and deriding gender rights and saying that those who are trying to defend it "deserve to be shot," you can get the hell out.
Also, did I hear someone bring up Doug TenNapel as a successful creator? Pfff. Ever notice how he hasn't matched the success of Earthworm Jim?
I was always a sucker for 2.5D platformers in the PS1-PS2 era. Klonoa was a gorgeous game largely because it embraced the contrast between sprites and polygonal backdrops. It felt both charmingly antique and contemporary.
Although I'm always thrilled to see retro remakes trying something new, instead of redoing the whole engine with exponentially higher tech and making the game feel less genuine (lookin' at you, Crash N-Sane Trilogy), it's been weird to see HD-2D remakes come up exclusively in the RPG space. Imagining what a game like Donkey Kong Country 2 or Gunstar Heroes would look like with this treatment is actually much more thrilling to me-- but then, that just speaks to the kinds of games I play. Heck, Marvel vs Capcom 2 did it so well back in the Dreamcast days, it's kind of hard not to see that treatment continue to work.
Ultimately, the better thing would be to seriously consider this aesthetic for new IPs. As some have mentioned in the comments, though, it's hard to expect that kind of visual shrewdness from AAA publishers, which leaves us reliant on the indie scene... which mostly sticks to fully 2D games for the sake of resources. Damn though, I would love to see 2.5D come back!
Even if all I listened to was Nintendo music, this would be a pretty miserable deal. Plus, I can't shake the feeling that they intend to use a service that sells widely available music as a justification to copyright-strike every YouTube video they can that uses a Mario jingle or two. The music is copyrighted, sure, and Nintendo has a right to protect it-- but they never miss a chance these days to cross the line into bullying.
Bob Hoskins Mario all the way. Kidding!
My personal favorite is N64 Smash Bros. Mario-- he's definitely boxier than the Mario 64 version, but the proportions of his hands, feet, and even nose make a statement. He's fit to wallop the other characters (and very slickly animated), but with his schnoz emphasized, he's still distinctly Mario.
However, I believe y'all missed the first 3D Mario rendered in a game-- pre-rendered, but a 3D model nonetheless. How could we forget the squat, toylike appearance Square provided him in Super Mario RPG?
@GameOtaku @Mgalens Exactly. This service will always be a step down from the Virtual Console in my book. I would buy some of the games on the service individually just to keep them and play them in HD. But given all the issues people have had with visual glitches, poor button remapping, and the fact that Nintendo is reluctant to dive deeper than their own published titles (if even that deep), NSO is a raw deal.
Comments 61
Re: Feature: Banjo-Tooie Turns 20 - The Rare Team Tells The Story Of Bombs, Bugs And Bottles
I'm one of the rare (ahem) players who came at Banjo-Tooie having not played Banjo-Kazooie. Not a wise choice. Possibly due to getting lost in the sheer size and number of tasks, I never did finish it.
And yet, I still remember having a lot of fun playing it and being tickled to death by the hilarious character moments! Far more than in DK64, the side quests feel purposeful and enjoyable. There's a clear cause and effect to how the levels open up before you.
It's kind of miraculous how smooth many of the minigames are to control, too, given the struggles the team had with the development tools. I love wielding Kazooie like a shotgun-- it's actually made me hungry for more cartoony deathmatch games. (It's cute while being just a tad morbid!)
The team's insights here are invaluable. This is the era of video games I miss-- when we didn't think we knew everything and there were so many possibilities to explore. I think that's why the magnitude of Rare's work for the N64 still blows my mind to this day.
Re: Mini Review: Arcade Archives 2 TOKYO WARS (Switch 2) - Another Polished But Wafer Thin Hamster Port
@SamSt565 Actually, that's a valid question, and you got me to thinking about why I'm such a dyed-in-the-wool nostalgic. The fact that "they don't make games like they used to" isn't a bad thing. But when I think about the last deathmatch games I really enjoyed being TimeSplitters Future Perfect and Star Wars Battlefront II (the first Battlefront II, mind), a light snack of a game like Tokyo Wars suddenly seems more appealing than a bunch of COD wannabes that use every damn button on a modern controller including L3 and R3. An obsessive learning curve is a dealbreaker for me, and older action games-- especially arcade games-- manage to avoid that.
Still not jumping out of my seat to buy Tokyo Wars. There are better games for 17 bucks.
Re: Mini Review: Arcade Archives 2 TOKYO WARS (Switch 2) - Another Polished But Wafer Thin Hamster Port
One more thing about that replay value... the games they've released from Namco so far are ridiculously short on tracks, maps, etc. For later, more fleshed-out titles like Dirt Dash and Motocross Go, with multiplayer tacked on, I'd say $15-17 is a bit more fair. For the one track in Ridge Racer, it's preposterous.
I also agree with a lot of users here that playing games in a big pack adds a lot of novelty. Hopefully Hamster is aware of this and will start packaging the 3D entries together in due time... but I'm sure Bandai Namco has a say in that too. 🫤
Re: Mini Review: Arcade Archives 2 TOKYO WARS (Switch 2) - Another Polished But Wafer Thin Hamster Port
I was one of the players who excitedly wrote Hamster asking for split-screen play on future titles, and I'm glad they implemented it. I'm less glad that it's only available on the latest-gen consoles. Doesn't it seem like they're shooting themselves in the foot, excluding their install base from a feature that's easily implementable?
Re: Resident Evil Pro Controller Is Available To Pre-Order, But Its Price Is Terrifying
10 extra dollars for an incomplete logo, huh? What a world... 🫠
Re: Mini Review: Silver Bullet (Switch) - A Gothic Arcade Shooter Full Of Tricks
I love these kinds of games, but I would be lying if I said I've ever been good enough to rank. Regardless, the camp-horror aesthetic is plenty of motivation for me to give this a go. 😎
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Play NES Games These Days?
Nope, never owned an NES. Went straight on to the Super. And the quality-of-life features we've come to expect from games since has made a lot of NES games a grind for me.
But the original Super Mario Bros. 3 has my undying adoration... I love it more than World in some ways!
Re: Round Up: Every "Exciting New Game" From The Acclaim Showcase
Talaka, Tossdown, and The Prisoning looked pretty cool to me. None of that really has to do with the Acclaim name as much as the developers responsible for them-- but if they can't use their old IP and licenses, they may as well embrace it, right?
Re: Two Of The Worst Mortal Kombat Games To Be Included In Legacy Kollection
At this rate, I wish they'd bite the bullet and port The Grid. It's not a deep deathmatch game by any stretch, but it's still way more fun than Mythologies, smolderingly cheesy FMV aside.
Still... Mythologies is very much a historical document of that era, and it might give us the same morbid glee we get from movies like Plan 9 from Outer Space. The controls might make it a little harder to get to the end, that's all.
I do like the Midway history timeline that's shown off in the video above. Hopefully there's a solid amount of supplemental material for arcade history buffs!
Re: Nightdive's Latest Remaster Is A Rip-Roaring Wild West Cult Classic
Good gravy, I remember when this was on store shelves! [cough, hack, wheeze] I'M OLD!
Despite my constant fumbling with FPS controls, I want to at least give this one a try. I love the cartoony-yet-gritty visuals-- peak LucasArts!
Re: Fast & Furious: Arcade Port Cruises Onto Switch This October
@gojiguy Yes, I do. Nowadays, Eugene is way too fond of cashing in and letting go.
Re: Fast & Furious: Arcade Port Cruises Onto Switch This October
Hoooo boy... I want to like this, but I'm not sure I will.
I've seen the game they're porting in arcades, and unless they pull tracks from their other racers like they did for the Switch port of Cruis'n Blast, this is going to be a pretty thin cash-in, no matter how well it performs on the higher-spec platforms.
And as good as the driving was in Blast (praise God, no more pointless spinouts!), you know what I do miss from the earlier games? No stock library abuse. The landscape and music in Raw Thrills' recent racers are canned as hell, and the aesthetic is jumbled as a result. The flatulent faux-trap loop on the above trailer is not what I call inviting.
As cheesy as it is to go for bat for anything related to Cruis'n, 1) I'm cheesy and 2) this looks about as compelling as the first F&F port to Wii. It's really sad to see Eugene Jarvis settle for less, even where his brand of mindless fun is concerned.
Re: R-Type Delta: HD Boosted Gets A Western Launch Date On Switch
You bet your butt I'm buying this! I hope we can wishlist it soon.
I love (and still play!) M2's G-Darius remaster, which skews more colorful and fanciful with all the cybernetic sea life. R-Type's art direction is almost the opposite-- a Gigeresque nightmare that ascended to beautiful chaos in the PS1 era. Kind of proves that you can slap a lot of different aesthetics on a classic gameplay loop and make them uniquely compelling.
Re: Tekken 8 On Switch 2 Would Be "A Lot Of Work", But Director Isn't Ruling It Out
I've been wondering where the heck Tekken 8 was at launch. Switch 2 already feels a bit crippled, but then again, I haven't been happy with the industry emphasizing sheer graphic detail over everything else, to the point that specs are practically unaffordable to developers and consumers.
I liked Tekken 8 enough when I played it with a friend on her PS5 a while back. I didn't think the mechanics were as pure as classic Tekken (read: anything up to Tekken Tag 2), since the Rage meter is really intrusive. But 8 has personality in spades and some wonderful new characters.
Keep in mind, I played it before the Season 2 patch came along. I wasn't aware that everyone hates it now. 🫠
Re: Mini Review: The House Of The Dead 2: Remake (Switch) - Erratic Controls Chomp At Another Classic
Ima say it again... Sega's current retro 'effort' sucks. Aside from the programmers handling the Club Sega parts of the Yakuza games, they've been retreating where Namco and Capcom seem happy to advance. They've decided there's more money to be made licensing the classics out to other studios to potentially butcher them, rather than spending the money to accurately port and preserve them. It seems Lizardcube knows what they're doing, but Forever clearly doesn't.
Also, I continue to be bugged by how murky these remakes look. Why add all this graphic detail if the environments are sparse and the lighting is so dim?
Time to dust off the Wii...
Re: Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase July 2025: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
Sigh...
1. The new Katamari looks fine, but the series isn't really exciting anymore. I still remember the original designer dropping out to work in other media after We Love Katamari because he was wary of Namco milking it too much.
2. I know they were just speculating, but once one of the NL editors suggested that Rare Replay might show up, I couldn't get that off my mind. Rare's audience is still with Nintendo gamers in their 30s. How is nobody banking on that? (Besides Miyamoto's prideful self, of course.)
For that matter, there were no release dates for upcoming retro games I'm genuinely excited for, but still in the dark about-- R-Type Delta HD and Mortal Kombat among them.
3. Goodnight Universe sounded like an interesting, poignant premise, but after seeing the footage, the game seems to be a lot sillier than the blurb printed in this article entails. Which is fine, I guess. That's in keeping with a lot of indie titles. Maybe the game will surprise us.
4. Still slim pickings where top third-party games are concerned. I wouldn't care about this on Switch 1, but their framerates looked choppy as all get out. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is eight years old for chrissakes. With more partner showcases like this, the Switch 2's success is going to rest solely on the shoulders of Nintendo games... which I'm sure is fine with them.
Everybody's going to rant about something in this Direct, because it just wasn't very good. But I'm sure there will be interesting third-party games coming down the pike if publishers actually accept the Switch 2 as a unique piece of hardware. Clearly, they've learned from their mistakes with underestimating the first Switch and emphasizing higher specs over truly novel ga--
Ah screw it, who am I kidding? 🫠
Re: After Croc, Argonaut Games Wants To Remaster This N64 Cult Classic
@smoreon Frankly, that works too!
Re: After Croc, Argonaut Games Wants To Remaster This N64 Cult Classic
I never played this one in my youth, but I was certainly aware of it. And I always enjoy a rail shooter with a unique aesthetic hook. 😎
Re: Smash Bros. Director Sakurai Laments 'Unsustainable' AAA Game Dev, Discusses AI And Uncertainty
@Anti-Matter You make a good point. Open-world, nonlinear games themselves are not the problem-- it's the AAA mentality behind their production in the industry at large. Not everything can be Skyrim. Not everything should be Skyrim.
If the aspirations of these games were realistic or intelligently contained and the visuals were more stylized, maybe these publishers wouldn't be laying off so many people a year.
Re: Smash Bros. Director Sakurai Laments 'Unsustainable' AAA Game Dev, Discusses AI And Uncertainty
@Yoshi3 Couldn't agree more. Heh, maybe I agree too much, with my fondness for arcade games dictating much of what's in my Switch library.
But in the end, whether or not a game can sustain an audience beyond the initial purchase comes down to game feel and fun mechanics, which Nintendo swears by. The Switch sold like hotcakes, and the Switch 2, despite my grave reservations about pricing, is off to a great start-- and neither of those are dependent purely on open-world Zelda sales. (Or open-world Mario Kart sales, but come on, it's a new Mario Kart either way!)
And Zelda already had a long history of strong mechanics to put into an open world. When will AAA publishers and developers take a freaking hint?
If everything is open-world just for the sake of being "SO F**KIN' BIG," that's a good way to collapse the industry. Not even AI will save you, because then the customers will notice the game sucks. 🙄
Re: Sega Says It Will Stop The New Virtua Fighter Project If It's Not "Good Enough"
Yokoyama threatening to shut the project down if it's not good enough sounds like a nothing-burger, but there may be a point. Releasing a halfhearted sequel and tanking the series further would only add to Sega's long list of franchise casualties.
This one needs to be a hit, and another bog-standard VF entry is not gonna overshadow Tekken in the public consciousness. Tekken is too indelibly over-the-top.
I remain hopeful because that brief concept trailer looked incredible-- an exaggerated, fast-paced depiction of martial arts, sure, but not absurd. Hitting that sweet spot will make a new VF stand out.
Re: Fortnite Devs Hit With Unfair Labour Practice Filing Following AI Darth Vader Fiasco
Yeah, it took me a minute, but I realized that it's dubious at best for SAG-AFTRA to rally behind the case of Jones' voice when he isn't even alive to benefit from a win. There are more pertinent cases with living, working actors getting replaced that they could be suing over instead.
Still... I want Epic and the chatbots to win even less.
Re: Fortnite Turns To The Dark Side With New AI-Generated Darth Vader Chats
@JimNorman Thank you for that little quip at the end 😁
Re: Fortnite Turns To The Dark Side With New AI-Generated Darth Vader Chats
@SaltySpitoon957 Something tells me they knew it wasn't. They just wanted to release some broken crap that would trend until people rightfully complained.
Re: Talking Point: With Prices Rising, Are Your Gaming Habits Changing?
My most recent console is a Switch. My latest full-price purchase is the preorder of Capcom Fighting Collection 2, which I am glad was announced before the Switch 2, lest Capcom would get the idea to sell it for more than $40. Retro games tend to be bargain-priced anyway, but shoot, imagine what a 'bargain' will look like in 2026.
The Switch 2 remains a hard sell for me. So do the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. I had a 10-year streak working in the increasingly unstable entertainment industry until last November-- so even without the economy s***ting itself, I'm not in an ideal position to keep buying brand-new systems that only support a sliver of titles I can learn and enjoy quickly.
As a matter of fact, I recently booted up the Wii and enjoyed a Grand Prix race in F-Zero GX. It was great to remember how much I loved and missed that game, but it was even better to do it out of spite for it being an NSO game on Switch 2. I intend to keep physically owning that game, thank you.
Re: Limited Run's Atlus Switch 2 Collector's Edition Is A 'Game-Key Card' Release
@vincentgoodwin @yamber Totally valid-- thank you for clearing that up. I'm still adamant in my other concerns about the format (and the erosion of physical media in general), but if we can still borrow games from friends in a post-digital landscape, that counts for something.
Re: Limited Run's Atlus Switch 2 Collector's Edition Is A 'Game-Key Card' Release
@AussieMcBucket I appreciate your taking the time to reply, but I'm still confused. If it's a key to download the game to your system, which still takes up space, what makes it so special compared to a code in a box? What are the advantages of having a Game-Key Card rather than just downloading the game from the eShop-- or for that matter, buying a code in a box? And if Nintendo can squash a game like Mario Kart World into a functional cartridge, what compression technology are they not sharing with developers? Keeping that big a secret doesn't sound like a way to make anybody happy.
It may just be that I was in a haze over the controversy of the Switch 2 Direct and I couldn't process what Game-Key Cards are meant to accomplish, but I still don't see the advantages.
Re: Limited Run's Atlus Switch 2 Collector's Edition Is A 'Game-Key Card' Release
I'm beginning to wonder why Nintendo even brought this heinous 'format' into existence. We have two flavors of code-in-a-box now, and that's two flavors too many.
Re: Uh Oh, It Looks Like Select Switch 2 Games Won't Support Cloud Saves
...All snarking aside, this is making Nintendo's handling of the first Switch seem so much more careful and ambitious in hindsight. The Wii died with diminishing support from Nintendo and general disinterest from third parties. The Switch, meanwhile, will have new titles coming down the pike for a while, and it's already outlasted two new PlayStation launches by its sheer down-to-earth nature.
I can't forecast whether the Switch 2 will fail or not-- Nintendo's cruel bet on price hikes and 'Nintendults' to buoy sales may yet yield profit-- but I'm beginning to realize we had no idea how good things have been. And the mixed messaging about what the new console can and can't do is placing them on increasingly shaky ground.
Re: Uh Oh, It Looks Like Select Switch 2 Games Won't Support Cloud Saves
Pfff, Nintendo didn't need to plan this launch! They have a loyal userbase and have bumped up the tech exponentially. This is gonna go over ten times bigger than the first Wii-- I mean, Switch. Did I say Wii? I meant Switch.
Re: Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection Scores A New Switch Update This Week
Praise jeezus! I've been wanting a proper Offline Versus mode for a while, and playing the upcoming CFC2 at the Dreamcast's internal resolution would have made me wince a bit. Glad they're doing this 😁
Re: Where To Pre-Order Nintendo Switch 2
So let me get this straight... to qualify more highly, I have to currently have a 12 month subscription with 50 total gameplay hours? What is this classist BS?
I'm kidding with the word 'classist', but I'm also not... customer loyalty to a multibillion-dollar corporation should never be the driving force.
I don't even use my Switch that much, but the Switch 2 is shaping up to be an insult to its legacy.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Launches May 2025 On Nintendo Switch
@Samalik True, I'd still like the game to the point that I wouldn't care that much about the ending. I'd still buy the collection. But I wouldn't tear down Capcom's decision to make changes, either, however cold and financially motivated it may be. Just because Japanese gag comics, which tend to take a disturbingly light attitude towards sexual menace, still do jokes about female shame and subjugation doesn't make them timeless. Sweet lord.
You're at least right that fighting game endings tend to be lame. Beating the boss(es) will always be more satisfying than a bunch of jpgs passing as an epilogue.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Launches May 2025 On Nintendo Switch
So I was just watching the endings to Power Stone on YouTube, because I knew those were undergoing edits. When I saw Rouge’s ending, I understood why. If any of you ‘originalists’ laugh at or get off on a cutscene like that, I’ll happily accept the censorship.
Just because they’re classic games doesn’t mean we have to make new audiences squirm. The originals, warts and all, are worth documenting-- that's one reason game preservation efforts are so important. Maybe by including the warts in this collection, Capcom would be more accountable to its past. Maybe, conversely, they'd turn people off to what was good about these games in the first place.
The gameplay is timeless. I can live without the smut.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Launches May 2025 On Nintendo Switch
@Tempestryke I have indeed been asking for it, rabidly! But I was a latecomer to that game.
I didn't play Power Stone, let alone have a Dreamcast in my possession, until... 2006? Seven years after that system was off the market, I was still curious about it. And although Power Stone ended up feeling a little different than playing a 3D Smash Bros., I loved it-- I was not disappointed.
My hope is that collections like this will not only satisfy fighting-game fans, but also create new ones. The genre can include so much more than just Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and that deserves to be seen and appreciated.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Launches May 2025 On Nintendo Switch
@PKDuckman Yeah, that struck me as weird too. I'm guessing... that they're guessing... that if anyone has nostalgia for Plasma Sword, it's on the Dreamcast. But it seems like unnecessary fuss to just rip the options menu and other modes out of a console version.
I'm still stoked for this anthology. I'm over the moon about playing Power Stone the first again, which is the purest and most fun arena fighter I can think of to this day, barring SSBM. But I do wish they'd packed in the console versions of every dang one of these. Taito did it with G Darius HD, and I'm pretty sure they have less cash coming in than Capcom.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Launches May 2025 On Nintendo Switch
The only thing I wish they would include (and given previous collections, they probably won't) is the ability for winners to change characters in offline matches. When I play friends at fighting games, we always like to pick someone new just to shake things up-- we trust each other not to spam or cheat. Barriers to that should only be enforced online, says I.
But who am I kidding? There's so much in this collection to crow about that I probably won't miss it. 😎
Re: Takaya Imamura On Nintendo's Future: Talented And Charismatic Devs Are "Crucial"
I look back on the SNES era not just with nostalgia, but also with a much deeper sense of admiration, for how many vastly different kinds of games Nintendo cranked out in that system's lifespan. The DS, 3DS, and Wii provided them similar latitude to experiment and collaborate with ambitious third-party teams.
So it strikes me as ironic that, for all their emphasis on unique gameplay experiences and ambivalence to higher tech specs, Nintendo has provided Switch owners with an increasingly safe and conventional lineup over the past few years. They've been the industry leaders by a few laps, simply by meeting the markets that Xbox, Playstation, and Mountain Dew don't care about. But now they're acting like they could lose everything, allocating more and more resources to Mario spinoffs and remakes, always rendered and visualized with care (except the DKCR remake... oof) but designed with a lot less ingenuity.
Then again, the Switch continues to sell, so they certainly know their audience. And they have, indeed, almost lost everything a few times. The Wii U wrecked the previous generation's goodwill. The GameCube (much as I love it) came in last in its own console war. I don't blame them for getting cold feet. But I still find it disquieting that they've focused so much on tentpole releases and so little on lower-budget, more creatively challenging oddities.
Whether or not ARMS sold well-- and it certainly didn't perform to their satisfaction, or we'd have seen more-- I am beginning to think that Nintendo projects like that and Part Time UFO were the last of their kind.
Finally, I would like to reinforce how much I appreciate Imamura's mix of humility and candor as he reflects on NIntendo's past, present, and future. I don't think we'd be hearing half of that if he wasn't now a free agent.
Re: Feature: Everything You Missed In The Switch 2 Mario Kart Reveal - Characters, Features, Easter Eggs
First: I've been wanting a back-to-basics Mario Kart for ages, because 'ages' is how long Mario Kart 8 has been out. The character/vehicle/stats balance was always a headache for me to figure out. I hope this entry reclaims 64 and Double Dash's level of accessibility.
Second: To everyone hating on the look... why? Not the tech, mind you, but the style.
The lack of antialiasing is a red flag, sure. It doesn't raise my hopes for the Sw2tch beyond a smoother fps on most games. Hell, this system might be two Switches duct-taped together like the Wii's 'upgrade' from GameCube, and if that's the case, it's gonna go bad real fast for Nintendo.
But if this clip is anything to go by, I actually like the art direction a lot. It's a good blend of cartoony and tactile. The characters look like they belong in this environment, much more than in 8. I'm not sure why Mario seems to have acorns in his cheeks, but the primal, more exaggerated DK design is perfect — and even as a fan of the DKC series, I hope they stick with it.
Re: Retro Staff Credits Removed From Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, Forever Entertainment Confirmed As Devs
I will admit: I love the controls, motifs, and character designs of the old DKCs so much (especially DKC2) that it kind of blinds me to the DKCR series. I was never gonna buy it, so I hardly need to boycott it.
Also, it took me a minute to realize that omitting OG staff credits has been common for some time, even on games I have praised loudly from the rafters-- such as Sega's lightgun remasters in the Wii era.
And yet, with the Retro Studios logo gone from this release altogether, it does make me think. You've still got Rare logos present and that KI machine lounging around Cranky's shack in DKC2... even on Switch Online. So why can't Nintendo be bothered to put the logo of a studio they own on the front of a game that studio primarily developed? It's gotta be some bad blood or an attempt to put Retro Studios in their place. After all, if Nintendo wasn't generally fond of putting other companies in their place, they would have released the PlayStation.
So, either Nintendo is being exceptionally unkind to their developers just to assert themselves, or I need to crinkle this tinfoil hat into a looser fit. 😅
Re: Retro Staff Credits Removed From Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, Forever Entertainment Confirmed As Devs
I'm not surprised or anything, just disappointed. Nintendo, for all their pride in internally developed projects, has a legacy of leaving 'other' studios high and dry, even down to simple things like acknowledgement.
I've kinda known that since Rare walked off in 2002.
Re: House Of The Dead 2: Remake Blasts Onto Switch This Spring
@gojiguy You and me both.
Each wave of Sega management seems more and more apathetic toward the games people remember them for. They keep trying to be EA... and failing spectacularly at it.
Re: House Of The Dead 2: Remake Blasts Onto Switch This Spring
Wow, did the first hack job really sell enough to warrant the go-ahead on a second entry? 😳
I know they announced they were doing both some time ago, but the fact that a substandard HOTD2 remake will exist when the Wii remaster was already fairly immaculate is kind of confounding.
And to be honest, I hate the art direction of these remakes. With this much grime and bloom lighting, it looks like they're trying to cover their work up, even though the models and animation are actually fine.
Re: Original Minecraft Creator Has "Basically Announced" A Spiritual Successor
Yeah, if you can't build a career without insulting and deriding gender rights and saying that those who are trying to defend it "deserve to be shot," you can get the hell out.
Also, did I hear someone bring up Doug TenNapel as a successful creator? Pfff. Ever notice how he hasn't matched the success of Earthworm Jim?
Re: Talking Point: Is It Time For HD-2D To Take A Break?
May I throw a monkey wrench in the works?
I was always a sucker for 2.5D platformers in the PS1-PS2 era. Klonoa was a gorgeous game largely because it embraced the contrast between sprites and polygonal backdrops. It felt both charmingly antique and contemporary.
Although I'm always thrilled to see retro remakes trying something new, instead of redoing the whole engine with exponentially higher tech and making the game feel less genuine (lookin' at you, Crash N-Sane Trilogy), it's been weird to see HD-2D remakes come up exclusively in the RPG space. Imagining what a game like Donkey Kong Country 2 or Gunstar Heroes would look like with this treatment is actually much more thrilling to me-- but then, that just speaks to the kinds of games I play. Heck, Marvel vs Capcom 2 did it so well back in the Dreamcast days, it's kind of hard not to see that treatment continue to work.
Ultimately, the better thing would be to seriously consider this aesthetic for new IPs. As some have mentioned in the comments, though, it's hard to expect that kind of visual shrewdness from AAA publishers, which leaves us reliant on the indie scene... which mostly sticks to fully 2D games for the sake of resources. Damn though, I would love to see 2.5D come back!
Re: Gallery: Feast Your Eyes On This Massive Wario Collection
Some say WAH, Topher says WAH NOT?
Re: So, Will You Be Listening To The New Mobile App Nintendo Music?
Even if all I listened to was Nintendo music, this would be a pretty miserable deal.
Plus, I can't shake the feeling that they intend to use a service that sells widely available music as a justification to copyright-strike every YouTube video they can that uses a Mario jingle or two. The music is copyrighted, sure, and Nintendo has a right to protect it-- but they never miss a chance these days to cross the line into bullying.
Re: Feature: The Man, The Mascot, The Moustache - The Many Faces Of Mario
Bob Hoskins Mario all the way. Kidding!
My personal favorite is N64 Smash Bros. Mario-- he's definitely boxier than the Mario 64 version, but the proportions of his hands, feet, and even nose make a statement. He's fit to wallop the other characters (and very slickly animated), but with his schnoz emphasized, he's still distinctly Mario.
However, I believe y'all missed the first 3D Mario rendered in a game-- pre-rendered, but a 3D model nonetheless. How could we forget the squat, toylike appearance Square provided him in Super Mario RPG?
Re: Some Fans Aren't Happy About Sonic X Shadow Generations' Changes To The Original
Removed
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's N64 Library Next Week
@GameOtaku @Mgalens Exactly. This service will always be a step down from the Virtual Console in my book. I would buy some of the games on the service individually just to keep them and play them in HD. But given all the issues people have had with visual glitches, poor button remapping, and the fact that Nintendo is reluctant to dive deeper than their own published titles (if even that deep), NSO is a raw deal.