I'm personally glad that Pokkén Tournament DX passed 1 million too! Being an enhanced port released among much bigger titles I feared it would have found little success, risking to block the development of this concept that I actually like a lot!
@Moroboshi876 I'm from Italy, and I'm currently a patroller of the Super Mario Wiki.
I like keeping track of the Koopalings' case, including its developments, and this led me to discover various oddities, including the one about the Koopa/turtle tribe difference and the name of Kamek. I bought both the Japanese, German and Spanish Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., so I can also check to see the differences among these.
Indeed, the German translation seems more heavily influenced by NOE, you can see that from the name of Kamek which is often Magikoopa in the games before Super Mario 3D Land, plus the turtle tribe was changed to Koopa or Koopa-Familie, Larry's bio was changed to "ein Draufgänger" (daredevil, go-getter) since of course nothing was made out of that "Head of the Koopa army's special assault squad" in these years, and the Koopalings' story in Super Mario Bros. 3 was fully rewritten (in that translation it is "Allerdings macht er sieben Koopalinge zu seinen Untertanen" which pretty much means "Indeed he turned seven Koopalings into his subjects").
From what I've seen so far, the Spanish translation is more faithful to the Japanese text, even at the expense of not following the Western traditions like "the turtle-like creatures are called Koopas", and I like it!
@Moroboshi876 Thanks, it's nice to have a little insight into this work!
As surprising as it might be, there are discrepancies between Japanese and Western naming conventions, in particular the concept of "Koopa", stemming from the translation of the first Super Mario Bros. manual - another thing that was fixed in your translation! I was surprised to see a translated book being faithful to the Japanese conventions! The Kameks' names being consistent just like they are in Japan was also a surpise, since it's yet another detail that only NOE tried to fix and so far not retroactively.
In general, from what I've seen so far I can tell you that you did a pretty good job and even ended up releasing in the originally fixed release date, so props for that!
For those wondering, this is a 1:1 translation of the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., a 2015 book published by Shogakukan, the publisher of the Nintendo Official Guidebooks. Updating it wasn't possible, as both the Spanish and the German translation had to arrange the rights with Shogakukan, which didn't update the book in the meantime.
The book is about the 17 games if the Super Mario series, everything else (including the characters), is covered in very little space.
@Moroboshi876 That's very cool, I like how you stayed with the Japanese depiction of Bowser being king of the turtle family (kamezoku) and Magikoopa being called Kameks since Super Mario World (they were always Kamekku, after all). One question, though: in both the Spanish and the German translations the Koopalings aren't stated to be siblings and Bowser's children in the story of SMB3, even though the original Japanese text contained both details. Do you know if this omission was a deliberate decision from NOE?
@ShadJV @UmbreonsPapa @patbacknitro
Just so you know, Miyamoto never said the Koopalings are adopted, he said that they aren't his children at all, and Nintendo recently reconfirmed it. They always say that Bowser J.r is Bowser's only son and that the Koopalings aren't siblings and aren't related to Bowser at all, being Bowser's Minions in the new games, not Bowser's adopted children. You can read that Bowser Jr. is Bowser's only son in the Japanese trophy of Bowser Jr. in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you can read this as well in Bowser Jr.'s bio in the Minion Quest part of Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions. You can also read in the Japanese bio of Ludwig in New Super Mario bros. Wii that the Koopalings are currently comrades in Japan, not siblings (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/smnj/story/chara_12.html).
The Koopalings never were depicted as adopted children and Nintendo so far in these ten years always refused this depitction, for good reasons, too. They were conceived as Bowser's children during the first redesign of Bowser that led to the Bowser we all know and love, as this sketch made by Kotabe and Tezuka showed: https://www.mariowiki.com/images/f/f7/Bowser_Koopalings_sketch.png
Pretending that they never were actually Bowser's children but rather adopted chidlren all the time would be disrepectful toward the two who clearly designed the Koopalings along with Bowser, while stating that before they were Bowser's children and now they aren't related at all maintains the original story (and the work made by Kotabe and Tezuka) intact.
@DanElectrode Actually, the output resolution of the console is not the rendering resolution. You can easily test this on the Wii U using the screenshot function of the Internet Browser: no matter the output resolution, you always get a 720p screenshot out of Mario Kart 8 gameplay, as an example. And it's not with more jaggies if the console is set to 480p. That's because the game is still rendered at 720p resolution and then downscaled or upscaled according to the resolution set on the console.
Expect the Switch to work in the same way when docked. Nintendo never said that at 720p or 480p Zelda would have had better framerate, after all.
@DanteSolablood It's not a matter of you, really. It was nVidia that put FP16 numbers to make the X1 and X2 look more appealing .
The problem is that this gives false perceptions to people, that are even unneeded because nVidia has the most powerful GPUs anyway - on mobile space you'll hardly find something much better.
EDIT: admittedly, on mobile space FP16 is also used more frequently, if I remember correctly, and since one of the most important features of the Tegra at the time was double speed FP16 it was to be expected that they promoted this feature as much as they could.
@DanteSolablood The gap is definitely there, even when comparing handheld to Wii U (if that seems biased you should realize that I'm comparing that the Switch in handheld mode to a last-gen Nintendo home console - quite a huge jump on the handheld side of things considering the predecessor, the 3DS, was often stated to be like a portable Wii) but is not just of raw power: the Wii U used the obsolete VLIW5 architecture (in what AMD called Terascale architecture at the time) which is much more difficult to program for and to fully use, while the Maxwell architecture was used way better even when using relatively high level APIs such as DirectX 11 and OpenGL.
320 streaming processing units at 550 MHz was the consensus at the time, but even with 160 we have 160 x 2 x 550 = 176 GFlops FP32, more than the 157 GFlops FP32 of Switch handheld mode, which is probably why they introduced the 384 MHz clock bump giving 256 x 2 x 384 = 197 GFlops FP32.
Switch docked runs at 768 MHz, this makes 256 x 2 x 768 = 393 Gflops FP32, more than the Wii U consensus specs of 320 x 2 x 550 = 352 GFlops FP32.
@DanteSolablood sorry, but the X1 numbers are different from the actual numbers of the Switch in handheld mode when compared with the Wii U. 256 shaders at 307.2 MHz, with 2 operations per clock (MAD=multiply + add) results in 157 GFlops. Don't compare FP16 with FP32 operations, you cannot cut precision in half and do apples to apples comparisons...
Well, there goes the security reason not to have a web browser, I wonder how much time will pass before clients to connect the Switch to PCs to dump and replace files start to appear for the Switch as well (admittedly, they made modding and data mining way easier).
It's important to know about the people whose contributions might not be quite "famous", but were nonetheless very important. Anyway, he first of all was a man and I think he deserves respect just for that.
Rest in peace, Mr. Stone. Condolences to his family.
Oh, look, the app that I used to send screenshots to my email account since I have no intention to use social media for sending screenshots to me... I guess a lot of people didn't know this feature existed, and that this is yet another feature that the Switch will be missing...
Since it was suggested that Nintendo online games fully run on servers, I can definitely confirm that MK8 is p2p during races: all the consoles are synchronized with each other, to the point that if one console claims to have won the race after 1 lap due to console-level hacks, the player wins, the players can also get any item they want, when they want, using RAM hacks on their console. This wouldn't be possible on races running on servers. So yes, there are Nintendo games running on p2p connections.
@PlywoodStick agreed on the potential of the X1, code in the Unreal Engine confirmed that the Switch will run with lower graphical quality - beside resolution - while undocked. Remember that the previous Eurogamer's report on the Switch was spot-on, it's hard to think they now want to lose all the credibility they earned by posting ultra-accurate numbers (down to a decimal point!) that are made-up. Most importantly, clocks are just one part of the equation, the number of shaders, TMUs, ROPs and the internal GPU architecture are no less important, this is why I want to know all these other data before making any further consideration on power.
@PlywoodStick What you're saying cannot be used to claim that the Eurogamer article is wrong. All modern nVidia GPUs are able to acively change clocks while doing a task without causing instability, as the GPU Boost and Battery Boost features show. But here, not even that was claimed, only one clock was shown, with the possibility of clocking the GPU at 307.2 MHz in both handheld and docked mode or clock it higher, at 768 MHz in docked mode. And as the Jimmy Fallon show revealed, the console even pauses itself when changing mode.
"While plugged in, the CPU operated at 2.7 to 2.8 GHz. The GPU runs at 1400 MHz. While on battery, the GPU drops to 900 MHz. The CPU jumps between 800 MHz and 3.1 GHz."
"Running on battery power will throttle both CPU and GPU performances. A 3DMark 11 run on batteries returns Physics and Graphics scores of 9148 and 6236 points, respectively, compared to 10418 and 13168 points when on mains.
Turbo Mode can only be activated when the system is connected to a power outlet."
"Power consumption is directly proportional to clock frequency, so the lower the frequency of the GPU, the less power is consumed. NVIDIA designed the GPU to run at frequencies as low as 100 MHz during the Win-Idle state, which lowers the
typical power consumption."
They were already able to scale to 100 MHz in 2008.
@diwdiws I meant the Tegra X1, from current research the Wii U appears to have 320 shaders running at 550 MHz, these clocks would create a portable Wii U at best! While I can see them targeting this use case in the trailer, it seems to me a bit excessive, I think the number of shaders at least will be higher if these specs are confirmed!
I'm glad that I've been proved wrong on the dock, but now we need the number of shaders (the so-called CUDA cores), it seems to me incredible that while docked the Switch will have only 256 shaders running at 768 MHz, this would be less than the X1 and even I am not THAT pessimistic!
@ThanosReXXX To be clear, unless horrible news about worker exploitations arise, as soon as I'll have the money, I'll buy the Switch, regardless of its specs.
I'm worried by the mismatch between what Nintendo told us and the expectations. What did Nintendo tell us about the dock?
"At home, Nintendo Switch rests in the Nintendo Switch dock that connects the console to the TV and lets you play with family and friends in the comfort of your living room. By simply lifting the Nintendo Switch console from the dock, it will instantly transition to handheld mode, and the same great gaming experience that was being enjoyed at home now travels with you. The portability of Nintendo Switch is enhanced by its bright high-definition display. It brings the full home gaming system experience with you to the park, on a train, in a car, or to a friend’s apartment."
There's not even a line suggesting that the dock makes the console more powerful, if anything, I'd almost say the contrary is being told!
After all, the graphical prowess was not the selling point of the console in its presentation, as Nintendo themselves stated:
"Today’s video incorporated short glimpses of representative gameplay to demonstrate the liberating nature of the Nintendo Switch home gaming system."
I feel like the Switch is being expected to do what Nintendo didn't show us it is meant to do, and in general I prefer to stick with what Nintendo wants to show us about performance, because that has not been their focus in the latest years. This way I will better appreciate the positive rumors that will turn out to be true, by the way. Building up huge expectations that start to clash with what Nintendo is affirming can be risky, in my opinion.
@A01 This is what the back of the console looks like in the video (use the browser to see the full 1080p image):
effectively, the three concavities on the back of the console don't appear to have exhaust grids like in the exhaust vent above the console, which would mean that the Switch in docked mode might not use additional cooling after all.
Honestly, seeing how it is not straightforward to change graphical quality on the go on PC games, I would hardly be surprised if the Switch in docked mode is as powerful as the Switch in handheld mode. It would also be way easier to develop for it if that was the case.
@ThanosReXXX I agree on "the results will be more than satisfactory" approach, as it's what ultimately matters regardless of raw power - although I too agree that according to the current data from Parker the Wii U ports and many more first party titles will be able to reach 1080p60.
@ThanosReXXX @DanteSolablood Ok, especially if they target 720p60 we might indeed see a similar quality, don't expect too much from Vulkan, as nVidia GPUs are so well optimized for current APIs that the jump in speed was more in favor of AMD GPUs - that never fared too well with OpenGL and DirectX 11:
my point is not that it won't be good - it should be way better than the Wii U if everything is done right and we might indeed see a jump in graphical quality to the point of reminding current generation home consoles thanks to smart tricks - just that we must not feel betrayed if Xbox One will be more powerful in the end.
@ThanosReXXX Now, the new Tegra chip, unless they cut on clock or shaders, should be more powerful than Wii U's GPU, but let's put things into context:
Parker is reportedly 1.5 times as powerful as the X1 GPU-wise:
Now, there were benchmarks that were done both on the X1 and on a generation 1 GCN GPU having 640 shaders, 40 TMUs and running at 800 MhZ (so less powerful than the Xbox One GPU that has 768 shaders with GCN1.1 architecture and 48 TMUs at 853 MHz), the M370X (select "Show all GPUs" and then click on "Restrict" after clicking on the link):
I mean, even if they managed to clock the 256 shaders at 2 GHz (!) on the dock it would be hard to reach the original Xbox One's power, so I think we should lower expectations a little...
The only issue I see now is that they don't seem to be targeting the Switch at Wii U owners in the first year. So far, even the introductory video showed only one really new game from Nintendo (the 3D Mario), one game that will be released on Wii U too (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and two enhanced ports of Wii U games (Splatoon and Mario Kart 8), and the subsequent rumors confirmed that impression. The intention to pay hackers to fix the 3DS firmware also makes me think that they don't want to really drop the 3DS soon, with the Switch thus being apparently a home console in the first year in terms of games developed.
At this point, I think much depends on how much the gamers who don't own Nintendo consoles will welcome the Switch, which is one of the unknowns along with actual hardware specs and third party support.
Finally! I was suspecting that both the NA and Japanese manuals of Super Mario Bros. 3 would have been hosted on Nintendo's site, and they have! The latter is particularly important as the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. last year removed a word from its SMB3 story so that the Koopalings weren't anymore explicitly stated to be Bowser's children, now finally even Nintendo hosts the scans of the original Japanese manual revealing that they were indeed explicitly stated to be his children!
@Markiemania95 Actually, it is Nintendo itself that considers New Super Luigi U as add on content for New Super Mario Bros. U in both its NA and UK site, so you're not wrong at considering it as such.
After 2 weeks, it really seems that Paper Mario: Color Splash has had disappointing sales, considering the lack of other games for the system the situation is even more gruesome. I wonder what the original team in charge of the first three Paper Mario games is doing at the moment at Intelligent Systems, because these numbers do not bode well for the future of the new team...
@Yorumi not really, in TTYD without FPs, attack items and Vivian Ko'd the Swoops that were on the ceiling couldn't be hit with any attack, since they need the Hammer Throw or the Earthquake. But at the time we were indulgent
@Pink_Floyd @Kiyata Paper Mario on the N64 is extremely glitched, the current world record for any % is 1h 44m 18s. This one showed here is not even game breaking, as after you exhausted the cards you can escape. The point is losing all the cards, which is a relatively minor issue since you can buy plenty of them after with the lots of coins you have.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You want some names? We have the Rescue Squad V Chief, Rescue Red, Rescue Blue, Rescue Yellow, Rescue Green, Rescue Purple, Justice Toad, Rock Paper Wizard. Of course, not everyone has a name because the tattler is gone, if that was the point you wanted to make...
While the point of that image with a comparison of Toads is still somewhat understandable, as really in the Paper Mario with the tattlers almost everyone had a name and there was much more variety in the designs, that image really is outdated, though, and shows how much the criticism of Color Splash was based on fear and that awful E3 playthrough rather than the actual game.
@Ed_Fairway To be clear, you don't have to like the Koopalings. Everyone has their tastes, and obviously antropomorphic turtles aren't everyone's cup of tea. I'm just worried about the frequent use of words like "everywhere", "in everything", "overuse" with relation to the Koopalings, with little to no foundation on actual data, as if mantras were forced to stick on our heads until they become true.
@Anti-Matter Purple is the sea, as you can see from the second Japanese trailer (the one on the background of the main page of the Japanese site). Of course, here it wasn't fully colored yet.
@SniffitisWhiffit A new course.
Mondo Woods is way up, it's where Paper Mario lies in the screenshot, going "south" (read: down) there's Sacred Forest near the radio station, then an unknown forest course and in the end, the circus course.
Don't worry about the art style of DT and PJ, it's sprite-based, so it doesn't scale with resolution. When they will have to develop for a console with a different resolution, they will have to change art style as well.
@RyanSilberman Sorry, I misread your post. Having a style similar to the first two Paper Mario games is difficult, because the team is different, but drawing inspiration from them is certainly possible and I hope they already have begun doing so, especially now that Nintendo wants them to make the only series of Mario RPGs.
@RyanSilberman I think that each team should maintain their personality, but if you mean incorporating locations, characters, traits and associated backstories from the first two Paper Mario games, this might be interesting. Actually, we already have a Toad Town in the Mario & Luigi series!
The addition-based damage system was also a very unique and interesting trait that AlphaDream might consider for a Mario & Luigi game, except that in this trend of simplification of Mario RPGs many might interpret that as "Mario & Luigi is doooooooooooooooooomed! No RPG elements in the next game!". AlphaDream will surely have to update the battle system, and indeed Paper Jam was already an attempt, by introducing a third character, so we'll see what they choose to do.
@RyanSilberman You're right. Considering that they had little more than two years, it was admittedly impossible to do. If you look at the sprite sheets for the characters in the last two Mario & Luigi games, they are huge. Every new character requires a lot of work to be done. And they had to collaborate with Intelligent Systems, probably the Sticker Star team that was developing Color Splash at the moment (like I said, in Paper Jam Roy and Wendy talked about the paper Koopalings of Color Splash). It was already an ambitious project without a deadline, with a two years deadline it was doomed from the start. It's already great that something actually went out of it, even if there is plenty of glitches. Still, regarding the story of Paper Jam, apart from the great characterization (even Bowser Jr. has a lonely side, and Bowser tries to avenge his son, he's no longer only trying to kidnap Peach), I like that they finally completely abandoned the "collect X items and fight the boss" scheme, hopefully their next RPG will follow this more open formula.
I too hope that now AlphaDream will do their own 4 to 5 years project the way they like it, as the next handheld will likely be more powerful and might require even more work.
@RyanSilberman Really, if someone ever makes an investigation on all the events that lead to Sticker Star as we had it, I would really like to see the report, as there must be something really big that happened under the hood, with a new development team made mainly of new developers, a prototype game that appeared to be a port of TTYD that we actually never saw, pretty much senseless suggestions from Miyamoto (barebone story and as few original characters as possible? In an RPG???) and that abandoning of RPG elements because why not.
I sometimes wonder if Miyamoto just pretends to be the responsible of these decisions to cover the serious problems that the new development team has, since AlphaDream with Paper Jam admitted that it was them instead who screwed up badly (and even then, AlphaDream used the assets from Sticker Star, which were obviously limited in variety, so I wonder if they too were somewhat trying to defend the Sticker Star team taking all the responsibilities on themselves insted of putting them on the Sticker Star team that didn't create enough paper characters...)
@RyanSilberman Actually, you can power up the Things, at least in Color Splash, by performing certain actions (e.g. tapping on the screen), but I agree with the point.
Now, the battles we have seen have a section in which Things are just like other attacks and then, after the enemy has received enough damage, a section in which you have to use a specific Thing to weaken the enemy and then deliver the final blow.
Admittedly, the developers think of Color Splash as a puzzle game, so even in the battles the idea is "you have to guess the right action to do, once you guessed it, you pretty much won!".
I can see their point but I too am used to battle where instead the right strategy in each turn is important (and indeed, I found the Thingless Sticker Star boss battles quite fun to see!)...
If the developers were smart they would add a second quest in which you cannot use Things in battle and get less coins from enemies and mini-games, but this is kind of wishful thinking...
@RyanSilberman Yep, I'll happily use them as rarely as possible too (although they have at least funny animations...), it must be said that in the case of the Golden Coliseum the Shy Guy tells you that you need to use the Bone before the battle begins, which is already an "improvement"
@SniffitisWhiffit Regarding length, Risa Tabata said that the main quest is about 30 hours long the first time, so standard for a Mario RPG. Regarding difficulty, in case try to beat the bosses without Things (and yes, a Youtuber managed to beat Tower Power Pokey and Gooper Blooper without Things in Sticker Star)
Yes, I refer to the Wii U version, specifically, that has a few lines from Wendy in which she consider herself a celebrity, a trait that was not seen in Paper Jam much.
@SniffitisWhiffit @RyanSilberman I hope I will be able to know which is the truth. The retcon of the original parental relationship of the Koopalings, along with the refusal of saying who they are supposed to be now, is a very bad sign for me.
AlphaDream loved them since Superstar Saga and indeed developed them well (ironically, in the German version of Paper Jam, the translators managed to let slip a sentence in which Morton calls Bowser "father"), SEGA followed AlphaDream depiction with some added spice for Wendy.
To return on topic, Color Splash follows a different depiction of the Koopalings, since the paper Koopalings were mentioned in Paper Jam, this means that their personality might have been established before that game, sadly.
Regarding Bowser, remember that the Big Paint Stars talk (they are original characters pertaining to a new species!), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a Black Big Paint Star controlling him...
@RyanSilberman Here, we are changing the topic: don't think I am defending this idea of the minimal variety in the cast! I played Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and I certainly can tell you that in no way I think that having such tight restrictions on the characters that can be put is something sensible, unless the developers have a hard time creating original characters and enemies or putting Daisy, Doneky Kong, Wario and Waluigi in an RPG (which I suspect they somewhat have, in the case of this new team at Intelligent Systems).
My point was just that you can have them along with the Koopalings, as Superstar Saga showed, there's no hard rule that "since we have the Koopalings, we need the least originality and variety possible".
@SniffitisWhiffit Like I said in the wall of text, there are several problems now, in the case of the roster this is due to the time needed to create a proper one (and indeed, in the Wii U the rosters have had many problems, as Mario Kart 8 and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash showed), in the case of the originality and variety of the enemies, Paper Jam had the one you listed and the Koopalings
Regarding the overuse part, just read my post #18 and #22 and you'll see my opinion...
@RyanSilberman Fine with that. Plenty of characters have been used more than frequently in the series (and more frequently than the Koopalings), if we had to cut all those you will have quite a small roster left.
I personally don't think the Koopalings have overstayed their welcome at all, and the same for Bowser Jr. too, or Yoshi.
I actually like them, and I don't mind even the frequent characters like Wario and Waluigi in the spinoffs, even if they are not exactly my ideal characters. I might even say that I still like Toad even after all the horrible ways he was used.
And before the inevitable and appropriate "but we need original characters", remember that Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga had plenty of them along with the Koopalings, it has never been an "aut aut" situation, what we're seeing here is a radically different phenomenon, possibly linked to the fact that Nintendo is aiming at making Mario a recognizable brand. Nothing too earthshattering for me, I started playing in the '90s when Nintendo was far more aggressive in the "Mario as a brand" approach, with pretty inconsistent results...
@SniffitisWhiffit In case you don't want to read the wall of text, don't worry: I like him a lot too, and frankly he's one of the best introduced characters in the series, with that smart plot to put Mario in jail, his passion to draw and his agility matching that of Mario. I won't say that he overstayed his welcome for sure
@RyanSilberman You could say that for Bowser Jr., too? He was in way more games than the Koopalings, even if you count all the games starting from NSMBW
Of course, when speaking about AlphaDream, I was talking about Paper Jam, here we haven't seen even the slightest hint of a dialogue between Koopalings (Paper Jam is the only game so far with dialogue between Koopalings).
@Ed_Fairway Some vocal people (not you) are making too much of a deal out of the Koopalings, in my opinion.
They have never been in a 3D Mario game, nor in a Mario Tennis or Mario GolF game released after their return. They weren't in Super Mario Maker despite 3 out of the 4 games having them. Mario Party 10 didn't have them, and Star Rush has no footage proving them being in the game either.
I'm personally fine with them not being systematically used, since in my opinion they really need some love and character development, as after their return even the original parental relationship with Bowser was removed.
AlphaDream did a wonderful job at this, even showing us the first lines of dialogue among them.
Comments 269
Re: Super Mario Odyssey Passes The 10 Million Sold Marker
I'm personally glad that Pokkén Tournament DX passed 1 million too! Being an enhanced port released among much bigger titles I feared it would have found little success, risking to block the development of this concept that I actually like a lot!
Re: Mario's Very Own Encylopedia Will Leap Onto Book Shelves This October
@Moroboshi876 I'm from Italy, and I'm currently a patroller of the Super Mario Wiki.
I like keeping track of the Koopalings' case, including its developments, and this led me to discover various oddities, including the one about the Koopa/turtle tribe difference and the name of Kamek. I bought both the Japanese, German and Spanish Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., so I can also check to see the differences among these.
Indeed, the German translation seems more heavily influenced by NOE, you can see that from the name of Kamek which is often Magikoopa in the games before Super Mario 3D Land, plus the turtle tribe was changed to Koopa or Koopa-Familie, Larry's bio was changed to "ein Draufgänger" (daredevil, go-getter) since of course nothing was made out of that "Head of the Koopa army's special assault squad" in these years, and the Koopalings' story in Super Mario Bros. 3 was fully rewritten (in that translation it is "Allerdings macht er sieben Koopalinge zu seinen Untertanen" which pretty much means "Indeed he turned seven Koopalings into his subjects").
From what I've seen so far, the Spanish translation is more faithful to the Japanese text, even at the expense of not following the Western traditions like "the turtle-like creatures are called Koopas", and I like it!
Re: Mario's Very Own Encylopedia Will Leap Onto Book Shelves This October
@Moroboshi876 Thanks, it's nice to have a little insight into this work!
As surprising as it might be, there are discrepancies between Japanese and Western naming conventions, in particular the concept of "Koopa", stemming from the translation of the first Super Mario Bros. manual - another thing that was fixed in your translation! I was surprised to see a translated book being faithful to the Japanese conventions! The Kameks' names being consistent just like they are in Japan was also a surpise, since it's yet another detail that only NOE tried to fix and so far not retroactively.
In general, from what I've seen so far I can tell you that you did a pretty good job and even ended up releasing in the originally fixed release date, so props for that!
Re: Mario's Very Own Encylopedia Will Leap Onto Book Shelves This October
For those wondering, this is a 1:1 translation of the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., a 2015 book published by Shogakukan, the publisher of the Nintendo Official Guidebooks. Updating it wasn't possible, as both the Spanish and the German translation had to arrange the rights with Shogakukan, which didn't update the book in the meantime.
The book is about the 17 games if the Super Mario series, everything else (including the characters), is covered in very little space.
@Moroboshi876 That's very cool, I like how you stayed with the Japanese depiction of Bowser being king of the turtle family (kamezoku) and Magikoopa being called Kameks since Super Mario World (they were always Kamekku, after all). One question, though: in both the Spanish and the German translations the Koopalings aren't stated to be siblings and Bowser's children in the story of SMB3, even though the original Japanese text contained both details. Do you know if this omission was a deliberate decision from NOE?
Re: Video: Super Mario Odyssey Producer Finally Addresses Mario’s Nipples
@ShadJV @UmbreonsPapa @patbacknitro
Just so you know, Miyamoto never said the Koopalings are adopted, he said that they aren't his children at all, and Nintendo recently reconfirmed it. They always say that Bowser J.r is Bowser's only son and that the Koopalings aren't siblings and aren't related to Bowser at all, being Bowser's Minions in the new games, not Bowser's adopted children. You can read that Bowser Jr. is Bowser's only son in the Japanese trophy of Bowser Jr. in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you can read this as well in Bowser Jr.'s bio in the Minion Quest part of Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions. You can also read in the Japanese bio of Ludwig in New Super Mario bros. Wii that the Koopalings are currently comrades in Japan, not siblings (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/smnj/story/chara_12.html).
On the other hand, the current Japanese Mario Portal clearly states that in Super Mario Bros. 3 the Koopalings are Bowser's chidlren and are siblings, showing that the continuity has been deliberately refused: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/character/mario/collection/search.html#?g=series&v=mariobros
The Koopalings never were depicted as adopted children and Nintendo so far in these ten years always refused this depitction, for good reasons, too. They were conceived as Bowser's children during the first redesign of Bowser that led to the Bowser we all know and love, as this sketch made by Kotabe and Tezuka showed:
https://www.mariowiki.com/images/f/f7/Bowser_Koopalings_sketch.png
Pretending that they never were actually Bowser's children but rather adopted chidlren all the time would be disrepectful toward the two who clearly designed the Koopalings along with Bowser, while stating that before they were Bowser's children and now they aren't related at all maintains the original story (and the work made by Kotabe and Tezuka) intact.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry Puts Version 1.1.1 of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to the Test
@DanElectrode Actually, the output resolution of the console is not the rendering resolution. You can easily test this on the Wii U using the screenshot function of the Internet Browser: no matter the output resolution, you always get a 720p screenshot out of Mario Kart 8 gameplay, as an example. And it's not with more jaggies if the console is set to 480p. That's because the game is still rendered at 720p resolution and then downscaled or upscaled according to the resolution set on the console.
Expect the Switch to work in the same way when docked. Nintendo never said that at 720p or 480p Zelda would have had better framerate, after all.
Re: Nintendo Switch Chip X-Ray Suggests The Console Is Running A Stock Nvidia Tegra X1
@DanteSolablood It's not a matter of you, really. It was nVidia that put FP16 numbers to make the X1 and X2 look more appealing .
The problem is that this gives false perceptions to people, that are even unneeded because nVidia has the most powerful GPUs anyway - on mobile space you'll hardly find something much better.
EDIT: admittedly, on mobile space FP16 is also used more frequently, if I remember correctly, and since one of the most important features of the Tegra at the time was double speed FP16 it was to be expected that they promoted this feature as much as they could.
Re: Nintendo Switch Chip X-Ray Suggests The Console Is Running A Stock Nvidia Tegra X1
@DanteSolablood The gap is definitely there, even when comparing handheld to Wii U (if that seems biased you should realize that I'm comparing that the Switch in handheld mode to a last-gen Nintendo home console - quite a huge jump on the handheld side of things considering the predecessor, the 3DS, was often stated to be like a portable Wii) but is not just of raw power: the Wii U used the obsolete VLIW5 architecture (in what AMD called Terascale architecture at the time) which is much more difficult to program for and to fully use, while the Maxwell architecture was used way better even when using relatively high level APIs such as DirectX 11 and OpenGL.
Re: Nintendo Switch Chip X-Ray Suggests The Console Is Running A Stock Nvidia Tegra X1
@DanteSolablood You'd better have a look at this:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-wii-u-graphics-power-finally-revealed
and the NeoGaf analysis as well:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=511628
320 streaming processing units at 550 MHz was the consensus at the time, but even with 160 we have 160 x 2 x 550 = 176 GFlops FP32, more than the 157 GFlops FP32 of Switch handheld mode, which is probably why they introduced the 384 MHz clock bump giving 256 x 2 x 384 = 197 GFlops FP32.
Switch docked runs at 768 MHz, this makes 256 x 2 x 768 = 393 Gflops FP32, more than the Wii U consensus specs of 320 x 2 x 550 = 352 GFlops FP32.
Re: Nintendo Switch Chip X-Ray Suggests The Console Is Running A Stock Nvidia Tegra X1
@DanteSolablood Sorry, I had written it wrong, I rephrased that part. Anyway, the numbers for the X1 and X2 are FP16, and are misleading as a result.
Re: Nintendo Switch Chip X-Ray Suggests The Console Is Running A Stock Nvidia Tegra X1
@DanteSolablood sorry, but the X1 numbers are different from the actual numbers of the Switch in handheld mode when compared with the Wii U. 256 shaders at 307.2 MHz, with 2 operations per clock (MAD=multiply + add) results in 157 GFlops. Don't compare FP16 with FP32 operations, you cannot cut precision in half and do apples to apples comparisons...
Re: Video: How To Watch YouTube And Browse The Web On Your Nintendo Switch
Well, there goes the security reason not to have a web browser, I wonder how much time will pass before clients to connect the Switch to PCs to dump and replace files start to appear for the Switch as well (admittedly, they made modding and data mining way easier).
Re: Alan Stone, Co-Founder of Nintendo of America, Passes Away at Age 71
It's important to know about the people whose contributions might not be quite "famous", but were nonetheless very important. Anyway, he first of all was a man and I think he deserves respect just for that.
Rest in peace, Mr. Stone. Condolences to his family.
Re: Nintendo Switch Lacks A Web Browser Because It's A "Dedicated Video Game Platform"
Oh, look, the app that I used to send screenshots to my email account since I have no intention to use social media for sending screenshots to me...
I guess a lot of people didn't know this feature existed, and that this is yet another feature that the Switch will be missing...
Re: Talking Point: Considering the Paid Online Service for the Nintendo Switch
Since it was suggested that Nintendo online games fully run on servers, I can definitely confirm that MK8 is p2p during races: all the consoles are synchronized with each other, to the point that if one console claims to have won the race after 1 lap due to console-level hacks, the player wins, the players can also get any item they want, when they want, using RAM hacks on their console. This wouldn't be possible on races running on servers. So yes, there are Nintendo games running on p2p connections.
Re: Nintendo Switch to Introduce Paid Online Service in Autumn / Fall
I have important news: the monthly game won't really be free, after a month, you won't be able to play it unless you buy it:
https://twitter.com/kobunheat/status/819957925976350720
Re: Confusion Reigns Over Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Release Date In Europe
@KappaBeta Actually, there is also Dutch, and recently (with the Wii U) Russian has been added too.
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
@PlywoodStick agreed on the potential of the X1, code in the Unreal Engine confirmed that the Switch will run with lower graphical quality - beside resolution - while undocked. Remember that the previous Eurogamer's report on the Switch was spot-on, it's hard to think they now want to lose all the credibility they earned by posting ultra-accurate numbers (down to a decimal point!) that are made-up. Most importantly, clocks are just one part of the equation, the number of shaders, TMUs, ROPs and the internal GPU architecture are no less important, this is why I want to know all these other data before making any further consideration on power.
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
@PlywoodStick What you're saying cannot be used to claim that the Eurogamer article is wrong. All modern nVidia GPUs are able to acively change clocks while doing a task without causing instability, as the GPU Boost and Battery Boost features show. But here, not even that was claimed, only one clock was shown, with the possibility of clocking the GPU at 307.2 MHz in both handheld and docked mode or clock it higher, at 768 MHz in docked mode. And as the Jimmy Fallon show revealed, the console even pauses itself when changing mode.
Anyway, if you want to know what the X1 can do in terms of power management, see here: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/Linux_Low_Power_ELC_SanDiego.pdf
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
@PlywoodStick I think you should read this review to see how nVidia GPUs can change clock when not connected to an external power source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VM-Notebook-Review.187341.0.html
"While plugged in, the CPU operated at 2.7 to 2.8 GHz. The GPU runs at 1400 MHz. While on battery, the GPU drops to 900 MHz. The CPU jumps between 800 MHz and 3.1 GHz."
And with Maxwell, the situation is no different: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y900-17ISK-Notebook-Review.174445.0.html
"Running on battery power will throttle both CPU and GPU performances. A 3DMark 11 run on batteries returns Physics and Graphics scores of 9148 and 6236 points, respectively, compared to 10418 and 13168 points when on mains.
Turbo Mode can only be activated when the system is connected to a power outlet."
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
@PlywoodStick I think you should read this: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_26269.html
"Power consumption is directly proportional to clock frequency, so the lower the frequency of the GPU, the less power is consumed. NVIDIA designed the GPU to run at frequencies as low as 100 MHz during the Win-Idle state, which lowers the
typical power consumption."
They were already able to scale to 100 MHz in 2008.
This was the series they were talking about, you can see that the base clock was much more than 100 MHz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9_series
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
@diwdiws I meant the Tegra X1, from current research the Wii U appears to have 320 shaders running at 550 MHz, these clocks would create a portable Wii U at best! While I can see them targeting this use case in the trailer, it seems to me a bit excessive, I think the number of shaders at least will be higher if these specs are confirmed!
Re: Eurogamer Report Suggests Nintendo Switch GPU Runs 60 Percent Slower When Undocked
I'm glad that I've been proved wrong on the dock, but now we need the number of shaders (the so-called CUDA cores), it seems to me incredible that while docked the Switch will have only 256 shaders running at 768 MHz, this would be less than the X1 and even I am not THAT pessimistic!
Re: Video: Watch Jimmy Fallon Play Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX To be clear, unless horrible news about worker exploitations arise, as soon as I'll have the money, I'll buy the Switch, regardless of its specs.
I'm worried by the mismatch between what Nintendo told us and the expectations. What did Nintendo tell us about the dock?
"At home, Nintendo Switch rests in the Nintendo Switch dock that connects the console to the TV and lets you play with family and friends in the comfort of your living room. By simply lifting the Nintendo Switch console from the dock, it will instantly transition to handheld mode, and the same great gaming experience that was being enjoyed at home now travels with you. The portability of Nintendo Switch is enhanced by its bright high-definition display. It brings the full home gaming system experience with you to the park, on a train, in a car, or to a friend’s apartment."
There's not even a line suggesting that the dock makes the console more powerful, if anything, I'd almost say the contrary is being told!
After all, the graphical prowess was not the selling point of the console in its presentation, as Nintendo themselves stated:
"Today’s video incorporated short glimpses of representative gameplay to demonstrate the liberating nature of the Nintendo Switch home gaming system."
I feel like the Switch is being expected to do what Nintendo didn't show us it is meant to do, and in general I prefer to stick with what Nintendo wants to show us about performance, because that has not been their focus in the latest years. This way I will better appreciate the positive rumors that will turn out to be true, by the way. Building up huge expectations that start to clash with what Nintendo is affirming can be risky, in my opinion.
Re: Video: Watch Jimmy Fallon Play Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch
@A01 This is what the back of the console looks like in the video (use the browser to see the full 1080p image):
effectively, the three concavities on the back of the console don't appear to have exhaust grids like in the exhaust vent above the console, which would mean that the Switch in docked mode might not use additional cooling after all.
Honestly, seeing how it is not straightforward to change graphical quality on the go on PC games, I would hardly be surprised if the Switch in docked mode is as powerful as the Switch in handheld mode. It would also be way easier to develop for it if that was the case.
Re: Talking Point: The Nintendo Switch Pitch - A Jack of All Trades
@ThanosReXXX I agree on "the results will be more than satisfactory" approach, as it's what ultimately matters regardless of raw power - although I too agree that according to the current data from Parker the Wii U ports and many more first party titles will be able to reach 1080p60.
Re: Talking Point: The Nintendo Switch Pitch - A Jack of All Trades
@ThanosReXXX @DanteSolablood Ok, especially if they target 720p60 we might indeed see a similar quality, don't expect too much from Vulkan, as nVidia GPUs are so well optimized for current APIs that the jump in speed was more in favor of AMD GPUs - that never fared too well with OpenGL and DirectX 11:
http://techreport.com/review/30812/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-graphics-card-reviewed
my point is not that it won't be good - it should be way better than the Wii U if everything is done right and we might indeed see a jump in graphical quality to the point of reminding current generation home consoles thanks to smart tricks - just that we must not feel betrayed if Xbox One will be more powerful in the end.
Re: Talking Point: The Nintendo Switch Pitch - A Jack of All Trades
@ThanosReXXX Now, the new Tegra chip, unless they cut on clock or shaders, should be more powerful than Wii U's GPU, but let's put things into context:
Parker is reportedly 1.5 times as powerful as the X1 GPU-wise:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10596/hot-chips-2016-nvidia-discloses-tegra-parker-details
Now, there were benchmarks that were done both on the X1 and on a generation 1 GCN GPU having 640 shaders, 40 TMUs and running at 800 MhZ (so less powerful than the Xbox One GPU that has 768 shaders with GCN1.1 architecture and 48 TMUs at 853 MHz), the M370X (select "Show all GPUs" and then click on "Restrict" after clicking on the link):
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html?type=&sort=&search=X1+M370X&or=1&showBars=1&3dmark13_ice_gpu=1&glbenchmark=1&gpu_fullname=1&architecture=1&pixelshaders=1&vertexshaders=1&corespeed=1&shaderspeed=1&boostspeed=1&memoryspeed=1&memorybus=1&memorytype=1&directx=1
I mean, even if they managed to clock the 256 shaders at 2 GHz (!) on the dock it would be hard to reach the original Xbox One's power, so I think we should lower expectations a little...
Re: Analyst Firm Notes Hype For Switch, But Worries Nintendo Is "Not Prepared" To Take Advantage
The only issue I see now is that they don't seem to be targeting the Switch at Wii U owners in the first year. So far, even the introductory video showed only one really new game from Nintendo (the 3D Mario), one game that will be released on Wii U too (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and two enhanced ports of Wii U games (Splatoon and Mario Kart 8), and the subsequent rumors confirmed that impression. The intention to pay hackers to fix the 3DS firmware also makes me think that they don't want to really drop the 3DS soon, with the Switch thus being apparently a home console in the first year in terms of games developed.
At this point, I think much depends on how much the gamers who don't own Nintendo consoles will welcome the Switch, which is one of the unknowns along with actual hardware specs and third party support.
Re: Check Out the Manuals for All the NES Classic Edition Games
Finally! I was suspecting that both the NA and Japanese manuals of Super Mario Bros. 3 would have been hosted on Nintendo's site, and they have! The latter is particularly important as the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. last year removed a word from its SMB3 story so that the Koopalings weren't anymore explicitly stated to be Bowser's children, now finally even Nintendo hosts the scans of the original Japanese manual revealing that they were indeed explicitly stated to be his children!
Re: Mario Party: Star Rush Struggles to Get Into the Mood in Japan
@Markiemania95 Actually, it is Nintendo itself that considers New Super Luigi U as add on content for New Super Mario Bros. U in both its NA and UK site, so you're not wrong at considering it as such.
After 2 weeks, it really seems that Paper Mario: Color Splash has had disappointing sales, considering the lack of other games for the system the situation is even more gruesome. I wonder what the original team in charge of the first three Paper Mario games is doing at the moment at Intelligent Systems, because these numbers do not bode well for the future of the new team...
Re: King Boo in Mario Kart '8' and New Splatoon Goodness - Breaking Down the Nintendo Switch Reveal
For those wondering:
Mario Kart Switch
Mario Kart 8
Re: Random: Paper Mario: Color Splash Has an Iffy Issue in its Battle System
@Yorumi not really, in TTYD without FPs, attack items and Vivian Ko'd the Swoops that were on the ceiling couldn't be hit with any attack, since they need the Hammer Throw or the Earthquake. But at the time we were indulgent
@Pink_Floyd @Kiyata Paper Mario on the N64 is extremely glitched, the current world record for any % is 1h 44m 18s. This one showed here is not even game breaking, as after you exhausted the cards you can escape. The point is losing all the cards, which is a relatively minor issue since you can buy plenty of them after with the lots of coins you have.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You want some names? We have the Rescue Squad V Chief, Rescue Red, Rescue Blue, Rescue Yellow, Rescue Green, Rescue Purple, Justice Toad, Rock Paper Wizard. Of course, not everyone has a name because the tattler is gone, if that was the point you wanted to make...
While the point of that image with a comparison of Toads is still somewhat understandable, as really in the Paper Mario with the tattlers almost everyone had a name and there was much more variety in the designs, that image really is outdated, though, and shows how much the criticism of Color Splash was based on fear and that awful E3 playthrough rather than the actual game.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@Ed_Fairway To be clear, you don't have to like the Koopalings. Everyone has their tastes, and obviously antropomorphic turtles aren't everyone's cup of tea.
I'm just worried about the frequent use of words like "everywhere", "in everything", "overuse" with relation to the Koopalings, with little to no foundation on actual data, as if mantras were forced to stick on our heads until they become true.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@Anti-Matter Purple is the sea, as you can see from the second Japanese trailer (the one on the background of the main page of the Japanese site). Of course, here it wasn't fully colored yet.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@SniffitisWhiffit A new course.
Mondo Woods is way up, it's where Paper Mario lies in the screenshot, going "south" (read: down) there's Sacred Forest near the radio station, then an unknown forest course and in the end, the circus course.
Don't worry about the art style of DT and PJ, it's sprite-based, so it doesn't scale with resolution. When they will have to develop for a console with a different resolution, they will have to change art style as well.
@RyanSilberman Sorry, I misread your post. Having a style similar to the first two Paper Mario games is difficult, because the team is different, but drawing inspiration from them is certainly possible and I hope they already have begun doing so, especially now that Nintendo wants them to make the only series of Mario RPGs.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman I think that each team should maintain their personality, but if you mean incorporating locations, characters, traits and associated backstories from the first two Paper Mario games, this might be interesting. Actually, we already have a Toad Town in the Mario & Luigi series!
The addition-based damage system was also a very unique and interesting trait that AlphaDream might consider for a Mario & Luigi game, except that in this trend of simplification of Mario RPGs many might interpret that as "Mario & Luigi is doooooooooooooooooomed! No RPG elements in the next game!". AlphaDream will surely have to update the battle system, and indeed Paper Jam was already an attempt, by introducing a third character, so we'll see what they choose to do.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman You're right. Considering that they had little more than two years, it was admittedly impossible to do. If you look at the sprite sheets for the characters in the last two Mario & Luigi games, they are huge. Every new character requires a lot of work to be done. And they had to collaborate with Intelligent Systems, probably the Sticker Star team that was developing Color Splash at the moment (like I said, in Paper Jam Roy and Wendy talked about the paper Koopalings of Color Splash). It was already an ambitious project without a deadline, with a two years deadline it was doomed from the start. It's already great that something actually went out of it, even if there is plenty of glitches. Still, regarding the story of Paper Jam, apart from the great characterization (even Bowser Jr. has a lonely side, and Bowser tries to avenge his son, he's no longer only trying to kidnap Peach), I like that they finally completely abandoned the "collect X items and fight the boss" scheme, hopefully their next RPG will follow this more open formula.
I too hope that now AlphaDream will do their own 4 to 5 years project the way they like it, as the next handheld will likely be more powerful and might require even more work.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman Really, if someone ever makes an investigation on all the events that lead to Sticker Star as we had it, I would really like to see the report, as there must be something really big that happened under the hood, with a new development team made mainly of new developers, a prototype game that appeared to be a port of TTYD that we actually never saw, pretty much senseless suggestions from Miyamoto (barebone story and as few original characters as possible? In an RPG???) and that abandoning of RPG elements because why not.
I sometimes wonder if Miyamoto just pretends to be the responsible of these decisions to cover the serious problems that the new development team has, since AlphaDream with Paper Jam admitted that it was them instead who screwed up badly (and even then, AlphaDream used the assets from Sticker Star, which were obviously limited in variety, so I wonder if they too were somewhat trying to defend the Sticker Star team taking all the responsibilities on themselves insted of putting them on the Sticker Star team that didn't create enough paper characters...)
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman Actually, you can power up the Things, at least in Color Splash, by performing certain actions (e.g. tapping on the screen), but I agree with the point.
Now, the battles we have seen have a section in which Things are just like other attacks and then, after the enemy has received enough damage, a section in which you have to use a specific Thing to weaken the enemy and then deliver the final blow.
Admittedly, the developers think of Color Splash as a puzzle game, so even in the battles the idea is "you have to guess the right action to do, once you guessed it, you pretty much won!".
I can see their point but I too am used to battle where instead the right strategy in each turn is important (and indeed, I found the Thingless Sticker Star boss battles quite fun to see!)...
If the developers were smart they would add a second quest in which you cannot use Things in battle and get less coins from enemies and mini-games, but this is kind of wishful thinking...
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman Yep, I'll happily use them as rarely as possible too (although they have at least funny animations...), it must be said that in the case of the Golden Coliseum the Shy Guy tells you that you need to use the Bone before the battle begins, which is already an "improvement"
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@SniffitisWhiffit Regarding length, Risa Tabata said that the main quest is about 30 hours long the first time, so standard for a Mario RPG. Regarding difficulty, in case try to beat the bosses without Things (and yes, a Youtuber managed to beat Tower Power Pokey and Gooper Blooper without Things in Sticker Star)
Yes, I refer to the Wii U version, specifically, that has a few lines from Wendy in which she consider herself a celebrity, a trait that was not seen in Paper Jam much.
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@SniffitisWhiffit @RyanSilberman I hope I will be able to know which is the truth. The retcon of the original parental relationship of the Koopalings, along with the refusal of saying who they are supposed to be now, is a very bad sign for me.
AlphaDream loved them since Superstar Saga and indeed developed them well (ironically, in the German version of Paper Jam, the translators managed to let slip a sentence in which Morton calls Bowser "father"), SEGA followed AlphaDream depiction with some added spice for Wendy.
To return on topic, Color Splash follows a different depiction of the Koopalings, since the paper Koopalings were mentioned in Paper Jam, this means that their personality might have been established before that game, sadly.
Regarding Bowser, remember that the Big Paint Stars talk (they are original characters pertaining to a new species!), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a Black Big Paint Star controlling him...
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman Here, we are changing the topic: don't think I am defending this idea of the minimal variety in the cast! I played Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and I certainly can tell you that in no way I think that having such tight restrictions on the characters that can be put is something sensible, unless the developers have a hard time creating original characters and enemies or putting Daisy, Doneky Kong, Wario and Waluigi in an RPG (which I suspect they somewhat have, in the case of this new team at Intelligent Systems).
My point was just that you can have them along with the Koopalings, as Superstar Saga showed, there's no hard rule that "since we have the Koopalings, we need the least originality and variety possible".
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@SniffitisWhiffit Like I said in the wall of text, there are several problems now, in the case of the roster this is due to the time needed to create a proper one (and indeed, in the Wii U the rosters have had many problems, as Mario Kart 8 and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash showed), in the case of the originality and variety of the enemies, Paper Jam had the one you listed and the Koopalings
Regarding the overuse part, just read my post #18 and #22 and you'll see my opinion...
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman Fine with that. Plenty of characters have been used more than frequently in the series (and more frequently than the Koopalings), if we had to cut all those you will have quite a small roster left.
I personally don't think the Koopalings have overstayed their welcome at all, and the same for Bowser Jr. too, or Yoshi.
I actually like them, and I don't mind even the frequent characters like Wario and Waluigi in the spinoffs, even if they are not exactly my ideal characters. I might even say that I still like Toad even after all the horrible ways he was used.
And before the inevitable and appropriate "but we need original characters", remember that Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga had plenty of them along with the Koopalings, it has never been an "aut aut" situation, what we're seeing here is a radically different phenomenon, possibly linked to the fact that Nintendo is aiming at making Mario a recognizable brand. Nothing too earthshattering for me, I started playing in the '90s when Nintendo was far more aggressive in the "Mario as a brand" approach, with pretty inconsistent results...
@SniffitisWhiffit In case you don't want to read the wall of text, don't worry: I like him a lot too, and frankly he's one of the best introduced characters in the series, with that smart plot to put Mario in jail, his passion to draw and his agility matching that of Mario. I won't say that he overstayed his welcome for sure
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman You could say that for Bowser Jr., too? He was in way more games than the Koopalings, even if you count all the games starting from NSMBW
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@RyanSilberman New Super Luigi U is officially considered add-on content by Nintendo:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Wii-U/New-Super-Luigi-U-764675.html
http://newsupermariobrosu.nintendo.com/newsuperluigiu/
So you should count that with NSMBU.
Of course, when speaking about AlphaDream, I was talking about Paper Jam, here we haven't seen even the slightest hint of a dialogue between Koopalings (Paper Jam is the only game so far with dialogue between Koopalings).
Re: Video: Green Toad Snoozes as Nintendo Shows Off Green Woods Area of Paper Mario: Color Splash
@Ed_Fairway Some vocal people (not you) are making too much of a deal out of the Koopalings, in my opinion.
They have never been in a 3D Mario game, nor in a Mario Tennis or Mario GolF game released after their return. They weren't in Super Mario Maker despite 3 out of the 4 games having them. Mario Party 10 didn't have them, and Star Rush has no footage proving them being in the game either.
I'm personally fine with them not being systematically used, since in my opinion they really need some love and character development, as after their return even the original parental relationship with Bowser was removed.
AlphaDream did a wonderful job at this, even showing us the first lines of dialogue among them.