I get that Poker is intrinsically associated with gambling but the base game can be played without it. Just as a base game of something like Mario Kart can have gambling added on top, anything can. But Then that’s not what the devs are upset about so it’s kinda moot here.
Honestly I agree with them on the games involving actual gambling’s age ratings. It’s about time we held the big players accountable.
@Flashlink99 I also find them off-putting but that doesn't mean they should be fired. It just means I'm not the target audience, which is fine, I don't need everything to be made for me.
@Flashlink99 I dunno, I have a few artist friends on Instagram who had actual handmade sculptures that exist in the real world marked as AI by the AI. The reason being they were artists that got hit heavily with the AI training off their work. A real salt in the wound moment.
But yeah I don't know if this game is just using wording to throw people off. They didn't use AI to make the trailer? Ok I believe that. But all that cat designs we see when the cards kind of explode looked very AI generated, as did several design elements. So is it a case of the trailer itself isn't but the content used in it is? Hopefully I'm wrong and it's another case of it looks like AI because AI stole heavily from this person.
@Dazman what a disappointing corporate alignment. I see this argument a lot, “it saves money on expensive artists letting them put that money elsewhere”.
But here’s the thing, the average games artist wage isn’t any more than any other dev in the team. And that saving isn’t going back into the game development or being passed on to the consumer. And it’s certainly not going towards making the company more stable for its employees and it’s very creation comes from firing a bunch of them.
No, this apparent great saving goes directly to the top. To the CEOs and shareholders. The people who’s bonuses alone could pay the wages for 5,10,50 artists, writers, animators, voice actors etc. The actually expensive and entirely replaceable people are the ones who actually benefit and nobody else.
And why do we want out expensive, luxury, hobby products churned out anyway? This isn’t something we need, automation isn’t really a benefit. If we want original visions and ideas, we need those creative people, not to save a bit of money for a share holder or CEO. For the kind of person that demand games now hold back content for the 'deluxe edition' at launch, or that they pivot to a live service / GaaS model, or who say 15 million profit isn't enough and the team must now be dissolved and put on 'proven IP'. Those people that push the worst elements of games on us for a quick buck, that nickel and dime us every moment possible. That's who you are currently supporting.
Honestly, I am curious about this one. I don’t much care for making Pac-Man all dark and gritty. I also really don’t like that yet another secret Level episode was basically another advert for an upcoming game rather than the love letter to gaming history it sells itself as. And the visuals look a bit all over the place. But the gameplay seems fun.
Would rather they just port Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ though. I really don’t think that can be topped.
And none of it sounds like what fans of the original wanted. Get rid of the monkey, get rid of the open world/galaxy. Just expand of the original's mechanics and story and locations and resolve that cliff-hanger!
The more he talks, the more he sounds like a bit of a diva that just wanted his first pass to be accepted. And then half of this frustration that made him quit, didn't even happen to him anyway? And it was all hear-say by his own admission? It all sounds exaggerated to make him seem more reasonable. Like, they asked for it to be more colourful and you had to implement the client/publisher/IP holder's wishes? Yeah that's the job. That's what they're paying you for.
I've worked with people who talk poop like this and in my experience the problem has always been them more than anything. Maybe he's not like that, but man, he sure is coming off that way and his receipts just aren't there.
I’m all for this. I want to block games, terms, AI and publishers. I’m never going to buy an AI generated visual ‘novel’. I’m never going to buy anything with the term ‘hentai’ in it. I’m never going to buy any of the games RedDeer Games published a ‘new edition’ of each month such as ‘AAA Clock Special Definitive Gamer Deluxe Edition’ or ‘AAA Clock Ultimate Definitive Gamer Deluxe Edition’.
But I might be some other stuff that I currently can’t find as it’s buried under all this garbage.
I loved the PSP, would love to see Sony take another shot at it. Though that being said I’ve been far less enamoured with Sony’s output recently. It’s good stuff but I miss the variety they had when they made things like Ape Escape, Patapon, Loco Roco, Tearaway, Modnation etc. Games like that would be essential for me to consider it.
Sounds like a publicity stunt. People get so easily riled up about perceived ‘censorship’ at the moment it makes for easy marketing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they submitted with an aim for a lower age rating than they knew it required so that it would get rejected and they could then go to socials and get people all agitated over perceived slights. They don’t even need to say what has or hasn’t happened people fill in the blanks with their own rage.
Now they’ll have a bunch of people who likely wouldn’t have heard of this game or bothered with it, staunchly defending it as a paragon of righteousness and terrible victim of social injustice (but not calling it that because that is woke and they don’t like woke) out of some misguided principal.
Street Pass and 3D for me. Wouldn’t say no to a mic either.
The back touchpad on the Vita wasn’t so great and very few games found fun ways to use it, so let’s skip that. The Playdate crank is great but feels crappy to copy an indie console’s ideas like that.
I’m sure whatever they do there will be a mix of stuff I was wanting and stuff I had no idea I wanted.
@fenlix yeah I’m not doubting it’s official status. I’m saying I wanted a new entry like that but done by LizardCube in the same art style as the remake they did.
I loved the art in it and I want to play in a world that looks like that but for me the old gameplay it was on top of wasn’t as fun. I’m sure the new one is fun, but it’s not the same visual style sadly. It’s a perfectly competent style but it doesn’t do anything for me. I’d like to see the two together, but currently I can have one or the other.
@fenlix didn’t someone else make that? I didn’t like the art in that one very much which was a huge draw for me in the remake. Also I didn’t realise it was a new entry.
Loved the art in both of these! Didn’t manage to finish Wonder Boy, got a little frustrated at the old gameplay, but it was a truly lovely remake. Would have loved to see a new entry with some more contemporary sensibilities added.
Best of luck to this guy, I shall eagerly await the next game announcement from both!
Glad I’ve not engaged in any of the scanning. Really think there needs to be laws introduced to let people know when they are feeding AIs now. I don’t think this one is morally wrong in particular (though I do hate this notion that an AI assumption of how something looks from an unseen angle is somehow factual in any way) I do take issue with AI in general for it’s horrendous energy usage and general service to extreme capitalism.
Even if it doesn’t spin you around uncontrollably as it does your chosen character when you go fast enough, which would be extremely unpleasant, the flickering of the two ball halves passing in front of you would be horrible.
So I’m assuming this is a standard FP mode with the camera just in front of the ball or the ball not rendered at all.
I mean, if Brothership does well I’m sure they’ll arrange something with them or find a new developer. And if Brothership doesn’t do well, well then they probably weren’t going to make another with these devs anyway.
I guess the only way this could result in the series being cancelled that wouldn’t have had that happen anyway is if Brothership has a middling performance and finding a new dev is not worth the time. But even then, there are a lot of for hire studios out there that would jump at the chance to work on a Nintendo franchise like this. I don’t think they’d have trouble.
@MontyCircus The old slippery slope argument. Really don't think winning the game awards will be the deciding factor for them making more DLC. And if they do and it keeps winning? So what it means they're continuing to put out good content.
All game awards are pretty meaningless in the long run. It's mostly exposure and potentially a brag to put on the box/marketing material. And many of them don't even bother with that. But just like 'game of the year' labels, anyone can hand them out and they quickly mean nothing. Hence every year we have 30+ games claiming to be 'Game of the Year'.
They’re both quite badly drawn but the EU/NA one is especially badly drawn. I know nostalgia is strong with this title but I am honestly shocked it’s in the lead as of writing this comment.
I wonder how much do people actually look at the image before voting? Because it took all of 2 seconds to see the issues with the EU/NA one and it took at least 10 to start spotting the Japan ones. Neither high numbers but it’s at least the difference between a glance and a look.
@JohnnyMind I don’t think radials will solve anything, that’s just a smaller menu with less selection.
Honestly I don’t know why they didn’t add rows, perhaps it felt overwhelming? They do play test this stuff. Tabs felt like a good solution to me, at least split things like inanimate objects, food, enemies etc. But again I’m sure they tested that and found issues with it.
Point is the favourites system, which is specifically what we were talking about, is counter-intuitive and lessens the fun of the game overall. Sure there are a few who stubbornly won’t accept that and are determined that it would make the game better for them and they will be very vocal about it. That’s some great anecdotal evidence for sure.
But personally, even if the final solution wasn’t perfect, I trust that the devs with many years of experience trained specifically in these areas, who reiterated and play tested and gathered data over the several years of development time, made the right call. And that a few random people on an internet comment sections yelling “but I know better!” are almost certainly not the smarter-than-the-devs, geniuses with the obvious solution they presume themselves to be.
It’s not like this is a low budget, first game from a small inexperienced team. They tested these things and they didn’t work and they’ve said that’s why the landed where they did. Don’t like it? Move on and play something else.
@JohnnyMind Because adding favourites isn't a passive option, it's an encouraging action. You're not just showing people what they recently tried out (which will be a mix of what did and didn't work) you're actively encouraging people to mark something as 'better' and to be used more often. If you give the option people will do it and they will assume they should be doing it.
And, as mentioned, it's not necessarily even something that will improve things and could easily bring frustrations of it's own to others.
I can guarantee you this would have all be discussed and probably prototyped and tested before making an informed decision to not use it for the reasons they stated. Implementing it would have dulled the core mechanic of the game and lead to a worse experience overall. They're nuances but they're what elevates a game from good to great to amazing.
@FantasiaWHT So you think that none of these veteran devs working for one of the biggest companies in video games, over the course of several years of research and development and testing, never considered any of this and now must be flat out lying about their intentions.
And that's based on "evidence" that if you actually think about for about 30 seconds does not actually counteract what they are saying, but actually in some ways supports it.
@FantasiaWHT @JohnnyMind It is literally what they are saying
"One of the essences of this game is being able to figure out different ways of using each of these echoes. And so in that sense we wanted players to fall upon and see the echoes that they may not have noticed or have been using while they're sorting through all the echoes that they have"
But you're not entirely wrong on the 'last used' though it is more naunced.
I imagine that it's largely a concession to resolve frustrations for certain puzzles and situations. Say if you needed to light 4 torches but you only currently have one echo that will do that and it's 30 echoes deep, you want the player to experiment sure, but they can't here. And more importantly you also don't want them to quit with the frustration of tons of button presses to solve a simple puzzle.
Also most recent isn't always a most useful or most used. It's quite likely the most recent contains a bunch of echoes that didn't work as you were experimenting. In that case they act more as a reminder of what not to do, whilst a favourite reads the opposite, it's something you've marked as 'this always/usually works', which sets you in an entirely different mindset when using them.
And that then leads into the opposite side of there being a frustration that can be created by allowing players to have set favourites. They become used to using them to solve everything, essentially becoming the player's inventory. Then when something comes up that they don't work for that can be frustrating and the immediate thought may not be to try a different echo, or it may result in the player having to try tons of different echoes before getting to ones that works, because they're not familiar with any of them as they've relied on their favourites.
@JohnnyMind "again, I think that the easiest solution would be giving players the option to set favorites and those showing up at the start of the list!"
But that is counter to what they were trying to achieve. Allowing you to set favourites is encouraging you to use the same echoes you already know to solve each puzzle in a way you've done before. They deliberately avoided that to encourage trying new things each time.
Japan hands-down! That NA cover is dull as dishwater.
Neither really explains what the game is, but the “what is it?” on the Japan cover peaks my interest. Like I was thinking that anyway but the NA one leaves me to assume, and the visuals make it look chess-like and kinda dry. That Japan one straight up asking that makes me want to pick it up to figure out what it is whilst also planting the idea that it’s something fun with those bright and jaunty visuals, and bold colours. Plus it has hats hidden all over the cover, the more you look the more you see, it tells me there’s more to this game than initially meets the eye.
Oh and the off-centre logo of the NA one? That feels very sloppy and like the name of the game was an afterthought? I’d actually respect it more if it didn’t have the name on the front at all, that would be a bold move, but as is feels sloppy.
And the big red block linking it back to Tetris? Nah sell the game on it’s own merit.
TLDR:
NA - looks dry and serious, maybe even educational. Logo off-centre.
Japan - looks fun and exciting and invites me to investigate further.
Japan wins!
I seem to remember the amiibo question being really geared towards the figures. As such I didn’t add my 400+ Animal Crossing cards to my amiibo count.
Also the physical v digital. Of that digital percentage, how many are actually available as physical? I have a lot of digital games on my Switch but they’re all small indies that aren’t available physically (or become available much later in limited runs for 8 times the cost).
Would be lovely to see some charts and graphs of this.
Also I will say, people talk about it looking like a 'Flash game'. I don't really think that's fair on Flash games. It just looks generic. Flash doesn't have a built in visual style, it's just vectors, and if people use them lazily then yeah they could look like this, but they don't have too.
Team Meat (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Issac), The Behemoth (Castle Crashers, Alien Hominid) and SFB Games (Tangle Tower, Snipperclips) all started in Flash and their games never looked like this. I'm sure they've all moved on now and don't use it anymore, and their visuals are certainly better with experience and time, but most of their old games are still online to play.
I’m still too annoyed at the whole debacle to play it. But when I do I shall be playing Chicken Wiggle with the pixel art and leaving the ugly, cringey Hatch Tales side alone. My backlog is too big anyway.
@Samalik I enjoyed the bits with Bayonetta, but the switching back and forth between her and Violet wasn’t fun. Violet was so much slower and clunkier it was a jarring learning curve every time, especially as Bayo was so smooth and quick and what I was excited and expecting to play.
I hope if there are future games they make Violet an option and never mandatory like in 3.
The WiiU really was great. It’s very funny to me that PlayStation Portal is basically turning your PS5 into a WiiU. It proves that the concept wasn’t bad, just maybe the execution and definitely the marketing. Also the fact that nearly all it’s library is now on Switch shows the general quality of games didn’t drop (yeah there was Game and Wario but Switch has 1 2 Switch so it balances).
I am sad Nintendoland will likely stay where it is forever though. I really enjoyed it! It’s a shame they’ve not even revived it with a sequel on Switch given the multiplayer focus it has.
It was fun and nicely rendered. Some of the animation a little floaty but really pretty good on the whole. I think I’d mostly just change the pacing, it’s not really a reveal if the new character is the first thing you see. Well that and all the characters acting like they know they’re about to die, that felt out of place. Like, they’ve all faced Sephiroth turning up with more optimism and courage.
I think if it had started with the Mushroom Kindom going about their lives, then the shadow creeps over as characters start to notice and look up. Then we get the cool shot of Fox and crew flying in and we get a hint of the face reflected in the screen before cutting. Peach is overlooking with Zelda and the moon’s face is fully revealed in the sky, at which point Young Link, the only one who knows what’s up, steps in, the other Links not far behind. Then Skull Kid shows up for the reveal and name card. Mario and Luigi brace for a fight, Mario gets turned then Luigi runs off scared. Skull Kid turns a bunch of people into trees, we get some footage and a less morose version of Isabelle and Bowser’s scene and then yeah the final ending was perfect don’t change that at all.
I really do this it's an RnD project that's being used as a stress-test and there's little to no intent to make this an actual game. Or if there is intent, this is at the Splatoon-with-tofu stage of development and they're also testing the water to see if people even want this.
The know it's going to leak, Nintendo ain't so naive that they thought asking nicely would do anything. They're relying on a few people leaking it and the rest of us feeling the FOMO and searching that out. I think the reaction to a leak is really useful information, if people were hyped, confused, underwhelmed etc.
The gameplay of solving the mystery with the little dioramas looks really cool. But the characters are quite off-putting to me, too human in the body, not leaning into the animal's characteristics enough like something like Armello does.
@Ooccoo_Jr I think the problem here is that, if I remember correctly, it allegedly seems like it was a known thing that was allowed to happen by those even higher up? So even after Ancel's leaving, it was still unsavoury that there was maybe people there that were ok with ignoring the things he allegedly did.
It is always a tricky balance between not harming the team that had nothing to do with it (or were already a victim) and also delivering a message. It does suck to not get a sales bonus because someone at the top is causing a boycott, assuming you're at a place that even does that, not all studios do. And loosing a job is obviously terrible, especially right now. But do we want to support a studio that chooses to keep abusive people in high up positions and throw away it's actual talent when sales are low because of a known, vocal boycott over said abusive higher-up's actions? Honestly that makes me want to support the games that studio puts out even less. But you're right it's nuanced and it's difficult, and places like Ubisoft are made up of many teams and studios, several of which may have had nothing to do with any of the people involved. (Activision was more clear cut with Kotick being the very top).
Ultimately it's down to your personal choice of what you decide to do, I think there is merit to both and detriments to both actions. I just don't think people should be belittled for expressing their opinions.
Comments 3,569
Re: Balatro Developer Calls Out 'PEGI' For Its "Weirdo" 18+ Rating
I get that Poker is intrinsically associated with gambling but the base game can be played without it. Just as a base game of something like Mario Kart can have gambling added on top, anything can. But Then that’s not what the devs are upset about so it’s kinda moot here.
Honestly I agree with them on the games involving actual gambling’s age ratings. It’s about time we held the big players accountable.
Re: Catly Developer Says Game Does Not Use Generative AI, Blockchain Tech, Or NFTs
@Flashlink99 I also find them off-putting but that doesn't mean they should be fired. It just means I'm not the target audience, which is fine, I don't need everything to be made for me.
Re: Catly Developer Says Game Does Not Use Generative AI, Blockchain Tech, Or NFTs
@Flashlink99 I dunno, I have a few artist friends on Instagram who had actual handmade sculptures that exist in the real world marked as AI by the AI. The reason being they were artists that got hit heavily with the AI training off their work. A real salt in the wound moment.
But yeah I don't know if this game is just using wording to throw people off. They didn't use AI to make the trailer? Ok I believe that. But all that cat designs we see when the cards kind of explode looked very AI generated, as did several design elements. So is it a case of the trailer itself isn't but the content used in it is? Hopefully I'm wrong and it's another case of it looks like AI because AI stole heavily from this person.
Re: Catly Developer Says Game Does Not Use Generative AI, Blockchain Tech, Or NFTs
@Dazman what a disappointing corporate alignment. I see this argument a lot, “it saves money on expensive artists letting them put that money elsewhere”.
But here’s the thing, the average games artist wage isn’t any more than any other dev in the team. And that saving isn’t going back into the game development or being passed on to the consumer. And it’s certainly not going towards making the company more stable for its employees and it’s very creation comes from firing a bunch of them.
No, this apparent great saving goes directly to the top. To the CEOs and shareholders. The people who’s bonuses alone could pay the wages for 5,10,50 artists, writers, animators, voice actors etc. The actually expensive and entirely replaceable people are the ones who actually benefit and nobody else.
And why do we want out expensive, luxury, hobby products churned out anyway? This isn’t something we need, automation isn’t really a benefit. If we want original visions and ideas, we need those creative people, not to save a bit of money for a share holder or CEO. For the kind of person that demand games now hold back content for the 'deluxe edition' at launch, or that they pivot to a live service / GaaS model, or who say 15 million profit isn't enough and the team must now be dissolved and put on 'proven IP'. Those people that push the worst elements of games on us for a quick buck, that nickel and dime us every moment possible. That's who you are currently supporting.
Re: Bandai Namco Unveils New Pac-Man Game, And It's Probably Not What You Expect
Honestly, I am curious about this one. I don’t much care for making Pac-Man all dark and gritty. I also really don’t like that yet another secret Level episode was basically another advert for an upcoming game rather than the love letter to gaming history it sells itself as. And the visuals look a bit all over the place. But the gameplay seems fun.
Would rather they just port Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ though. I really don’t think that can be topped.
Re: Round Up: The First Reviews For Super Nintendo World: Donkey Kong Country Are In
Nintendo World Europe needs to happen!
Re: Michel Ancel Says Beyond Good & Evil 2 Development Issues Due To "Problems Between Managers"
And none of it sounds like what fans of the original wanted. Get rid of the monkey, get rid of the open world/galaxy. Just expand of the original's mechanics and story and locations and resolve that cliff-hanger!
Re: Random: Metroid Prime 3 Dev Left Retro Studios After "Unhealthy Relationship" With Nintendo Micromanagement
The more he talks, the more he sounds like a bit of a diva that just wanted his first pass to be accepted. And then half of this frustration that made him quit, didn't even happen to him anyway? And it was all hear-say by his own admission? It all sounds exaggerated to make him seem more reasonable. Like, they asked for it to be more colourful and you had to implement the client/publisher/IP holder's wishes? Yeah that's the job. That's what they're paying you for.
I've worked with people who talk poop like this and in my experience the problem has always been them more than anything. Maybe he's not like that, but man, he sure is coming off that way and his receipts just aren't there.
Re: No Gravity Games Is Giving Away 11 Free Switch Games This Month (North America)
Another publisher using these giveaways to push their content to the top of the 'most popular' lists artificially.
Re: Opinion: Nintendo Needs To Let Us Block The Crap On Switch 2's eShop
I’m all for this. I want to block games, terms, AI and publishers. I’m never going to buy an AI generated visual ‘novel’. I’m never going to buy anything with the term ‘hentai’ in it. I’m never going to buy any of the games RedDeer Games published a ‘new edition’ of each month such as ‘AAA Clock Special Definitive Gamer Deluxe Edition’ or ‘AAA Clock Ultimate Definitive Gamer Deluxe Edition’.
But I might be some other stuff that I currently can’t find as it’s buried under all this garbage.
Re: London's Pop-Up Pokémon Center Returns In February 2025
Please just open a permanent one already! If a 3 story M&Ms store can survive in London, a Pokémon Centre surely can too!
Re: Talking Point: Can Sony And Microsoft Really Compete With Nintendo In A New 'Handheld War'?
Sony could. Xbox I really doubt.
I loved the PSP, would love to see Sony take another shot at it. Though that being said I’ve been far less enamoured with Sony’s output recently. It’s good stuff but I miss the variety they had when they made things like Ape Escape, Patapon, Loco Roco, Tearaway, Modnation etc. Games like that would be essential for me to consider it.
Re: Bullet-Hell Shmup Refused Classification In The West Over 'Expression Restrictions'
Sounds like a publicity stunt. People get so easily riled up about perceived ‘censorship’ at the moment it makes for easy marketing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they submitted with an aim for a lower age rating than they knew it required so that it would get rejected and they could then go to socials and get people all agitated over perceived slights. They don’t even need to say what has or hasn’t happened people fill in the blanks with their own rage.
Now they’ll have a bunch of people who likely wouldn’t have heard of this game or bothered with it, staunchly defending it as a paragon of righteousness and terrible victim of social injustice (but not calling it that because that is woke and they don’t like woke) out of some misguided principal.
Re: Video: Here's The Official Mega Man Trailer For Amazon's 'Secret Level' Series
Ok it’s well done so won’t take that away, but it looks so generic. Where is the stylisation? It’s an animation based on a video game, go ham!
Re: Feature: 9 Things Nintendo Could Add To Switch 2 So It's Not 'Just Another Switch'
Street Pass and 3D for me. Wouldn’t say no to a mic either.
The back touchpad on the Vita wasn’t so great and very few games found fun ways to use it, so let’s skip that. The Playdate crank is great but feels crappy to copy an indie console’s ideas like that.
I’m sure whatever they do there will be a mix of stuff I was wanting and stuff I had no idea I wanted.
Re: New Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Stop-Motion Animation Is So Very, Very Boring
I think that's actually puppetry rather than stop-motion animation. Also it's cute, stop being so grumpy!
Re: Lizardcube Co-Founder Leaves To Start New Game Company
@fenlix yeah I’m not doubting it’s official status. I’m saying I wanted a new entry like that but done by LizardCube in the same art style as the remake they did.
I loved the art in it and I want to play in a world that looks like that but for me the old gameplay it was on top of wasn’t as fun. I’m sure the new one is fun, but it’s not the same visual style sadly. It’s a perfectly competent style but it doesn’t do anything for me. I’d like to see the two together, but currently I can have one or the other.
Re: Lizardcube Co-Founder Leaves To Start New Game Company
@fenlix didn’t someone else make that? I didn’t like the art in that one very much which was a huge draw for me in the remake. Also I didn’t realise it was a new entry.
Re: Lizardcube Co-Founder Leaves To Start New Game Company
Loved the art in both of these! Didn’t manage to finish Wonder Boy, got a little frustrated at the old gameplay, but it was a truly lovely remake. Would have loved to see a new entry with some more contemporary sensibilities added.
Best of luck to this guy, I shall eagerly await the next game announcement from both!
Re: It Turns Out Pokémon GO Players Have Been Training An AI This Whole Time
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Glad I’ve not engaged in any of the scanning. Really think there needs to be laws introduced to let people know when they are feeding AIs now. I don’t think this one is morally wrong in particular (though I do hate this notion that an AI assumption of how something looks from an unseen angle is somehow factual in any way) I do take issue with AI in general for it’s horrendous energy usage and general service to extreme capitalism.
Re: Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Update Will Add First-Person Mode
Even if it doesn’t spin you around uncontrollably as it does your chosen character when you go fast enough, which would be extremely unpleasant, the flickering of the two ball halves passing in front of you would be horrible.
So I’m assuming this is a standard FP mode with the camera just in front of the ball or the ball not rendered at all.
Unless that’s the joke and it’s awful on purpose?
Re: Mario & Luigi's Future In Doubt As A Potential Sony Acquisition Emerges
I mean, if Brothership does well I’m sure they’ll arrange something with them or find a new developer. And if Brothership doesn’t do well, well then they probably weren’t going to make another with these devs anyway.
I guess the only way this could result in the series being cancelled that wouldn’t have had that happen anyway is if Brothership has a middling performance and finding a new dev is not worth the time. But even then, there are a lot of for hire studios out there that would jump at the chance to work on a Nintendo franchise like this. I don’t think they’d have trouble.
Re: The Game Awards 2024 Nominees Have Been Revealed - Zelda, Mario And Metroid Nominated
@MontyCircus The old slippery slope argument.
Really don't think winning the game awards will be the deciding factor for them making more DLC. And if they do and it keeps winning? So what it means they're continuing to put out good content.
All game awards are pretty meaningless in the long run. It's mostly exposure and potentially a brag to put on the box/marketing material. And many of them don't even bother with that. But just like 'game of the year' labels, anyone can hand them out and they quickly mean nothing. Hence every year we have 30+ games claiming to be 'Game of the Year'.
So I wouldn't stress it. It means nothing.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Double Dragon (NES)
They’re both quite badly drawn but the EU/NA one is especially badly drawn. I know nostalgia is strong with this title but I am honestly shocked it’s in the lead as of writing this comment.
I wonder how much do people actually look at the image before voting? Because it took all of 2 seconds to see the issues with the EU/NA one and it took at least 10 to start spotting the Japan ones. Neither high numbers but it’s at least the difference between a glance and a look.
Re: Mindcop, A Brain-Melting Detective Adventure, Is Out Now On Switch
I like the look of this! Recently got Chicken Police so once that’s finished I might jump into this!
Re: EarthBound 30th Anniversary Merch Will Include A Giant Mr Saturn Plushie
Damn I want all the Mr Saturns!
Re: Mini Review: Miniatures (Switch) - A Wonderfully Strange Little Narrative Trip
Well I am sold on the artwork alone!
Re: Random: Don't Let Pets Wii On Your Switch, Warns Nintendo
Not-tendogs?
I dunno, I'll see myself out.
Re: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu Madness
@JohnnyMind I don’t think radials will solve anything, that’s just a smaller menu with less selection.
Honestly I don’t know why they didn’t add rows, perhaps it felt overwhelming? They do play test this stuff. Tabs felt like a good solution to me, at least split things like inanimate objects, food, enemies etc. But again I’m sure they tested that and found issues with it.
Point is the favourites system, which is specifically what we were talking about, is counter-intuitive and lessens the fun of the game overall. Sure there are a few who stubbornly won’t accept that and are determined that it would make the game better for them and they will be very vocal about it. That’s some great anecdotal evidence for sure.
But personally, even if the final solution wasn’t perfect, I trust that the devs with many years of experience trained specifically in these areas, who reiterated and play tested and gathered data over the several years of development time, made the right call. And that a few random people on an internet comment sections yelling “but I know better!” are almost certainly not the smarter-than-the-devs, geniuses with the obvious solution they presume themselves to be.
It’s not like this is a low budget, first game from a small inexperienced team. They tested these things and they didn’t work and they’ve said that’s why the landed where they did. Don’t like it? Move on and play something else.
Re: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu Madness
@JohnnyMind Because adding favourites isn't a passive option, it's an encouraging action. You're not just showing people what they recently tried out (which will be a mix of what did and didn't work) you're actively encouraging people to mark something as 'better' and to be used more often. If you give the option people will do it and they will assume they should be doing it.
And, as mentioned, it's not necessarily even something that will improve things and could easily bring frustrations of it's own to others.
I can guarantee you this would have all be discussed and probably prototyped and tested before making an informed decision to not use it for the reasons they stated. Implementing it would have dulled the core mechanic of the game and lead to a worse experience overall. They're nuances but they're what elevates a game from good to great to amazing.
Re: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu Madness
@FantasiaWHT So you think that none of these veteran devs working for one of the biggest companies in video games, over the course of several years of research and development and testing, never considered any of this and now must be flat out lying about their intentions.
And that's based on "evidence" that if you actually think about for about 30 seconds does not actually counteract what they are saying, but actually in some ways supports it.
Wow.
Re: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu Madness
@FantasiaWHT @JohnnyMind It is literally what they are saying
"One of the essences of this game is being able to figure out different ways of using each of these echoes. And so in that sense we wanted players to fall upon and see the echoes that they may not have noticed or have been using while they're sorting through all the echoes that they have"
But you're not entirely wrong on the 'last used' though it is more naunced.
I imagine that it's largely a concession to resolve frustrations for certain puzzles and situations. Say if you needed to light 4 torches but you only currently have one echo that will do that and it's 30 echoes deep, you want the player to experiment sure, but they can't here. And more importantly you also don't want them to quit with the frustration of tons of button presses to solve a simple puzzle.
Also most recent isn't always a most useful or most used. It's quite likely the most recent contains a bunch of echoes that didn't work as you were experimenting. In that case they act more as a reminder of what not to do, whilst a favourite reads the opposite, it's something you've marked as 'this always/usually works', which sets you in an entirely different mindset when using them.
And that then leads into the opposite side of there being a frustration that can be created by allowing players to have set favourites. They become used to using them to solve everything, essentially becoming the player's inventory. Then when something comes up that they don't work for that can be frustrating and the immediate thought may not be to try a different echo, or it may result in the player having to try tons of different echoes before getting to ones that works, because they're not familiar with any of them as they've relied on their favourites.
Re: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu Madness
@JohnnyMind "again, I think that the easiest solution would be giving players the option to set favorites and those showing up at the start of the list!"
But that is counter to what they were trying to achieve. Allowing you to set favourites is encouraging you to use the same echoes you already know to solve each puzzle in a way you've done before. They deliberately avoided that to encourage trying new things each time.
Re: Nintendo Direct Announced For Super Nintendo World's Donkey Kong Expansion
Whilst I am excited to see what they've done with DK, I'm mostly hoping it'll end with a little preview of what's planned next.
DK is cool but feels basically Mario, I want to see some non-Mario IP in the park.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Hatris
Japan hands-down! That NA cover is dull as dishwater.
Neither really explains what the game is, but the “what is it?” on the Japan cover peaks my interest. Like I was thinking that anyway but the NA one leaves me to assume, and the visuals make it look chess-like and kinda dry. That Japan one straight up asking that makes me want to pick it up to figure out what it is whilst also planting the idea that it’s something fun with those bright and jaunty visuals, and bold colours. Plus it has hats hidden all over the cover, the more you look the more you see, it tells me there’s more to this game than initially meets the eye.
Oh and the off-centre logo of the NA one? That feels very sloppy and like the name of the game was an afterthought? I’d actually respect it more if it didn’t have the name on the front at all, that would be a bold move, but as is feels sloppy.
And the big red block linking it back to Tetris? Nah sell the game on it’s own merit.
TLDR:
NA - looks dry and serious, maybe even educational. Logo off-centre.
Japan - looks fun and exciting and invites me to investigate further.
Japan wins!
Re: The Results Of Our 2024 Switch Summer Survey Are In
I seem to remember the amiibo question being really geared towards the figures. As such I didn’t add my 400+ Animal Crossing cards to my amiibo count.
Also the physical v digital. Of that digital percentage, how many are actually available as physical? I have a lot of digital games on my Switch but they’re all small indies that aren’t available physically (or become available much later in limited runs for 8 times the cost).
Would be lovely to see some charts and graphs of this.
Re: Random: Kit & Krysta Discuss The "Drama" Behind The Switch Reveal Trailer
Sounds like any decision at any company.
I was smart after the WiiU to just do everything differently though.
Re: 'Nintendo Music' Is A New Mobile App Exclusive To Switch Online Members
My phone seems to be too old to use it.
Re: Review: Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure (Switch) - It's Here, Finally, And It's Very Good, Surprisingly
Also I will say, people talk about it looking like a 'Flash game'. I don't really think that's fair on Flash games. It just looks generic. Flash doesn't have a built in visual style, it's just vectors, and if people use them lazily then yeah they could look like this, but they don't have too.
Team Meat (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Issac), The Behemoth (Castle Crashers, Alien Hominid) and SFB Games (Tangle Tower, Snipperclips) all started in Flash and their games never looked like this. I'm sure they've all moved on now and don't use it anymore, and their visuals are certainly better with experience and time, but most of their old games are still online to play.
Re: Review: Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure (Switch) - It's Here, Finally, And It's Very Good, Surprisingly
@RupeeClock Yeah I backed it 6 years ago so I should have the code to skip having to beat Hatch Tales to get the stuff I actually want.
Re: Review: Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure (Switch) - It's Here, Finally, And It's Very Good, Surprisingly
I’m still too annoyed at the whole debacle to play it. But when I do I shall be playing Chicken Wiggle with the pixel art and leaving the ugly, cringey Hatch Tales side alone. My backlog is too big anyway.
Re: Bayonetta Character Designer Celebrates Series' 15th Anniversary With New Art
@Samalik I enjoyed the bits with Bayonetta, but the switching back and forth between her and Violet wasn’t fun. Violet was so much slower and clunkier it was a jarring learning curve every time, especially as Bayo was so smooth and quick and what I was excited and expecting to play.
I hope if there are future games they make Violet an option and never mandatory like in 3.
Re: Reaction: With Xenoblade Chronicles X On Switch, The Wii U's Demise Is Complete
The WiiU really was great. It’s very funny to me that PlayStation Portal is basically turning your PS5 into a WiiU. It proves that the concept wasn’t bad, just maybe the execution and definitely the marketing. Also the fact that nearly all it’s library is now on Switch shows the general quality of games didn’t drop (yeah there was Game and Wario but Switch has 1 2 Switch so it balances).
I am sad Nintendoland will likely stay where it is forever though. I really enjoyed it! It’s a shame they’ve not even revived it with a sequel on Switch given the multiplayer focus it has.
Re: Random: Skull Kid "Clocks In" To Super Smash Bros. In This Awesome Fan-Made Trailer
It was fun and nicely rendered. Some of the animation a little floaty but really pretty good on the whole. I think I’d mostly just change the pacing, it’s not really a reveal if the new character is the first thing you see. Well that and all the characters acting like they know they’re about to die, that felt out of place. Like, they’ve all faced Sephiroth turning up with more optimism and courage.
I think if it had started with the Mushroom Kindom going about their lives, then the shadow creeps over as characters start to notice and look up. Then we get the cool shot of Fox and crew flying in and we get a hint of the face reflected in the screen before cutting. Peach is overlooking with Zelda and the moon’s face is fully revealed in the sky, at which point Young Link, the only one who knows what’s up, steps in, the other Links not far behind. Then Skull Kid shows up for the reveal and name card. Mario and Luigi brace for a fight, Mario gets turned then Luigi runs off scared. Skull Kid turns a bunch of people into trees, we get some footage and a less morose version of Isabelle and Bowser’s scene and then yeah the final ending was perfect don’t change that at all.
Re: 'Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete' Arrives On Mobile This December
Ok cool but where was this for Dr Mario?!?!??
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Kid Icarus (NES)
Not a fan of adding details to the pixel art like that, breaks the pixels. It’s between Europe and Japan for me but went for the latter in the end.
Re: Random: Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Fans Are In Uproar Over A Missing Outfit
@Bravest_Toaster4 no I read the article about fans being in uproar and messaging Grezzo. I was responding to the article not the video.
Re: Talking Point: What Is Nintendo Thinking Trying To Keep The Lid On This Playtest Program?
I really do this it's an RnD project that's being used as a stress-test and there's little to no intent to make this an actual game. Or if there is intent, this is at the Splatoon-with-tofu stage of development and they're also testing the water to see if people even want this.
The know it's going to leak, Nintendo ain't so naive that they thought asking nicely would do anything. They're relying on a few people leaking it and the rest of us feeling the FOMO and searching that out. I think the reaction to a leak is really useful information, if people were hyped, confused, underwhelmed etc.
Re: 'On Your Tail' Brings Animal Crossing Cosiness And Ace Attorney Mystery To Switch Next Month
The gameplay of solving the mystery with the little dioramas looks really cool. But the characters are quite off-putting to me, too human in the body, not leaning into the animal's characteristics enough like something like Armello does.
Re: Rumour: A Rayman Remake May Be On The Cards At Ubisoft
@Ooccoo_Jr I think the problem here is that, if I remember correctly, it allegedly seems like it was a known thing that was allowed to happen by those even higher up? So even after Ancel's leaving, it was still unsavoury that there was maybe people there that were ok with ignoring the things he allegedly did.
It is always a tricky balance between not harming the team that had nothing to do with it (or were already a victim) and also delivering a message. It does suck to not get a sales bonus because someone at the top is causing a boycott, assuming you're at a place that even does that, not all studios do. And loosing a job is obviously terrible, especially right now. But do we want to support a studio that chooses to keep abusive people in high up positions and throw away it's actual talent when sales are low because of a known, vocal boycott over said abusive higher-up's actions? Honestly that makes me want to support the games that studio puts out even less. But you're right it's nuanced and it's difficult, and places like Ubisoft are made up of many teams and studios, several of which may have had nothing to do with any of the people involved. (Activision was more clear cut with Kotick being the very top).
Ultimately it's down to your personal choice of what you decide to do, I think there is merit to both and detriments to both actions. I just don't think people should be belittled for expressing their opinions.