Comments 3,569

Re: Sakurai Says Japanese Developers Should Avoid Trying To Appeal To Western Tastes

Ogbert

I think what it really comes down to is bring your unique perspective rather than trying to engineer something for a different perspective that's not your own. It's not just what makes Japanese games special, it can make all games special.

Venba is a great example of this, it's a wonderful game that stays true to it's roots and would loose so much if they toned that back to make it "more marketable" to other regions.

Re: Niantic Sells Pokémon GO And Entire Gaming Division For $3.5 Billion

Ogbert

"Star Trek Fleet Command, Marvel Strike Force, and Monopoly Go!, the latter of which is reportedly the biggest mobile gaming launch of all time."

Honestly if there is one major marker that we, as a society, have gone deeply wrong, it's that Monopoly is popular like this. It's a stolen game that was only even meant to be a scathing parody of capitalism.

Anyway....yeah. I dunno. I still dip into PoGo every now and then, but usually it's the same 'mon hanging about still and there's not much new to do. I don't need another Ghastly or mission to catch 150 Pokemon from the Kanto region in order to get a Charmander with slightly different stats.

Re: Random: Takaya Imamura's Holding Out Hope For A Star Fox Movie

Ogbert

Hhmm, not one I ever considered for a film. It could work but a short anime series feels much better to me. Get Trigger on it!

The plot is too thin for a full film, but also not so thin that it’s irrelevant like Mario. A series would allow us to have some character development and flashback episodes in between the story beats that I don’t think a film could give the proper time too. Show us Peppy bonding with Fox’s Dad. Show us how Falco became the way he is. Let’s have a seemingly light-hearted Slippy episode with his uncle Grippy that ultimately becomes the most heart wrenching episode of the whole series and makes us all love the little guy again.

Otherwise I’m watching the Death Star trench sequence for an hour and a half with talking animals. That doesn’t feel quite as compelling unless I really care about who these characters are.

Re: Pokémon Almost Became A "Gritty" Baseball-Themed RPG In The West

Ogbert

I briefly worked for a school supplies company in the early 2000s and they were looking at making a bunch of mascots to make them appealing to kids.
Naturally I raised Pokémon as a reference point and my boss told me “Kids aren’t into that weird stuff. They all have sharp teeth and mean eyebrows, that’s not appealing. Kids like Disney eyes.” Then another high up chimes in with how “Pokémon really missed a trick by having there be more than one of each. They’re not even characters”.

That was the day I realised people at the top aren’t always there because they actually know anything. And that knowledge has served me well all these years.

The same guys also dismissed the European rep for Dragonball at a networking event for similar reasons, then came back and told us all like it was funny that this looser had tried to engage them. The company went bust a few years later.

Re: Opinion: Legends Z-A's Xenoblade-Style Battles Are Pokémon's Most Exciting Evolution In Years

Ogbert

Honestly I don’t mind it, but I don’t find it an improvement and given the choice, would go back to turn-based. The cool-downs and stuff though do seem interesting, I’d much prefer if they made a system like in The Ruined King using cool-downs and cast times to keep it dynamic but turn-based still.

Plus turn based combat is the one accessibility feature they actually had built in. Making it a hybrid like this makes it far less accessible.

Re: Nintendo Places Outside Top 20 In Metacritic's 15th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

Ogbert

It’s definitely been a slower year for Nintendo but that’s no bad thing. They’re clearly gearing up for Switch 2 and honestly I’m glad for the breather and chance to catch up.

But Metacritic scores are nothing to go by, and it doesn’t really matter anyway. Personally I’ve played/been interested in 0 Sega games this year, whilst I’ve played and loved at least half of Nintendo’s output. It’s like getting upset that the game you liked didn’t win GotY, it’s meaningless.

Re: Warner Bros. Closes Three Studios Including Team Behind Smash-Like Brawler 'MultiVersus'

Ogbert

@boxyguy agreed, but unfortunately they all have so much money to throw around and such little regard for employees, customers and the final product, that they'd all rather throw good money after bad in the hopes that they might hit that Fortnite jackpot. The strategy of moderate budget for moderate returns is out of the window, and the places that relied on it, generally bought out or muscled out. It doesn't matter that those games could earn them steady millions, it doesn't matter that they are wasting millions, because they could get billions if just one hits.

And even if they do make a hit, apparently they then fire all their Western devs and replace them with cheaper outsource devs anyway (Marvel Rivals). It's not about games anymore, it's not about fun or storytelling or just the craft or even the tech, it's about money and nothing else.

Re: Annapurna Will Shed Some Light On Its 2025 Lineup In Next Week's Digital Showcase

Ogbert

@SwissCheese @bluemage1989 ok so I’ve been reading up and trying to understand and this is what I’ve got so far:

Annapurna Pictures is the parent company. They make/publish films and existed first.

Annapurna Interactive was set up later to enter the video games space as a publisher of games only.

Annapurna Animation was also set up later and makes animations. So far it’s made Nimona for Netflix and is working on a Stray adaptation. Who is credited for founding this division is a point of contention and mistrust between the divisions.

A couple of founders we made redundant and that caused some staff to quit, quoting that as a reason (I guess see previous distrust being sown?).

Those two were brought back with the promise of making Annapurna Interactive an independent company called Verset, splitting profits with the Annapurna group.

Then it was announced by a different high-up, that a new internal Annapurna division was being set up with the focus on developing and publishing games. Replacing the Interactive division essentially.

That obviously upset those current at Annapurna Interactive, set to become Verset, so they all quit.

So now Annapurna Interactive is I guess what that new internal division was going to be.

TLDR: Annapurna Pictures’ head promised Annapurna Interactive’s staff a deal which they immediately went back on so they all quit.

At least that’s my understanding.

Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Star Fox 64

Ogbert

At a quick glance it’s hard to tell what’s going on in the western one, especially with the rumble pack logo and the red bar at the side.

Japan is overly cluttered, but I like the idea and immediately understood it at a glance so it wins for me this week!

Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Adds Characters From "SEGA Universes"

Ogbert

@PrinceVegeta there is a chance they heard of the new game and made the assumption it was Sumo though.

I'm going by the evidence of the stated developer being someone else, the silence from Sumo around it's release and Sumo making a competitor title as Sumo did not make it over a leaker's rumour.

Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Adds Characters From "SEGA Universes"

Ogbert

@PrinceVegeta I don't think Sega has a history of doing that? Seems to be a new Nintendo thing. Honestly the fact Stampede exists makes Sumo not being the dev for this a certainty for me. It would be considered a direct competitor and would break any non-compete clauses in contracts and would be a conflict of interest.

Re: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Adds Characters From "SEGA Universes"

Ogbert

"The Steam page DOES have Sonic Team is the developer, but that could just be a placeholder."

@PrinceVegeta Why would they placeholder that? If Sumo made this they would want their logo as prominent as allowed, it only benefits them to have their logo out there. And honestly so would Sega as Sumo have a positive history with this series so it only adds credit to the title. Hiding it being Sumo would benefit nobody, actually only hurt Sumo.

Re: Sony Does What Nintendon't By Removing A Bunch Of 'eSlop' Titles

Ogbert

@JohnnyMind A search requires you to know what you want, not everybody does.
Ratings are also tricky, as we've seem on steam countless times they can be used for bad with review bombs from those with bad intent.

Not meaning to be contrary btw, I think ideally all these systems or some version of them could work and should work. But at the end of the day Nintendo's reputation is on the line by allowing scam products to be there at all. Imagine going to a store to buy a chocolate bar, but some of them are actually just cardboard in a wrapper? First one you'll probably complain and return it, second one you'll definitely complain and return it, third one you're never going to that shop again. If you even went back after the first or second.

Re: Sony Does What Nintendon't By Removing A Bunch Of 'eSlop' Titles

Ogbert

@JohnnyMind The problem with relying on the user to hide the games is for new users, or people less gaming savvy, that's a massive ask and barrier to use the shop.

Imagine you don't know what is and isn't a good game, maybe you don't play games and you're looking for your kids. How would you know that all the AI generated puppy images are actually hiding shoddy cash-grab slop? You might not even recognise that's what they are. You'd probably see how many there were and think "wow they're popular, there are so many, they must be good!". They'll buy it, realise it's awful and having seen how much of it there is, probably not go back to the eShop again.

People like that are more the bulk of any console's audience but especially Nintendo's. They need to create a system that protects them from these scams, especially if they want to keep them and grow them into the bigger fans like us who frequent Nintendo themed news sites. Nintendo's eShop should be a place you can trust.

But I would love to have it as well.

Re: Sony Does What Nintendon't By Removing A Bunch Of 'eSlop' Titles

Ogbert

Good, I hope Nintendo follows suit.

It's very easy to tell the difference between the eSlop and the rest. Usually naming conventions, obvious use of AI and asset flips, and above all, the sheer quantity of it all.

I get people being worried some genuine stuff might get caught, but if they put these barriers in place the genuine devs will work to get past them because they care. The people who make this eSlop don't care, they're doing it because it's easy.