Comments 196

Re: Rumour: Dataminers Dig Up eShop Listings For Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Skyward Sword And Metroid: Other M

Omenapoika

I'm a classic Metroid fan and Other M was a real joy to play. When I first finished playing it, I rushed online to join in mirth of fellow players, but was amazed to see that people actually even hated it. Being one of of the worst Metroid games doesn't mean it would be bad
Very curious about the Twilight Princess HD, that would be a nice surprise from Nintendo, making up for the pushing back of their hit titles...

Re: 3DS System Update, to Version 9.9.2-26, Ramps Up Precious Stability

Omenapoika

This one time I booted my 3DS and it felt a bit unstable, I went to eShop and it prompted an update and I thought "I hope my 3DS is stable enough for this update". But right after the update or even innthe midst of it my system went incredibly stable! I could feel the waves of stability crashing over my gaming heart

Re: Rumour: Could Female Link Be In Hyrule Warriors On 3DS?

Omenapoika

To think a bit deeper into it, in the 80's and arcades games were expected to be picked up and played so the story needed to be understood in a glimpse. Since ancient times men were the expendable warriors and heroes of stories: Odysseus was going to Ithaca to his wife, Romeo was the one who went under Juliet's balcony... and even in modern games with more complex stories and customizable characters, male characters are more usually portrayed in leading roles and the center of action, especially in advertising (I'm studying this stuff).
It's simply that games take use of the assumptions and premises laid by gender roles because it's efficient and easy to understand. But with the huge media coverage, writers and game makers would need to take responsibility in shaping the stories of our age and if gender equality is a thing of our culture it could be expected to be reflected in our media.

Re: Reggie Fils-Aime Promises 3DS E3 Reveals While Being as Vague as Possible

Omenapoika

He said it's something we won't guess so I'm going to guess all the things I don't want:
Mario clock 3D
Separate accounts on each console
The new Zelda game will be released in seasons and as dlc packages with paid visual character customization starting with an early access alpha build that might never finish
The pokemon series will move 100% free to play and pay to win with a pokemon store app on the smart phones to buy each pokemon and move separately
Mario Maker will be online only with a huge server like the most awkward minecraft
Nintendo will sue and win against Youtube and capitalize gaming videos and streaming into a brave new world of Nintendo Video -application
Next console - which is an os, which is a smartphone app on which you need to permanently port your games over
Reggie will confess with proof that his body is not ready

Re: Mario Runs From Left To Right Because Our Brains Prefer It That Way

Omenapoika

There have been many writing systems for writing both left-to-right and right-to-left, but ultimately it has been the tools and physical media that has made the choice for us. Writing with your right hand with ink and nib required the hand to move left to right, and book printing turned it into a uniform script because you needed to lay tiny metal letter fonts into the trays.
Asian languages have largely been written with a brush that can keep the hand elevated to allow many directions, also their printing letter fonts were based on square ideograms that can be laid uniform in any direction.

But when it comes to the video games, reading direction is a definite learned factor, but it's hard to say if there are inherent preferences to going left to right or interpretations due to direction. It has been a theme of image composition since the dawn of history, that left is home and right is adventure; left is sorry and right optimistic; left is known and right is unknown... Although the following research tells:

"The aim of the present study was to determine the extent to which aesthetic preference, previously attributed to cerebral dominance, may be determined by reading habits. One hundred and sixty two normal subjects were presented pairs of images, one being the mirror-image of the other, and were asked for their aesthetic preference. Half of the subjects were left-to-right readers (French subjects) and the other half were right-to-left readers (Israeli subjects). We found a significant effect of reading habits on aesthetic preference, with left-to-right readers showing a preference for stimuli with a rightward directionality while right-to-left readers preferred stimuli with a leftward directionality. These findings raise the question of an interaction between cultural factors and cerebral dominance."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926641000000215

In the start of the first Mario game he is situated slightly to the left of the screen, giving the player the incentive to start by going right. But interestingly Super Mario World starts with a crossroad, it would be cool to do a test and see how many people would choose which and if it correlates with any other aspects of the player's relation to the game.

Re: Review: Pokémon Shuffle (3DS eShop)

Omenapoika

I like both pokemon and puzzle games, but I won't download this for moral reasons. It's weird to find myself in this position because I dont take much moral stands, but microtransactions in a game that appeals to kids simply feels evil.
Sometimes though add-on content and such have a place innthe game, like buying the extra chapter for Phoenix Wright DD, but this game doesnt even require your money to be a full experience, it just shuts down to make you wait or pay and that to me sounds like a horrible game design.
And products that could cost money in any point should not be able to have the word "free" attached to them.

Re: Shigeru Miyamoto Outlines Core Nintendo Philosophies, Not "Boring" Alternatives

Omenapoika

It was cool how in the end he said "perhaps we needed more children here"! As for myself too, I'm sure many players grew up feeling like gaming is their own thing and continue to feel so now that they're 30 years old. But Miyamoto reminded us that gaming is for -everyone-, not just for you.
There's a place for games for specific audiences, but I think it's remarkable how New Super Mario U is the game on my Wii U people who otherwise wouldn't play games, look at, pick the mote and start having fun. I thought twice about getting the NSMBU, but it still is the most played game on my machine.

Re: New Study Finds No Connection Between Video Game Violence And Its Real-World Equivalent

Omenapoika

It has been noted that a significant percentage of Finnish people have a genetic mutation that makes them prone to violence, especially when intoxicated. Nonetheless, only a fraction minority of people with the genes carry out violent acts (almost all serial killers and repeated offenders on the other hand carry these genes). The largest effect on actually getting violent found in the study of these genes is your upbringing and background. Learning to live and cope with people in other ways than violence when growing up is the key factor.
You can google this up, sorry I'm typing on the phone and won't be bothered to link ;9
If you ask me, it's very different neurons that flare up when you feel like punching a person in front of you versus when you want to press the button to whip Dracula in the face to rid the fictional world of evil.

Re: Nintendo 64x64: Super Smash Bros

Omenapoika

When I was 14 I heard that a friend of a friend in a small town owned a copy of Smash bros for 64. I got his phone number and called if he'd like to sell it (these games were hard to come by where I'm from) but he declined. On a completely unrelated note, I had an online friend who told that she was in a long-distance relationship and only told me the first name and the town of her boyfriend. Later, I was 19 and doing my military service, having a bit of a fever I was waiting at the hospital with a bunch of other guys, a good place to have a chat. I talked with a guy who turned out to love video games and I asked what his favorite game is. He told "Super Smash bros for 64" and then I realized to connect all these things, and successfully guessed his name. He was from the small town, possibly the only person for a long radius to own a copy of Smash bros, I had called him when I was 14 and he was the boyfriend of my never-met, old internet friend.
True story.

Re: Nintendo 64x64: Pokémon Stadium

Omenapoika

Stadium was seriously a good extension for the game boy game. Storing your pokemon freely on the n64 with just popping in the cartridge, you couldn't do that with Pokemon Colosseum anymore, let alone play the gb game and then take the fight out with your friends on the big screen. Back in the day this game really took the cake.

Pokebank and transfer tool with yearly payment... Dream radar? Pokedex for 15$?? How about just one good old game that does all of that and more, like Stadium did it.

Re: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Omenapoika

This one was the lamest of the gba castlevanias: slower and clunkier controls, small sprites and drab look at times, the map design and exploring is not even close to what the following titles have. But still a pretty good game! I'm expecting a 7/10 for the wii u vc version
The later gba castlevanias started the triumph that was the ds castlevanias, which rock everyone's socks.

Re: The Great Ace Attorney

Omenapoika

Maybe time has made my memories golden, but the first three Ace Attorney's were way better than Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies (which were cool games nonetheless). It sounds like a promise of something great that they include Sherlock Holmes in the story...
My theory is, that since this would take place in 1850-1900 (? deduced from Sherlock and the illustrations of the characters...) the ace attorney might embark on a trip to London much like the real Chōshū Five who defied some laws and infliltrated Britain to gain knowledge of the western society and bring it back to Japan. If that's the case (pun intended) this game sounds awesome

Re: Nintendo Download: 14th August (Europe)

Omenapoika

Dang, I just bought Child of Light!
I love these promotions but sometimes they just teach you hard handedly to wait for the promotions to come before buying...
I could consider the Assassin's Creed 4, but I dont have the hard drive for it, and I bet you could soon buy a used disc for the price. Now as for that Mario bros. 3...

Re: Rivyd Announces Kenji: Rise Of A Hero For Wii U eShop, November Launch Expected

Omenapoika

@LDXD If the makers of this game would have worked on publishing anything they would have rudimentary understanding of managing the looks and image of the game. The cruddy pictures just tell that these guys don't know how to present their game, and that might go for the game itself.
How can we trust that the game would be nice to play when they can't even assemble a package of media materials?
Of course it might be good and so could a meteorite fall on me, but you can totally deduce a lot of things from a single screenshot.

Re: Mario Kart 8 Still Competing in Nordic Region Charts, Tomodachi Life Never Has

Omenapoika

@OldWeeDog I concur, from Finland as well. I bet Tomodachi life is one of those oddities that can sell itself through with enough exposure.
I've looked into the game and it looks fun, although I thoroughly understand people's suspicions about it. I would be ideal audience for it, but personally, there's just so many games on the market right now that picking games when they cost 10€ used or old is seriously my call instead of paying 40 or 50€ on launch. Mario kart 8 is the only game I've bought in launch this year, yet I dont have time to play all the great games I find for 5-10€.

Re: Talking Point: Should Nintendo Be Promoting The Wii U GamePad As A Tablet Killer?

Omenapoika

Aww, c'mon!
Trying to get the gamepad across to kids who are already using a tablet or a smartphone is like giving wholebran cereal to a kid with his pockets full of candy. Pay-to-win and get-the-app -generation of gamers seems like an existing reality to this old downer.
While it's awesome to see all the young users all excited in the Miiverse, I actually feel that Wii U is like a mature haven from all the buzz and biz of social media devices...

Re: Talking Point: The Wii U's Limited Hard Drive Space and Future Install Headaches

Omenapoika

I'd be happy to see 32gb of games that I like on Wii U jk
the only disc title I've downloaded so far has been the NSMBU. My DL/disc decision is largely based on if the game is the sort I'd play every day and know I won't sell forward I consider downloading.
Like the AC3... it was pretty much like a movie in the sense that once I ploughed it through (sorry for the term, it wasn't my favorite :9) I didn't feel like playing it again, and I traded it off for a new game!
If let's say a Zelda title came, I might download it because I'd be quite sure I wouldn't want to part with it.

Re: Your View: Predicting "Brand-New Types of Games" for Wii U is Rather Tricky

Omenapoika

My input:
The Wii U is still finding it's place in the large market and Nintendo (appears to be?) active in proving the point of the controls and playing possibilities offered by the controller.
According to Miyamoto, new IP is about making a new experience, so we might see a whole new kind of game that makes the best of Wii U's hardware. Hopefully in the way that Skyward Sword made the motion plus a justified necessity in a gamer household, this new IP/type of game would do the same for the Wii U system.

Re: Talking Point: Gun Violence and Nintendo is an Unlikely Pairing

Omenapoika

I come from a very peaceful country, and I believe the reason is that people don't need to point guns at each other. Social welfare, free education and public healthcare keep people busy studying, working and familying.
No offense americans, but I can't help but say that if people didn't need to resort to guns, they wouldn't.

Also, I find the hubbub about video games increasing violence completely silly. Of course it can warp the thoughts of little kids, but they are to be guided by the parents, not the government.

edit: we have one of the world's highest guns per capita due to necessary hunting and hobbyists. But I wouldn't want to live in a country where I would need a gun for safety.

Re: Castlevania: Mirror of Fate "Definitely Not Metroidvania"

Omenapoika

I also love the Metroidvanias. Apart from Zelda and Pokemon, those are the games that I have full heartedly completed to the last corner and secret and returned to every once in a while.
Although, the Lords of Shadow was so different from "real" Castlevanias that I didn't expect them to follow any existing trend of the 'vanias.

I couldn't have handled a metroidvania without cheesy eighties rock tunes.

Re: E3 2012: Nintendo Direct Live

Omenapoika

well now, I really hope it works as they say it should!
I'm worried for the japanese ideas of social functions that might not work in many places.... But we'll fin out sooner or later!
For better or for worse!

Re: "Too Many Hurdles" to Ni No Kuni DS Translation

Omenapoika

I've got this baby since I lived in Japan.
Fiddling about with the book is a lot of fun, and it would be cool for many games to have a separate book like that. I remember how cool the manuals were as a kid, but nowadays they aren't that elaborate... I'd rather have the internet though, in 80's and 90's the manual might've been the only material you'd ever hope see about the game.
The game itself is well made and riddled with beautiful animations and cutscenes, but in the core it's "just" a JRPG. So I don't think the western world collapses for missing this beauty, it's just a shame because I feel that the book combo gameplay could have more to offer and develop. (Although the trend of going towards digital releases is already making this kind of games a thing of history that never came to fruition).