RetroOutcast

@braincandy101 Wow. Just making a better case for emulation and piracy. GG Ninty.

As much as I dog Nintendo I'm NGL I'm really looking forward to this. As long as it isn't braindead easy like Star Allies, I have some faith that this is going to be a banger. Maybe the first of 2022?

If it were Super Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild I guarantee you people would defend that pricepoint lol

It's about time...they announced all of this like two years ago lol. I'm happy for rebalanced difficulty though. Don't get me wrong- I'm not a difficulty snob that believes every game in this genre needs to be difficult to be any good but I think Seven Sirens was kinda braindead. Hopefully this puts it somewhere on the level of Pirate's Curse which, again, wasn't the hardest game in the world but at least I had to worry about dying sometimes.

It's hardly even worth making a new account to keep getting free trials for what amounts to incredibly shoddy emulation at this point. But hey, at least this suggests that they know they've screwed up and they're now desperate. Maybe we'll actually see some improvements.

@Specter_of-the_OLED Sadly, the "gamers" will continue to buy whatever crap these devs funnel out because of brand loyalty. We can say "vote with your wallet" all day long but the truth is that it's a vicious, neverending cycle. No matter how badly this game gets review bombed and no matter how many people decide not to be shills and pay for an unfinished product...it is still going to sell well. :L

This is why I don't think it's time to retire the phrases "lazy developer" or "lazy publisher" just yet. Fans and modders are literally doing some of the work for them after launch without even getting paid for any of it, and it's not like this is the first/only time a scenario like this has happened with a modern game.

Smash fans: OMG MASTER CHIEF WILL BE SURPRISE DROPPED INTO SMASH :0 :0 :0

Honestly, the bulk of modern gaming has become more and more disappointing with each new generation. This is why I have no interest in next gen hardware and can count the number of big-budget releases I buy in a year on one hand. At least people aren't simping for these lazy ass developers and publishers nearly as hard as they used to and are actually stepping up to hold them accountable for peddling out garbage.

Said it once and said it again the real deal is usually in the indie scene nowadays.

I like the concept but it also looks painfully generic

Good news for a change. Been using a Hori Split Pad Pro for handheld and a Pro Controller for docked for aboout a year now and have never looked back. I don't even know where my joy cons are after moving in to my new apartment and I don't care. I've said it before but I'll say it again-joy cons are the worst pack in/standard controller to come around since the infamous Atari 5200 pads.

@Meteoroid weak argument

@Yorumi This whole "stan" thing is disgusting and has gotten way the ***** out of hand imho. I can respect the devs and companies behind the games I enjoy, but I'll never see the point in looking at them like they're gods/goddesses/whatever. I can appreciate what they pump out but at the end of the day they're here to turn a profit and I think a lot of people have forgotten that.

@Gauchorino The sad thing is that we're approaching a timeline where people will be saying that unironically. The amount of sucking up people do to companies big and small is pretty ridiculous these days. Do these people not understand that companies and devs are not their friends regardless of the PR they put out? Yes, some are passionate and truly do want to deliver good products...but at the end of the day they're here for a paycheck. Like everyone else, they should have to earn it.

That's why I almost never buy AAA games anymore and will sometimes buy more than one copy of an indie game if I feel like it's good enough to have across multiple platforms. Dusk, Sonic Mania and Freedom Planet come to mind.

I'm not surprised this is coming from a writer for a Nintendo-centric blog. I strongly disagree, although I'm more apt to say lazy publishers than lazy developers. After all, it's usually the publisher's fault if a game ends up rushed or sees a delay that's more about timing the release around other games rather than the sake of extra polish.

That being said, there are lazy and overly sensitive developers who feel like they should be immune to criticism just like any other field and we shouldn't pretend like it isn't true. I actually had a indie dev get really upset with me on Twitter over me calling Sonic Colors Ultimate "lazy" (note- I called the game lazy. Not the people behind it or even Sega.) when he didn't even have any involvement in the damn thing. There are also some who launch their games in Early Access and then never finish the game- they just take the money and run. Same deal with Kickstarters...Paprium is a fine example of the devs being lazy/greedy/not communicating. I'm not saying this is common, because more often than not the people making games have good intentions, but it does happen.

@Rainbowfire as Fulgor_Astral said, that's a truly weak point. Many of us work regular 9 to 5s and have to subject ourselves to ***** that isn't healthy in order to keep a roof over our heads and buy these games. If you spend $60 of your hard earned money on something and it turns out to be of poor quality/craftsmanship, you should be allowed to complain regardless of if it's a piece of clothing or a video game. Plain and simple.

Great presentation...but if there is one genre that doesn't need to be a rouge-lite it's beat 'em ups. They're already a little repetitive/redundant by nature, and since rogue lites force you to die over and over to grind and eventually see later stages...it just sounds incredbily tedious. Still might check it out on a deep sale though.

@Guitario I wouldn't mind that in a sequel. At the very least, the same exact patterns you could use to win the matches every single time still work in DX. Makes the game flow so much better when you take the randomness out of these encounters. Truthfully, they should've put a little placard in with these combinations kinda like how the Megaman collections showed what boss order to take.

@basswitch That would honestly be a brilliant gag in a followup to Sonic Mania.

You guys were definitely too harsh on DX. Although they went the "launch now, fix it later" approach that annoys me to no end with modern gaming, it was still a lot of fun at launch. The update definitely makes the game handle and feel way better and it's def worth a look to anyone who bought this game and found it too hard upon release. Also, at least they actually decided to do something about the complaints instead of just pawning it off as "an additional challenge to veterans" like Activision/VV did with the Crash N Sane Trilogy.

Nintendo is doing a great job encouraging people to emulate their legacy content

@Mynameishello so thinking 30 quid is a lot for what little this service offers makes someone an entitled manchild? Alright then.

None. I'll play whatever I want on my Sega Genesis mini without ever having to pay another $50 for the luxury of doing so.

Those dislikes were earned.

And as for all the people going "we're all going to buy this anyways"...nope. I'll happily continue to use Project64 and my Sega Genesis Mini to get my fix.

@burninmylight I wouldn't expect it. They didn't do it for Toki, anyways. (Which they should have as a comparison, even if they couldn't do the whole retro/modern graphics toggle like Dragon's Trap but oh well)

@Slain I agree- hand drawn art honestly looks better when it's done right. Besides, there are so many games with sprites and pixel art available right now that it's honestly a breath of fresh air.

@Chamver has more right to exist than two whole ass Bubsy games in this generation

This is great news- another lost game intended for the PS3/360 finally getting finished up. The Toki remake was great so I have faith this will also be pretty good. Hopefully they'll look into doing the psuedo-sequel Congo's Caper at some point, as it's even more obscure/forgotten than Caveman Ninja.

Also...I don't know why people always associate hand drawn graphics with cheap flash animations (or mobile games). Looks perfectly fine to me- there are about a trillion other games with pixel art on the Eshop.

Super Mario 64 Plus is the definitive way to play Super Mario 64 as a matter of fact

@Znake that's because certain groups would probably send death threats to the developers. I know that's a bold assumption to make but...I get why they made that decision.

@Verthias agreed. If I wanna play these on the go that bad I'll just get one of those Android handheld gaming devices. I'd only have to pay once and nothing will just magically go away after an expiration date.

Technically, I'm not saying it should be free. It should just be added alongside the NES and SNES stuff as long as you pay for that. This is just laziness and greed at its finest. Thank goodness I have Retroarch and Rare Replay (the latter mainly for Banjo Kazooie since the Xbox version actually went the extra mile and added some QOL improvements).

Finally...a release date. Way later than expected but I was worried this became vaporware so it's better than radio silence.

No surprise- everything gaming related gets delayed at least several times these days. Doesn't matter if it's a bare minimum port (Sonic Colors Ultimate- in the case of Europe anyways) or a project like this. <shrug>

@sleepinglion Really is. And because people are shills who will defend anything...they continue to get away with it.

@Snatcher I know that even in the Wii games lives were pretty inconsequential...but I kinda just expect them to be there

@sleepinglion I'm starting to wonder the same thing about quality testing. Even indie games nowadays seem like they skip out on that.

More reason to just leave modern gaming alone after this generation because I feel like it's only going to get worse.

@Snatcher Sadly, you can't turn him off or switch back to a traditional lives system. While most of the Tails balloons are out of the way, you'll inevitably pick up a few on certain routes and if you run out...you simply go back to the last checkpoint instead of being dropped off close to where you fell.

Also, dying when being hit with 0 rings doesn't even penalize you by deducting a Tails "save".

I could understand why this would be here if Sonic Colors was actually difficult, but it really isn't outside of a few cheap sections in the Aquarium stage (looking at you crab mini boss) and Asteroid Coaster.

Glad it's not affecting the American version apparently- I am so sick of delays

Also...who wants to bet Smash fans will look at this article and think it's some sort of confirmation of (insert character here)

Given how Smash fans act (and considering that's his main thing)...I'm really not surprised that it's crossed his mind a lot on top of it just being an intense job.

@Axelay71 You are absolutely right. These "retro inspired" games have always been hit or miss for me, but a lot of them have been "misses" personally over the past few years.

Also agree on not everyone wanting those elements in their games. So many games look appealing to me when I see a few screenshots/read about them, but then I see buzzwords like that and think "maybe on a deep sale" because the more a game tries to do outside of one genre...the more likely it is to get things wrong. Unfortunately, because those elements are popular, we're probably going to see fewer Shovel Knights and Cyber Shadows and more Metroidcraftingvania rogue-lites lol.

I actually just played Super C again for the first time in ages through the Contra collection last week and I'm kinda blown away at how well it holds up for being over 30 years old at this point. It's hard, sure, but at least it isn't because of randomly changing level layouts or because you have to grind away to get better guns. After doing it on one continue and even one life...the enemy spawns can be a little cheap/***** in places but other than that it's amazing and (dare I say) where the series peaked.

@Spiders

" It defines almost nothing about of the gameplay and just the structure of your progression and in a meta- sense, your gameplay sessions."

Progression and structure is just as important to some as the core gameplay mechanics. This is honestly why I prefer actual retro games at this point. Yeah, some of them are glitchy and have ***** design, but I still find them a lot more enjoyable than the average rogue-lite. There's honestly nothing more frustrating than having a good run on a game in that genre only to get screwed by the RNG. I also really don't feel like I get better or improve at these games, because most of the time you can simply grind your way to better upgrades and in many of these games simply become OP no matter what gets randomly tossed your way. I did not get the same sense of achievement beating The Binding of Isaac as I did Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Castelvania or any other linear sidescroller really.

"Is everyone so addicted to concrete linear narratives for every single genre and velvet-rope tours through plot points?"

Apparently not considering just how many rogue-lites there are in comparison to linear games at this point, especially on the indie front. This also kinda comes off as passive aggressive...for some people plots and narratives aren't really that important when it comes to their games. There's nothing wrong with either approach, but all those "groans" come from people who want a little more variety. Outside of Ayo The Clown and Alex Kidd DX (the latter of which is a remake), I am honestly failing to remember anything in the platformer genre that's come out as of late that wasn't either a rogue-lite, Metroidvania or a combination of the two.

"When boiled down, how often does the linear narrative add anything to the gameplay really?"

In some situations, the "linear narrative" is simply there to set up the action or a reason to go something and nothing more. In those situations, it's all that a game really needs. Super Mario Bros. is a classic because of how great the gameplay and level design is- it didn't need some deep/branching plot to be enjoyable. Same goes for any other actual retro game. Unless a game is highly story driven, I don't feel like there's anything wrong with a traditional/linear plot.

"As the concepts and designs mature, roguelite/like designs are going to permeate every genre"

And that's fine, but it wouldn't hurt anything to have some variety like I said earlier. There will always be people who enjoy games without those designs. Even if roguelite/likes are taking over, I feel like there's always going to be a market for hand-crafted experiences. Honestly, they're a breath of fresh air at this point.

@Axelay71 Agreed. I get excited about basically any platformer/run and gun that DOESN'T have "rogue-lite" or "metroidvania" anywhere in its advertising at this point.

Honestly, I'd be overjoyed just to have something similar to Contra/Super C on Switch at this point. I know Super Cyborg exists on Steam but it missed the mark for me.

@bobzbulder The thing is, I've seen games at $5 that look way better than this. Why should anyone get generic-meat-boy-clone-200000 when there are games like Gunman Clive and Super Punch Patrol out there at the same price?

Another generic "retro inspired" game that doesn't even look like a retro game and has single screen rooms filled with the same generic obstacles we've been seeing for years in these games. This would've been fine for $5 like 10 years ago...but these devs can do better than yet another meat boy clone in 2021.

And this is why I don't pre order.

Modern gaming is so disappointing

Nintendo never ceases to amaze me with just how lazy they are

@Randomname19 Right. I'm used to games being delayed over and over again/taking ages to actually come out but it looks like a bare bones compilation...no reason why it would need that much time in development.