I keep hearing people say how ground-breaking it was that a N64 game had a real-time clock built in (because it was originally designed for the 64DD which itself had a built-in clock). Meanwhile I'm unimpressed but rather impressed instead that Pokémon Gold and Silver did it first on the Game Boy, a friggin' 8-bit system! Or for that matter, Far East of Eden Zero did that waaaayyyy before even Pokémon, in 1995, on Super Famicom. So a N64 game doing that is not all that groundbreaking, really.
As much as I want to believe this, a look at the date on my calendar makes me think this has to be a joke, just a day early. Fooled me at first though.
Judging from the video, don't get excited Switch players, there's no way this trailer is taken from the Switch version. This level of graphics at that resolution running at 60FPS is certainly NOT running on Switch. This could be a great game to play on PC though.
Sounds counterproductive to me. If you reduce opening hours, that means those that do want to visit will all have to do it in a reduced time frame, which means more people in the same place within that now limited time frame.
Just a measure to make it look like they're doing something, rather than a real concern on their part. Meh.
I replaced my sticks last year and since i was gonna take my JoyCon apart anyway, I got clear JoyCon replacement shells with coloured buttons and a D-Pad on the left JoyCon. Best mod I ever applied to anything, having that D-Pad makes so much more sense!
The original was cool because it didn't have too many mechanics and yet every level felt fresh. You'd play a simple introductory level, then move on to something that introduces a new element of the physics engine, then a level that's full of bits of wall and dirt and rocks in which it is easy to get yourself stuck, or to render a diamond inaccessible, making completing the level impossible because you need all of them for the exit to open.
I feel like any newer BD game that adds powerup in the mix completely misses the point of what made BD great. You had one joystick and one button to dig or grab on something that's on an adjacent square, and that's it. And the variety came from clever level design that played around with some of the quirks of the physics engine, which by the way for its time was very complex. Rocks would roll off the edge of bricks walls and other rocks they're sitting on top off, but not off titanium wall tiles. Then sometimes a white brick wall could be a "magic" wall which turns into diamonds any rock that falls through it, so long as there's open space under it for those diamonds to spawn. You had firefly enemies that explode when coming in contact with you or the ever growing amoeba (which I would call the "blob" because of the 1986 film, because that's what it reminded of XD).
It's a classic that has sadly faded off the face of the earth in its original incarnation. Worth mentioning too that Boulder Dash had a famous "level editor" called Construction Kit. Long before Super Mario Maker, in 1986, you could create your own Boulder Dash games on computers like the C64 and it was awesome!
@Pod The CPU and GPU are one single chip though, so both can't be manufactured in different places. Tegra chips contain both the ARM CPU and the CUDA cores and are not manufactured by NVidia themselves. As far as I'm aware, NVidia are Taiwanese and rely on another Taiwanese company to get their chips made.
The Switch, since day 1, has suffered stock issues mainly, at a time anyway, for lack of supply of the NAND memory it houses, because the same NAND chips were also used by Apple in their iPhone line and both companies would fight over the limited quantity that Foxconn had to work with. Idk if that issue has been resolved since, but it could still be around or maybe now it's a different component that suffers shortages, maybe the LPDDR4 RAM, who knows really. The latter saw a refresh, it's a new model compared to the one used in 1st gen Switch units, maybe they're struggling to make enough of the new revision.
Didn't get it on Wii U despite being tempted loads of times. It should at least meet its relatively low kickstarter goal for a Switch release, then anything above that is more bonus for those that want it at all cost on a different platform. For me, it'll be Switch or nothing though.
I know I shouldn't feel happy that the Switch is getting so many ports of Wii U games, but I did miss out on quite a few of those so I'm more than happy to buy those now. Just got Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and will defo get Wonderful 101 when the time comes.
Too bad, it's P5 I want on Switch, not this "thing". Until such a time, I'll pass. Hyped for SMT5 though btw. I hope it tops both SMT4 titles on 3DS, I loved those.
I think a more interesting comparison would be software sales on both platforms. I may be wrong but I think Switch is shifting more software than Wii did, cause lest we forget a lot of casuals only bought the Wii for Wii Sports and then maybe Wii Fit. And those families that had kids probably had Mario Kart Wii on it to appease them. But overall I think Switch games are reaching much higher numbers in general, cause there are more "actual gamers" who have one and appreciate what it can do in terms of core experiences. That's just the way I see it from where I'm standing though. Doesn't make it right.
@Agriculture SE Collective is just a publisher that gives smaller individuals a chance to get their games published, that's all. They're not just smaller games, they're games made by individuals or groups of individuals that have little resources to get their games out there by themselves.
Octahedron on Switch was published by SE Collective and that was a one-man creation that also happened to be absolutely brilliant!
I wonder who the dev is though. For those ports I mean. Can't be Telltale Games, they're defunct. I know some of those guys joined Skybound Entertainment, but not all of them. I hope that means the ports are better than those of the first season. That one had quite a few glitches on Switch that never got fixed.
Why now when they could have released the full physical package of all 4 seasons as they did with the other consoles, months ago. If we did get all seasons physical like PS4 and X1 did, then sure why not, but now, it's too little too late I feel.
Mmmh well the North American version uses art from the PC-Engine version's cover, and that rendition of Richter is more faithful to both what he looks like in the game AND what he looks like now. Artistically speaking the Japanese cover is better, but in terms of representing the game and the character's styles, my vote goes to the North American cover.
Themes could make the OG 3DS menu really sluggish. My 3DS has a full 64GB sd card with lots of titles on it, so loading the many title icons + the theme, my 3DS takes about 30 seconds to boot up, and even going back to the home menu from inside a game take a few extra seconds.
I like themes just as much as the next guy, but if you incorporate them as an afterthought instead of giving the system the grunt, right from the start, to handle them without slowing down your OS to a crawl, just... don't bother. The Switch is snappy to wake up from sleep mode and pop into the eShop and stuff, don't bog it down with purely aesthetic stuff. If the Switch needs anything added to its OS, it's functionalities like built-in system-level voice chat, not fundamentally useless bells and whistles.
Well the first thing I thought when seeing the trailer was how it looked or at least made me feel the same way as Hollow Knight, watching it. That may not have been intentional on their part, but the fact remains. And that's a great game to be compared to, so no worries as far as I'm concerned.
@KitsuneNight I just looked up one on ebay, selling for $42, shipping included (from Japan). So not THAT much more expensive, really (except I trust more the build quality of anything Hori builds over anything from Hyperkin).
I'm all for physical releases, in fact there are many games I wouldn't want to pay for UNLESS they got a physical release. But I wonder why anyone would want a physical version of Minecraft? The second. you buy it, it's obsolete already cause it's a constantly evolving game with refular updates to content. I'd expect such a game to be the perfect fit for digital only. The world really doesn't make sense sometimes XD.
The fact that Nintendo is denying access to review copies to multiple reviewers who traditionally got the game early with previous releases is certainly not a great show of good faith on their part. They KNOW something is wrong with their game and they don't want too many people telling others the kind of problems their game has even before it goes live.
Maybe this relates to another story from a while back where Amazon France wouldn't carry Nintendo products anymore because Nintendo wouldn't supply them anymore?
Am I the only one ticked off by the COMPLETELY WRONG octagon shape around the sticks? They made it so you can't lock the sticks in a forward, down or sideways position, only at useless angles.
Like others I never look down at the controller while I'm holding it. The Wii U Gamepad had that, and I guess there, I would look at the controller more since the friggin thing had a screen on it displaying important info more often than not.
But even there, most of the time I would look at the TV, and not catch the led blinking. And even if I did... so what? I don't want that LED to flash whenever there's something unimportant going on, and if it's something important and it only blinks once or twice I'll miss it of course. So unless it keeps blinking until you do something about it, then it doesn't do much for me. On-screen pop-up messages are more important to me, while I'm playing, and I guess if the console is in sleep mode in the dock then a blinking led on the attached JoyCon-R, then yeah that blue light could be useful to warn of important things happening while the console was alseep.
Just got done playing and streaming the whole trilogy on Switch. Didn't see any mention of Wii in the English localisation at least, in any of the three games or I'd have picked up on it, especially since I was reading all of the text out loud along the way.
Nintendo are kind of obligated to take those steps. If they don't, that'll create a legal precedent. Plus, they waited till it's already out in the open, so their IP is protected but the game is still available to everyone as it will still get shared (just like AM2R, it's not hard at all to find even after it's been taken down).
@Welshland He's probably a WiMAX subscriber (that would make sense anyway, given his lifestyle). So, no, his bill might not be that big since you carry your WiMAX router with you and you can connect as many phones to it as you want with no extra cost. Plus with WiMAX there's no data volume limit since it's basically "home internet that you carry with you everywhere you go".
@mazzel Following up on this, FFX listing showed up on the Japanese eShop in the upcoming games section, and English is listed as a language, so I'll import from Japan .
Worst news ever for me. If it gets an ESRB rating it means the physical release will more than likely be handled by Limited Run which means not only it'll be €10 more than on the eShop, but shipping will be prohibitive and then that's hfty customs taxes to add on top, all because they can't release it in Europe. Guess that means I'll never play it.
@setezerocinco I imported my North American version of Cave Story+ from Play Asia (because it was easier to order from them). Game + Shipping amounted to €32.33 and I still had to pay 27€ in taxes when it arrived, nearly doubling the cost of the game in the process.
I try to avoid Play Asia as much as possible cause here in Belgium they have an habit of always opening packages that come from China, Hong Kong or the US for that matter. I never had to pay any customs taxes for any of the many packages I had delivered from Japan though.
Then if you order with FedEx, UPS or DHL, you not only get those customs taxes to pay, but those private companies have you pay additional administrative costs because they had to pay a guy to open your package and that caused paperwork. I had one package from Play-Asia once for a total value of about €100 that costed me again about €25 in customs taxes and no less than €55 to pay to UPS in administrative fees! I never use those carriers and stick to regular post, they just as fast in my experience and never charged me any extra besides the customs taxes on those occasions when I had to pay something.
@mazzel That's a fair point about checking the eShop listing. Didn't think of that. That actually prompted me to check Amazon jp and see if that brought up any info but no, couldn't find anything. That makes me nervous too because the Japanese PS4 version was Japanese only, both for audio and text. I don't wanna have to pay 100€ total just to import from Asia :/.
EDIT: At least FFXII is confirmed on Amazon JP to have dual audio on it, so it's safe to assume that one would have English text as well as the audio, but I don't have to import that one to have it complete on cart though, so that's useless to me XD.
@mazzel In Europe, localised boxarts specific to certain countries, or for "groups" of countries where descriptions on the back of the box are in multiple languages, are identified by a colour coded triangle at the bottom of the spine on the boxart. Green is for UK for example, Dark Blue for Germany, Magenta for France, Orange for "France and Benelux" and Purple for "Multi Language" boxarts that can have English and French or both of the above plus Italian and Spanish for example. There may be more that I have simply never seen, that's just in my own experience, looking at my shelf.
It's been like that since the Gamecube days as far as I know and that carried over to DS boxes and all subsequent Nintendo systems since.
Can someone share a source that says the Japanese version also includes English support? Cause all the article links to is the Play-Asia shop listing of the Asian version and the Play-Asia website does NOT indicate multi-language support on the page for the Japanese version.
I'd much rather import the Japanese version since I typically never have to pay customs taxes on Japanese imports but I consistently have to for anything that comes from Play-Asia.
I'm so glad all the improvements from the 3DS version are back + even more good stuff like gyro controls which, I'll say it again, worked wonderfully in Super Hang-On on 3DS.
To be fair to them, the sprites seem improved in this one, and they always have a funny story, good soundtrack and good game mechanics. This one does appear to change "some" more things around at least. Here the environments still look depressingly generic.
@MrBlacky Well, Capcom didn't bring it to N64 themselves, Angel Studios did, under contract from Capcom.
If the heads at Capcom were willing to enlist Panic Button, these days... I think there's a lot to be said about the similarities between the Angel Studios of back then and the Panic Button of today
To be fair a lot of the data on those two discs were copy pasted. The game wasn't really 2x650MB large. The data on each disc didn't even take that much space compared to what could be stored, I think scrubbed isos of the dual shock version are about 400MB per disc and then, again, you've got all the repeated data on both discs for all the backgrounds that are the same across both scenarios.
That still doesn't take anything away from the wonderful work pulled off by Angel Studios though. Also there were other stuff that they don't mention in the video that they used to further save space, I think parts of the FMVs are missing, just tiny small parts, like some scenes cut a second or two before the end, some scenes that were different across both discs are now the same in both scenarios, that sort of thing.
RE1, which was a one disc game and had black & white cutscenes to boot in its original, non director's cut release, could have fit on a cartridge too, using the same techniques, perhaps even with less sacrifices. Maybe RE3 too which didn't have all that much CGi cutscenes in it compared to RE2. A lot of the story was told through still images in that one. Aaaah all the things that COULD have been but which we'll never know about.
@Moroboshi876 "Apart from that, it's funny how a technically superior machine couldn't handle a game as well as PlayStation, right?"
it was not so much the tech specs that mattered in this case, but more storage space which was the biggest deterring factor (650MB discs vs 64MB MAX cartridges and those largest N64 cartridges were, like the largest Switch cartridges these days ironically, prohibitively expensive at retail). Only three games come to mind which shipped on cartridges of that capacity. RE2, Conker's Bad Fur Day and the PAL release of Paper Mario, which had to be larger to accomodate all the different language options for on-screen text.
Then the N64 didn't have dedicated audio hardware, all audio duties had to be programmed to be handled by the RSP, which was a sub-part of the GPU, the reality co-processor. Off the top of my head, you had to sacrifice roughly 1% of the processor's time per audio track you wanted, so the richer the music, the more you had to sacrifice on some of the processor's ability to handle the game's graphics.
And then to make matters worse, the N64 didn't have any hardware decoder for FMV either, like the Playstation did. The PS1 was an overall less capable system, but arguably better thought out to handle all sorts of things in hardware that progammers had to handle in software on N64. The N64 was better suited than the playstation for pure 3D things as long as you were willing to reprogram the base microcode of the Reality co-processor to reach polygon numbers comparable to what the PS1 could crunch whereas the PS1, for rendering pre-rendered stuff, FMV and high quality audio, was more up to those tasks. But then you still had to content with the N64's weaknesses: a measly 4KB of texture cache which meant you couldn't have large textures with a lot of detail unless you were willing to sacrifice a lot of time devising compression techniques or tinkering with color-depth to get the most out of those 4KB... and, again, the cartridge storage limitations got in the way.
All of this tells you why the N64 version is worse in more than a few areas... but still a damn fine achievement because they pulled it off and it was still very playable and nice to look at for the time.
I read the title half expecting something that could hint at a Fatal Frame/Project Zero game, but if it's coming to all these platforms, I guess that's unlikely. I mean I know Nintendo doesn't own the IP but it's been very Nintendo centric since the Wii days and all the way through the Wii U generation.
Comments 1,014
Re: Feature: 6 Things My Three-Year-Old Taught Me About Video Games, Via Animal Crossing
I keep hearing people say how ground-breaking it was that a N64 game had a real-time clock built in (because it was originally designed for the 64DD which itself had a built-in clock). Meanwhile I'm unimpressed but rather impressed instead that Pokémon Gold and Silver did it first on the Game Boy, a friggin' 8-bit system! Or for that matter, Far East of Eden Zero did that waaaayyyy before even Pokémon, in 1995, on Super Famicom. So a N64 game doing that is not all that groundbreaking, really.
Re: Nintendo To Remaster 'Most Of Super Mario’s 35-Year Catalogue' For Switch in 2020, New Report Says
As much as I want to believe this, a look at the date on my calendar makes me think this has to be a joke, just a day early. Fooled me at first though.
Re: Video: Check Out Genshin Impact’s Opening Cinematic
Judging from the video, don't get excited Switch players, there's no way this trailer is taken from the Switch version. This level of graphics at that resolution running at 60FPS is certainly NOT running on Switch. This could be a great game to play on PC though.
Re: Nintendo's New York Store Is Reducing Its Opening Hours To Combat COVID-19
Sounds counterproductive to me. If you reduce opening hours, that means those that do want to visit will all have to do it in a reduced time frame, which means more people in the same place within that now limited time frame.
Just a measure to make it look like they're doing something, rather than a real concern on their part. Meh.
Re: Guide: How To Fix A Drifting Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Analogue Stick
I replaced my sticks last year and since i was gonna take my JoyCon apart anyway, I got clear JoyCon replacement shells with coloured buttons and a D-Pad on the left JoyCon. Best mod I ever applied to anything, having that D-Pad makes so much more sense!
Re: Review: Boulder Dash 30th Anniversary - An Awkwardly-Ported Tribute That's For Fans Only
The original was cool because it didn't have too many mechanics and yet every level felt fresh. You'd play a simple introductory level, then move on to something that introduces a new element of the physics engine, then a level that's full of bits of wall and dirt and rocks in which it is easy to get yourself stuck, or to render a diamond inaccessible, making completing the level impossible because you need all of them for the exit to open.
I feel like any newer BD game that adds powerup in the mix completely misses the point of what made BD great. You had one joystick and one button to dig or grab on something that's on an adjacent square, and that's it. And the variety came from clever level design that played around with some of the quirks of the physics engine, which by the way for its time was very complex. Rocks would roll off the edge of bricks walls and other rocks they're sitting on top off, but not off titanium wall tiles. Then sometimes a white brick wall could be a "magic" wall which turns into diamonds any rock that falls through it, so long as there's open space under it for those diamonds to spawn. You had firefly enemies that explode when coming in contact with you or the ever growing amoeba (which I would call the "blob" because of the 1986 film, because that's what it reminded of XD).
It's a classic that has sadly faded off the face of the earth in its original incarnation. Worth mentioning too that Boulder Dash had a famous "level editor" called Construction Kit. Long before Super Mario Maker, in 1986, you could create your own Boulder Dash games on computers like the C64 and it was awesome!
Re: Listen, You Really Don't Need To Worry About Bayonetta 3, Says PlatinumGames
He said the word "worry" three times, I think it means something!
Re: Review: Pop'n TwinBee - Konami's Colourful 16-Bit Shmup Shines With Couple Mode Co-op
Pop'n Twinbee wasn't the last proper shoot ‘em up entry. That title goes to Twinbee Yahoo in the arcades.
Re: Ubisoft Is Launching Five Triple-A Games Before April Next Year
I wish for Rayman 4 but Michel Ancel said he'd like to work on that AFTER the relase of Beyond Good & Evil 2 so I guess that rules it out.
Re: Poll: The Wonderful 101 Is The First Game From 'Platinum4', What Do You Think Is Next?
A port of Starfox Zero to Switch, finally rid of all the gameplay nonsense.
Re: Three Years After Launch, Switch Is Still Experiencing Stock Issues In Japan
@Pod The CPU and GPU are one single chip though, so both can't be manufactured in different places. Tegra chips contain both the ARM CPU and the CUDA cores and are not manufactured by NVidia themselves. As far as I'm aware, NVidia are Taiwanese and rely on another Taiwanese company to get their chips made.
The Switch, since day 1, has suffered stock issues mainly, at a time anyway, for lack of supply of the NAND memory it houses, because the same NAND chips were also used by Apple in their iPhone line and both companies would fight over the limited quantity that Foxconn had to work with. Idk if that issue has been resolved since, but it could still be around or maybe now it's a different component that suffers shortages, maybe the LPDDR4 RAM, who knows really. The latter saw a refresh, it's a new model compared to the one used in 1st gen Switch units, maybe they're struggling to make enough of the new revision.
Re: Wonderful 101 Confirmed For Switch, But There's A Catch
Didn't get it on Wii U despite being tempted loads of times. It should at least meet its relatively low kickstarter goal for a Switch release, then anything above that is more bonus for those that want it at all cost on a different platform. For me, it'll be Switch or nothing though.
I know I shouldn't feel happy that the Switch is getting so many ports of Wii U games, but I did miss out on quite a few of those so I'm more than happy to buy those now. Just got Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and will defo get Wonderful 101 when the time comes.
Re: You Don't Need To Play Persona 5 To Enjoy The Story In Persona 5 Scramble
Too bad, it's P5 I want on Switch, not this "thing". Until such a time, I'll pass. Hyped for SMT5 though btw. I hope it tops both SMT4 titles on 3DS, I loved those.
Re: Feature: Best Nintendo Switch RPGs
Child of Light got a physical release in France, bundled with Valiant Hearts: The Great War on one cartridge.
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
I think a more interesting comparison would be software sales on both platforms. I may be wrong but I think Switch is shifting more software than Wii did, cause lest we forget a lot of casuals only bought the Wii for Wii Sports and then maybe Wii Fit. And those families that had kids probably had Mario Kart Wii on it to appease them. But overall I think Switch games are reaching much higher numbers in general, cause there are more "actual gamers" who have one and appreciate what it can do in terms of core experiences. That's just the way I see it from where I'm standing though. Doesn't make it right.
Re: 'Secret Screen' Nintendo 64 Prototype Resurfaces More Than 20 Years Later
Would have been great for Pokémon stadium 1 & 2
Re: Square Enix Indie Division Teases Imminent Nintendo Switch Announcement
@Agriculture SE Collective is just a publisher that gives smaller individuals a chance to get their games published, that's all. They're not just smaller games, they're games made by individuals or groups of individuals that have little resources to get their games out there by themselves.
Octahedron on Switch was published by SE Collective and that was a one-man creation that also happened to be absolutely brilliant!
Re: Surprise! The Walking Dead Seasons 2 And 3 Have Launched On Switch Today
I wonder who the dev is though. For those ports I mean. Can't be Telltale Games, they're defunct. I know some of those guys joined Skybound Entertainment, but not all of them. I hope that means the ports are better than those of the first season. That one had quite a few glitches on Switch that never got fixed.
Re: Surprise! The Walking Dead Seasons 2 And 3 Have Launched On Switch Today
Why now when they could have released the full physical package of all 4 seasons as they did with the other consoles, months ago. If we did get all seasons physical like PS4 and X1 did, then sure why not, but now, it's too little too late I feel.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl #26 - Castlevania: Dracula X
Mmmh well the North American version uses art from the PC-Engine version's cover, and that rendition of Richter is more faithful to both what he looks like in the game AND what he looks like now. Artistically speaking the Japanese cover is better, but in terms of representing the game and the character's styles, my vote goes to the North American cover.
Re: Metro Redux Has Just Been Officially Confirmed For Switch
Will wait to hear about how well they run and how good they look on switch, but I'm definitely interested. Never played any of the series before.
Re: Remember That Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Clone That Killed A PS4? It's Coming To Switch
As long as it looks THIS good on Switch and runs well, that's something I'd put my money behind.
Re: Alienware Reveals Switch-Like Device Capable Of Playing PC Games
It does everything the Switch does... except switch. lol.
Re: Play As A Murderous Vacuum In Roombo: First Blood, A Comedic Stealth Game Out Today
Watched someone play this on Steam a while back, that looked like a lot of fun!
Re: 23 Years On, And We Still Can't Believe This Classic SNES RPG Didn't Get A US Release
The whole Enix/Quintet trilogy of ARPGs was worth it. I will always have a weakness for Soulblazer.
Re: PS4's Untitled Goose Game Theme Makes Us Want Switch Themes More Than Ever
Themes could make the OG 3DS menu really sluggish. My 3DS has a full 64GB sd card with lots of titles on it, so loading the many title icons + the theme, my 3DS takes about 30 seconds to boot up, and even going back to the home menu from inside a game take a few extra seconds.
I like themes just as much as the next guy, but if you incorporate them as an afterthought instead of giving the system the grunt, right from the start, to handle them without slowing down your OS to a crawl, just... don't bother. The Switch is snappy to wake up from sleep mode and pop into the eShop and stuff, don't bog it down with purely aesthetic stuff. If the Switch needs anything added to its OS, it's functionalities like built-in system-level voice chat, not fundamentally useless bells and whistles.
Re: Gleamlight Publisher Responds To Accusations Of Game Being A Hollow Knight "Ripoff"
Well the first thing I thought when seeing the trailer was how it looked or at least made me feel the same way as Hollow Knight, watching it. That may not have been intentional on their part, but the fact remains. And that's a great game to be compared to, so no worries as far as I'm concerned.
Re: Hardware Review: Hyperkin Admiral - Wireless N64 Controller Goodness
@KitsuneNight I just looked up one on ebay, selling for $42, shipping included (from Japan). So not THAT much more expensive, really (except I trust more the build quality of anything Hori builds over anything from Hyperkin).
EDIT: And if you don't believe me (cause I, too, was under the impression that they were more expensive than that): https://www.ebay.com/itm/X1618-Nintendo-64-Hori-Pad-mini-Controller-Yellow-Japan-N64/123934953150?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D61112%26meid%3D5781c02e345444489afd2041176c67ca%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dco%26sd%3D254424292502%26itm%3D123934953150%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
Re: Minecraft On Switch Becomes Xbox Game Studios' First Game In Japan To Reach One Million Physical Sales
I'm all for physical releases, in fact there are many games I wouldn't want to pay for UNLESS they got a physical release. But I wonder why anyone would want a physical version of Minecraft? The second. you buy it, it's obsolete already cause it's a constantly evolving game with refular updates to content. I'd expect such a game to be the perfect fit for digital only. The world really doesn't make sense sometimes XD.
Re: Pokémon Fans Get 'Game Freak Lied' Trending As Sword And Shield Drama Intensifies Yet Again
The fact that Nintendo is denying access to review copies to multiple reviewers who traditionally got the game early with previous releases is certainly not a great show of good faith on their part. They KNOW something is wrong with their game and they don't want too many people telling others the kind of problems their game has even before it goes live.
Re: Amazon Clamps Down On The Sale Of Used Nintendo Games
Maybe this relates to another story from a while back where Amazon France wouldn't carry Nintendo products anymore because Nintendo wouldn't supply them anymore?
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/10/random_nintendo_is_now_refusing_to_offer_stock_to_amazon_france_after_disagreements
Re: Poll: Vote For The Best Resident Evil Games
Revelations 1 for its RAID mode, classic RE2 for everything else.
Re: You Can Now Get Switch Joy-Con Inspired By The GameCube Controller
Am I the only one ticked off by the COMPLETELY WRONG octagon shape around the sticks? They made it so you can't lock the sticks in a forward, down or sideways position, only at useless angles.
Re: Review: Ori And The Blind Forest: Definitive Edition - An Unmissable Experience
i chose the right time to mod my left JoyCon with a DPad shell then .
Re: That Hidden LED Light On Your Nintendo Switch Controller Finally Has A Use
Like others I never look down at the controller while I'm holding it. The Wii U Gamepad had that, and I guess there, I would look at the controller more since the friggin thing had a screen on it displaying important info more often than not.
But even there, most of the time I would look at the TV, and not catch the led blinking. And even if I did... so what? I don't want that LED to flash whenever there's something unimportant going on, and if it's something important and it only blinks once or twice I'll miss it of course. So unless it keeps blinking until you do something about it, then it doesn't do much for me. On-screen pop-up messages are more important to me, while I'm playing, and I guess if the console is in sleep mode in the dock then a blinking led on the attached JoyCon-R, then yeah that blue light could be useful to warn of important things happening while the console was alseep.
Re: Random: Looks Like Capcom Forgot To Remove Mention Of The Wii In Ace Attorney Trilogy On Switch
Just got done playing and streaming the whole trilogy on Switch. Didn't see any mention of Wii in the English localisation at least, in any of the three games or I'd have picked up on it, especially since I was reading all of the text out loud along the way.
Re: Remarkable Commodore 64 Port Of Super Mario Bros. Attracts Nintendo's Watchful Eye
Nintendo are kind of obligated to take those steps. If they don't, that'll create a legal precedent. Plus, they waited till it's already out in the open, so their IP is protected but the game is still available to everyone as it will still get shared (just like AM2R, it's not hard at all to find even after it's been taken down).
Re: Random: 70-Year-Old Pokémon GO Player Gets Snapped Up As An ASUS Brand Ambassador
@Welshland He's probably a WiMAX subscriber (that would make sense anyway, given his lifestyle). So, no, his bill might not be that big since you carry your WiMAX router with you and you can connect as many phones to it as you want with no extra cost. Plus with WiMAX there's no data volume limit since it's basically "home internet that you carry with you everywhere you go".
Re: Deals: Boost Your Switch Storage With A 400GB Micro SD Card For Just £56
It always has to be in the US, ALWAYS. No thanks, not paying in customs taxes what I pay for just the card alone.
Re: Import Copies Of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Include Two Game Cards
@mazzel Following up on this, FFX listing showed up on the Japanese eShop in the upcoming games section, and English is listed as a language, so I'll import from Japan .
Re: Hollow Knight ESRB Classification Suggests A Physical Release Is Finally Happening
Worst news ever for me. If it gets an ESRB rating it means the physical release will more than likely be handled by Limited Run which means not only it'll be €10 more than on the eShop, but shipping will be prohibitive and then that's hfty customs taxes to add on top, all because they can't release it in Europe. Guess that means I'll never play it.
Re: Import Copies Of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Include Two Game Cards
@setezerocinco I imported my North American version of Cave Story+ from Play Asia (because it was easier to order from them). Game + Shipping amounted to €32.33 and I still had to pay 27€ in taxes when it arrived, nearly doubling the cost of the game in the process.
I try to avoid Play Asia as much as possible cause here in Belgium they have an habit of always opening packages that come from China, Hong Kong or the US for that matter. I never had to pay any customs taxes for any of the many packages I had delivered from Japan though.
Then if you order with FedEx, UPS or DHL, you not only get those customs taxes to pay, but those private companies have you pay additional administrative costs because they had to pay a guy to open your package and that caused paperwork. I had one package from Play-Asia once for a total value of about €100 that costed me again about €25 in customs taxes and no less than €55 to pay to UPS in administrative fees! I never use those carriers and stick to regular post, they just as fast in my experience and never charged me any extra besides the customs taxes on those occasions when I had to pay something.
Re: Import Copies Of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Include Two Game Cards
@mazzel That's a fair point about checking the eShop listing. Didn't think of that. That actually prompted me to check Amazon jp and see if that brought up any info but no, couldn't find anything. That makes me nervous too because the Japanese PS4 version was Japanese only, both for audio and text. I don't wanna have to pay 100€ total just to import from Asia :/.
EDIT: At least FFXII is confirmed on Amazon JP to have dual audio on it, so it's safe to assume that one would have English text as well as the audio, but I don't have to import that one to have it complete on cart though, so that's useless to me XD.
Re: Import Copies Of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Include Two Game Cards
@mazzel In Europe, localised boxarts specific to certain countries, or for "groups" of countries where descriptions on the back of the box are in multiple languages, are identified by a colour coded triangle at the bottom of the spine on the boxart. Green is for UK for example, Dark Blue for Germany, Magenta for France, Orange for "France and Benelux" and Purple for "Multi Language" boxarts that can have English and French or both of the above plus Italian and Spanish for example. There may be more that I have simply never seen, that's just in my own experience, looking at my shelf.
It's been like that since the Gamecube days as far as I know and that carried over to DS boxes and all subsequent Nintendo systems since.
Re: Import Copies Of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Include Two Game Cards
Can someone share a source that says the Japanese version also includes English support? Cause all the article links to is the Play-Asia shop listing of the Asian version and the Play-Asia website does NOT indicate multi-language support on the page for the Japanese version.
I'd much rather import the Japanese version since I typically never have to pay customs taxes on Japanese imports but I consistently have to for anything that comes from Play-Asia.
Re: Sega AGES Version Of Out Run Arrives In The West On 10th January 2019
I'm so glad all the improvements from the 3DS version are back + even more good stuff like gyro controls which, I'll say it again, worked wonderfully in Super Hang-On on 3DS.
Re: Old-School RPG Chronus Arc Arrives On Switch Next Week, Pre-Purchase Now Live At 10% Off
To be fair to them, the sprites seem improved in this one, and they always have a funny story, good soundtrack and good game mechanics. This one does appear to change "some" more things around at least. Here the environments still look depressingly generic.
Re: Video: Digging Deep Into Resident Evil 2 On N64, One Of The Most Remarkable Ports Of All Time
@MrBlacky Well, Capcom didn't bring it to N64 themselves, Angel Studios did, under contract from Capcom.
If the heads at Capcom were willing to enlist Panic Button, these days... I think there's a lot to be said about the similarities between the Angel Studios of back then and the Panic Button of today
Re: Video: Digging Deep Into Resident Evil 2 On N64, One Of The Most Remarkable Ports Of All Time
"Two CDs on one 64MB cartridge? Madness!"
To be fair a lot of the data on those two discs were copy pasted. The game wasn't really 2x650MB large. The data on each disc didn't even take that much space compared to what could be stored, I think scrubbed isos of the dual shock version are about 400MB per disc and then, again, you've got all the repeated data on both discs for all the backgrounds that are the same across both scenarios.
That still doesn't take anything away from the wonderful work pulled off by Angel Studios though. Also there were other stuff that they don't mention in the video that they used to further save space, I think parts of the FMVs are missing, just tiny small parts, like some scenes cut a second or two before the end, some scenes that were different across both discs are now the same in both scenarios, that sort of thing.
RE1, which was a one disc game and had black & white cutscenes to boot in its original, non director's cut release, could have fit on a cartridge too, using the same techniques, perhaps even with less sacrifices. Maybe RE3 too which didn't have all that much CGi cutscenes in it compared to RE2. A lot of the story was told through still images in that one. Aaaah all the things that COULD have been but which we'll never know about.
@Moroboshi876 "Apart from that, it's funny how a technically superior machine couldn't handle a game as well as PlayStation, right?"
it was not so much the tech specs that mattered in this case, but more storage space which was the biggest deterring factor (650MB discs vs 64MB MAX cartridges and those largest N64 cartridges were, like the largest Switch cartridges these days ironically, prohibitively expensive at retail). Only three games come to mind which shipped on cartridges of that capacity. RE2, Conker's Bad Fur Day and the PAL release of Paper Mario, which had to be larger to accomodate all the different language options for on-screen text.
Then the N64 didn't have dedicated audio hardware, all audio duties had to be programmed to be handled by the RSP, which was a sub-part of the GPU, the reality co-processor. Off the top of my head, you had to sacrifice roughly 1% of the processor's time per audio track you wanted, so the richer the music, the more you had to sacrifice on some of the processor's ability to handle the game's graphics.
And then to make matters worse, the N64 didn't have any hardware decoder for FMV either, like the Playstation did. The PS1 was an overall less capable system, but arguably better thought out to handle all sorts of things in hardware that progammers had to handle in software on N64. The N64 was better suited than the playstation for pure 3D things as long as you were willing to reprogram the base microcode of the Reality co-processor to reach polygon numbers comparable to what the PS1 could crunch whereas the PS1, for rendering pre-rendered stuff, FMV and high quality audio, was more up to those tasks. But then you still had to content with the N64's weaknesses: a measly 4KB of texture cache which meant you couldn't have large textures with a lot of detail unless you were willing to sacrifice a lot of time devising compression techniques or tinkering with color-depth to get the most out of those 4KB... and, again, the cartridge storage limitations got in the way.
All of this tells you why the N64 version is worse in more than a few areas... but still a damn fine achievement because they pulled it off and it was still very playable and nice to look at for the time.
Re: Koei Tecmo Is Announcing A New Nintendo Switch Game On 6th December
I read the title half expecting something that could hint at a Fatal Frame/Project Zero game, but if it's coming to all these platforms, I guess that's unlikely. I mean I know Nintendo doesn't own the IP but it's been very Nintendo centric since the Wii days and all the way through the Wii U generation.