Runex2121

@k8sMum It was like $20 a year, not something really worth fighting for.

@sc100 Not that I know of. They were the last. Ive been a subscriber as i have a fond nostolgia for physical magazines. Its now finally gone.

Man, it was the last remaining print magazine in the us for games. Im still a subscriber, or apparently was.

This is tragic news, always tried to support them.

Honestly, i prefer the cleaner nes sounds for all but one of his examples.(the last one, i think it was simons quest 2)

Interesting bit of info though.

I actually like all the carts, something nice about holding a physical cartridge. I am not a huge fan of the switch or DS cards though, too small.

Favorite is definitely the SNES though(and I imagine it would apply to the super famicom too) The smell of opening a new box with plastic around the cart and a nice well-made manual, along with the awesome clicking sound the cart made when it goes into the console brings back nothing but solid memories. I dont have any related fondness of any other cart aside from maybe the genesis pre cardboard box.

The N64 seems to be the most popular, but it felt just average to me. It could be though that I was older when the N64 came out, and while I had a NES and was old enough to remember getting it and buying games, I was like 10, so it didn't stick as well. Also, those carts never worked....

Spot on with my memory of the game on xbox decades ago.

Pretty but not fun. Looks like not much has changed.

We dont have GAME in the US, but I imagine its a lot like our GameStop, which has seen similar although not as drastic cuts.

The days of physical games are nearing the end, and as such, dedicated stores can no longer function as they once did. Id imagine in a decade or so, even the big box retailers will reduce or remove inventory leaving physical media dead.

Makes me miss my 3DO. I remember this being one of the first games I got for it when it (The original Gex) came out. Never played any of the sequels, so not sure how they are. The 3d one looks kinda garbage though in the vid. Hopefully if this sells well enough, we can get a proper HD 2D Gex 4.

In this case, id say hd2d because the game basically screams for that.

I wouldnt mind a sequel though in modern 3d.(or even a proper chrono cross remaster) By modern 3d, i mean the ffxvi or upcoming mana game level. Not b budget.

It depends on the hardware.

As long as framerate is stable, I cant tell the difference between 30 and 60 so I always take quality.

If the hardware can only support one way though, Id just prefer nintendo to optimize one path. They make games that play well, why change that.

Im honestly not expecting this one to come to switch, primarily because it was pretty far in development when the agreement went into place.

I imagine its far more likely the next CoD game will come out and it will be on switch 2 vs switch.

Im honestly not sure what to expect though. I own all the consoles and a gaming rig, but only like CoD campaigns. Cold War was ok, but way too short. The recent MW3 I refuse to even count as a campaign. Black Ops 4 didnt even bother with one, so my hopes are not all that high unless MS was able to make some significant changes to the content.

Lots of good Taito games, but the ones that I want most are the two original Lufia games. Certain I'll never see them in these collections, but a man can dream.

Oddly enough I think this review sold me on picking the game up.

I think games these days get too bogged down in options. I have a diving license and have been diving for almost 30 years. I dont have any interest in prepping my gear in a game, nor any of the other activities required each dive.

The idea of a game where i can just jump in and scan things sounds cathartic in a good way. I only worry about the amount of new things and the diversity of the dive sites.

@Darknyht Ill simply point out here that in the overall picture, the cost of production is no different than the cost of development to a developer. If it cost $10 for the chip which raised prices in cart based games, that is no different than the cost to develop a game being $10 higher per unit today. They are both supply side costs that need to be passed on to the consumer. Problem is, the cost was shifted from the consumer to the producer and over time that is unsustainable.

Maybe im just old, but i remember paying $80-$100 for snes and genesis games. Didnt really mind back then, dont really mind now.

$70 is more than fair value for a full game, even a non aaa game as long as its good.

The market will dictate how games evolve. As consumers we should also understand that producers cant make things at a loss. Its not like they are rolling in money.

No picczle lines? Ive played nearly every game on this list, but only enjoyed Tetris and picross. Picczle lines dx and 2 ive spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours on.

This one surprised me. I normally dont like vanilla ware games and really dont like the art style, but, the gameplay was a really nice blend or rts and rpg. Im not done with the game yet, but in the first 20 hours or so its been simple, yet complex.

All this is to say, id absolutely buy a sequel if it was the same level of quality. Id hope for some tweaks(its a bit too grindy, plot could be a bit deeper, etc…) but its a nobrainer if the core gameplay is intact

On a whim, i dl the demo on ps5 yesterday and had a blast. Not sure why its 18+ in the uk/eu, because i certainly didnt see anything warranting that. (Im in the us, so never had an issue here)

Planning on getting this later today on switch as its a perfect fit to me for the console.

Always loved the series since i bought biok 1 and 2 on the turbo cd when that came out. 7-9 were among my favorites, so this is really good news. Not sure if id play the switch ver though, need more details on it. If its on ps5 in probably go there. If switch only, or switch 2 is out, the. Ill get it there.

Id love the idea of sea of thieves on switch, would be a perfect fit.

@mjhopkins81

Few minor things

1. Who cares about market penetration? Revenue and more importantly profitability are all that matter, xbox has done well in both everywhere outside of japan.
2. MS doesnt release console numbers, but id guess by now they are over 20mil in the us. Its doing fine here.
3. I doubt japan is even third now. I lived in japan during the entire ps3 era, was a fun time, bought a 360 and ps3 there. Both sold horribly for the most part, got my ps3 on discount 6 months after launch(sold it for a profit a few years later when sales picked up and they removed the bc chip from new ones)

Japan is a key gaming market, but not the driver it once was. I love my switch, and have an affinity for japan given my extended time there(non military), but lets not overstate them in todays market either.

@UltraBEAR - Dont look at the small picture to frame a larger one. A small number of the team was laid off for reasons we dont know. This was bound to happen as all acquisitions lead to a reshuffling of labor resources. They fire 89, but how many are they adding in other areas? Those numbers never get reported on.

Honestly this is most likely a reduction due to redundancy or cyclical development. There were bound to be inefficiencies created when MS acquired Acti-Bliz, ones which it would make no sense to keep around.

So the acquisitions team would have determined these and kept the person in the role they felt was most valuable to the combined firm.

Other scenario could be a shift back in development(or forward).

These staff will almost certainly find new roles in the relatively good market right now, possibly even within different MS teams.

While its never good to hear about people losing their jobs, the fact of it is that its a natural part of business and life, especially within the software sector.

@Crono1973 For me atleast, Im at a place in my life where recouping is more effort than the return i get.(ie the opportunity cost of losing my time is worth more than the $20-$50 id get trading in a game)

However, I fully understand the logic with your statement and that everyone is in a different position and point in their lives.

@Crono1973 lol, until you have lock on tech and remasters.

Could never get into sonic 3 or sonic and knuckles as a teen. I think it was just the age thing, i was 15 when 3 came out and however much older when knuckles came out. So while I played and loved sonic 1,2, and cd; 3 and knuckles hit during that weird “cute games suck” phase of my childhood.

Here I am now though, 30 years later and finally digging into sonic and knuckles via the origins release and ive found the levels confounding. They remind me a lot of mania(which i love) but have the same characteristics that make it so i always hit the 10min timer for something like 50% of the levels. The origins release also ia extremely long, which I am not sure if 3 was.(i have a feeling its the lock on version perhaps)

Either way, marble hill is a great level, but i prefer the lava levels myself for 3. Beyond that, i think mania overall is better across the board, but that doesn’t take anything away from 3, which is amazing. My only regret is holding off playing it for so long.

@Sisilly_G Games were not really complete, they just didnt have a way to add onto them or fix bugs.

Pretty much every game had bugs on the older consoles. And the complexity of those games was far lower.

Im happy we have a means now to patch and update/add content to games. Id say rarely does it feel like a game is incomplete these days.

@Crono1973

I personally dont believe they are incompatible. However, if you believe you can only have one or the other, then my hat would be with digital. I dont want the clutter.

Not surprised and its not necessarily a bad thing.

They just acquired a 69 billion dollar company, bound to be a lot of redundancy they needed to streamline.

Short term itll stink ofcourse for those impacted and hopefully MS offers a generous severance package and job hunt support for those impacted. However, the good side is tat whenever these companies shed staff, experienced people are able to join new teams and drive industry growth. It keeps the indy scene flowing.

Hmm….Id prefer to see digital games be playable by other family members on their switch so long as that game isnt in use by the primary acct holder.

I have had to buy games multiple times so my daughter can play while i play something else.

Despite being digital only, id say yes, add more variation and keep carts. Never hurts to have options and in my youth before practically took precidence over coolness, I loved collecting games and consoles. Every person should be able to do that.

@Serpenterror I thought you could still redownload games you bought after online play was deactivated.

@nimnio I dont get the issue of copying being bad. As a gamer, not an investor, I couldnt care less if a game is a copy or not.

If a game is fun, its fun. Whether someone stole the idea has no impact on that. They are very different concepts.

Ive not played palworld, but id have to concerns doing so.

@sanderev Indeed, it can be costly unless you’ve developed your backend software to be compatible and own your own server farm business. MS is able to keep most(not all as even they have shut down services) of their services up for the 360 because they can utilize the same servers and just scale as needed. Meaning if noone plays, it basically costs nothing.

I expect Nintendo will be following this model from the switch onward(as will sony from the ps4 onward) as they have both to some extent partnered with ms azure.

In short i expect well see all the major players improving in the online area

I have 3 id like to see first

1. Eternal Champions 2
2. Phantasy Star (5)
3. Panzer Dragoon Saga 2

Id settle for solid remasters of the last releases, but would prefer new iterations.

Secret of Mana is my favorite game ever, so this one really excites me. Stinks its not on switch yet, but maybe itll be on the oft rumored successor?

Ive all platforms so not too worried, but i love my switch for ease of gaming.

For me its the same pattern as always. I had a switch and bought an oled, so gave my old to my daughter. When the switch 2 comes out, ill pass on my oled to my daughter and she will give her switch to someone in need of one. Likely a friend she wants to play minecraft with who may not be able to afford one. Ive no need to sell it, thats a hassle and someone else will just mark it up and resell it. This way I know itll be used by someone who wants it.

@Banjo- oddly enough, im the complete opposite. I loved odyssey, but didnt click with smb64 or sunshine.

I may take a little flak for this, but ive been gaming for 40 years, played every mario game, enjoyed most of them, but have only ever beaten 1. I always get frustrated at certain points and move on.

The one Ive beaten though i 100% completed. Odyssey. Something about it just clicked with me. (Note im not including mario rpg which i cleared back in the day 100% and am looking forward to again)

My 8 year old daughter has cleared 3 of them though, odyssey, bowsers fury, and sunshine. Shell start on wonder this xmas when santa brings it lol

Edit: I just recalled i also cleared galaxy on wii, not 100%, but pretty close.

Im really excited about this one. It looks great. Better than I remember the original being and it sounds great too.

Im wondering though if they managed to keep the hidden ff boss in it though.

If this was any other vendor(I preordered day 1 the playstation portal), I would say absolutely. However, this is nintendo and their digital rights system is at best horrible. I have 2 switches, one for me and one for my daughter. We have a family switch online account, but the inability to play non physical games across accounts is horrible. (ie. I cant play a digital game from my library while she plays a different digital game from my library, but we can do that with carts)

So Id have to research to see if they implement a solution that allows us to play games across family accounts. (but not the same game at the same time)

The way games are going, with the ability to play pretty much anything anywhere, id say it is essential.

I know I wouldnt buy it if its not bc, i have 2 switches. I dont want more consoles. (I sell or toss all my old ones)

@CoastersPaul I skipped the demo when I read it was a slice of the middle of the game. I much prefer demos like octopath 2s where progression carries.

@SpoonySpoons Spot on with the lufia 1 description, pure feel good. Lufia 2 was even more obscure stateside than the first, I honestly think Im the only person I knew who even heard of it.

What Id give for a hd remake of lufia 1+2. Even a nso port would be great though.

They called out lufia 2(in a good way), noone calls out lufia 2. Both lufia titles are among my favorites of the snes era, right up there with chrono, secret of mana, and ffiv-ffvi. (And of course breath of fire 1 and 2) another highly underrated title is tecmos secret of the stars, but ill digress.

Point is, Now im even more excited for this one. Cant wait for the release.

@EarthboundBenjy - Honestly, at this point id likely just emulate it. For Lunar 1, the sega cd version is the best version, but the hardware load times and reliability are insanely bad. The working designs versions were also really good, especially given how bad most dub/translation work was at the time.

I have to say this is surprising. I loved popful mail on the sega cd when it launched. Working Designs did an amazing job as they always did with their ports.

In fact I turned it on just the other day for a quick play. Holds up very well.

Scarlet/violet are still the best in the series to me. Bugs do not lessen the fun of being able to actually play with your children.

I feel kinda bad, I bought it on launch, played a couple hours, loved it, and then got sucked into other games. I really want to start back into it, but other games keep eating my limited time.(curse you diablo 4 and baldurs gate 3)

Honestly outside of the switch version looking brighter, I dont see much of a difference.

I mean, I think the switch ver does look better, but the difference is so minuscule that I can barely tell.

I also wonder how the 360 ver through the series x would compare.

I loved rdr, and cleared rdr2 when it came out a few years back, but no chance in me buying this on switch. Already playable on my series x and the idea of paying $50 for it is worse than paying $50 for gta5 again