Shepdawg1

Shepdawg1

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Re: Talking Point: How Were You Introduced To Metroid?

Shepdawg1

I vaguely knew about Metroid growing up, but my first experience with it was sometime in the early 2000’s. My cousin visited and brought his GameCube with him, and along with it, a copy of Metroid Prime. I was initially confused and not very interested as I didn’t have much interest in first-person shooters at the time. Then I tried it. I’m not sure what about it got me, but I was very intrigued. After that, I emulated the first Metroid game through a Palm Pilot (I still don’t know how I managed to play through it on a device absolutely not designed for video gaming, but I did). It was around that time that Metroid: Zero Mission was coming out, and I had some money saved up, so I decided to buy it. And I played it (and the unlockable Metroid NES onboard) to death; so much that I could 100% it without a guide. After that, the rest is history. I made my way through all the games I had missed, through the new games (except Other M…someday, though), and have been a big fan since!

Re: Feature: Dynamax Ain’t That Bad - Pokemon’s Recent Battle Mechanics Ranked

Shepdawg1

THIS! This article perfectly encapsulates how I feel about all three of these.

Mega Evolution: great for a design and lore perspective, absolutely horrible from a gameplay and balance perspective. Also, Mega Rayquaza is just so insanely busted. It and the Primals absolutely ran the meta for both ORAS and SuMo’s restricted format, which isn’t fun to watch.

Z-Moves: middle of the road of coolness between Dynamax and Megas. Much more balanced than Megas and not exclusive to only a few Pokémon, and the unpredictability factor made matches fun to watch, but playing with them made things too unpredictable, even for Pokémon

Dynamax: conceptually boring, but the fact that you couldn’t rely on them for most of the main game and the balancing employed has made it the best addition of the three from a battling standpoint.

Re: NFT Project With Artwork From Mega Man Artist & Mighty No. 9 Creator Keiji Inafune Confirmed

Shepdawg1

@Serpenterror I made that comment a while back before today’s announcement. It doesn’t bother me too much. Idolizing people only leads to disappointment, so I just never bother. I’m also very much a “Nothing is black and white” kind of guy. I disagree with his decision to launch an NFT line, but people are too multi-faceted to put solely in a good camp or bad camp, so I just let them lead their lives and I try to lead my best one.

Re: Video: Is Nintendo Switch Sports Really That Bad?

Shepdawg1

Just based on what I’ve played of the demo, it isn’t bad. Just very familiar, to the point of feeling uninspiring. A big part of the original Wii Sports was the novelty of using a brand new control method, but that novelty has since worn out. With that, the only real draw is nostalgia, which can’t quite carry it, in my mind.

I believe that there’s plenty of fun to be had with Switch Sports, but with it being so derivative of Wii Sports, I’m not rushing to purchase it.

Re: Kickstarter DIY Kit Transforms GBA Into Console-Like HDMI System

Shepdawg1

For those who didn’t watch the video:

The kit includes the consolizer kit (uses your motherboard), a GBA controller kit (uses the rest of the GBA parts minus the screen to turn the GBA shell into a controller) and the case for the consolized motherboard.

It requires you taking apart a GBA down to just the motherboard. In a perfect world, you would need to desolder the speaker, but you can just cut it out (but understand that if you ever wanted to revert the mod, you’d need to reinstall a speaker if you did cut it out). After that, you simply slide an included ribbon cable into your system and onto the included board in the kit, which you then place into the shell and close it up. Definitely looks to be a relatively simplistic mod; probably a 3/10 on difficulty. You simply need to know how to disassemble the device without breaking anything. The image quality in the video looks decent, but it is a bit fuzzy, especially compared to high-end consolizer kits like Woozle’s. More crisp than the Gameboy Player, but still fuzzy. And a pretty big downside, in my opinion: the aspect ratio doesn’t match the GBA’s. It’s either 4:3 or 16:9, never the native 3:2. This will cause games to look squashed or stretched. But it IS cheaper than Woozle’s kit, coming in at $135 for a single kit, or $200 pre-assembled (with a discount for buying multiple kits at time of backing). It can pair with Switch Pro, Xbox One, and PS4 controllers via Bluetooth, or it uses a SNES controller port for the repurposed GBA shell or an actual SNES Controller.

So ultimately, the trade-off is picture quality and aspect ratio in exchange for a way to play GBA games on a TV with original hardware for a lower price than most other options.

As for my opinion: it’s a sleek idea for a mod, and making one that’s more accessible in price and assembly is very nice, but the aspect ratio and fuzzy picture kill it for me. It almost feels like the devs of this mod didn’t want to go the extra mile here and settled on “good enough”. I hope this works out for everyone involved (devs and backers), but this is a pass from me.

Re: The Super Mario Movie Has Been Delayed Until April 2023

Shepdawg1

@duffmmann Of course. It’s all the more important in this case to wait and see what they bring rather than immediately dismiss it. And honestly, the source of the script isn’t too important as Nintendo is heavily involved here. They won’t let Illumination so much as adjust a hair of Mario’s mustache without their say-so, I imagine.

My main problems with Illumination are that they excel at making kids movies instead of family movies, and they put a large focus on profit margins and marketing rather than artistic vision for a film. They appeal to kids with low-hanging fruit (fart jokes, butt jokes, fast-moving action and editing, pop song-laden soundtracks), with occasional jokes for older crowds that kids can still understand and laugh at, with the reaction from older crowds being a mild chuckle, on average. Hence, they appeal to kids, but not families.
My biggest problem with them, though, is their movie-making philosophy. Chris Meledandri, founder and CEO of Illumination, made it the companies goal to keep every movie they produce below a $100 million budget and to always produce a profit (so far, they’ve succeeded, even 12 years after the fact, meaning they’re technically spending less money on their films now than previously due to inflation). To me, their movies feel sterile, corporate, and manufactured for maximum profitability. Thinking back on any Illumination movie release, the thing that stands out most to me is the amount of advertising. I’d see the movie friggin’ everywhere! Food product tie-ins, car commercials, Internet ads, merchandise, soundtracks; it got to the point that it felt like everyone and their dog knew about the movie. To me, that feels manipulative. The impression I get is that they pour millions of dollars into marketing, making sure everyone knows the movie, making sure it looks as appealing as possible, and making sure that their target demographic (kids and “families”) want to line up and see it, leaving their animation team a comparatively shoestring budget to actually produce the film. At that point, they don’t need to care if the movie is good or not. Once they’ve got your box office sale, they’ve won. And yes, it can be argued that every media production company wants your money, so why nitpick here? To that I agree, but audiences can also tell when a product is passionately crafted. In a good product, you can feel the souls of the dozens or hundreds of people who came together to deliver that experience, and it makes a huge difference. I’ve never felt that from any Illumination movie.

I know there are people who enjoy Illumination movies just fine, and far be it from me to tell people what to like and dislike. I greatly respect people who still have their own opinions and don’t listen to the loudest voice in the room. I’m just passionate about animation. Animation deserves so much better than what Hollywood typically relegates it to, and Illumination, to me, is more than happy to fill that Hollywood mold because that’s where the money lies. Anyways, this comment has gone on for too long. Kudos to anyone who actually read it.

Btw, I’m a blast at parties. Can’t you tell?

Re: The Super Mario Movie Has Been Delayed Until April 2023

Shepdawg1

Delay or no, I still don’t expect anything good out of this film. Illumination’s movies are extremely mid. Also, bless Miyamoto’s heart, I don’t think he has what it takes to make a good movie. His game design skills are second to none and he has all of my respect, but his storytelling is iffy, at best.