Interesting. I wonder what a Nintendo in-house devved version would be like.
MP1 was alright. A bit derivative and formulaic with its jungle, lava, ice areas. And that "magic rock golem" in the ice level was just silly. But it was fun enough. (I often see people saying that Brinstar in SM had a snowy section - it did not, that was pollen. The level themes were quite inventive.)
But MP2 was so wretched I perma quit the Prime series.
From the start until the end credits, every single moment of level design was painful. Constantly taking damage. Never being able to access or reach places you can plainly see. Confusing obfuscated routes to progress. Horrible platforming sections. Teeth grindingly high difficulty. Samey visuals. Frustrating ammo system.
And now reading this news story I ponder: who made it like this?
Did Nintendo simply give up pushing back against Retro Studios?
I know MP2 gets a lot of love. More power to you. To me it felt designed to irritate at every single given moment. I've never played anything else like that which deliberately tries to anger the player. None of the Nintendo magic I came to expect.
Any word on if Konami altered the script? I know it says it fixed localisation errors from wayback when, but specifically I mean:
Have they made changes to bring the original script or game's visual content up to the "more sensitive" standards of present day society?
I played the Mario RPG remake on Switch, and was shocked to discover just much ended up censored. Even mild stuff, like calling someone "crazy" got nerfed. They changed a ton of dialogue and some of the graphics, and I felt sad about this. Sure the overall game was still good, but why make those changes?
Someone will say "times have changed", but I don't care. If that's the case I'll stick to the originals.
I didn't care about it in Mario RPG because it was a disposable distraction.
Suikoden I and II are a masterpiece, and I want nothing changed. A graphics update, fine. An optional speed up button? No problem. But do not butcher the purity of the original vision, and do not try to "remove" problematic issues.
Criticisms about needing a special star of destiny to run faster are silly. Finding that star of destiny, and unlocking the ability to run, WAS the game! It made finding the stars fun because they augmented your abilities.
Can you imagine a modern reviewer looking at an old school 2D Mario and saying: "Mario needing to collect a mushroom to get bigger is so archaic, Nintendo should address this problem by adding an enlargement button."
That inability to run in Suikoden, and the need to get that special star of destiny? That's not a flaw needing addressing. That is the game.
I discovered this recently and went looking online, and would like to share this publicly for anyone else who stumbles upon this article with a similar problem.
I bought my sister an LCD Switch - she said I could test drive it for a week. Played it, loved it. Decided to buy my own. Went to for the ultra premium OLED model.
Never used an OLED screen before. So I bought a Switch OLED and played for about 3 hours - had to stop due to eye strain and a growing headache. Went to bed. Slept terribly. Woke up with the worst migraine / hangover of my life. Couldn't understand why. Thought I was going to die / was having a stroke / developed a tumour. I suffer from migraines but this was another level. Took the maximum dose of painkillers I could (the good stuff; left over from an old but still in date prescription). Six hours later felt vaguely human again.
Tried using the Switch OLED again and immediate pain in my eyes. Severe and intense headache too.
Looked it up and found many examples citing photosensitivity to OLEDs. Check my house - laptop, PC monitor, TVs, phones, all LCDs.
Test the Switch again next day, same results, severe crippling migraine. Mild disorientation. Just awful.
I took the Switch back and swapped it for an LCD model (CEX luckily have 48 hour returns). No problems at all. My sister and I both have LCD models now.
Did a lot of reading online and there are lots of people who suffer like this (one online claimed OLED screens permanently damaged his eyes). And with OLED growing in use, over LCD, I now fear for the future. If cars start using OLED screens on the dash, or every phone uses it, or laptops, etc., I will no longer be able to function in modern society. And this scares me. I feel like I've just discovered I have a fatal peanut allergy, but live in a world where everything is increasingly made from peanuts.
OLED sensitivity is very real.
This article however is misleading. I don't see the flickering. I don't notice any flickering at all. The screen looks beautiful - every pixel is almost neon with exploding light. The problem is it causes disorientation, eye strain, and then severe physical pain via migraines. And it takes hours for my eyes and brain to reset.
Some people are only affected by some OLED. The Vita is seemingly OK, but Switch and some TVs are worse? I don't really want to experiment to find out. So for safety will avoid OLED as much as possible.
A friend owns an OLED Switch, and has no problems, but told me he had to sell his Wii U since the LCD screen on that made him feel ill - he suggested the refresh rate was off.
Might as well tag a bunch of people who made key points:
@nessisonett @Jayenkai @BloodNinja @Merry_Blind @ryu_san @Laserbeak1982 @dartmonkey @Nentodo @alex4ndra @imacdvguy @SC7639
News stories like this make me nervous. Nintendo is basically Candyman. Simply thinking about this game alerts their lawyers. Any fan announcing such a game before completion is essentially committing "suicide by cop" - may he avoid the C&D for as long as possible.
@Serpenterror "Nobody wants games like American Hero, Plumbers Don't Wear Tie, Sewer Shark, and Jurassic Park to ever return to market."
I want them to return. I loved these games bavk in the day, I rebuy them when they come out, and I truly enjoy them. I have fun and a good laugh.
If devs listened to your request I would miss out on owning stuff I truly enjoy. I enjoy them all for different reasons.
I helped Cecil with his Plumbers documentary. It's being bundled with the game so I might even get a credit. The game isn't even a game - but it's a fascinating "thing". A terrible abomination that intrigues me.
Sewer Shark is pure joy. I prefer Ground Zero Texas. Recently replayed the HD release and loved it. Completed it three times! American Hero is another cool FMV game. It's authentic since it was made in 1995 and unreleased. I haven't played it, but I know I will enjoy it!
Jurassic Park on Mega Drive is my top 5 of Mega Drive games. I love the graphics, the audio, the controls, the fact bullets cannot kill dinos, the level design, the AI (the raptor hunts you through the visitor centre!). You can be the raptor! I play it today and I don't love it ironically, I love it SINCERELY.
These games are not garbage.
These games are why I loved games in the first place!
These games made me cherish this hobby.
If companies had never brought them to market I doubt I would regard gaming as highly as I do.
And I don't mean for nostalgia.
I have big epics like Witcher 3, and Atomic Heart, and Octopath Traveller, and countless others that I can't be motivated to touch. I want guaranteed, quick fun, I know I can complete in a day and feel satisfied with.
Today I pay money for these things which is why companies keep releasing them. I am proud to raise my hand and say: these things are out there because people like me spend money on them!
Also so much hate for Bill & Ted on GB.
Am I the only one who really, REALLY likes it? Def in my top 50 games for monochrome GB. Maybe even 30. There's a lot on the system.
But!
It plays like a fast paced Manic Miner. Jump and collect stars to end a level. Each level is a puzzle. Simple but fun. Great music. I only ever played it on my original GB, and nowadays on my Analogue Pocket.
It has passwords so you don't have to restart. So it's perfect for car journeys or where you just want to play a bit.
Donkey Kong 94 is much better. Sure. But when you've finished DK94, this is another decent platforner. Solid 8/10.
I never bought the Switch release because I'd rather play on my Analogue Pocket. Did anyone like GB game?
@FirstEmperor Damien did a feature on the interview. If you follow this link it will lead to the blog where I put the raw interview (which was previously in magazines):
@Switch_Pro Regarding the "baby's first game" analogy. I've not played it myself, but according to reports William Higinbotham's game, Tennis for Two, was extremely popular with those who tried it. He'd never made a videogame before. Technically, no one had made a videogame before, since it was 1958.
"They will be absolutely terrible by every measure conceivable." - I actually loved the original side-scrollers, unironically, which is why I interviewed the creator Dale DeSharone. Sadly he died a little while after, but the bellicose rhetoric surrounding the two side-scrollers is likely a reason no one bothered to get his story.
Try to let go of your prejudices and play those original two games. Come in to the light.
Dale had a long history producing award winning games which are beloved among retro communities. From his early Atari work, to his Adventure Game Creator software, to Below the Root on C64, which is widely regarded as a stone cold classic.
He brought all that knowledge to the CDI games. It really was the hardware. It had one hardware sprite, used for the mouse pointer, compared to the NES which had 64 hardware sprites. Even the Atari 2600 had two hardware sprites. So those CDI games, everything they achieved, was by programming right to the metal and making that underpowered system do things it was never meant to.
But look, ignore the originals on CDI. As @YoshiFR2 points out, Dopply remade them for Windows, with quality of life improvements, which allow you to see the gameplay underneath.
He was very reserved in that interview, but read his lines again. He said: "you find power-ups, items, and stuff, then you go back through again. [Then] you find new paths and new items"
Once you play the original two, with nice controls, you should see that the underlying mechanics are great. The design is good design, because it follows a tried and established framework. Metroidvania did not arrive after SOTN. That style of game has existed since the 1980s.
The hand-painted backgrounds are beautiful.
The music is catchy.
Arzette is not some weird, wacky, strange experiment where someone is taking garbage and trying to make more garbage as a parody. He's already remade the original two with QOL improvements, and now, free of the shackles of the source material, he is attempting to create an original IP which has that same hand-painted style, same catchy music, same Metroidvania design ethos.
The Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil remasters are on the Internet Archive, which has a legal dispensation to host copyright material. Those gems are sitting there legally. Play them. Play them on a modern Windows OS with Xbox 360 controller. Explore a forgotten pair of Metroidvania.
Everything negative you have read about those two games has been a lie.
So many negative comments about the original Mega Drive game. It was my favourite of the first wave of JPark games, and to this day I enjoy playing through it. The dinos can't actually be killed, only stunned, meaning raptors will wake up and then hunt you down through the facility. The AI at the time blew me away - they would chase you and open doors to get to you.
Master System version was also decent. Nice colour palette, short but sweet, different weapons and boss varieties, with some fun gimmicks. Ported to GG.
Mega CD version was also cool. A totally different take on things, being a point and click adventure. A little too difficult maybe, unless you cheated and got infinite grenades.
Some mentions of the DOS / Amiga version. It's a bit clunky but quite interesting - better than the SNES version in my view.
If this collection only has the Ocean made Nintendo console games, it's a bit disappointing, since they've ignored the more interesting titles. I want the MD, MCD, SMS, and DOS versions!
@RupeeClock Sorry about the photos instead of scans. I have a nice A4 flatbed scanner, but I did three pages at 300dpi, and it took AGES. Like over a minute per page to scan, crop, and save, and there's 50 or so pages. Also the size of the comic is not A4 size, it's actually oversized, width ways, meaning I had to position it just right every time to only lose the white borders. Even then it was tight.
After three pages I was like: you know what? 10 minutes with my camera on maximum settings will suffice. Photos are better than nothing I reckoned.
The only proper scan in the above collection was the front cover.
Also, those are tins of tuna on the corners!
Sorry - but hopefully once this gets listed in the comics database someone else, with more motivation, will do the proper scan job it deserves.
@brianvgplayer - the top banner art is from the Japanese box art for the game. Not gonna lie - when I read that Manga Mania had the comic, I assumed it would be like the Japanese box art. I could see no scans online so paid a fair bit for the magazine on eBay, with supplement. Now no one need make such a similar mistake again!
Comments 15
Re: "We Couldn't Find Common Ground" - Nintendo Producer Explains The Tensions That Forged Metroid Prime
Interesting. I wonder what a Nintendo in-house devved version would be like.
MP1 was alright. A bit derivative and formulaic with its jungle, lava, ice areas. And that "magic rock golem" in the ice level was just silly. But it was fun enough. (I often see people saying that Brinstar in SM had a snowy section - it did not, that was pollen. The level themes were quite inventive.)
But MP2 was so wretched I perma quit the Prime series.
From the start until the end credits, every single moment of level design was painful. Constantly taking damage. Never being able to access or reach places you can plainly see. Confusing obfuscated routes to progress. Horrible platforming sections. Teeth grindingly high difficulty. Samey visuals. Frustrating ammo system.
And now reading this news story I ponder: who made it like this?
Did Nintendo simply give up pushing back against Retro Studios?
I know MP2 gets a lot of love. More power to you. To me it felt designed to irritate at every single given moment. I've never played anything else like that which deliberately tries to anger the player. None of the Nintendo magic I came to expect.
Re: Review: Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster (Switch) - Two Of The PS1's Best RPGs Beautifully Preserved, For The Most Part
Removed
Re: Review: Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster (Switch) - Two Of The PS1's Best RPGs Beautifully Preserved, For The Most Part
Any word on if Konami altered the script? I know it says it fixed localisation errors from wayback when, but specifically I mean:
Have they made changes to bring the original script or game's visual content up to the "more sensitive" standards of present day society?
I played the Mario RPG remake on Switch, and was shocked to discover just much ended up censored. Even mild stuff, like calling someone "crazy" got nerfed. They changed a ton of dialogue and some of the graphics, and I felt sad about this. Sure the overall game was still good, but why make those changes?
Someone will say "times have changed", but I don't care. If that's the case I'll stick to the originals.
I didn't care about it in Mario RPG because it was a disposable distraction.
Suikoden I and II are a masterpiece, and I want nothing changed. A graphics update, fine. An optional speed up button? No problem. But do not butcher the purity of the original vision, and do not try to "remove" problematic issues.
Criticisms about needing a special star of destiny to run faster are silly. Finding that star of destiny, and unlocking the ability to run, WAS the game! It made finding the stars fun because they augmented your abilities.
Can you imagine a modern reviewer looking at an old school 2D Mario and saying: "Mario needing to collect a mushroom to get bigger is so archaic, Nintendo should address this problem by adding an enlargement button."
That inability to run in Suikoden, and the need to get that special star of destiny? That's not a flaw needing addressing. That is the game.
I agree with everything @Princess_Lilly said
Re: PSA: Sensitive To PWM Flicker? You'll Want To Keep The Switch OLED's Screen Nice And Bright
I discovered this recently and went looking online, and would like to share this publicly for anyone else who stumbles upon this article with a similar problem.
I bought my sister an LCD Switch - she said I could test drive it for a week. Played it, loved it. Decided to buy my own. Went to for the ultra premium OLED model.
Never used an OLED screen before. So I bought a Switch OLED and played for about 3 hours - had to stop due to eye strain and a growing headache. Went to bed. Slept terribly. Woke up with the worst migraine / hangover of my life. Couldn't understand why. Thought I was going to die / was having a stroke / developed a tumour. I suffer from migraines but this was another level. Took the maximum dose of painkillers I could (the good stuff; left over from an old but still in date prescription). Six hours later felt vaguely human again.
Tried using the Switch OLED again and immediate pain in my eyes. Severe and intense headache too.
Looked it up and found many examples citing photosensitivity to OLEDs. Check my house - laptop, PC monitor, TVs, phones, all LCDs.
Test the Switch again next day, same results, severe crippling migraine. Mild disorientation. Just awful.
I took the Switch back and swapped it for an LCD model (CEX luckily have 48 hour returns). No problems at all. My sister and I both have LCD models now.
Did a lot of reading online and there are lots of people who suffer like this (one online claimed OLED screens permanently damaged his eyes). And with OLED growing in use, over LCD, I now fear for the future. If cars start using OLED screens on the dash, or every phone uses it, or laptops, etc., I will no longer be able to function in modern society. And this scares me. I feel like I've just discovered I have a fatal peanut allergy, but live in a world where everything is increasingly made from peanuts.
OLED sensitivity is very real.
This article however is misleading. I don't see the flickering. I don't notice any flickering at all. The screen looks beautiful - every pixel is almost neon with exploding light. The problem is it causes disorientation, eye strain, and then severe physical pain via migraines. And it takes hours for my eyes and brain to reset.
Some people are only affected by some OLED. The Vita is seemingly OK, but Switch and some TVs are worse? I don't really want to experiment to find out. So for safety will avoid OLED as much as possible.
A friend owns an OLED Switch, and has no problems, but told me he had to sell his Wii U since the LCD screen on that made him feel ill - he suggested the refresh rate was off.
Might as well tag a bunch of people who made key points:
@nessisonett @Jayenkai @BloodNinja @Merry_Blind @ryu_san @Laserbeak1982 @dartmonkey @Nentodo @alex4ndra @imacdvguy @SC7639
Re: Random: Unofficial Legend Of Zelda NES Remake Gets 20-Minute Gameplay Video
@Tempestryke Shhhh... This ancient dark secret has been passed down for millennia. The less the public know, the safer they'll be.
Re: Random: Unofficial Legend Of Zelda NES Remake Gets 20-Minute Gameplay Video
News stories like this make me nervous. Nintendo is basically Candyman. Simply thinking about this game alerts their lawyers. Any fan announcing such a game before completion is essentially committing "suicide by cop" - may he avoid the C&D for as long as possible.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel - Tetris Attack (GB)
Yellow Yoshi looks either drunk or stoned. It's adorable.
Re: Bill & Ted's Excellent Retro Collection Is About To Be Delisted On The Switch eShop
@Serpenterror "Nobody wants games like American Hero, Plumbers Don't Wear Tie, Sewer Shark, and Jurassic Park to ever return to market."
I want them to return. I loved these games bavk in the day, I rebuy them when they come out, and I truly enjoy them. I have fun and a good laugh.
If devs listened to your request I would miss out on owning stuff I truly enjoy. I enjoy them all for different reasons.
I helped Cecil with his Plumbers documentary. It's being bundled with the game so I might even get a credit. The game isn't even a game - but it's a fascinating "thing". A terrible abomination that intrigues me.
Sewer Shark is pure joy. I prefer Ground Zero Texas. Recently replayed the HD release and loved it. Completed it three times! American Hero is another cool FMV game. It's authentic since it was made in 1995 and unreleased. I haven't played it, but I know I will enjoy it!
Jurassic Park on Mega Drive is my top 5 of Mega Drive games. I love the graphics, the audio, the controls, the fact bullets cannot kill dinos, the level design, the AI (the raptor hunts you through the visitor centre!). You can be the raptor! I play it today and I don't love it ironically, I love it SINCERELY.
These games are not garbage.
These games are why I loved games in the first place!
These games made me cherish this hobby.
If companies had never brought them to market I doubt I would regard gaming as highly as I do.
And I don't mean for nostalgia.
I have big epics like Witcher 3, and Atomic Heart, and Octopath Traveller, and countless others that I can't be motivated to touch. I want guaranteed, quick fun, I know I can complete in a day and feel satisfied with.
Today I pay money for these things which is why companies keep releasing them. I am proud to raise my hand and say: these things are out there because people like me spend money on them!
Also so much hate for Bill & Ted on GB.
Am I the only one who really, REALLY likes it? Def in my top 50 games for monochrome GB. Maybe even 30. There's a lot on the system.
But!
It plays like a fast paced Manic Miner. Jump and collect stars to end a level. Each level is a puzzle. Simple but fun. Great music. I only ever played it on my original GB, and nowadays on my Analogue Pocket.
It has passwords so you don't have to restart. So it's perfect for car journeys or where you just want to play a bit.
Donkey Kong 94 is much better. Sure. But when you've finished DK94, this is another decent platforner. Solid 8/10.
I never bought the Switch release because I'd rather play on my Analogue Pocket. Did anyone like GB game?
Re: Feature: Meet The 'Arzette' Dev Salvaging The Zelda CD-i Games' "Genuine Potential"
@FirstEmperor Damien did a feature on the interview. If you follow this link it will lead to the blog where I put the raw interview (which was previously in magazines):
https://www.timeextension.com/features/meet-the-unsung-pioneer-behind-the-most-hated-zelda-games-of-all-time
Re: Feature: Meet The 'Arzette' Dev Salvaging The Zelda CD-i Games' "Genuine Potential"
@Switch_Pro Regarding the "baby's first game" analogy. I've not played it myself, but according to reports William Higinbotham's game, Tennis for Two, was extremely popular with those who tried it. He'd never made a videogame before. Technically, no one had made a videogame before, since it was 1958.
Re: Feature: Meet The 'Arzette' Dev Salvaging The Zelda CD-i Games' "Genuine Potential"
The misinformation around all this makes me sad.
"They will be absolutely terrible by every measure conceivable." - I actually loved the original side-scrollers, unironically, which is why I interviewed the creator Dale DeSharone. Sadly he died a little while after, but the bellicose rhetoric surrounding the two side-scrollers is likely a reason no one bothered to get his story.
Try to let go of your prejudices and play those original two games. Come in to the light.
Dale had a long history producing award winning games which are beloved among retro communities. From his early Atari work, to his Adventure Game Creator software, to Below the Root on C64, which is widely regarded as a stone cold classic.
He brought all that knowledge to the CDI games. It really was the hardware. It had one hardware sprite, used for the mouse pointer, compared to the NES which had 64 hardware sprites. Even the Atari 2600 had two hardware sprites. So those CDI games, everything they achieved, was by programming right to the metal and making that underpowered system do things it was never meant to.
But look, ignore the originals on CDI. As @YoshiFR2 points out, Dopply remade them for Windows, with quality of life improvements, which allow you to see the gameplay underneath.
He was very reserved in that interview, but read his lines again. He said: "you find power-ups, items, and stuff, then you go back through again. [Then] you find new paths and new items"
He is literally describing a Metroidvania.
Also he has remade them and they are available on the Wayback Archive:
https://archive.org/details/foer-wogr-patched-12-9-20
Once you play the original two, with nice controls, you should see that the underlying mechanics are great. The design is good design, because it follows a tried and established framework. Metroidvania did not arrive after SOTN. That style of game has existed since the 1980s.
The hand-painted backgrounds are beautiful.
The music is catchy.
Arzette is not some weird, wacky, strange experiment where someone is taking garbage and trying to make more garbage as a parody. He's already remade the original two with QOL improvements, and now, free of the shackles of the source material, he is attempting to create an original IP which has that same hand-painted style, same catchy music, same Metroidvania design ethos.
The Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil remasters are on the Internet Archive, which has a legal dispensation to host copyright material. Those gems are sitting there legally. Play them. Play them on a modern Windows OS with Xbox 360 controller. Explore a forgotten pair of Metroidvania.
Everything negative you have read about those two games has been a lie.
The truth will set you free.
https://archive.org/details/foer-wogr-patched-12-9-20
Re: Soapbox: Alone In The Dark On GBC Is A Bizarre Relic You Should Play At Least Once
Reached the last boss with 3 handgun bullets and missed the crossbow completely! I am never playing through this crap again.
Re: The Jurassic Park Games Are Getting A 30th Anniversary Retro Collection
So many negative comments about the original Mega Drive game. It was my favourite of the first wave of JPark games, and to this day I enjoy playing through it. The dinos can't actually be killed, only stunned, meaning raptors will wake up and then hunt you down through the facility. The AI at the time blew me away - they would chase you and open doors to get to you.
Master System version was also decent. Nice colour palette, short but sweet, different weapons and boss varieties, with some fun gimmicks. Ported to GG.
Mega CD version was also cool. A totally different take on things, being a point and click adventure. A little too difficult maybe, unless you cheated and got infinite grenades.
Some mentions of the DOS / Amiga version. It's a bit clunky but quite interesting - better than the SNES version in my view.
If this collection only has the Ocean made Nintendo console games, it's a bit disappointing, since they've ignored the more interesting titles. I want the MD, MCD, SMS, and DOS versions!
Re: Check Out This Forgotten Donkey Kong Country Comic From The UK
@RupeeClock Sorry about the photos instead of scans. I have a nice A4 flatbed scanner, but I did three pages at 300dpi, and it took AGES. Like over a minute per page to scan, crop, and save, and there's 50 or so pages. Also the size of the comic is not A4 size, it's actually oversized, width ways, meaning I had to position it just right every time to only lose the white borders. Even then it was tight.
After three pages I was like: you know what? 10 minutes with my camera on maximum settings will suffice. Photos are better than nothing I reckoned.
The only proper scan in the above collection was the front cover.
Also, those are tins of tuna on the corners!
Sorry - but hopefully once this gets listed in the comics database someone else, with more motivation, will do the proper scan job it deserves.
Re: After Almost 3 Decades, You Can Finally Read The Comic For SNES Classic 'Skyblazer' Online
@brianvgplayer - the top banner art is from the Japanese box art for the game. Not gonna lie - when I read that Manga Mania had the comic, I assumed it would be like the Japanese box art. I could see no scans online so paid a fair bit for the magazine on eBay, with supplement. Now no one need make such a similar mistake again!