SmaggTheSmug

@jowe_gw You're assuming a lot things about me. Like I said, I don't even care about the names thing and the subsequent backlash. Yeah, it was stupid on the dev's part to use those names and the backlash is understandable. It seems they changed those anyway. So it's not part of the argument and you should stop it. They're not suing people who brought that up, they're suing people who say this game will "promote rape culture" and "is similar to assault in massage parlors". So yea, the lewd part.

Defamation laws were never part of pro-free speech argument. You should also stop pretending like that's relevant. No, defamation was never framed as "censorship" be free speech activists. Hate speech laws are, and those are an entirely different beast. So please stop being dishonest and putting words in my mouth.

What am I in favor of? People getting a taste of their own medicine. I don't even like that particular law (IMO defamation should only be applicable when there's a "false statement of fact that damages one's reputation"), but that's how Japan rolls and those people who like to feel powerful by throwing various accusations around are now receiving the kind of pushback they didn't expect.
And how do you know they would use American law? In the example I gave the claimant was American. Here the claimant is Japanese, so by that logic Japanese law would apply. Which means "your game promotes rape culture" could be used as base for a defamation suit.

@jowe_gw There is no hypocrisy here. Defamation and censorship are completely unrelated things. There are almost zero free speech absolutists who would argue against defamation laws. You're creating a strawman here by even bringing such terms into the argument. Stay on topic.

I don't even care about the real names used in the game. I don't think the suit is based on this (the developers seem to have changed the names, so it can't be), it's likely more about the "this sounds like rape" part. I just find it interesting that people who usually advocate for "consequences culture" are now facing those consequences. As in, the shoe is on the other foot. It's not that they "deserve" it, it's that they asked for it, without ever thinking it could be used against them.

Maybe more Japanese companies will follow suit and sue twitter loudmouths. This is the interesting part, regardless of which side of the issue you stand on. You seem to be under impression that one cannot sue someone from overseas, but there was this case of an American suing a British YouTuber over a video, by American law. They lost and the British guy counter-sued for expenses and won. International court cases are very much a thing.

@jowe_gw This whole thing isn't a speech issue, it's a defamation issue. No one argues against defamation laws, they argue about censoring of "hate speech", where "hate" is ill-defined and could be easily misused by governments to shut down dissent. Kind of like "political correctness" used to mean "don't speak ill of the communist government" or "gay relationships aren't to be defended".

The only thing that isn't genuine is your framing of the free speech argument.

However this is something different entirely: it's bad actors on the internet, in their misguided sense of cultural superiority, attempting to destroy the reputation of a video game company. And this time the company is pushing back using legal tools. So now they will have to back up their claims in court. This is what makes it interesting, because so far Japanese studios either simply ignored the "crazy foreigners" or just withdrawn from overseas markets, depriving a wider audience from experiencing the games. Which is, you know, bad. Especially when these people usually use "wider audience" as their core argument.

It's not about free speech, it's about moral busybodies getting more pushback than their expected.

@jowe_gw You're strawmanning what free speech advocates are arguing about. But it doesn't matter, because this is what SJWs are arguing for: speech having consequences. They just never imagined that they would be the ones facing them.

@ROBLOGNICK Possibly there was an exploit of some kind?

I remember having mixed feelings about Blaziken, but the design grew on me one time I decided to break away from always using Water starters. As I understand it paved the way for fan favorites like Lucario or Cinderace.

@russell-marlow You're measuring a foreign culture by your own cultural standards.
I'm not the target audience for this game and I consider Bayonetta undressing herself embarrassing and yet NL is excited about the latter. I don't particularly like Mario games either but I'm not going to call people who like them childish Peter Pans who should grow up and get a job or demand that they aren't released.

Supposedly the developers are suing those who started the backlash. Now Japanese defamation laws are different than those from the rest of the world in that you can sue for defamation even if the claims are true. That said it will be an interfering case to watch, "social" justice meeting regular justice.

While Live A Live is the big one, there's some interesting things here based on these descriptions. Something tells me "Am I Kind Hearted" isn't a really serious storyline.

Still waiting for Battle City.

I don't like that the negative reception from the fans is framed as "review bombing" here, I thought that was when it us implied the negative score is a result of something other than the quality of the product (e.g. the creator saying something controversial publicly).

I didn't even know an update was in the works. Finally a reason to return to it.

The war. The war in Ukraine. "Crisis" is putting it mildly.
Looks like Advance Wars is going to miss two Christmases in a row. At this rate it will release after Nintendo premieres new hardware and be one of those "dying platform hidden gem" games, kinda like Shantae, Metal Storm or Mother 3.

Oh jeez, either Prehistorik, Alley Cat or Prince of Persia. Also some kind of a DOS Dinsey puzzle game.

I got back to Hollow Knight due to these articles and I can see the need for making maps. Currently at the Mantis Lords.
Sadly none of the games in the poll are in my backlog; I played and finished Portal years ago (more than once) and I don't have the other ones (though Baba is You is in my wishlist).

As someone who never played Klonoa before but saw it on TV back then I think "simplistic" is exactly the issue. I was all in to buy this, then I played the demo. I don't think I would really finish either game without getting bored too soon.

@GrailUK Mah Boi, this is what all true actors strive for!

See, this is how you do it. You don't censor for everyone, you give people the option to turn it on or off themselves. Honestly I think this may be Kamiya trolling the prudish West again. But this is how it should be. Same with like old animated movies with racial stereotypes, have a checkbox "I understand and I want to see the original".

How about instead of owning jpegs publishers let us own the games we pay for?

I played the China chapter (since it's the most "regular" of the three offered) and I am now even more restless for the full thing!

As soon as I read the article title I knew it would be "Go! Go! Buriki Daioh!"
This music screamed for lyrics.

From the sound of it it wouldn't even make good YouTube fodder. Unless this game also links to Halo somehow.

Ironically while waiting for this I started playing Earthbound.
I wonder if I should get back to my Hollow Knight save or just start anew... I forgot the controls.

The only downside is that Steam is running the Summer Sale right now but it doesn't include Portal on Switch

@nessisonett The English language has an astounding number of racial slurs and even regular words that aren't slurs but have an ethnic component to them (e.g. "jewelry", "slave").
Even the word "boy" could be taken as a slur in a specific context.
Remember that "coolest monkey in the jungle" H&M controversy? The boy and his parents were Dutch or Danish IIRC and the company is Swedish. They had no idea "monkey" could be used as a racial slur.
Then there's languages which use a variant of n-word to simply mean the color black, like Romanian (a football match was cut short because of it a while ago).

People censoring profanity will always have a job, but it will always be a hard one.

Girlfriend is bugging me to get this for coop, but I remember some puzzles in the first one requiring quick aiming that was tricky even with a mouse. And on a controller? Ehhh.

I never played these but I remember the anime. Funny how then it was futuristic and now it's funny that they need to plug in their devices.

Well I played the original a long time ago so I'm not too keen to try the demo already... But I don't know how well can I hold off.

At this point I am mostly confused about those Sonic games and collections. There's Sonic Mania, Sega Ages, that Mega Drive collection, NSO versions and now this... And you people say Nintendo is the one selling the same games over and over again!

This was predicted by some pundits.
I will re-elect not to support Blizzard or even play the games I already paid for.

If a CYOA game has bugs and performance issue something is deeply wrong.

Those are mostly horrible suggestions.
What the world really needs is Horus Heresy Warriors. That's the only way to make a game about Space Marine Primarchs.

I am surprised Mikey is the one doing the headfirst dive. In NES games it was Raph's special move. We used to call it "the screw".

I think TMNT could use a FighterZ style game, where you have characters from different adaptations in one game. Maybe even the original comic book Turtles in black and white.

Net code doesn't bother me, but 30 FPS... I think it may be another one for the "future living room PC" pile.

Is there a Hero version for UK?
I need to send my blue and red joycon for fixing and then I will have all the joycons in proper colors. Hopefully I haven't worn out the orange and purple ones too much yet...

For some reason I found that word filter update funny.

Elder Scrolls 6: Skyrim 2.

Oh goody, TMNT is coming right after my payday!

I see why you included My Lovely Wife in the subtitle. The description is just bonkers.
Also the last Battle Brothers DLC is out on console I see. It's free and definitely worth grabbing. One of the problems with base game is lack of origins other than the default and this DLC gives you two, both with interesting twists on gameplay, especially Oathtakers. But I would still recommend grabbing Beasts and Exploration and one of the other expansions (if not both) as soon as you get familiar with the base game and it starts feeling a tad repetitive.

@sixrings It's because NintendoLife has a pro-Mario bias, which is not unexpected of a site calling itself "NintendoLife".
That's why for first party games I prefer to read other people's reviews.

The demo didn't win me over, it seemed way too complicated for what should be an arcade party soccer game. But I guess it can't be worse than Polish national team.

@Flashlink99 Part of the reason is that it was a launch title, a boring gimmick game and it wasn't even bundled with the console.
The negative reaction to 1-2 Switch is more understandable when there's less than 10 games total and this one is promoted. Switch's launch lineup was less than stellar and 1-2 Switch was the poster boy for it.

@Sveakungen I've decided to try drawing it
https://twitter.com/SmaggTheSmug/status/1532700694641356806

Just wait until they make a mangalica regional variant of Lechonk. Internet will explode.

I hope you guys review Chikip Dancers. Looks like a killer app.

@AzzyC Sounds like you want to return to monke

@AzzyC What, did you think those things above her sandals were some kind of furry leg warmers?

That construction in the snow looks like a drive-thru Pokemon center. Seems more fitting for Unova.

I see the past and future theme naming, but it's sad they're breaking the plant theme.
Also time to check the usual sites...