@Rin-go Yes, that’s the one. Also “confirming” a lot of Switch Pro rumors, wild speculation on Breath is the Wild (female Link, missing Switch launch), Prime 4 and Trilogy port “finished”, etc.
Considering how much of NintendoLife and others “news” sites are just echoing twitter noise, is it a wonder there’s a vested interest in propping up Emily Rogers as a highly credible insider? She’s not only wrong, but how much damage has she done with the Pro rumors? Splatoon 2 misinformation?
How long can you trot out the “higher than average” narrative without updating the math?
@andykara2003 @damo I think her average is the about the same as those 4chan "leaks" that get traction every so often — about as good as a broken clock.
Emily has been the source giving credence to every Switch Pro rumor which have not just been false, but have done damage in perception and buyer confidence. Same goes for the "Smash and Splatoon Wii U ports", that certainly damaged the perception of Splatoon 2 and Smash Ultimate.
One mostly correct scoop on the NX has paid for all the misses. Remember female Link? Star Fox Grand Prix? Prime 4 already finished, 2021?
In fact, ArcadeGirl64 has been nuked — we can't even go back and look at the veracity of the rumors that didn't make the media rounds without some internet forensics, but I think the burden of proof should be on the Emily Rogers stans. This is Laura Kate Dale all over again with a better erasing of the past.
@andykara2003 Long track record of what? Emily Rogers got one (big) thing right and everything else wrong. There’s a ton of affirmative bias here. Nobody gets punished for the misses.
@ModdedInkling Maybe I’m biased here — I’m literally playing Splatoon 2 now and have 1,200+ hours on it, and I’m in not in the top 5 in playtime amongst my NSO friends. Worse, I’ve never finished the single-player campaign or DLC.
I think if you were sold on single-player content, you’re in the same boat as a Yoshi or Kirby game and are really paying top price for a 6-8 hour game with low-moderate replayability.
Personally I have no interest in Apex, but I’ve played Fortnite and other F2P games and they don’t devalue the “premium” online multiplayer games for me. All my best experiences have been full priced games, Splatoon 1+2, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, and the fighters SSBU, Street Fighter V and Guilty Gear Strive (though F2P Fantasy Strike is pretty solid).
If they do for you, I can’t argue, but I really think that’s a personal thing and not a fair judgement on the game itself. Same for the more recent Metroid Dread. I played for 45+ hours and got more than I bargained for at $59.99. If other people only care to play once, maybe it’s not worth it. But both games are good enough to sink dozens of hours into, so I think it’s better to side on the not worth it “to me”, rather than pinning it on the substance of the games, which are definitely there for a particular audience.
@ModdedInkling I’m scratching my head here... what did you think you were buying!?
There’s a single player campaign and if you want to play the online multiplayer— which yes, is the main course here — you have to pay to play online. Same as Smash, Mario Kart, Tennis, Golf, ARMs, Overwatch, APEX, COD.... and on and on.
@GoldenSunRM I’m not saying the service doesn’t have value if you don’t have these games already. I’m saying the product is objectively worse. You are getting an inferior game on NSO+EP compared to Virtual Console version. That could potentially change, but as of now, it’s just a plain fact.
All this discussion about the value of NSO + Expansion Pack is missing the elephant in the room: it’s objectively worse than what we already had, Virtual Console.
I’m a couple of cables away from playing all the N64 games and Genesis games I care about playing, and it’s very hard to stomach the idea that a) paying for them again is no guarantee of playing them on any future console, and b) I’m getting a worse version than I already have.
If anyone thinks it’s worth it now to them, that’s great, but I think we all have to come to grips with this current situation being objectively worse than what was on offer in the past when talking about it.
I’m as big a Nintendo fanboy as anybody, but the Defense Force is firing blanks.
@shining_nexus Honest question: how is “mostly good” good enough? These are solved problems in the emulation scene. Nintendo should be putting out the premium version of these games right?
@link3710 Influence is a dated lens. So many games after NES Super Mario Bros. were just a version of it for almost a decade, and the platformer returned after XBox Live Arcade, so it lingers still.
Halo had more to say about the PS3/360 era than Super Mario 64 did, and Resident Evil 4 has as much influence if not more on the modern 3D 3rd person game.
The games that can really claim a lineage to SMB64 are pretty niche now, or share so little DNA that isn’t better represented by later evolutions by other titles.
I think from today’s perspective where most gaming worldwide is on phones, I think you got to give it up to Game Boy’s Tetris.
I was blown away by the demo in a Toys ‘R’ Us... even cut school and walked 5 miles to the mall to play it.
By the time I got it myself years later, I couldn’t get into it. The second-to-second gameplay just didn’t feel like Mario to me. A lot expolring and not a lot of reflexive platforming. I dislike the “course” structure.
I liked Sunshine better, and Galaxy better still, and think Odyssey is the perfect marriage of the SMB64 style and the 3D Land/World series, which in my mind proper adaptation of 2D Mario into 3D.
It’s hard to disagree with Mario 64 being revolutionary and influential launch games, but it’s got company: NES: Super Mario Bros., or Game Boy: Tetris.
I’d vote Tetris. It’s the most broadly influential, revolutionary, and timeless, and being an addictive game on a handheld echoes the way most people in the world play video games today.
@Yorumi I meant there's videos on twitter of people pressing the button in the same shot as their screen... it's pretty blatant, but again I have no original hardware, or video of the same test to compare.
@thinkhector I’d have to play on Switch to see if the fog is really an issue, but I do think there should at least be an option for accuracy.
As far as the input lag, I’d have to see a side-by-side comparison with original hardware, because I’ve seen some twitter videos that look brutal, and I have a very hard time believing it was that laggy back in the day... though of course the zero-latency CRTs we played on is a factor.
@TheRedComet I never thought of that, that’s interesting!
I love that Z80 sound in the right hands! Lucky for me I haven’t played on real SEGA hardware in decades so I’d have to be real familiar with the OST to notice the difference.
@SmaggTheSmug Great point! Emulating games always has that problem of thinking it can divorce the content from the medium.
Music has the same problem, in that because there is sheet music — the “binary” of the content, we think you can replicate it. We’ll never really know what Beethoven or Bach sounded like because the instruments are made completely different than their modern counterparts.
It’s also a category error. To stay in music... people assume the electric guitar is the instrument that you plug into the amp, but the instrument is truly the entire guitar-amp-speaker circuit, and the amp has way more to do with the timbre and voicing of the instrument than the guitar part does (as proven by modern amp modelers).
@victordamazio Great point and I agree. If these were the best versions of these games — with some added QoL features like save states, great CRT emulation options, etc., $30/yr would be a steal.
... and it’s not like the emulation scene hasn’t done the homework already.
@GingerNinja Hollow Knight is the GOAT, The Messenger is amazing if you vibe with it, Ori has a lot of fans (haven’t played much myself) as does Steamworld Dig 2 and Bloodstained (not sure if it’s fixed on Switch).
If Blasphemous vibes with you there are also 2D souls-likes ( that borrow a bit from Metroidvania) Salt & Sanctuary and Death’s Gambit are on the table.
Although it’s not a Metroidvania — despite a lot of philistines categorizing it as such — Dead Cells is great fun and scratches some Metroidvania itches.
Also if you don’t mind visiting the old school, Aria of Sorrow on the Castlevania Advance Collection is probably the best “-vania” of the Metroidvanias.
Third playthrough of Metroid Dread. Beat on normal (86%), Hard (100%), now I’m going on Normal for a sub 8-hour clear.
My Switch clock says “Played for 40 hours or more”... so much for it not being worth the asking price haha.
I’m eyeing my next game — probably a Metroidvania becuase I got the bug. The Blasphemous Demo is good and I might grab that on the $8.99 sale, give Blaster Master Zero 2 another chance to grab me like the first one did, or maybe even fire up ol’ Hollow Knight again... see if the King of the Genre is still the best of them now that the Queen has arrived.
@NoTinderLife You joking? Killer7 and No More Heroes are cult classics and he’s had solid games in multiple genres: Shadow Of The Damned (TPS Action), Let It Die (dungeon rogue lite), The Silver Case (VN), and Sine Mora (shmup) plus his origins from the venerable Super Fire Pro Wrestling series.
He’s not everybody’s cup of tea but he’s a unique voice with a proven track record and a dedicated fan base, however niche.
@russell-marlow Look at something like Grow Home for vertical mechanics, or even Journey where there is a co-op adventure to the “peak”.
Ice Climbers is SO RIPE for a reboot with the right approach. Not Suda 51 though haha.
Why has nobody said the obvious IP for Suda 51: strong]Pro Wrestling[/strong]! Bring back Starman!!! I’d also take a story-centric F-Zero racing RPG. Captain Falcon as a “family-friendly” Travis Touchdown... waggle to scarf down ramen.
@marandahir Putting into a generational context is interesting too — I guess Galaxy is a bit of an outlier in that regard, but you had ‘New’ series as well.
Your theory fits, and I wonder how much that was by design.
@Turbo857 And hopefully a “Wiimote” compatibly somehow too... the single Joy-Con might be a bridge to far for us “purists” haha.
I always wondered if how people feel about the controls has anything to do with handed-ness. For me as a lefty, the motion going from sideways D-Pad to pointing Remote felt really good and natural. I can “drop” the controller into my palm and “catch” it as I turn the wrist to point. For righties it seems a little more awkward as you have to “choke up” to get a natural grip on it.
This plus the fact the I could swap hands for Metroid Prime Trilogy and other IR games like Sin & Punishment makes me miss that system and feature a lot.
@Turbo857 It would be interesting, but I’d hope they keep the Wiimote mode too. Besides personally enjoying it, it’s such an interesting design artifact from the Wii era. Nothing has ever, or likely will ever control like that.
@Pod I always thought that was a very "meta" criticism. It's the same lock-and-key setup as every Metroid. Instead of a power-up, it's a cutscene.
Maybe I just play different and don't engage with the story like others do, but I saw it as 12 of one, a dozen of the other... and even in the story context I saw it as a poorly represented defiance... like, how much harm are you willing to put me in for your ego?
I think the criticism for it's linearity is way more constructive, as annoying as the "authorization" premise is.
@HeadPirate It's one thing to aggregate every review, but why not look at the one people are actually reading?
I can play games with numbers too:
Game Informer (The #1 circulation in US at the time): 63/100
1UP.com 67/100
Gamespy: 60/100
Plus the content of the positive reviews are not as glowing as the numbers suggest:
Digital Chumps: 84/100
"While its implementation of the 2-D/3-D hybrid perspective and basic controls work well, far more tampering has occurred here, and much of it for the worse."
Gamepro: 80/100
"It does misfire in several key areas..."
GamingTrend: 80/100
"While I can't call it a worthy successor to the more recent titles, it does manage to approximate the feel of a Metroid game."
Some of these reviews are straight-up contrarian reactions:
Nintendojo 91/100
"For some, this new window into Samus’ soul has been jarring and unwanted."
"Perhaps addressing an action game’s story before its gameplay seems backward, but so much angst has been made about Samus’ mood swings that the intriguing story and the solid gameplay has been nearly pushed aside"
" “OMG, Samus has emotions and daddy issues! Sexist!” Whatever. Then there are complaints that the game’s too linear and directed, which is a bit more understandable coming from series traditionalists. "
...and let's put it all in some context:
Metroid Prime: 97/100
Metroid Fusion: 92/100
Metroid Prime 2: 92/100
Metroid Zero Mission: 89/100
Metroid Prime 3: 90/100
Metroid Trilogy 91/100
Metroid Other M 79/100
Do you even want to talk about the user scores?
Also, I worked in a game store at the time! You can try and gaslight me with your aggregate reviews from 11 years on (many of them reactions to the initial ones) all you want. I was defending the universal criticism of Other M then— present even in your "positive" reviews — and have been since.
@Kirby_Girl Firstly, not everything has it’s fans, especially garbage. Other M had a small but hardcore fanbase before “Walugi” or even “internet memes” were a thing, and even still, you’re using that as a dismissal is inappropriate. Attitudes change about art all the time. Bad movies become cult classics become influential works. Some ideas are ahead of it’s time. Is that the case with Other M? I don’t think so, but I don’t think it’s impossible, or an elaborate internet joke at your expense, that some of it’s idiosyncrasies and flawed storytelling resonate for some people.
@Kirby_Girl Bull. I bought it the day it came out and loved it, on the tail of a series marathon leading up to it! It’s divisive, for sure, but it earned it’s fans.
@Offolsense Exactly my feeling about about it. It alsways felt like the “lost” title we never got in the N64 era. Though I think Prime is a better game and ultimately had more rewarding exploration, I always thought Other M “felt” more like Metroid, as a fan from the NES original on.
@HeadPirate Are you kidding? It was universally panned in the media and the sales were very bad for the expectations — Other M was supposed to bring the series back from the declining sales of the Prime series. It was a failure. It literally sank the series for almost a decade.
@Maximumbeans The media pounced on Other M at the time. I think Game Informer — which was at it’s peak then in the US — gave it a 6. It tanked the series.
Honestly, I don’t think the issue is the story — though I prefer a solo Samus who only speaks in Chozo! — I think it’s the writing.
Samus’ inner monologue is written in a “authorly” tone... it’s written to be read, not spoken aloud. It makes her thoughts sound incredibly awkward and cringey, like you’re hearing someone read their diary at a poetry slam. THAT is the disconnect. I think the story is fine to even good, but the writing and voice acting tanks it.
I think playing the game with foreign language audio increases the quality of the experience dramatically.
@N64-ROX I have choice anxiety too haha. I think this is one you really have to just plow forward with instincts on a first playthrough — really “role-play”, for better or worse — and then try different builds to optimize for outcomes you want or to see more content. @Planeforger @Xansies would you agree?
@Fighting_Game_Loser What a mess! In what seems to be the theme for the week: UNIONIZE!!!
Apparently the devs took what they could to a new studio on a game called Immortal. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two as artifacts, as it seems like there’s some really innovative ideas in these games.
@Mahatma For sure! And thank you too. It’s great to know that we can start out by disagreeing and get to the understanding that we actually agree on principles completely. I suspect that’s way more common than typical comments make clear.
Every positive review understands this game is more fighter DNA than beat-em-up, and every negative review seems to highlight some developer politics, and usual NintendoLife doubles down on justifying their opinions — and maybe drew a conclusion first — rather than judging things on their merits and qualifying their experience. Calling it a belt-scroller seems like an obvious misunderstanding where it seems more light a fighting game, or really an interesting alternate path as fighting games and belt-scrollers crawled out of the same gene pool. It’s worth noting both of those genres are incredibly repetitive, but with fighters particularly the repetition is a feature, much like going to a gym is repetitive. The variety comes from the story which is a highlight in every other review and a common complaint for single-player fighting game fans.
This is definitely a review I think their should be some disclosure whether the reviewer completed the game. No reviewer @ for questions in the comments?
Hope this makes it to Gamepass. I’d like to see the this for myself and I don’t trust this review at all. Unfortunately the dev situation makes it hard to want to give them money, but I don’t trust this review at all and want to see the ideas on display here for myself.
@TOMAWOLF In movies and TV it was institutionalized by the industry in the 1960s and continued to be ratified by production companies and unions by everything from contracts to accepted best practices by medium and genre. Before then credits were “above-the-line”, and no guarantee any supporting cast or production team would be on it. Most movies didn’t even have closing credits, only opening.
In games — despite @gojiguy ‘s protests — closing credits always been an homage to movies that I guess we’re now expected to take seriously because people have hurt feelings.
Maybe this is the start of that, but like I’ve been repeating in here ad nauseum, closing credits have the effort of unions and organized labor, and there’s no reason that games can just copy the practice without copying the methods that got them standard in the first place.
Personally, I think I should be credited in the Nintendo Life articles I comment in. I provide more content and clearly do more research. What percentage of clicks does my commentary generate?
@Mahatma I completely agree that woke “diversity” is not diversity but an attempt to redefine the meaning of the word to push a political agenda.
That said, it’s crazy to think Fata is a “woke” game — it’s a Japanese game from 2012 — which I feel like you’re labeling as such because of who you think it’s audience is. That’s really my only gripe with your comments.
Ripped straight from the comments! We’ve been talking about this for a while in the “credits” article.
I’m starting to think Nintendo Life would be better suited as a forum. Aside from the occasional review. the articles aren’t much better than the average post, and the comments section is where all the action is at.
Comments 1,194
Re: Rumour: Metroid Prime Switch Remaster Is "Wrapped Up" According To Industry Insider
@Rin-go Yes, that’s the one. Also “confirming” a lot of Switch Pro rumors, wild speculation on Breath is the Wild (female Link, missing Switch launch), Prime 4 and Trilogy port “finished”, etc.
Considering how much of NintendoLife and others “news” sites are just echoing twitter noise, is it a wonder there’s a vested interest in propping up Emily Rogers as a highly credible insider? She’s not only wrong, but how much damage has she done with the Pro rumors? Splatoon 2 misinformation?
How long can you trot out the “higher than average” narrative without updating the math?
Re: Rumour: Metroid Prime Switch Remaster Is "Wrapped Up" According To Industry Insider
@andykara2003 @damo I think her average is the about the same as those 4chan "leaks" that get traction every so often — about as good as a broken clock.
Emily has been the source giving credence to every Switch Pro rumor which have not just been false, but have done damage in perception and buyer confidence. Same goes for the "Smash and Splatoon Wii U ports", that certainly damaged the perception of Splatoon 2 and Smash Ultimate.
One mostly correct scoop on the NX has paid for all the misses. Remember female Link? Star Fox Grand Prix? Prime 4 already finished, 2021?
In fact, ArcadeGirl64 has been nuked — we can't even go back and look at the veracity of the rumors that didn't make the media rounds without some internet forensics, but I think the burden of proof should be on the Emily Rogers stans. This is Laura Kate Dale all over again with a better erasing of the past.
Re: Rumour: Metroid Prime Switch Remaster Is "Wrapped Up" According To Industry Insider
@andykara2003 Long track record of what? Emily Rogers got one (big) thing right and everything else wrong. There’s a ton of affirmative bias here. Nobody gets punished for the misses.
Re: Rumour: Metroid Prime Switch Remaster Is "Wrapped Up" According To Industry Insider
@HamatoYoshi Exactly. There’s no punishment for being wrong. Where’s Star Fox GP? Any of the Switch Pro rumors?
Re: The Marvellous Metroidvania Narita Boy Is Receiving A Limited Run Games Physical Release
This was huge bummer. I really liked the aesthetic, but everything is off. Really the definition of all style no substance.
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
@ModdedInkling You mean like a “bots” mode?
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
@ModdedInkling Maybe I’m biased here — I’m literally playing Splatoon 2 now and have 1,200+ hours on it, and I’m in not in the top 5 in playtime amongst my NSO friends. Worse, I’ve never finished the single-player campaign or DLC.
I think if you were sold on single-player content, you’re in the same boat as a Yoshi or Kirby game and are really paying top price for a 6-8 hour game with low-moderate replayability.
Personally I have no interest in Apex, but I’ve played Fortnite and other F2P games and they don’t devalue the “premium” online multiplayer games for me. All my best experiences have been full priced games, Splatoon 1+2, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, and the fighters SSBU, Street Fighter V and Guilty Gear Strive (though F2P Fantasy Strike is pretty solid).
If they do for you, I can’t argue, but I really think that’s a personal thing and not a fair judgement on the game itself. Same for the more recent Metroid Dread. I played for 45+ hours and got more than I bargained for at $59.99. If other people only care to play once, maybe it’s not worth it. But both games are good enough to sink dozens of hours into, so I think it’s better to side on the not worth it “to me”, rather than pinning it on the substance of the games, which are definitely there for a particular audience.
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
@ModdedInkling I’m scratching my head here... what did you think you were buying!?
There’s a single player campaign and if you want to play the online multiplayer— which yes, is the main course here — you have to pay to play online. Same as Smash, Mario Kart, Tennis, Golf, ARMs, Overwatch, APEX, COD.... and on and on.
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
@GoldenSunRM I’m not saying the service doesn’t have value if you don’t have these games already. I’m saying the product is objectively worse. You are getting an inferior game on NSO+EP compared to Virtual Console version. That could potentially change, but as of now, it’s just a plain fact.
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
All this discussion about the value of NSO + Expansion Pack is missing the elephant in the room: it’s objectively worse than what we already had, Virtual Console.
I’m a couple of cables away from playing all the N64 games and Genesis games I care about playing, and it’s very hard to stomach the idea that a) paying for them again is no guarantee of playing them on any future console, and b) I’m getting a worse version than I already have.
If anyone thinks it’s worth it now to them, that’s great, but I think we all have to come to grips with this current situation being objectively worse than what was on offer in the past when talking about it.
I’m as big a Nintendo fanboy as anybody, but the Defense Force is firing blanks.
Re: Switch Online Surpasses 32 Million Subs, Nintendo Says It Will Continue To "Improve And Expand" Expansion Pack Tier
@ModdedInkling What do you mean, “purposely design games...”. You mean online multiplayer?
I guess they did that on purpose lol
Re: Review: Sin and Punishment - A Genuine Treasure And No Mistake
@shining_nexus Honest question: how is “mostly good” good enough? These are solved problems in the emulation scene. Nintendo should be putting out the premium version of these games right?
Re: Review: Super Mario 64 - The Best Launch Game Ever Made
@link3710 Influence is a dated lens. So many games after NES Super Mario Bros. were just a version of it for almost a decade, and the platformer returned after XBox Live Arcade, so it lingers still.
Halo had more to say about the PS3/360 era than Super Mario 64 did, and Resident Evil 4 has as much influence if not more on the modern 3D 3rd person game.
The games that can really claim a lineage to SMB64 are pretty niche now, or share so little DNA that isn’t better represented by later evolutions by other titles.
I think from today’s perspective where most gaming worldwide is on phones, I think you got to give it up to Game Boy’s Tetris.
Re: Review: Super Mario 64 - The Best Launch Game Ever Made
I was blown away by the demo in a Toys ‘R’ Us... even cut school and walked 5 miles to the mall to play it.
By the time I got it myself years later, I couldn’t get into it. The second-to-second gameplay just didn’t feel like Mario to me. A lot expolring and not a lot of reflexive platforming. I dislike the “course” structure.
I liked Sunshine better, and Galaxy better still, and think Odyssey is the perfect marriage of the SMB64 style and the 3D Land/World series, which in my mind proper adaptation of 2D Mario into 3D.
It’s hard to disagree with Mario 64 being revolutionary and influential launch games, but it’s got company: NES: Super Mario Bros., or Game Boy: Tetris.
I’d vote Tetris. It’s the most broadly influential, revolutionary, and timeless, and being an addictive game on a handheld echoes the way most people in the world play video games today.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@Yorumi I meant there's videos on twitter of people pressing the button in the same shot as their screen... it's pretty blatant, but again I have no original hardware, or video of the same test to compare.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@thinkhector I’d have to play on Switch to see if the fog is really an issue, but I do think there should at least be an option for accuracy.
As far as the input lag, I’d have to see a side-by-side comparison with original hardware, because I’ve seen some twitter videos that look brutal, and I have a very hard time believing it was that laggy back in the day... though of course the zero-latency CRTs we played on is a factor.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@TheRedComet I never thought of that, that’s interesting!
I love that Z80 sound in the right hands! Lucky for me I haven’t played on real SEGA hardware in decades so I’d have to be real familiar with the OST to notice the difference.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@SmaggTheSmug Great point! Emulating games always has that problem of thinking it can divorce the content from the medium.
Music has the same problem, in that because there is sheet music — the “binary” of the content, we think you can replicate it. We’ll never really know what Beethoven or Bach sounded like because the instruments are made completely different than their modern counterparts.
It’s also a category error. To stay in music... people assume the electric guitar is the instrument that you plug into the amp, but the instrument is truly the entire guitar-amp-speaker circuit, and the amp has way more to do with the timbre and voicing of the instrument than the guitar part does (as proven by modern amp modelers).
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@victordamazio Great point and I agree. If these were the best versions of these games — with some added QoL features like save states, great CRT emulation options, etc., $30/yr would be a steal.
... and it’s not like the emulation scene hasn’t done the homework already.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
It’s funny.. back then we were like: too much fog!!!
Now we’re like: bring back the fog!!!
Shame about the control issues. Sin & Punishment was the draw here for me.
Re: Review: Aeon Must Die! - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
@AnorakJimi Stealth edit.
Re: Blizzard Has Officially Renamed Overwatch's McCree
This is the lamest “woke penance” I’ve heard of yet.
It’s like cancelling Forrest Gump because he’s named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 23rd)
@GingerNinja Hollow Knight is the GOAT, The Messenger is amazing if you vibe with it, Ori has a lot of fans (haven’t played much myself) as does Steamworld Dig 2 and Bloodstained (not sure if it’s fixed on Switch).
If Blasphemous vibes with you there are also 2D souls-likes ( that borrow a bit from Metroidvania) Salt & Sanctuary and Death’s Gambit are on the table.
Although it’s not a Metroidvania — despite a lot of philistines categorizing it as such — Dead Cells is great fun and scratches some Metroidvania itches.
Also if you don’t mind visiting the old school, Aria of Sorrow on the Castlevania Advance Collection is probably the best “-vania” of the Metroidvanias.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 23rd)
Third playthrough of Metroid Dread. Beat on normal (86%), Hard (100%), now I’m going on Normal for a sub 8-hour clear.
My Switch clock says “Played for 40 hours or more”... so much for it not being worth the asking price haha.
I’m eyeing my next game — probably a Metroidvania becuase I got the bug. The Blasphemous Demo is good and I might grab that on the $8.99 sale, give Blaster Master Zero 2 another chance to grab me like the first one did, or maybe even fire up ol’ Hollow Knight again... see if the King of the Genre is still the best of them now that the Queen has arrived.
Re: Random: It Has Now Been 1,000 Days Since Metroid Prime 4's Development Was Restarted
Take your time! After Metroid Dread hit every spot, a new Prime game would just be icing on the cake. Eating my third helping now...
Re: Suda51 Says It Would Be "Really Cool" To Reboot Or Remake Nintendo's Older IP
@NoTinderLife You joking? Killer7 and No More Heroes are cult classics and he’s had solid games in multiple genres: Shadow Of The Damned (TPS Action), Let It Die (dungeon rogue lite), The Silver Case (VN), and Sine Mora (shmup) plus his origins from the venerable Super Fire Pro Wrestling series.
He’s not everybody’s cup of tea but he’s a unique voice with a proven track record and a dedicated fan base, however niche.
Re: Shin Megami Tensei V Gets Day One Paid DLC And Digital Deluxe Edition
This is the coolest take. It gives the wrong impression and sent the comments off on stupid tangents.
This is the DLC included with the Deluxe Edition being made available piecemeal to everyone. Hardly “Day 1 DLC”. They did this with SMTIV as well.
Re: Suda51 Says It Would Be "Really Cool" To Reboot Or Remake Nintendo's Older IP
@russell-marlow Look at something like Grow Home for vertical mechanics, or even Journey where there is a co-op adventure to the “peak”.
Ice Climbers is SO RIPE for a reboot with the right approach. Not Suda 51 though haha.
Why has nobody said the obvious IP for Suda 51: strong]Pro Wrestling[/strong]! Bring back Starman!!! I’d also take a story-centric F-Zero racing RPG. Captain Falcon as a “family-friendly” Travis Touchdown... waggle to scarf down ramen.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@marandahir Putting into a generational context is interesting too — I guess Galaxy is a bit of an outlier in that regard, but you had ‘New’ series as well.
Your theory fits, and I wonder how much that was by design.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Turbo857 And hopefully a “Wiimote” compatibly somehow too... the single Joy-Con might be a bridge to far for us “purists” haha.
I always wondered if how people feel about the controls has anything to do with handed-ness. For me as a lefty, the motion going from sideways D-Pad to pointing Remote felt really good and natural. I can “drop” the controller into my palm and “catch” it as I turn the wrist to point. For righties it seems a little more awkward as you have to “choke up” to get a natural grip on it.
This plus the fact the I could swap hands for Metroid Prime Trilogy and other IR games like Sin & Punishment makes me miss that system and feature a lot.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Turbo857 It would be interesting, but I’d hope they keep the Wiimote mode too. Besides personally enjoying it, it’s such an interesting design artifact from the Wii era. Nothing has ever, or likely will ever control like that.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Pod I always thought that was a very "meta" criticism. It's the same lock-and-key setup as every Metroid. Instead of a power-up, it's a cutscene.
Maybe I just play different and don't engage with the story like others do, but I saw it as 12 of one, a dozen of the other... and even in the story context I saw it as a poorly represented defiance... like, how much harm are you willing to put me in for your ego?
I think the criticism for it's linearity is way more constructive, as annoying as the "authorization" premise is.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@HeadPirate It's one thing to aggregate every review, but why not look at the one people are actually reading?
I can play games with numbers too:
Game Informer (The #1 circulation in US at the time): 63/100
1UP.com 67/100
Gamespy: 60/100
Plus the content of the positive reviews are not as glowing as the numbers suggest:
Digital Chumps: 84/100
"While its implementation of the 2-D/3-D hybrid perspective and basic controls work well, far more tampering has occurred here, and much of it for the worse."
Gamepro: 80/100
"It does misfire in several key areas..."
GamingTrend: 80/100
"While I can't call it a worthy successor to the more recent titles, it does manage to approximate the feel of a Metroid game."
Some of these reviews are straight-up contrarian reactions:
Nintendojo 91/100
"For some, this new window into Samus’ soul has been jarring and unwanted."
"Perhaps addressing an action game’s story before its gameplay seems backward, but so much angst has been made about Samus’ mood swings that the intriguing story and the solid gameplay has been nearly pushed aside"
" “OMG, Samus has emotions and daddy issues! Sexist!” Whatever. Then there are complaints that the game’s too linear and directed, which is a bit more understandable coming from series traditionalists. "
...and let's put it all in some context:
Metroid Prime: 97/100
Metroid Fusion: 92/100
Metroid Prime 2: 92/100
Metroid Zero Mission: 89/100
Metroid Prime 3: 90/100
Metroid Trilogy 91/100
Metroid Other M 79/100
Do you even want to talk about the user scores?
Also, I worked in a game store at the time! You can try and gaslight me with your aggregate reviews from 11 years on (many of them reactions to the initial ones) all you want. I was defending the universal criticism of Other M then— present even in your "positive" reviews — and have been since.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Kirby_Girl Firstly, not everything has it’s fans, especially garbage. Other M had a small but hardcore fanbase before “Walugi” or even “internet memes” were a thing, and even still, you’re using that as a dismissal is inappropriate. Attitudes change about art all the time. Bad movies become cult classics become influential works. Some ideas are ahead of it’s time. Is that the case with Other M? I don’t think so, but I don’t think it’s impossible, or an elaborate internet joke at your expense, that some of it’s idiosyncrasies and flawed storytelling resonate for some people.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Kirby_Girl Bull. I bought it the day it came out and loved it, on the tail of a series marathon leading up to it! It’s divisive, for sure, but it earned it’s fans.
Kid Icarus: Uprising has a similar split.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Offolsense Exactly my feeling about about it. It alsways felt like the “lost” title we never got in the N64 era. Though I think Prime is a better game and ultimately had more rewarding exploration, I always thought Other M “felt” more like Metroid, as a fan from the NES original on.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@N8tiveT3ch True, but it teed up some great fan service in Dread for those who didn’t like Other M’s portrayal of Samus.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@HeadPirate Are you kidding? It was universally panned in the media and the sales were very bad for the expectations — Other M was supposed to bring the series back from the declining sales of the Prime series. It was a failure. It literally sank the series for almost a decade.
And this is from a big fan / apologist!!!
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Maximumbeans The media pounced on Other M at the time. I think Game Informer — which was at it’s peak then in the US — gave it a 6. It tanked the series.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
I love Other M, but I understand the complaints.
Honestly, I don’t think the issue is the story — though I prefer a solo Samus who only speaks in Chozo! — I think it’s the writing.
Samus’ inner monologue is written in a “authorly” tone... it’s written to be read, not spoken aloud. It makes her thoughts sound incredibly awkward and cringey, like you’re hearing someone read their diary at a poetry slam. THAT is the disconnect. I think the story is fine to even good, but the writing and voice acting tanks it.
I think playing the game with foreign language audio increases the quality of the experience dramatically.
Re: Review: Disco Elysium: The Final Cut - Still An Absolute Triumph On Switch
@N64-ROX I have choice anxiety too haha. I think this is one you really have to just plow forward with instincts on a first playthrough — really “role-play”, for better or worse — and then try different builds to optimize for outcomes you want or to see more content. @Planeforger @Xansies would you agree?
Re: Review: Aeon Must Die! - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
@Fighting_Game_Loser What a mess! In what seems to be the theme for the week: UNIONIZE!!!
Apparently the devs took what they could to a new studio on a game called Immortal. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two as artifacts, as it seems like there’s some really innovative ideas in these games.
Re: Feature: We Finally Finished The Game With An Almost-Perfect Metascore
@Mahatma For sure! And thank you too. It’s great to know that we can start out by disagreeing and get to the understanding that we actually agree on principles completely. I suspect that’s way more common than typical comments make clear.
Re: Review: Aeon Must Die! - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
Every positive review understands this game is more fighter DNA than beat-em-up, and every negative review seems to highlight some developer politics, and usual NintendoLife doubles down on justifying their opinions — and maybe drew a conclusion first — rather than judging things on their merits and qualifying their experience.
Calling it a belt-scroller seems like an obvious misunderstanding where it seems more light a fighting game, or really an interesting alternate path as fighting games and belt-scrollers crawled out of the same gene pool. It’s worth noting both of those genres are incredibly repetitive, but with fighters particularly the repetition is a feature, much like going to a gym is repetitive. The variety comes from the story which is a highlight in every other review and a common complaint for single-player fighting game fans.
This is definitely a review I think their should be some disclosure whether the reviewer completed the game. No reviewer @ for questions in the comments?
Hope this makes it to Gamepass. I’d like to see the this for myself and I don’t trust this review at all. Unfortunately the dev situation makes it hard to want to give them money, but I don’t trust this review at all and want to see the ideas on display here for myself.
Re: Review: Aeon Must Die! - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
@Fighting_Game_Loser What happened to the devs?
Re: Talking Point: The Metroid Dread Credits Debate Is Sadly Common
@TOMAWOLF In movies and TV it was institutionalized by the industry in the 1960s and continued to be ratified by production companies and unions by everything from contracts to accepted best practices by medium and genre. Before then credits were “above-the-line”, and no guarantee any supporting cast or production team would be on it. Most movies didn’t even have closing credits, only opening.
In games — despite @gojiguy ‘s protests — closing credits always been an homage to movies that I guess we’re now expected to take seriously because people have hurt feelings.
Maybe this is the start of that, but like I’ve been repeating in here ad nauseum, closing credits have the effort of unions and organized labor, and there’s no reason that games can just copy the practice without copying the methods that got them standard in the first place.
Personally, I think I should be credited in the Nintendo Life articles I comment in. I provide more content and clearly do more research. What percentage of clicks does my commentary generate?
Re: Feature: We Finally Finished The Game With An Almost-Perfect Metascore
@Mahatma I completely agree that woke “diversity” is not diversity but an attempt to redefine the meaning of the word to push a political agenda.
That said, it’s crazy to think Fata is a “woke” game — it’s a Japanese game from 2012 — which I feel like you’re labeling as such because of who you think it’s audience is. That’s really my only gripe with your comments.
Re: Metroid Dread Studio Hit With Allegations Of Poor Organisation And Management
Ripped straight from the comments! We’ve been talking about this for a while in the “credits” article.
I’m starting to think Nintendo Life would be better suited as a forum. Aside from the occasional review. the articles aren’t much better than the average post, and the comments section is where all the action is at.
Re: Video: Here's A First Look At Dragon Quest X Offline, Coming To Switch In 2022
@GamerDad66 Do you mean like Dragon Quest IX? That would be an interesting idea, but I’m pretty sure it’s single-player offline.
Re: Talking Point: Do You Have A 'Way' You Play Certain Switch Games?
@SonOfVon Love the avatar! I listen to ZP almost daily.