As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Crystal Warriors from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) How many total hours of gameplay would it take to 100% the campaign?
2) How similar to the Paper Mario franchise is this game with respect to turn based battles?
3) When Nintendo eliminates online support, will local wireless play still be available?
I feel like local wireless play just uses your 2 DS and a modem, so it should be fine, but then again, my friend tried to download a game on the Switch and still play a game, which should be fine, and the Switch would not do it until he closed the game, so I never put anything past Nintendo.
4) Am I the only one who was SHOCKED to learn the Game Gear had multiplayer support in the early 1990s? WOW!!!
5) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
6) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Defenders of Oasis from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) How many total hours of gameplay would it take to 100% the campaign?
2) How similar to the Paper Mario franchise is this game with respect to turn based battles?
3) Are Shining Force and Defenders of Oasis the same game with an Arabian palette swap?
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
@LinktotheFuture: I REALLY hate online models that force you to have access to every game, so I am mostly focused on Wii U and 3DS right now.
Additionally, I have put up to 1,500 hours of gameplay into a single game before, so I HATE the idea that you never actually can own the game and when the Switch Online Service closes, you lose all your data forever!
What differences are there between the Game Gear and Genesis version?
1) What items are necessary for a 100% Completion Rating on 1 run?
Are the basic items the only collectible?
As a comparison, for me to consider Donkey Kong 64 to have a 100% Completion Rating, the 201 Golden Bananas would not be enough for me.
I would want everything, including all 4,000 bananas from the 8 worlds, even though not all of them are required to unlock any other areas.
2) I mean how many attributes are randomly generated and how many actual permutations does the game use?
While you can technically call everything infinite, if I picked 100 colors at random, they would all mostly fall into 8-12 main colors.
So, if a hypothetical game picked 4 colors at random, they could say there are infinite combinations, but there really are only 8^4-12^4 combinations or 4,096-20,736 combinations.
And I doubt the game has anywhere near 8 options for each attribute.
3) Thanks for telling me. I usually keep notes for every game I play, so sad to see, my notes will not help for this game!
4) Do you know how many blocks of space the whole 3DS has in its memory?
6) If I need to expand memory, what official SD card can I use and how many extra blocks of memory does that get me?
7) Do you know what price it would cost to buy everything on both the Wii U and 3DS' Virtual Console / E-Shop's with all its paid downloadable content?
Part of me just wants to download everything and then go through the games later, but I have no idea how expensive it would be to do that.
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many hours of gameplay it would take to 100% the game? (collect all the secrets, max every character's level, etc.)
2) Considering how essential story is for an RPG, are Shining Force I and Shining Force II (this game's prequels) available for download on Wii U Virtual Console or 3DS Virtual Console?
3) If no, is it available to follow the story without playing the 1st 2 games or will you feel lost?
4) The only franchise I have any experience with that I enjoy is the Paper Mario / Mario & Luigi franchises.
How much of a step upwards is the increase in complexity for this game with respect to the combat/battles from Paper Mario / Mario & Luigi games?
5) I saw another commenter compare this game to the Fire Emblem franchise, but I thought those games were 150+ hours in length for a casual player and this game looks nowhere near that long.
Is the Fire Emblem comparison accurate?
6) When you enter/exit a room, do the enemies you previously defeated respawn or do they stay defeated?
7) Are there Random Battles in this game (meaning when you try to walk across a room, small enemies force you into battle, but the level up options are non-existent: this mechanic is often used to pad out an otherwise short game)
(If any of you read IGN, Craig Harris is notorious for HATING Random Battles!)
8) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
9) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Columns from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many levels there are in both the Original Mode and the Flash mode?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, it feels hard to imagine there are actually "infinite" games on the download. The game had to adhere to the Game Gear's miniscule space limitations after all.
2) When Nintendo eliminates online support, will local wireless play still be available?
I feel like local wireless play just uses your 2 DS and a modem, so it should be fine, but then again, my friend tried to download a game on the Switch and still play a game, which should be fine, and the Switch would not do it until he closed the game, so I never put anything past Nintendo.
3) I saw a commenter mention that this game is easier on the harder difficulty levels?
Can anyone explain to me the mechanics of why that is true?
4) In relation to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, what are the unique features that each game has that the other does not?
In reading this review, it feels like every single aspect it offers is already offered in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
5) Is this game for people who like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, but hate the Sonic franchise?
6) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
7) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Shinobi from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many distinctly different routes through the game there are?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, is the game difficulty materially different if you complete the levels in a difficult order or do the characters just have different dialogue?
2) I saw someone comment about how there are different emulation features.
What is the exact set of emulation features I should pick if I want a fully authentic experience, as if I was playing on original Game Gear hardware?
I only ever played a Game Gear handheld once. (A classmate of mine brought one in on a snowy day where we did not do much schoolwork, but upon learning that it devoured SIX AA batters for a whole 45 minutes of gameplay, I knew I could never afford to play that!)
3) My first instinct when reading the review is the game sounds like the Super Nintendo Power Rangers games that never got ported to any Virtual Console, but I played dozens of hours with my friends growing up.
Are my instincts accurate or is the gameplay totally different?
The review sites were not in existent when the Super Nintendo was current, so I have no idea what score official reviewers would have given those Super Nintendo Power Rangers games.
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Dragon Crystal from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many distinctly different types of games there are?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, it feels hard to imagine there are actually "infinite" games on the download. The game had to adhere to the Game Gear's miniscule space limitations after all.
2) Also, when the reviewer says, "No 2 games are the same.": Are the levels materially different or they just present you the same 30 levels in a new order?
I would not view an open of Level #'s 1, 2, 3 as materially different from an open of Level #'s 1, 3, 2, even though they technically would be 2 different routes.
3) The reviewer claims all you get to identify an item is its color.
If an item gives you a red color one game, will the same item be in red text on your second game or do they constantly mix each other up?
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
@Zach: Also, for the diverging choices gameplay, is Shadow the Hedgehog a good comparison game?
I know people irrationally hated it because Shadow had a gun, but the actual mix of platforming/gunfire gameplay was pretty unique and the 25 different endings were fun to get, if not a little irritating to pursue because of how much in common all of them had to get the different endings.
Thinking that people will buy a soccer game with no soccer players is like thinking the same audience that loves The Show, but hates Mario games, would buy Mario Super Sluggers.
I love Mario games AND baseball, so that game is perfect for me, but the absence of a good MLB game on Nintendo systems will not make someone who hates Mario games buy Mario Super Sluggers and the same is true here.
@Zach: With the impending 3DS E-Shop Closure, I started going through all the reviews for every single game and chuckled at the title and had a couple questions:
and is it the middle school equivalent of Surviving High School?
Since I typically enjoy middle school humor/parodies and to play this game and your reviewed game in age order, I would like to play the above linked game first, but cannot find any reviews on it to ensure to me that it is not shovelware.
Is The Clique Game as good as Surviving High School?
2) You mention a minigame in Surviving High School called "As Time Goes By"
Is that relate to the TV show at all by the same name or is it just a coincidence?
I used to overhear that show when I was younger and it is HILARIOUS! (There was a solid 15 minute scene where 2 elderly people were trying to calculate how many people they could pack into a wedding reception hall and there was large amounts of effort placed into how much elbow room to give each person.)
Just like both companies are in agreement, both companies are wrong.
The idea that soccer fans are going to buy an EA Soccer game with no real pro players is crazy.
I am going through the same thing with MLB on Switch, but I never buy any of the Backyard Baseball knockoff games either.
But making a development company pay $250 million JUST FOR THE NAME/PLAYERS is crazy!
My guess is despite how much FIFA apparently bosses EA around with how the game is made and their demanded ransom, they probably contribute $0 to game development.
FIFA: "FIFA claims that the cost should go up as the revenue EA generates from the licence has scaled dramatically as microtransactions have become more popular."
EA: "Our players want us to expand into the digital ecosystem more broadly… our fans are telling us they want us to go and participate in that space."
So, in other words, both companies agree, but EA just does not want to pay.
If by "more popular" and "player demand" more than 1 person asked, then yes, they are popular.
In reality, microtransactions often lead to gamers boycotting the game, so no, they are not popular.
Honestly, the entire DSiWare, Wii U E-Shop, 3DS E-Shop, Wii U Virtual Console, 3DS Virtual Console, Wii U DLC, 3DS DLC, Wii U Updates, and 3DS Updates lists should be ranked in full from top to bottom instead of Top X numbers.
@Slownenberg: "NSO is a very cheap subscription that gives you access to literally everything on the platform at once."
That is EXACTLY what I HATE!
I only want to support games I like. Now I get forced into supporting every single game.
If Nintendo ever adds Gummy Bears Medallion to the service, whomever made the game that literally induced nausea to the reviewers of the game will get a small royalty for every subscription sold.
Additionally, I feel compelled to 100% every game i buy. If i have access to the game, I feel obligated to finish it and I spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours of gameplay on games I play.
I assume the service has a Zelda game on it. It would take me 10,000 hours of gameplay to 100% a Zelda game with the way I play games. (My projections to 100% Kirby: Squeak Squad for DS are 700-1,400 hours.)
And I HATE Zelda games! I bought 3 separate Zelda games to try to like the series, but after not enjoying any of them and getting stuck 10% into the game, I finally concluded I am just not a good fit for the franchise.
So, I have no choice but to boycott Nintendo Switch Online, when I would easily have given Nintendo $10 (even $100) for every single game I actually wanted.
But hey, they totally "won" with their forced strategy? RIGHT!
@NerdyBoutKirby: Kirby's Rainbow Curse and Pac-Man & The Ghostly Adventures 1 are 2 Wii U games that are easily Top 25-Top 50 Games all-time, but clearly never underwent quality control before release, so the games have a ton of irritating "quality of life" features that drag it down to where just franchise veterans like the game.
Those 2 games are easily the most deserving of a remaster on Switch.
For example, I spent 25-50 hours PER LEVEL trying to PERFECT each of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse's levels, but it is so irritating to not know what the actual Perfect Score for each level is, so I never know when I am actually done with a level.
If they simply displayed that and gave you a Kirby Virtual Console game for every time you perfected a level, it would easily be a 10/10 game. (The number of people who would actually unlock that content would be super small, so Nintendo would not lose any material money for offering that.)
For Pac-Man & The Ghostly Adventures, they have the same problem and could use the same fix.
Pac-Man's additional problem is the game CLEARLY was rushed. The last world is so short and easy that it is shorter than the 1st level of the 1st world and the final boss can be defeated in less than 30 seconds, but the first 5 worlds were so AMAZING that the game instantly is a classic with just those first 5 worlds.
The game has a bunch of small characters in the hub world to talk to, but they only have 5-6 lines of total dialogue. Each character should have a new line after every level. The biggest offender is after you defeat the final boss, the characters do not even acknowledge that you finished the game!
If they added the Rainbow Curse solution, lengthened/hardened the final mode, and offered a Hard Mode, it would easily be a Top 50 all-time game.
For people saying Nintendo cannot offer 2 redundant services: the Wii Shop did not close until 2017, so it obviously worked for Nintendo for 4 years to have a Wii Virtual Console and a Wii U Virtual Console simultaneously.
Does anyone know what the actual US rule is that made the former NOA employee say, "Nintendo would be facing a class action lawsuit if they did not support their products for at least 10 years."
A better investment for our time would be to petition our elected representatives to change that law to 100 years or infinite.
I would be willing to organize a petition and/or bulk e-mail if someone can find the actual law.
@Crono1973: I never downloaded any Switch games, but for the 3DS, I read their whole user agreement one time and it explicitly says that Nintendo is allowed to delete it from your system at any time.
It was then that I began hating that the Nintendo of America branch has started corrupting the Nintendo of Japan branch because Japan would never have done shady things like this on their own.
Kirby's Rainbow Curse had muted sales because the game was not marketed properly.
The Platinum Medal Goals were pathetic. The first level had about 1,100 Points Available and a Platinum Medal was 700 Points or less than 65% of the total, so everyone just blew through the game in 10 hours and never spent any time learning its ingenuous combo system.
Less than 65% is an F, not an A.
But many gamers only go for things if the game instructs you to or if there is a reward, so no one ever bothered going for a perfect score.
I went for a perfect score on 4 of the levels and spent over 100 hours of gameplay on just those 4 levels combined!
When you attack those levels at such a granular level and try to maximize all the combos, a whole new game emerges that is insanely layered, rewarding, and fun to master.
If Nintendo offered a $100,000 cash prize for each of the Top 10 scores for every level in the game, the game would have pushed console sales the way MLB the Show pushes console sales for Playstation Systems and the game would have sold 20 million copies instead of the 1 million it actually sold.
In a single level in World # 1, I found somewhere between 45-50 unique puzzles that you have to rack up perfect combos on to perfect 1 level.
I never did get a perfect score, but my research showed a perfect score for Level 1-3 is around 1,340-1,360 Points and I got 1,308 on my best run. (It would have helped if the game told you what a Perfect Score was.)
To get that score, I put about 50 hours of gameplay into that level alone over a 2 week period and spent another 25-50 hours authoring my own "Player's Guide" to help me get better.
You feel ultra connected to a game when you exert such tremendous effort to perfect a game.
Nintendo could have offered a separate retro Kirby game as a reward for 100%'ing each level to encourage core players to fully learn the series' history and so few gamers would reach those levels that Nintendo would not have lost much money for those people getting the games for free.
It is sad to say, but as a lay person, I could easily do a better job than Nintendo does in maximizing the sales for its games.
"The other side of the argument could be that Nintendo doesn't have the resources or inclination to update and produce the necessary game page texts and other aspects we're used to on NSO, like the control screens and so on. It's not just a matter of dropping a few hundred ROMs onto a store and watching the sales roll in, there'll be a lot of background work to produce the 'products', and it likely wouldn't be a simple case of reusing the store assets from previous Virtual Console platforms. It would be a relatively significant project, and perhaps Nintendo has research and data to suggest that the effort wouldn't pay off."
That quote is nonsense corporations feed you to bully you into buying stuff you do not want.
I could hire a group of 20 high school interns and the whole project would be done in less than 12 months with $0 in financial cost.
Nintendo would have it even easier because they could offer the interns a chance to hang out with Reggie or someone at Nintendo that speaks English as a reward in lieu of no pay.
The idea that translating control screens from 1 system to another for a company that programs video games is literally preposterous.
If Nintendo wants more money, they should just offer full Virtual Console Support and charge original MSRP indexed to inflation for each game.
With the higher price point, they could retrofit online play and new features onto the existing base, so all gamers would be satisfied.
I would pay $100 for original Super Smash Brothers with online play, but I will not allow myself to be bullied into supporting horrible games that I have no interest in playing.
If anyone ever used to visit the NSider Forums before Nintendo shut them down in 2007, I used to help moderate their Official Wii Sports Leaderboard.
Before we had online play, having a smallish group of highly competitive people trying to max the Skill Level on all 5 sports really added a ton of longevity to the game for solo players.
I will admit I did fall for the Wii Tennis 2400 Skill Level hoax, but never attempted it myself as the guy claimed he spent over 1,000 hours of gameplay to get the Skill Level to change from 2,399 to 2,400.
Had he claimed 100 hours though, I probably would have went for it.
The baseball players abilities did get significantly better the higher your Skill Level went, so the fielding actually became quite good, but the 3 inning cap made it impossible to keep improving, as you needed a 11-0 win to maybe go up 5-10 Skill Points and you risked a massive drop off of 50 Skill Points if you "only" won 11-3.
I love bowling, but there was a specific shot that you could easily do over and over to bowl a 300 every time, so that was not very fun and I never ended up chaining dozens together to see what the max skill level could be because the game took so long to complete all the animations.
For golf, I was never good enough at putting to move the Skill Level up much. I would be fortunate to get par for the 9 holes, unlike Mario Golf for Gamecube, where my personal best was only a few strokes worse than the Nintendo Power Champion.
I almost never played boxing. The entirety of my boxing experience was the final boss in Donkey Kong 64, which I also failed to ever finish!
Does anyone know if there are any other Wii U Virtual Console games or 3DS Virtual Console games that include bonus content on the Virtual Console that were not in the original release like the way Super Mario Advance 4 got 38 extra E-Reader Levels?
I actually already own Super Mario Advance 4 in cartridge form, but am electrified to learn there is even more content I never played and am wondering if there are other games like that on either Wii U Virtual Console or 3DS Virtual Console?
Also, does anyone know if it is possible to download all Virtual Console games for Wii U and 3DS and fit that within the small memory on each system? For reference, I have the Deluxe Wii U and original 3DS.
If I need expanded memory, does anyone know the largest memory card i can buy for Wii U and for 3DS that Nintendo (or at least NintendoLife.com) ensures will be compatible with each respective system?
Thanks so much for your info!
1st Career Post on NintendoLife.com at 2-22-22 at 2:22:22 AM!!!
Comments 131
Re: Review: Crystal Warriors (3DS eShop / GG)
@Einherjar, @CanisWolfred, @RevolverLink, @C-Olimar, @slidecage, @Magikarp3, @tonloco, @Hairmanban19, @SamiCetinSMK, @MC808, and @Badboykilla187:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Crystal Warriors from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) How many total hours of gameplay would it take to 100% the campaign?
2) How similar to the Paper Mario franchise is this game with respect to turn based battles?
3) When Nintendo eliminates online support, will local wireless play still be available?
I feel like local wireless play just uses your 2 DS and a modem, so it should be fine, but then again, my friend tried to download a game on the Switch and still play a game, which should be fine, and the Switch would not do it until he closed the game, so I never put anything past Nintendo.
4) Am I the only one who was SHOCKED to learn the Game Gear had multiplayer support in the early 1990s? WOW!!!
5) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
6) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Defenders of Oasis (3DS eShop / GG)
@MetalSlime, @bezerker99, @KongFu, @Knuckles, @unrandomsam, @Retrogamerfan, @shinobi88, @MAB, @ecco6t9, @Emblem, @KnightRider666, @TheAdza, @Hong, @BulbasaurusRex, @Joygame51, @Ivanek, @golephish, @yuwarite, and @KokiriChild84:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Defenders of Oasis from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) How many total hours of gameplay would it take to 100% the campaign?
2) How similar to the Paper Mario franchise is this game with respect to turn based battles?
3) Are Shining Force and Defenders of Oasis the same game with an Arabian palette swap?
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Columns (3DS eShop / GG)
@LinktotheFuture: I REALLY hate online models that force you to have access to every game, so I am mostly focused on Wii U and 3DS right now.
Additionally, I have put up to 1,500 hours of gameplay into a single game before, so I HATE the idea that you never actually can own the game and when the Switch Online Service closes, you lose all your data forever!
What differences are there between the Game Gear and Genesis version?
Re: Review: Dragon Crystal (3DS eShop / GG)
@rolLTheDice: Thanks so much for your replies.:
1) What items are necessary for a 100% Completion Rating on 1 run?
Are the basic items the only collectible?
As a comparison, for me to consider Donkey Kong 64 to have a 100% Completion Rating, the 201 Golden Bananas would not be enough for me.
I would want everything, including all 4,000 bananas from the 8 worlds, even though not all of them are required to unlock any other areas.
2) I mean how many attributes are randomly generated and how many actual permutations does the game use?
While you can technically call everything infinite, if I picked 100 colors at random, they would all mostly fall into 8-12 main colors.
So, if a hypothetical game picked 4 colors at random, they could say there are infinite combinations, but there really are only 8^4-12^4 combinations or 4,096-20,736 combinations.
And I doubt the game has anywhere near 8 options for each attribute.
3) Thanks for telling me. I usually keep notes for every game I play, so sad to see, my notes will not help for this game!
4) Do you know how many blocks of space the whole 3DS has in its memory?
6) If I need to expand memory, what official SD card can I use and how many extra blocks of memory does that get me?
7) Do you know what price it would cost to buy everything on both the Wii U and 3DS' Virtual Console / E-Shop's with all its paid downloadable content?
Part of me just wants to download everything and then go through the games later, but I have no idea how expensive it would be to do that.
Re: Review: Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (3DS eShop / GG)
@CanisWolfred, @Squashie, @Rezalack, @Zodiak13, @Captain_Toad, @Damo, @datamonkey, @Philip_J_Reed, @TsunamiSensei, @Brianvgplayer, @Belmont, @DAaaMan64, @Windy, @Retrogamerfan, @oOo-Sega-oOo, @RR529, @slidecage, @yojo, @Marakuto, @justinj42, @Relias, @KnightRider666, @ecco6t9, @kurtasbestos, @DoctorJonAngus, @Donald_M, @tonloco, and @GreatPlayer:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many hours of gameplay it would take to 100% the game? (collect all the secrets, max every character's level, etc.)
2) Considering how essential story is for an RPG, are Shining Force I and Shining Force II (this game's prequels) available for download on Wii U Virtual Console or 3DS Virtual Console?
3) If no, is it available to follow the story without playing the 1st 2 games or will you feel lost?
4) The only franchise I have any experience with that I enjoy is the Paper Mario / Mario & Luigi franchises.
How much of a step upwards is the increase in complexity for this game with respect to the combat/battles from Paper Mario
/ Mario & Luigi games?
5) I saw another commenter compare this game to the Fire Emblem franchise, but I thought those games were 150+ hours in length for a casual player and this game looks nowhere near that long.
Is the Fire Emblem comparison accurate?
6) When you enter/exit a room, do the enemies you previously defeated respawn or do they stay defeated?
7) Are there Random Battles in this game (meaning when you try to walk across a room, small enemies force you into battle, but the level up options are non-existent: this mechanic is often used to pad out an otherwise short game)
(If any of you read IGN, Craig Harris is notorious for HATING Random Battles!)
8) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
9) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Columns (3DS eShop / GG)
@Eisenbolan, @Weskerb, @Knuckles, @Retro_on_theGo, @HandheldGuru97, @Tasuki, @blackknight77, @Philip_J_Reed, @CrispyGoomba, @ecco6t9, @Ralizah, @holchasaur, @CanisWolfred, @Freelance, @LinktotheFuture, @Undead_terror, @iphys, @DualWielding, @RetrogamerFan, @JJtheTexan, @holchasaur, @Harrison_Peter, and @shinobi88:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Columns from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many levels there are in both the Original Mode and the Flash mode?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, it feels hard to imagine there are actually "infinite" games on the download. The game had to adhere to the Game Gear's miniscule space limitations after all.
2) When Nintendo eliminates online support, will local wireless play still be available?
I feel like local wireless play just uses your 2 DS and a modem, so it should be fine, but then again, my friend tried to download a game on the Switch and still play a game, which should be fine, and the Switch would not do it until he closed the game, so I never put anything past Nintendo.
3) I saw a commenter mention that this game is easier on the harder difficulty levels?
Can anyone explain to me the mechanics of why that is true?
4) In relation to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, what are the unique features that each game has that the other does not?
In reading this review, it feels like every single aspect it offers is already offered in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
5) Is this game for people who like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, but hate the Sonic franchise?
6) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
7) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Shinobi (3DS eShop / GG)
@Matillion, @Yogsoggoth, @pikku, @Odnetnin, @Shiryu, @Knuckles, @MakeMyBiscuit, @Shonenjump86, @misswliu81, @RR529, @Gavintendo, @fredtoy, @ennan, @Bass_X0, @Mayhem, @cappa, @alvieao, @chewytapeworm, @C-Olimar, @WolfRamHeart, @NeoShinobi, @paburrows, @mshope10, @DamnataAnimus, @warioswoods, @Philip_J_Reed, @cecesigue, @motang, @MeloMan, @mac_hine, and @colliric:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Shinobi from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many distinctly different routes through the game there are?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, is the game difficulty materially different if you complete the levels in a difficult order or do the characters just have different dialogue?
2) I saw someone comment about how there are different emulation features.
What is the exact set of emulation features I should pick if I want a fully authentic experience, as if I was playing on original Game Gear hardware?
I only ever played a Game Gear handheld once. (A classmate of mine brought one in on a snowy day where we did not do much schoolwork, but upon learning that it devoured SIX AA batters for a whole 45 minutes of gameplay, I knew I could never afford to play that!)
3) My first instinct when reading the review is the game sounds like the Super Nintendo Power Rangers games that never got ported to any Virtual Console, but I played dozens of hours with my friends growing up.
Are my instincts accurate or is the gameplay totally different?
The review sites were not in existent when the Super Nintendo was current, so I have no idea what score official reviewers would have given those Super Nintendo Power Rangers games.
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Dragon Crystal (3DS eShop / GG)
@Sam332, @HanuKwanzmasBif, @bezerker99, @Undead_terror, @GBLuigi, @ejamer, @Dreadjaws, @Kyloctopus, @rollthedice, @XXItheWorld, @Eel, @Yogsoggoth, @Knux, @BulbasaurusRex, @C-Olimar, @Stuffgamer1, @MeloMan, @lockelocke, @RR529, @Smexizeldaman, @Pogocoop, @AltDotNerd, @Sam_Loser2, @EvilLucario, @Ras, @DivineDope, @Betagam7, @TheConsiglio, @MegaAdam, @Ratjuice, and @Hairmanban19:
As part of my effort to celebrate every single Virtual Console game, E-Shop game, and expansion for Wii U and 3DS, I am going through every single NintendoLife.com Review (or offsite review for those games that NintendoLife.com never reviewed) to see if it is worth our collective time in the Virtual Console's final year.
For Dragon Crystal from Game Gear on 3DS Virtual Console, here are my questions.:
1) As someone who likes to 100% games, can anyone tell me how many distinctly different types of games there are?
I do want to eventually perfect the game, but my internal projections to 100% games are as high as 10,000 hours to perfect Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2!!!
So, I am not afraid of effort, but do want to know I can eventually FINISH the game.
For example, it feels hard to imagine there are actually "infinite" games on the download. The game had to adhere to the Game Gear's miniscule space limitations after all.
2) Also, when the reviewer says, "No 2 games are the same.": Are the levels materially different or they just present you the same 30 levels in a new order?
I would not view an open of Level #'s 1, 2, 3 as materially different from an open of Level #'s 1, 3, 2, even though they technically would be 2 different routes.
3) The reviewer claims all you get to identify an item is its color.
If an item gives you a red color one game, will the same item be in red text on your second game or do they constantly mix each other up?
4) How many blocks of space does this download take up and what is the current price? (in both US dollars and Euros)
5) What number score out of 10 would you give this game and why?
Thanks so much for your info!
Re: Review: Surviving High School (DSiWare)
@Zach: Also, for the diverging choices gameplay, is Shadow the Hedgehog a good comparison game?
I know people irrationally hated it because Shadow had a gun, but the actual mix of platforming/gunfire gameplay was pretty unique and the 25 different endings were fun to get, if not a little irritating to pursue because of how much in common all of them had to get the different endings.
Re: EA's CEO Seems Pretty Chill About Losing The FIFA Licence
Thinking that people will buy a soccer game with no soccer players is like thinking the same audience that loves The Show, but hates Mario games, would buy Mario Super Sluggers.
I love Mario games AND baseball, so that game is perfect for me, but the absence of a good MLB game on Nintendo systems will not make someone who hates Mario games buy Mario Super Sluggers and the same is true here.
Re: Review: Surviving High School (DSiWare)
@Zach: With the impending 3DS E-Shop Closure, I started going through all the reviews for every single game and chuckled at the title and had a couple questions:
1) Have you played this game?:
https://www.nintendolife.com/games/ds/clique_diss_and_make-up
and is it the middle school equivalent of Surviving High School?
Since I typically enjoy middle school humor/parodies and to play this game and your reviewed game in age order, I would like to play the above linked game first, but cannot find any reviews on it to ensure to me that it is not shovelware.
Is The Clique Game as good as Surviving High School?
2) You mention a minigame in Surviving High School called "As Time Goes By"
Is that relate to the TV show at all by the same name or is it just a coincidence?
I used to overhear that show when I was younger and it is HILARIOUS! (There was a solid 15 minute scene where 2 elderly people were trying to calculate how many people they could pack into a wedding reception hall and there was large amounts of effort placed into how much elbow room to give each person.)
Re: EA's CEO Seems Pretty Chill About Losing The FIFA Licence
Just like both companies are in agreement, both companies are wrong.
The idea that soccer fans are going to buy an EA Soccer game with no real pro players is crazy.
I am going through the same thing with MLB on Switch, but I never buy any of the Backyard Baseball knockoff games either.
But making a development company pay $250 million JUST FOR THE NAME/PLAYERS is crazy!
My guess is despite how much FIFA apparently bosses EA around with how the game is made and their demanded ransom, they probably contribute $0 to game development.
Why would anyone agree to that?
Re: EA's CEO Seems Pretty Chill About Losing The FIFA Licence
FIFA: "FIFA claims that the cost should go up as the revenue EA generates from the licence has scaled dramatically as microtransactions have become more popular."
EA: "Our players want us to expand into the digital ecosystem more broadly… our fans are telling us they want us to go and participate in that space."
So, in other words, both companies agree, but EA just does not want to pay.
If by "more popular" and "player demand" more than 1 person asked, then yes, they are popular.
In reality, microtransactions often lead to gamers boycotting the game, so no, they are not popular.
Re: Feature: 31 Best DSiWare Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
Honestly, the entire DSiWare, Wii U E-Shop, 3DS E-Shop, Wii U Virtual Console, 3DS Virtual Console, Wii U DLC, 3DS DLC, Wii U Updates, and 3DS Updates lists should be ranked in full from top to bottom instead of Top X numbers.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
@Slownenberg: "NSO is a very cheap subscription that gives you access to literally everything on the platform at once."
That is EXACTLY what I HATE!
I only want to support games I like. Now I get forced into supporting every single game.
If Nintendo ever adds Gummy Bears Medallion to the service, whomever made the game that literally induced nausea to the reviewers of the game will get a small royalty for every subscription sold.
Additionally, I feel compelled to 100% every game i buy. If i have access to the game, I feel obligated to finish it and I spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours of gameplay on games I play.
I assume the service has a Zelda game on it. It would take me 10,000 hours of gameplay to 100% a Zelda game with the way I play games. (My projections to 100% Kirby: Squeak Squad for DS are 700-1,400 hours.)
And I HATE Zelda games! I bought 3 separate Zelda games to try to like the series, but after not enjoying any of them and getting stuck 10% into the game, I finally concluded I am just not a good fit for the franchise.
So, I have no choice but to boycott Nintendo Switch Online, when I would easily have given Nintendo $10 (even $100) for every single game I actually wanted.
But hey, they totally "won" with their forced strategy? RIGHT!
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
@NerdyBoutKirby: Kirby's Rainbow Curse and Pac-Man & The Ghostly Adventures 1 are 2 Wii U games that are easily Top 25-Top 50 Games all-time, but clearly never underwent quality control before release, so the games have a ton of irritating "quality of life" features that drag it down to where just franchise veterans like the game.
Those 2 games are easily the most deserving of a remaster on Switch.
For example, I spent 25-50 hours PER LEVEL trying to PERFECT each of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse's levels, but it is so irritating to not know what the actual Perfect Score for each level is, so I never know when I am actually done with a level.
If they simply displayed that and gave you a Kirby Virtual Console game for every time you perfected a level, it would easily be a 10/10 game. (The number of people who would actually unlock that content would be super small, so Nintendo would not lose any material money for offering that.)
For Pac-Man & The Ghostly Adventures, they have the same problem and could use the same fix.
Pac-Man's additional problem is the game CLEARLY was rushed. The last world is so short and easy that it is shorter than the 1st level of the 1st world and the final boss can be defeated in less than 30 seconds, but the first 5 worlds were so AMAZING that the game instantly is a classic with just those first 5 worlds.
The game has a bunch of small characters in the hub world to talk to, but they only have 5-6 lines of total dialogue. Each character should have a new line after every level. The biggest offender is after you defeat the final boss, the characters do not even acknowledge that you finished the game!
If they added the Rainbow Curse solution, lengthened/hardened the final mode, and offered a Hard Mode, it would easily be a Top 50 all-time game.
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
@Grumblevolcano: haha, they did!
There is a 2nd page to the article and both are on the 2nd page.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
For people saying Nintendo cannot offer 2 redundant services: the Wii Shop did not close until 2017, so it obviously worked for Nintendo for 4 years to have a Wii Virtual Console and a Wii U Virtual Console simultaneously.
Why was it OK then and not now?
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
@Muddy_4_Ever: Did you play Kirby's Rainbow Curse in a casual way or competitive way?
For people who play in a competitive / high score way, I have no idea why the game gets any lower than a 9/10.
It is like people playing Super Mario games,complaining about the nonsensical plot, and giving the game a 3/10 score.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
Does anyone know what the actual US rule is that made the former NOA employee say, "Nintendo would be facing a class action lawsuit if they did not support their products for at least 10 years."
A better investment for our time would be to petition our elected representatives to change that law to 100 years or infinite.
I would be willing to organize a petition and/or bulk e-mail if someone can find the actual law.
Re: Feature: 31 Best DSiWare Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
Are you able to download DSiWare games from a 3DS?
My DS is just the launch DS and it does not have internet, which I am so thankful for these days.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
@Crono1973: I never downloaded any Switch games, but for the 3DS, I read their whole user agreement one time and it explicitly says that Nintendo is allowed to delete it from your system at any time.
It was then that I began hating that the Nintendo of America branch has started corrupting the Nintendo of Japan branch because Japan would never have done shady things like this on their own.
Re: Sega & Jakks Pacific Reveal New Sonic Movie 2 Merch, Arriving This Spring
@RubyCarbuncle: I agree.
That Dr. Robotnik figurine looks NOTHING like the actual character!
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
Kirby's Rainbow Curse had muted sales because the game was not marketed properly.
The Platinum Medal Goals were pathetic. The first level had about 1,100 Points Available and a Platinum Medal was 700 Points or less than 65% of the total, so everyone just blew through the game in 10 hours and never spent any time learning its ingenuous combo system.
Less than 65% is an F, not an A.
But many gamers only go for things if the game instructs you to or if there is a reward, so no one ever bothered going for a perfect score.
I went for a perfect score on 4 of the levels and spent over 100 hours of gameplay on just those 4 levels combined!
When you attack those levels at such a granular level and try to maximize all the combos, a whole new game emerges that is insanely layered, rewarding, and fun to master.
If Nintendo offered a $100,000 cash prize for each of the Top 10 scores for every level in the game, the game would have pushed console sales the way MLB the Show pushes console sales for Playstation Systems and the game would have sold 20 million copies instead of the 1 million it actually sold.
In a single level in World # 1, I found somewhere between 45-50 unique puzzles that you have to rack up perfect combos on to perfect 1 level.
I never did get a perfect score, but my research showed a perfect score for Level 1-3 is around 1,340-1,360 Points and I got 1,308 on my best run. (It would have helped if the game told you what a Perfect Score was.)
To get that score, I put about 50 hours of gameplay into that level alone over a 2 week period and spent another 25-50 hours authoring my own "Player's Guide" to help me get better.
You feel ultra connected to a game when you exert such tremendous effort to perfect a game.
Nintendo could have offered a separate retro Kirby game as a reward for 100%'ing each level to encourage core players to fully learn the series' history and so few gamers would reach those levels that Nintendo would not have lost much money for those people getting the games for free.
It is sad to say, but as a lay person, I could easily do a better job than Nintendo does in maximizing the sales for its games.
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
Yoshi's Wooly World will not get a Switch port because Nintendo already ported it to 3DS in Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World.
Re: Potential Switch Port Round-Up - The Wii U Games That Haven't Come To Switch
I recently learned that some pathetic number of games like 175 were all that were released on physical discs.
NO WONDER the Wii U failed!!!
Seriously, 175? The Gamecube had 500+ and people thought that was low.
I saw a group of 175 Wii U Games for sale and thought that meant just the exclusives, until I realized Just Dance 20AB was like 8/175 games.
For just 175 games, there is no reason not to port every single one, especially now that they are dropping all Wii U support.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
"The other side of the argument could be that Nintendo doesn't have the resources or inclination to update and produce the necessary game page texts and other aspects we're used to on NSO, like the control screens and so on. It's not just a matter of dropping a few hundred ROMs onto a store and watching the sales roll in, there'll be a lot of background work to produce the 'products', and it likely wouldn't be a simple case of reusing the store assets from previous Virtual Console platforms. It would be a relatively significant project, and perhaps Nintendo has research and data to suggest that the effort wouldn't pay off."
That quote is nonsense corporations feed you to bully you into buying stuff you do not want.
I could hire a group of 20 high school interns and the whole project would be done in less than 12 months with $0 in financial cost.
Nintendo would have it even easier because they could offer the interns a chance to hang out with Reggie or someone at Nintendo that speaks English as a reward in lieu of no pay.
The idea that translating control screens from 1 system to another for a company that programs video games is literally preposterous.
Re: Soapbox: Why Can't Nintendo Offer Both Virtual Console And Switch Online?
If Nintendo wants more money, they should just offer full Virtual Console Support and charge original MSRP indexed to inflation for each game.
With the higher price point, they could retrofit online play and new features onto the existing base, so all gamers would be satisfied.
I would pay $100 for original Super Smash Brothers with online play, but I will not allow myself to be bullied into supporting horrible games that I have no interest in playing.
Re: Review: Wii Sports (Wii)
Did anyone ever get a Platinum Medal on all 15/15 Minigames in Wii Sports?
I was not as perfectionist gamer in 2006-2007 as I am now, but I think I got 8-9 Platinums.
The Platinum Medals were super tough and definitely would have required hours of dedicated practice to get the 6 Platinum Medals I never got.
Re: Review: Wii Sports (Wii)
If anyone ever used to visit the NSider Forums before Nintendo shut them down in 2007, I used to help moderate their Official Wii Sports Leaderboard.
Before we had online play, having a smallish group of highly competitive people trying to max the Skill Level on all 5 sports really added a ton of longevity to the game for solo players.
I will admit I did fall for the Wii Tennis 2400 Skill Level hoax, but never attempted it myself as the guy claimed he spent over 1,000 hours of gameplay to get the Skill Level to change from 2,399 to 2,400.
Had he claimed 100 hours though, I probably would have went for it.
The baseball players abilities did get significantly better the higher your Skill Level went, so the fielding actually became quite good, but the 3 inning cap made it impossible to keep improving, as you needed a 11-0 win to maybe go up 5-10 Skill Points and you risked a massive drop off of 50 Skill Points if you "only" won 11-3.
I love bowling, but there was a specific shot that you could easily do over and over to bowl a 300 every time, so that was not very fun and I never ended up chaining dozens together to see what the max skill level could be because the game took so long to complete all the animations.
For golf, I was never good enough at putting to move the Skill Level up much. I would be fortunate to get par for the 9 holes, unlike Mario Golf for Gamecube, where my personal best was only a few strokes worse than the Nintendo Power Champion.
I almost never played boxing. The entirety of my boxing experience was the final boss in Donkey Kong 64, which I also failed to ever finish!
Re: Review: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Wii U eShop / GBA)
Hi all!
Does anyone know if there are any other Wii U Virtual Console games or 3DS Virtual Console games that include bonus content on the Virtual Console that were not in the original release like the way Super Mario Advance 4 got 38 extra E-Reader Levels?
I actually already own Super Mario Advance 4 in cartridge form, but am electrified to learn there is even more content I never played and am wondering if there are other games like that on either Wii U Virtual Console or 3DS Virtual Console?
Also, does anyone know if it is possible to download all Virtual Console games for Wii U and 3DS and fit that within the small memory on each system? For reference, I have the Deluxe Wii U and original 3DS.
If I need expanded memory, does anyone know the largest memory card i can buy for Wii U and for 3DS that Nintendo (or at least NintendoLife.com) ensures will be compatible with each respective system?
Thanks so much for your info!
1st Career Post on NintendoLife.com at 2-22-22 at 2:22:22 AM!!!