Most of the games background are pre-rendered. Not much they can do about those. I’m assuming they don’t have the masters anymore, because they didn’t have them for Final Fantasy IX and the pre rendered backgrounds were still in 240p, which was the PS1 natively outputted. Next to updated models rendered at 1080p it was…. Odd.
That said, Cross’s art style and location setting would probably look a lot better anyway.
Typically speaking Switch versions of shooters tend to be capped at 30fps and have an unstable framerate at that. Competitive shooters demand above all else a super stable framerate preferably at 60 or higher. It may sound weird, but if two players equally skilled at the same control scheme yet their machines are unequal in the sense that one has a much higher refresh rate, they are usually at an advantage during encounters. I didn’t believe it either until I switched from playing Fortnite on Switch to PS5. I’m dramatically more accurate and I’m more competitive on PS5 and I find it easier to get on target. The switch version has a pretty unstable framerate and that impacts your ability to rapidly switch targets. I assume this shooter is no different.
Another issue is that Switch users tend to use wifi, which increases their latency. Once again it’s a disadvantage in a heated firefight when you’re dropping packets.
Plus there is the M&K combo. But thanks to aggressive aim assist on most modern shooters that’s actually becoming less of a concern. You can be really competitive on shooters with pad now, something that wasn’t the case ten years ago. I play COD with a Dualsense and i go up against M&K users all the time and I’d say I feel confident against them 70% of the time. Modern aim assist really makes up for the lack of precision on analog sticks.
Metal Gear Solid 2 is really close from the “impressiveness” standpoint. Really really close in my opinion.
I would say from a texture material and lighting standpoint, Rogue Leader takes the win; it was a stunner then and if it was given proper AA and rendered at a higher base resolution it would look good even by todays standards.
But what MGS2 did so effectively was build extremely convincing human characters in a way no other game had come close to at that point. They moved and behaved like humans, they full facial expressions that were believable, even had early attempts at fully detailed hair rendering with realistic physics for the main cast, like Snake’s mullet.
In addition, the particle effects, rain effects, and object physics were unmatched on other games for years. And it ran at a locked 60fps (on PS2 anyway, Xbox version was a different story) with no real drops.
Both Rogue Leader and MGS2 are extremely impressive 2001 titles that did their platforms proud. Halo Combat Evolved is also a stunner from that year, although I don’t think it has aged as well as either Rogue Leader or MGS2. That said, it was a far more complex game in terms of FOV, enemies on screen, bump mapped textures (which was a new technique at the time on PC and unheard of on consoles; very few PS2 or GameCube games ever used bump mapping or it’s successor normal mapping since they didn’t have fully programmable hardware shaders like the Xbox did, meaning you had to use software routines), and environmental physics.
IMO, I don’t think developers ever really maxed out the GameCube like they did with the Xbox or PS2. Metroid Prime 2’s particle effects were amazing, but I still feel like the GCN had more to give. Whereas you can tell Shadow of the Colossus maxed out the PS2 and Halo 2 and Doom 3 pushed the boundaries of what the OG Xbox was capable of.
Dread is fine on analog because the game was designed for it. The game is built around 360 degree movement. It could work with a digital eight direction pad, but it would limit your aiming options.
What would not work is Super Metroid on analog. The game was designed for an eight way directional input method. One could play it with an arcade stick, but I’ve tried Super on analog and it’s impossible to control effectively.
Those games hold their value. My last trade in was three PS5 games and Links Awakening, one of my few physical games. I got nearly 50 bucks for Link’s Awakening. Only 30 for Valhalla.
He was definitely the game’s biggest pain in the ass.
I had to restart the first time I fought him. I learned after that that auto-potion is your best friend in that game.
Honestly, Tactics is weird by FF standards. Magic is mostly useless, since the charge times of higher spells precludes their use in most engagements. Magic usually dominates most final fantasies.
My builds on my runs (assuming I was doing a no special character run) was to give all my members dual wield from Ninja and then change them to knights. Dual wielding the late game knight swords will one shot just about every enemy you encounter in chapter 4.
The solo battle between Ramza and Wiegraf is annoyingly difficult. It’s much harder than the second phase against his Daemon form with the rest of the team.
Matter of fact, a trick for people who haven’t played it. Make a back up save before you get to that mission. If you save going into the battle and your Ramza isn’t strong enough, Wiegraf will body you and you’ll have to restart the entire game from scratch. Because if you can’t beat him the first time you won’t beat him the second time. RNG isn’t the issue, it’s just that Wiegraf has annoyingly powerful attacks that can one shot an under equipped and under leveled Ramza.
BOTW is my favorite game of the last ten years. It’s absolutely brilliant, imo. It feels the closest to the NES original. It isn’t perfect and has some flaws, but it captures something that no other Zelda since the NES has captured. True and utter freedom to do things how you want and when you want.
And I’ve owned nothing but PlayStations since I got rid of my 360 in 2009. Before that I was mainly on PS2 and before that on PS1. So I’m a Sony fan first and foremost.
They’re over simplified and have elements left over from the Wii era Mario Party.
Superstars’ board are old school. That unfair, brutal style of board that causes fist fights.
I played an online match the other day on Princess Peach’s Cake. I was the only person who managed to grow a super Piranha plant. I was already in first place with two stars. The person in 2nd also had two stars but less coins. I ended up dominating the match because I stole his or her’s star using that plant.
I know on the other side they were probably raging against me. And that is what makes a great Mario Party. It’s about how friends become enemies and the fiercest competition outside of first person shooters.
1. Mario Odyssey 2. Breath of the Wild 3. Super Mario Party 4. Smash Bros Ultimate 5. Pokémon Shield
I’m the only Switch owner that I personally know who doesn’t own Mario Kart 8. I’ve been waiting for a digital sale. At this point it’ll never happen. So I may try to pick up a second hand copy.
As for Animal Crossing, 3/4 of my friends list (mostly people I know personally) own it. I don’t.
Considering the PS2, 22 million wasn’t half bad. The Xbox sold around 24 million. The Dreamcast at 9.5 million.
The PS2 was just such a juggernaut that it pillaged all challengers and threw their corpses into the nearest river. I remember on GC launch day seeing more Xboxes and GameCubes on shelves than PS2s.
What we are experiencing with the PS5 those of us who are a little older experienced with the PS2. You couldn’t find them for nearly a year. They sold out immediately upon reaching store shelves. It was nuts. Completely nuts.
The Xbox and GameCube tried their best but there was just nothing Nintendo or Microsoft could do. The PS2’s hype level was insane.
The fact that both competitors were able to sell 22 and 24 million consoles is actually great success for both of them. No other platform before or since has had such a strong start like the PS2 had. Maybe the PS5 is replicating it now some 20 years later. Point is, no other console maker stood a chance.
Nintendo at least made some money on the GameCube hardware. Microsoft never made a dime on the Xbox. Both were great consoles with some great exclusives, especially Metroid Prime and Halo 2, my favorite games of that generation.
This sounds like the worst idea Sega has had since they picked SOJ’s Saturn over SOA’s idea for the Saturn. Instead Nintendo ended up with using that tech for the N64.
I will say that multiplayer was much better on the N64 in general. There were a handful of gems that were just awesome to play with friends, like Star Fox.
But for single player experiences, it’s no contest. The PlayStation’s library was just top notch. I was a big JRPG nut so PlayStation was literally the place to play at that time, since it coincided with Square’s Golden Years.
I never owned a Saturn. I always wanted one but it was on its way out by the time I got around to it. I really wish I would have invested in it just from a collectors standpoint. Some of its gems look really fun to play.
Too bad Sega screwed it up by not bringing over more Japanese exclusive games.
Better graphics is subjective. Both the PS1 and N64 had their graphical pros and cons.
The N64 could create larger worlds and put out way higher polygon counts. It also had a lot more system RAM to work with. Games like Banjo Kazooie would have been very difficult to program on the PlayStation, although it was possible (see Legacy of Kain as an example).
On the other hand, the N64 system ram was slow as molasses and its speciality ram (located near the CPU die) for super fast access was pathetically small. This led developers to have to work around it, which is why it wasn’t uncommon for textures to be stretched across the environments and even character models where possible. The N64 just didn’t have the fast memory it needed. Plus the cartridge media really hobbled it out the gate. Limited ROM meant that textures were horribly compressed.
The PS1’s geometry engine was a really weird design that suffered from texture warping. It’s that weird “shimmering” effect you see on a lot of PS1 games. It also lacked a Z buffer which caused PS1 developers headaches (the Saturn’s VDP didn’t have one either).
On the other hand, the PS1 had relatively fast system memory and a simpler to understand architecture compared to the nightmares that were the Saturn and N64. The CD format was a godsend. Yes loading times sucked but it allowed for far higher quality textures and assets, CD audio, FMVs, and extensive voice acting. To me, most PS1 games look and sound more pleasing than N64 games.
Plus it had a controller that wasn’t intended for mutants. I grew up with both and I never liked the N64 controller. That thing was some nonsense. The PS1 controllers were evolutions of the SNES controllers. Which was perfect since I was coming off of a SNES
If a night of Mario party with three friends doesn’t end in a near fistfight, the game has failed to live up to the history of the franchise.
The charm of Mario party to me is that it really pushes the limits of friendships because of how unfair the game is at its core. The game screws you and everyone else. That’s the best thing about it. And I’m not being sarcastic at all.
I’ve got Superstar and while I haven’t played it with my friends yet, it gives me vibes of the old N64 game. So hopefully we will all be beating each other up soon.
I’m fine with any delay. I’ve got games in the backlog I need to finish. That was actually going to be my last game I bought this year.
As of now, I’m not buying anything for either my PS5 or Switch. I’ve got games on both I need to finish. The only game I’m looking at getting is Battlefield 2042 to replace Black Ops Cold War as my mandatory multiplayer shooter. But considering the issues we saw in the Beta I’m no longer getting it at launch. I’m going to wait a few weeks and see how it turns out before I blow 70 bucks.
Battlefield V was a mess at launch. I bought it anyway. Regretted it. The game took nearly 6 months worth of updates and patches to feel complete and for the network to run smoothly.
First game I bought on my Switch in late 2019. I actually caught it on sale for 41.99 on the eShop.
Loved every second of it. Especially the entire sequence with Pauline in New Donk City. It was a love letter to both Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. NES.
I have some story ideas. Basically it would take place 10 to 15 years after the events of Corruption. Samus is basically retired from bounty hunting. She’s in her late 30s, say 38 or 39. I imagine her as a Federation training contractor; she trains Federation special forces. She hasn’t worn the armor in years; it’s locked in her “bunker.”
Suddenly the planet she is living and working on is attacked by the Space Pirates, led by a reborn and significantly more powerful Ridley, who has a personal vendetta to settle. She dons the power suit again and she and the Federation forces manage to fight off the Pirates. However, the entire city they are operating near is completely destroyed in the battle with thousands of civilians killed. the Federation declares war on the Space Pirates and tasks Samus with tracking down their location and relaying it back to HQ so that the Federation fleet can invade and destroy them.
Samus tracks Ridley to some desolate world on the edge of galactic space. She lands there and begins investigating. However she is suddenly attacked by a man wearing Chozo power armor. The suit is similar to her own, but optimized for combat only rather than being general purpose like her own suit always has been. He’s also trained in Chozo battle arts just as well as she is.
Despite her best efforts, he wins the battle by knocking down her energy shields and hitting her directly with a Super Missile. Her suit’s integrity is compromised and she’s nearly unconscious.
Before the mysterious man can finish her off with a charged plasma beam, Ridley appears and demands retribution. The two bicker while Samus lays there. However Samus has one last trick up her sleeve. She jettisons her armor and sets a self destruct sequence in its power core. She manages to escape off of a nearby cliff as Ridley and his mysterious ally escape before her suit detonates with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon (minus the radiation).
After this, the game would truly start. Samus enters a mysterious temple and finds Chozo artifacts. She ends up in a mysterious room. In the room she finds a Chozo power armor called “Assassination Armor.” It’s lightly armored, but features extensive stealth capabilities, high mobility (with built in space jump and fast multidirectional dashes) and can be easily upgraded like her old armor. Next to it is an empty mold that is shaped exactly like the armor the mysterious man used.
Then you start exploring. I haven’t thought any farther than that. Ultimately the mysterious man and Ridley are the main antagonists.
No one will ever get Genesis music sounding right.
It’s hardware, while made from off the shelf components (the Yamaha synthesizer was basically a stripped down version of the FM synthesizer used in their keyboards in the 80s) had some really weird programming quirks. To this day, emulators struggle to output Genesis sound fonts the way they were intended to sound.
They’ve gotten alot closer, but I can usually spot the differences.
In the Sega Genesis Collection, I can’t play the sonic titles. There’s too much input lag. I have muscle memory from the 90s for classic sonic. I can adjust to the usual levels of input lag emulation causes, but those were so bad that it was nigh unplayable for me.
I’m not getting the expansion pack right now. I don’t think it’s a good deal. But I would like to see if the Genesis games offered have less input lag than the Collection titles did.
I would like Samus to talk sort of like the Master Chief. She doesn’t talk constantly, but when she does it carries real weight. Give her a voice of a woman in her early to mid 30s. Someone who is clearly a veteran and has been through the ringer multiple times.
Best part of Phantasy Star IV to me is that it respects your time. The Macro system is brilliant for burning through random battles and even unlocked more powerful combination attacks for bosses. In addition, the games walk speed is crazy fast for a 16 bit RPG. Plus the difficulty balance is just right. It’s challenging, especially the boss battles. But you don’t have to grind like a classic Dragon Quest game. It’s more about strategizing your party’s techniques and abilities (two different things in the game, Techniques use TP and each Ability has a limited number of uses that refills when you rest at an inn) to overcome the bosses.
And the music. The epic soundtrack. Very rare to see a JRPG with a damn near grunge and metal soundtrack. It’s very industrial with heavy bass and really well done FM guitars. Ooze (the theme of the final boss) is burned into my memory.
I agree that a lot of it is whining. But I do think Nintendo needs to really refresh Nintendo Switch Online. NSO is by far the weakest part of the system and it’s the only thing I really don’t like it.
They don’t have to match my PS5’s online features. They just need to get it up to PS3 levels. Basically cross game invites, native voice chat, and messaging. They do those three things and my complaints about the service are fixed.
I think the Switch is pretty fantastic. I wanted one at launch. It was the first Nintendo platform I really desired since the GameCube and Nintendo DS, which were my last two Nintendo systems. But at the time the PS4 was really hitting its stride and we were getting bombarded with fantastic games left and right every month or two. I just couldn’t justify spending the money and being afraid I wouldn’t really want to play anything other than Zelda.
Then November 2019 hit. I had cleared all the big PS4 games in my backlog by that point. I picked my Switch up then. Brand new V2 model with better battery life. And immediately fell in love with it.
I use it 90% docked. Mainly because I’m a snob in the sense that I like playing games through my 1000 watt sound system lol. But there are times when I undock it and play it handheld. It was a godsend during the ice storm we had in the southern US back in January of this year. I was without power for a week. So I charged the Switch in my work Jeep and played it by my grandparents heater, since they had gas heat (mine was electric so no staying at my place). I felt like a kid with a Game Boy Color all over again.
For a long time I thought we customers were abused by them financially with a lot of their schemes. Had no idea the employees were getting the absolute worst of it.
There’s nothing they can do to clear their name after what they let happen for years. Best they can do is fire every single abuser and offer a big compensation package to the victims.
I’ve always played them for their hilarious over the top satire on American stereotypes as well as their stories. Speaking as an American, they get pretty close to how crazy we are as a people.
I would like for Samus to speak more often, but in the same manner as the Master Chief in the original Halo trilogy. John didn’t speak too much, but when he did it carried intense weight.
I hope in Prime 4 that Samus talks a little more than we are used to. But not Other M levels. It should be restricted to important events and her personality should be that of a special forces warrior. Which is what she is. She’s a lot like the Master Chief. She suffers from a lot of trauma as a veteran of numerous conflicts, but she’s by the book and when she speaks she should be making serious points about the mission or the enemy. Not idle chit chat or anything like that.
I love the arcade version with its crazy clean voice samples.
I could live without the Genesis version. I don’t understand why Sega can’t just use the arcade version in its collections. Better yet, just give us both.
The only way this price would have been worth it is if they had included messaging, voice chat, parties, and game discounts. Basically what Xbox Live on Xbox 360 offered back in 2008.
That’s pretty sad. Even the free PS3 online service minus plus offered voice chat and parties.
I mean, who cares about stable online services, cross party chat, voice chat, modern free games (3 per month in Sony’s) and most importantly again, generally stable online features. Oh and almost forgot, in the case of PS Plus, significant savings on both DLC and games during most sales on top of the already reduced sale price.
Comments 461
Re: Rumour: Chrono Trigger Sequel Chrono Cross Might Be Getting A Remaster
@malcire
Most of the games background are pre-rendered. Not much they can do about those. I’m assuming they don’t have the masters anymore, because they didn’t have them for Final Fantasy IX and the pre rendered backgrounds were still in 240p, which was the PS1 natively outputted. Next to updated models rendered at 1080p it was…. Odd.
That said, Cross’s art style and location setting would probably look a lot better anyway.
Re: Rumour: Chrono Trigger Sequel Chrono Cross Might Be Getting A Remaster
@Tasuki
In what way is Cross crappy?
It’s one of the finest RPGs of its era.
Is it as good as Trigger? No. But it’s still a brilliant game.
Re: This Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Randomiser Moves Everything Around And Steals Your Items
I really wish Nintendo would officially sanction mods like this for their games.
Imagine BOTW 2 with out of the box mod support. It would be a huge consumer friendly step for Nintendo.
Re: Pac-Man Museum+ Brings 14 Games In The Series To Switch
@Paulo
I think Ms. PAC Man is trapped in ownership hell.
Sort of like the arcade version of Donkey Kong. There’s a reason Nintendo only rereleases the NES port.
Re: F2P Shooter Warface Now Allows Switch Players To Toggle Crossplay 'On' And 'Off'
@mereel
Typically speaking Switch versions of shooters tend to be capped at 30fps and have an unstable framerate at that. Competitive shooters demand above all else a super stable framerate preferably at 60 or higher. It may sound weird, but if two players equally skilled at the same control scheme yet their machines are unequal in the sense that one has a much higher refresh rate, they are usually at an advantage during encounters. I didn’t believe it either until I switched from playing Fortnite on Switch to PS5. I’m dramatically more accurate and I’m more competitive on PS5 and I find it easier to get on target. The switch version has a pretty unstable framerate and that impacts your ability to rapidly switch targets. I assume this shooter is no different.
Another issue is that Switch users tend to use wifi, which increases their latency. Once again it’s a disadvantage in a heated firefight when you’re dropping packets.
Plus there is the M&K combo. But thanks to aggressive aim assist on most modern shooters that’s actually becoming less of a concern. You can be really competitive on shooters with pad now, something that wasn’t the case ten years ago. I play COD with a Dualsense and i go up against M&K users all the time and I’d say I feel confident against them 70% of the time. Modern aim assist really makes up for the lack of precision on analog sticks.
Re: Talking Point: Is There A Better-Looking 20-Year-Old Game Than Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II?
@megakasp
Metal Gear Solid 2 is really close from the “impressiveness” standpoint. Really really close in my opinion.
I would say from a texture material and lighting standpoint, Rogue Leader takes the win; it was a stunner then and if it was given proper AA and rendered at a higher base resolution it would look good even by todays standards.
But what MGS2 did so effectively was build extremely convincing human characters in a way no other game had come close to at that point. They moved and behaved like humans, they full facial expressions that were believable, even had early attempts at fully detailed hair rendering with realistic physics for the main cast, like Snake’s mullet.
In addition, the particle effects, rain effects, and object physics were unmatched on other games for years. And it ran at a locked 60fps (on PS2 anyway, Xbox version was a different story) with no real drops.
Both Rogue Leader and MGS2 are extremely impressive 2001 titles that did their platforms proud. Halo Combat Evolved is also a stunner from that year, although I don’t think it has aged as well as either Rogue Leader or MGS2. That said, it was a far more complex game in terms of FOV, enemies on screen, bump mapped textures (which was a new technique at the time on PC and unheard of on consoles; very few PS2 or GameCube games ever used bump mapping or it’s successor normal mapping since they didn’t have fully programmable hardware shaders like the Xbox did, meaning you had to use software routines), and environmental physics.
IMO, I don’t think developers ever really maxed out the GameCube like they did with the Xbox or PS2. Metroid Prime 2’s particle effects were amazing, but I still feel like the GCN had more to give. Whereas you can tell Shadow of the Colossus maxed out the PS2 and Halo 2 and Doom 3 pushed the boundaries of what the OG Xbox was capable of.
Re: Metroid Dread In The Running With The Game Awards GOTY Nomination
@The_Pixel_King
Those are my choices as well.
Re: Doug Bowser: Switch OLED Off To A "Solid Start", Many Units Bought By Pre-Existing Switch Owners
@DumbElder
Dread is fine on analog because the game was designed for it. The game is built around 360 degree movement. It could work with a digital eight direction pad, but it would limit your aiming options.
What would not work is Super Metroid on analog. The game was designed for an eight way directional input method. One could play it with an arcade stick, but I’ve tried Super on analog and it’s impossible to control effectively.
Re: Doug Bowser (Kind Of) Addresses Complaints About Switch Online's Nintendo 64 Emulation
@Travisemo007
Yeah the Saturn is an absolute nightmare to emulate. Even on the PC emulation scene it’s not perfect.
The Genesis is easy, except for one thing. The Yamaha FM sound chip. No one ever gets it 100% correct.
Re: Watch: This Is What Grand Theft Auto Definitive Trilogy Looks Like On Switch
It doesn’t look bad.
People tend to forget that these games were not graphics powerhouses in their hey day on PS2. Visually speaking they were… “Ok” at best.
Metal Gear Solid 2, a very early PS2 release, had far more pleasing visuals than any of the PS2 GTA games.
But it was fine and no one cared. Because it was the scope of the game world that really impressed. Not the graphics.
Re: Looks Like Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl Are The Exact Same ROM
@Ralizah
For real. It’s approaching PSP, PS1, and Dreamcast levels of bad.
Re: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D To Be Temporarily Removed From The 3DS eShop
I bet this has something to do with some of the licensed music in the game.
The ending theme is “Way to Fall” by Starsailor.
Re: Nintendo Shares Its Plans For Black Friday 2021 (US)
@Specter_of-the_OLED
This is Nintendo we are talking about though.
Those games hold their value. My last trade in was three PS5 games and Links Awakening, one of my few physical games. I got nearly 50 bucks for Link’s Awakening. Only 30 for Valhalla.
Re: Rumour: The Original Final Fantasy Tactics Might Be Getting A Remaster
@Link2284
He was definitely the game’s biggest pain in the ass.
I had to restart the first time I fought him. I learned after that that auto-potion is your best friend in that game.
Honestly, Tactics is weird by FF standards. Magic is mostly useless, since the charge times of higher spells precludes their use in most engagements. Magic usually dominates most final fantasies.
My builds on my runs (assuming I was doing a no special character run) was to give all my members dual wield from Ninja and then change them to knights. Dual wielding the late game knight swords will one shot just about every enemy you encounter in chapter 4.
Re: Rumour: The Original Final Fantasy Tactics Might Be Getting A Remaster
@whitemage
The solo battle between Ramza and Wiegraf is annoyingly difficult. It’s much harder than the second phase against his Daemon form with the rest of the team.
Matter of fact, a trick for people who haven’t played it. Make a back up save before you get to that mission. If you save going into the battle and your Ramza isn’t strong enough, Wiegraf will body you and you’ll have to restart the entire game from scratch. Because if you can’t beat him the first time you won’t beat him the second time. RNG isn’t the issue, it’s just that Wiegraf has annoyingly powerful attacks that can one shot an under equipped and under leveled Ramza.
Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2021
@UglyCasanova
May I ask why?
BOTW is my favorite game of the last ten years. It’s absolutely brilliant, imo. It feels the closest to the NES original. It isn’t perfect and has some flaws, but it captures something that no other Zelda since the NES has captured. True and utter freedom to do things how you want and when you want.
And I’ve owned nothing but PlayStations since I got rid of my 360 in 2009. Before that I was mainly on PS2 and before that on PS1. So I’m a Sony fan first and foremost.
Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2021
@McGruber
Yeah they should just commit to it and support it through the rest of the generation.
Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2021
@Dinklebot
The boards are the problem with Super.
They’re over simplified and have elements left over from the Wii era Mario Party.
Superstars’ board are old school. That unfair, brutal style of board that causes fist fights.
I played an online match the other day on Princess Peach’s Cake. I was the only person who managed to grow a super Piranha plant. I was already in first place with two stars. The person in 2nd also had two stars but less coins. I ended up dominating the match because I stole his or her’s star using that plant.
I know on the other side they were probably raging against me. And that is what makes a great Mario Party. It’s about how friends become enemies and the fiercest competition outside of first person shooters.
Re: Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2021
I have several.
1. Mario Odyssey
2. Breath of the Wild
3. Super Mario Party
4. Smash Bros Ultimate
5. Pokémon Shield
I’m the only Switch owner that I personally know who doesn’t own Mario Kart 8. I’ve been waiting for a digital sale. At this point it’ll never happen. So I may try to pick up a second hand copy.
As for Animal Crossing, 3/4 of my friends list (mostly people I know personally) own it. I don’t.
Re: Random: "Roadkill NES" Found By The Side Of Texas Freeway Restored To Working Condition
@sdelfin
The PS2 was a very fragile system.
The Xbox was a tank. And if you threw it at someone you’d probably be charged with attempted murder.
Re: Random: "Roadkill NES" Found By The Side Of Texas Freeway Restored To Working Condition
@PokemonDMG
Nothing beats the OG Game Boys.
You could basically use a collection of Game Boys as body armor.
Re: Talking Point: Super Mario 3D Land Turns 10 - Was It The Best '3D' Game On 3DS?
@GameManAdvance
I never owned or played a 3DS but if it felt anything like watching 3D films I’d have hated it and would have turned it off.
Stereoscopic 3D gives me terrible migraines.
Re: Random: Oh No, People Don't Recognise GameCubes Any More
@Ralizah
Considering the PS2, 22 million wasn’t half bad. The Xbox sold around 24 million. The Dreamcast at 9.5 million.
The PS2 was just such a juggernaut that it pillaged all challengers and threw their corpses into the nearest river. I remember on GC launch day seeing more Xboxes and GameCubes on shelves than PS2s.
What we are experiencing with the PS5 those of us who are a little older experienced with the PS2. You couldn’t find them for nearly a year. They sold out immediately upon reaching store shelves. It was nuts. Completely nuts.
The Xbox and GameCube tried their best but there was just nothing Nintendo or Microsoft could do. The PS2’s hype level was insane.
The fact that both competitors were able to sell 22 and 24 million consoles is actually great success for both of them. No other platform before or since has had such a strong start like the PS2 had. Maybe the PS5 is replicating it now some 20 years later. Point is, no other console maker stood a chance.
Nintendo at least made some money on the GameCube hardware. Microsoft never made a dime on the Xbox. Both were great consoles with some great exclusives, especially Metroid Prime and Halo 2, my favorite games of that generation.
Re: Sega And Microsoft Are Teaming Up To Make "Super Games"
This sounds like the worst idea Sega has had since they picked SOJ’s Saturn over SOA’s idea for the Saturn. Instead Nintendo ended up with using that tech for the N64.
Imagine… an N64 with CD-ROMs.
Anyway this sounds really, really stupid.
Re: Random: Nintendo's Switch Online 'Expansion Pack' Trailer Is Now Its Most Disliked YouTube Video Ever
@ivory_soul
I agree. Most of it hasn’t held up.
I will say that multiplayer was much better on the N64 in general. There were a handful of gems that were just awesome to play with friends, like Star Fox.
But for single player experiences, it’s no contest. The PlayStation’s library was just top notch. I was a big JRPG nut so PlayStation was literally the place to play at that time, since it coincided with Square’s Golden Years.
I never owned a Saturn. I always wanted one but it was on its way out by the time I got around to it. I really wish I would have invested in it just from a collectors standpoint. Some of its gems look really fun to play.
Too bad Sega screwed it up by not bringing over more Japanese exclusive games.
Re: Random: Nintendo's Switch Online 'Expansion Pack' Trailer Is Now Its Most Disliked YouTube Video Ever
@Clyde_Radcliffe
Better graphics is subjective. Both the PS1 and N64 had their graphical pros and cons.
The N64 could create larger worlds and put out way higher polygon counts. It also had a lot more system RAM to work with. Games like Banjo Kazooie would have been very difficult to program on the PlayStation, although it was possible (see Legacy of Kain as an example).
On the other hand, the N64 system ram was slow as molasses and its speciality ram (located near the CPU die) for super fast access was pathetically small. This led developers to have to work around it, which is why it wasn’t uncommon for textures to be stretched across the environments and even character models where possible. The N64 just didn’t have the fast memory it needed. Plus the cartridge media really hobbled it out the gate. Limited ROM meant that textures were horribly compressed.
The PS1’s geometry engine was a really weird design that suffered from texture warping. It’s that weird “shimmering” effect you see on a lot of PS1 games. It also lacked a Z buffer which caused PS1 developers headaches (the Saturn’s VDP didn’t have one either).
On the other hand, the PS1 had relatively fast system memory and a simpler to understand architecture compared to the nightmares that were the Saturn and N64. The CD format was a godsend. Yes loading times sucked but it allowed for far higher quality textures and assets, CD audio, FMVs, and extensive voice acting. To me, most PS1 games look and sound more pleasing than N64 games.
Plus it had a controller that wasn’t intended for mutants. I grew up with both and I never liked the N64 controller. That thing was some nonsense. The PS1 controllers were evolutions of the SNES controllers. Which was perfect since I was coming off of a SNES
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Mario Party Superstars
@Oish
I fully agree with that.
If a night of Mario party with three friends doesn’t end in a near fistfight, the game has failed to live up to the history of the franchise.
The charm of Mario party to me is that it really pushes the limits of friendships because of how unfair the game is at its core. The game screws you and everyone else. That’s the best thing about it. And I’m not being sarcastic at all.
I’ve got Superstar and while I haven’t played it with my friends yet, it gives me vibes of the old N64 game. So hopefully we will all be beating each other up soon.
Re: Sony's Censors Strike As Switch Gets '20 Ladies' While PS4 Gets '20 Bunnies'
@Chocobo_Shepherd
Never go down the well of Sonic fan art.
I considered shooting myself with my .357 after I curiously took a look at what they were coming up with.
Re: Oh No, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Has Been Delayed On Switch
I’m fine with any delay. I’ve got games in the backlog I need to finish. That was actually going to be my last game I bought this year.
As of now, I’m not buying anything for either my PS5 or Switch. I’ve got games on both I need to finish. The only game I’m looking at getting is Battlefield 2042 to replace Black Ops Cold War as my mandatory multiplayer shooter. But considering the issues we saw in the Beta I’m no longer getting it at launch. I’m going to wait a few weeks and see how it turns out before I blow 70 bucks.
Battlefield V was a mess at launch. I bought it anyway. Regretted it. The game took nearly 6 months worth of updates and patches to feel complete and for the network to run smoothly.
Re: Oh No, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Has Been Delayed On Switch
@Quarth
For real. Look at Cyberpunk.
Re: Anniversary: Can You Believe It? Super Mario Odyssey Is Now Four Years Old
First game I bought on my Switch in late 2019. I actually caught it on sale for 41.99 on the eShop.
Loved every second of it. Especially the entire sequence with Pauline in New Donk City. It was a love letter to both Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. NES.
Re: Random: Nintendo Rejected Samus Voice Acting In Metroid Prime For Being "Too Sexual And Sensual"
@Tempestryke
Honestly yeah.
I’m hoping Prime gives us an older Samus.
I have some story ideas. Basically it would take place 10 to 15 years after the events of Corruption. Samus is basically retired from bounty hunting. She’s in her late 30s, say 38 or 39. I imagine her as a Federation training contractor; she trains Federation special forces. She hasn’t worn the armor in years; it’s locked in her “bunker.”
Suddenly the planet she is living and working on is attacked by the Space Pirates, led by a reborn and significantly more powerful Ridley, who has a personal vendetta to settle. She dons the power suit again and she and the Federation forces manage to fight off the Pirates. However, the entire city they are operating near is completely destroyed in the battle with thousands of civilians killed. the Federation declares war on the Space Pirates and tasks Samus with tracking down their location and relaying it back to HQ so that the Federation fleet can invade and destroy them.
Samus tracks Ridley to some desolate world on the edge of galactic space. She lands there and begins investigating. However she is suddenly attacked by a man wearing Chozo power armor. The suit is similar to her own, but optimized for combat only rather than being general purpose like her own suit always has been. He’s also trained in Chozo battle arts just as well as she is.
Despite her best efforts, he wins the battle by knocking down her energy shields and hitting her directly with a Super Missile. Her suit’s integrity is compromised and she’s nearly unconscious.
Before the mysterious man can finish her off with a charged plasma beam, Ridley appears and demands retribution. The two bicker while Samus lays there. However Samus has one last trick up her sleeve. She jettisons her armor and sets a self destruct sequence in its power core. She manages to escape off of a nearby cliff as Ridley and his mysterious ally escape before her suit detonates with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon (minus the radiation).
After this, the game would truly start. Samus enters a mysterious temple and finds Chozo artifacts. She ends up in a mysterious room. In the room she finds a Chozo power armor called “Assassination Armor.” It’s lightly armored, but features extensive stealth capabilities, high mobility (with built in space jump and fast multidirectional dashes) and can be easily upgraded like her old armor. Next to it is an empty mold that is shaped exactly like the armor the mysterious man used.
Then you start exploring. I haven’t thought any farther than that. Ultimately the mysterious man and Ridley are the main antagonists.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@Spiders
No one will ever get Genesis music sounding right.
It’s hardware, while made from off the shelf components (the Yamaha synthesizer was basically a stripped down version of the FM synthesizer used in their keyboards in the 80s) had some really weird programming quirks. To this day, emulators struggle to output Genesis sound fonts the way they were intended to sound.
They’ve gotten alot closer, but I can usually spot the differences.
Re: Nintendo Switch Online's N64 Games Need Some Work
@Purgatorium
It just depends on how bad it is.
In the Sega Genesis Collection, I can’t play the sonic titles. There’s too much input lag. I have muscle memory from the 90s for classic sonic. I can adjust to the usual levels of input lag emulation causes, but those were so bad that it was nigh unplayable for me.
I’m not getting the expansion pack right now. I don’t think it’s a good deal. But I would like to see if the Genesis games offered have less input lag than the Collection titles did.
Re: Random: Nintendo Rejected Samus Voice Acting In Metroid Prime For Being "Too Sexual And Sensual"
@Nerdling
I agree with that.
I’m hoping that Prime 4 expands on it.
I would like Samus to talk sort of like the Master Chief. She doesn’t talk constantly, but when she does it carries real weight. Give her a voice of a woman in her early to mid 30s. Someone who is clearly a veteran and has been through the ringer multiple times.
Re: Poll: N64 And Sega Genesis Nintendo Switch Online Games Launch Today - Which Will You Play First?
@WatsonWatson
Best part of Phantasy Star IV to me is that it respects your time. The Macro system is brilliant for burning through random battles and even unlocked more powerful combination attacks for bosses. In addition, the games walk speed is crazy fast for a 16 bit RPG. Plus the difficulty balance is just right. It’s challenging, especially the boss battles. But you don’t have to grind like a classic Dragon Quest game. It’s more about strategizing your party’s techniques and abilities (two different things in the game, Techniques use TP and each Ability has a limited number of uses that refills when you rest at an inn) to overcome the bosses.
And the music. The epic soundtrack. Very rare to see a JRPG with a damn near grunge and metal soundtrack. It’s very industrial with heavy bass and really well done FM guitars. Ooze (the theme of the final boss) is burned into my memory.
Re: Talking Point: Five Years On From The Frenzy Of 'NX' Becoming The Switch
@Debo626
I agree that a lot of it is whining. But I do think Nintendo needs to really refresh Nintendo Switch Online. NSO is by far the weakest part of the system and it’s the only thing I really don’t like it.
They don’t have to match my PS5’s online features. They just need to get it up to PS3 levels. Basically cross game invites, native voice chat, and messaging. They do those three things and my complaints about the service are fixed.
Re: Talking Point: Five Years On From The Frenzy Of 'NX' Becoming The Switch
I think the Switch is pretty fantastic. I wanted one at launch. It was the first Nintendo platform I really desired since the GameCube and Nintendo DS, which were my last two Nintendo systems. But at the time the PS4 was really hitting its stride and we were getting bombarded with fantastic games left and right every month or two. I just couldn’t justify spending the money and being afraid I wouldn’t really want to play anything other than Zelda.
Then November 2019 hit. I had cleared all the big PS4 games in my backlog by that point. I picked my Switch up then. Brand new V2 model with better battery life. And immediately fell in love with it.
I use it 90% docked. Mainly because I’m a snob in the sense that I like playing games through my 1000 watt sound system lol. But there are times when I undock it and play it handheld. It was a godsend during the ice storm we had in the southern US back in January of this year. I was without power for a week. So I charged the Switch in my work Jeep and played it by my grandparents heater, since they had gas heat (mine was electric so no staying at my place). I felt like a kid with a Game Boy Color all over again.
Re: Resident Evil's Chris Redfield And Jill Valentine Drop Into Fortnite
@MH4
This may sound crazy… but i would giggle like a school girl if they released the Megaman 1 US box art guy as a playable character lol.
Re: Blizzard Has Officially Renamed Overwatch's McCree
@CharlieGirl
For real.
For a long time I thought we customers were abused by them financially with a lot of their schemes. Had no idea the employees were getting the absolute worst of it.
There’s nothing they can do to clear their name after what they let happen for years. Best they can do is fire every single abuser and offer a big compensation package to the victims.
Re: Poll: The Hype For Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Is High, Is It In Your Switch Plans?
@BongoBongo123
That’s… a really minor part of Grand Theft Auto.
I’ve always played them for their hilarious over the top satire on American stereotypes as well as their stories. Speaking as an American, they get pretty close to how crazy we are as a people.
Re: Poll: The Hype For Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Is High, Is It In Your Switch Plans?
It’s 60FPS on PS5. I’ll get it there when the price drops down a bit.
Re: Random: Forget Dread, It's All About Metroid: Other M On Twitter Right Now
@Flashlink99
I would like for Samus to speak more often, but in the same manner as the Master Chief in the original Halo trilogy. John didn’t speak too much, but when he did it carried intense weight.
I hope in Prime 4 that Samus talks a little more than we are used to. But not Other M levels. It should be restricted to important events and her personality should be that of a special forces warrior. Which is what she is. She’s a lot like the Master Chief. She suffers from a lot of trauma as a veteran of numerous conflicts, but she’s by the book and when she speaks she should be making serious points about the mission or the enemy. Not idle chit chat or anything like that.
Re: Review: Crysis Remastered Trilogy - A Slick FPS Package That Runs Fine On Switch
I’ll probably pick the trilogy up on PS4 for my PS5 once the price drops. I played 2 back on PS3. Never played the other two.
Re: For The First Time In 33 Months, Switch Wasn't The US' Best-Selling Console In September
@thegametb
Uhm Returnal? Which is a better game than Ratchet and Clank.
I own both.
Re: Nintendo Leaker Suggests Pricing Of Switch Online's Expansion Pack Could Be Tied To "Licensing Costs"
@anzzjam
I love the arcade version with its crazy clean voice samples.
I could live without the Genesis version. I don’t understand why Sega can’t just use the arcade version in its collections. Better yet, just give us both.
Re: Nintendo Leaker Suggests Pricing Of Switch Online's Expansion Pack Could Be Tied To "Licensing Costs"
@RadarRider1987
The Megadrive flopped in Japan. The nostalgia for that system primarily exists in North America and Europe.
They would have wanted Gameboy and GB Advance as much as the rest of us.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Price?
@Clammy
I was playing a lot of Smash last year.
Until I just couldn’t take every other match being a complete lag fest anymore.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass Price?
The only way this price would have been worth it is if they had included messaging, voice chat, parties, and game discounts. Basically what Xbox Live on Xbox 360 offered back in 2008.
That’s pretty sad. Even the free PS3 online service minus plus offered voice chat and parties.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass Price?
@Darkyoshi98
I mean, who cares about stable online services, cross party chat, voice chat, modern free games (3 per month in Sony’s) and most importantly again, generally stable online features. Oh and almost forgot, in the case of PS Plus, significant savings on both DLC and games during most sales on top of the already reduced sale price.