TheWingedAvenger

Guys, I know this doesn't sound like it can be good, but I completed this game on my mobile phone and it is an awesome game. It's a mini Elder Scrolls game. It has a great atmosphere and a nice world to explore. Definitely get this one if you like action RPGs! I've also played the other games in the series and they're all great.

Ravensword: The Fallen King
Ravensword: Shadowlands
Aralon: Sword and Shadow
Aralon: Forge and Flame

These are all good Elder Scrolls clones, but much shorter. The gameplay is good and the locations are all beautiful. Very immersive. They were all released on mobile and the controls were uncannily good! On Switch they'll certainly be better. I can't wait to delve into Shadowlands again!

I'm already getting Pac-Man fever again!!!

Luigi sat there for the whole interview complaining and trying to make people feel sorry for him, instead of realizing how fortunate he is to be the brother of such a talented and athletic person. What about the videogame one-hit wonders who completely disappeared from the spotlight after that fifteen minutes of fame? I mean people like Starman from Pro Wrestling (NES), who had to get a normal job after that one game appearance.

For what it's worth, I always played Super Mario Bros 2 as Luigi.

So was this a secret poll? I come to this site every day and saw nothing about a NES poll. Anyway, the list is pretty bad. It's obvious the voters have only played 5% of the NES library at the most.

Nintendo will never tell the public why they do the things they do. I assume this info is false.

Awesome! So I can ignore E3 for free.

Guys, these games don't really exist. It's an April Fool joke. Pretty funny though!

I want Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie to be released for the Nintendo Switch.

Arcade Paradise is intriguing.

I've never been able to find Rolling Gunner on the Russian e-shop, so if it eventually does come out I'll definitely buy it as it looks awesome.

Don't give your money to these scammers. Play the improved DS remake on your 3DS instead. I'm sure they'll also eventually release a Switch port of the NES version of Fire Emblem Gaiden without mentioning that a superior remake exists for the 3DS.

@Daniel36
I've noticed that it's mainly Japanese developers who go over the top with their stories. The worst story ever in a videogame is Final Fantasy X. When you're playing it you think it was probably written by a psychotic twelve-year-old with Attention Deficit Disorder, but then you check on the internet and find out it was written by grown men.

@tsdenizen
The reason the lore sounds dumb to you may be due to the fact that it was written by someone who has never written anything good in his life. Videogames aren't literature. Writing a good, long story requires a real writer. That's why Zelda and Dragon Quest are so successful: hardly any story, just "Evil Dragon monster wants to destroy th world - go kill him!". That's all a videogame needs.

This game will be an unmitigated disaster. It's made by the people behind Final Fantasy X and XII, which were both terribly written visual novels. You won't need to use your head for this one: just remember to press the X button to turn each page of text.

The graphics look like a mobile game, and the art style is horrendous.

Awesome!! The first one for the Neo Geo was great.

This will be the only horizontal shmup for the 3DS, apart from Steel Empire, which doesn't count since it was a remake of a Mega Drive game.

By the way, there are no vertical shmups on the 3DS either, apart from Karous which doesn't count because it's a port of a Dreamcast game.

I wanted to buy it today but the store closest to me didn't have it. I'll have to travel a bit further and buy it at Game Park (Russia's version of Game Stop).

@BulbasaurusRex
I agree that the Pokemon games are RPGs, but I consider them a sub-genre, and therefore a different genre. The collecting monsters is a huge difference in the gameplay - I can't just lump these games in with Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star.

Dragon Sinker? More like Dragon Stinker, am I right guys?

Actually I'm wrong, because I played it and it's a pretty good Dragon Quest clone. I know nothing about the other games, though.

All three Kid Icarus games are awesome, so I'd jump at a fourth on day one!

@Deltath
There were two types of turn-based RPGs until about 20 years ago. On one hand, the sci-fi ones, which were usually darker and had a gothic atmosphere. On the other hand we had the medieval ones, which were usually bright and upbeat. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were really opposites in that sense. There were very few games in those two categories. The ones that fell into the second category were so similar to DQ that it's hard for me to call them anything other than clones. A lot of RPGs don't have overworld exploration, so when I see one that does, and has lots of other DQ characteristics, I call it a DQ clone. The similarities between Golden Sun and Dragon Quest are as numerous as those between Breath of Fire and Dragon Quest. Why do you see Golden Sun as its own thing?

@Deltath
The graphics, setting, focus on exploration and overall upbeat atmoshpere make the Golden Sun games Dragon Quest clones in my book. They added small things, because of course they had to add something. Dragon Quest had been absent on Nintendo systems since 1990, and some developers noticed and capitalized on it. Capcom made Breath of Fire I and II for the SNES because they saw money in making Dragon Quest games that would have no competition on the SNES in America. Camelot/Nintendo realized that was a good strategy, and since Square was releasing Dragon Quest on Playstation, they released a couple of clones on the GBA. If I were wrong about this, the Golden Sun series would still exist. Dragon Quest is back on Nintendo, and I suppose Nintendo doesn't think the games can compete with the real thing.

@Moroboshi876
I loved Crime Fighters in the arcade, and even beat it. Now I have the game on my NES Classic Edition, and I still think it's great. It's a beat'-em-up that distinguishes itself from the crowd. The genre has repetitive gameplay, so it's good that this game adds humor and whacky characters, in addition to having gameplay that feels different from any other game in the genre. And by the way, you should check out the Sega Master System version of Renegade!

@thegametb
You're right, this "review" spends every sentence explaining that this game lacks the qualities that a remaster should have, despite there not being any claim by the developer that this is a remaster.

Nintendo Life is great, but this "review" is one of the worst I've read on any site. The reviewer childishly plays darts with the careers and livelihoods of hundreds of people by flippantly giving the game a 6/10 without even reviewing the game itself. He says nothing about it, apart from "they should have polished it up for this release." It's so sad that this game gets the same juvenile treatment that it got when it came out. Angry Joe on Youtube did the same thing: he spent the entire review saying "it isn't Skyrim". Everyone bought Skyrim, an inferior game, and Kingdoms of Amalur was a flop. It will always be a flop. Just read the comments on this page: you see several people saying "I'll give it a pass" based solely on this useless review.

@BulbasaurusRex
There are two huge drawbacks to the GBA versions of FFV and FFVI: screen crunch and worse music. The SNES versions are the only way to go. They work well on the mini consoles, such as the NES Classic Edition. Just emulate them. Or play them on the PSP with headphones.

The first five are all negligible, but the last five are all masterpieces!
SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium is the best fighting game on the system, so it makes the first five games on the list redundant.

All the Zelda games are action RPGs. An RPG is an adventure game in which you improve your character and make gradual progress en route to a final goal, which is usually killing an evil lord who wants to conquer the world. In these games, you are made to feel as if you were the main character.

Compare that to Super Mario Bros, in which you control Mario but you aren't made to feel that you ARE him.

Even in the first Zelda game, you improve your character gradually by getting heart containers, weapons, and defensive items. You make progress by completing one dungeon at a time, and when you put all the pieces of the Triforce together, you can go to Ganon's final dungeon and challenge him. Because of all that, not only do you control Link, you feel that ARE him. You level up by improving your character, which is done in many ways in this game. Experience points are just a numerical representation of how powerful you are - is that all it takes to make an RPG? Zelda tells you how strong you are by showing you how many hits it takes you to kill enemies.

Golden Sun and its sequel are two great Dragon Quest clones. Nintendo did well to take advantage of the fact that Square wasn't interested in releasing Dragon Quest games outside of Japan. Capcom also capitalized on this with their first two Breath of Fire games. But those are better on the SNES than on the GBA.

Shining Soul and its sequel are two Diablo-likes that are quite fun.

And of course, Zelda: The Minish Cap is an awesome action RPG.

Stay away from the remakes of Final Fantasy V and VI. Play those on the SNES. And the best way to play the Phantasy Star games is on their original hardware.

@sanderev
It's a shame that the only people who like this game are non-reviewers. This game will never get a fair shake. But those boring, linear slogs that Square puts out every other month will always get hailed as masterworks.

You spent almost the entire review talking about how good a remaster this is, and about how much the game has aged. You could have reviewed the actual game while you were at it.

This is a masterpiece of an action RPG, on the level of the very best Zelda games. The game has some kind of curse on it: every time it gets released, reviewers say it's nothing special and it remains in the shadow of mediocre RPGs. The only way to discover this gem is just to give it a chance despite what you read and hear from reviewers.

@BulbasaurusRex
Pokemon is its own genre. A turn-based RPG in which you collect monsters and make them fight each other. You can't put these games in the same category as Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star. Very different gameplay.

That's not enough for me. I want Shigeru Miyamoto to create a real Hyrule in the town where I live, hire a bunch of actors to play all the characters of Breath of the Wild, and then let me actually be Link and really fight the enemies. I don't understand all the backward people who are happy with 8K. Why don't you guys go home and play your Atari 2600 and leave us modern gamers alone?

This is good news! Motion controls are nonsense. Remake the DS games while you're at it! And no more gimmick controls for this legendary series, please.

1) Dragon Quest IX (the only excellent RPG on the DS!)
2) Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
3) Final Fantasy IV (best version of this game!)
4) Final Fantasy III (but the PSP version is slightly better)
5) Nostalgia
6) Glory of Heracles: Soul Proof

These are the only good RPGs on the DS. In fact, they're the only RPGs on the system. The other games you think are RPGs are actually just visual novels (Chrono Trigger) and strategy RPGs (Luminous Arc).

When I say "visual novel", I mean a game that requires almost no input on the part of the player. You're just reading a picture book, and a very poorly-written one at that. Radiant Historia is another good example. They are 95% story and 5% game.

@rjejr
To be honest, if I were in your place I'd pay the 8 bucks and have the convenience of not having to change discs. Not to mention the little perks they've added to the Switch version.

Dragon Quest VIII is the greatest turn-based RPG of all time, and the 3DS version even contains extra content.

@rjejr
If you have a PS3 hooked up and have the FF7 discs, then it's not worth it to buy the Switch version. It's the same game. However, the Switch version is slightly better looking and allows you to "cheat" by speeding the game up when you're pressed for time. I played it in handheld mode and it looked awesome, so if you want to play it portably, you might consider the Switch version a worthwhile buy.

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, and Romancing Saga II are good games and these are the best versions of them.

The Switch will eventually become the best-selling videogame console of all time.

Action RPGs, turn-based RPGs and strategy RPGs don't belong in the same conversation, and it's pointless to compare them to each other. It's like comparing Shinobi to Sonic the Hedgehog.

The Dragon Quest games should be played in the following form:

Dragon Quest I (NES)
Dragon Quest II (NES)
Dragon Quest III (NES)
Dragon Quest IV (NES or DS)
Dragon Quest V (SNES or DS)
Dragon Quest VI (SNES or DS)
Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
Dragon Quest VIII (3DS or PS2)
Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Dragon Quest XI (any version, but preferably Switch)

Avoid any other version of these games, as they are usually dumbed-down in order to make the game beatable in a day or two. They took away all the challenge!

"Live A Live"? The title is "A Live Evil", where "live" is pronounced as in "a live concert". Just look at the title screen, where the word "A" is clearly in the foreground, and the last word is clearly "evil".

I'm including Japan exclusives, since fan translations mean they're not exclusive anymore. My top ten, in random order:

Dragon Quest V
Dragon Quest VI
7th Saga
Breath Of Fire II
Cyber Knight II
Dual Orb II
Glory of Heracles IV
Might and Magic III
Lufia II
Silva Saga II

The best Madden experience is Madden 08 for the Nintendo DS, played on the 3DS XL. Having a second screen comes in handy for knowing what's happening on the entire field.

I'd love to see an offline, English-language version of Dragon Quest X. I've never been interested in playing videogames online with complete strangers.

Fast RMX is a good F-Zero clone, but this one looks good too.

The first game is a good Pokemon-style game with excellent graphics and a beautiful world to explore and fight in. Unfortunately the rock-paper-scissor combat takes a lot of agency from the player, which makes for an ultimately tedious fighting. It's a game that has a lot of positives, but the nonsensical combat will turn lots of people off.

@FaroreAbhorsen
Now that you've made me think about it, I have to admit that you're right about Dark Souls copying Zelda. While Skyward Sword definitely upped the ante with the complexity of its combat, making me think of Dark Souls, I failed to realize that Dark Souls itself had taken a lot from Ocarina of Time's combat, adding a bit of difficulty and not much else.

@Solaine
A game's genre and inspiration are independent of its difficulty. So a game can be a souls-like without being hard. Cyber Shadow is a Ninja Gaiden clone, but it's much easier. Does that mean we can't call it a Ninja Gaiden clone? Of course not. Dark Souls isn't Dark Souls because it's hard. Otherwise, I could call Dark Souls a Ninja Gaiden clone.

Having said that, here's why Skyward Sword is just as much a Dark Souls clone as it is a Zelda game. Skyward Sword is a bit of a black sheep in the Zelda series because it's different. It's less exploratory, and it's full of long, frequent battles that take practice to overcome. Most Zelda games allow you to kill common foes in one or two hits, whereas Skyward Sword makes even common enemies a challenge that you have to take your time on. That's taken from Demon's Souls, which came out two years before Skyward Sword. And that's the distinguishing quality of the souls-like genre: it's an action adventure in which each fight is a serious challenge to contend with. Every battle is basically a long sword fight.

When Diablo II comes out on Switch, the entire trilogy will be playable on handheld devices. The PS1 version of Diablo I is playable on the PSP, and the two sequels playable on the Switch complete the series. Hopefully the 4th one will make it to the Switch too.