Comments 628

Re: Hardware Review: Retro-Bit x 8Bitdo RB8-64 Bluetooth Controller

WaxxyOne

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Somebody who seriously misses having 6 action buttons on the controller face and continues to be baffled at the fact that more "advanced" consoles have dropped this in favor of the standard 4-button layout which requires developers to assign stuff to the more awkward shoulder buttons where they're not as convenient.

The N64 controller also allowed for a full, uncompromising D-pad to be present for games that need one, as it doesn't have to be shoved out of the way of the analog stick or reduced in size to fit on the controller. Combined with the smaller C-buttons on the other side, it was also the best controller for use with games that needed dual directional pads, while still having two extra face buttons to use at the same time.

I'm not saying it doesn't have disadvantages compared to newer controllers either, just that it does have some features that I miss. My ideal controller would have a full-size D pad in a comfortable location, two analog sticks, six face buttons (i'm ok with 4 of those being smaller to accomodate) and 4 shoulder buttons in the standard button / trigger arrangement.

Re: Random: Pokémon Red Glitch Used to Beat Another Game Boy Title With a 'Credits Warp'

WaxxyOne

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy I hope not. How is preparing memory in one game to beat another game quickly any different from loading the game up with a Game Genie and hacking memory that way?

If this were allowed then why isn't it legal to speed run using a tilted cart or modified system? It's the same thing right? Either way you're externally altering memory in a way the game developer could never have anticipated.

Re: Weirdness: The NES Zapper Just Became Much Deadlier

WaxxyOne

So much outrage over one person customizing their gun to look like a cherished childhood toy. OK, sure. Guns are serious business and shouldn't be taken lightly, but here's the thing. More people die annually in traffic accidents than guns in the US, yet I don't see anybody complaining when someone paints their car to look like a certain cartoon fish: http://iruntheinternet.com/lulzdump/images/finding-nemo-nemo-disney-car-paint-job-13607222927.jpg?id=141

Re: International Game Developers Association Issues Critical Statement Over Nintendo and Alison Rapp

WaxxyOne

@empsolo That may be true. I don't follow Twitter and as I said before I'd never heard of her before this article. I read some comments and looked up info on her and saw that a lot of the criticism that has been aimed her way is from the essay she wrote, which is why my post focused on it.

Nevertheless, let's examine that line of reasoning. Assuming you're correct and she had tweeted that she believes it should not be a crime to possess child pornography, then so what is your point? That it's ok she was harassed and fired because she shared an unpopular opinion? The First Amendment is supposed to protect against that very thing. Supporting free speech is easy when everyone's in agreement. The real test of a society's value of free speech is how hard they fight to protect people who dare to disagree with the mass consensus.

Also don't confuse the difference between someone advocating for less strict laws and someone breaking those laws. Questioning the fairness of our legal system is an important right granted to every citizen and should not automatically imply that the questioner is some kind of criminal or deviant.

Re: International Game Developers Association Issues Critical Statement Over Nintendo and Alison Rapp

WaxxyOne

@PlywoodStick One incident does not prove causality. In order to show that people who view child pornography are influenced to abuse children, you have to prove the case that the action leads directly to the crime in a majority of cases. Nobody has proven that in any scientific sense, just like no one has proven (despite trying) that playing violent video games leads directly to committing violent crimes.

@empsolo Do you have any actual evidence to back up your claims or are you just blowing smoke? This took me 5 minutes to find: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_child_pornography_and_child_sexual_abuse#Views_on_reducing_criminal_sexual_intent

Also, since neither of you responded to the actual intent of my post, I'll state it again for the record: Alison's essay does not argue that child pornography is acceptable, it argues that Japan is a sovereign nation with the right to create and enforce its own laws the way it sees fit, and that western nations should stop pressuring Japan to conform to western standards.

Re: International Game Developers Association Issues Critical Statement Over Nintendo and Alison Rapp

WaxxyOne

Having never heard of Alison Rapp before this, I decided to do some research and actually read the majority of the essay she wrote, which I would hazard to guess all but a tiny fraction of her detractors have not bothered to do.

The essay does not make the argument that child pornography is acceptable, it makes the argument that Japan is a sovereign nation which has the right to determine its own laws and enforcements regarding the censorship of child pornography, and that the actions of other nations such as the US and the UK to shame or bully Japan into conforming are not helping address the real problems of child abuse and exploitation which are supposedly at the heart of such actions.

She also makes the quite apt point that both the US and the UK claim to highly value free speech but don't seem to have a problem with criminalizing anyone who is in possession of even a hand-drawn cartoon depicting under-aged sex.

All censorship is censorship. If you allow all forms of free expression, you have to include the things that you hate the most. The moment you start picking and choosing what expression is allowed and what isn't, you no longer support free speech.

I am impressed that, given the level of hostility people have at even discussing the topic (a fact she mentions at the beginning of her essay), she nonetheless had the nerve to write and submit this paper for public review. It shows a strong commitment to her beliefs and a willingness to stand by them even against harsh criticism — the same kind of values that people belonging to online feminist communities should be championing in the women they claim to support.

A final thought, since this is a forum on a news site for video games — the essay also points out the repeated claims supporters of censorship laws have made that viewing child pornography naturally leads to committing acts of child abuse, as if there's no question that it's impossible for a rational person to see something without immediately wanting to mimic it. The grand irony is of course that the media has made the exact same claims regarding the violence in video games. So, maybe chew on that before you line up to keep throwing stones Alison's way, hmm?

Re: Nintendo Warns It'll Block Rule Breaker's Access to Super Mario Maker's Online Features

WaxxyOne

Man, so many whiners on here. That post says "Users may be restricted..." May. This is standard practice for a company that wants to maintain some kind of order with their online system. They're not looking to punish some random dude who makes a post asking for a star or two, or accidentally finds a glitch. They're keeping the door open for when somebody truly disruptive comes along and finds a major way to exploit their system to either get hundreds of world records or thousands of undeserved stars. Then they can ban that person and point to this warning as precedence. Nintendo is not "the man." They're not killing people for minor infractions. They're not even the RIAA. So you can stop with your conspiracy theories and paranoid stoner rants now.

Re: Video: Everything We Know About Nintendo NX, So Far

WaxxyOne

The NX is going to be a box that beams signals directly into your mind without the need of a television, audio equipment or wires of any kind. It's going to be remotely controlled from space via a dense grid of satellites Nintendo is planning on launching within the next few months. The box will be completely free for consumers, and will have the ability to wash your car and feed your dog when you're not at home. Finally, the launch date is obviously this weekend. Please wait outside your back door for the drone to deliver the device sometime between 7 PM Saturday evening and 4 AM Sunday morning (EST). Implanting a chip inside your skull is optional, for now.

Re: You'll Now Be Able To Play Mini-Games During Loading Times

WaxxyOne

And this is why software patents are such a horrible idea. I get why you need to have copyright laws for the actual IP, but to be able to patent an arguably gimicky part of a game and stifle creativity for 20 freaking years... that's just nuts. What if Nintendo had patented the side-scrolling platformer in 1985? Or the concept of collecting 100 of something to earn an extra life? Or what if they had patented console games that let you edit and create your own content when they released Excitebike? Think of all of the great games that would have been unrecognizable or missing entirely.

The software industry has always thrived on sharing new concepts and ideas. Software patents poison that environment by stifling competition and creativity.

Re: SNES Title Super Star Wars Coming to PS4 and Vita

WaxxyOne

This just serves as a great example of why Nintendo's VC service has never been all it could be. The Wii version was just pathetic with very few games having ANY changes from their original releases. The Wii U added save states and off-TV play, and nothing else. Nintendo should be updating these games with modern features to make them more appealing.

Re: Yes, Fatal Frame's Lingerie Outfits Have Been Removed From The Western Version

WaxxyOne

Censorship is censorship. People should have the option to choose what they want to see and not without "big brother" deciding what's appropriate for them or their family. It's not about wanting to see digital titties, it's about the integrity of a work of art being kept intact and not tarnished by the ideals of someone other than its original author(s).

Imagine if we started censoring famous paintings or statues to cover up nudity or suggestive poses. People would be up in arms and it would never be allowed to stand. Why shouldn't it be the same with video games?

Re: Super Mario Maker Gets Mid-Level Checkpoints and More in Upcoming Update

WaxxyOne

I wish they said how checkpoints will work with level uploading requirements.

For example, if you can make use of checkpoints to complete the level for uploading purposes, then players can make even more ridiculously hard levels than are already flooding the service. I would prefer that checkpoints are disabled when doing the upload run, so you have to be able to beat it in a single run. This would ensure the average level difficulty doesn't spike when checkpoints are released.

On the flip side, what's to stop the trolls of the world from using checkpoints against the player? For example, you could place a checkpoint in a location where the only option is death. If a player makes the mistake of hitting it, this would at a minimum cost them an extra life in the 100 Mario challenge mode (assuming the option to start the level over from the beginning is still there, which I assume it will be).

So, my ideal solution would be: You have to hit every checkpoint when you're completing the level to upload it, and if you die you start over at the beginning. Come on, Nintendo... read my thoughts...

Re: Video: Here's What Xenoblade Chronicles Looks Like On A Standard 3DS

WaxxyOne

This really doesn't prove anything. For one, console games are designed for a targeted clock speed, so they can use CPU cycle-based delays to determine timing. Changing the clock speed to something other than the game expects can result in the game running slower not due to a lack of hardware capability, but just because the timing is different than the developer intended for it to be. So the game could perhaps run faster than shown but is executing unnecessary wait cycles on a slower CPU.

Second, as stated the new 3DS has more improvements than just raw clock speed, some of which we know about and others we probably don't. It's doubtful that Nintendo just used the exact same CPU and upped the speed on it. They could have added new opcodes or routines that the game takes advantage of that aren't available to the original 3DS. It's entirely possible the game would actually run much slower or not at all on an original 3DS without significantly rewriting the game code.

Re: More Wave 5 amiibo Pre-Order Sale Windows Confirmed for Amazon in North America

WaxxyOne

It looks like all the mentioned Amiibo are already selling (for ridiculous prices) on Amazon today. If this article is wrong, it upsets me that NintendoLife wouldn't verify the information before posting it. I was able to snag Palutena for MSRP during the last Amazon preorder window with relative ease, and I was looking forward to doing the same with these, particularly the classic Mario one. Now it seems if I want one I'm going to have to get lucky and find it at a local store or pay three times MSRP for it.

Get your facts right or don't post at all, please.

Re: Review: The Fall (Wii U eShop)

WaxxyOne

@SpymeXD: I have the same experience. I at first assumed it was just supposed to be part of the malfunctions occurring, but now I'm not so sure. I Don't want to spoil the game for myself but I also don't want to keep playing something so obviously buggy if it's not intentional...

I also love how the game has no manual (beyond the standard legalese and controllers you can use to play it — with no key for what the buttons do) and does not tell you how to interact with objects in the game world until AFTER you've already reached a point you couldn't get to without interacting with objects in the game world.

So far, not impressed.

Re: Video: GameChap Shows Us Five Ways to Get Banned From Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

WaxxyOne

This video is lame and misleading. The auto-kicks are simply there to prevent people from leaving the game unattended or intentionally griefing players who actually want to play the darn game. From what I can tell, the game will boot someone who is not attacking players, or is just repeatedly executing the same move over and over again. Despite what they speculate in the video, that is not playing the game and no one is such a noob that they would literally just keep spamming the exact same move while doing very little else for the 5 minutes necessary for the game to detect it as idling.

Seriously, if you want to just mess around, play locally with your friends. It's not that difficult, guys.