Comments 492

Re: Nintendo Gets Around to Releasing Inazuma Eleven in UK

Wheels2050

@JayArr: Cheers for that. I'm actually moving to the US soon, so it's good to know what sort of prices I'm looking at!

@Fuzzy: There's always ozgameshop or 365games (both owned by the same company) or eBay. I tend to find better prices on eBay and use that, although you need to be careful who you buy from to ensure you get legitimate games.

Re: Feature: The State of WiiWare

Wheels2050

I've found it highly disappointing, for many reasons:

  • Firstly, the interface is slow, unwieldy and not conducive to simply browsing for new games.
  • Locking games to a console, not an account. Really, REALLY bad idea.
  • Not being able to directly purchase games, only points which often leave leftovers (I've currently got 4 or so games I want to buy, but the points don't work out to a round number and so I don't want to waste my money).
  • Disparity in content availability. I know this is a complicated issue, but it's annoying to see games not being released in all regions.
  • Lack of serious promotion for the service. As the article alludes to, someone who bought a Wii without frequenting gaming websites would be hard pressed to know the Wii Shop exists.
  • Lack of sales. There's plenty of games I would be interested in, but not at their standard price - I might be swayed by a discount.
  • On that note, regional pricing differences. In Australia, 1000 points costs $15 (about 16.3 USD). I'm sure we're not the only ones, and I imagine some places can't even access the Wii Shop. While arguments can be made for differences in retail pricing, they don't really apply to digital delivery (by the way, this is an issue with Steam and other digital delivery services).
  • Limited storage on the Wii. It's annoying to have to shuffle my software from the SD card to the Wii so I can launch it without having to load it up every time.

Despite all of this, I have bought several games from the service and enjoyed them greatly. There's no way I would have bought them without reading reviews first, though. I can buy, say, Valve's Orange Box for less than $20, so I need some serious convincing to fork out $15 for a game I've never heard of.

Re: First Impressions: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D

Wheels2050

@Bass_XO: No, I don't think new games are completely made in a few months. What I do think, however, is that they would probably have known about the 3DS a while before it was released to the public, and been able to develop new games for it.

I understand that in the current climate of huge-budget games, developers are not willing to take big risks, but the amount of remakes and ports coming out is ridiculous (I'm not just talking about Nintendo, by the way, but they seem to have a large proportion of these types of games).

Re: Uncharted Studio: "Wii U is Full of Holes, Nothing Sony Can't Do"

Wheels2050

Calm down people!

I think it's actually a pretty fair assessment of the hardware (although the article title is somewhat sensationalist). I'd agree, on the whole, with Mr. Richmond's comments.

It annoys me to see so many people up in arms when a criticism of Nintendo is aired (especially when it's justified) - Nintendo has made critical statements about other gaming platforms on more than one occasion.

It happens. If you don't like it, ignore it.

Re: Retro Roads Never Looked Better Than 3D Pixel Racing

Wheels2050

@GuardianAcorn: I had the same thought and yes, yes they are.

Watching the trailer I was thinking that constructing the game world the way they have would have been an easy way of introducing a form of damage modelling, where cubes fall off when you bump into stuff. Unfortunately, it looks like they've missed that potential!

Re: Nintendo Researching Mobile Phone Possibilities

Wheels2050

Given their hesitance to even jump into online (something which is taken for granted on every other platform) I think the even bigger jump to a mobile phone would end up failing miserably.

I think the only thing really holding back the convergence of mobile phones and gaming is form factor. Big screens on top of room for many buttons and a way to read media, as required for gaming, is the polar opposite to the sleek designs that are called for in mobile phones these days.

Of course, they could head more towards the phone end of the spectrum, with basic gaming abilities, but that would hardly be worth it, let alone the difficulty in differentiating it from competitors.

In short, I don't see it happening.

@hydeks: That was an investor, not Iwata who said that.

@Henmii: Just because the investor thinks games are a waste of time doesn't make it a bad investment. The crucial thing as far as the investor is concerned is that lots of other people DON'T see it that way.

Re: Localisation Evidence Grows as Pandora's Tower Demoed at Expo

Wheels2050

@Mickeymac: I don't know a lot about some of those games, but I agree with you on a lot of points. Some people seem to want EVERY game that hasn't yet been released, regardless of whether or not they are any good.

Having said that, doesn't being so negative all the time get tiring? Seriously, I haven't seen you say a positive thing on here.

Re: Talking Point: The Growing Storm of Operation Rainfall

Wheels2050

@siavm: Several points:

1. If NoA is reluctant to release the games, I assume it's because they don't think they will sell very well. Spending lots more money to overhaul the graphics to release them on the Wii U would make even less sense to them.
2. I'm sorry that you feel 'real' fans don't wish for fresh gaming experiences. I like what Nintendo does, don't get me wrong, but it would be nice to see some new franchises come out. Relying on a remake (OOT) to keep your system (3DS) selling just doesn't cut it in my eyes, I'm afraid. When you tell people to 'get hyped for Zelda' and not ask for anything else is precisely the attitude that has led to the current situation.

Then again, what would I know - I'm confident that I'm not as true a fan as you are.

Re: Operation Rainfall Responds to Nintendo's "Never Say Never"

Wheels2050

To the people who are saying the games don't look 'important':

I think the underlying issue here is not necessarily the games themselves (I like the look of them personally, but others may not). The point is that Nintendo has personally admitted that they neglected the 'core' gamer with the Wii, and are looking to recapture that market. It doesn't sit well for people, then, when there's three high-quality games, one of which is already translated, which Nintendo appears to not be releasing in North America.

It's not necessarily these three games in particular that people are up in arms about, but they are a symptom of a much bigger underlying problem.

Re: Rumour: The Mercenaries 3D to be Recalled in Australia

Wheels2050

According to Kotaku, Capcom says that the decision was not based on the reselling of games, but because the game encourages you to replay it and try and beat your score.

I don't necessarily believe that, but even if they are telling the truth, why do it? It's not like game saves are an easy thing to wipe accidentally... Give people the option and you'll avoid backlash like this. I wouldn't have bought the game regardless of this, but I do like to be able to start a game completely fresh (and yes, I buy all my games brand new unless I it's old and I can only find used copies)

Re: RE Mercenaries 3D Save Data Will Not Die

Wheels2050

This isn't the first time Capcom has done this - I bought a copy of Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival for the GBA a month or two ago (obviously used) and when I got home realised that I couldn't delete the save data. Someone else had already unlocked everything, so it felt a bit pointless to play it.

I even emailed Capcom who admitted that it couldn't be wiped. Ridiculous.

Re: Xenoblade's North American Release Chances Take a Knock

Wheels2050

This also seems such a short-sighted move by NoA. Perhaps releasing Xenoblade won't make a large profit (surely it'd make SOMETHING though) but it would at least be a show of good-will toward the 'core' gamers that they are so keen to appeal to. Surely that would pay off in the long term, as it might indicate that Nintendo is willing to make decisions which are popular with their fans (of course, I don't expect them to do it at a loss, but any profit is good profit right?)

Re: Xenoblade's North American Release Chances Take a Knock

Wheels2050

Ouch - I'm glad I'm a PAL gamer, for a change!

As others have mentioned, it seems crazy not to release this. It's been (or is currently getting) translated into English already, so surely giving it an NA release would be relatively easy money?

Considering the dearth of Wii games on the horizon, I would have thought Nintendo would be doing everything they can to fill up the release schedule - including printing a hundred thousand or so copies of a game that has ALREADY BEEN DEVELOPED!!! (I release that it's not quite that simple, but still).

If this news is true I empathise with you North Americans - I've been disappointed enough times in the past to know how it feels! Perhaps it's worth looking into region-lock circumvention?

Re: Wii U Striking Balance Between Performance and Price

Wheels2050

@tangram: I'm certainly not a graphics nut (I'm quite happy to play ASCII games) but I cannot deny the appeal of high-resolution gaming. At the expense of good games, then no, but on top of a good game it makes the experience much nicer.

HD in itself cuts down on jagged edges and other such artefacts which can distract from a nice image, but it also implies greater graphics processing ability which can allow effects like anti-aliasing (further reducing jagged edges), fancy lighting and shading and others. Without these sorts of things, immersion in the game world is reduced as occasionally you get jarring reminders that what you're looking at is being rendered by a computer (e.g. a low-resolution or repeated texture popping up amongst otherwise nice-looking ones).

While some art styles don't require those sorts of things, if I was offered exactly the same game in either low or high resolution, I'd take the latter any day, and I think most other people would.

Re: Dead or Alive: Dimensions Reclassified for Australia

Wheels2050

@phoenix1818: While I know you're being sarcastic, the point of changing the rating is not for preventing children from playing the game (the M rating is only a recommendation, not a restriction like MA) but for giving parents and guardians more accurate information for the purposes of deciding what to let their children play.

Big difference.

Re: Wii U Striking Balance Between Performance and Price

Wheels2050

@moosa: As an avid PC gamer, I agree with you that the PC doesn't necessarily offer huge graphical improvements over the 360 and PS3 these days. 10 years ago, when multiplatform games weren't so common, you could definitely see an advantage to playing on PC but these days it just isn't worth the developer's time and money to create higher quality graphical assets for one out of the 3 platforms their game is coming out on.

I do lament that fact a bit, but at the same time it's made PC gaming cheaper - the need to upgrade constantly has decreased, as system requirements are reasonably stable these days. However, as someone said, an experience like the Total War series or 64-player Battlefield wouldn't be possible on consoles, so while the graphics may not improve on the jump to PC, it opens up many opportunities in different areas.

On topic, I think this is a good move by Nintendo. While they may not compete with the next MS/Sony consoles a few years down the track, if they can make the Wii U better for now it may allow them to capture a large fraction of the market (assuming the game library is good off the bat) who may be reluctant to jump to the other consoles when they get released.

Then again, I don't know that much about marketing so that may be all wrong

Re: First Impressions: BIT.TRIP SAGA (3DS)

Wheels2050

@SoulSilver_19: Thanks for that, I hadn't come across that news yet! I've already bought all the Bit.Trip games from WiiWare, but I think I'd like to get a disc as well (after playing games for 20 years or so, I have trouble relying on downloads only...).

Still feels like a waste of money to buy things twice, but hopefully it'll be cheap!

Re: Looks Like That Red 3DS is Releasing in Japan

Wheels2050

@Teh-Ray: It happens all the time with consoles, etc. (I think iPads were the same). New colours get released later on to draw in new customers, which is bad luck if current owners want one of the new colours.

I want to see that purple on I've seen some photos of come out. That looked great!

Re: Review: Super Mario Land (Game Boy)

Wheels2050

It's been mentioned before, but the price seems too high for a 21/22 year old game. I'd pay no more than $1 or $2 for it.

To put it in perspective, you can grab Fallout 1 and 2 - two of the best RPGs ever made, and certainly not short experiences - from GoodOldGames for $6 each. That includes downloadable manuals and artwork, and work done to ensure compatibility with current PCs.

Maybe Nintendo will have Steam-style sales very now and then?

Re: Pandora's Tower Trailer is Very Japanese in A Good Way

Wheels2050

@Vinsanity: for someone extolling the virtues of good art direction (with which I completely agree) it's a bit hypocritical to turn around and say that Zelda: SS is "ugly". I'm by no means a devout Zelda fan (I've never really played a Zelda game, to be honest) but I quite like the way they've gone with the art. The soft, pastel-coloured backgrounds help the characters and enemies stand out which, coupled with the cel-shaded style, gives it an old cartoon look. It's not for everyone, but I think you need to stop making objective statements about game visuals while telling others not to do so.

Anyway, on topic, I really like what I saw in this trailer. It tells a nice story about Ende looking after Ceres (even without me speaking Japanese), and the gameplay has a very Prince of Persia (Sands of Time, Warrior Within and Throne of Darkness) feel about it - I'll keep an eye out for more info!