It would be interesting to have remake or game inspired by it (there probably is something else) because there is plenty of room for improvement in both strategy and the arcade-style gameplay, I think.
Looks great! Animation has character and life to it and it looks like the game play does not interrupt the flow of actions — this can be a good or bad, but since this is focused on cinematic feel, it looks like it could be the right choice.
I like the looks of this game now and I want to play it! When I get some time I think I will track down a way to do so. Why not release it on Switch, Nintendo?
It's interesting to me that it could be in a genre that their other major IP does not overlap with, too. Could be a fun candidate for a brand new take, for sure.
@Zidentia Thanks! So little info, though! One says it "borrows heavily" from Zelda 2, but... I would suggest a large portion of the code is shared. I wonder if it was reverse engineered or stolen, or more generously, sold to a separate company. It seems Nintendo EAD developed Zelda 2 and Rambo came out much later in the year. Would love to see someone investigate this.
@HeadPirate I remember playing Rambo back in the day and realizing that it was somehow very closely related to Zelda 2. Rambo released later and I wouldn't say either is a "reskin" (and there is no overworld in Rambo), but the engine for gameplay is definitely the same with all the same quirks and many exact gameplay elements.
I wonder if anyone know the backstory on this? A simple search didn't find an explanation.
Zelda at number 5 is a bit of a shock and Breath of the Wild has to be the reason. In fact, for games the common feature seems to be an expressive, somewhat open, experience (except Pokemon). Which makes sense as the fans express themselves with the games.
The harmony across the design of Minecraft is exemplary. It also benefits from leaning into the universal themes of survival and creativity, never getting in the way of players who create their own emergent stories (or as my daughter has shown me, in recent fandom, serial narratives like in Dream SMP).
The Mojang teams that continue to work on it made one big false move with their initial battle update, but have settled into an understanding of how to protect the core elements while adding new features.
I come back to it every once in awhile and it remains a joy to discover new additions and the systems have only got better with time, in my opinion.
I just think those core universal elements and good shepherding of the game over time naturally lead to a huge active fanbase.
Only thing I noticed was the question block looking thing in the top artwork.
Otherwise, Nintendo would not be able to touch this. Sonic Racing and many, many other actual videogames sell just fine without lawsuits.
There was that one company trying to use Nintendo IP to advertise, with people dressed up in actual Nintendo character costumes, etc. Is that what you are comparing this to?
Looks great! A good kart track is fun on its own and it looks like the extras could be fun and the visuals are working.
The advertising was a big, big misstep, though. They should show how it actually works more, those glimpses are what sold me. Have someone show a new driver how to activate the features what to look for and then get into the montage showing it in action.
That animation did nothing because you just wondered if it would be any good in real life the whole time. And people wandering and transporting through light. Why?
Yeah, it's an amazing time. Being there and interested before videogaming had expanded to the masses means I've seen so many firsts and experienced amazing leaps in tech and game design. Those were exciting moments and I had time to invest in gaming with friends. It was awesome.
Now, however, the sheer variety and ease of play and common acceptance of some quality-of-life norms by developers has made gaming meet people where they are at rather than demand you come to it on its terms. At least for the most part.
There is something for almost everyone.
I think complaints about price, etc. have more to do with how the cost of living and expenses (fast internet, cell phones for every family member) compete for money spent. Games and consoles were expensive back in the day and I painted our fence for weeks to earn extra money to get the base NES console. It was totally worth it.
(and my parents worked hard but spent money on entertainment, so if I waited I could get pretty big gifts for Holidays. I was very blessed that way, and I know that video games can be a huge enticing expenditure for people that are a lot worse off, so that is a factor that has always made gaming expensive to many — however, there are many inexpensive, accessible methods to play games now that were much harder to come by in the early days)
Some agreement on genre like @Xylnox above is suggesting can help, for sure.
I love Metroid, but never liked that Metroidvania term when it started appearing.
Also the distinction between Action Adventures and Metroid is often lost on people. What IS the difference between Metroid and Zelda?
I always made the distinction that Metroid relied on "keys" that were active and had an action that was also for fighting and overcoming other challenges, not just for advancing to new areas by opening a door.
Zelda does this, too, though. Many times the abilities are strictly for advancing through puzzles only, though.
Those are some subtle distinctions, however, so starting with Action Adventure is a good place.
The number of games has exploded in the last decade and a half.
Developers are pushing out the corners of the genre boxes to distinguish themselves and generate interest.
Movies had a long period of setting expectations with similar successful stories and tropes. This gave a great foundation for awhile.
I think one of the big issues is that entertainment fields of all kinds have discovered that their products can succeed with smaller and smaller audiences that have more niche tastes and particular interests. Maybe this happened faster in gaming, so games don't have as solid a set of genre foundations.
(As an aside, I have not decided whether the giant array of options is a good or bad thing. When I was a kid, it seemed like everyone watched the same shows and ads and wanted similar toys — it was a common touchpoint for similar age groups.
In the broad genre of sci-fi, there were not 20 sci-fi TV shows and movies spread across animation, live-action, satire, apocalypse, etc. There were one or two movies a year and maybe one or two TV shows that tried to tackle the budget-issues. Every sci-fi fan knew about every single one of them.)
Genres are definitely useful, however. In movies, people are guided by their expectations in genre. Yes, you want to surprise people, but there are some tropes audiences rely on, and they will turn on the movie if you don't settle into their overall expectations of story.
The same is true with fans of some types of games, as well, but right now there is a great deal of experimentation in genres and appreciation for novelty comes in waves. Developers still need to play into the expectations of genres to some degree if they want to attract fans and keep them satisfied... it's complicated, which makes it hard to talk about.
@rockodoodle Oh yes, that got my attention when I was younger. It was a bit brutal though! If you played someone with a bit more experience you didn't have a chance. The computer "AI" was not that fun to play against, if I remember right.
@Zuljaras To be fair to @Anti-Matter DQ Builders 2 is a Minecraft clone. It does pretty good with its own take on the aesthetics. On the other hand, the difference in popular interest is massively in favor of Minecraft.
@Ambassador_Kong @N64-ROX Could be wrong, but I feel like you missed the entire light-hearted silly tone of the article. To me, it seemed like Kate knew full well that it's a highfalutin trip she was taking the reader on and gave plenty of hints at the get-go. It had a little bit of substance near the end, yes.
And just because you can define almost anything as liminal if you move the context of what is before and after, does not mean that stories and other media can't lean on the qualities of being in-between.
One point, not made — or I didn't notice — is that experienced Zelda players might find the broader story itself liminal because of their knowledge of how the story in other Zelda games play out in later chronology and the inevitability of how it concludes.
Oh and this is not getting taken down. "Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra" has been around for a long time and has been doing things legit as far as I can tell. There are additional Zelda albums from years back. I didn't recognize it at first, but the past album covers have a distinct style that I recognized.
I like the theatrical sound to it and it has the right rousing rhythms going. It sticks very close to the original melodies and has many layered instruments to give it a full feeling of an orchestra, so I actually quite like the arrangement, but there is little in the way of layered orchestration (which requires much more work!) for supporting the necessarily limited voices from the originals.
There's a difference in attitude that softens more and more as you get to the people doing the "grunt" work
At the top, your success is often based on the failure of your peers. At the bottom, you are focused on the job at hand and you benefit from the different perspectives and experience of peers in different companies. You are often inclined to seek out and nurture those relationships - though there are always a few blindly competitive types at all levels.
Furthermore, the need for sharing, learning, and camaraderie from peers, even from different companies, is understandably amplified when the number of people in the field (video game hardware in the 1990s!) was so incredibly low.
@Trajan Haha. Your attempt at being a downer made me giggle. Shigeru Miyamoto is 68 years old, he looks his age. The food decorating is really fun, you should look at some other sources.
This is a nice story. Timber just felt ultra-cutesy in Diddy Kong, so it would have been fun to see him as the time-traveling go-getter.
In Diddy Kong Racing though, it was Bumper (just loved the voice acting when he announced his name) and Tip Tup that entertained us the most. For Tip Tup, it was how his head would be thrown all the way back when he boosted.
Really wish this game would get a spiritual successor, or if Mario Kart would just get a first-class Story/Adventure mode. Time is right. Open world is a Nintendo-thing now.
Having kids and trying to give them an informed view of entertainment, I see that, over and over, some of the most influential and groundbreaking titles are also hard to appreciate.
It's because they have been aped and built-on many times over, so that when you go back to the original you have seen it all before through a more timely and relevant lens.
You don't have to have been there to appreciate how important or amazing these breakthrough influential titles are, but it helps to experience them before all the derivatives.
In the case of Zelda and Ocarina of Time (and Mario 64), they were pivotal in convincing people first about how home gaming could be made deeper for longer play while still remaining visceral and full of action and fun (previously most long games were CRPGs or slow-paced story-oriented games). As a result, most modern third-person games owe their fundamentals to what was established in those games.
In other words, we have seen the refinement and expression of Zelda. The M64/OoT combo entrenched the embrace of moving the character by pushing an analog stick in the direction the PLAYER perceives, instead of the direction of what the character would be perceiving. For 3D third-person games that was a big one, but there are so many other aspects of these games that are just "normal" now, that it is easy to miss how big a deal these games were when they arrived.
@Burning_Spear Don't be embarrassed about not finishing NES Metroid! That game is amazing and the game that crystalized the Metroidvania genre, but it was so, so nasty even to those who took the time to map it by hand.
I do recommend playing Metroid Zero Mission if you have not. It's a complete reimagining of the same event with more respect for the player's time — much less cruel.
@Sebazy Atari's Lynx had a much, much better dedicated graphics chip than the SNES (and probably CPU) if I remember correctly. The resolution was low, but the capabilities were very different and super impressive compared to the other 2D consoles - dozens of "sprites" that could all scale and rotate independently and with decent performance.
Battery life and lack of third party support was the problem I think? And price? The one I played, pretty extensively because I was impressed and fascinated, was a friend's. I remember really enjoying the Gauntlet game and Blue Lightning...
What was this article about again? lol. Oh yeah, let's see Star Fox. Hopefully they can keep the gameplay at a normal rate while increasing the frame rate. Star Fox won't be much fun at double or triple speed.
The way it was described here I can grant that Zelda was transformative in the console gaming space in a similar way to Crusoe in its purview.
I remember, back then, how difficult is was for me to put my finger on why it was so compelling compared to richer games that gave the player more agency and more to explore — at least on paper. Others brought up Ultima, and that is just one of many if you were playing computer games parallel to console games. A big part of what Zelda did was land the immediacy of actions. It took that agency and made it real-time and visceral. It was a potent combination and really that does relate to your Crusoe comparison, as well.
So, I'll buy it.
Also, Zelda is one of the first games that leaps to mind as "the best" in my history with games. However, it was CRPGs like Ultima in the video game realm that had my imagination lit afire first.
You do have to let go of exploring an overworld. In that way this game is the antithesis of BotW. You drop down into restrictive areas to gain access to temples. Also, interruptions by Fi and descriptions about items you collect (that are reset whenever you come back) were highly disruptive at times. I get why some turn away.
But, I really loved this game. The lore was pretty great and the characters quirky and interesting just like they should be in a Zelda game. The art style helped give it something to stand out (I mean, this was the Wii, it was in 480p, wasn't it?)
I was hoping they could do some shader magic to double down on the watercolor/painted look, though.
@Why_Do_I_Exist If it was not getting better there would be something to complain about, but the complexity has been carefully layered and you could play almost exactly the same way you did before and get similar results... but now there is more variety and options if you want to get deeper into it.
Also, in other ways, it has been made more simple to play and is a little less obtuse.
This is an article about carefully refining ore textures (no pun intended) for color blind players to increase accessibility after 10 years.
It's a 10 year old game but is also the best selling video game — and it has rarely stopped slowly advancing its features since the day the public could play it for the first time. I'd say that this slow community building around its updates and changes is a key to why it has sold so well and so consistently.
Probably more of an answer to "why" than you were looking for. Cheers.
The biggest hope I have, and what would make the price tag completely acceptable to me: Quality of Life improvements that smooth out the modal dialogs that break the pace of the game. At the very least:
Fix the tell-you-right-before-you-can-figure-it-out-yourself "Hey, Listen!" moments
Fix the stops when collecting to re-explain everything every time you come back to the game.
I really did enjoy this game, but I am one of those fans of the motion-controls. I'm happy they were able to supply both options and pretty much in the way I thought they might. No contest, though, I'll be using the JoyCons. Part of this is nostalgia, and I want to enjoy it in a similar way.
Looks nicer in the post-streaming video. That soft painted look is a bit mixed when the resolution is higher, but seeing it full-res now I think it works well enough. I sure hope they fix the targeting arrow though! Compare that obviously untouched asset everything else to see how upgraded the other interface elements are.
If there were not so many well-reviewed metroidvanias in my backlog already, I'd play it. Maybe I'll catch up. I like the 15 to 20 hour game length and see that as a feature.
I do wish the pixel art appealed to me more. Shovel Knight wasn't just great because it harkened to the look of NES games, it was also truly exceptional pixel art inside that limitation — and also had pristine, fun, challenging gameplay and modern sensibilities towards the player.
So... now I will daydream about a Metroidvania SNES-style Shovel Knight.
@antifyre You're really on to something there with the gameplay streaming of demos. You could then time limit it, which can be annoying but also make something very special. Not that it would ALL have to be time limited, but there could be special streamed-gaming moments as bookends to presentations. That would get people talking right afterwards about how their experiences compared and really make you want to play more.
@COVIDberry Well Metroid Other M got made, for instance. Metroid was never a success in Japan (even the Prime series), yet it was going head-to-head with Halo in the US (strange match-up, I know, but that is why Metroid Prime 2 had a multiplayer component and there was Metroid Prime Hunters).
The first time I noticed was when he was quizzing people in line at the Nintendo Store in New York City about what Nintendo anniversary it was that day, and no one in line knew, but it was the release of Metroid. He knew the name had clout in the US — his job is essentially PR and bridging to the US market — and I wondered if he was always pushing for a Metroid game with full voice acting (none of the main Nintendo games had it) Nintendo, infamously, took a creative direction with the games to probably widen the audience to include Japanese gamers, but it backfired and lacked appeal for Metroid's core Western audience, both with Metroid Other M and Metroid Federation Force.
@Bl4ckb100d I hear you, but Wii U was in that era. I still enjoyed how they doubled-down on creativity and the future of their developers. Splatoon 2 wasn't just inventive it was Nintendo leaning on their younger developers. It was a promise of Nintendo's future and that was happening during a time where other companies might have chosen to go careful and rest on known successes only.
@jamesthemagi What was the point of retiring? He gets to do what he wants and can do an interview a few times a year about his previous job. I enjoy when people get to give some insight to jobs that they had to be tight-lipped about when they worked there. Especially when it is in a position that can be difficult to understand. Reggie had influence, but no power, really. He could say, "that is not going to go over well in the US", but Nintendo will do what Nintendo will do. Fans always wanted him to "just tell them" about things he could had no choice about revealing — even if he knew it would be better for the success of Nintendo in his territory. Depending on perspective some loved him, some thought he was a "joke", some hated him or at least what he had to say.
Personally, I think he did alright. As pointed out above, he gave a face to Nintendo in the US with some fun personality (subjective, I know!) and he seemed genuine in his love of Nintendo games and his admiration for Iwata and Miyamoto.
(He was an advocate for more Metroid games from what I could tell. I still want to know if he pushed for more contemporary cinematics and voice acting in Metroid — and how he reacted when he saw what the Metroid director came up with. That was really too bad, because if he did push for it, the idea was right — the execution missed the mark.)
Wow. Just bought Overcooked 2 digital last night because we were tired of digging the cartridge out when switching between local co-op games. Even bought a DLC. It was cheap, but still.
That's the new rule now. Local co-op we need a digital copy. Too much cartridge swapping between Puyo Puyo Tetris and other games... we just bought Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 on digital for the same reason. Rayman Legends was on sale: digital double-dip.
I prefer and expect an original game, but Minish Cap kinda fits the idea of "It won’t be photorealistic, but takes elements from reality and puts a design twist on them" the twist being they are gigantic compared to the main character. At least that was my first thought.
@chipia Nintendo was still trying out the touchscreen as an alternative to analog controls (like with Mario 64). I think some kids found it to be fine or preferable to the limits of the dPad. I always found it hand-cramping as I was already adult-sized.
This is the game I planned to play on a long trip (before smartphones) and brought to my attention that the mic didn't work on my DS. lol. I could not progress.
@NinChocolate Feeling like you targeted the wrong system. The N64 music chip, for instance, was a huge let down and disappointment after the SNES. Just compare the music StarFox and StarFox 64. Maybe that is what you were thinking of? Also... NES, Sega Master System, I mean... Atari 2600. lol.
@Casco The samples that the Midi files use to play each note are also sound files and they can be compressed — and often needed to be to take less space and play faster.
There is just no real pressure to release or announce. Announcements of upcoming games are to spur excitement in hardware purchases. There is no slowdown in hardware purchases. Releasing games is for profit, and the first party games have been hugely successful at the rate they are releasing. Having breathing room means each can get attention.
The only people that are antsy are those that are dedicated gamers that play constantly and pay close attention to every new opportunity that comes up on the Switch. That is a very small subset of Nintendo's customers.
If there was a PR battle to win, or a need to get new eyeballs on the Switch because the installed base was too small — remember Wii U? — then, there would be reason to make promises publicly.
There is just very little reason to do that for Nintendo right now. We should just go play a game and be patient. There are plenty of games. If you don't think so, you may want to broaden your genre horizons a bit, or focus on another platform for awhile. Nintendo is doing fine.
@BeastMode44 This is one of the problems of people's perceptions of "good" and "bad" online play.
First of all, it is different for everyone when it is peer-to-peer because it is completely reliant on the home network of two players (and the hardware of the console). So, yes, dedicated servers can help your side of the equation if the other player has a two-can connection to the Internet.
The biggest issue, however, is that each game deals with net code very differently based on how player interactions affect the game.
You can play a FPS game on PC and feel like everything is just great compared to horrible Smash, but so much of what you are seeing on your screen in an FPS is predictive in order to smooth it out, and it is hard to really pinpoint if your shot missed or not in all the fast action. Though there are signs when other players jump about or stop moving — you feel better about it because at least your control is consistent.
Now in something like Smash which requires frame-accurate response in a fight and the clarity of the gameplay is pixel-perfect, every hiccup feels like a shockwave and impedes the actual gameplay you feel.
Mario Kart is more like an FPS. Your direct interaction with the track is what you feel the most and it is not interrupted by Internet players. If the interactions stutter, you barely notice (the only important bit is if the players are in front or behind you at any given time, if that is right, everything else can be jumping all over and inconsistent internally and your game will just smooth it out and make it look natural)
This is actually a pretty surface explanation, as people have been trying to solve these issues for decades and it gets very multi-layered. The main points stands, though. Different games lead to different perceptions about playing on a network.
(Mario Maker 2 is like Smash, for instance, while Monster Hunter — much more like an FPS)
Comments 6,335
Re: Chess Knights: Shinobi Is Making Its Move On Switch Soon
@rockodoodle There was an Archon Ultra in the 90s, you can play it here: https://playclassic.games/games/action-dos-games-online/play-archon-ultra-online/play/
It would be interesting to have remake or game inspired by it (there probably is something else) because there is plenty of room for improvement in both strategy and the arcade-style gameplay, I think.
Re: Moon Samurai Is A Stylish Action Game That's Heading To Switch
Looks great! Animation has character and life to it and it looks like the game play does not interrupt the flow of actions — this can be a good or bad, but since this is focused on cinematic feel, it looks like it could be the right choice.
Re: Video: Remembering Zelda's Sister Game - The Mysterious Murasame Castle
I like the looks of this game now and I want to play it! When I get some time I think I will track down a way to do so. Why not release it on Switch, Nintendo?
It's interesting to me that it could be in a genre that their other major IP does not overlap with, too. Could be a fun candidate for a brand new take, for sure.
Re: Video: Remembering Zelda's Sister Game - The Mysterious Murasame Castle
@Zidentia Thanks! So little info, though! One says it "borrows heavily" from Zelda 2, but... I would suggest a large portion of the code is shared. I wonder if it was reverse engineered or stolen, or more generously, sold to a separate company. It seems Nintendo EAD developed Zelda 2 and Rambo came out much later in the year. Would love to see someone investigate this.
Re: Video: Remembering Zelda's Sister Game - The Mysterious Murasame Castle
@HeadPirate I remember playing Rambo back in the day and realizing that it was somehow very closely related to Zelda 2. Rambo released later and I wouldn't say either is a "reskin" (and there is no overworld in Rambo), but the engine for gameplay is definitely the same with all the same quirks and many exact gameplay elements.
I wonder if anyone know the backstory on this? A simple search didn't find an explanation.
Re: Minecraft Beats Pokémon, Zelda And Animal Crossing To The Prize Of "World's Leading Fandom"
@JasmineDragon Maybe they take points away for large sections of toxicity within the fandom?
Star Wars is number 12, btw. (and I am a huge Star Wars fan that is accepting of just about all of it)
Re: Minecraft Beats Pokémon, Zelda And Animal Crossing To The Prize Of "World's Leading Fandom"
Zelda at number 5 is a bit of a shock and Breath of the Wild has to be the reason. In fact, for games the common feature seems to be an expressive, somewhat open, experience (except Pokemon). Which makes sense as the fans express themselves with the games.
Re: Minecraft Beats Pokémon, Zelda And Animal Crossing To The Prize Of "World's Leading Fandom"
The harmony across the design of Minecraft is exemplary. It also benefits from leaning into the universal themes of survival and creativity, never getting in the way of players who create their own emergent stories (or as my daughter has shown me, in recent fandom, serial narratives like in Dream SMP).
The Mojang teams that continue to work on it made one big false move with their initial battle update, but have settled into an understanding of how to protect the core elements while adding new features.
I come back to it every once in awhile and it remains a joy to discover new additions and the systems have only got better with time, in my opinion.
I just think those core universal elements and good shepherding of the game over time naturally lead to a huge active fanbase.
Re: 'Mario Kart Live' Not Real Enough For You? Then Check Out This Full-Size Rival
@Tasuki More than a bit of exaggeration.
Only thing I noticed was the question block looking thing in the top artwork.
Otherwise, Nintendo would not be able to touch this. Sonic Racing and many, many other actual videogames sell just fine without lawsuits.
There was that one company trying to use Nintendo IP to advertise, with people dressed up in actual Nintendo character costumes, etc. Is that what you are comparing this to?
Re: 'Mario Kart Live' Not Real Enough For You? Then Check Out This Full-Size Rival
Looks great! A good kart track is fun on its own and it looks like the extras could be fun and the visuals are working.
The advertising was a big, big misstep, though. They should show how it actually works more, those glimpses are what sold me. Have someone show a new driver how to activate the features what to look for and then get into the montage showing it in action.
That animation did nothing because you just wondered if it would be any good in real life the whole time. And people wandering and transporting through light. Why?
Re: Soapbox: Be Happy, This Is The True Golden Age Of Gaming
@everynowandben Yes, that's true, too. But, that's not my perspective as an old guy.
Re: Soapbox: Be Happy, This Is The True Golden Age Of Gaming
Reading some of these comments makes me laugh, frankly. It's the classic of young people just not knowing what they have.
Re: Soapbox: Be Happy, This Is The True Golden Age Of Gaming
Yeah, it's an amazing time. Being there and interested before videogaming had expanded to the masses means I've seen so many firsts and experienced amazing leaps in tech and game design. Those were exciting moments and I had time to invest in gaming with friends. It was awesome.
Now, however, the sheer variety and ease of play and common acceptance of some quality-of-life norms by developers has made gaming meet people where they are at rather than demand you come to it on its terms. At least for the most part.
There is something for almost everyone.
I think complaints about price, etc. have more to do with how the cost of living and expenses (fast internet, cell phones for every family member) compete for money spent. Games and consoles were expensive back in the day and I painted our fence for weeks to earn extra money to get the base NES console. It was totally worth it.
(and my parents worked hard but spent money on entertainment, so if I waited I could get pretty big gifts for Holidays. I was very blessed that way, and I know that video games can be a huge enticing expenditure for people that are a lot worse off, so that is a factor that has always made gaming expensive to many — however, there are many inexpensive, accessible methods to play games now that were much harder to come by in the early days)
Re: Soapbox: Game Genres Are Broken
Some agreement on genre like @Xylnox above is suggesting can help, for sure.
I love Metroid, but never liked that Metroidvania term when it started appearing.
Also the distinction between Action Adventures and Metroid is often lost on people. What IS the difference between Metroid and Zelda?
I always made the distinction that Metroid relied on "keys" that were active and had an action that was also for fighting and overcoming other challenges, not just for advancing to new areas by opening a door.
Zelda does this, too, though. Many times the abilities are strictly for advancing through puzzles only, though.
Those are some subtle distinctions, however, so starting with Action Adventure is a good place.
Re: Soapbox: Game Genres Are Broken
The number of games has exploded in the last decade and a half.
Developers are pushing out the corners of the genre boxes to distinguish themselves and generate interest.
Movies had a long period of setting expectations with similar successful stories and tropes. This gave a great foundation for awhile.
I think one of the big issues is that entertainment fields of all kinds have discovered that their products can succeed with smaller and smaller audiences that have more niche tastes and particular interests. Maybe this happened faster in gaming, so games don't have as solid a set of genre foundations.
(As an aside, I have not decided whether the giant array of options is a good or bad thing. When I was a kid, it seemed like everyone watched the same shows and ads and wanted similar toys — it was a common touchpoint for similar age groups.
In the broad genre of sci-fi, there were not 20 sci-fi TV shows and movies spread across animation, live-action, satire, apocalypse, etc. There were one or two movies a year and maybe one or two TV shows that tried to tackle the budget-issues. Every sci-fi fan knew about every single one of them.)
Genres are definitely useful, however. In movies, people are guided by their expectations in genre. Yes, you want to surprise people, but there are some tropes audiences rely on, and they will turn on the movie if you don't settle into their overall expectations of story.
The same is true with fans of some types of games, as well, but right now there is a great deal of experimentation in genres and appreciation for novelty comes in waves. Developers still need to play into the expectations of genres to some degree if they want to attract fans and keep them satisfied... it's complicated, which makes it hard to talk about.
Re: Chess Knights: Shinobi Is Making Its Move On Switch Soon
@rockodoodle Oh yes, that got my attention when I was younger. It was a bit brutal though! If you played someone with a bit more experience you didn't have a chance. The computer "AI" was not that fun to play against, if I remember right.
Re: Rise Eterna Is A Tactical RPG Out Now On Switch eShop, Has A Gorgeous Physical Edition
Did "first" competitions become unironically hip again? Or did I miss the /s ?
Re: Random: Here's Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Tarrey Town Completely Remade Inside Minecraft
@Zuljaras To be fair to @Anti-Matter DQ Builders 2 is a Minecraft clone. It does pretty good with its own take on the aesthetics. On the other hand, the difference in popular interest is massively in favor of Minecraft.
Re: Feature: The Exquisite Liminality Of Zelda: Skyward Sword
@Ambassador_Kong @N64-ROX Could be wrong, but I feel like you missed the entire light-hearted silly tone of the article. To me, it seemed like Kate knew full well that it's a highfalutin trip she was taking the reader on and gave plenty of hints at the get-go. It had a little bit of substance near the end, yes.
And just because you can define almost anything as liminal if you move the context of what is before and after, does not mean that stories and other media can't lean on the qualities of being in-between.
One point, not made — or I didn't notice — is that experienced Zelda players might find the broader story itself liminal because of their knowledge of how the story in other Zelda games play out in later chronology and the inevitability of how it concludes.
Re: From The Creator Of Threes Comes Beast Breaker, A Ball-Bouncing Game About A Tiny Mouse
@realBGC If that’s your music in the announcement, it sounds great.
Re: Celebrate Zelda's 35th Anniversary With This Wind Waker Orchestrated Fan Album
Oh and this is not getting taken down. "Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra" has been around for a long time and has been doing things legit as far as I can tell. There are additional Zelda albums from years back. I didn't recognize it at first, but the past album covers have a distinct style that I recognized.
Re: Celebrate Zelda's 35th Anniversary With This Wind Waker Orchestrated Fan Album
I like the theatrical sound to it and it has the right rousing rhythms going. It sticks very close to the original melodies and has many layered instruments to give it a full feeling of an orchestra, so I actually quite like the arrangement, but there is little in the way of layered orchestration (which requires much more work!) for supporting the necessarily limited voices from the originals.
Very nice overall!
Re: PlayStation's Ken Kutaragi "Never" Considered Nintendo To Be A Competitor
There's a difference in attitude that softens more and more as you get to the people doing the "grunt" work
At the top, your success is often based on the failure of your peers. At the bottom, you are focused on the job at hand and you benefit from the different perspectives and experience of peers in different companies. You are often inclined to seek out and nurture those relationships - though there are always a few blindly competitive types at all levels.
Furthermore, the need for sharing, learning, and camaraderie from peers, even from different companies, is understandably amplified when the number of people in the field (video game hardware in the 1990s!) was so incredibly low.
@Zenszulu You hit the nail on the head.
Re: Super Nintendo World Celebrates Park Launch With Grand Opening Ceremony
@Trajan Haha. Your attempt at being a downer made me giggle. Shigeru Miyamoto is 68 years old, he looks his age. The food decorating is really fun, you should look at some other sources.
Re: Rare's Cancelled N64 Project Dinosaur Planet Originally Starred The "Cute Tiger" From Diddy Kong Racing
This is a nice story. Timber just felt ultra-cutesy in Diddy Kong, so it would have been fun to see him as the time-traveling go-getter.
In Diddy Kong Racing though, it was Bumper (just loved the voice acting when he announced his name) and Tip Tup that entertained us the most. For Tip Tup, it was how his head would be thrown all the way back when he boosted.
Really wish this game would get a spiritual successor, or if Mario Kart would just get a first-class Story/Adventure mode. Time is right. Open world is a Nintendo-thing now.
Re: Game Devs From Riot To Xbox Spoke About Their Love For Zelda, And How It Influenced Them
Having kids and trying to give them an informed view of entertainment, I see that, over and over, some of the most influential and groundbreaking titles are also hard to appreciate.
It's because they have been aped and built-on many times over, so that when you go back to the original you have seen it all before through a more timely and relevant lens.
You don't have to have been there to appreciate how important or amazing these breakthrough influential titles are, but it helps to experience them before all the derivatives.
In the case of Zelda and Ocarina of Time (and Mario 64), they were pivotal in convincing people first about how home gaming could be made deeper for longer play while still remaining visceral and full of action and fun (previously most long games were CRPGs or slow-paced story-oriented games). As a result, most modern third-person games owe their fundamentals to what was established in those games.
In other words, we have seen the refinement and expression of Zelda. The M64/OoT combo entrenched the embrace of moving the character by pushing an analog stick in the direction the PLAYER perceives, instead of the direction of what the character would be perceiving. For 3D third-person games that was a big one, but there are so many other aspects of these games that are just "normal" now, that it is easy to miss how big a deal these games were when they arrived.
Re: Game Devs From Riot To Xbox Spoke About Their Love For Zelda, And How It Influenced Them
@Burning_Spear Don't be embarrassed about not finishing NES Metroid! That game is amazing and the game that crystalized the Metroidvania genre, but it was so, so nasty even to those who took the time to map it by hand.
I do recommend playing Metroid Zero Mission if you have not. It's a complete reimagining of the same event with more respect for the player's time — much less cruel.
Re: Random: Talented Hacker Bumps The Frame Rate Of SNES Race Drivin' From 4fps To 30
@Sebazy Atari's Lynx had a much, much better dedicated graphics chip than the SNES (and probably CPU) if I remember correctly. The resolution was low, but the capabilities were very different and super impressive compared to the other 2D consoles - dozens of "sprites" that could all scale and rotate independently and with decent performance.
Battery life and lack of third party support was the problem I think? And price? The one I played, pretty extensively because I was impressed and fascinated, was a friend's. I remember really enjoying the Gauntlet game and Blue Lightning...
What was this article about again? lol. Oh yeah, let's see Star Fox. Hopefully they can keep the gameplay at a normal rate while increasing the frame rate. Star Fox won't be much fun at double or triple speed.
Re: Feature: The Legend Of Zelda Is The Robinson Crusoe Of Video Games
The way it was described here I can grant that Zelda was transformative in the console gaming space in a similar way to Crusoe in its purview.
I remember, back then, how difficult is was for me to put my finger on why it was so compelling compared to richer games that gave the player more agency and more to explore — at least on paper. Others brought up Ultima, and that is just one of many if you were playing computer games parallel to console games. A big part of what Zelda did was land the immediacy of actions. It took that agency and made it real-time and visceral. It was a potent combination and really that does relate to your Crusoe comparison, as well.
So, I'll buy it.
Also, Zelda is one of the first games that leaps to mind as "the best" in my history with games. However, it was CRPGs like Ultima in the video game realm that had my imagination lit afire first.
Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Skyward Sword Is Good, Actually
You do have to let go of exploring an overworld. In that way this game is the antithesis of BotW. You drop down into restrictive areas to gain access to temples. Also, interruptions by Fi and descriptions about items you collect (that are reset whenever you come back) were highly disruptive at times. I get why some turn away.
But, I really loved this game. The lore was pretty great and the characters quirky and interesting just like they should be in a Zelda game. The art style helped give it something to stand out (I mean, this was the Wii, it was in 480p, wasn't it?)
I was hoping they could do some shader magic to double down on the watercolor/painted look, though.
Re: Minecraft Is Getting New Ore Textures, Except For Diamond, Which Is Already Perfect
@Why_Do_I_Exist If it was not getting better there would be something to complain about, but the complexity has been carefully layered and you could play almost exactly the same way you did before and get similar results... but now there is more variety and options if you want to get deeper into it.
Also, in other ways, it has been made more simple to play and is a little less obtuse.
This is an article about carefully refining ore textures (no pun intended) for color blind players to increase accessibility after 10 years.
It's a 10 year old game but is also the best selling video game — and it has rarely stopped slowly advancing its features since the day the public could play it for the first time. I'd say that this slow community building around its updates and changes is a key to why it has sold so well and so consistently.
Probably more of an answer to "why" than you were looking for. Cheers.
Re: The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Will Feature amiibo Support, File Size Revealed
The biggest hope I have, and what would make the price tag completely acceptable to me: Quality of Life improvements that smooth out the modal dialogs that break the pace of the game. At the very least:
Re: The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Will Feature amiibo Support, File Size Revealed
I really did enjoy this game, but I am one of those fans of the motion-controls. I'm happy they were able to supply both options and pretty much in the way I thought they might. No contest, though, I'll be using the JoyCons. Part of this is nostalgia, and I want to enjoy it in a similar way.
Re: The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Will Feature amiibo Support, File Size Revealed
Looks nicer in the post-streaming video. That soft painted look is a bit mixed when the resolution is higher, but seeing it full-res now I think it works well enough. I sure hope they fix the targeting arrow though! Compare that obviously untouched asset everything else to see how upgraded the other interface elements are.
Re: Review: Cathedral - A Fine Metroidvania Which Can't Quite Match The Best Of The Genre
If there were not so many well-reviewed metroidvanias in my backlog already, I'd play it. Maybe I'll catch up. I like the 15 to 20 hour game length and see that as a feature.
I do wish the pixel art appealed to me more. Shovel Knight wasn't just great because it harkened to the look of NES games, it was also truly exceptional pixel art inside that limitation — and also had pristine, fun, challenging gameplay and modern sensibilities towards the player.
So... now I will daydream about a Metroidvania SNES-style Shovel Knight.
Re: Reggie Wants E3 And Platform Holders To Find A Way To "Digitally" Enable Fans
@antifyre You're really on to something there with the gameplay streaming of demos. You could then time limit it, which can be annoying but also make something very special. Not that it would ALL have to be time limited, but there could be special streamed-gaming moments as bookends to presentations. That would get people talking right afterwards about how their experiences compared and really make you want to play more.
Re: Nintendo's Success With Switch Made Reggie's Retirement Decision "Easy"
@COVIDberry Well Metroid Other M got made, for instance. Metroid was never a success in Japan (even the Prime series), yet it was going head-to-head with Halo in the US (strange match-up, I know, but that is why Metroid Prime 2 had a multiplayer component and there was Metroid Prime Hunters).
The first time I noticed was when he was quizzing people in line at the Nintendo Store in New York City about what Nintendo anniversary it was that day, and no one in line knew, but it was the release of Metroid. He knew the name had clout in the US — his job is essentially PR and bridging to the US market — and I wondered if he was always pushing for a Metroid game with full voice acting (none of the main Nintendo games had it) Nintendo, infamously, took a creative direction with the games to probably widen the audience to include Japanese gamers, but it backfired and lacked appeal for Metroid's core Western audience, both with Metroid Other M and Metroid Federation Force.
Re: Nintendo's Success With Switch Made Reggie's Retirement Decision "Easy"
@Bl4ckb100d I hear you, but Wii U was in that era. I still enjoyed how they doubled-down on creativity and the future of their developers. Splatoon 2 wasn't just inventive it was Nintendo leaning on their younger developers. It was a promise of Nintendo's future and that was happening during a time where other companies might have chosen to go careful and rest on known successes only.
Re: Nintendo's Success With Switch Made Reggie's Retirement Decision "Easy"
@jamesthemagi What was the point of retiring? He gets to do what he wants and can do an interview a few times a year about his previous job. I enjoy when people get to give some insight to jobs that they had to be tight-lipped about when they worked there. Especially when it is in a position that can be difficult to understand. Reggie had influence, but no power, really. He could say, "that is not going to go over well in the US", but Nintendo will do what Nintendo will do. Fans always wanted him to "just tell them" about things he could had no choice about revealing — even if he knew it would be better for the success of Nintendo in his territory. Depending on perspective some loved him, some thought he was a "joke", some hated him or at least what he had to say.
Personally, I think he did alright. As pointed out above, he gave a face to Nintendo in the US with some fun personality (subjective, I know!) and he seemed genuine in his love of Nintendo games and his admiration for Iwata and Miyamoto.
(He was an advocate for more Metroid games from what I could tell. I still want to know if he pushed for more contemporary cinematics and voice acting in Metroid — and how he reacted when he saw what the Metroid director came up with. That was really too bad, because if he did push for it, the idea was right — the execution missed the mark.)
Re: Overcooked's Mega 'All You Can Eat' Bundle Is Coming To Switch Next Month
Wow. Just bought Overcooked 2 digital last night because we were tired of digging the cartridge out when switching between local co-op games. Even bought a DLC. It was cheap, but still.
That's the new rule now. Local co-op we need a digital copy. Too much cartridge swapping between Puyo Puyo Tetris and other games... we just bought Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 on digital for the same reason. Rayman Legends was on sale: digital double-dip.
Re: Zelda Remake Specialist Grezzo Is Hiring For A New "Medieval" And "Stylish" Project
I recommend JetBrains Rider instead of Visual Studio for C# scripting in Unity. Eh. I'm sure dev is listening to rando commenter here.
Re: Zelda Remake Specialist Grezzo Is Hiring For A New "Medieval" And "Stylish" Project
I prefer and expect an original game, but Minish Cap kinda fits the idea of "It won’t be photorealistic, but takes elements from reality and puts a design twist on them" the twist being they are gigantic compared to the main character. At least that was my first thought.
Re: Nintendo Registers New Trademark For The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
@chipia Nintendo was still trying out the touchscreen as an alternative to analog controls (like with Mario 64). I think some kids found it to be fine or preferable to the limits of the dPad. I always found it hand-cramping as I was already adult-sized.
Re: Nintendo Registers New Trademark For The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
This is the game I planned to play on a long trip (before smartphones) and brought to my attention that the mic didn't work on my DS. lol. I could not progress.
Re: Random: Dataminers Use Original Uncompressed Samples To Restore Super Mario World's Soundtrack
@NinChocolate Feeling like you targeted the wrong system. The N64 music chip, for instance, was a huge let down and disappointment after the SNES. Just compare the music StarFox and StarFox 64. Maybe that is what you were thinking of? Also... NES, Sega Master System, I mean... Atari 2600. lol.
Re: Random: Dataminers Use Original Uncompressed Samples To Restore Super Mario World's Soundtrack
@Casco The samples that the Midi files use to play each note are also sound files and they can be compressed — and often needed to be to take less space and play faster.
Re: The Cat Mario Show Is Back, Showing Off Bowser's Fury (And BIG Cat Mario)
@rjejr "Nyan Nyan! Neko Mario Time" Did you see this returned?
I actually double-dipped on this game and pre-ordered the digital version this time, so the fam can quick jump in to play.
Re: Nintendo Will Discuss Upcoming Switch Games "At The Appropriate Time"
There is just no real pressure to release or announce. Announcements of upcoming games are to spur excitement in hardware purchases. There is no slowdown in hardware purchases. Releasing games is for profit, and the first party games have been hugely successful at the rate they are releasing. Having breathing room means each can get attention.
The only people that are antsy are those that are dedicated gamers that play constantly and pay close attention to every new opportunity that comes up on the Switch. That is a very small subset of Nintendo's customers.
If there was a PR battle to win, or a need to get new eyeballs on the Switch because the installed base was too small — remember Wii U? — then, there would be reason to make promises publicly.
There is just very little reason to do that for Nintendo right now. We should just go play a game and be patient. There are plenty of games. If you don't think so, you may want to broaden your genre horizons a bit, or focus on another platform for awhile. Nintendo is doing fine.
Re: Nintendo Is "Replacing Its Multiplayer Server System" Dating Back To The Wii U And 3DS Era
@BeastMode44 This is one of the problems of people's perceptions of "good" and "bad" online play.
First of all, it is different for everyone when it is peer-to-peer because it is completely reliant on the home network of two players (and the hardware of the console). So, yes, dedicated servers can help your side of the equation if the other player has a two-can connection to the Internet.
The biggest issue, however, is that each game deals with net code very differently based on how player interactions affect the game.
You can play a FPS game on PC and feel like everything is just great compared to horrible Smash, but so much of what you are seeing on your screen in an FPS is predictive in order to smooth it out, and it is hard to really pinpoint if your shot missed or not in all the fast action. Though there are signs when other players jump about or stop moving — you feel better about it because at least your control is consistent.
Now in something like Smash which requires frame-accurate response in a fight and the clarity of the gameplay is pixel-perfect, every hiccup feels like a shockwave and impedes the actual gameplay you feel.
Mario Kart is more like an FPS. Your direct interaction with the track is what you feel the most and it is not interrupted by Internet players. If the interactions stutter, you barely notice (the only important bit is if the players are in front or behind you at any given time, if that is right, everything else can be jumping all over and inconsistent internally and your game will just smooth it out and make it look natural)
This is actually a pretty surface explanation, as people have been trying to solve these issues for decades and it gets very multi-layered. The main points stands, though. Different games lead to different perceptions about playing on a network.
(Mario Maker 2 is like Smash, for instance, while Monster Hunter — much more like an FPS)
Re: Here's Why The Cover To F-Zero Is So Special
Both box art examples are pretty great. I think the American one sells the actual gameplay better and helps it stand out.
Anyone hoping to meet the cluster of faces in the Japanese box would only be disappointed.
I mean, here I am, decades later wanting to see more of those characters.