All jokes aside, I thought that it was just me. I'd been happening to me all of the time since the update and it's REALLY frustrating. It sometimes takes 3 or 4 goes just to get it to release.
That said, the most annoying thing to me, post-update, is the suddenly cheap AI. Before, the bots could barely score beyond 60pts. Now, I can shoot a solid 258 and they'll still beat me almost every time. So hard to earn new items or costume elements each week when the AI makes it difficult for me to even place 12th, much less top 3. Very cheap. I'm great at bowling and, post-update, the bots now make me look like my 10yo niece.
@RCGamer Then that's a case for the courts. Not sure that they'll examine it down to the pixel to ascertain the truth, but the devs have no doubt kept meticulous records of their process. All devs do. I don't like that it looks like some off brand clone either. Not sure that this is a winnable case, however.
@Yorumi Exactly. And while there are numerous songs that are eerily similar, most don't get classified as IP infringement. It's only when you, say, sample "Under Pressure" to create "Ice Ice Baby" without permission that you get into trouble.
BTW: Don't get me wrong. I'm also very uneasy with how much this rips off from LttP and the GB game. It's a little too close to comfort for me too. Legally speaking, it may just fall right on the side of fair use and protected homage though.
EDIT>> Marvel's Hyperion is the exact reason why this game may survive legal challenges. Hyperion IS Marvel's Superman. Same exact powers. Same caped type costume. Same basic origin. Both white muscular alien dudes with messiah complexes who crash landed as children. Teeny tiny subtleties. That's what it boils down to. Protected by fair use because of them.
Since no physical resources were stolen from Nintendo and no trademarks are being infringed, it's hard to imagine that Nintendo has any case. I'D never build such a game as it shows talent, but no originality. Still, it's probably safe from Big N's sharks in legal.
LOL Lawsuits don't work like people seem to think that they do. This isn't something that Nintendo can sue for, nor would they. It's simple. Trademarks and copyrights protect implementations, but not ideas.
Had this developer ripped "Zelda" textures, used Nintendo logos, or tried to situate this for-pay product in Hyrule then they would've been in big legal trouble.
However, this is not that. It's a "Zelda" clone. It may be extremely close in execution to its source of inspiration, but it uses nothing made by Nintendo. Not its characters. Not its models. Not its logos. Nothing. It's something that's just "told in the style of" - as they say.
The reason why IP laws work this way is because, fundamentally, there are only a handful unique ideas in human existence. Don't get me wrong. There are LOTS of ideas out there, but far more variations on a theme.
For example, "Star Wars" and "The Matrix" both use the very same idea template - The Hero's Journey. Countless other books and movies use the same design. However, the end products each look and feel vastly different. Implementation is everything. THAT is what's being protected.
Were the courts to protect ideas then we'd only have one action movie, one comedy, one RPG, and so on. Superficially Superman, Hyperion, Sentry, Shazam, and Homelander are all basically the same character. Cape. Heat vision. Super strength. ETC. They're individually protected because their respective implementations are different.
Even when, for example, Hyperion's origin is effectively the same, small differences in execution are enough that it's legally protected as its own thing; In this case, Marvel's Hyperion started off as parody of Superman. (Marvel has its own legally protected clone of Justice League; Squadron Supreme.)
Nobody's going to sue anybody here. There's just no case. It looks very familiar, as all clones and homages tend to. However, Nintendo's toes aren't being stepped on in any overt way. It's certainly not as if these devs are trying to create an unauthorized sequel, remake, or port. Those things are mine fields. This? Just one of many clones. Metroid fans know how this works by now.
Different enough to be legally protected, but still familiar enough to be uncomfortable.
@Orokosaki Definitely. One of the very few good LJN games; They were mostly known for cash grab shovelware like "Uncanny X-Men" on NES. Only a few standout games to come from them.
How can you forget the "Legends of Wrestling" series on GameCube?!? So much fun. Also, visually, they're still great to look at with its stylized wrestlers. Kinda wish that they'd make a 3rd.
@Sora181 Yeah. I'm looking at it a bit more on Steam and it actually looks kinda funny. Visually, there's something there that vaguely reminds me of the old school "so bad that it's good" NES game Athena.
@jojobar
That's the thing about Japanese style games. MANY full grown women are made to look like an underaged girls. Nobody out there thinks too much over it. In the West, however, devs are forced to tone down the breasts, cover up a tiny cleavage line, or explicitly state that they're adults (for the idiots out there). It's silly. People are losing their sh** over pixels PIXELS.
@Yoshii69 Yeah. It looks fun. I completely expect the naughty factor to be the sort of "made you look" and "all in good fun" tongue in cheek stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously. It doesn't look all that exploitative.
@dew12333 "Benny Hill"... Love the reference. Hadn't seen him in years. Now I won't be able to get that theme song out of my head.
For those of you old enough to remember, there was once a time when Sailor Moon and Valis had people messing themselves with how naughty it was to display teens or petite women that way. In hindsight, people made WAY too much of it.
This game is more "wink & nod" than full on tentacles and teens stuff. It's T-rate cheese and looks fun. My suggestion for the uptight among us... "Unclench and roll with it."
@dew12333
Nah. @jojobar and @RR529 are right. If such a "naughty" angle exists then it's really not on display here. The art style and tone are perfectly in line with other Japanese made products. If anything, I would say that it's understated in that sense.
This is really just a bit of tongue in cheek cheesecake stuff and nothing more. Historically speaking, there are actually numerous other mainstream games such as DOA and Lolipop Chainsaw that push that "bouncy factor" exploitation more.
TBH, I'm not really sure that what's on display here is even naughty by T-rated standards. Street Fighter V's Mika pushes thing more than the few bouncy "skin" pixels in this game. Visually, especially for a low res metroidvania game, it's no more visually shocking than Shantae.
This game might shock so-called "bible belt" moms whose kids are pestering them for a new game, but certainly nobody with any exposure to the wealth and breadth of what mainstream gaming has had to offer lo these past 40 years.
Keep in mind that her generation created the whole dang art form. We're just visitors to her world.
Take my dad for example. My dad is an avid gamer and he just turned 74.
Yeah. He still plays casual games like Angry Birds to unwind after a long day at the office; He's a CFO. However, when the weekend comes or there's nothing on TV/streaming... He's the king of FPSers like Doom Eternal and open world games like RDR2. ATM, he's just (not so) patiently waiting for his Dying Light 2 preorder to unlock.
Mom's 76 now. She's been hospitalized for the past year. COVID f***ed her up hard and, well, she's not the same anymore.
However, up until last year, she was a casual sort of gamer. She had the arcade classics on her PC and when she wanted to unwind with the family... HOLY SH**! I have no idea where she got her Street Fighter & Tekken skills from. That chick was straight up brutal. LOL Mom would gleefully kick my @$$ every time. Mind you, I used to hustle other kids for their lunch money at the arcade when I was young. Mom's just a natural.
Gamers come in all ages and shapes. Again, my parent's generation created video games. It's their world and we're just living in it.
@gaga64
Not really. Like I said, they probably already had the model on hand for use as the guide for the armor. No sense in modeling it and then letting it go to waste. When it comes to this sort of thing, those models never go to waste anyway. They either get repurposed for later content drops or marketing material or they get modded and kitbashed into other, future models.
@impurekind If anything, I think that the older model was more stylized and less anatomically correct. I mean, I have to look again, but that's my initial read. What makes the newer one look more a little janky is probably the shading and render. I blame that on the rip and ripper to some degree. The newer model is definitely more refined and better modeled though.
I's not all that unreasonable or odd, tbh. As far as poly counts go, it's actually decently low for a modern game. Especially for non-interactive sequences such as this, the triangle counts could easily be 5x+ higher.
Some people are wondering if there were more sequences planned. In all likelihood, however, this model was probably constructed first (as a base mesh) and then used as the underlying guide for the armor creation. Doing it that way probably helped them to create an armor that was properly proportioned/structured and believably bulky.
It's not all that uncommon of a practice when creating CG armor to start with some sort of underlying "trace" base mesh. In this case, it works to their advantage because they could always repurpose it later on and even use this low poly model as the base cage for renders of denser detail.
(FWIW, I am a CG artist and programmer with 30+ years experience. I've done tons of character models and a lot of real-time programming. Been involved with the online gamedev community for almost 25 years too. I see these things all of the time.)
@13AM_Alex Actually, boomers did and still do play shooters. My dad's 74 and has played them consistently since Wolfenstein back in the 90s. Doom. Quake. Unreal. Borderlands. Dying Light. If it has guns or any sort of FPS-type combat, he plays it even today.
@voltaireis
Phones are, imo, not the best sort of gaming device - portable or otherwise. Touch controls feel neutered and the experiences feel more shallow. The form factor isn't the problem. The design of modern phone is.
Consoles and handhelds are task specific and have controllers built to spec. Something like the Wii was designed for one thing and one thing only. Games.
Something like the iPhone, however, has to be multipurpose. Its physical design has to bend to the whims of app developers. Consequently, the physical input mechanism has to be equally flexible. Hence touch input.
The downside here is that the experience may be adequate for in the general case, but equally flawed in the specific. Possible to edit your spreadsheets on a smartphone? Sure. A desktop PC would make the experience quicker, easier, and more natural though. Possible to play a RPG? Sure. Why not? You might have better, more tactile controls and more expansive story/experience on a system with a controller and internals built for gaming though.
Smartphones are the substitute teachers of the gaming world. They'll fill in well enough and do the job in a pinch, but will almost never be as up to the task as the person teaching that one class for a living.
As for the bit about making calls on your phone.... LOL ... I do text more often than call, but some conversations don't lend themselves to quick brain fart emoji filled responses. Especially true if the substance of your communique is longer than a sentence or two.
Certainly don't want to text the office or your doctor. Or maybe you do. I don't know. LOL
Can you imagine getting a text from your doctor that was just ... EGGPLANT... SAD FACE.... SKULL... DERP!
I'd change my healthcare provider and doc after that.
"Almost impossible to make much progress without external sources of help if you're a newcomer"
The funniest complaint I've read about a game. Talk about modern gamer privilege, right? Whole new generation of gamers that can't get through a game without Googling for a guide.
For the pre-internet generation, especially those who couldn't afford guides, you just figured it all out and developers gave you credit for brains and grit. You got limited checkpoints, one hit kills, zero in-game hints... and you loved every minute of it.
In the NES era especially, if you weren't screaming at the TV then you probably weren't enjoying the game. Steeling and forging yourself into a master by this trial by fire was part of the experience and it ended up making you a more proficient gamer.
I really don't care that SaGa Frontier doesn't hold your hand. Some people like hardcore board games with lots of rules. Some prefer Hungry Hungry Hippo. I'd probably be more offended if the developers dumbed things down at any point or neutered the challenge - even if that challenge was a product of quirky design. Japanese game design has certainly been weirder & quirkier than this.
Something also to be said about design, however flawed, that feels as if it came out of the minds of creative types than focus groups.
@Lebest I've played some modern 3D remakes of old Square pixel JRPGs. Gotta say... Not a fan.
Sure. They ended up looking prettier. However, part of the charm is in the old style and how the developers made the most of the limitations they were given.
Similarly, whenever they expanded on or updated the dialogue, some of the funnier quirks got lost. It would certainly be more faithful to have FFL2 deal with opium smuggling, but there's just something delightfully goofy about Nintendo having Square swap opium out for bananas.
Remasters and remakes have their positives and negatives.
Lucas' original Star Wars has been tweaked countless time over the years. It's nice that some of the derpy old school effects got updated with modern tech, but it usually came at the expense of unnecessary comedic bits added in or editing changes that affected the nuances. I'd certainly trade away all of the legitimate improvements made possible only thanks to more modern tech if it meant that I could enjoy the movies in their original, purest forms - warts and all.
Gaming is really no different. You can argue all day about how a Final Fantasy 7 remake/remaster is necessary to bring it to today's generation of gamers. However, imo, remaking or remastering an old game like that removes it from the evolutionary chain of the series or genre.
To understand and appreciate how we got to FF 8-15, some people such as myself love to play FF 1-7 as originally intended. Might they be artifacts of a bygone era, ugly and clunky by today's standards? Definitely. I don't want to enjoy them by today's standards. I want to enjoy them for what they were, digital representatives of their respective consoles and, in some cases, the gold standard of the genre - to that point in time.
I think, to an extent, this is what has been behind the drive to preserve and restore these old games on STEAM. Fans didn't want the ugly remastered sprites. They wanted the original sprites which might be ugly by today's bar, but truly authentic.
Remakes CAN be nice. Still something about source fidelity and platform authenticity. I don't know. Maybe you want to see Empire Strikes Back tweaked for the 100th time. Maybe you might want to see Sebastian Stan as Luke. lol
I think that it's important to judge these games on their own merits and within the intended historical context.
In North America, we'd only gotten Final Fantasy 1 & 4 by the time the entire GB series wrapped up; FF6 would still be year off. Your only exposure to Square JRPGs to that point were the exploits of the Light Warriors and Cecil & Rosa. That's it.
These rebranded SaGa games were magic. Full Square JRPGs stuffed into tiny carts. Gorgeous chip music. Stories and gameplay mechanics that just got better with each version. If you were a JRPG fan, these games were the sh**. Fantastic.
Do you go back and play the (un-remastered) SNES Final Fantasy 4 & 6 games expecting modern conveniences? No. Do you play them and complain that there are no CG cinematics? F*** no! Why play them then? You play them for the story. You play them for the combat. You even play them for the almost meditative quality that can only come from old school level grinding.
Look. Even if you never grew up with these game, there's something of quality worth playing there. Go ahead and tell me what GameBoy era game surpasses SaGa 1-3. I'll wait. No? Nothing? Yeah. That's what I figured.
Most of what you probably found were sterile dungeon crawlers or neutered minis of console masterpieces. MAYBE you could play the Pokemon Red card, but that's a whole other type of game really.
SaGa 1-3 might have been tonally more in line with later SaGa games, but they were every bit as sprawling and well executed as the Final Fantasy games of that day. The FF Legend games were to FF 1-4 what Link's Awakening was to Link to the Past.
Calling them mediocre and using today's games as the standard seems a bit... shortsighted. That'd be like judging the very first Mana game (FF Mystic Quest, also a GameBoy original) harshly because it's not as evolved as Secret of Mana.
Enjoy it for what it is instead of griping about what it is no.
Does FFL 1 hold up? Nah. Not really. It looked and felt old even by the time FFL 2 game out. It suffered from many of the same missteps as Super Mario Land. On the plus side, FFL 2 & 3 rebounded marvelously and to the same degree as Super Mario Land 2. Both franchises' sequels hold up MUCH better in that respect. Plus... Again, the music. Bangin'.
Not surprising that that they'd include the Mana collection and ignore the SaGa one.
Especially if you grew up during the GameBoy era, SaGa I-III (branded as Final Fantasy Legend I-III in NA) was pretty epic. The games are understandably more compact, but cover big adventure in the way of time travel, Innerspace-style shrinking into a body, and (of course) banana (opium) smugglers.
COLLECTION of SaGa FINAL FANTASY LEGEND is not only a great bit in its own right, but also a nice introduction to the sort of wackiness you'll encounter later on in SaGa Frontier Remastered on Switch. Definitely the best RPGs on the OG GameBoy. Dated a little, but still fun if you love old school Square JRPG.
As a longtime gamer, I just refer to them as handhelds or maybe handheld consoles. HOWEVER... Maybe we have to look at the intentions behind the word "console".
Before home gaming, it was all arcades and pinball machines. The idea behind bringing gaming home was convenience. Drop it onto your TV stand or wall unit. You could then "tune in" to your favorite games much in the same way as your car stereo's console.
Home gaming was originally designed with that level of equivalency. It was your wall unit's console for gaming. Portables came along and untethered us. That, by definition, changes the equation.
If you drop in a dedicated music playing device to your wall unit, you call it a stereo. When drop one into your pocket, is it still a stereo? Functionally, it's the same, but the term was originally coined for something, well, bigger. Yes. It still plays music. Yes. It still plays it IN stereo. However, the term was designed to apply to something similar, but different. That's why Sony would later create the term Walkman, which would later get co-opted by every other portable stereo owner.
What we have here is a stereo/Walkman situation. A walkman is technically a portable stereo, but the industry created an entirely new term to acknowledge the new form factor and shift in demographic.
I think that it's okay to call a GameBoy a console or handheld console, but the preferred term is probably just handheld. No different than how you can call your iPod a portable stereo (if you're old), but can also refer to it as just, well, an iPod.
It all boils down to differentiation. They're both designed to do the same things, but different terms exist to signify that one is static while the other is mobile. Switch is an odd duck because it is designed to do/be both.
(How many people actually still have a dedicated music device these days? Just wondering. I have one, but I also play music on my phone.)
FWIW, the games industry is not all that small of a pie to ignore. In 2019 movie box office receipts in the USA topped about $11Bil USD. In the same region, game sales for 2020 topped about $140Bil USD.
With budgets anywhere from 50%-90% smaller than films, can you blame Marvel/Disney for wanting a slice? Damn sure that they'll defend it when they have their own studio making games too.
We're well past the period when they'd just throw a license at LJN and take whatever money came from people who were happy to buy shovelware. The Avengers PC game sucks, but you don't know suck until you've played a NES era LJN Marvel game.
@Whitestrider "they don't see them as a potential threat like Nintendo"
YET. With Marvel/Disney making huge moves into interactive media, expect that stance to change really soon. WB/DC? They're too much of a clusterf**** atm. Too scattered. When they do eventually focus, they'll be as aggressive.
You don't get to be the size of Warner Bros or Disney without leaving a few "corpses" in your wake. Big businesses are built on the remains of many a crushed potential adversary and little guy.
@Boshar
"But hey why not make your own fighting game with Marvel versus DC characters. It’s wat the fans want. Just remember to put a disclaimer on the title screen. You’ll be fine. Perfectly legal."
LOL No it's not. I seriously hope that you're not on the level here. I'm not sure that is even a borderline case either.
Fair use allows for a degree of derivation as long as you're creating something wholly new that can STAND ON ITS OWN with the purloined material removed. With a Marvel VS DC game, it cannot.
In such a case, you're using those characters as-is to derive a work that cannot stand on its own. Not really. The key selling point of that game is Marvel VS DC. Remove Marvel and DC characters and the key selling point is gone. Period.
Fan art is protected, but sometimes a wee bit dicey. Creating a Marvel VS DC type game with characters that you don't own and a mechanic that you likely just lifted off of Capcom... C'mon. REALLY?!? LOL
You don't own the trademarks or copyrights. You don't own the likenesses to these characters. You're not really creating something new from them, but are instead tossing them into an all too familiar sort of cookie cutter scenario.
Gotta say, it might be a fun exercise that you can put out there in video form. I just wouldn't put it out there as a demo or working game. Disclaimer or not. It WILL get pulled before you can say, "Snikt!"
Also, Warner Bros and Disney are mighty big companies and have their fingers in nearly every major pie on the planet.
If you ever want a job working in industries they have any sort of interest... Don't sh** where you eat. You might want leftovers. Don't try to die on that hill if you intend on being employable there.
FWIW, freedom of speech and expression do NOT mean freedom from consequences.
You CAN scream fire in a crowded theater, but can also be prosecuted and jailed for creating a public hazard. You CAN scream that you're going to do "x" or "y" to some political official, but can have your legally life tossed upside down by the security detail that is there to protect them. You CAN see the most outrageous ***** on social media, but the public can also "cancel" you and make your life going forward a living hell.
In the spirit of fair use, even if you have the legal right to parody something, just be 100% sure that this a hill that you're prepared to defend and die on. Otherwise, think twice.
An unofficial Metroid sequel ISN'T fair use, but for a future metroidvania creators out there, be prepared to defend your stuff just in case. You have a right to create it, but they have every right to challenge it too. Be aware of that.
@NEStalgia >> "Technically fanfiction is infringement. It's unauthorized use of intellectual property. Companies let it go and it's now common. "
WRONG. Read your copyright law again. Companies aren't letting it go because they've given up or because it's harmless. They're letting it go because of FAIR USE. It really is that simple. Fair use allows for works to be parodied or satirized as it creates some form of commentary. This is why it's legal.
On the most basic level, fair use as it relates to satire or parody is there to protect things more lofty such as political cartoons or related material that makes a statement of some sort.
Applied to more trivial pursuits, it's also there to protect artistic expression even if said expression is "Scary Movie", which itself rips off tons of other movies toward a very specific comedic end.
Fan fiction is fair use. 100%.
IF, however, the companies feel that it damages their work to some significant degree then they can take it to court and leave it up to a judge. In reality, 99.9% of such cases will get tossed. You might have Mario railing Bowser in your story and a judge might agree that it's gross. However, they might also bring it back to fair use.
Why doesn't that happen all that often? $$$$$$ Money $$$$$
Companies have it. You don't. They may know that it's a losing case, but all they have to do is tie you up in court. Make you spend money that you don't have until you give up.
It's really easier than that these days. Cheaper too. All they have to do is send you a C&D to put the fear of Judge Judy into you. You'll give up in a heartbeat. If that doesn't work, they'll just scream "DMCA!!!" and have your stuff taken down without even a second thought from your host.
You're scared of C&Ds? Your hosting service is more "scared" of dealing with DMCA claims. Better to give in, give up, and give the claimant the benefit of the doubt. How many times have you seen this happen on YouTube for no reason, right?
Fan fiction isn't a problem, nor is it explicitly illegal. It is legally protected expression. Fair use. Read IP law.
Do many parties on both sides abuse or distort those laws? Sure. However, by the letter of the law, that fanfic stuff is protected even if it's about vampire Waluigi going after menstrual blood or some other disgusting crap.
Without fair use and parody, how many musical episodes of TV shows might not exist? ... ... Damn fair use.
@Boshar "If you are a talented painter it’s no use copying Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt or Kandinsky. You need to develop your own style and product.
As a professional game developer who's also been a programmer and working artist for the past nearly 30 years years, I look at it this way:
Such things are good EXERCISES, as they can teach you quite a bit. However, one does not make said exercises available for public consumption - especially if you've attempted 1:1 copies.
Put aside the issue of copyright for a moment. If you're riffing off of Picasso then that's one thing. What you're doing may well fall into the realm of fair use as it might be a form of parody or satire of some sort.
If your message or ultimate work stands on its own two feet then that's both technically and legally fine. TONS of works like that. In the game world, there are countless indie Metroidvania games that come dangerously close to being Castlevania sequels. However, they never claim to be and even put in the bare minimum effort to distance themselves from that property. That's the key difference here.
These fan project aren't riffing or parodying this material. They're presenting themselves as legitimate, albeit unapproved sequels, spinoffs, or remakes. THAT is the problem. Forget the ones who use or 1:1 copy preexisting assets. Those fellas are just straight up stupid.
That said, you can learn something from copying. Style can even grow from that point. Just don't put it out there until it can stand on its own.
IMO, just create something original. It might not have the visibility of a well known IP, but better to earn your stripes solely on your own merits than on unsanctioned use of somebody else's designs or ideas. If you're THAT talented then you probably are at no loss for fresh ideas.
I get that you want the Metroid or Mario game of your dreams to be made, but that's really not your call to make. Leave it up to Nintendo themselves or find some way to weasel yourself onto their dev team and help call the shots officially.
It's frustrating. I get it. However, would you like somebody else taking liberties with something you created and worked so hard for so many years to make popular? Probably not.
I understand the desire to promote that sense of community. That's fine. However, there are limits and it's not just about greed.
1. If you want to make a fun piece of fan art... Enjoy. HOWEVER, if it is something that is not in the spirit of the property then there might be a problem. Making a picture of Mario, Luigi, and Peach is fine. Sticking them in a three-way? Not so much. IP has value that goes beyond money. If your fan art threatens to devalue or alter the carefully crafted image of those properties then you deserve what you get.
2. If you're making a fan game of Zelda in Game Builder Garage then you will have no problem. That's what they designed GBG for. Enjoy. However, if you decide to code your own Zelda sequel then there's a problem. The scope of a fan sequel is much higher than some rinky dink GBG demo. You're stepping on their toes and into their domain. You're taking attention off of them using their own toys. You might even be interfering with their plans.
Think of IP as a toy.
Some toys get dumped into a giant community chest that anybody can play with. That's what public domain is. Play with it. Break it. Who gives a crap? It doesn't really have an owner anyway.
However, some toys have owners. They're the ones who call the shots. They get to decide who gets to play with their toys. If they think that you're going to break it or even breathe on it wrong, they can say "no" too. The toy is theirs. Period.
This is what we have here. Metroid is Nintendo's "toy" and they have every right to control who plays with it and how. Money doesn't have to be an issue. Maybe they want to control the integrity of the product. Maybe they just want to arbitrarily say no. That's fine.
You don't even have to be a fan. If you work for an IP holder then you have a responsibility to treat their IP as they wish to have it treated. Work for Marvel and you have a certain responsibility to return their "toys" to a reasonably decent state so that the next writer and the ones after them can play with it too. You can't just give Spidey cancer just because you want to.
If you own IP, it's your right to protect its longevity.
Nintendo is just protecting their interests.
1. They don't want any fan game project taking the focus off of what they're doing. 2. Good OR bad, they don't want people to mistakenly think that a fan game is a Nintendo made or sanctioned project. 3. A fan project is one being done on somebody else's terms. Nintendo reserves the right to dictate terms. 4. They don't want any overexposure. 4. Maybe it IS about greed. To put it in GTA terms. If Nintendo is a pimp and Metroid is a hooker, ain't nobody gonna profit other than NintendoIf Metroid is turning tricks on its own or somebody else is playing digi-pimp...
IP stands for "Intellectual Property". PROPERTY. That's the bottom line. The property is owned by Nintendo, not the public.
The "Nintendo Difference"... What does it mean to me?
It is the prioritization of quality over quantity. It is the willingness to bring a given genre to the masses instead of simply the hardcore. It is a committment to brand. It is the drive to push gaming forward instead of into stagnance.
Sometimes that means that we won't get a core Metroid or Zelda game for a number of years. However, that also means that we won't get a truly bad entry. Nintendo isn't afraid to miss the crucial Christmas season if it means that end product will be that much better.
Sure. Sometimes will remove the "bite" from a genre to make it more family friendly, thus potentially alienating the hardcore gamer looking for something grimdark or gritty. However, in making said genre more family friendly, they also usually end up making it more accessible to gamers of all skill levels and infuse it with the same trademark warmth and wholesomeness that is pervasive in a Pixar film.
Maybe Mario won't ever join the ranks of Mortal Kombat fighters. Maybe Link's world won't ever get as bloody or bleak as Game of Thrones. Surely, Samus will never drop the f-bomb to shock fans. However, this willingness to stay "on message" isn't a weakness. It isn't an unwillingness to change with the times. Nintendo isn't trying to turn Mario into Mickey Mouse, effectively ensuring that he will eventually become background static. No. Nintendo's strong committment to brand is a strength. No matter what subtle (or stark) changes Nintendo makes to Mario or Zelda, every new installment says, "Welcome home." Nintendo's focus on brand ensures that each new bite tastes as fresh as the first while still feeling like Mom's warm apple pie. Nintendo games are comfort food.
Okay. So, maybe - once in a while - Nintendo takes a "think different" attitude that comes off as tone deaf. Nobody this side of a color blind masochist thought that the Virtual Boy would be a hit. Maybe they stubbornly refuse to modernize their online strategy in baffling ways. Maybe they don't always commit to the good peripherals as much as they should. Really? Should getting a second Switch dock require a back room deal with Beelzebub? However, for all that, we're still looking at the same company that innovated the d-pad. They're the same company that pioneered the portable console. They're the same company that made us believers in motion controls and stereoscopic 3D. They're the same company that renewed our faith in hybrid unconventional design as an asset.
Nintendo isn't perfect. No company is. However, for me, the "Nintendo Difference" comes down to one very simple idea. Appearances to the contrary, Nintendo is the sort of company that isn't happy with doing the same magic trick twice. For Sony, each new Playstation Next is really more or less the same as the Playstation Last. They just up the core specs and call it a day. In effect, the Sony Playstation is no different than a PC. Give the developers more power so that they can make a game prettier to look at. Nintendo, however, isn't so concerned with moving to a new weight class with each generation of hardware. They know that, to truly move gaming forward, they have to change how we play them. The invention of the d-pad. Local multi-player link or infrared communication in a pre-internet age. Touch controls. Waggle. A hybrid console/portable that throws in nearly every gimmick they have, and then some. For each miss, Nintendo has countless more hits. Nintendo doesn't simply want games that look better. They want games that PLAY better. THAT is the "Nintendo Difference" to me.
Honestly? Who cares if you can't play Mario Maker online with friends? Yeah. It's a bit of a bummer. Not much though. We all carry a game system in our pocket. It's called a cell phone. We already have ample opportunities to play with friends. A good portion of the world already owns an internet capable PC. That right there is another opportunity for multiplayer. If it seems that Nintendo stubbornly refuses to get with the times in this respect, well, I have to think that they have a good reason. Mine has been a Nintendo household for nearly 35 years. They've (almost) never steered me wrong? Why would I suddenly second guess them? Some people call this blind faith. I call it trust.
Nintendo, for a lack of a better description, is "Japan in a Box." On the one hand, they embrace all sorts of wild and wacky trends. Where Japan goes, so will the rest of the world... in 10 years. On the other hand, they are also a country that firmly embraces tradition, an adherence to rules, and even a sense of personal isolation. After all, they ARE an island nation. Nintendo is the embodiment of Japan and they are every bit the self-contradiction for it.
IMO, how you view Nintendo really depends on how you view gaming and what you, as a gamer, prioritize. The "Nintendo Difference" hasn't change. The article's author has.
You can even argue that saving time during production is only one aspect of it. Doing this is also about creating a unified style. Comic book artists have been doing this exact thing for decades. Just take a look at the work of artists such as John Byrne or Mark Bagley.
With little variation, Byrne really only draws maybe one or two face types per gender. He creates these huge casts by changing hair styles, colors, costumes, & skin tones. He's pretty much got it down to a "paper doll" type system. That's fine though. It simultaneously defines his signature style and allows him to crank out work rapidly.
With Zelda, the characters who need to look different do. Link's hat, posture, & accessories give him an instantly recognizable silhouette. From a design perspective, that matters way more than whether or not the basic model is recycled.
Besides, IRL, humans all pretty much use the same very limited "set of models" anyway. The human anatomy lends itself to recycling of traits. With 7.5B people on Earth, the average person probably has an untold number of doubles out there... somewhere. If it's good enough for nature then it's good enough for game art.
Nothing but love for Final Fantasy Adventure. I played that game to death when I was a kid. The Chocobot alone is worth the price of admission. I remember how many magazines at the time called FFA Square's opening salvo in some imagined war between Zelda and Final Fantasy.
Having said that, part of me would much rather have remastered/remade versions of SaGa 1-3 & SaGa Frontier instead. Those first three SaGa games (Final Fantasy Legend I-III) were portable epics. I know that FFL2 was remade in 3D, but I'd much rather see an Octopath Traveler style remake with an expanded story.
While we're making wish lists.... Give us some more Chrono Trigger
@BonafideInfidel I get what you're saying about physical VS digital, but there's another side to the argument.
There's a gamer and then there's a Gamer with a capital "G" up front. If you're a Gamer then there's a good chance that, at some point, storage space will become an issue for all of those physical games. Digital may not provide that same sense of permanence, but it allows you to continue pursuing that passion without having to buy a bigger house just to store you games.
I'll give you a good example. I've been playing games since about, oh, 1978. That's a good 40 years. In that time, between my younger brother and myself, we've owned the following systems:
Atari Super Pong
Mattel Intellivision
NES
SNES
GameBoy
GameBoy Pocket
GameBoy Light
GameBoy Color
GameBoy Advance
Gameboy Advance SP
Sega GameGear
Atari Lynx
Atari Lynx II
Nintendo 64
Atari Jaguar
Sega Dreamcast
Sony Playstation
Playstation 2
Playstation 3
Playstation 4
MS XBox
MS XBox 360
MS XBox One
MS XBox S
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii U
Playstation Vita
Nintendo DS (original)
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo 3DS
New Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo Switch
breath
And also...
Commodore 64
iOS (iPhone, iPad, & iPod)
Apple Macs
Various PCs ranging from the old Intel 8088 architecture to the newest Intel Core i9 one
I don't and haven't owned every system out there, but I've owned a helluva a lot. If all I ever bought was 10 games per platform then I'd easily have 300. I guarantee you that I have WAY more than 300 games. LOL
At some point, as I said, space becomes an issue for some people. For my PC gaming experience, something like Steam has been a blessing. The only thing I have to worry about is hard drive storage space, which has already become an issue since I passed the 300 Steam game mark. That 4TB drive filled up QUICKLY.
So, yeah. I get your concerns about security, ownership, and long term archival. However, if you want to play games and like to play LOTS of them, digital is seriously the future. Maybe we need to figure out a better way to secure our purchases and ensure their safety, but there's no reason to shy away from going digital.
Lemme put it to you this way. My dad is 70 and even he prefers to buy his games on services like Steam. (He's a FPS junkie.) Digital is just convenient.
IMO, physical copies rock, but it totally depends on the actual game and if you're also getting some deluxe ultra mega collector's edition or something.
It's not totally terrible. Spent 499 points and got Kamiko for free. Didn't want to actually spend cash on it, but for free? Yeah. It's actually kinda fun. I dig it. Dig it even more when it didn't cost me $5. ^_^
I cannot speak for this version, but I was completely disappointed by the PC version.
Those new to point-and-click adventure games would likely do well to look elsewhere as Batman was, at best, little more than a barely interactive cinematic.
Very little of what you do matters in any substantive way. I found that it was often far too easy to button mash my way through battles. Right choice. Wrong choice. Same outcome. Similarly, conversation trees provided a bit of variety, but not enough to suggest choices actually mattered beyond the superficial.
For those of you with access to a PC, you would probably do well to purchase older Telltale games like the Sam & Max or Back to the Future series. Both after far better written, executed, and designed. Somewhere along the way, Telltale dumbed down the genre for a new generation and did gamers a serious disservice.
Don't have a PC, but still want a truly enjoyable point-and-click experience? Get Thimbleweed Park instead. Designed by gaming legend Ron Gilbert, Thimbleweed Park evokes the very best of Lucasarts era classics such as Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. Its throwback pixel art may put some of you younglings off, but the hilarious storytelling, bizarre characters, and inspired ending form a picture far more substantial than these constituent parts.
Batman looks nice (most of the time) and gives you a solid feeling of what it's like being in Batman's world, but the engine itself only does the bare minimum to provide an actual gaming experience. It's more like a (barely) interactive graphic novel. I've read "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that were more enjoyable.
@retro_player_22 I was going to say the same exact thing. I really would have preferred a sequel to this game or at least a remaster of the original. Instead we get more shovelware.
Have it on Steam. Beat it on the hard setting, which is really the best way to place. Loved it. Some of the puzzles require a jump or two in logic, but the reward is always worth it.
Lots of solid references to old Lucasarts games, including a few cameos. Some funky in-jokes too. The voice acting isn't always great on the part of the FBI agent characters, but everybody else is solid.
That ending.... Mind bender and deliciously meta. That's all I'm going to say. Stay through the credits too.
Comments 39
Re: PSA: Some Players Are Reporting 'Sticky Balls' In Nintendo Switch Sports
All jokes aside, I thought that it was just me. I'd been happening to me all of the time since the update and it's REALLY frustrating. It sometimes takes 3 or 4 goes just to get it to release.
That said, the most annoying thing to me, post-update, is the suddenly cheap AI. Before, the bots could barely score beyond 60pts. Now, I can shoot a solid 258 and they'll still beat me almost every time. So hard to earn new items or costume elements each week when the AI makes it difficult for me to even place 12th, much less top 3. Very cheap. I'm great at bowling and, post-update, the bots now make me look like my 10yo niece.
Re: Legend Of Zelda Fans Accuse Indie Game Of "Ripping-Off" Link's Awakening
@RCGamer Then that's a case for the courts. Not sure that they'll examine it down to the pixel to ascertain the truth, but the devs have no doubt kept meticulous records of their process. All devs do. I don't like that it looks like some off brand clone either. Not sure that this is a winnable case, however.
Re: Legend Of Zelda Fans Accuse Indie Game Of "Ripping-Off" Link's Awakening
@Yorumi Exactly. And while there are numerous songs that are eerily similar, most don't get classified as IP infringement. It's only when you, say, sample "Under Pressure" to create "Ice Ice Baby" without permission that you get into trouble.
Re: Legend Of Zelda Fans Accuse Indie Game Of "Ripping-Off" Link's Awakening
BTW: Don't get me wrong. I'm also very uneasy with how much this rips off from LttP and the GB game. It's a little too close to comfort for me too. Legally speaking, it may just fall right on the side of fair use and protected homage though.
EDIT>> Marvel's Hyperion is the exact reason why this game may survive legal challenges. Hyperion IS Marvel's Superman. Same exact powers. Same caped type costume. Same basic origin. Both white muscular alien dudes with messiah complexes who crash landed as children. Teeny tiny subtleties. That's what it boils down to. Protected by fair use because of them.
Since no physical resources were stolen from Nintendo and no trademarks are being infringed, it's hard to imagine that Nintendo has any case. I'D never build such a game as it shows talent, but no originality. Still, it's probably safe from Big N's sharks in legal.
Re: Legend Of Zelda Fans Accuse Indie Game Of "Ripping-Off" Link's Awakening
LOL Lawsuits don't work like people seem to think that they do. This isn't something that Nintendo can sue for, nor would they. It's simple. Trademarks and copyrights protect implementations, but not ideas.
Had this developer ripped "Zelda" textures, used Nintendo logos, or tried to situate this for-pay product in Hyrule then they would've been in big legal trouble.
However, this is not that. It's a "Zelda" clone. It may be extremely close in execution to its source of inspiration, but it uses nothing made by Nintendo. Not its characters. Not its models. Not its logos. Nothing. It's something that's just "told in the style of" - as they say.
The reason why IP laws work this way is because, fundamentally, there are only a handful unique ideas in human existence. Don't get me wrong. There are LOTS of ideas out there, but far more variations on a theme.
For example, "Star Wars" and "The Matrix" both use the very same idea template - The Hero's Journey. Countless other books and movies use the same design. However, the end products each look and feel vastly different. Implementation is everything. THAT is what's being protected.
Were the courts to protect ideas then we'd only have one action movie, one comedy, one RPG, and so on. Superficially Superman, Hyperion, Sentry, Shazam, and Homelander are all basically the same character. Cape. Heat vision. Super strength. ETC. They're individually protected because their respective implementations are different.
Even when, for example, Hyperion's origin is effectively the same, small differences in execution are enough that it's legally protected as its own thing; In this case, Marvel's Hyperion started off as parody of Superman. (Marvel has its own legally protected clone of Justice League; Squadron Supreme.)
Nobody's going to sue anybody here. There's just no case. It looks very familiar, as all clones and homages tend to. However, Nintendo's toes aren't being stepped on in any overt way. It's certainly not as if these devs are trying to create an unauthorized sequel, remake, or port. Those things are mine fields. This? Just one of many clones. Metroid fans know how this works by now.
Different enough to be legally protected, but still familiar enough to be uncomfortable.
Re: Feature: The 12 Best Wrestling Games On Nintendo Systems
@Orokosaki Definitely. One of the very few good LJN games; They were mostly known for cash grab shovelware like "Uncanny X-Men" on NES. Only a few standout games to come from them.
Re: Feature: The 12 Best Wrestling Games On Nintendo Systems
How can you forget the "Legends of Wrestling" series on GameCube?!? So much fun. Also, visually, they're still great to look at with its stylized wrestlers. Kinda wish that they'd make a 3rd.
Re: Naughty Metroidvania 'Wife Quest' Launches On Switch In March
@Sora181
Yeah. I'm looking at it a bit more on Steam and it actually looks kinda funny. Visually, there's something there that vaguely reminds me of the old school "so bad that it's good" NES game Athena.
Here's another trailer (PC) for those who want to see more gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jZ0bZlUb0
Re: Naughty Metroidvania 'Wife Quest' Launches On Switch In March
@jojobar
That's the thing about Japanese style games. MANY full grown women are made to look like an underaged girls. Nobody out there thinks too much over it. In the West, however, devs are forced to tone down the breasts, cover up a tiny cleavage line, or explicitly state that they're adults (for the idiots out there). It's silly. People are losing their sh** over pixels PIXELS.
Re: Naughty Metroidvania 'Wife Quest' Launches On Switch In March
@Yoshii69
Yeah. It looks fun. I completely expect the naughty factor to be the sort of "made you look" and "all in good fun" tongue in cheek stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously. It doesn't look all that exploitative.
@dew12333
"Benny Hill"... Love the reference. Hadn't seen him in years. Now I won't be able to get that theme song out of my head.
For those of you old enough to remember, there was once a time when Sailor Moon and Valis had people messing themselves with how naughty it was to display teens or petite women that way. In hindsight, people made WAY too much of it.
This game is more "wink & nod" than full on tentacles and teens stuff. It's T-rate cheese and looks fun. My suggestion for the uptight among us... "Unclench and roll with it."
Re: Naughty Metroidvania 'Wife Quest' Launches On Switch In March
@dew12333
Nah. @jojobar and @RR529 are right. If such a "naughty" angle exists then it's really not on display here. The art style and tone are perfectly in line with other Japanese made products. If anything, I would say that it's understated in that sense.
This is really just a bit of tongue in cheek cheesecake stuff and nothing more. Historically speaking, there are actually numerous other mainstream games such as DOA and Lolipop Chainsaw that push that "bouncy factor" exploitation more.
TBH, I'm not really sure that what's on display here is even naughty by T-rated standards. Street Fighter V's Mika pushes thing more than the few bouncy "skin" pixels in this game. Visually, especially for a low res metroidvania game, it's no more visually shocking than Shantae.
This game might shock so-called "bible belt" moms whose kids are pestering them for a new game, but certainly nobody with any exposure to the wealth and breadth of what mainstream gaming has had to offer lo these past 40 years.
Re: Random: This Shin Megami Tensei V Unboxing Video Is As Wholesome As They Come
Keep in mind that her generation created the whole dang art form. We're just visitors to her world.
Take my dad for example. My dad is an avid gamer and he just turned 74.
Yeah. He still plays casual games like Angry Birds to unwind after a long day at the office; He's a CFO. However, when the weekend comes or there's nothing on TV/streaming... He's the king of FPSers like Doom Eternal and open world games like RDR2. ATM, he's just (not so) patiently waiting for his Dying Light 2 preorder to unlock.
Mom's 76 now. She's been hospitalized for the past year. COVID f***ed her up hard and, well, she's not the same anymore.
However, up until last year, she was a casual sort of gamer. She had the arcade classics on her PC and when she wanted to unwind with the family... HOLY SH**! I have no idea where she got her Street Fighter & Tekken skills from. That chick was straight up brutal. LOL Mom would gleefully kick my @$$ every time. Mind you, I used to hustle other kids for their lunch money at the arcade when I was young. Mom's just a natural.
Gamers come in all ages and shapes. Again, my parent's generation created video games. It's their world and we're just living in it.
Re: Random: Metroid Dread's Zero Suit Samus Model Is Rather Detailed Up Close
@gaga64
Not really. Like I said, they probably already had the model on hand for use as the guide for the armor. No sense in modeling it and then letting it go to waste. When it comes to this sort of thing, those models never go to waste anyway. They either get repurposed for later content drops or marketing material or they get modded and kitbashed into other, future models.
Re: Random: Metroid Dread's Zero Suit Samus Model Is Rather Detailed Up Close
@impurekind
If anything, I think that the older model was more stylized and less anatomically correct. I mean, I have to look again, but that's my initial read. What makes the newer one look more a little janky is probably the shading and render. I blame that on the rip and ripper to some degree. The newer model is definitely more refined and better modeled though.
Re: Random: Metroid Dread's Zero Suit Samus Model Is Rather Detailed Up Close
@StarPoint
I's not all that unreasonable or odd, tbh. As far as poly counts go, it's actually decently low for a modern game. Especially for non-interactive sequences such as this, the triangle counts could easily be 5x+ higher.
Some people are wondering if there were more sequences planned. In all likelihood, however, this model was probably constructed first (as a base mesh) and then used as the underlying guide for the armor creation. Doing it that way probably helped them to create an armor that was properly proportioned/structured and believably bulky.
It's not all that uncommon of a practice when creating CG armor to start with some sort of underlying "trace" base mesh. In this case, it works to their advantage because they could always repurpose it later on and even use this low poly model as the base cage for renders of denser detail.
(FWIW, I am a CG artist and programmer with 30+ years experience. I've done tons of character models and a lot of real-time programming. Been involved with the online gamedev community for almost 25 years too. I see these things all of the time.)
Re: Review: Dusk - An Incredible Port Of 2018's Quake-Inspired Boomer Shooter
@13AM_Alex
Actually, boomers did and still do play shooters. My dad's 74 and has played them consistently since Wolfenstein back in the 90s. Doom. Quake. Unreal. Borderlands. Dying Light. If it has guns or any sort of FPS-type combat, he plays it even today.
Re: Poll: Do You Call Handhelds Like Game Boy And Nintendo DS 'Consoles'?
@voltaireis
Phones are, imo, not the best sort of gaming device - portable or otherwise. Touch controls feel neutered and the experiences feel more shallow. The form factor isn't the problem. The design of modern phone is.
Consoles and handhelds are task specific and have controllers built to spec. Something like the Wii was designed for one thing and one thing only. Games.
Something like the iPhone, however, has to be multipurpose. Its physical design has to bend to the whims of app developers. Consequently, the physical input mechanism has to be equally flexible. Hence touch input.
The downside here is that the experience may be adequate for in the general case, but equally flawed in the specific. Possible to edit your spreadsheets on a smartphone? Sure. A desktop PC would make the experience quicker, easier, and more natural though. Possible to play a RPG? Sure. Why not? You might have better, more tactile controls and more expansive story/experience on a system with a controller and internals built for gaming though.
Smartphones are the substitute teachers of the gaming world. They'll fill in well enough and do the job in a pinch, but will almost never be as up to the task as the person teaching that one class for a living.
As for the bit about making calls on your phone.... LOL ... I do text more often than call, but some conversations don't lend themselves to quick brain fart emoji filled responses. Especially true if the substance of your communique is longer than a sentence or two.
Certainly don't want to text the office or your doctor. Or maybe you do. I don't know. LOL
Can you imagine getting a text from your doctor that was just ... EGGPLANT... SAD FACE.... SKULL... DERP!
I'd change my healthcare provider and doc after that.
Re: Review: SaGa Frontier Remastered - A Cracking Update Of An Infuriating Cult Classic
"Almost impossible to make much progress without external sources of help if you're a newcomer"
The funniest complaint I've read about a game. Talk about modern gamer privilege, right? Whole new generation of gamers that can't get through a game without Googling for a guide.
For the pre-internet generation, especially those who couldn't afford guides, you just figured it all out and developers gave you credit for brains and grit. You got limited checkpoints, one hit kills, zero in-game hints... and you loved every minute of it.
In the NES era especially, if you weren't screaming at the TV then you probably weren't enjoying the game. Steeling and forging yourself into a master by this trial by fire was part of the experience and it ended up making you a more proficient gamer.
I really don't care that SaGa Frontier doesn't hold your hand. Some people like hardcore board games with lots of rules. Some prefer Hungry Hungry Hippo. I'd probably be more offended if the developers dumbed things down at any point or neutered the challenge - even if that challenge was a product of quirky design. Japanese game design has certainly been weirder & quirkier than this.
Something also to be said about design, however flawed, that feels as if it came out of the minds of creative types than focus groups.
Re: Review: Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend - A Nostalgic Curiosity, But That's About It
@Lebest
I've played some modern 3D remakes of old Square pixel JRPGs. Gotta say... Not a fan.
Sure. They ended up looking prettier. However, part of the charm is in the old style and how the developers made the most of the limitations they were given.
Similarly, whenever they expanded on or updated the dialogue, some of the funnier quirks got lost. It would certainly be more faithful to have FFL2 deal with opium smuggling, but there's just something delightfully goofy about Nintendo having Square swap opium out for bananas.
Remasters and remakes have their positives and negatives.
Lucas' original Star Wars has been tweaked countless time over the years. It's nice that some of the derpy old school effects got updated with modern tech, but it usually came at the expense of unnecessary comedic bits added in or editing changes that affected the nuances. I'd certainly trade away all of the legitimate improvements made possible only thanks to more modern tech if it meant that I could enjoy the movies in their original, purest forms - warts and all.
Gaming is really no different. You can argue all day about how a Final Fantasy 7 remake/remaster is necessary to bring it to today's generation of gamers. However, imo, remaking or remastering an old game like that removes it from the evolutionary chain of the series or genre.
To understand and appreciate how we got to FF 8-15, some people such as myself love to play FF 1-7 as originally intended. Might they be artifacts of a bygone era, ugly and clunky by today's standards? Definitely. I don't want to enjoy them by today's standards. I want to enjoy them for what they were, digital representatives of their respective consoles and, in some cases, the gold standard of the genre - to that point in time.
I think, to an extent, this is what has been behind the drive to preserve and restore these old games on STEAM. Fans didn't want the ugly remastered sprites. They wanted the original sprites which might be ugly by today's bar, but truly authentic.
Remakes CAN be nice. Still something about source fidelity and platform authenticity. I don't know. Maybe you want to see Empire Strikes Back tweaked for the 100th time. Maybe you might want to see Sebastian Stan as Luke. lol
Re: Review: Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend - A Nostalgic Curiosity, But That's About It
I think that it's important to judge these games on their own merits and within the intended historical context.
In North America, we'd only gotten Final Fantasy 1 & 4 by the time the entire GB series wrapped up; FF6 would still be year off. Your only exposure to Square JRPGs to that point were the exploits of the Light Warriors and Cecil & Rosa. That's it.
These rebranded SaGa games were magic. Full Square JRPGs stuffed into tiny carts. Gorgeous chip music. Stories and gameplay mechanics that just got better with each version. If you were a JRPG fan, these games were the sh**. Fantastic.
Do you go back and play the (un-remastered) SNES Final Fantasy 4 & 6 games expecting modern conveniences? No. Do you play them and complain that there are no CG cinematics? F*** no! Why play them then? You play them for the story. You play them for the combat. You even play them for the almost meditative quality that can only come from old school level grinding.
Look. Even if you never grew up with these game, there's something of quality worth playing there. Go ahead and tell me what GameBoy era game surpasses SaGa 1-3. I'll wait. No? Nothing? Yeah. That's what I figured.
Most of what you probably found were sterile dungeon crawlers or neutered minis of console masterpieces. MAYBE you could play the Pokemon Red card, but that's a whole other type of game really.
SaGa 1-3 might have been tonally more in line with later SaGa games, but they were every bit as sprawling and well executed as the Final Fantasy games of that day. The FF Legend games were to FF 1-4 what Link's Awakening was to Link to the Past.
Calling them mediocre and using today's games as the standard seems a bit... shortsighted. That'd be like judging the very first Mana game (FF Mystic Quest, also a GameBoy original) harshly because it's not as evolved as Secret of Mana.
Enjoy it for what it is instead of griping about what it is no.
Does FFL 1 hold up? Nah. Not really. It looked and felt old even by the time FFL 2 game out. It suffered from many of the same missteps as Super Mario Land. On the plus side, FFL 2 & 3 rebounded marvelously and to the same degree as Super Mario Land 2. Both franchises' sequels hold up MUCH better in that respect. Plus... Again, the music. Bangin'.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Collections And Compilation Games
Not surprising that that they'd include the Mana collection and ignore the SaGa one.
Especially if you grew up during the GameBoy era, SaGa I-III (branded as Final Fantasy Legend I-III in NA) was pretty epic. The games are understandably more compact, but cover big adventure in the way of time travel, Innerspace-style shrinking into a body, and (of course) banana (opium) smugglers.
COLLECTION of SaGa FINAL FANTASY LEGEND is not only a great bit in its own right, but also a nice introduction to the sort of wackiness you'll encounter later on in SaGa Frontier Remastered on Switch. Definitely the best RPGs on the OG GameBoy. Dated a little, but still fun if you love old school Square JRPG.
Re: Poll: Do You Call Handhelds Like Game Boy And Nintendo DS 'Consoles'?
As a longtime gamer, I just refer to them as handhelds or maybe handheld consoles. HOWEVER... Maybe we have to look at the intentions behind the word "console".
Before home gaming, it was all arcades and pinball machines. The idea behind bringing gaming home was convenience. Drop it onto your TV stand or wall unit. You could then "tune in" to your favorite games much in the same way as your car stereo's console.
Home gaming was originally designed with that level of equivalency. It was your wall unit's console for gaming. Portables came along and untethered us. That, by definition, changes the equation.
If you drop in a dedicated music playing device to your wall unit, you call it a stereo. When drop one into your pocket, is it still a stereo? Functionally, it's the same, but the term was originally coined for something, well, bigger. Yes. It still plays music. Yes. It still plays it IN stereo. However, the term was designed to apply to something similar, but different. That's why Sony would later create the term Walkman, which would later get co-opted by every other portable stereo owner.
What we have here is a stereo/Walkman situation. A walkman is technically a portable stereo, but the industry created an entirely new term to acknowledge the new form factor and shift in demographic.
I think that it's okay to call a GameBoy a console or handheld console, but the preferred term is probably just handheld. No different than how you can call your iPod a portable stereo (if you're old), but can also refer to it as just, well, an iPod.
It all boils down to differentiation. They're both designed to do the same things, but different terms exist to signify that one is static while the other is mobile. Switch is an odd duck because it is designed to do/be both.
(How many people actually still have a dedicated music device these days? Just wondering. I have one, but I also play music on my phone.)
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
FWIW, the games industry is not all that small of a pie to ignore. In 2019 movie box office receipts in the USA topped about $11Bil USD. In the same region, game sales for 2020 topped about $140Bil USD.
With budgets anywhere from 50%-90% smaller than films, can you blame Marvel/Disney for wanting a slice? Damn sure that they'll defend it when they have their own studio making games too.
We're well past the period when they'd just throw a license at LJN and take whatever money came from people who were happy to buy shovelware. The Avengers PC game sucks, but you don't know suck until you've played a NES era LJN Marvel game.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
LOL. Maybe, but say that it isn't true.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
@Whitestrider
"they don't see them as a potential threat like Nintendo"
YET. With Marvel/Disney making huge moves into interactive media, expect that stance to change really soon. WB/DC? They're too much of a clusterf**** atm. Too scattered. When they do eventually focus, they'll be as aggressive.
You don't get to be the size of Warner Bros or Disney without leaving a few "corpses" in your wake. Big businesses are built on the remains of many a crushed potential adversary and little guy.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
@Boshar
"But hey why not make your own fighting game with Marvel versus DC characters. It’s wat the fans want. Just remember to put a disclaimer on the title screen. You’ll be fine. Perfectly legal."
LOL No it's not. I seriously hope that you're not on the level here. I'm not sure that is even a borderline case either.
Fair use allows for a degree of derivation as long as you're creating something wholly new that can STAND ON ITS OWN with the purloined material removed. With a Marvel VS DC game, it cannot.
In such a case, you're using those characters as-is to derive a work that cannot stand on its own. Not really. The key selling point of that game is Marvel VS DC. Remove Marvel and DC characters and the key selling point is gone. Period.
Fan art is protected, but sometimes a wee bit dicey. Creating a Marvel VS DC type game with characters that you don't own and a mechanic that you likely just lifted off of Capcom... C'mon. REALLY?!? LOL
You don't own the trademarks or copyrights. You don't own the likenesses to these characters. You're not really creating something new from them, but are instead tossing them into an all too familiar sort of cookie cutter scenario.
Gotta say, it might be a fun exercise that you can put out there in video form. I just wouldn't put it out there as a demo or working game. Disclaimer or not. It WILL get pulled before you can say, "Snikt!"
Also, Warner Bros and Disney are mighty big companies and have their fingers in nearly every major pie on the planet.
If you ever want a job working in industries they have any sort of interest... Don't sh** where you eat. You might want leftovers. Don't try to die on that hill if you intend on being employable there.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
FWIW, freedom of speech and expression do NOT mean freedom from consequences.
You CAN scream fire in a crowded theater, but can also be prosecuted and jailed for creating a public hazard. You CAN scream that you're going to do "x" or "y" to some political official, but can have your legally life tossed upside down by the security detail that is there to protect them. You CAN see the most outrageous ***** on social media, but the public can also "cancel" you and make your life going forward a living hell.
In the spirit of fair use, even if you have the legal right to parody something, just be 100% sure that this a hill that you're prepared to defend and die on. Otherwise, think twice.
An unofficial Metroid sequel ISN'T fair use, but for a future metroidvania creators out there, be prepared to defend your stuff just in case. You have a right to create it, but they have every right to challenge it too. Be aware of that.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
@NEStalgia
>> "Technically fanfiction is infringement. It's unauthorized use of intellectual property. Companies let it go and it's now common. "
WRONG. Read your copyright law again. Companies aren't letting it go because they've given up or because it's harmless. They're letting it go because of FAIR USE. It really is that simple. Fair use allows for works to be parodied or satirized as it creates some form of commentary. This is why it's legal.
On the most basic level, fair use as it relates to satire or parody is there to protect things more lofty such as political cartoons or related material that makes a statement of some sort.
Applied to more trivial pursuits, it's also there to protect artistic expression even if said expression is "Scary Movie", which itself rips off tons of other movies toward a very specific comedic end.
Fan fiction is fair use. 100%.
IF, however, the companies feel that it damages their work to some significant degree then they can take it to court and leave it up to a judge. In reality, 99.9% of such cases will get tossed. You might have Mario railing Bowser in your story and a judge might agree that it's gross. However, they might also bring it back to fair use.
Why doesn't that happen all that often? $$$$$$ Money $$$$$
Companies have it. You don't. They may know that it's a losing case, but all they have to do is tie you up in court. Make you spend money that you don't have until you give up.
It's really easier than that these days. Cheaper too. All they have to do is send you a C&D to put the fear of Judge Judy into you. You'll give up in a heartbeat. If that doesn't work, they'll just scream "DMCA!!!" and have your stuff taken down without even a second thought from your host.
You're scared of C&Ds? Your hosting service is more "scared" of dealing with DMCA claims. Better to give in, give up, and give the claimant the benefit of the doubt. How many times have you seen this happen on YouTube for no reason, right?
Fan fiction isn't a problem, nor is it explicitly illegal. It is legally protected expression. Fair use. Read IP law.
Do many parties on both sides abuse or distort those laws? Sure. However, by the letter of the law, that fanfic stuff is protected even if it's about vampire Waluigi going after menstrual blood or some other disgusting crap.
Without fair use and parody, how many musical episodes of TV shows might not exist? ... ... Damn fair use.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
@Boshar
"If you are a talented painter it’s no use copying Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt or Kandinsky. You need to develop your own style and product.
As a professional game developer who's also been a programmer and working artist for the past nearly 30 years years, I look at it this way:
Such things are good EXERCISES, as they can teach you quite a bit. However, one does not make said exercises available for public consumption - especially if you've attempted 1:1 copies.
Put aside the issue of copyright for a moment. If you're riffing off of Picasso then that's one thing. What you're doing may well fall into the realm of fair use as it might be a form of parody or satire of some sort.
If your message or ultimate work stands on its own two feet then that's both technically and legally fine. TONS of works like that. In the game world, there are countless indie Metroidvania games that come dangerously close to being Castlevania sequels. However, they never claim to be and even put in the bare minimum effort to distance themselves from that property. That's the key difference here.
These fan project aren't riffing or parodying this material. They're presenting themselves as legitimate, albeit unapproved sequels, spinoffs, or remakes. THAT is the problem. Forget the ones who use or 1:1 copy preexisting assets. Those fellas are just straight up stupid.
That said, you can learn something from copying. Style can even grow from that point. Just don't put it out there until it can stand on its own.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
IMO, just create something original. It might not have the visibility of a well known IP, but better to earn your stripes solely on your own merits than on unsanctioned use of somebody else's designs or ideas. If you're THAT talented then you probably are at no loss for fresh ideas.
I get that you want the Metroid or Mario game of your dreams to be made, but that's really not your call to make. Leave it up to Nintendo themselves or find some way to weasel yourself onto their dev team and help call the shots officially.
It's frustrating. I get it. However, would you like somebody else taking liberties with something you created and worked so hard for so many years to make popular? Probably not.
Re: Talking Point: As The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Is Shut Down, Where Do You Stand On Nintendo's Takedowns?
I understand the desire to promote that sense of community. That's fine. However, there are limits and it's not just about greed.
1. If you want to make a fun piece of fan art... Enjoy. HOWEVER, if it is something that is not in the spirit of the property then there might be a problem. Making a picture of Mario, Luigi, and Peach is fine. Sticking them in a three-way? Not so much. IP has value that goes beyond money. If your fan art threatens to devalue or alter the carefully crafted image of those properties then you deserve what you get.
2. If you're making a fan game of Zelda in Game Builder Garage then you will have no problem. That's what they designed GBG for. Enjoy. However, if you decide to code your own Zelda sequel then there's a problem. The scope of a fan sequel is much higher than some rinky dink GBG demo. You're stepping on their toes and into their domain. You're taking attention off of them using their own toys. You might even be interfering with their plans.
Think of IP as a toy.
Some toys get dumped into a giant community chest that anybody can play with. That's what public domain is. Play with it. Break it. Who gives a crap? It doesn't really have an owner anyway.
However, some toys have owners. They're the ones who call the shots. They get to decide who gets to play with their toys. If they think that you're going to break it or even breathe on it wrong, they can say "no" too. The toy is theirs. Period.
This is what we have here. Metroid is Nintendo's "toy" and they have every right to control who plays with it and how. Money doesn't have to be an issue. Maybe they want to control the integrity of the product. Maybe they just want to arbitrarily say no. That's fine.
You don't even have to be a fan. If you work for an IP holder then you have a responsibility to treat their IP as they wish to have it treated. Work for Marvel and you have a certain responsibility to return their "toys" to a reasonably decent state so that the next writer and the ones after them can play with it too. You can't just give Spidey cancer just because you want to.
If you own IP, it's your right to protect its longevity.
Nintendo is just protecting their interests.
1. They don't want any fan game project taking the focus off of what they're doing.
2. Good OR bad, they don't want people to mistakenly think that a fan game is a Nintendo made or sanctioned project.
3. A fan project is one being done on somebody else's terms. Nintendo reserves the right to dictate terms.
4. They don't want any overexposure.
4. Maybe it IS about greed. To put it in GTA terms. If Nintendo is a pimp and Metroid is a hooker, ain't nobody gonna profit other than NintendoIf Metroid is turning tricks on its own or somebody else is playing digi-pimp...
IP stands for "Intellectual Property". PROPERTY. That's the bottom line. The property is owned by Nintendo, not the public.
Re: Talking Point: The Changing Definition Of ‘The Nintendo Difference’
The "Nintendo Difference"... What does it mean to me?
It is the prioritization of quality over quantity. It is the willingness to bring a given genre to the masses instead of simply the hardcore. It is a committment to brand. It is the drive to push gaming forward instead of into stagnance.
Sometimes that means that we won't get a core Metroid or Zelda game for a number of years. However, that also means that we won't get a truly bad entry. Nintendo isn't afraid to miss the crucial Christmas season if it means that end product will be that much better.
Sure. Sometimes will remove the "bite" from a genre to make it more family friendly, thus potentially alienating the hardcore gamer looking for something grimdark or gritty. However, in making said genre more family friendly, they also usually end up making it more accessible to gamers of all skill levels and infuse it with the same trademark warmth and wholesomeness that is pervasive in a Pixar film.
Maybe Mario won't ever join the ranks of Mortal Kombat fighters. Maybe Link's world won't ever get as bloody or bleak as Game of Thrones. Surely, Samus will never drop the f-bomb to shock fans. However, this willingness to stay "on message" isn't a weakness. It isn't an unwillingness to change with the times. Nintendo isn't trying to turn Mario into Mickey Mouse, effectively ensuring that he will eventually become background static. No. Nintendo's strong committment to brand is a strength. No matter what subtle (or stark) changes Nintendo makes to Mario or Zelda, every new installment says, "Welcome home." Nintendo's focus on brand ensures that each new bite tastes as fresh as the first while still feeling like Mom's warm apple pie. Nintendo games are comfort food.
Okay. So, maybe - once in a while - Nintendo takes a "think different" attitude that comes off as tone deaf. Nobody this side of a color blind masochist thought that the Virtual Boy would be a hit. Maybe they stubbornly refuse to modernize their online strategy in baffling ways. Maybe they don't always commit to the good peripherals as much as they should. Really? Should getting a second Switch dock require a back room deal with Beelzebub? However, for all that, we're still looking at the same company that innovated the d-pad. They're the same company that pioneered the portable console. They're the same company that made us believers in motion controls and stereoscopic 3D. They're the same company that renewed our faith in hybrid unconventional design as an asset.
Nintendo isn't perfect. No company is. However, for me, the "Nintendo Difference" comes down to one very simple idea. Appearances to the contrary, Nintendo is the sort of company that isn't happy with doing the same magic trick twice. For Sony, each new Playstation Next is really more or less the same as the Playstation Last. They just up the core specs and call it a day. In effect, the Sony Playstation is no different than a PC. Give the developers more power so that they can make a game prettier to look at. Nintendo, however, isn't so concerned with moving to a new weight class with each generation of hardware. They know that, to truly move gaming forward, they have to change how we play them. The invention of the d-pad. Local multi-player link or infrared communication in a pre-internet age. Touch controls. Waggle. A hybrid console/portable that throws in nearly every gimmick they have, and then some. For each miss, Nintendo has countless more hits. Nintendo doesn't simply want games that look better. They want games that PLAY better. THAT is the "Nintendo Difference" to me.
Honestly? Who cares if you can't play Mario Maker online with friends? Yeah. It's a bit of a bummer. Not much though. We all carry a game system in our pocket. It's called a cell phone. We already have ample opportunities to play with friends. A good portion of the world already owns an internet capable PC. That right there is another opportunity for multiplayer. If it seems that Nintendo stubbornly refuses to get with the times in this respect, well, I have to think that they have a good reason. Mine has been a Nintendo household for nearly 35 years. They've (almost) never steered me wrong? Why would I suddenly second guess them? Some people call this blind faith. I call it trust.
Nintendo, for a lack of a better description, is "Japan in a Box." On the one hand, they embrace all sorts of wild and wacky trends. Where Japan goes, so will the rest of the world... in 10 years. On the other hand, they are also a country that firmly embraces tradition, an adherence to rules, and even a sense of personal isolation. After all, they ARE an island nation. Nintendo is the embodiment of Japan and they are every bit the self-contradiction for it.
IMO, how you view Nintendo really depends on how you view gaming and what you, as a gamer, prioritize. The "Nintendo Difference" hasn't change. The article's author has.
Re: Turns Out Many Characters Shared One Body In Zelda: The Wind Waker
This isn't even close to a big deal.
You can even argue that saving time during production is only one aspect of it. Doing this is also about creating a unified style. Comic book artists have been doing this exact thing for decades. Just take a look at the work of artists such as John Byrne or Mark Bagley.
With little variation, Byrne really only draws maybe one or two face types per gender. He creates these huge casts by changing hair styles, colors, costumes, & skin tones. He's pretty much got it down to a "paper doll" type system. That's fine though. It simultaneously defines his signature style and allows him to crank out work rapidly.
With Zelda, the characters who need to look different do. Link's hat, posture, & accessories give him an instantly recognizable silhouette. From a design perspective, that matters way more than whether or not the basic model is recycled.
Besides, IRL, humans all pretty much use the same very limited "set of models" anyway. The human anatomy lends itself to recycling of traits. With 7.5B people on Earth, the average person probably has an untold number of doubles out there... somewhere. If it's good enough for nature then it's good enough for game art.
Re: Square Enix Trademarks Final Fantasy Adventure And Secret Of Mana In The US
Nothing but love for Final Fantasy Adventure. I played that game to death when I was a kid. The Chocobot alone is worth the price of admission. I remember how many magazines at the time called FFA Square's opening salvo in some imagined war between Zelda and Final Fantasy.
Having said that, part of me would much rather have remastered/remade versions of SaGa 1-3 & SaGa Frontier instead. Those first three SaGa games (Final Fantasy Legend I-III) were portable epics. I know that FFL2 was remade in 3D, but I'd much rather see an Octopath Traveler style remake with an expanded story.
While we're making wish lists.... Give us some more Chrono Trigger
Re: Soapbox: My Nintendo's Updated Rewards Scheme Is Anything But Rewarding
@BonafideInfidel
I get what you're saying about physical VS digital, but there's another side to the argument.
There's a gamer and then there's a Gamer with a capital "G" up front. If you're a Gamer then there's a good chance that, at some point, storage space will become an issue for all of those physical games. Digital may not provide that same sense of permanence, but it allows you to continue pursuing that passion without having to buy a bigger house just to store you games.
I'll give you a good example. I've been playing games since about, oh, 1978. That's a good 40 years. In that time, between my younger brother and myself, we've owned the following systems:
breath
And also...
I don't and haven't owned every system out there, but I've owned a helluva a lot. If all I ever bought was 10 games per platform then I'd easily have 300. I guarantee you that I have WAY more than 300 games. LOL
At some point, as I said, space becomes an issue for some people. For my PC gaming experience, something like Steam has been a blessing. The only thing I have to worry about is hard drive storage space, which has already become an issue since I passed the 300 Steam game mark. That 4TB drive filled up QUICKLY.
So, yeah. I get your concerns about security, ownership, and long term archival. However, if you want to play games and like to play LOTS of them, digital is seriously the future. Maybe we need to figure out a better way to secure our purchases and ensure their safety, but there's no reason to shy away from going digital.
Lemme put it to you this way. My dad is 70 and even he prefers to buy his games on services like Steam. (He's a FPS junkie.) Digital is just convenient.
IMO, physical copies rock, but it totally depends on the actual game and if you're also getting some deluxe ultra mega collector's edition or something.
Re: Soapbox: My Nintendo's Updated Rewards Scheme Is Anything But Rewarding
It's not totally terrible. Spent 499 points and got Kamiko for free. Didn't want to actually spend cash on it, but for free? Yeah. It's actually kinda fun. I dig it. Dig it even more when it didn't cost me $5. ^_^
Re: Review: Batman - The Telltale Series (Switch)
I cannot speak for this version, but I was completely disappointed by the PC version.
Those new to point-and-click adventure games would likely do well to look elsewhere as Batman was, at best, little more than a barely interactive cinematic.
Very little of what you do matters in any substantive way. I found that it was often far too easy to button mash my way through battles. Right choice. Wrong choice. Same outcome. Similarly, conversation trees provided a bit of variety, but not enough to suggest choices actually mattered beyond the superficial.
For those of you with access to a PC, you would probably do well to purchase older Telltale games like the Sam & Max or Back to the Future series. Both after far better written, executed, and designed. Somewhere along the way, Telltale dumbed down the genre for a new generation and did gamers a serious disservice.
Don't have a PC, but still want a truly enjoyable point-and-click experience? Get Thimbleweed Park instead. Designed by gaming legend Ron Gilbert, Thimbleweed Park evokes the very best of Lucasarts era classics such as Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. Its throwback pixel art may put some of you younglings off, but the hilarious storytelling, bizarre characters, and inspired ending form a picture far more substantial than these constituent parts.
Batman looks nice (most of the time) and gives you a solid feeling of what it's like being in Batman's world, but the engine itself only does the bare minimum to provide an actual gaming experience. It's more like a (barely) interactive graphic novel. I've read "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that were more enjoyable.
Re: Karnov Will Have His Revenge On The Switch eShop This Week
@retro_player_22
I was going to say the same exact thing. I really would have preferred a sequel to this game or at least a remaster of the original. Instead we get more shovelware.
Re: Monkey Island Creator's Thimbleweed Park Is Coming To Switch
Have it on Steam. Beat it on the hard setting, which is really the best way to place. Loved it. Some of the puzzles require a jump or two in logic, but the reward is always worth it.
Lots of solid references to old Lucasarts games, including a few cameos. Some funky in-jokes too. The voice acting isn't always great on the part of the FBI agent characters, but everybody else is solid.
That ending.... Mind bender and deliciously meta. That's all I'm going to say. Stay through the credits too.
Would definitely buy it again.