Comments 918

Re: Talking Point: When Was The Last Time A Game Cracked Your Top Five?

ejamer

Age probably has a lot to do with the answers here. The older you are, the bigger the list of games you've played across a whole host of different consoles and generations, and the harder for something new to break into that coveted "top 5" spot.

I'm not sure that anything has broken into my personal favorite list since Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii... but I'm old as dirt. Hard to know if having so many years of gaming experience makes my opinion more valuable, or if it just means I'm a crotchety old gamer with outdated views...

Re: Poll: What's The Best Dragon Quest Game?

ejamer

Love this series of games! Dragon Quest 1 is pretty rough, and 2 has some issues still... but from 3 on, the series is just fantastic to play through.

My personal favorite is probably 4; there is something about the little stories it tells that I found absolutely charming. But 5 and 9 are also amazing games.

Even the spin-offs are a lot of fun. Rocket Slime is cute and silly, and was the first video game my son ever completed. Dragon Quest Swords is weirdly awesome (an on-rails sword simulator? what??) that is easy to sink a bunch of time into.

Again, I just love this series of games!

Re: Review: Teslagrad (Switch eShop)

ejamer

Wow... final score is an 8 with a strong recommendation?

While I agree with the review that this game looks pretty, there are some notable problems. It doesn't play very well, with the physics system often being "wonky" (a generous term). The narrative is very weak, which was disappointing as the art style is very appealing. The game also includes notable bugs that can cause you to lose progress.

Maybe my expectations were too high going in, but for $20 I'd advise people to hold off and wait for a sale. This is another case of an indie game that looks great, but ended up being a mediocre experience upon release.

Re: Mega Man Legacy Devs Working On New Collection With Capcom

ejamer

Count me in on the "Disney Afternoon" dream. Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 1 & 2, Ducktales 1 & 2, Talespin, Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid, Goof Troop, plus some of the Mickey Mouse games...

Many of those games (and shows) are long forgotten now, but would be wonderful to see revived as part of a Capcom Disney Anthology.

Re: Hands On: Creating a Quest in RPG Maker Fes

ejamer

Reality check: 99% (or more) of fan-made RPGs won't be worth the time to download... but that 1% could be pretty awesome.

I'm thrilled to hear this is coming out and will definitely add the game to my library, even if I don't end up creating anything worth talking about. Fantastic idea.

Re: Interview: Tomorrow Corporation On Supporting Switch And Why It Loves Nintendo

ejamer

These games are all FANTASTIC.

The only disappointment is that the series starts off with the highest point (World of Goo) and the other games aren't quite as awesome... but all three are charming and challenging and fun.

They are definitely worth buying if you don't own them yet (and probably worth re-buying even if you do).

My personal pipe dream: seeing a Tomorrow Corporation compilation disc get physical release from Limited Run Games.

Re: Yooka-Laylee Rattles Away From Wii U Release

ejamer

"Why struggle and commit development resources to overcome technical issues on the Wii U release, when the Switch is out just ahead of the targeted release date of 11th April?"

Because people paid them money due to the promise of having a Wii U version given to them in return? As someone with no other way to play the game, I would be very disappointed and upset if I had backed this project. Luckily I didn't.

Re: Inchvilles Crowdfunding Campaign Goes Live, 3D Printed Figure Pricing Revealed

ejamer

Neat concept, but hard to believe it's viable as a business idea.

The actual gameplay looks mediocre at best and asking over $20 USD (after delivery) for a custom inch-high figure seems cost prohibitive.

I really feel like they need to manage one of three things before anyone should consider buying in:
(1) prove the game is much more interesting than it looked on first glance,
(2) show that mini figures really are integral to the game, instead of being just custom avatars, or
(3) find a way to bring the price down (which seems tough since almost half the price is in shipping fees).

Re: Nintendo Download: 24th November (North America)

ejamer

I'm not upset about it, but do find the lack of discount curious and mildly disappointing.

It only takes an extra minute or two for me to start the Wii emulation and play that version. So slightly less convenient... but really not a big deal. If there was a discount offered I'd pay to upgrade just on principle; since there isn't, I'm going to save my money.

Re: Nintendo Download: 24th November (North America)

ejamer

@LuigiMan123
No, for me it does NOT offer a discount. Checked yesterday and there was no discount. Checked again today after seeing your post, and still no discount offered.

I do own the Wii VC version of the game, and have never had a problem upgrading games before.

Where are you located? I'm in Canada, so maybe it works correctly in the US?

Re: Nintendo Download: 24th November (North America)

ejamer

Unlike what a couple of people said earlier, there was NO discount for me to download Majora's Mask - even though I own and have transferred the Wii Virtual Console version of that game. (A couple of others have confirmed this.)

Pretty disappointing and means I'm not grabbing anything this week.

Re: North American eShop Cyber Deals Bring Over 40 Discounts

ejamer

Mark-downs for both Jotun and Don't Starve are very decent on Wii U. Downloadable Wii games are also nicely represented with sweet discounts to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Kirby's Return to Dreamland.

Considering Mega Man Legacy on 3DS, but nothing else (that I don't already own) is very appealing. A real shame that Xenoblade Chronicles has never been discounted in North America outside of lame Club Nintendo offers; I think this is the only region where it hasn't had a normal sale so far.

Re: A Monster Hunter Movie Series is On the Cards

ejamer

Monster Hunter has less in-game story than Resident Evil, which I guess could be a good or bad thing depending on how the script is handled. But given the track record of Anderson, I'm not expecting good results.

His Resident Evil movies are absolutely terrible - both as generic movies and as translations of the series it was (loosely) based on. However, they were financially successful... so I guess that's what Capcom is looking for?

I love the video games, but have no interest in this movie based on information available so far. That seems disappointing.

Re: Nintendo Download: 10th November (North America)

ejamer

Ugh... over $30 CAD for digital versions of Wii games that will get locked to hardware that is officially on the way out? Do yourselves a favor and buy physical. It's much cheaper (~$10) and gives you much more flexibility than Nintendo's digital rights system.

(I understand that digital re-releases aren't a bad idea if the game is expensive or hard to find. Paying $30 for Xenoblade Chronicles might be worthwhile for many people because that's less than the going rate for a retail copy. But these games aren't rare or expensive, at all...)

Re: Budget New Nintendo 3DS Models Announced for North America

ejamer

New 3DS units in Canada currently sell for $200 (small version) or $240 (XL) plus taxes. I need an upgrade after the hinge on my old 3DS XL broke and have a backlog of games that make me interested, but that's a lot of money...

A price drop or sale would be very welcome.

Re: Castlevania Dev MercurySteam Denies It Ever Pitched A New Metroid To Nintendo

ejamer

Not uncommon for people to hear what they want instead of what was actually said.

I'm still relieved. None of the existing games that Mercury Steam have created are (in my opinion) particularly good, so I wouldn't trust them to make a decent Metroid game. On the other hand, it's not like the last couple of games in the series have been that hot either...

Re: Review: Armikrog (Wii U eShop)

ejamer

@BulbasaurusRex
Eh, if you say so. Your tolerance for risk (and/or crappy games) must be MUCH higher than mine though.

KickStarter projects are worth supporting if you like the developer and feel like they deserve donations. Any expectation that you'll get something worthwhile in return should be held firmly in check.

Re: Review: Armikrog (Wii U eShop)

ejamer

@JJtheTexan
Sad to say, but I honestly believe that backing video game development on KickStarter is a fool's game. If the game actually comes out, and if it's actually worth playing, then you are almost certain to see it widely available - and likely at lower prices than the KickStarter campaign went for.

There are a few exceptions - but unless you are backing to support the concept, without really being concerned about "getting what you paid for" then I'm strongly adverse to using KickStarter for video game purchases.

Re: Review: Armikrog (Wii U eShop)

ejamer

@BulbasaurusRex
I don't think it was. Tales of Monkey Island, Sam & Max, and StrongBad were all too niche. Jurassic Park and Back to the Future didn't really get major attention either. Walking Dead is (I think) the biggest licensed game they had put out up to that point, and the critical response to that game was also much stronger.

That said, all of the games before Walking Dead that I've tried (ie: haven't tried Jurassic Park) were excellent and well worth playing. Point-and-click was alive and well, some people just didn't notice.

Re: Review: Armikrog (Wii U eShop)

ejamer

Yeah, I had the same reaction to the review starting out with that comment about how The Walking Dead games from TellTale brought adventure gaming back.

Clearly that's not accurate - just looking at TellTales list of released games makes that obvious - but I think the reviewer meant that was the first adventure game in quite a while that became a significant mainstream hit (due primarily to licensing). As much as I love the Sam & Max series, among others, they didn't capture attention from a mainstream audience the way that The Walking Dead series did.

That said, it's still a bit of an awkward introduction.

Re: 3D Gunstar Heroes

ejamer

@Rixor13:

Quoted from the review:
"A great feature of the original was the simultaneous two player co-op mode, which is also present and correct via local play only (and both players will need a copy of the game)."

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

@Damo
For what it's worth, I'm in your corner on the thought that Yokoi would have loved seeing this device come to life. An inexpensive, portable computer that brings gaming (and coding) to many people in an interesting way seems right up his alley. It also introduces the whole "maker" concept in an accessible way for many people because it reduces the extra hardware required - which seems like something he'd appreciate since he seemed to be an shining example of that type of creative spirit.

People are entitled to whatever opinion they want though, and obviously nobody can an official opinion now.

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

@AVahne
My PocketCHIP is still en route, so I can't say with certainty... but I have been following the forums and it sounds like graphics drivers and merging the two different OS branches (CHIP vs PocketCHIP) are very much works in progress. Both seem to be high on the list of developer priorities though.

Totally agree there are things that could be improved or added to PocketCHIP - both on the hardware and software side. But considering the price and convenience I'm pretty happy with how things are turning out. Even if this never ends up being more than a niche geek toy, I'm up for that...

Now if only my hardware would actually arrive so I can start using it.

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

@Koapa
You want more icons on the home screen?
https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/new-pocket-home-marshmallow-edition/6579
Bam! More icons on the home screen, and it's easier to customize!

That said, if you dislike using the Linux command line that will definitely limit what you can do on the device. Your point is well taken though.

@AVahne
They are supposed to be merging the images, which means you'll have that type of functionality (I think). But it's probably a few months out.

I'm more excited about getting the graphics drivers to work properly. That should open up a lot of extra power compared to what is on display now.

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

Something else game-related that might interest people: Roguelike mechanics were pretty popular in gaming recently. Well PocketCHIP is a great way to go back to the roots of that genre!

https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/unnethack-sil-frozen-depths-zangband-slashem-pocketc-h-i-p-the-roguelike-machine/8027

Play Rogue, Nethack, Moria, Angband, Dwarf Fortress (sort of), and more while on the go! In some cases there is fiddling to be done to get them to work, but for anyone who has played those decidedly old-school games it's a cool blast of nostalgia!

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

@masterLEON
Someone basically remade Alone in the Dark for PICO-8, which is (I assume) what that pic shows.

Link to game: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3792
Post mortem: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3804

This is a pretty awesome bit of coding, so the post mortem is worth reading. PICO-8 is a great little game-making platform, but is intentionally scaled back and limited in what can be done. Getting a (not perfect, but pretty decent) port of Alone in the Dark running is amazing.

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

@deKay
Yes, but people often don't understand what "preorder" means unless it's really emphasized.

I'm not making this up - there were dozens of people who preordered and then got very upset, to the point where some accused the company of stealing their money and a couple even threatened ridiculous lawsuits, when they found out that a preorder means their stuff wouldn't ship until it was actually produced and available.

CHIP and PocketCHIP units are actively being produced and shipped, but there is a big line of people waiting so there will be a delay between when you order and when you receive the unit. I suspect (although don't know) that anyone perordering now would be waiting until at least late October before getting their stuff - which is ok, but just something worth being aware of.

Re: Hardware Review: PocketCHIP

ejamer

Is it worth pointing out that the PocketCHIP is still only available as a PRE-order? If you get excited and order now, be aware it might take a couple of months before arriving.

Production is ramping up quickly at this point, but they still aren't generally available yet. Some people previously didn't realize that, ordered, and then were really disappointed when they heard that it would be September before they get their PocketCHIP...

Re: Exclusive: RIVE Delayed for Wii U and Could Switch to NX, Two Tribes Tells Us Why

ejamer

This news sucks - Rive was one of my most wanted games left for Wii U. That said, nothing said here is surprising.

Performance issues were a concern since the demo, and from a business perspective it's more appealing to be an early success on a new console rather than a swansong on a dying console with a small install base.

Two Tribes have done a great job supporting Nintendo consoles, and have obviously made their best effort to make this game work. I hold no ill will towards them even if this news is disappointing. Still looking forward to seeing this game in action eventually.