erikharrison

There are parts of the US that aren't States - including the nation's capital, the District of Columbia - that aren't in your drop down. I had to skip the question because of that

Yeah, this was a surprisingly good game. If what you want is more Doom, this was more Doom. It has a very Commander Keen aesthetic, so it still felt weirdly like it could have been an id game, and I remember thinking that the level design was surprisingly good.

Everyone saying "THIS IS DEFINITELY ILLEGAL" - this is super well established already. There are lots of reverse engineered software products out there like this.

If they ship the original art along with the reverse engineered "software that is illegal. But the article makes that clear the team "did not use any leaked content, nor use any of Nintendo’s original copyrighted assets."

The lovechild of Monkey Ball and F-Zero?

@Discostew I wasn't calling you on anything here. I was just saying that the problem Wikan mentions - namely that they can no longer work with the codebase - is not uncommon. I assumed you don't work in software because you've not seen that problem, but maybe I'm wrong?

Wikan's point is just that the technology that Prime 3 is built on makes it very hard to port to Switch, and so that port by itself will cost a lot more money than most ports. I really hope that Nintendo shells out the cash for MPT on Switch. I would love to play it.

He was the senior designer on all three games and was the lead on Trilogy. If he says it's going to be expensive and he says it's for totally understandable, common reasons, why are we fighting about him being wrong?

If you have background in MP3's code (or the problem in general) I'm genuinely curious. Working with old software development tools is a hobby of mine, and if you know that Wikan I would love to know.

@Discostew You clearly have never worked in software development If development depended on hardware from a company that doesn't exist anymore, Nintendo can archive everything they want, it still won't run.

No one is saying MPT on Switch is impossible, they're just saying it's harder than it seems like. Wikan is the only senior dev/designer who worked on all three games plus the port of Trilogy. If anyone would know how hard it is, it's him. Why are we crapping on this person when all they're saying is "this is hard" and saying it in terms that every software developer understands?

@Discostew You are right, he wouldn't know, but I'm not saying he does. I was saying that if you want to use Mike Wikan's words here to say that MPT would be "easy", the same guy already explained that isn't.

He says 1) That the tools to work with the Prime codebase no longer exist (likely because they depend on SGI machines which they stopped making in 2006 and then the company went under) and 2) that the specific nature of the controls that he himself built for Corruption don't map onto gyro from the Joy-Cons, which you could rebuild but then you'd need the tools that you don't have.

I would love to play MPT on Switch. Hope it happens - but that probably requires Dread and Prime 4 to do well before Nintendo would front what looks like a pretty high porting bill

@Wyatt006 @Discostew - literally the same guy we're quoting in this video who was 25% of the MPT team says porting to Switch is extremely difficult and unlikely.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/05/metroid_prime_trilogy_switch_port_unlikely_says_former_retro_studios_dev

Deeply intrigued! It's harder to remember now because it was so rapidly cloned, but not only was Threes beautiful to look at, it was very clever.

I like how kinetic pinball feel, but I never understand my goal or feel good with the controls - turning pinball into a puzzle game into an RPG sounds embarrassingly up my alley

@SwitchForce There is some absolute truth to that, but making a foundry is INCREDIBLY hard and expensive. Most of what we think of as "manufacturers" are still going to just a couple of companies for silicon, because building a foundry literally costs billions, not millions.

It should be noted that silicon shortage affects software dev too. High end workstations to build 3D models, render farms for cut scenes, all of these take hardware. Every physical copy of a switch game has silicon in it. The eShop runs on servers that need replacing and upgrading. You want to play Splatoon online? You're depending on hardware that is hard to get.

If you work in technology right now, you've got failing machines and getting replacements is getting trickier and trickier - and when you can get it, it's more expensive. Even if covid vanished tomorrow it's going to be that way for a while

Yikes. $90 for all three games on Switch, $50 for other platforms. I guess they're banking on interested folks having already bought the first one, and paying $60 to catch up?

Switch is my only gaming platform, so I was looking forward to this, and hadn't picked up the first. But 90 bucks to get the technically inferior version (no matter how solid the port is) is a little stomach turning.

Might get the first, finally, and wait for a sale on the remainder.

I was on vacation with some friends, and someone had a DS Lite with one of the Brain Age games on it. Ugly as sin, just black on a white background - and yet I put hours and hours in.

While I get that it's not a huge announcement, seems a little weird they wouldn't save this, unless there actually isn't a September Direct coming.

Gonna finally get the DLC for this one, I think. Especially since Sparks of Hope looks to be changing things up a lot, it's a chance to revisit that original formula (though the DLC seems to dial the mobility of the base game up several million notches)

@BloodNinja I think you misunderstand me - I'm only saying the Crysis 3 looks measurably better on Switch than on PS3, not that load times are the same, or that Switch is "better" for all games.

DF's is running the final version of the game, their "preview" is not restricted to some areas or portions of the game. It runs at a higher framerate, with more objects on screen, at a higher resolution, and with a superior AA solution. This is pretty objectively stellar work by SI.

@BloodNinja it actually does smoke the PS3/360 versions. Frame timing issues aside, Switch is hitting 30 frames a second solid in sections where the PS3 dropped to 20-23 frames, and at a higher native resolution. DF is clear that on every level the Switch version is beating the previous console versions.

I don't actually have a PC for games. If a game is heavily compromised for the port, that's one thing, but not only does this look good, but Crysis is a game that is more than it's eye candy.

@dew12333 The pig is playable. An early puzzle in the demo involves the pig being able to access something you can't, and the last thing you unlock is being able to switch between the two.

Demo is short and cute. Story seems like it might be legitimately interesting, but except for playing the pig there isn't anything in the demo that suggests something fresh gameplay wise - but it's smoothly put together.

Motion controls are also easy on switch?

I never played this game on Wii (and played relatively few motion controlled games period), but I've settled into playing SSHD with motion controls (after playing with both modes) and I hit 30 strokes on my second try. I don't know if the game has been tuned in some way or the motion controls improved, but I found it pretty simple

@Jooles_95 Yeah, it's pretty obvious upon rewatching that you're right. I watched in low-res the first time and it looked like the "magnification" was actually part of the auto-save notification, not post-production on the video.

Does it really hang the game every time it autosaves?

Loved this game as a kid - that era when you'd sit around trying to find out if you could blow up a batter by hitting him with an exploding ball (IIRC, you can).

The weird hybrid straight baseball game makes the random use of ultra powers feel like an insane series of Easter Eggs, but it's a hard feeling to replicate as an adult, in a time when every secret is documented on a Wiki somewhere.

Played on PC. If it looks appealing then it's probably up your alley. Very funny, very clever, and surprisingly moving story.

If it's got a down side is that a lot of its jokes depend on you either knowing video game development, or knowing the game genres it's playing with. It's not too bad - even non-fans have played a Zelda or seen a Lucasarts style adventure game, the two kinds of games it most remixes. And most of us know the vague outlines of the indiepocolypse to get the story, even if you've never written a line of code. Still, some people might find that offputting.

But other than that, the puzzles are clever remixes without making you consult a walk through constantly, and the jokes are legit funny. Really enjoyed it.

This is one of those games where the only parts I remember are the things I didn't like.

The ocean going is particularly bad - instead of Hyrule field you've got this big pile of blue and it's just... empty. I would draw these tight routes to cover every inch of the game map and there really isn't anything out there. It basically a minigame during a loading screen.

I started on the original LoZ and while I loved the tightness of gameplay that came as the games got more linear, this was where the bloom came off the rose for me.

Spirit Tracks was, to my mind, a better version of the same ideas. The central dungeon wasn't as repetitive, the train leaned into the linearity rather than pretending the game was open, and I actually have vague memories of some of the dungeons, but no memory of anything in Hourglass.

Linebeck was cool though

@BloodNinja
Thanks for coming to my defense, though as my comment seems to have vanished I don't know that it worked

@COVIDberry and @Moistnado
I don't need to "assume" that some of the people yelling about "cancel culture" are white American men when people on Twitter post their location and a profile image. I am a white man from America, after all, I know a few people like me, and I don't have to assume anything to know what the opinions of my friends/coworkers/neighbors are, I can see them on Twitter. I wasn't assuming anything about you specifically, or everyone who made such a comment.

I was noting that "cancel culture" is a Western idea and that Capcom is a Japanese company who made this change for a Korean audience. And I was also saying that if any Korean folk wanted to pipe up about how they felt about Japanese company altering the background for a Japanese character to not have a symbol associated with a brutal genocide performed by the Japanese on their people I would be interested, and that other people - people like me - maybe didn't have anything super relevant to say.

If you believe that was sexism and racism then I'm afraid you'll find me difficult to convince.

Just wanna jump on the Dicey Dungeons bandwagon. This game is very good. It starts as a fun little deckbuilder, but as you unlock new classes and episodes it is BONKERS how much variety there is to the gameplay and how much content.

On top of all that, the art is charming, the jokes are actually funny, and the music SLAPS.

Nothing. We're getting nothing. That OR we're not getting BotW 2.

There are a lot more Mario games than Zelda games, but also no Odyssey 2 is coming. So building a event around the launch of 3D All Stars at the beginning and 3D World on the other end made sense. I cannot imagine a world where Nintendo wastes Zelda All Stars on the year when BotW2 comes out.

Nintendo's faster release schedule is a Zelda game a year, which we've slightly beat in the Switch era with Cadence. So if Zelda 35 is coming - let us say Ocarina and Majora's Mask HD in a limited time bundle in the fall, and a Skyward Sword port in the Spring. Well, that would seem to mean BotW2 is holiday 2022 at the earliest

OHMANOHMANOHMAN

I've been following this game since EARLY days. Even played an early build. It's something special. Max Mraz, the developer, cannot help themselves from adding little details and side content. I've been on Twitter and watched them play through a build, realize that if they were playing this game they'd wonder if there should be a secret in such-and-such a place, then spend a week implementing a secret boss. It's jam packed with stuff.

Their pixel art is quite lovely, and the engine they're building on was originally built for some Zelda fan games and it feels really good. I loved Blossom Tales, but that was a straight forward nostalgia game. I think this is prettier, plays just as well, but has some new ideas too.

The developer has put out some interesting tiny games for free (the 2D Bloodborne homage, Yarntown, got a lot of press not that long ago) if you wanna check those out.

Very excited to get to play this on my Switch

@AwesomEli Mario Kart is a third person 3D racing game, this is top down 2D? Maybe it's just me but I think of those as entirely different genres.

First game was great - on iOS. It sucked, frankly, on Switch - not because it was a bad port, per se, but the character movement was so frustrating on a real console, and the environments felt cramped.

Played this briefly on iOS and had the opposite problem - this is so clearly made for a tablet sized screen with physical controls it was hard to manage on my giant iPhone. So weirdly, excited to finally try it on my Switch where it feels like it belongs. And if you haven't played the first one you should try it - but on your phone.

@ryancraddock It doesn't seem to matter. I've selected all sorts of courses and I only ever get to play 1-1 and 1-2 over and over again in succession, no changes

Comparing this to the first HW, the greatly reduced pop-in alone is a miracle. Lots of little Nintendo touches too - they way pop-in is hidden with a fade in, and background resolution drops to maintain frame rate - makes this game feel better than it's predecessors, not to mention the gorgeous cut scenes, and the clever way they're repurposing BotW music.

Musou games always seemed cheap and mindless to me. This doesn't seem cheap! And better fan service, at least for me, than the first HW game. I'm totally okay with gorgeous, mindless, bespoke fan service.

When you’re AAA, main franchise titles all work handheld already then the feature that made shelling out cash for smaller games kinda goes away. Not super into this myself but glad Nintendo is still making games like these, and trying to figure out where to peg the price at. Would love to see a 2D Zelda and it feels like Nintendo figuring out how to make DS sized games work on the switch is a prerequisite

This seems doomed to failure BUT - the idea of a targeted mini console that is attached to a clear brand and a game's service feels both very modern and workable - I might not pay $300 for a pure nostalgia device, but if every month there was a new drop of classic games and remakes ala their new version of Missile Command it - or something like it - might just fly

FYI - you can't set the recovery email on Twitter without being able to receive email at that address. So either the "fake" creator of this account registered a long elaborate domain name that happened to look like nintendo.co.jp, got email working on that domain, and set up a dummy twitter account, or it's legit.

If it's legit it's also meaningless. Anyone who has worked comms for a large company in the social media era knows that there is a lot of preemptive land-grabbing that goes on. Even if no 35th anniversary announcements were incoming, it would be very smart of a comms department to grab all the obvious Twitter handles ahead of time, so that you're prepared, and to prevent others from using your brand name maliciously.