flojomojo

@LinktotheFuture Activision Anthology was also on Game Boy Advance. It’s funny to think these games were old 20 years ago! I’m surprised Microsoft hasn’t done anything with the old Activision catalog yet.

@msvt OLED is nice for the eyes, but Lite is good for my hands and is my portable system of choice!

I felt a disturbance in the force …as if millions of aging nerds were suddenly excited. Please let this happen, unlike the cancelled restored content mod on KOTOR2 for Switch, X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter for Wii, and Star Wars Battlefront 3. And everyone make sure to buy it so we get Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader, neither of which seem like too much to ask.

@Ajent I hope you’re right — I would prefer to play this on a handheld, since I have had many chances to work through it on PC and console for many years.

@Dirty0814 Most of the Jackbox games are well suited to remote play over Twitch, Zoom, and so on. We've had lots of virtual parties with these games, no physical proximity needed. Unlike other online games, the remote participants don't need any special equipment, just a web browser.

I rarely finish anything, but I am often done with games.

This was a cute article. I was expecting more nit-picky stuff (I personally am disgusted at the "special usage" of "second-party developer" for video games) ... but these are fundamental, existential ideas. Well done!

This series gets rebooted more often than Batman. I liked the one from the PS3 era that looked like a painting come to life.

I just wish they would allow you to use ProControllers when docked on the TV. This is the only Switch game I own (out of dozens) that forces us to use JoyCons.

I like updates to old games. Duke is a tired old stereotype but for $5 I couldn’t resist. The game holds up, especially with quality-of-life updates like rewinding after you die. Why does it say 20th anniversary? I guess this is a port of a 2016 game?

I wish they would patch in support for Pro Controllers. As it is, you can only use them when playing by yourself. That seems like a weird limitation. I should be able to play with 3 or 4 people with 2 pro controllers and a set of JoyCons.

I'm really feeling it!

To be fair, it works the other way too. Check out the dozens of breathless, astroturfing “Intellivision Amico” videos. That thing isn’t out yet either, but Tommy Tallarico will take your money right now. Looking forward to him calling me out as a hater.

@Tedikuma I thought this WAS 90s Arcade Racer. It looks terrific, and I definitely have room in my heart for another one of these next to Horizon Chase and Virtua Racing.

You kids have good eyes. I can't perceive a difference in those pictures. Maybe it looks different in motion. I'll enjoy the cloud save integration; kinda wish it went across the console versions too, but that's something for update 4.0.

Once again these developers are showing the industry how it's done. "Like Skyrim, but with charm and style!"

It's twenty bucks per year, well beneath the "who cares?" threshold for me. I pay it, I get cloud saves and SNES games and Tetris99. What else is there to discuss?

I keep getting tempted by the yellow Switch Lite, but I just know it's going to be a total pain in the butt to keep things synched up. I've decided to be happy with what I already have. Imagine that!

I'm really surprised no one has linked the monochrome art style back to the early Apple Macintosh computers of the mid to late 1980s. We had tons of games back then that looked a lot like this. How old is the average NintendoLife writer and reader, anyway?

@BlueKnight07 What is it with you guys and cartridges? It's just an emulation system. The storage medium doesn't imbue these ROM files with magical powers.

The subreddit can calk about "re-appropriation" of language, but they have a lengthy explainer. When Nintendolife uses "master race" language, it sounds like Nazis. How about a little editorial judgment next time.

@Retupmocnin Because one doesn't have to choose. There's plenty of room for both Outrun and Horizon Chase.

@JaxonH Exactly. A good game is a good game. It doesn't matter if it's AAA or indie, modern or retro, console or mobile. It just so happens that I prefer indie, retro, and mobile ...but I'm not going to turn up my nose just because of platform bigotry.

@JaxonH I feel the same way about mobile ... except that I'm finding I don't really need them on Switch, which feels fragile and bulky and isn't always with me. I am an avid mobile gamer but didn't know about Animus, and I'm going to go get it now!

@Li_Bae Yup. I don't want to touch anything associated with this author ever again because of this.

@Zelda79 You can get most of the information from this book by reading short articles. The book is full of imagined dialogue, badly written. Padding it out into more than an hour of "drama" will NOT respect your time more than reading. Make time for smart media. Books are good.

@Darth_Goomba Every word of that sentence ... is correct. I want all that stuff too. Switch would be a PERFECT X-Wing platform.

Headline is ridiculous. "Look what you made me do." If you're going to pirate old games, it's your choice, no one is "driving you" to it.

Clearly, nostalgia breaks some peoples' minds. I didn't want this when it was new, and I certainly don't want it now. I suspect it comes down to how old you were when it first came out.

Pfft! Watch out Sandisk!

A "gaming" microSD should come outfitted with tacky pulsing rainbow LEDs.

Heh heh, who knew that a brick and mortar store called EXTREME GAMEZ might have a limited shelf life?

Every SINGLE person? Sure, why not.

MARRIED and PARTNERED people don't have time for video games, though.

LOL, we don't need weasel words, Johnny Turbo wasn't "one of" the worst, he WAS the worst! I defy anyone to find anyone as bad.

I dunno, we'll see. Wii U had enhanced versions of Batman Arkham City and Mass Effect 3, and we know how that turned out. The Bethesda games might be cool technical achievements, but they'll need to sell for other third parties to take notice.

I wish Bethesda would support iOS better, personally.

PRO TIP: You're allowed to bring your own HDMI cable. Get a long one! Then you won't have to worry about the controller cable length at all.

Besides, it's not as if you'll be able to find and buy one of these consoles, anyway.

I don't understand the nostalgia for something as fugly as the NES. Same thing for Atari VCS woodgrain. I like oldies too, but some things are best left in the past --- especially at jacked-up prices like this.

All this talk about games and no one is talking about the Big Game — stock manipulation by "analysts" pumping or dumping stuff in their financial interest?

If it plays GBA games, it should run the Everdrive. If it does, it would be cool if it could do so without the cartridge hanging out like it does on GBA.

I'd be happy enough if they un-abandoned their GameBox on iOS. http://appshopper.com/games/turbografx-16-gamebox

I assume it uses the 3DS controls, not tilt gyros like the iOS version? I wonder why that one hasn't been updated since 2014. It's being app-shamed ("this might slow down your phone") in iOS 10.1.

@Anti-Matter that's nice for you. I have other objects d'art and don't much like the plastic video game aesthetic. Cartridges in boxes for you, downloads for me.

@Bruh That seems about right. Old school cartridges (with capacity measured in kilobytes) were a hack for software distribution when many things were solid state. Optical media (with capacity measured in megabytes and gigabytes) was a hack for distribution of more data. Now that flash capacity is greater, we don't need discs anymore.

I'm going to download everything anyway, I dislike having all those tiny "game cards" all over the place.

@GuitarAnthony Bundles that contain stuff you already have kinda suck! But it's just money, I will likely get it anyway.

@Shiryu I'm tilting that way too, though it would be nice to get a little credit for what I already had, you know?

So much whining, so much pain!!!

These are some of my favorite games. I don't much care about playing on the TV anymore, so it's great to have these on the go.

So they cost a little more than nothing? Oh well. I like Nintendo, I want them to stick around, and floating them $25 every three weeks isn't going to kill me. Considering how I've been playing "unofficial" versions of these on emulators, it's the least I can do, even though I've bought them before.

These are very good versions and help to justify my New 3DS!

@OlicityBlows Everyone k owe that the Wii U wishes to be cremated at the end of its life. No coffins, no nails.

I agree with you about this stupid article. Short version: "Game delayed. Nintendo DOOOOOOOMED." I feel dumber having read this, too.

Forgive me, I forgot about some of the details. It appears that this is indeed a Famiclone, but with CPU and PPU scrounged from old yellow Famicom hardware sitting on a shelf. Only the controllers are fully scrounged from old stock.

From the fine site:
"We were able to procure a large quantity of HVC-001 Famicom systems that were in cosmetically undesirable unsellable condition. The plastic enclosure of the HVC-001 systems are notoriously yellowed, brittle and damaged. While the poor enclosure quality left these systems undesirable and sitting on a shelf, fortunately the CPU and PPU inside remain untouched and fully functional.

Not only were we able to give new life to these systems but a large portion of the controllers have been refurbished and are available for sale too."

I'm still not buying one!

It's funny that no one seems to remember the original press about this game. Fair enough, I suppose it has been a while.
It's not a Famiclone, it's just an old NES/Famicom upcycled into a fancy new case, with adapters to different, modern video outputs.
It's expensive because it's a custom scrounge job in a fancy case.
It's not any more or less prone to breakdown than any other vintage hardware, but if you splash out for this, I would think you'd be out in the cold if it stops working. Just like if you found a flea market NES.
I know some people prefer original hardware to emulation, but this is neither, it's just a way for a fool and his or her money to say goodbye to each other. It's about as far from a Leica camera as anything could be.

@ECMIM Good point! Super scaler < Mode 7
It's amusing/amazing what impressed us back then. People who say things like "mobile devices will never be able to play REAL GAMES like a console" forget how technology works.

@DarthNocturnal Super Thunder Blade preceded Star Fox by several years, and the arcade game is even older. It's important to remember the context these games came from. It's not surprising that an almost 30 year old arcade game is no longer technically impressive. I think it's super fun to have these now, though, especially at the asking price and with all the extra 3d love thrown in.

The closest thing to this and Afterburner was Blue Lightning on the Atari Lynx, which could actually do the scaling graphics nicely. Effects like those didn't come to home consoles until much later on the Super Nintendo, and we certainly never saw any Sega games on that machine!

I downloaded it right before taking a long airplane trip. Played six hours until my red battery light starting flashing. I love the story, soundtrack, and characters. The graphics are rough but the art design overcomes the low resolution.

This is definitely the type of game I like on a handheld, especially since it allows me to save almost anywhere (or just close the lid). I love the way quests and combat are streamlined to keep you playing. The repetition of useless random battles in "classic" JRPGs is a turn off. It's early but I think this might be one of the rare games I actually finish.

Other old people: do you remember Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Sega Saturn? Beautiful design on a technically limited device still results in a great looking game.