@samuelvictor @Not_Soos I’d just like to say that I have enjoyed reading your discussion, so eloquently, politely and tolerantly debating the way that so much of internet debate is not so eloquent, polite and tolerant. Both of your comments have been thought-provoking and interesting, and I appreciate the attitudes shown even if I do not necessarily agree with all of your political stances (though by and large and I suspect a fair bit of mutual ground may be found).
I have nothing of real merit to add to the subject, but if you have indeed “written the book on this”, I for one would be interested in reading that book.
The reflective waterfall effect is lovely on the PS5, but I’m less keen on the “out of focus” backgrounds. Probably not something you’d notice when playing, but reminds me of the 3D effect on New Super Mario 2 that I just turned off and played as 2D.
@Grail_Quest yeah, it’s a fascinating little thing. I was playing it as part of the DS Namco Museum, where it seemed weirdly out place compared with the other endless score-chaser arcade games, and the bottom screen shows the instructions for all the treasure chests - most of which seem excessively obtuse for an arcade game. I know it’s not really in the spirit of it, but without those instructions I doubt I would have found more than 2 or 3 of them naturally, or cleared the final stage.
@Faucet yeah I downloaded it and have never bothered playing it, despite a whole bunch of amiibo.
Also, they released Mario Vs DK: Tupping Stars on both Wii U and 3DS - I could be wrong but I think if you bought one, you’d get a code to get the other free
@SepticLemon true. Also, to be fair to them: before the Wii and DS, Nintendo’s wares were showing diminishing returns - in terms of sales, each new console sold less than the one before. At this point they switched focus to blue ocean non-gamers, and their next Gen consoles started adding more non-gaming features as standard - admittedly to less success than the Wii and DS, so the Switch went “back to basics” as a pure gaming device, with their non-gaming investment being elsewhere.
But there was a solid couple of decades, from the NES to the Wii, where they were 100% focused on gaming.
Remember when PlayStation and Xbox were marketed hard as multimedia machines capable of playing DVDs/Blu-Rays/streaming, and Nintendo were firmly “no, we want to focus solely on Gaming because that’s our strength”…?
The initial reveal in the last Direct left me psyched for lots of bizarre and unpredictable new ideas. This one almost literally starts with “here’s the whole intro sequence, now look: map screen! Ice world! Fire world! 2 types of Toad! AND Toadette!”
It was 80% “just another New SMB then, yeah?”, 10% “that’s an unnecessary distraction, disable that day 1”, 10% “ok, that looks fun”.
Disappointed by Yoshi’s new role. Yay for Daisy though! And Wonder flowers
Oh for the love of…. I literally just finished this on Cube for the first time this month. I enjoyed it, but have zero desire to replay it any time soon. Wonder what (if any) bells and whistles they add.
@AG_Awesome there is a camera invert option. But I did find the controls a little clunky overall, which did hamper the combat. The number of times I did a forward roll when trying to quit the camera mode…
I miss my original SNES. It’s since been replaced, but I know it’s not My SNES, the one I begged my parents to get for my 11th birthday, with one controller forever imprinted with teeth marks following an especially rage-filled round of Mario Kart, and the first run edition of Mario World with the star on the save file (later EU copies, and the Wii VC version, just turned the 96 blue).
I’m lucky enough to have reacquired in some way every game or console I ever sold on, but knowing that my current SNES isn’t My SNES sucks a little bit.
The western one’s iconic, but the Japanese art is a lot more evocative and enticing. And I personally prefer the cleaner, clearer rerelease to the original
My collection’s a right old muddle, but generally ordered alphabetically with its brethren.
The Wii, Wii U and Switch carts are kept boxed in the living room TV unit, where the Wii U and Switch are both hooked up.
Everything else is in the bedroom in various states: the cupboard houses boxed Cube discs in one storage crate (with an old Wii and Cube controllers etc. in another crate) while the N64 and SNES carts are “loose” in travel bags with their consoles.
My bedside unit has all the handheld consoles loose, with 2 travel bags of GB/GBC carts (60% in GB cases), a Tupperware tub of loose GBA carts, and 6 Hori cases full of DS/3DS carts. And there’s a handful of boxed PSP games on the floor, because I ran out of room elsewhere.
Whatever boxes I’ve still got for the loose carts is in a box in the loft.
So now you all know where to find my valuables when you burgle me. Happy hunting!
@Not_Soos that’s 15 games across 5 consoles, and 11 of them weren’t first party developed - at best they’re first party franchises farmed out to second- or third- party devs, who all have more profitable things to focus on.
Other than the Mario Karts, only F-Zero X was fully first party.
Banjo-Tooie has some terrible frame-rate issues. And while most people cite DK64 as the worst offender for excessive collectables, BT feels worse. Rare overreached with that one.
The Japanese one feels a bit cheaper, but it’s a lot cleaner. The title in the Western one gets a bit lost among the jumble.
And I like the speech bubble on the Japanese one. Cheesy, but it fits the tone, and instantly brings the character’s voice to mind, even if I don’t know what he’s saying (though I can easily guess).
Comments 2,268
Re: Nintendo Website Shares First Look At Hogwarts Legacy On Switch
@samuelvictor @Not_Soos I’d just like to say that I have enjoyed reading your discussion, so eloquently, politely and tolerantly debating the way that so much of internet debate is not so eloquent, polite and tolerant. Both of your comments have been thought-provoking and interesting, and I appreciate the attitudes shown even if I do not necessarily agree with all of your political stances (though by and large and I suspect a fair bit of mutual ground may be found).
I have nothing of real merit to add to the subject, but if you have indeed “written the book on this”, I for one would be interested in reading that book.
Re: Video: Sonic Superstars Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & PS5)
The reflective waterfall effect is lovely on the PS5, but I’m less keen on the “out of focus” backgrounds. Probably not something you’d notice when playing, but reminds me of the 3D effect on New Super Mario 2 that I just turned off and played as 2D.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Tears of the Kingdom
Resident Evil 2
Re: It's Over, Microsoft Has Officially Acquired Activision Blizzard
@fenlix does it only affect the UK? I can’t find anyone else specifying the UK.
@GamingFan4Lyf Does it just mean their Cloud Games run off Ubisoft servers? Have they got many cloud games?
Re: It's Over, Microsoft Has Officially Acquired Activision Blizzard
What does Ubisoft owning the cloud gaming rights actually mean? Do AB have any games that rely on the cloud?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 7th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Legendary Starfy
Resident Evil 2
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Soapbox: 'Switch 2' Doesn't Really Need Backwards Compatibility
Like Gavin, my Switch isn’t going anywhere, so I can live without BC. Especially if NOT including it in some way saves on production costs.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 30th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Tears of the Kingdom
Legendary Starfy
Resident Evil 2
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 23rd)
@Grail_Quest yeah, it’s a fascinating little thing. I was playing it as part of the DS Namco Museum, where it seemed weirdly out place compared with the other endless score-chaser arcade games, and the bottom screen shows the instructions for all the treasure chests - most of which seem excessively obtuse for an arcade game. I know it’s not really in the spirit of it, but without those instructions I doubt I would have found more than 2 or 3 of them naturally, or cleared the final stage.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 23rd)
This week I will be mostly playing
Tower of Druaga
Tears of the Kingdom
Kirby Air Ride
Legendary Starfy
Re: Video: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & GBA)
@Faucet yeah I downloaded it and have never bothered playing it, despite a whole bunch of amiibo.
Also, they released Mario Vs DK: Tupping Stars on both Wii U and 3DS - I could be wrong but I think if you bought one, you’d get a code to get the other free
Re: Video: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & GBA)
@Faucet there was one, but you only got 10 stages for free - the rest was walled behind the different Mario series Amiibos
Re: Disney Speedstorm's Aladdin-Inspired Season Moves Off The Start Line Next Week
That is some floaty photoshopping
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 16th)
This week I will be mostly playing
F-Zero 99
Magical Quest Starring Mickey & Minnie
Kirby Air Ride
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The Nintendo Direct, Then?
Nintendo standing in their own museum: You get a remake! You get a remake! Everyone gets a remake!
Except you Peach, you get some cool new cosplay minigames.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 9th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Splatfest
Kirby Air Ride
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Poll: Hasn't Nintendo Always Been An 'Entertainment' Company?
@SepticLemon true. Also, to be fair to them: before the Wii and DS, Nintendo’s wares were showing diminishing returns - in terms of sales, each new console sold less than the one before. At this point they switched focus to blue ocean non-gamers, and their next Gen consoles started adding more non-gaming features as standard - admittedly to less success than the Wii and DS, so the Switch went “back to basics” as a pure gaming device, with their non-gaming investment being elsewhere.
But there was a solid couple of decades, from the NES to the Wii, where they were 100% focused on gaming.
Re: Poll: Hasn't Nintendo Always Been An 'Entertainment' Company?
Remember when PlayStation and Xbox were marketed hard as multimedia machines capable of playing DVDs/Blu-Rays/streaming, and Nintendo were firmly “no, we want to focus solely on Gaming because that’s our strength”…?
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's Game Boy Color, SNES & NES Library With Four More Games
@Liam_Doolan Are you guys going to review these? I’m at least curious as to how intelligible they are for non-Japanese readers
Re: Nintendo Doesn't Plan To Announce Mario's New Voice Actor Ahead Of Wonder's Release
It’ll be Charles Wartinet, his lifelong nemesis
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Sea Of Stars
Hmmm…. The Sea or the Stars (moon)…?
The Japanese one looks more adventurous and inviting, but also looks like an Advance Wars cover from a printer running low on ink…
If Japan used slightly bolder colours, it’d be a win for sure, but the busyness of it looks cluttered without clearer delineation
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 2nd)
This week I will be mostly playing
Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
Kirby Air Ride
Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The Super Mario Bros. Wonder Direct Showcase?
I was more excited before.
The initial reveal in the last Direct left me psyched for lots of bizarre and unpredictable new ideas. This one almost literally starts with “here’s the whole intro sequence, now look: map screen! Ice world! Fire world! 2 types of Toad! AND Toadette!”
It was 80% “just another New SMB then, yeah?”, 10% “that’s an unnecessary distraction, disable that day 1”, 10% “ok, that looks fun”.
Disappointed by Yoshi’s new role. Yay for Daisy though! And Wonder flowers
Re: Beyond Good And Evil 20th Anniversary Edition Has Been Rated For Switch
Oh for the love of…. I literally just finished this on Cube for the first time this month. I enjoyed it, but have zero desire to replay it any time soon. Wonder what (if any) bells and whistles they add.
@AG_Awesome there is a camera invert option. But I did find the controls a little clunky overall, which did hamper the combat. The number of times I did a forward roll when trying to quit the camera mode…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 26th)
This week I will be mostly crying
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 19th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Splatoon 3 'Drizzle Season' Update Revealed - New Weapons, Stages, Gear And More
But where’s Wave 2 of the DLC?
Re: Talking Point: The Games We Got Rid Of - What Were We Thinking?
I miss my original SNES. It’s since been replaced, but I know it’s not My SNES, the one I begged my parents to get for my 11th birthday, with one controller forever imprinted with teeth marks following an especially rage-filled round of Mario Kart, and the first run edition of Mario World with the star on the save file (later EU copies, and the Wii VC version, just turned the 96 blue).
I’m lucky enough to have reacquired in some way every game or console I ever sold on, but knowing that my current SNES isn’t My SNES sucks a little bit.
Re: Bandai Namco Has Multiple "Major Titles" Planned For The Remainder Of 2023
I’d like some Tekken ports please. Any, really
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 12th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Time was I’d have made an effort to join the Splatfest, but I find myself really unenthused by the themes lately
Re: Metroid Dread Developer Has "Two Large Undisclosed Titles" In The Works
Zelda 2 Remake. Because Nintendo make oddball decisions sometimes
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Loading Sequence Patent Filed By Nintendo
I really want to know what the one non-TOTK patent is for. None of the articles linked seem to mention it…
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: The Legend Of Zelda
The western one’s iconic, but the Japanese art is a lot more evocative and enticing. And I personally prefer the cleaner, clearer rerelease to the original
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 5th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Store Your Games Collection?
My collection’s a right old muddle, but generally ordered alphabetically with its brethren.
The Wii, Wii U and Switch carts are kept boxed in the living room TV unit, where the Wii U and Switch are both hooked up.
Everything else is in the bedroom in various states: the cupboard houses boxed Cube discs in one storage crate (with an old Wii and Cube controllers etc. in another crate) while the N64 and SNES carts are “loose” in travel bags with their consoles.
My bedside unit has all the handheld consoles loose, with 2 travel bags of GB/GBC carts (60% in GB cases), a Tupperware tub of loose GBA carts, and 6 Hori cases full of DS/3DS carts. And there’s a handful of boxed PSP games on the floor, because I ran out of room elsewhere.
Whatever boxes I’ve still got for the loose carts is in a box in the loft.
So now you all know where to find my valuables when you burgle me. Happy hunting!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 29th)
This week I will be mostly playing
For the Frog the Bell Tolls
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: A "Massive amiibo Restock" Is Reportedly On The Way
The Odyssey Wedding set please
Re: Edia Crowdfunding Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection III For Nintendo Switch
@Serpenterror because money.
Eventually all 3 will end up in a sale for the ideal price, but first they get to test how much they can milk from the hardcore fan base
Re: Reminder: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Xenoblade Chronicles amiibo Are Out Today
They’re on the overcrowded shelf now
Re: Bluey: The Videogame Has Been Rated By The Australian Classification Board
A Bluey video game? Wackadoo!
Published by Outright Games? Biscuits!
Maybe it’ll be tolerable for a small child, but I’m not getting my hopes up for anything more than that.
Re: Soapbox: Switch Is Only A Classic Or Two From Being The Perfect PlayStation History Lesson
Symphony of the Night. Tekken. Tomb Raider. Ridge Racer.
While we’re at it, Sega need to mine their non-Mega Drive games, like the Virtua Fighters, Nights and Shenmue.
Aside: comment #1981. Needs more Kong.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 15th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 8th)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Random: A 'Last Of Us' Clone Is Available On Switch, But Seriously, Don't Bother
“The story of the desired streets begin to intertwine”
I pity the VA who had to read that with a straight face
Re: Takaya Imamura: F-Zero Hasn't Been Revived Because Mario Kart Is Nintendo's "Most Popular Racing Game"
@Not_Soos that’s 15 games across 5 consoles, and 11 of them weren’t first party developed - at best they’re first party franchises farmed out to second- or third- party devs, who all have more profitable things to focus on.
Other than the Mario Karts, only F-Zero X was fully first party.
Re: Feature: Nintendo eShop Selects - June 2023
All 6 recommendations this month are old ports. Nothing fresh?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 1st)
This week I will be mostly playing
Beyond Good & Evil
Tears of the Kingdom
Re: Best Nintendo 64 Platformers - Every N64 3D Platformer, Ranked By You
Banjo-Tooie has some terrible frame-rate issues. And while most people cite DK64 as the worst offender for excessive collectables, BT feels worse. Rare overreached with that one.
Re: Best Nintendo 64 Platformers - Every N64 3D Platformer, Ranked By You
@ArcticEcho it’s not a true 3D platformer, it’s 2.5D at best. Apart from a small number of branching paths, it’s all played in a linear 2D plane.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel - WarioWare Gold
The Japanese one feels a bit cheaper, but it’s a lot cleaner. The title in the Western one gets a bit lost among the jumble.
And I like the speech bubble on the Japanese one. Cheesy, but it fits the tone, and instantly brings the character’s voice to mind, even if I don’t know what he’s saying (though I can easily guess).