@Lofoten Because Nintendo did not utterly destroy these people back in the '90s, essentially allowing them to create a culture of "this is free so why pay for it". By now, it's devolved into these hilariously fake narratives like "not everyone who emulates pirates" and "game preservation", things none of these people care anything for at all.
Piracy is not a "service issue". Gaben is a useful idiot who got extremely lucky, and has never really had to worry about anything in his life.
@Ratmasterd21 "Way to skate around the facts", says someone actually skating around the facts. I don't care what your favorite genres are, I'm just telling you that the N64 has a ton of great games, which is a simple fact. It's tiring seeing people like you say whatever nonsense you want and get away with it, over and over again.
@Ratmasterd21 Of course not, you didn't want an actual response, you just wanted to whine about the N64. Imagine meaninglessly comparing a bunch of randomly chosen games to each other though. But I guess you think you're such a big shot with your imported Saturn arcade ports.
@Ratmasterd21 Old post, but this is an ongoing thread, and frankly I am tired of hearing people claim that the N64 has no good games even into 2022. It absolutely does.
The current list looks like this, from bottom to top: Dr. Mario 64, WinBack, Yoshi's Story, Pokemon Puzzle League, Kirby 64, Pokemon Snap, Pilotwings 64, Mario Golf, Sin and Punishment, Wave Race 64, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X, Paper Mario, Star Fox 64, Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Majora's Mask, and Ocarina of Time.
Here are just some of the games not on this list that are absolutely worth playing: 1080 Snowboarding, Banjo-Tooie, BattleTanx and Global Assault, Beetle Adventure Racing, Blast Corps, Bomberman 64 and Second Attack, Buck Bumble, Castlevania/Legacy of Darkness, Chameleon Twist and Chameleon Twist 2, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Cruis'n World and Exotica, Custom Robo and Custom Robo V2, Duck Dodgers, Diddy Kong Racing and Mickey's Speedway USA, Donkey Kong 64, Doom 64, Excitebike 64, Extreme-G 2, F-1 World Grand Prix, Forsaken 64, GT 64, Gauntlet Legends, Gex 64 and Gex 3, Glover, GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, Harvest Moon 64, Hybrid Heaven, Jet Force Gemini, Magical Tetris Challenge, Mischief Makers, Mortal Kombat 4, Mystical Ninja and Goemon's Great Adventure, New Tetris and Tetrisphere, Ogre Battle 64, Quest 64, Rally Challenge 2000, Rayman 2 and Tonic Trouble, Ridge Racer 64, Rocket, Rush and Rush 2 and Rush 2049, Shadow Man, Shadowgate 64, Star Soldier Vanishing Earth, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo and Racer, Super Smash Bros, Top Gear Rally and Rally 2 and Overdrive and Hyper-Bike, Toy Story 2, Turok and Turok 2 and Turok 3, Wetrix, and World Driver Championship.
This is all stuff that I've either played myself (yes Quest 64 and Castlevania actually are good games), or have heard good things about from multiple sources and plan to play eventually (I've never played Ogre Battle 64, but seemingly everyone else on the planet has). This is not a wishlist, as a lot of these games are likely not going to be rereleased ever. That being said, most of this list is not licensed. I'm just saying that there are a lot of great games on the 64, and I want to point out that this is not a complete list.
It's becoming increasingly harder to do those GameCenter CX "visit an arcade" segments. Sigh...
If you're ever in Japan, be sure to check out Big-One, where they play a lot of fighting games. Here is their Twitter: https://twitter.com/public_bigone
Gross, but also people really need to stop worshipping UE. Use Godot or something.
@Dezzy70 They would lose a ton of money and then disappear, as Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions are constantly at threat of doing. What you're asking is bad for business and also bad for gaming; the current idea of AAA is a completely unsustainable nightmare that developers are constantly having to live every single day. It needs to go.
@Kidfunkadelic83 Did you miss not just OoT3D, but even MM3D? We don't deserve MM3D. I think Zelda fans have gotten more than enough.
It's always good to see Sonic fans suffer for their own crimes, but it's a shame that Sega has to suffer with them. I'm not sure why Sega even bothers with Sonic at this point, far too much effort for a fanbase that clearly doesn't deserve any of it. They should have shut the whole series down in 2006 (before the 2006 game) and never touched the name again.
@YoshiAngemon Oh, you mean the same Blue Bomber that the entire Mega Man fanbase unceremoniously dropped back around 2010, then blamed Capcom for everything that was "suddenly" happening? How pathetic. Mega Man deserved better, and its fanbase never deserved these collections let alone excellent new games like Mega Man 11.
@Orpheus79V Welcome to the Sonic fanbase. Though welcome to any fanbase really. Fanbases don't really enjoy the thing they're supposed to be fans of.
@Scarftail There isn't actually a middle ground at all. Either someone's claims are right, or they are wrong/highly subjective.
The "criticisms" against this series are almost entirely minor and extremely personal, not at all the supposedly massive objective flaws that Pokemon fans make them out to be, and definitely not anywhere near bad enough to constantly demand Game Freak to be dismantled for it.
What people want is not to "criticize" their favorite series, but to whine about whatever they want with impunity, whether they're being truthful with any of their whining or not. It's morally wrong to pretend otherwise.
Good. People are demanding Arceus mechanics in the way they are for only one reason: they've spent years building up this narrative about how Game Freak is evil and how Pokemon needs to be violently removed from their possession. You can see quite a bit of it here in the comments already.
My one and only expectation for gen 9 was an entire game based on the Wild Area. That expectation means little, but was fulfilled anyway. There will likely be more Legends games, maybe even more Let's Go games, but it doesn't matter if even this fails to happen.
Contrary to what the fans believe, Pokemon is in a great place right now. There is absolutely nothing wrong, and a lot right, with Pokemon retaining the solid foundation it has. Those who claim otherwise have no idea what "evolution" is, and should stop pretending that they do.
Game Freak is a good developer. Pokemon is a good series. They deserve a better fanbase than what they have. They deserve a fanbase that recognizes hard work and that cares little for ridiculous wish fulfillment.
It's always funny whenever people bring up Sonic Mania in situations like this. Eventually these people will realize that Samus Returns and Dread were made under a very similar context to Sonic Mania. What will these people do then?
@Noid Are you aware of what either of these court cases are about? The Sega vs Accolade case was about Accolade, not exactly a small company at the time (not as big as Sega but certainly not an "underdog"), trying to totally screw Sega by reverse engineering Sega's own hardware in order to get around a fairly reasonable license requirement. Accolade actually lost the case at first, only won by appeal, and STILL ended up becoming a Sega licensee anyway. The outcome of the case didn't make sense then, and it makes even less sense year after year.
Universal vs Nintendo, meanwhile, was about a very large company (Universal) going after a still decently-sized company (Nintendo) because Donkey Kong was based on King Kong, a famous character. Aside from this being very silly and only happening because Donkey Kong was a very popular game, Universal had already totally boned themselves by defending THEIR OWN usage of King Kong in an earlier court case, claiming that King Kong was a public domain character. Surprise, Nintendo used this against them, and totally won the case.
If you're looking for actual dirt, have a look at stuff like the Ikegami Tsushinki drama. That's not a small company either, by the way. There are no Davids going on here, just variably-sized Goliaths.
Of course, law is a load of garbage. "Precedent" is an incredibly sketchy concept, because there's this strong pressure to never revisit a ruling and see if a judge made a bad call, which is all too easy in law.
Pretty funny that so many Fusion haters will go on and on about how "linear" it is, ignoring that Super and Zero Mission are "non-linear" by virtue of massive exploits and glitches. Super and Zero Mission are fundamentally very linear games. It's very obvious where you're expected to go at any given time, and there is very little that's really "optional" (such as the Charge Shot in both games). To "sequence break", you have to resort to outright breaking the games, and the only reason Zero Mission lets you get away with as much as it does is because the fanbase BEGGED for it after Fusion. The only truly non-linear Metroid in the series is the original game, which has very few upgrades and thus has very little progression locked behind them, and that is why it will probably be the ONLY truly non-linear Metroid.
Anyway, the best game in the series is very clearly Dread. It has way too many quality of life changes that really should have been in Super at the latest, and is made to a higher standard than most previous games. Unfortunately, we now have MercurySteam haters, because people have decided to blame them for AM2R. Maybe one day people will realize that Samus Returns is a great game, but today is not that day, apparently.
It's funny to me that this often gets pushed even though it's wrong, but everyone ignores when Sega tried to stick an actual Mario parody boss into Alex Kidd in Shinobi World.
The music in Sonic 1 and 2 was composed by a member of well-regarded band Dreams Come True. One of their albums even has a full studio version of the Sonic 2 ending theme.
A lot of people reading this are thinking "oh no, like Contra: Rogue Corps?", when they really should be thinking "whoa, like GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon?".
@syrupdash Pop'n Music just got a new game recently, and it also just got a PC version; both of these were at the end of last year. That series has been on the chopping block for years because of its "iidx lite" (and sometimes not even "lite"!) status scaring people away, but Konami insists on keeping it alive.
@AtlanteanMan The Japanese developers are the ones that actually try to take risks. Have you seen the creative bankruptcy that's been going on with big American and European developers for many years now? It's disgraceful. There was no way we were ever going to get something like Dark Souls out of anyone besides a Japanese developer. There is no American or European developer that allows for games like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona to coexist. The people responsible for massive, very risky, overhauls like Tales of Arise and Monster Hunter World are, surprise, Japanese developers. Who's working on open world Zelda and Mario right now, the first of which has already changed the game industry in a huge way? Yep, that's right, Japanese developers.
There is an alarming amount of entitlement, and a disgusting amount of assumptions, over something that doesn't belong to anyone here in the comments. People love to think otherwise, they love to think they "own" Mario and Zelda and Metroid and whatever else. This is a larger problem that has started up very recently, and that will never make any sense.
I'm sick of hearing people call Nintendo "behind the times" when these same people are incapable of actually appreciating what they have. Hacking and glitching in older games? They can't appreciate that. They take it for granted and demand that all other games be like this, instead of realizing it's a huge treasure that should be understood and cared for.
I'm sick of hearing people talk about suing and boycotting Nintendo over things that these people were fully responsible for. Why in God's name are glitches, things that programmers have no idea are happening, Nintendo's fault? Why is it Nintendo's fault when these glitches are discovered and then put to use by people who have no connection with Nintendo?
It's so easy to defend Nintendo when their would-be critics are such immature brats. These people know nothing about business, or about quality, or about law, or about any of the things that these people feel are "unnecessary in the modern year". How miserable. Nintendo did not abandon you. You abandoned Nintendo!
By the way, I think it's hilarious that multiple people in here legitimately believe Nintendo sees the Wii U as a threat when these people also say, in the same breath, that the Wii U was a failure not many care about. That doesn't make sense. That is such an immense amount of illogic that it's not even possible to talk about.
Samurai-Ghost is actually pretty good, and somehow a lot better than the original Genpei Touma Den. The controls are a bit off, but I get the feeling there's some non-obvious trick to learn, and the game is still very playable despite it all. Has to be a 7 at the very least.
Don't understand all the hate for this game. I haven't encountered any of these collision or framerate issues, at least halfway through the main mode (I get the feeling that multiplayer would be a huge issue if framerate issues surface); in fact, the fairly decent framerate, plus the crazy handling, makes the game feel like you've got nitrous going at all times. Even comparing it to Wave Race 64, Pilotwings 64, and Mario Kart 64 (you know, that game uses an "awful" lot of 2D too), I'm just seeing three similarly-made early-N64 titles. The funny thing is that it still seems to have more variety and a bit more style than, say, Automobili Lamborghini (a fairly well-liked game). Lots of other stuff to like here: the graphics are pretty amazing for such an early game (the skies especially look really neat, and pop-in really isn't an issue), the OutRun-esque campaign concept never gets old, and--although small--the ability to adjust racers and traffic ("better" games do not have this option), as well as the ability to flip through any song you want like it's OutRunners or something... this whole game is 3D OutRun before 3D OutRun really happened, and probably even better as an arcade game with a real racing wheel.
Really, we should be speaking of "things we don't like about the game" instead of "flaws", because the former is a lot more honest. For example, I dislike that so many of the tracks are on the west coast. When I saw all these stars so close together, I figured this game was going to be HUGE. ...Then it warped from the Grand Canyon to Iowa. And I find it a bit silly that the races have to be unlocked for single play, and that you can't seem to unlock every race. It's also a little strange that the game defaults to the easiest difficulty, but maybe you unlock something in each setting?
But most of that is small stuff. All in all, it's a pretty fun little game, and I certainly don't see the harm in paying $10 for it. I do see the harm in this ridiculous "criticism" that's been slapped on the game for what seems to be the past decade or so, though.
Rewrite: Review is terrible; doesn't explain statements, conflicting tone everywhere, standard bandwagoning employed, etc. Is anyone ever going to review any of these games like they're supposed to?
This really shouldn't be overrated, because it's just like FF3; silly and experimental, with SSIV to fix that problem (and SSIV is pretty silly itself). III and IV are very different games from II, you might be better off not comparing them too much.
And yes, you really should just get the retail collection. It has all of them up to VI, including V Special (a much better game than V).
Perfect's a great and interesting game, definitely underrated; another game that deserves an 8, probably even a 9. "That time period" consisted of games like SFA/SFA2, FF3/RBFF, Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter, and KOF '95/KOF '96; WHP is better than nearly all of those and easily goes up there with SFA2.
WH and maybe WH2 aren't particularly worth playing, but they (usually) have great music and the all-important Deathmatch mode. 2 Jet I'm not sure on, probably better than 2.
It's a bit pointless to bring up something like "the latest versions are the most competitive", partly because that's not always true, but mostly because it's a given and doesn't usually matter. I'd totally appreciate the release of earlier SFIIIs despite their problems; I appreciated the release of the entire Fatal Fury series as well.
NG (even if it is FF3-tier) and 2I are both fun and crazy games, very different from SFIII, and they both have much better styling than SFIII ever could. SFIIIOE really should have been a trilogy pack, would have been perfect.
("7/10 is far from a bad score" is a poor mindset and wrong anyway. It stands for "mediocre", which Perfect is anything but.)
Going farther still? 2nd Squad is definitely worth playing, but the original has better design and generally has more variety. This is really a The Legend of Xanadu-type case.
FF is NOT an SFII clone. It's actually the successor to SF (even made by some of the same people), and Art of Fighting would build on it. I doubt it was meant to compete with SFII; it seems more like they were both in development at the same time.
SFII is NOT better balanced, for the above reason, but also because the original SFII is hilariously broken (of course... that's the point, it's an experiment). I get the feeling FF might actually be better balanced simply because it only has 3 characters. I'm not even sure this game has combos of any sort... honestly haven't played it that much.
Wow, trying to segregate the "normal" series from the "Real Bout" series is even more painful than I thought.
Fatal Fury 3 is an entirely experimental game and isn't worth taking seriously. RBFF solves that problem (it came out so soon after) and even manages to be a "part 2" as far as story.
(What was the point of bringing up Garou when talking about the line system?)
A bit misleading; there are only three "Special" games out of any SNK series, and RBS serves a very different purpose from FFS (and SSVS). Basically FF goes like so:
-Fatal Fury
-Fatal Fury 2 -> Fatal Fury Special
-Fatal Fury 3 -> Real Bout Fatal Fury
-Real Bout Fatal Fury Special -> Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
-Garou
Real Bout was a bit odd with the "one-two" thing SNK did (FF3->RB, RBS->RB2). I'd also like to point out that Rick is a pretty big advantage; he's at least a Ken.
About Mary: if I remember right, there was another #18 reference in the character.
"But when reviewing classic retro titles, you have to judge if this game is still worth playing today."
Heavens no. This is the biggest problem with reviewing old games, because it's almost impossible to accurately make this judgement.
Besides that... There's no mention of what the game offers by itself, no comparison to contemporary works, no comparison to the important original version (arcade), and an attempt of an even more ridiculous judgement (the sequels do it better) with these basics ignored. That whole bit about "the formula holds up two decades later" is completely meaningless, especially when my other complaints are taken into account. Just about the only thing this article does right is a good understanding of semantics (using apostrophes in year abbreviations correctly).
The Master System was indeed the Famicom's correct rival; the purpose of the PC Engine was to beat all of that tech. It's much like the Dreamcast; it's a in-between, you compare it to the GameCube/PlayStation/Xbox even if it was released long before any of that tech was shown.
Surprisingly, the original comparison to the Super Famicom and the Mega Drive was a bit more apt, especially when you bring the PC Engine CD into things.
Irritating review, irritating comments. Now there's your "mediocrity"! This game easily deserves at least an 8, never mind how useless scores are.
The original Fighter's History was indeed what brought the lawsuit from Capcom; it failed because Data East tried to pull the same stunt when Street Fighter was released (because it was a clone of Karate Champ).
FHD is a very different game from SFII, as is Fatal Fury 2. In the case of FHD here, many moves are "ridiculous" and many characters feel "broken"; it works, and it's pretty fun. I don't know if the other two games (FH and the SFC game) are like this, as FHD is the one that gets play.
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Re: New Switch Emulator Devs Are Jumping Through Hoops To Avoid A Nintendo Takedown
@Lofoten Because Nintendo did not utterly destroy these people back in the '90s, essentially allowing them to create a culture of "this is free so why pay for it". By now, it's devolved into these hilariously fake narratives like "not everyone who emulates pirates" and "game preservation", things none of these people care anything for at all.
Piracy is not a "service issue". Gaben is a useful idiot who got extremely lucky, and has never really had to worry about anything in his life.
Re: Every Nintendo Switch Online N64 Game Ranked
@Ratmasterd21 "Way to skate around the facts", says someone actually skating around the facts. I don't care what your favorite genres are, I'm just telling you that the N64 has a ton of great games, which is a simple fact. It's tiring seeing people like you say whatever nonsense you want and get away with it, over and over again.
Re: Every Nintendo Switch Online N64 Game Ranked
@Ratmasterd21 Of course not, you didn't want an actual response, you just wanted to whine about the N64. Imagine meaninglessly comparing a bunch of randomly chosen games to each other though. But I guess you think you're such a big shot with your imported Saturn arcade ports.
Re: Every Nintendo Switch Online N64 Game Ranked
@Ratmasterd21 Old post, but this is an ongoing thread, and frankly I am tired of hearing people claim that the N64 has no good games even into 2022. It absolutely does.
The current list looks like this, from bottom to top: Dr. Mario 64, WinBack, Yoshi's Story, Pokemon Puzzle League, Kirby 64, Pokemon Snap, Pilotwings 64, Mario Golf, Sin and Punishment, Wave Race 64, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X, Paper Mario, Star Fox 64, Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Majora's Mask, and Ocarina of Time.
Here are just some of the games not on this list that are absolutely worth playing: 1080 Snowboarding, Banjo-Tooie, BattleTanx and Global Assault, Beetle Adventure Racing, Blast Corps, Bomberman 64 and Second Attack, Buck Bumble, Castlevania/Legacy of Darkness, Chameleon Twist and Chameleon Twist 2, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Cruis'n World and Exotica, Custom Robo and Custom Robo V2, Duck Dodgers, Diddy Kong Racing and Mickey's Speedway USA, Donkey Kong 64, Doom 64, Excitebike 64, Extreme-G 2, F-1 World Grand Prix, Forsaken 64, GT 64, Gauntlet Legends, Gex 64 and Gex 3, Glover, GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, Harvest Moon 64, Hybrid Heaven, Jet Force Gemini, Magical Tetris Challenge, Mischief Makers, Mortal Kombat 4, Mystical Ninja and Goemon's Great Adventure, New Tetris and Tetrisphere, Ogre Battle 64, Quest 64, Rally Challenge 2000, Rayman 2 and Tonic Trouble, Ridge Racer 64, Rocket, Rush and Rush 2 and Rush 2049, Shadow Man, Shadowgate 64, Star Soldier Vanishing Earth, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo and Racer, Super Smash Bros, Top Gear Rally and Rally 2 and Overdrive and Hyper-Bike, Toy Story 2, Turok and Turok 2 and Turok 3, Wetrix, and World Driver Championship.
This is all stuff that I've either played myself (yes Quest 64 and Castlevania actually are good games), or have heard good things about from multiple sources and plan to play eventually (I've never played Ogre Battle 64, but seemingly everyone else on the planet has). This is not a wishlist, as a lot of these games are likely not going to be rereleased ever. That being said, most of this list is not licensed. I'm just saying that there are a lot of great games on the 64, and I want to point out that this is not a complete list.
Re: Sega's Old Arcades Are Flourishing Under New Owners, Sort Of
It's becoming increasingly harder to do those GameCenter CX "visit an arcade" segments. Sigh...
If you're ever in Japan, be sure to check out Big-One, where they play a lot of fighting games. Here is their Twitter: https://twitter.com/public_bigone
Re: Video: 3D Graphic Artist Spends 1200 Hours Reimagining Zelda 64 - Zora's Domain In Unreal Engine 5
Gross, but also people really need to stop worshipping UE. Use Godot or something.
@Dezzy70 They would lose a ton of money and then disappear, as Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions are constantly at threat of doing. What you're asking is bad for business and also bad for gaming; the current idea of AAA is a completely unsustainable nightmare that developers are constantly having to live every single day. It needs to go.
@Kidfunkadelic83 Did you miss not just OoT3D, but even MM3D? We don't deserve MM3D. I think Zelda fans have gotten more than enough.
Re: "Screw This Game" - Sonic Origins Modder Halts Development On Massive Patch
It's always good to see Sonic fans suffer for their own crimes, but it's a shame that Sega has to suffer with them. I'm not sure why Sega even bothers with Sonic at this point, far too much effort for a fanbase that clearly doesn't deserve any of it. They should have shut the whole series down in 2006 (before the 2006 game) and never touched the name again.
@YoshiAngemon Oh, you mean the same Blue Bomber that the entire Mega Man fanbase unceremoniously dropped back around 2010, then blamed Capcom for everything that was "suddenly" happening? How pathetic. Mega Man deserved better, and its fanbase never deserved these collections let alone excellent new games like Mega Man 11.
@Orpheus79V Welcome to the Sonic fanbase. Though welcome to any fanbase really. Fanbases don't really enjoy the thing they're supposed to be fans of.
Re: Some Trainers Are Worried About Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Returning To "Traditional" Catching Mechanics
@Scarftail There isn't actually a middle ground at all. Either someone's claims are right, or they are wrong/highly subjective.
The "criticisms" against this series are almost entirely minor and extremely personal, not at all the supposedly massive objective flaws that Pokemon fans make them out to be, and definitely not anywhere near bad enough to constantly demand Game Freak to be dismantled for it.
What people want is not to "criticize" their favorite series, but to whine about whatever they want with impunity, whether they're being truthful with any of their whining or not. It's morally wrong to pretend otherwise.
Re: Some Trainers Are Worried About Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Returning To "Traditional" Catching Mechanics
Good. People are demanding Arceus mechanics in the way they are for only one reason: they've spent years building up this narrative about how Game Freak is evil and how Pokemon needs to be violently removed from their possession. You can see quite a bit of it here in the comments already.
My one and only expectation for gen 9 was an entire game based on the Wild Area. That expectation means little, but was fulfilled anyway. There will likely be more Legends games, maybe even more Let's Go games, but it doesn't matter if even this fails to happen.
Contrary to what the fans believe, Pokemon is in a great place right now. There is absolutely nothing wrong, and a lot right, with Pokemon retaining the solid foundation it has. Those who claim otherwise have no idea what "evolution" is, and should stop pretending that they do.
Game Freak is a good developer. Pokemon is a good series. They deserve a better fanbase than what they have. They deserve a fanbase that recognizes hard work and that cares little for ridiculous wish fulfillment.
Re: The Fan-Made 2D Metroid Prime Game Has Been Forced To Shut Down
It's always funny whenever people bring up Sonic Mania in situations like this. Eventually these people will realize that Samus Returns and Dread were made under a very similar context to Sonic Mania. What will these people do then?
@Noid Are you aware of what either of these court cases are about? The Sega vs Accolade case was about Accolade, not exactly a small company at the time (not as big as Sega but certainly not an "underdog"), trying to totally screw Sega by reverse engineering Sega's own hardware in order to get around a fairly reasonable license requirement. Accolade actually lost the case at first, only won by appeal, and STILL ended up becoming a Sega licensee anyway. The outcome of the case didn't make sense then, and it makes even less sense year after year.
Universal vs Nintendo, meanwhile, was about a very large company (Universal) going after a still decently-sized company (Nintendo) because Donkey Kong was based on King Kong, a famous character. Aside from this being very silly and only happening because Donkey Kong was a very popular game, Universal had already totally boned themselves by defending THEIR OWN usage of King Kong in an earlier court case, claiming that King Kong was a public domain character. Surprise, Nintendo used this against them, and totally won the case.
If you're looking for actual dirt, have a look at stuff like the Ikegami Tsushinki drama. That's not a small company either, by the way. There are no Davids going on here, just variably-sized Goliaths.
Of course, law is a load of garbage. "Precedent" is an incredibly sketchy concept, because there's this strong pressure to never revisit a ruling and see if a judge made a bad call, which is all too easy in law.
Re: Soapbox: 10 Reasons Why Metroid Fusion Is The Best Game In The Series
Pretty funny that so many Fusion haters will go on and on about how "linear" it is, ignoring that Super and Zero Mission are "non-linear" by virtue of massive exploits and glitches. Super and Zero Mission are fundamentally very linear games. It's very obvious where you're expected to go at any given time, and there is very little that's really "optional" (such as the Charge Shot in both games). To "sequence break", you have to resort to outright breaking the games, and the only reason Zero Mission lets you get away with as much as it does is because the fanbase BEGGED for it after Fusion. The only truly non-linear Metroid in the series is the original game, which has very few upgrades and thus has very little progression locked behind them, and that is why it will probably be the ONLY truly non-linear Metroid.
Anyway, the best game in the series is very clearly Dread. It has way too many quality of life changes that really should have been in Super at the latest, and is made to a higher standard than most previous games. Unfortunately, we now have MercurySteam haters, because people have decided to blame them for AM2R. Maybe one day people will realize that Samus Returns is a great game, but today is not that day, apparently.
Re: Random: Wait A Sec, That Sure Looks Like Mario In Sonic The Hedgehog's Marble Zone
It's funny to me that this often gets pushed even though it's wrong, but everyone ignores when Sega tried to stick an actual Mario parody boss into Alex Kidd in Shinobi World.
The music in Sonic 1 and 2 was composed by a member of well-regarded band Dreams Come True. One of their albums even has a full studio version of the Sonic 2 ending theme.
Re: Arc System Works Reveals Its Debut Trailer For River City Girls 2
WayForward really put a reference to Wendy: Every Witch Way in here... Funny enough, I guess we hit that game's 20th anniversary now.
Re: Konami Competition Tasks Indie Devs With Reviving Its Classic IP
A lot of people reading this are thinking "oh no, like Contra: Rogue Corps?", when they really should be thinking "whoa, like GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon?".
@syrupdash Pop'n Music just got a new game recently, and it also just got a PC version; both of these were at the end of last year. That series has been on the chopping block for years because of its "iidx lite" (and sometimes not even "lite"!) status scaring people away, but Konami insists on keeping it alive.
@AtlanteanMan The Japanese developers are the ones that actually try to take risks. Have you seen the creative bankruptcy that's been going on with big American and European developers for many years now? It's disgraceful. There was no way we were ever going to get something like Dark Souls out of anyone besides a Japanese developer. There is no American or European developer that allows for games like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona to coexist. The people responsible for massive, very risky, overhauls like Tales of Arise and Monster Hunter World are, surprise, Japanese developers. Who's working on open world Zelda and Mario right now, the first of which has already changed the game industry in a huge way? Yep, that's right, Japanese developers.
Re: Meet The Mario Maker Player Nintendo Wants To Ban For Keeping The Game Alive
There is an alarming amount of entitlement, and a disgusting amount of assumptions, over something that doesn't belong to anyone here in the comments. People love to think otherwise, they love to think they "own" Mario and Zelda and Metroid and whatever else. This is a larger problem that has started up very recently, and that will never make any sense.
I'm sick of hearing people call Nintendo "behind the times" when these same people are incapable of actually appreciating what they have. Hacking and glitching in older games? They can't appreciate that. They take it for granted and demand that all other games be like this, instead of realizing it's a huge treasure that should be understood and cared for.
I'm sick of hearing people talk about suing and boycotting Nintendo over things that these people were fully responsible for. Why in God's name are glitches, things that programmers have no idea are happening, Nintendo's fault? Why is it Nintendo's fault when these glitches are discovered and then put to use by people who have no connection with Nintendo?
It's so easy to defend Nintendo when their would-be critics are such immature brats. These people know nothing about business, or about quality, or about law, or about any of the things that these people feel are "unnecessary in the modern year". How miserable. Nintendo did not abandon you. You abandoned Nintendo!
By the way, I think it's hilarious that multiple people in here legitimately believe Nintendo sees the Wii U as a threat when these people also say, in the same breath, that the Wii U was a failure not many care about. That doesn't make sense. That is such an immense amount of illogic that it's not even possible to talk about.
Re: Review: Samurai Ghost (Virtual Console / TurboGrafx-16)
Samurai-Ghost is actually pretty good, and somehow a lot better than the original Genpei Touma Den. The controls are a bit off, but I get the feeling there's some non-obvious trick to learn, and the game is still very playable despite it all. Has to be a 7 at the very least.
Re: Review: Cruis'n USA (Virtual Console / Nintendo 64)
Don't understand all the hate for this game. I haven't encountered any of these collision or framerate issues, at least halfway through the main mode (I get the feeling that multiplayer would be a huge issue if framerate issues surface); in fact, the fairly decent framerate, plus the crazy handling, makes the game feel like you've got nitrous going at all times. Even comparing it to Wave Race 64, Pilotwings 64, and Mario Kart 64 (you know, that game uses an "awful" lot of 2D too), I'm just seeing three similarly-made early-N64 titles. The funny thing is that it still seems to have more variety and a bit more style than, say, Automobili Lamborghini (a fairly well-liked game). Lots of other stuff to like here: the graphics are pretty amazing for such an early game (the skies especially look really neat, and pop-in really isn't an issue), the OutRun-esque campaign concept never gets old, and--although small--the ability to adjust racers and traffic ("better" games do not have this option), as well as the ability to flip through any song you want like it's OutRunners or something... this whole game is 3D OutRun before 3D OutRun really happened, and probably even better as an arcade game with a real racing wheel.
Really, we should be speaking of "things we don't like about the game" instead of "flaws", because the former is a lot more honest. For example, I dislike that so many of the tracks are on the west coast. When I saw all these stars so close together, I figured this game was going to be HUGE. ...Then it warped from the Grand Canyon to Iowa. And I find it a bit silly that the races have to be unlocked for single play, and that you can't seem to unlock every race. It's also a little strange that the game defaults to the easiest difficulty, but maybe you unlock something in each setting?
But most of that is small stuff. All in all, it's a pretty fun little game, and I certainly don't see the harm in paying $10 for it. I do see the harm in this ridiculous "criticism" that's been slapped on the game for what seems to be the past decade or so, though.
Re: Review: Gaplus (Arcade)
Rewrite: Review is terrible; doesn't explain statements, conflicting tone everywhere, standard bandwagoning employed, etc. Is anyone ever going to review any of these games like they're supposed to?
Re: Review: Samurai Shodown III (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
This really shouldn't be overrated, because it's just like FF3; silly and experimental, with SSIV to fix that problem (and SSIV is pretty silly itself). III and IV are very different games from II, you might be better off not comparing them too much.
And yes, you really should just get the retail collection. It has all of them up to VI, including V Special (a much better game than V).
Re: Review: World Heroes Perfect (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
Perfect's a great and interesting game, definitely underrated; another game that deserves an 8, probably even a 9. "That time period" consisted of games like SFA/SFA2, FF3/RBFF, Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter, and KOF '95/KOF '96; WHP is better than nearly all of those and easily goes up there with SFA2.
WH and maybe WH2 aren't particularly worth playing, but they (usually) have great music and the all-important Deathmatch mode. 2 Jet I'm not sure on, probably better than 2.
It's a bit pointless to bring up something like "the latest versions are the most competitive", partly because that's not always true, but mostly because it's a given and doesn't usually matter. I'd totally appreciate the release of earlier SFIIIs despite their problems; I appreciated the release of the entire Fatal Fury series as well.
NG (even if it is FF3-tier) and 2I are both fun and crazy games, very different from SFIII, and they both have much better styling than SFIII ever could. SFIIIOE really should have been a trilogy pack, would have been perfect.
("7/10 is far from a bad score" is a poor mindset and wrong anyway. It stands for "mediocre", which Perfect is anything but.)
Re: Review: Shock Troopers (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
Going farther still? 2nd Squad is definitely worth playing, but the original has better design and generally has more variety. This is really a The Legend of Xanadu-type case.
Re: Review: Fatal Fury (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
FF is NOT an SFII clone. It's actually the successor to SF (even made by some of the same people), and Art of Fighting would build on it. I doubt it was meant to compete with SFII; it seems more like they were both in development at the same time.
SFII is NOT better balanced, for the above reason, but also because the original SFII is hilariously broken (of course... that's the point, it's an experiment). I get the feeling FF might actually be better balanced simply because it only has 3 characters. I'm not even sure this game has combos of any sort... honestly haven't played it that much.
Re: Review: Fatal Fury Special (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
If you own FF2, you pretty much have to get FFS. If you own neither, just get FFS.
Hard to say KOF94 is better. FFS is more refined and more interesting, easily; compare it to KOF95 instead.
Re: Review: Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
Wow, trying to segregate the "normal" series from the "Real Bout" series is even more painful than I thought.
Fatal Fury 3 is an entirely experimental game and isn't worth taking seriously. RBFF solves that problem (it came out so soon after) and even manages to be a "part 2" as far as story.
(What was the point of bringing up Garou when talking about the line system?)
Re: Review: Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
A bit misleading; there are only three "Special" games out of any SNK series, and RBS serves a very different purpose from FFS (and SSVS). Basically FF goes like so:
-Fatal Fury
-Fatal Fury 2 -> Fatal Fury Special
-Fatal Fury 3 -> Real Bout Fatal Fury
-Real Bout Fatal Fury Special -> Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
-Garou
Re: Review: Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (Wii Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
Real Bout was a bit odd with the "one-two" thing SNK did (FF3->RB, RBS->RB2). I'd also like to point out that Rick is a pretty big advantage; he's at least a Ken.
About Mary: if I remember right, there was another #18 reference in the character.
Re: Review: Gradius (Wii Virtual Console / NES)
"But when reviewing classic retro titles, you have to judge if this game is still worth playing today."
Heavens no. This is the biggest problem with reviewing old games, because it's almost impossible to accurately make this judgement.
Besides that... There's no mention of what the game offers by itself, no comparison to contemporary works, no comparison to the important original version (arcade), and an attempt of an even more ridiculous judgement (the sequels do it better) with these basics ignored. That whole bit about "the formula holds up two decades later" is completely meaningless, especially when my other complaints are taken into account. Just about the only thing this article does right is a good understanding of semantics (using apostrophes in year abbreviations correctly).
Re: The Famicom's Biggest Rival Is 25 Years Old
The Master System was indeed the Famicom's correct rival; the purpose of the PC Engine was to beat all of that tech. It's much like the Dreamcast; it's a in-between, you compare it to the GameCube/PlayStation/Xbox even if it was released long before any of that tech was shown.
Surprisingly, the original comparison to the Super Famicom and the Mega Drive was a bit more apt, especially when you bring the PC Engine CD into things.
Re: Review: Karnov's Revenge (Virtual Console / Neo Geo)
Irritating review, irritating comments. Now there's your "mediocrity"! This game easily deserves at least an 8, never mind how useless scores are.
The original Fighter's History was indeed what brought the lawsuit from Capcom; it failed because Data East tried to pull the same stunt when Street Fighter was released (because it was a clone of Karate Champ).
FHD is a very different game from SFII, as is Fatal Fury 2. In the case of FHD here, many moves are "ridiculous" and many characters feel "broken"; it works, and it's pretty fun. I don't know if the other two games (FH and the SFC game) are like this, as FHD is the one that gets play.