Comments 800

Re: Top 100 Best Nintendo Games Of All Time

marandahir

It's a good list overall. I would cut out some of these remasters/remakes and consider them part of the same game and give pros and cons for the remakes (though I guess if the story or gameplay is massively overhauled it's not really the same title, say for Heart Gold & Soul Silver or for Zero Mission). But surely Ocarina of Time 3D or Wind Waker HD could be merged into the same game slot?

In any case, this is a great list, regardless of quibbles about what comes before what. Play any of these games and you'll almost certainly find something to love.

Re: Takaya Imamura: F-Zero Hasn't Been Revived Because Mario Kart Is Nintendo's "Most Popular Racing Game"

marandahir

Just add Captain Falcon, Samus Aran, Fox McCloud, and Kirby as playable characters with their own unique karts to Mario Kart 8.

No need to make a new F-Zero. We've got F-Zero stages in Mario Kart 8, just let us play as the Captain in the game (rather than as a Mii cosplaying as him).

I suggest 3 other class Nintendo characters because Miis, Link, Villager, Isabelle, and the Inklings are in the game, and because each have a great concept for racing here — Fox in his Arwing (and also standing in for his father's cameo in F-Zero), Samus in her Hunter-class Gunship, and Kirby on his Warp Star a la Air Ride!

Re: More Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom amiibo Are On The Way

marandahir

@nukatha regarding the datamine, that's one of the things they give, surely yes. But all other amiibo give at least 1 or more special clothing items or weapons or shields or bows. And they might have other functions a la the Wolf Link amiibo in Breath of the Wild, or the Ganondorf amiibo in Twilight Princess HD. We just don't know what they're planning. But yeah, the paraglider fabrics are a solid guess for PART of what they unlock.

I do appreciate that the game allows you to get everything except the paraglider fabrics in the core game play without needing to have bought the amiibo. But the amiibo if you have them can be a useful and powerful tool for playing the game!

Re: More Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom amiibo Are On The Way

marandahir

@nukatha DLC will certainly be announced later in the fall/winter, as we get closer to the amiibo launch.

This is what the media insiders were predicting. Weeks ago Zelda Podcast insisted we'd get Zelda and Ganondorf amiibo first, with a summer announcement, and DLC would be announced for the following year as we approached the amiibo launch in the fall/winter. It's clearly following whatever inside report they got their hands on.

I'm sure the amiibo will be sort of like a Wave 0 DLC --- providing something new to the game in the same way that the Champions' amiibo all provided the Divine Beast Ancient Helms as a new add-on to Breath of the Wild. But don't worry, I'm CERTAIN they're going to get DLC for this game too.

It's crazy how people are furious when there's Day 1 DLC saying they're getting core-game content locked behind microtransactions, and then when instead DLC is developed AFTER release of the game and takes 6 months or more to come out, people are furious it wasn't announced/dropped at launch of the game.

Look at Pokémon DLC — both Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet get their DLC a whole year later. Age of Calamity's DLC came nearly a year later too. This is a much healthier way of supporting a game and giving it a longer life. I'm sure you haven't 100% the game yet. So why whine and not just go play it and enjoy?

Re: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Makes The Jump From 3DS To Switch In 2024

marandahir

This is always a challenge because the game was designed for the double-screen interface so they're not going to just port everything over willy-nilly (the fraughts of getting rid of the second screen; the Wii U at least could pretend to be a DS).

But it's a worthwhile challenge, and I hope they use the item wheel design to port over Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD and Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora's Mask 3D. In fact, port over A Link Between Worlds, even! The 3D functionality is great, but I can imagine it looking gorgeous and not loosing too much from playing in 2D. You're still in a 3D space.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of Today's Nintendo Direct?

marandahir

@SteamEngenius Is Everybody One, Two, Switch! from 2000? I think not.

I'm 90% sure Nintendo is saving their brand new IP ideas for Switch's successor to be launch titles. We're in the maturation phase of the console, where key franchises already represented on the console get sequels or new entries, and old IP from generations ago get ported or remastered or remade. In any case, the sudden announcement of a 12S sequel solidifies that we have a solid 3 new Nintendo IP created specifically for Switch: 1-2-Switch, ARMS, and Nintendo Labo. That's not that different from past generations in terms of significant new IP (at least, not since in the GameCube), but they've been investing in their old IP a lot at the same time.

Re: Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster Launches On Nintendo Switch This September

marandahir

Can't wait! I never played the prequel game, but the original was a lot of fun! Just that voice acting… ech. Reminiscent of the dark ages of anime dubbing…

Baten Kaitos is most notable to me as having a lot of thematic and world design elements that inspired the more fantasy side of the Xenoblade series. Heck, the idea of people living in the Cloud Sea is a direct homage in Xenoblade 2! I remember Takahashi saying that starting with Xenoblade 2 he was giving younger members of MonolithSoft a chance to bring in ideas and try their chops at the story and world, and many of them worked on these games and were inspired by this later era of RPGs than the NES, SNES, and PS1 eras that the OG team built their careers on. So you see the influences shine through as the Xenoblade series goes on. Baten Kaitos is a great time capsule of an earlier age of Monolith Soft. I'm glad we're getting this on the heels of the Chrono Cross remaster; Now we just need to convince Squeenix to do remasters of Xenogears and Chrono Trigger (2D-HD?) and Bamco do to remasters of the Xenosaga trilogy…

Re: Super Mario RPG Is Getting A Remake This November, And It Looks Amazing

marandahir

Explains why they hadn't released it for NSO yet.

Squeenix wanted to maximize profits off of it, and we reap the benefits this time.

In fact, this Summer Direct had a lot of lovely Squeenix gems. I've been wanting to play Star Ocean 2 for decades, ever since I watched the incomplete anime adaptation, but I've never been a PlayStation owner… Glad it was the next game to get the HD-2D treatment!!!

And I'm going to buy that DQM game regardless of its quality if only to remind Squeenix that the west LOVES DQM games. We're still waiting on that localization for Terry's Wonderland and the Marvellous Mystery Key — but they'd need upscale those remakes now to Switch. That can't be too hard though!

Re: Two Switch Games Will "No Longer Be Available" On The eShop

marandahir

I may get God Wars since I have an interest in archaic Japanese settlements and it may be interesting to play a tactics game there.

The review for it here is good enough for me - it's not like a new FE or FFT title but it's sufficient at what it does.

The Lost Child doesn't look good enough for me to buy based on your review.

It's frustrating when games get delisted, though.

Re: Nintendo Shows Off Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble's Motion Controls On Switch

marandahir

I appreciate that they did this.

And it also opens the door for Yoshi's Universal Gravitation, too.

And "Koro Koro Puzzle Happy Panechu!" too — though I somehow doubt they'll give us that in the west. They did give us a few Japanese-language titles on western NSO for NES and SNES, and it is a puzzle game like say Panel de Pon and Super Picross, but it's just less likely they'd prioritize that when there's SO many other GBA titles needing to be brought forward.

Re: Can You Match These Zeldas To The Game They're From?

marandahir

17/17

I've played all the games though.

To that end, though, the A Link to the Past answer is incorrect; that image is from A Link to the Past on GBA. There is a very SIMILAR but not identical image from SNES.

In addition, that Four Swords Zelda is NOT used for Four Swords Adventures. There is no known official artwork of Zelda from Four Swords Adventures - just sprite work. There MIGHT have been official artwork of her but it's so far lost to time.

There IS official Tetra artwork from the game though as there was an included Tetra bonus game in the Japanese version, Navi Trackers.

Given the number of questions that were gotchas about remasters and remakes, these sort of errors shouldn't exist on this quiz. PLEASE FIX.

Re: Random: Bayonetta 3's Director Was Worried Hideki Kamiya Would Interfere

marandahir

@ottoecamn Fair enough re Nintendo interfering or not.

I'm reminded that when Team Ninja came to Nintendo with the idea of doing Hyrule Warriors as a more traditional Zelda title with Warriors elements mixed in (sort of more like Dragon Quest Heroes than One Piece Warriors or Super Robot Warriors), Miyamoto said no no don't try to fit your game into Zelda, fit Zelda into your game. So it makes sense that even if Bayonetta wasn't particularly on-brand for Nintendo, they'd prefer PlatinumGames to make the game they want to make than to dumb it down (gone are the days of SEGA does what Nintendon't).

I imagine, then, that it's really the new director's personal feelings about the way Bayonetta 3 was to be told. If Kamiya had been director, it may have been quite different.

That said, I LOVED the ending (though not so much the idea that Bayo 4 will star Viola instead of Cereza as the MC). I felt the scenarios and storytelling really went to all cylinders once we got to Paris (with the exception that I still don't understand the WHY of the antagonist; they feel a lot more phoned in than the more tightly-tied in antagonists of Bayo 1 and 2).

But I'm still bothered by the lack of the sexy in Bayo 3. And normally I'm repulsed by gratuitous sexiness in games - see how the Xenoblade franchise really pivoted for the better by toning down those outfits starting with Future Connected. Xenoblade X and Xenoblade 2 were the pit of gratuitous sex appeal taking away from otherwise brilliant worldbuilding, storytelling, and characterizations. But Bayonetta is a franchise, at least in the first two titles, that subverts the male gaze entirely. Where Xenoblade 2's camera may zoom in on Pyra's er… plot… in the middle of a cutscene, Bayonetta grabs the gazey camera-man with a whip and forces him to submit to her whims. The director may be a man, but it doesn't feel like this is done to get guys' rocks off, but instead to reclaim the gaze and force it into her power. This may be in part because they used MoCap for the dancing and model work and therefore Bayo is more collaboratively made. I'm not sure. But I definitely felt like Bayo 3 was TRYING to be avert a problem that didn't exist because Bayo 1 and Bayo 2 actively subverted the normal problem in hyper-sexualized media.

Bayonetta NORMALIZES female sexual power, and that's a powerful message that Bayonetta 3 just isn't interested in exploring. And that's FINE. I don't mind it being AN entry in the series allowing the characters to explore other aspects of their lives and relationships and personalities. But when it's the LAST chapter in several of these characters' stories… that's what worries me. I honestly hope for Bayonetta 2.5 or something - a midquel rather than pursuing the storyline forward. They're already doing that to some extent with the prequel that was Bayonetta Origins. But Bayonetta Origins is ALSO uninterested in the major overarching theme of the first two titles because it stars young Cereza. And that's lovely too. I enjoy it a lot! It's just that when you have 2 titles in a row, I wonder if the series is pushing in that direction, and that's why I had wondered if it was Nintendo's influence. It's probably the lack of Kamiya's interference, instead!

Re: TMNT: Shredder's Revenge Lands New Character, Game Mode And More In Upcoming DLC

marandahir

@cmdrmarc

I imagine you buy physical for a different reason than me, then.
I constantly feel like I don't have enough space on my Switch and its microSD Card for all my digital titles and DLC and photos and videos, so I primarily buy physical so that huge games don't take up the bulk of memory space that they would if I had bought it digital.

But I understand that some people buy physical because they don't trust that their digital media will be available to them at some point in the future.

Re: Random: Bayonetta 3's Director Was Worried Hideki Kamiya Would Interfere

marandahir

Huh. The game was fantastic mechanically, and honestly, I loved the ending and felt most of the characters were written just fine, but Bayonetta herself was missing that confident overt sexuality that subverts the male gaze - acknowledging it's there, and then taking full control of the situation and forcing you to play by her rules instead of yours.

Bayo 1 and 2 had that. I wonder if Kamiya having less of a role in this one was part of that reason?

I don't want people to get the wrong idea - I LOVED this game and felt it was very well crafted. It even gave her a great sendoff and the last few chapters burnt hot as Inferno. Bayonetta was acceptably written most of the time. But I couldn't help but wonder if this was Nintendo telling them to tone down the sexuality so that they could work on expanding the demographics…

Re: Random: Zelda Super Fans Are Already Queuing Outside Nintendo's Store For Tears Of The Kingdom

marandahir

I've got a warp pass for the midnight release. I'm not lining up 3 days ahead of time. That's crazy. I'll arrive tomorrow evening.

You're not allowed to line up in any case earlier than an hour before your warp pass time period. So him waiting there is basically a stunt - his "place in line" is meaningless if someone steps in front of him the second the clock strikes 11pm Thursday.

Re: Zelda Boss Wanted Certain Tears Of The Kingdom Areas In BOTW, Prevented By Wii U's Limitations

marandahir

@rjejr It had a decent increase in power and speed and memory across the board. It wasn't the revolutionary upgrade the Wii was to the Wii U, but that's because the Wii was essentially a slightly modded GameCube — internal hardware that was over a decade old by the time the Wii U swept in to replace the system.

Comparative Performance: 1 Teraflop vs the Wii U's 350 Gigaflops. Note however that the Wii u was a much bigger increase over the Wii which only had 12 Gigaflops.

The Switch also has twice the RAM (4GB vs 2GB) of memory, twice the memory bandwidth (25.6 GB/s vs 12.8 GB/s), more than twice the processing speed (4 x 2GHz vs 3 x 1.24GHz), and a decent increase on GPU clock speed (768 MHz vs 550 MHz).

It's not like they just took a Wii U and made it portable. This is more like a specialized tablet PC. It's no gaming PC - it's still less than half the performance of an Xbox One - but it's a substantial increase over what they had.

Re: Best Zelda Games Of All Time

marandahir

Fascinating that the only remakes in the top ten are Ocarina of Time 3D at No. 7 and The Wind Waker HD at no. 6.

These were the only remakes that were pretty much universally loved, to my recollection, and they both felt like substantial improvements on their predecessors akin to that of Metroid Prime Remastered or Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition that they are THE definitive way to play the game.

While I loved the TPHD, SSHD, LADX, LAHD, HWL, HWDE, and MM3D remakes, I understand where each of those get criticized.

TPHD had the amiibo-locked hard mode and bonus dungeons. I had the amiibo, but I get the complaint. It also was less of an improvement on TP than WWHD was on TWW.

MM3D may be an improvement in nearly every way on MM - save perhaps the boss fights, the location of the Stone Mask and Giant's Mask, the Zora swimming, and the change in tone when you're not personally scared about losing your progress now that you can perma-save at anytime or even just close the 3DS to put the game to sleep. I personally prefer 100% of the changes in the game, but I get the complaints.

SSHD and the Hyrule Warrior remakes are only listed above because their base titles are considered "not good enough" to make the top ten. I loved them, though.

Link's Awakening's 2 remakes — I'm surprised neither made the top ten, but not surprised that the original GB version is #3 on the list. There's something about the originality of the first version of the game that even if Link's Awakening DX is strictly superior version of the exact same game, it lacked the punch and newness that the 1993 GB title had. And LA for S (what I call LAHD), it's amazing and I love it to death but it feels quite different from the game boy game. This is how I want to see remakes of other similar game boy titles (The Frog for Whom The Bell Tolls; Zelda Oracle series) but if you don't like it becasue of how different it looks from both the manual/box art of LA and from the tiny sprite art of the game, I get it.

Re: Nintendo Places Outside Top Ten In Metacritic's 13th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

marandahir

Scarlet & Violet were unfairly rated poorly at launch.

Literally 90% of the issues were solved with a Day 1 patch, and these titles are the most fun I've had with Pokémon for decades.

This is kinda like the GameStop / GameInformer mentality that is weirdly anti-Nintendo. A lot of the critic community just don't take Nintendo seriously because they're playing a different game than SONY and Microsoft.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 11th)

marandahir

Finished Prime Remastered on the same day Fusion came out. And I got it as a physical copy, so I feel like they spaced them perfectly apart. But when I booted up Fusion, I felt like I was shortchanging myself by jumping in mid-series.

So I'm in a Metroid 1-5 run now. I finished Metroid 1 on NES NSO app yesterday, and moved onto Metroid 2: Return of Samus on the GB NSO app. I'll jump over to Metroid 3: Super Metroid when I finish this one (on the SNES NSO app), and then finally get to Metroid 4: Metroid Fusion on the GBA NSO app. Then I'll boot up my Metroid 5: Metroid Dread cart and do a new playthrough!

We're in a second golden age for Metroid!!!

Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Character Menu Now Has Five Extra Spaces For Future Updates

marandahir

I think we'll get 4 more, and the last ? will become a randomizer button like Smash has in the bottom right corners.

My guesses for the 4:

1. Captain Falcon
2. Diddy Kong
3. Samus Aran
4. Fox McCloud

Captain Falcon for obvious reason, Samus and Fox could come with their respective ships as racers, Fox also would stand in for Captain Falcon's Easter Egg racing rival James McCloud, and Diddy Kong would represent for Diddy Kong Racing.

Re: Japanese Charts: Tales Of Symphonia Remastered Makes A Solid Debut

marandahir

@RiasGremory

Eh, unlikely. Bamco and Nintendo work closely on Smash.

More so, they've been screwing over Nintendo fans in specific regards to Tales Of since 1997. Whenever they DEIGN to release a game on Nintendo consoles, the very next year they release an extra content version with better graphics and special exclusives on PlayStation. It's what they do.