Comments 840

Re: Netflix No Longer Works On Wii U Or 3DS, So Where's The Switch Version?

marandahir

I definitely used Netflix on Wii and Neflix on Wii U for years with non-smart TVs. Hulu on Wii U too.

But then we got a samsung smart TV in like 2017, around the same time as getting the Switch, so that sort of obsoleted the need for Netflix on Switch. I downloaded Hulu onto Switch but never once used it because we just change the channel on the TV to the Hulu app...

And if I want Netflix or Hulu on the go, I bring my laptop with me. The thing is, the Switch isn't a smart device with a cellular service access; it still needs to connect to WiFi. So it's not particularly useful for watching Netflix or Hulu on the go - at least no more useful than my laptop and a boat less useful than my iPhone for doing so.

Given all that, and the Netflix and Hulu etc apps on my TV, there's really no real reason for me to want Netflix on Switch beyond "they had it on past consoles so why not here?" It's an extra step of booting up the switch before booting up the app.

But I understand why some people want to use their Switch as their netflix player. It's akin to how a big selling point of earlier PlayStation and Xbox devices was the built-in DVD player. A lot of folks couldn't afford to buy more than one of these devices, and had limited cord hookups to their TV to boot.

Re: 'The Entire History Of JRPGs' Is Available Now From Bitmap Books

marandahir

@Krull MANY RPGs these days do not tie character progression to grinding but to story-based accomplishments or sidequests. Zelda does this too with the heart containers and stamina wheels and new abilities on top of the weapon progression.

In addition, the more dungeons you've completed, the better the drop rates you'll get on weapons, and the tougher the enemies will be on the field. It's very much an RPG; it's just an Action RPG.

Heck, the predominant progression mode in Dungeons & Dragons these days is story-based rather than xp grinding (rewarding xp for quest completion etc). And Xenoblade did that too, with the main way of growing in level from completing side quests, not from fighting enemies. BotW'ss "XP" are spirit orbs, and they can be obtained by clearing side dungeons, side quests, etc. Otherwise, it's all about equipment progression and exploration to find bigger and better loot. That's very much an RPG standard, as well.

Re: 'The Entire History Of JRPGs' Is Available Now From Bitmap Books

marandahir

@kkalata

This is mostly right. I'd say that Zelda's current releases (esp. Breath of the Wild) are as JRPGy as say, Xenoblade is. The turn-based combat D&Desque leveling with an overhead map screen and random encounters is just a subgenre of RPG that's particularly popular in Japan because of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy dominating the JRPG market.

Re: There's A Zelda Game & Watch Coming This Christmas

marandahir

@Stubborn_Monkey Past Game & Watch collections on DS from Club Nintendo had games like Ball reimagined with Mario, and Balloon Fight was remade for DS with Tinkle instead of the Balloon Fighter, so this isn't particularly a new concept to do. Not sure why they chose Vermin though. I can only imagine that they skipped on Zelda G&W because it sucks major *** and they want to pretend it doesn't exist. Like they do with Zelda Nelsonic Game Watch, and the 3 CD-i Zelda games –– and apparently like they do with Four Swords+ and ALttP GBA remake.

Re: Zelda & Loftwing Is The Only amiibo Compatible With Skyward Sword HD

marandahir

@Minecraft_Master

Who is forcing you to play the game again?

This game isn't for people like you or me who have already played it.

Nintendo can "get away" with it because there are a heck of a lot of people who never played Skyward Sword before and want to play it. There's literally no reason to sell it at a reduced price. It's a "new" game to them. And this amiibo looks beautiful and I'm going to buy it for my collection. Other people will too.

Skyward Sword never made back the cost of development. It was a colossal failure, financially speaking. From the preorder numbers, it sounds like they're going to be making bank on this remake. It's smart business, and people like me who WANT to revisit the game with improved QoL features and uprez'd graphics will pay for that, even though we can play it on our Wii Us and Wiis we still have.

If you don't think it's worth more than $25, then don't buy it. Why do you have to come onto a forum and complain about the cost of something you clearly don't think is worth the money it costs?

Oh, that's right, I forgot. Nobody is forcing you to buy it.

Re: No, We're Probably Not Getting An "Island Expansion" In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

marandahir

I think the thing that ultimately turned me off the game was the FOMO to play every day was so strong it actually was detrimental to my sanity. Had to cut cold turkey or I'd feel like I had wasted a day if I had missed making my rounds of checking the beaches, talking to villagers, weeding, gathering every last fruit off the trees, etc.

Basically, the game became a laundry list of chores rather than a relaxing way to spend an hour or two every so often. I'd argue the seasonal events were a part of this FOMO. Pokémon GO becomes like that for me for long stretches too, but the ability to send Pokémon to HOME sucked me back into the game this year.

Re: Sega Is Still Cool With Sonic Fan Games, Provided "No Profit Is Involved"

marandahir

This is mostly because Sega's Sonic Team has no idea what to do with Sonic games any more, and Sonic Mania proved that if a good enough fan game takes off, they can adopt it and make bank on it once it's "official."

There's no pressure to deliver on a major Sonic game success when Sega has owns many other great brands and they're not in the console business anymore (where each new console would make or break on the backs of a killer Sonic game to lead the charge for the system).

Re: Nintendo Realises It Needs A 'How To Create A Mii' Video For Switch

marandahir

I never understood why they pulled away from Miis on the Switch and hid them in the depths of the settings menu, to only be used by Smash or Mario Kart, etc.

Maybe it was too married to the branding of the Wii (and thus also to the Wii U) - and they wanted to make it clear that this is a clean break from the past two generations since people were so confused about the difference between Wii U and Wii (is it an add on like the Genesis 32x or the Nintendo 64DD?).

Re: F-Zero Isn't Dead - It's Just Sleeping, Says Nintendo Legend Takaya Imamura

marandahir

@mariomaster96 @jump
Yeah, I bet if Shin'en Multimedia were able to just make another Fast Racing series game but use F-ZERO skins and characters, they'd deliver a new F-ZERO experience that feels different enough from the older F-ZERO entries without being something completely different. The only thing lacking from Fast RMX is the lack of F-ZERO music and looks.

Re: Mini Review: Future Aero Racing S Ultra - Clever Ideas, But FAR From A New F-Zero

marandahir

I actually kinda like the music.

It grows on ya. We need more dissonance in our lives.

And I'm classically trained in the church choir and operatic traditions. I love Boroque, classical, romantic styles that don't clash. But dissonance often sounds bad because you're not used to those tonal combinations. Give it a listen for a while. Repetition is critical to making something wrong sound right.

Might even buy it to listen to the soundtrack!!

Re: It Looks Like Labo Is Being Put To Rest As Nintendo Takes Down The Website

marandahir

I can't use my Labo right now because there's a communication issue between my Switch and all wireless controllers. Nintendo said to fix it they might have to replace my entire Switch, which could mean wiping my games and save data that can't be backed up (Pokémon, etc). So I'm stuck with a bunch of Joy Cons and Labos and Ring Fits that I can't use…

Re: Three Brand New Bowser's Fury Spirits Are Joining Smash Bros. Ultimate

marandahir

@Manah Yeah, I missed the spirit event between BDII & Monster Hunter as well as the Age of Calamity spirit event, and guessing all of these will be added in come E3 (when I expect we'll see Fighter's Pass Vol. 10).

They'll all be there, but it's frustrating when I don't play for a few weeks because things get busy and an event passes me by. I'll keep my radar up for future events, though.

Re: Star Wars: Republic Commando Is Getting A Limited Run Switch Release

marandahir

@Ulysses
Disney snubbed Nintendo years ago, while Universal was friendly and supportive of Nintendo. That's why Nintendo has leaned heavily into partnerships with Universal.
You'd think Nintendo and Disney would be a match made in heaven but they may actually see themselves as rivals in terms of popular character IP owned (regarding potential for merchandising, theme parks, film/tv adaptations, etc). This is similar to how Nintendo actually competes with Apple and Google more than with Microsoft or Sony when it comes to the gaming market.

Re: Talking Point: Is The N64 Pad Actually The Best Controller Ever?

marandahir

GameCube, Wii U Classic Controller, and Switch Pro Controller are all better than it. I'd argue that the Wii Classic Controller is about equal to it and and NES/SNES controllers are slightly lesser than the N64 controller. Wii U Gamepad and Switch JoyCon controllers are the most versatile, interesting controllers, though GamePad is painful to use for long periods of time (as is the Switch in handheld, honestly). Joy Cons are the best - WHEN they work properly. I prefer the button layout on the Switch pro to the Wii U Classic. N64 is ultimately held back by the 3-prong format.

Re: Video: This Is What Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Looks Like Running At 8K With Ray Tracing Enabled

marandahir

@nessisonett

That's also a fallacy. Yes, the price for consumers may go down, but the price of the materials isn't strictly driven down too - it's just that the buyers and sellers are pushing the externalities onto other parts of the supply and consumption chain.

More powerful tech uses more non-renewable resources, it requires more intensive mining, it creates more emissions, and as the price is driven down, the workers in the supply chains are paid less for the work that they're performing. There are absolute costs to the continuous push for bigger and better technology using smaller and smarter computer chips.

At the same time, as we move to miniaturize computer chips, there is a point at which we reach a chemical wall: at the small size we're working with now, there is much greater chance of electrons going where they're not supposed to go - jumping from one location to another because everything is too close together. There are size limits to where we can advance the tech in that direction, and that limits the ultimate power of a device because there's only so many tiny chips you can put together to make the device more powerful.

The price may be driven down for better tech over time, but this is reflective not of just supply & demand economics but of the exploitative nature of capitalism. If Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, etc were actually paying the health, environmental, and fair labour costs incurred in the chain of development of their devices, these devices would be thousands upon thousands of dollars to buy. We're only paying less because the corporations are able to get away with bloody murder and we have to pay the price instead.

To that end, Nintendo Switch is the most environmentally and economically sustainable device in the 8th/9th generation of console video games, not on account of any sustainability plan (Nintendo as a corporation has the worst plan of the 3 major console video game companies) but on virtue of having the "weakest" device. There is a VERY good reason to stick with "weaker" tech, not just from sustainability concerns but also from supply chain availability. This was the whole point of the Game Boy: take advantage of well-developed, aged tech rather than pushing on to the newer and "better" technology, and make a device that was easier & cheaper to create and thus also cheaper for consumers. Nintendo has played that card for decades, and there's no reason that they should stop now.

Re: Feature: Best SNES RPGs

marandahir

@clvr

That's a game better than many of this list (though I prefer DQVI, personally). But it's a Super Famicom exclusive when it comes to region releases, and this list seems to only consider games that were released in either the US, the UK, or Europe, or in some combination of the above, on the SNES or on the Super Nintendo. Super Famicom games sadly are missed from this list, even if we got localisations later on other consoles or on the virtual console for the Super Nintendo.

Re: Feature: Best SNES RPGs

marandahir

@Expa0
FF6 is on the first page.

Some editor just weirdly chose to call FFIV and FFVI by their NoA early-localization names and confuse everyone. Just because the SNES release changed their names because they didn't want to release FFII-III or FFV, doesn't mean somehow make FFIV into FFII or FFVI into FFIII, when ALL other localizations use the corrected names.

Re: Video: Pokémon Fan "Fixes" Diamond And Pearl Remakes With This Slick Concept Trailer

marandahir

I think the chibi art style is fine and good, especially since they outsourced the remakes so that they could focus on Legends: Arceus.

I think I MIGHT have been disappointed if Legends wasn't coming and the chibi-style, low-key remakes were all that were coming, but they're not, and Legends shows that Game Freak aren't afraid to stride toward the future but are willing to build on the Wild Area with a Breath of the Wild style open world adventure.

Re: Sakurai Explains Why Xenoblade's Rex Isn't A Smash Ultimate DLC Fighter

marandahir

It's actually interesting because basically what Pyra and Mythra are doing here is what Mythra can do in Torna the Golden Country (with the Driver in the background rather than the Blade). But Rex and Pyra never got to do that.

I always hoped that it would be a Pokémon Trainer situation with one in the background and the other as a fighter, but I also wasn't smart enough to think that it would be Pyra and Mythra in the foreground. I didn't see a way to do the Zelda<>Sheik thing as everyone would want if Rex was the main fighter, but I didn't expect Rex to take the backdrop.

Re: Nintendo Aims To Develop Its Characters Without "Destroying" The Memories Of Fans

marandahir

@EriXz
Ehh, I'd say quite different plots:

12-year old kid sails from island to island on a quest to save his sister from a big bird, finds an ancient kingdom buried beneath the sea, saves his sister and meets an ancient demon resurrected, discovers that his pirate "ally" is actually the lost princess, and stops the ancient evil from restoring the lost kingdom.

17-year old rancher about to deliver a sword as a tribute from his village watches as boar-riding goblins attack his home and kidnap his friends. In pursuit, he discovers the world is covered in a gloaming shadow, gets turned into a wolf by the darkness, and is imprisoned by shadowy demons. With the aid of a rebel imp, he travels around bringing light back to the land, rescues his friends and amnesiatic girlfriend, and ultimately learns that light and darkness are equal, and not necessarily good and evil, and balance is necessary to survive - after fighting against the King of the Twilight and the resurrected evil king.

16-year old sky knight - on the day of his knighting - watches as his girlfriend, the officer academy headmaster's daughter, get stolen away by demons below the clouds in the surface world. He descends to the surface to find her, discovering that she's the reincarnation of the ancient Goddess who saved humanity from the demons of the earth by sending them up on a flying sky mote. To stop the evil, the Princess goes into a deep slumber in the past. Linkk forges a sacred weapon, travels through time, and stops the master of all monsters in the past, allowing him to wake the sleeping princess Zelda, with whom he establishes the Kingdom of Hyrule for the first time.

Are they all pre-teen/teenager seeks to save a girl that is important to him and gets sucked up into a war against evil? Sure. But in terms of plot and theme, that one thread that unites them is really the only element of the plot that's similar. And it's not like that girl is Zelda each time; it's his sister in WW, who falls into the backdrop by the backhalf of the game; it's Illia and the kids in TP, and Illia is important to Link but sure is put on the backburner because TP's real main character is Midna, and Midna has other goals in mind until Illia's memory is actually important to advancing the plot in Act 3; and in SS it is Zelda, but she's not a princess like in the other 2, and her relationship with the Goddess Hylia is established here in a way that the other games don't delve into, thus providing a story angle to her that Tetra and brown-haired Zelda just don't dive into.

Re: Nintendo Aims To Develop Its Characters Without "Destroying" The Memories Of Fans

marandahir

@Meikahidenori

Agreed. As for F-ZERO, I think Nintendo should just license out the brand to German developer Shin'en Multimedia, who developed and released three exclusive F-ZERO-like games for the Wii, Wii U, and Switch respectively: Fast Racing League; Fast Racing Neo; and Fast RMX, respectively. Honestly, these games alongside the F-ZERO course in Mario Kart 8 have filled out any desire for an F-ZERO game that I've had the last few generations, but it would be quite charming for them to release F-ZERO RMX on the Switch Pro, basically being just Fast RMX with an F-ZERO skin to it!

Re: Nintendo Isn't Backing Down On Its Decision To Pull Mario Products From Stores This Month

marandahir

@GrailUK

THIS. Nintendo is trying to cultivate ways of bringing everyone together. This is nothing different from a SplatFest or a Pokémon GO Community Day. It's just a longer period celebration. And when the celebration is over, it's time to focus on the next thing.

You can buy Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Fire Emblem 1 RIGHT NOW on the eShop. There's NOTHING preventing you from doing so if you've got internet and Switch. physical limitations may exist, but the digital library exists. If you REALLY want to play those specific releases of the games, you can go and buy them, whether ordering from a online dealership, or buy them directly and digitally from Nintendo, or finding a store that has a physical copy there. I saw physical copies of Fire Emblem 1 and Super Mario 3D All-Stars at the Nintendo NY store this weekend. They still exist. Nothing is forever. Nintendo NY doesn't sell 3DSes anymore. Does that make it anti-consumerist, because some people feel entitled to be able to buy a 3DS four years after Nintendo released their follow-up handheld?

This is all about moving on to the next phenomenon. People were upset that there weren't major Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid, Donkey Kong, or even Kid Icarus or Golden Sun anniversary content in the recent Nintendo Direct (all of which are in an anniversary year). Welp, The Pokémon Company was waiting for Pokémon Day to drop their announcements. Zelda and the other big names? They need to wait until Nintendo is done celebration the anniversary of Mario and Fire Emblem. These are limited time events so that they don't get in the way of drumming up the sales for the big Zelda, etc releases this year. Why do you think the ONLY Zelda remake announced was Skyward Sword HD? Clearly, they're going to release other Zelda games later in the year, but they're not going to announce those until we're already having fun playing SSHD - or else those games would eat into the sales of Skyward Sword! Right now, the hot "new" Zelda game to preorder is Skyward Sword, and it's selling out on Amazon!

Nintendo understands FOMO very well. This is S-class marketing.

Re: Video: We Take A Look At The Hidden Mario Golf Game That Didn't Star Mario

marandahir

@AtlanteanMan

At least their departure and arrivals as a 2nd-Party developer for Nintendo heralded in one of the best RPG franchises screaming for a modern entry (alongside titans like Chrono): Golden Sun.

But Nintendo just won't give them the time to develop another RPG when their Mario Sports titles sell like hotcakes and "Golden Sun: Dark Dawn"… didn't. To be fair, it was released at the tail end of the DS's lifespan simultaneously with the announcement of the 3DS. People weren't clamouring for new DS RPGs, they were eagerly awaiting the next few months for Ocarina of Time 3D.

Re: Feature: Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link Taught Me The Value Of Perseverance

marandahir

@COVIDberry

Thanks. I'm 90% sure that southern Breath of the Wild Hyrule (draw a line from Gerudo Highlands across Mount Hylia to Mount Lanayru) is supposed to reflect the little Kingdom of Hyrule from the original game, complete with Spectacle Rock in the right place. Then everything north of it is Zelda 2's Hyrule, with the sea having dried up (and become rock salt). Darunia Town is Goron City. Akkala is the plains and fields of Nabooru Town. Lomei Labyrinth Island is… Maze Island. Rito Village is Ruto Town. Rauru Settlement is Rauru Town. Hyrule Castle is North Castle.

Obviously, there's other inspirations as well (Hyrule Field essentially mirrors Ocarina of Time with the placement of the locations around it, and having the icy mountain in the northwest is reflective of Twilight Princess), but the way I see it, this is how they are paying homage to the original two games.