Comments 2,181

Re: Best Game Boy / Game Boy Color RPGs

nocdaes

@lizardbish I'm playing it on my Analogue Pocket at the moment (except it's known as Mystic Quest in the UK) and it's a decent game. It does have some issues... but nothing too severe. And there's plenty to love about this game.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Gary Bowser Says Conviction Was "A Blessing"

nocdaes

Erm... is it OK for someone that has millions to claim benefit?! And surely benefit claims should not roll over when you're in prison...

I'm not hitting on someone for their disability... there's barely enough benefit to go around for the people who really do need it. If you go to prison, you should lose it - the prison is a benefit afterall! You're receiving bed and board for free... All inclusive!

Re: Poll: A New Donkey Kong Game Must Be Coming, But What Should It Be?

nocdaes

1. What do you mean by a proper Donkey Kong Country entry?
2. Why isn't a third entry in the Returns series an option? There are 3 Donkey Kong Land games on the Gameboy. There are 3 Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES.
3. You're being way too kind to Nintendo here. The fact the Switch doesn't have a new Donkey Kong game is by far the worst thing Nintendo have done since naming the Wii U. The fact we haven't had a new entry since Feb 2014 - TEN years! - is possibly one of the worst things in videogame history - even Tomb Raider has a new game on the horizon after a long hiatus.

Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door For Switch?

nocdaes

I've never been keen on Paper Mario games. I know this one is deemed one of, if not the best. I think I'm just happy to play it on Gamecube one day.

I'm not actually keen on these remakes anyway. I feel like it's taking resource away from new games. NSO could have a Gamecube emulator in the near future and the original Gamecube game is perfectly fine to revisit.

This, Luigi's Mansion and Mario vs Donkey Kong - I just don't support this direction.

Re: Feature: Nintendo's Latest Studio - Who Is Shiver Entertainment?

nocdaes

Just because a dev has done ports historically, doesn't mean they're not gearing up for something new in the future. They used to do mobile, and they don't do it anymore.

Nintendo don't need an inhouse doing more ports anyway. They could certainly do with more new games though - they literally have IP tucked away unloved all over the place - 2D Zelda? Star Fox? Donkey Kong? Kid Icarus? F Zero? Golden Sun? Pilotwings?

If Switch is so successful... where are the games?

Re: Taito Milestones 3 Coming Winter 2024, First Batch Of Games Revealed

nocdaes

Too late... ever since they released the first game pretty much everyone has asked "where's Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands?". I'm already playing the very good Amiga 500 versions of the games.

Why on earth did Taito wait until 2024 to release this? It would have done so much better 3 or 4 years ago.

Not to mention that Rainbow Islands arcade archives released just a few months ago. Taito completely missed the boat.

Now it begs the question... Will the sales of the 3 Taito collections be anywhere near as high as if they just released all of it on one game? 🤔

If that's their official press release copy you are using... did Taito really just get the names wrong? It's Bub and Bob. Bubby and Bobby may be from later entries - I've no idea...!

Re: Poll: Will You Be Getting The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition - Deluxe Set?

nocdaes

This is way too little and way too late. It's like Nintendo are completely oblivious to the retro gaming market.

This should hsve been launched 5 or even 6 years ago and should have been followed up with SNES, Gameboy and GBA editions too.

They should have done more to secure 3rd party games involvement.

They should include the full games - not just the challenges.

When you consider how significant a part Nintendo play in the history of gaming... is this really all they've got? Poor execution of a cool idea, once again.

Also, sidenote... but why wouldn't you release challenges on the NSO platform? What a brilliant way to drive subscriptions and further interest in older games.

Honestly, Nintendo's approach to Retro shows a complete lack of strategy, understanding, and dilligence. They should be doing more.

Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Online Pre-Orders Are Apparently Being Cancelled (US)

nocdaes

I pre-ordered Princess Peach Showtime and Amazon sent me an email on the Wednesday saying it had been dispatched and then it arrived on Thursday in the morning post - a day ahead of street date.

Whilst Nintendo's reaction seems over the top... can we pause a moment and put the spotlight on Amazon? Why are they dispatching items 2 days before release? Amazon is a well oiled machine... they should not be sending things early - as in it shouldn't even be possible.

Amazon get preferential treatment from almost all corners - good on Nintendo for standing up to this bully of a retailer.

Amazon are too big. Dodge taxes. Treat their staff poorly. More people need to stand up against them in my humble opinion. They are everything that's wrong with retail today.

Re: Talking Point: One Year On, Has Everyone Beaten Ganondorf In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

nocdaes

Nope, I abandoned my run. I still don't really understand how or why it was so overwhelmingly well received. I spent hours and hours and hours exploring every inch of BotW and TotK just asked me to do it all over again. No thanks.

Then the new bits they add to explore just aren't fun to explore. Pitch black boredom underground and painfuly slow building with batteries in the sky.

The dungeons were cheap. The game loop way too repetitive- even without BotW! Jt borderline torture having played the first one so much.

TotK should have been so much better. I find it frankly scary how many people see it so differently from my point of view. It's like you all didn't play BotW for very long. Really a strange feeling because BotW is a 100/100 game for me, but TotK is down in the 60s at best.

Re: Nintendo Discontinuing 'X' Integration On Switch Next Month

nocdaes

ME: I don't care about X integration so it doesn't matter
ALSO ME: Nintendo, with their millions upon millions in the bank from Switch sales is not prepared to spend 40k on a feature for its users.

Hey, I love Nintendo as much as the next person, but this is just another example of them refusing to spend any damm money on features for Switch users. Still no themes. Still no proper folders. Still no eShop reviews.

Re: Best Donkey Kong Games Of All Time

nocdaes

@batmanbud2 no that's not right I'm afraid. Retro were only put onto MP4 in January 2019.

Their last release was Tropical Freeze in February 2014.

It means two startling things...

1. February 2014 to January 2019 produced nothing from Retro. What did they work on? Did a DK game get panned? Was Star Fox GP actually real (lol) and got panned?!

2. Nintendo were so desperate with MP4 that they moved the production to a studio that themselves had produced nothing for FIVE years.

Re: Soapbox: Are We Ready For A 3D Super Mario Maker?

nocdaes

I don't want a 3D Mario maker... I find the Mario Maker games really, really frustrating to find just plain, good, "normal" Mario levels. The discovery of decent levels is a nightmare - and don't get me started on Nintendo's level codes, like that's a way to share content these days!

What I really want is a 3D Mario made by Nintendo that is good. Not the half baked Sunshine. Not the rushed Odyssey. Not the linear Galaxy 2.

In fact, you know what? Just release that second Mario 64 game. That'll do it.

And then get Odyssey 2 out the door, but done properly this time. None of this unlimited moons nonsense.

Re: Talking Point: Will Nintendo Wring One More Holiday From Switch Before Revealing New Hardware?

nocdaes

March launch made sense with Switch because Nintendo desperately needed to boost their financial performance across two fiscal years.

I'm not at all convinced that's the case this time around. I therefore expect the announce to come in January 2025 and the release to be more like September 2025.

Metroid Prime 4 will be a launch title, targeting the older early adopters, but there is a new 3D Mario game for the holidays.

That said... I do have a horrible feeling that we might just end up with a Switch Pro. I mean, the way they've given us this information screams "let them down gently!"

And Nintendo are not one to care about this normally. Which makes me even more concerned that it really is a Switch Pro, and a bit of a halfway house.

Re: Details Emerge Of A Cancelled Donkey Kong Project From Vicarious Visions

nocdaes

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Nintendo for not bringing a new Donkey Kong game to Switch! I still can't quite believe how badly they've messed up one of their biggest franchises. 10 years without a new title is shameful... add in how successful Switch has been, the money they are sat on, the creative talent they have at their disposal, the utter brilliance of Returns and Tropical Freeze and the "trilogies" of DK's past (Country, Land) and words fail me as to how badly Nintendo messed this one up.

And it could get a whole lot worse, too. Who knows how Metroid Prime 4 is going to turn out? If that ends up bad and Retro essentially wasted the time when they should have been on a DK game... words fail!!

Re: Best Star Wars Video Games, Ranked - Switch And Nintendo Systems

nocdaes

Where's a new Rogue Squadron game for the Switch? That's an open goal for success...

I have Battle for Naboo lined up as my first game when the Analogue 3D drops later this year! Haven't played it before so looking forward to it!

In the meantime, I'm about to start Super Return Of The Jedi on the Pocket. There was a Game Gear port of the game - not the other two sadly. I'll probably end up putting all three of the SNES versions on the openfpga SNES for the Pocket, as I think that's one of the best ways to play these classics today (unless you pick up an Analogue SNES). Intrigued to see how the Game Gear version does though, and I love the save state feature to help you past tricky parts - the openfpga SNES hasn't had the save state feature added. Too much work apparently (I'd argue it was worth the work, but I'm not the one doing it so hey!)

Re: Nintendo Has Filed Two New Trademarks

nocdaes

AS IF we are going to live in a universe where Kirby Rainbow Curse is ported to Switch before ANY Star Fox game arrives on the system.

And I like this Kirby game, but seriously, isn't that nearly into double figures on Kirby now whilst Star Fox is on ZERO games and even Donkey Kong remains on ZERO new games!

Re: Feature: Can We Track Down Every Cart In Our Top 50 Game Boy List In One Week?

nocdaes

@Banks retro games saw a surge during covid, which is when a lot of people did similar to what you have done now, and prices have been on the up ever since. There are a few dozen notoriously expensive gameboy games, and many of those feature in the NL readers top 50, so your goal was always impossible!

(Nothing wrong with the task and the achievement, incidentally! I guess it just came across as a bit naive, so I didn't read on). Glad you had fun with it though - retro gaming can be hugely rewarding. I adore my Analogue Pocket.

Re: Zelda Live-Action Movie Director Promises To Be "Ambitious"

nocdaes

It'll be a perfectly fine movie, like the Mario movie was, but I'm not expecting anything great.

But then movies are pretty weird at the moment anyway. People go crazy for Spiderman and Sonic movies that are, at best, bang average movies that you watch once and never, ever again. So who knows?

Re: Every Nintendo Switch Online N64 Game Ranked

nocdaes

@OorWullie GoldenEye is the reason I abandoned NSO and I'm now waiting for Analogue 3D. The NSO version (and the Xbox version) are packed full of absolute nonsense that never existed in the original game - glitches and bugs everywhere.

Re: Feature: Why Play Final Fantasy VII Remake When You Could Play FFVII 'Demake'?

nocdaes

@XenoShaun FF7 gets all the attention, rightly, because it is comfortably the best. People argue its subjective, and people claim the real number 1 is FF6 but when you break it down...

A better setting than Midgar?
A better roster of characters than Aerith, Tifa, Barrett?
Better secrets/extra content than Vincent, Yuffie and Knights of the Round?
Better soundtrack themes than the Shinra Theme, the Main Theme, Aeriths theme, One Winged Angel.
A better villain than Sephiroth?
Better locations than Midgar's slums, Cosmo Canyon, Wutai, the Gold Saucer?
Better minigame content than bikes, snowboards, submarines?

People can call it subjective all they want... it's objectively the best game and that's why it gets all the remake/spin off attention!

Re: Best Kirby Games Of All Time

nocdaes

Forgotten Land probably does deserve top spot, but it does still feel woefully short of fulfilling Kirby's true potential. They played it very safe.

I'm surprised we haven't seen anything off the back of Forgotten Land too. I mean, everyone raves about it... so where is the next Kirby game in this vein? Maybe it's too soon still.

Kirby 64 is way too high!

Rainbow Curse is way too low! Why do people hate this game so much? I swear it's just because you haven't played it as you didn't have a Wii U... it's a far superior Kirby game to many higher entries in this list. I'd comfortably have it in my Top 10.

Re: Random: BAFTA's 'Iconic Game Characters' Poll Has Us Scratching Our Heads

nocdaes

I've been playing Tomb Raider for the Gameboy Color the last couple of days and I can honestly say that any character that has a game made that doesn't even include music in the levels is not worthy of winning this poll.

Can you even imagine a Mario or Sonic game releasing and you play entire levels in silence?

Super Mario Land on the Gameboy sometimes gets a bad rep, but even that had a decent soundtrack!

Re: As Switch Approaches The PS2's Lifetime Sales, Sony Moves The Goalposts

nocdaes

@kedireturns nope. I was there mate and the PS2 was cheap compared to DVD players from any reputable makes. The fact it was Sony was a huge factor.

Also, they were given away left, right and centre. You got them for free with wide-screen TVs - which by the way MOST people were upgrading to from their old square box at the time.

They also gave them away with mobile phone contracts.

Ok it may not amount to millions, but it paints the picture very clearly. PS2 shifted plenty of units at dirt cheap rates - and there are plenty of people that used it just for DVDs.

Re: As Switch Approaches The PS2's Lifetime Sales, Sony Moves The Goalposts

nocdaes

How many millions of PS2's were given away with TV purchases? I remember seeing loads of deals in Comet and the like in the mid-2000s.

It would be more accurate to look at the value of the console sales. I suspect Switch is already the best selling console in total revenue.

It is also certainly number 1 in terms of dedicated games console too. You can't even watch YouTube on it... let alone use it as a secondary screen. Meanwhile the PS2 was absolutely used as a dedicated DVD player by people as it was a very good DVD player in the day for a very low price. It also, genuinely, looked pretty nice under your TV compared to the boring boxy DVD players of the time - which cost more too!