@Yosti Ah that sucks that it doesn't include a cartridge - it was worded in such a way that made me think it would, and only Wave 6 would need to be downloaded. Guess I'll import that Japanese version then!
@BeefSanta Absolutely not, Pizza Tower is fantastic, I'm sure it will be on Switch soon, its the game's natural home. As a fellow SAGE developer its so cool that something from that community grew so huge in the mainstream - don't know if you saw but they actually released an exclusive (official) Nights into Dreams themed Pizza Tower for SAGE this year! I was very happy to see it! Nights is my favourite game.
@LadyCharlie Thank you for the kind response Charlie, you are a consistent empathetic voice on this site which is very welcome. I completely agree with what you said about how rhythm games and music games can be very cathartic. This combined with the fact the silliness of the game made me smile then laugh for the first time in months was extremely healing at an incredibly difficult time. I'm sorry to hear you have been through periods like this also and very glad that you were able to overcome them in a similar manner.
This is actually the first time I've posted to this site in quite a few months because I've been taking a long mental health break from social media. Hope its not oversharing and no need to respond if its awkward but some people here know that I'm in the film industry... earlier in the year I went insanely viral unexpectedly and this lead to many interviews and convention appearances and a book deal and all kinds of crazy stuff in a short period and as someone who is autistic and has high anxiety, masking and coping for so long for literally hundreds of thousands of people in person and millions online essentially lead to my brain just noping out, and I'm still semi recovering emotionally.
I'm slowly coming back online tentatively, first as a dev releasing a Sonic fan game for SAGE (when I was unable to really do anything else, and just hiding from the world in a room by myself, I threw my focus into a project based on something comforting that I love, people here know I'm somewhat Sonic obsessive! Not to plug, but if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM ). Having the safety of only talking to people with similar interests who were probably going to be happy to talk to me or would only ask about my game and nothing too personal or "scary" from an anxiety raising perspective. It was a very positive experience.
I always enjoy the group chat experience on Nintendolife during Directs, so I used this as an excuse to start posting here again today. Again, I'm not quite comfortable enough to go back to general social media yet, but a small, dedicated community of people with shared interests is a very nice way to ease myself back into being comfortable talking to people online 😀 Little steps.
@LadyCharlie I absolutely love Trombone champ on PC, as a 1 player experience on PC, it really genuinely helped cheer me up out of one of the nastiest periods of crippling depression in my life. I can only imagine how joyous it will be as a communal party experience with motion controls and everyone gathered round the TV.
@Orpheus79V Yeah. I'm a Switch game dev and can confirm that little indie guys like me have not heard one peep from Nintendo about the hardware or even things like if our Switch games will run on it - so its early days and only the big boys who need to know about what the top performace of 3d stuff will be that are privvy to this. I would predict (based on little except market experience) that th announcement won't be until at least March, and its most likely it won't be available until at least August, probably later.
@Woderwick "It felt as though they'd given the sequel to a team of lads mag aficionados who had totally missed what made the first game so good" haha yeah that was the distinct impression I got - and what stuck in mind even 2 decades later. And being that at the time I was in my very early 20s and not adverse to buying the occasional lads mag, the fact it made me feel that way means it was probably fairly full on, or at least a jarring departure from the previous title.
I voted for:
Paper Mario Thousand Year Door,
Princess Peach Showtime
and Mario Vs Donkey Kong.
I would have voted for Suepr Mario RPG but we'd already seen a lot of that. Peach was anounced but we knew comparitively little about it. New F-Zero is always welcome, and it looks fun, but I don't really play online only games much.
Other games that I'm excited for:
Luigi's Mansion 2 HD
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Horizon Chase 2
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
Dave the Diver
Trombone Champ is incredible on PC and has potential to be the best party / icebreaker game ever with motion controls and being on the living room TV rather than the office computer played with a mouse.
Plenty of other games that caught my interest and I'll look out for more info / reviews. Overall, a decent direct. I think if we hadn't already known about Mario RPG, Luigi's Mansion, Prince of Persia and Peach it would have been kinda mindblowing. Really, they could have combined both directs and made the best direct ever - but its ok to split them like this.
@theModestMouse I don't think anyone sane would suggest that they'll officially announce it before the holiday season and hurt sales. But I also don't think anyone sane would claim it doesn't exist when it was literally being shown off to developers at Gamescom.
@Woderwick Yeah I totally agree about the grid based movement for these ports. That's 100% fine with me, its a big part of what I enjoy about the originals.
As for Sands of Time, yeah that totally makes sense, my predominant memopry was how good it felt to control, how fun it was running around and feeling like a parkour badass... and the sequels were definitely less about that and more about trying to be edgy in design & story (many PS2 era games fell into this trap) mixed with basic and repetetive hack and slash button mashing... or at least that's how I remember them.
One thing that intregues me is that Croshaw (who if you aren't familiar with him is a long time game critic, but also a talented indie dev and very successful novelist) regularly cites the story and especially the handling of the romance elements as being a textbook example of how to do these elements well in an action game... and the sequels as textbook examples of how not to do it. I don't remember this element much other than feeling the sequels were more edgy and perhaps sexist or "bro-ish" in comparisson.
The fact such a respected & successful storyteller regularly praises the story in an old PS2 game must mean it did something right. Of course, he also talks about the joy of traversal and just plain fun moving through the environments. The only other game he mentions in such high regard for those elements are Spider-Man 2 & the Insomniac games.
@Woderwick Interesting - I remember really enjoying Sands of Time back when it first came out, but the sequels didn't hold my attention in quite the same way and I've not replayed it again since then. Yahtzee Croshaw often cites it as one of the best games ever made so I've long considered going back to it when I have time.
I didn't specifically remember the grid-based nature that you mention but I do remember it feeling amazingly fluid and fun to control so if it subtley fixes/pushes your jumps to align to a grid rather than being precisiely what you pressed that's very interesting. I should really replay it soon, thanks for the reminder!
I love the original game (and Super C and III), and Way Forward have made some of my favourite games... I'm not sure how I feel about this though. The graphics are very hard to look at. Both in the way that I think they look like a cheap PS2 game, but also in that I find it difficult to pick out the characters from the backgrounds when everything's moving fast. That was never a problem with the originals.
@PinderSchloss Yeah, the Dreamcast and PC versions looked several generations improved over the Playstation version of the same game. Those times felt like technology was progressing forward at an incredible rate.
Happy times for sure. Now I think about it, it was also the first game I played when moving out from my parents and into my own place, which was a beautiful little remote place on a cliff overlooking the sea, and shortly after my then GF moved in and we played it together. That probably also builds my positive association to it. But I think even without the nostalgia, its objectively a great game. It should definitely have been included also... abd Chronicles because "why not complete the set". 😅
@Antraxx777 Ah, cool, glad you have them and enjoy them 😀
The original games do indeed play really well with a keyboard. However the very first game was actually originally designed as a Saturn exclusive, then ported to Playstation - beack in the early days when nether console's original joypads had an analogue stick - in other words, they were designed for a D-pad, and work well with one. Again, forgive me if you already knew that.
I can imagine them working really nicely with the "four buttons" pseudo d-pad of the Switch, and especailly the D-Pad on the Switch Lite, and the Pro Controller, which are my two prefered ways of playing. If they do add analogue support for camera controls (which seems a given) that will really improve the games in a meaningful way.
@PinderSchloss Thank you! Also I'm glad to see you and several others saying Last Revelation was their favourite. I've always felt that way but wasn't sure if that was because I played it on Dreamcast and as a Sega fanboy first who'd been annoyed he had to play 2 & 3 on Playstation, then having such a huge upgrade in graphics and a Sega homecoming (the first game was originally designed as a Saturn exclusive, then ported) means I have all kinds of warm feelings of nostalgia towards those first times playing it. Sales-wise, I think the original 3 did by far the best but it rankled me to hear the direct anouncer describe them as a "trilogy".
@Antraxx777 There were 3 games in that series, all made by Crystal Dynamics (the Gex people!) and feature analogue controls. Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Legend, and Tomb Raider Underworld. If you prefer that style of play, I can happily recomend them all, they are very different to the original, but good in their own way, and some people prefer them. I'd 100% welcome these getting a trilogy release on Switch too.
@Orpheus79V Thanks! Yeah I understand people who grew up in an analogue only world (or people who see analogue as something we "moved past") to comment that tank controls will make these games "unplayable" but without them, the entire game wouldn't function. This is why the modern games exist. But personally, I feel something was lost and the original 5 games are the ones I enjoy the most - I think because I gravitate towards puzzle elements in platform games and that was what gripped me most about the first game when it came out.
@RenanKJ Yup we are clearly on exactly the same page. I slightly went down the "GTA-meets-Fast-and-furious" (great description btw!) route for a while with some of the early NFS games holding some of my interest but nothing ever hit the highs of the "Blue Skies" Sega/Namco style games, for me. Halfway through the original Most Wanted I realised the series was going in a direction I wasn't keen on. Even the Burnout series kinda lost my interest after 3... which is saying something as Takedown is in my top 10 games ever.
I tried my best to get into games like Gran Turismo, Forza, Colin McRae, official F1 etc as the graphics were impressive but I just don't find them remotely fun... whereas I still go back and replay Sega Rally, Daytona, Ridge Racer, Chase HQ, Out Run et al to this day. And yeah Top Gear for SNES was awesome, based on the Lotus series from Amiga, which I loved. In fact I believe the Top Gear game was what inspired development of the original Horizon Chase, and they hired the same composer of the music!
@crimsontadpoles Yeah the fact Last Revelation and Chronicles aren't included is somewhat baffling and I can't see the missing 2 making a compelling "volume 2" for many. But I'm happy we're getting these three anyway, and the DLC inclusion is nice.
@Antraxx777 Yeah the new graphics definitely do look similar. I can see your suggestion working, as long as the step and stride length is fixed also, so the only analogue elements are the turning, and if she tip-toes/full steps/runs is based on how far you tilt the stick. The jump lengths are very precisely designed so you must tiptoe to the very edge then jump in one of several very specific ways depending on the speed you're moving. Similar to the original 2d Prince of Persia / Flashback , its more like a geometric navigation puzzle rather than an actual "platformer".
I keep hearing about this game over and over from industry people that I trust, including those that are usually very strict/harsh in their critiques. I'm pretty certain its excellent. I've not had time to check it out but when I do, it will be on Switch. Very glad to have it available on my platform of choice for retro-ish indies.
@Antraxx777 Tomb Raider Anniversary is a completely different game, (a remake/reimagining not remaster) this is very much not it. You can't recreate the original levels without at least semi-tank controls, they are grid based and designed around it, as per my above comment. Analogue controls would make much of the puzzle platforming completely impossible. Sure, they will add analogue controls to the camera and could do for Lara's turning, but it will still be grid based and "tank ish" to some extent, because removing that element breaks the game. Thats why they had to make completely new levels for Anniversary.
I really love these games and have been asking for this for a while. The fact they include the original graphics as an option is great, I'm not 100% sold on the new ones, (though I don't hate them or anything).
My only annoyance is that this series was never a "trilogy"... there were 5 games in this series. The Last Revelation and Chronicles all use the same engine, control scheme and play style. They really should have included them all, they wouldn't make a very good standalone release from a marketing perspective.
I know some people will say "I hope they have modern controls" but honestly that would completely break them - the level design is extremely precise and grid based around the "limited" movement. Its like Prince of Persia / Flashback in 3d.
They already made a remake of the original game with modern controls and had to completely remake the levels and its just an entirely different game. A good one, but not the same at all. I've always vastly prefered the puzzle/grid based nature of the originals.
@Jamie_R Oh I agree it seems innevitable. It just should have been anounced at the same time as this, to avoid certain fans feeling burned by '99 rather than amused and intregued. I'm not saying that I personally am angry/annoyed, but I can forsee many people being so... and that seems unnecessary and easily preventable.
More Arcade racers are always welcome. "car racing games" over time slowly went from being my 2nd most played genre in the 80s/90s to one I never even consider buying because they became too po-faced and lost the sense of fun, the bright colours, blue skies and hype-driving music.
I'm glad that every now and again we get a high quality arcade style title. Cruis'n Blast became one of my top played Switch games, felt like coming home.
I definitely don't need another farming sim, and I've not gotten round to playing Eastward yet, but the pixel art stuns me every time I see footage of it. Its really top tier.
I've only ever played 1 & 3 (I wasn't a big DS/3DS guy I'm afraid) so I'm very glad for the chance to play this. While I heard it was more level based than the first, which made me less interested back when it came out, the footage makes it look fun. I like that there seems to be a decent variety in the different "mansion"s.
At least we finally get Diddy. If he'd been left out of this game it would have felt very wrong.
I'm surprised but pretty happy about the physical release of the completed DLC. It bothers me to have a physical game, and then substantial DLC releases but have no physical version. The fact they made it separate to the main game and not a "complete" version hopefully means it will be a reasonable price. Although the fact it doesn't have Wave 6 on the kart is super annoying.
DK '94 is in my top 10 favourite games of all time. Maybe top 5. This is a remake of the sequel - which I never really played as much as I should have because I found it hard to get over how much I hated the pre-rendered graphics at such a low resolution... this gives me a chance to replay it properly and appreciate the level design and puzzles.
I really, REALLY love this style of puzzle platforming and Mario's "64-esque" moveset in 2D. I was disappointed with the direction the Mario VS Donkey Kong series went in over time, that Wii U game was just not for me in the slightest, sadly. I hope this game does well and leads to more similar titles. Even if its just this, I will relish every second of playing it.
@Cashews Yes, its absolutely hilarious. Many of the songs feel pretty much impossible to play and give you a genuine sense of panic trying to catch up and you just end up cry laughing at how silly it is and how terrible your efforts sound. Its really a wonderful and unique experience. Can't overstate enough how fun it is, and it is a perfect "spectator sport" for people watching you play and fail, so it became somewhat of a streaming / youtube phenomena... I can only imagine how funny it would be in a communal party situation!
I genuinely never thought this would happen, being the direction Paper Mario went in over the years. But with SMRPG and this getting proper remake treatments, if they sell well, I've hopes that Paper Mario games might return to having more traditional RPG mechanics and proper in depth stories and character depth... fingers crossed. Either way, I'm very happy to replay them both.
PS Arlo will FREAK out and make at least 4 hour long rants about Paper Mario.
This looks a lot of fun but they really should have also dropped a GX announcement, even if just a quick and dirty port like Pikmin 1&2. Felt like raising hope then somewhat dashing it for a lot of fans. Simple GC ports at semi-budget price are a super easy win for Ninty.
For me, and I think a lot of fans, F-Zero is actually predominantly a 1 player experience, challenging yourself to shave milliseconds off your time, or get good enough to beat the track that at first seems impossible.
Turning it into a "fall guys" style experience is super cool as a side project but I don't think it will scratch the F-Zero itch properly for many.
After what little was shown of it in the previous direct I thought it was super early in development and we wouldn't hear about it for ages - glad to be proved wrong.
The PC version of this game is an incredible time. It released when I was deep in a spiral of depression but made me laugh and smile for the first time in ages and was just fun times all round. I can't imagine playing it without a mouse but looks like they are giving interesting variety of choices.
Wave Race, Star Fox, FZero. All need a comeback. 1080 would be nice too, there's not enough snowboarding games these days, used to be one of my favourite genres - would love a port of SSX Tricky especially.
Eternal Darkness was brilliant, though I'm not sure how well a sequel would do on a Nintendo platform - they don't even bother releasing the Fatal Frame games physically outside of Asia.
Obviously I love Donkey Kong Country - I don't really feel that's really "dormant", sure we'll be getting a new one soon, or at least on the new hardware when thats announced if they are saving it for that.
@Sir_Axeman I'd love a new Banjo platformer. Sadly, not a "Nintendo" franchise. But it might happen, Microsoft and Nintendo seen on good terms.
@HammerGalladeBro @Snatcher That animation wasn't made for Sonic Jam specifically, it was sort of a pilot / pitch video for a Sonic animated show by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), and just put into the Sonic World area as a bonus.
The show never got picked up but they did get to work on the DiC Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog show for the intro and some of the episodes. And yes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, etc. too. IIRC they also did animation for Sonic X some years later. I like the 2d bits a lot, but I'm not keen on the mixture of early CG environments with 2d art. I liked the DiC Sonic show a lot though, far more consistent style.
@Orpheus79V I hope you're right. But logic says if they take a few years to find a good developer and start from scratch to build something decent, everyone will be aware of the fact that EA's "FIFA" changed its name by the time it comes out, and the brand will have lost its power as a videogames franchise.
They must be very aware of the fact that the only way to keep people buying the games because of the brand, and have a chance of going against EA is to release a game called FIFA 24 within the right window to confuse enough people and divert sales. Obviously Konami would be the best candidates right now but I'm sure there's plenty of small indie studios who make sports games that will happily agree to bash something out quickly, or licenese them a game they've already made and just rebadge it and change the names/logos. Hell, I've got a motion capture setup and I can use Unreal Engine, if they chuck me half a million I'll make a passable game single handedly in 6 months for half a mill. Bargain. It'll be rubbish, but we'll sell a tonne.
I know its a different world but that famously happened multiple times in the past where companies bough the rights to specific events like world cups or euro tournaments for a specific year, and then for whatever reason didn't manage to get their game finished in time, so they just bought the rights to a previous game and rebadged it, to not miss out on the sales.
The fact FIFA will 100% lose this battle if they don't release something quickly means it will either be a very rushed game, or a rebadged older title - either way it won't complete with EA who know they have to pull out all the stops and make a spectacular game this time round. Thats why I said "FIFA 24" will be rubbish.
Again, I hope you're right and they take time to actually develop something awesome from teh ground up. Competition is always good, like the old days of FIFA vs ISS / Pr Evo and the multitude of other upstart competitors every year in the 16bit and 32bit days. In order to sell the most, you genuinely had to be the best... til EA cornered the market seemingly permanently. I'd love it if in 2-3 years time we got a genuinely ground breaking wonder game from FIFA. But by doing that, they are leaving millions in easy quick sales on the table, risking millions developing it, and this coming from a company with no experience in devloping games and probably no concept of what actually makes a good game other than their liscensed logos and names. I don't see it happening unless they get an outside offer from someone major like perhaps Sony or Microsoft themselves hoping to get a console exclusive & willing to take the hit.
FIFA as a governing body have made clear they want to release their own games without EA. So there likely will be a game called "FIFA 24", made in a hurry by whichever team offers to do it the cheapest for them. I'm sure it won't be great, but it will still be called "FIFA 24" and therefore confuse a lot of casuals / parents.
Assuming you knew that and your sentiment was just that EAFC 24 is the "real" FIFA 24, of course I agree with you. But it doesn't help the dev team if we don't adopt the new name.
@8BitMonet Yes. FIFA 23 isn't a new game, it came out last year - the number in the title is always one year ahead. As others have said, the reason for the sudden sales is probably due to the fact its been on sale a lot, partly to coincide with the current tournaments, but also to clear old stock before the new game drops, and being bundles with Prime Day console deals.
I have no doubt that FIFA 24, if it even comes out, will be an absolute train wreck. It will probably still sell ok due to casuals not knowing its not the real deal. EA's FC 24 however looks like the first soccer title I might actually pick up for Switch...
@JohnnyMind Yeah of course! I'm very happy Sonic as a brand overall is on an upswing with success in the 2d & 3d games, comics, tv shows and movies all at record highs... i really want this to continue so Sega know they are on the right path and trust the people doing the great work to keep going without meddling too much and trying to reinvent the wheel every couple of years like they did for over a decade to somewhat mixed results! lol
I love Mario as well, and am super excited for Wonder, but there is no doubt in my mind that it will be a success, and Mario will keep doing well as a brand. Sonic is always more of a risk, so I feel more passionate about its success. If for some reason I could only afford one game, I would buy Sonic, and get Mario later, because they don't need my sale as much and will continue to make games regardless.
@EarthboundBenjy I'm not sure, and thats an interesting question. Since 2019 its been pretty normal for both Sega of America and Japan employees to use the terms interchangably and Iizuka made an official statement on it around the same time saying that even in the Japanese canon his full name is Dr Ivo Robotnik and Eggman is just his nickname/alias.
I'm pretty sure in Frontiers he's called "Eggman" exclusively but I've seen Kishimoto refer to "Robotnik's creations" when refering to badniks. In the movies he's Robotnik but Sonic calls him "Eggman" like an insult.
I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Superstars similarly uses Robotnik formally and has Sonic call him "Eggman" as a nickname - especially as its classic Sonic and inspired by the old games. But its equally as likely that the ESRB summary was written by a British guy who grew up playing the Megadrive games and just thinks of him as Robotnik, and no-one corrected it. "jump on enemies' heads, causing them to transform into small creatures" certainly sounds lke something Sega would have reworded if the summary was run by them as thats obviously not exactly whats meant to be happening - he's freeing the animals from their mech suit prisons.
Interestingly (to me at least!) in this Sonic Central live stream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbvvteIEoIo) they introduced a new employee that Sega have hired specifically to be the "loremaster" and make sure all media going forward - games, comics, movies, tv shows are all consistent in the characterisation of everyone, and also to create a unified canon to at least try to make all the previous games and media tie together well enough to have a proper canon history for new media to refer to. Everyone from the marketing teams in the West through to the game designers in Japan will run things by him first. So the stance on Robotnik / Eggman will be the same for all media going forward.
@Nikki_boagreis Friends of mine got married at Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland, and that was a fun time! I have an apartment essentially "in" Disneyland Paris and people get married there all the time - often with different themes, not just the typical "royal wedding" you'd imagine. Pirate weddings are quite popular, for example.
@Cashews I'm impressed by the quality of the theming but it is disappointingly small and very claustrophobic when busy - I'd recomend going on a Wednesday morning when it's not a school holiday! lol. The Japanese one is a little bigger and more impressive with another proper attraction, I certainly hope the one in Florida will be at least as big if not bigger tahn that one.
The California based Disney & Universal parks always have real problems with size/expansion as they are in built up residential/city areas. But even in Florida where they have far more space, I don't imagine it will even slightly compare in size or ambition to Galaxy's Edge or Wizarding World.
I'd say its great for what it is, as long as you keep your expectations quite low and don't compare to other larger "immersive world" experiences. Its not really even remotely its own "theme park" (which I see many people here labelling it as), more like an extra "land" in the existing park, like when Disney added the Toy Story areas to some of their parks. You wouldn't go to Disneyland only for Tomorrowland and expect a full day's entertainment, people shouldn't go to Universal only for Nintendo... its certainly a great addition though and high quality for what it is.
If you're a huge Nintendo fan, you'll get a kick out of it regardless, as long as you are aware its very small and don't build your expectations too high... For me, as a massive Muppet fan, I was really happy the first time I experienced the Muppet square in Hollywood studios, even though its only really one attraction, a restaurant, a shop, and some nice theming of the area with photo opportunities, easter eggs etc to be able to call it a small "land".
@EarthboundBenjy He's Robotnik in the movies... and Iizuka has recently (circa 2019ish) changed his stance and said that official canon is his name is Doctor Ivo Robotnik, but "Eggman" is his nickname.
My headcanon is still the Fleetway version where he originally was a good, tall, slim scientist called Ovi Kintobor... until a mistake with a rotten egg made an "opposite" of him, and his name was reversed! 😂
@JohnnyMind Yeah that's the only thing that could hurt it in the short term, but Sonic tends to be evergreen, casual audiences keep buying the game long after launch (especially with each subsequent price drop and/or bundling with other Sega games), and there is a big enough amount of die hard fans who'll buy it regardless. As @Grumblevolcano said, Forces was released near Odyssey and sold fine despite even the most fervant hard fans admiting its far from teh best game. Retro enthusiasts and people who love 2d platformers will buy both games, they aren't really in too much competition with each other.
@F_Destroyer No worries. I was concerned too, but the Switch trailer reassured me that they cut back in the correct areas, and left the framerate to target 60.
@Jireland92 They've already anounced 2 different character skins as free bonuses (one for pre-ordering, one for signing up to the mailing list) so I think its a very safe bet they'll do what they did with the recent monkey ball and have multiple retro skins, or even other characters available for micro purchases. Lego versions of the 4 main hero characters is a given, being we have a free Lego Robotnik Skin, and I'd guess "Modern" variations might be coming, as Amy has her modern costume as the other free skin.. though its just her costume, not her full modern redesign to her hair/spikes etc.
Obviously I'd prefer if skins and characters were free and unlockable through gameplay, but as long as its cosmetic things rather than walling off gameplay features or making it "pay to win" ala mobile games, I'm ok with it and its justr an annoying part of modern gaming rather than Sega specifically ruining the game for cash.
I also don't mind if there is a substantial "plus" dlc a year or so down the line, as long as its genuinely newly developed content and doesn't just mean selling a purposefully incomplete game by holding back stuff from the off. The fact we get Amy from the begining is a good sign that they aren't trying to nickle and dime too badly. I love playing her in Origins, but it did always feel like she should have been there from the start, and probably was intended to be, judging by the animated scenes.
They've said that there are 12 all original zones (presumably with multiple acts) so I think thats a decent amount of content. I can easily imagine maybe unlockable skins to retexture them and make them look like retro zones but with the same layouts... or a full DLC with retro zones with new layouts. Either would be cool, I probably wouldn't buy the skins, but would pay for DLC if it was substanially new gameplay content.
@WaveBoy Check out the launch trailer from Summer Games Fest (on Sonic's YouTube) vs the Switch Trailer from the Nintendo Direct (on Nintendo's YouTube) to see for yourself if the differences in performance bother you. The Switch version clearly is at a lower resolution and is less detailled in the backgrounds, but in my opinion it still looks really nice. Its running at a smooth 60fps on the single player parts too, slowing down the footage I don't notice any frameskips or uneven pacing.
However, the 4 player bits seem slighty less smooth - maybe dropping some frames? But its hard to tell because the camera is more erratic as its trying to find the best center for all 4 characters, and those shots are mostly during set pieces or bosses where I'm not sure if there are intentional slowdowns or jerks to emphasise the appearances, attacks etc. Either way, to my eyes it looks fine and doesn't bother me, but your mileage may vary.
For me, I'll be buying digitally on PC to have the nicest performance and graphics on the big screen, but also buying for Switch to have a physical copy for the shelf, and to play it portably - I'm perfectly happy with what I've seen so far But then I'm a classic Sonic fanboy.
I hope they manage to get it out earlier than the rumoured date, I don't want Wonder to eat into its sales, and I personally want enough time to get both on their respective launch days and savour them properly.
But either way - a brand new 2d Sonic and 2d Mario, with both looking excellent, has me giddier for the near future of games than I've been in decades, frankly. With playable Amy and Daisy no less! Finally 🥰
@Corvus96 @Ultimapunch For me, the visuals of the remake are very nice looking, but its mostly the extra buttons that make the remake the "best" way to play - however I really don't like the fact you can't use the D-Pad, and every time it slows down or the framerate stutters, it annoys me. I hope that whatever the successor to the Switch is, is backwards compatible and willl run it at a smooth framerate, it really is quite jarring - and the fact they still haven't patched in D-pad support for a game that uses 4 way movement is very frustrating.
I honestly can see why some people would prefer the DX version, even without nostalgia for it. The pixel art is cute and it runs perfectly.
I love Links Awakening, its my favourite Zelda for the story, the design, and the weird quirkiness. But for me, there is no "perfect" version of it. Its the fact you don't have to keep swapping your buttons around for different items that makes me slightly prefer the remake. But as it stands, with the rough performance, its far from conclusively better.
Hmm, my top 10 Nintendo games? Assuming we are talking Nintendo published games only, no third parties (otherwise there would be many Konami, Capcom and Shantae games padding out the list)...
1) Super Mario 64 2) Donkey Kong '94 3) Captain Toad Treasure Tracker 4) Animal Crossing New Horizons 5) Super Mario Bros 3 6) Links Awakening (or DX, or remake) 7) Donkey Kong Country (1+2) 8) Kirby's Adventure 9) Cruisin' Blast (Switch version) 10) Yoshi's Wooly World (port it to Switch please!)
Honourable mentions that could have easily been in the top 10 but I find it harder to place in a definitve order: Super Mario World, Wave Race 64, Pokemon Stadium (+Pokemon Blue!), Mario Kart 8 (maybe not deluxe) & MK64, Metroid Fusion, Luigi's Mansion, Star Fox / Star Fox 64, Super Mario RPG, Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Super Mario Land 1/2/3
Comments 1,500
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Woderwick Spot on. Kudos for the Clockwork Orange reference too!
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Wave 6 Brings Back Four Returning Characters This Winter
@Yosti Ah that sucks that it doesn't include a cartridge - it was worded in such a way that made me think it would, and only Wave 6 would need to be downloaded. Guess I'll import that Japanese version then!
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
@BeefSanta Absolutely not, Pizza Tower is fantastic, I'm sure it will be on Switch soon, its the game's natural home. As a fellow SAGE developer its so cool that something from that community grew so huge in the mainstream - don't know if you saw but they actually released an exclusive (official) Nights into Dreams themed Pizza Tower for SAGE this year! I was very happy to see it! Nights is my favourite game.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
@LadyCharlie Thank you for the kind response Charlie, you are a consistent empathetic voice on this site which is very welcome. I completely agree with what you said about how rhythm games and music games can be very cathartic. This combined with the fact the silliness of the game made me smile then laugh for the first time in months was extremely healing at an incredibly difficult time. I'm sorry to hear you have been through periods like this also and very glad that you were able to overcome them in a similar manner.
This is actually the first time I've posted to this site in quite a few months because I've been taking a long mental health break from social media. Hope its not oversharing and no need to respond if its awkward but some people here know that I'm in the film industry... earlier in the year I went insanely viral unexpectedly and this lead to many interviews and convention appearances and a book deal and all kinds of crazy stuff in a short period and as someone who is autistic and has high anxiety, masking and coping for so long for literally hundreds of thousands of people in person and millions online essentially lead to my brain just noping out, and I'm still semi recovering emotionally.
I'm slowly coming back online tentatively, first as a dev releasing a Sonic fan game for SAGE (when I was unable to really do anything else, and just hiding from the world in a room by myself, I threw my focus into a project based on something comforting that I love, people here know I'm somewhat Sonic obsessive! Not to plug, but if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM ). Having the safety of only talking to people with similar interests who were probably going to be happy to talk to me or would only ask about my game and nothing too personal or "scary" from an anxiety raising perspective. It was a very positive experience.
I always enjoy the group chat experience on Nintendolife during Directs, so I used this as an excuse to start posting here again today. Again, I'm not quite comfortable enough to go back to general social media yet, but a small, dedicated community of people with shared interests is a very nice way to ease myself back into being comfortable talking to people online 😀 Little steps.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
@LadyCharlie I absolutely love Trombone champ on PC, as a 1 player experience on PC, it really genuinely helped cheer me up out of one of the nastiest periods of crippling depression in my life. I can only imagine how joyous it will be as a communal party experience with motion controls and everyone gathered round the TV.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
@Orpheus79V Yeah. I'm a Switch game dev and can confirm that little indie guys like me have not heard one peep from Nintendo about the hardware or even things like if our Switch games will run on it - so its early days and only the big boys who need to know about what the top performace of 3d stuff will be that are privvy to this. I would predict (based on little except market experience) that th announcement won't be until at least March, and its most likely it won't be available until at least August, probably later.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Woderwick "It felt as though they'd given the sequel to a team of lads mag aficionados who had totally missed what made the first game so good" haha yeah that was the distinct impression I got - and what stuck in mind even 2 decades later. And being that at the time I was in my very early 20s and not adverse to buying the occasional lads mag, the fact it made me feel that way means it was probably fairly full on, or at least a jarring departure from the previous title.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
I voted for:
Paper Mario Thousand Year Door,
Princess Peach Showtime
and Mario Vs Donkey Kong.
I would have voted for Suepr Mario RPG but we'd already seen a lot of that. Peach was anounced but we knew comparitively little about it. New F-Zero is always welcome, and it looks fun, but I don't really play online only games much.
Other games that I'm excited for:
Luigi's Mansion 2 HD
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Horizon Chase 2
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
Dave the Diver
Trombone Champ is incredible on PC and has potential to be the best party / icebreaker game ever with motion controls and being on the living room TV rather than the office computer played with a mouse.
Plenty of other games that caught my interest and I'll look out for more info / reviews. Overall, a decent direct. I think if we hadn't already known about Mario RPG, Luigi's Mansion, Prince of Persia and Peach it would have been kinda mindblowing. Really, they could have combined both directs and made the best direct ever - but its ok to split them like this.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
@theModestMouse I don't think anyone sane would suggest that they'll officially announce it before the holiday season and hurt sales. But I also don't think anyone sane would claim it doesn't exist when it was literally being shown off to developers at Gamescom.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Woderwick Yeah I totally agree about the grid based movement for these ports. That's 100% fine with me, its a big part of what I enjoy about the originals.
As for Sands of Time, yeah that totally makes sense, my predominant memopry was how good it felt to control, how fun it was running around and feeling like a parkour badass... and the sequels were definitely less about that and more about trying to be edgy in design & story (many PS2 era games fell into this trap) mixed with basic and repetetive hack and slash button mashing... or at least that's how I remember them.
One thing that intregues me is that Croshaw (who if you aren't familiar with him is a long time game critic, but also a talented indie dev and very successful novelist) regularly cites the story and especially the handling of the romance elements as being a textbook example of how to do these elements well in an action game... and the sequels as textbook examples of how not to do it. I don't remember this element much other than feeling the sequels were more edgy and perhaps sexist or "bro-ish" in comparisson.
The fact such a respected & successful storyteller regularly praises the story in an old PS2 game must mean it did something right. Of course, he also talks about the joy of traversal and just plain fun moving through the environments. The only other game he mentions in such high regard for those elements are Spider-Man 2 & the Insomniac games.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Woderwick Interesting - I remember really enjoying Sands of Time back when it first came out, but the sequels didn't hold my attention in quite the same way and I've not replayed it again since then. Yahtzee Croshaw often cites it as one of the best games ever made so I've long considered going back to it when I have time.
I didn't specifically remember the grid-based nature that you mention but I do remember it feeling amazingly fluid and fun to control so if it subtley fixes/pushes your jumps to align to a grid rather than being precisiely what you pressed that's very interesting. I should really replay it soon, thanks for the reminder!
Re: Contra: Operation Galuga Blasts Onto Switch In Early 2024
I love the original game (and Super C and III), and Way Forward have made some of my favourite games... I'm not sure how I feel about this though. The graphics are very hard to look at. Both in the way that I think they look like a cheap PS2 game, but also in that I find it difficult to pick out the characters from the backgrounds when everything's moving fast. That was never a problem with the originals.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@PinderSchloss Yeah, the Dreamcast and PC versions looked several generations improved over the Playstation version of the same game. Those times felt like technology was progressing forward at an incredible rate.
Happy times for sure. Now I think about it, it was also the first game I played when moving out from my parents and into my own place, which was a beautiful little remote place on a cliff overlooking the sea, and shortly after my then GF moved in and we played it together. That probably also builds my positive association to it. But I think even without the nostalgia, its objectively a great game. It should definitely have been included also... abd Chronicles because "why not complete the set". 😅
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Antraxx777 Ah, cool, glad you have them and enjoy them 😀
The original games do indeed play really well with a keyboard. However the very first game was actually originally designed as a Saturn exclusive, then ported to Playstation - beack in the early days when nether console's original joypads had an analogue stick - in other words, they were designed for a D-pad, and work well with one. Again, forgive me if you already knew that.
I can imagine them working really nicely with the "four buttons" pseudo d-pad of the Switch, and especailly the D-Pad on the Switch Lite, and the Pro Controller, which are my two prefered ways of playing. If they do add analogue support for camera controls (which seems a given) that will really improve the games in a meaningful way.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@PinderSchloss Thank you! Also I'm glad to see you and several others saying Last Revelation was their favourite. I've always felt that way but wasn't sure if that was because I played it on Dreamcast and as a Sega fanboy first who'd been annoyed he had to play 2 & 3 on Playstation, then having such a huge upgrade in graphics and a Sega homecoming (the first game was originally designed as a Saturn exclusive, then ported) means I have all kinds of warm feelings of nostalgia towards those first times playing it. Sales-wise, I think the original 3 did by far the best but it rankled me to hear the direct anouncer describe them as a "trilogy".
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Antraxx777 There were 3 games in that series, all made by Crystal Dynamics (the Gex people!) and feature analogue controls. Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Legend, and Tomb Raider Underworld. If you prefer that style of play, I can happily recomend them all, they are very different to the original, but good in their own way, and some people prefer them. I'd 100% welcome these getting a trilogy release on Switch too.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Orpheus79V Thanks! Yeah I understand people who grew up in an analogue only world (or people who see analogue as something we "moved past") to comment that tank controls will make these games "unplayable" but without them, the entire game wouldn't function. This is why the modern games exist. But personally, I feel something was lost and the original 5 games are the ones I enjoy the most - I think because I gravitate towards puzzle elements in platform games and that was what gripped me most about the first game when it came out.
Re: Fasten Your Seatbelts, Horizon Chase 2 Is Out Now On The Switch eShop
@RenanKJ Yup we are clearly on exactly the same page. I slightly went down the "GTA-meets-Fast-and-furious" (great description btw!) route for a while with some of the early NFS games holding some of my interest but nothing ever hit the highs of the "Blue Skies" Sega/Namco style games, for me. Halfway through the original Most Wanted I realised the series was going in a direction I wasn't keen on. Even the Burnout series kinda lost my interest after 3... which is saying something as Takedown is in my top 10 games ever.
I tried my best to get into games like Gran Turismo, Forza, Colin McRae, official F1 etc as the graphics were impressive but I just don't find them remotely fun... whereas I still go back and replay Sega Rally, Daytona, Ridge Racer, Chase HQ, Out Run et al to this day. And yeah Top Gear for SNES was awesome, based on the Lotus series from Amiga, which I loved. In fact I believe the Top Gear game was what inspired development of the original Horizon Chase, and they hired the same composer of the music!
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@crimsontadpoles Yeah the fact Last Revelation and Chronicles aren't included is somewhat baffling and I can't see the missing 2 making a compelling "volume 2" for many. But I'm happy we're getting these three anyway, and the DLC inclusion is nice.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Antraxx777 Yeah the new graphics definitely do look similar. I can see your suggestion working, as long as the step and stride length is fixed also, so the only analogue elements are the turning, and if she tip-toes/full steps/runs is based on how far you tilt the stick. The jump lengths are very precisely designed so you must tiptoe to the very edge then jump in one of several very specific ways depending on the speed you're moving. Similar to the original 2d Prince of Persia / Flashback , its more like a geometric navigation puzzle rather than an actual "platformer".
Re: The Indie Darling Of 2023 'Dave The Diver' Swims Onto Switch In October
I keep hearing about this game over and over from industry people that I trust, including those that are usually very strict/harsh in their critiques. I'm pretty certain its excellent. I've not had time to check it out but when I do, it will be on Switch. Very glad to have it available on my platform of choice for retro-ish indies.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
@Antraxx777 Tomb Raider Anniversary is a completely different game, (a remake/reimagining not remaster) this is very much not it. You can't recreate the original levels without at least semi-tank controls, they are grid based and designed around it, as per my above comment. Analogue controls would make much of the puzzle platforming completely impossible. Sure, they will add analogue controls to the camera and could do for Lara's turning, but it will still be grid based and "tank ish" to some extent, because removing that element breaks the game. Thats why they had to make completely new levels for Anniversary.
Re: The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy Is Getting Remastered For Switch
I really love these games and have been asking for this for a while. The fact they include the original graphics as an option is great, I'm not 100% sold on the new ones, (though I don't hate them or anything).
My only annoyance is that this series was never a "trilogy"... there were 5 games in this series. The Last Revelation and Chronicles all use the same engine, control scheme and play style. They really should have included them all, they wouldn't make a very good standalone release from a marketing perspective.
I know some people will say "I hope they have modern controls" but honestly that would completely break them - the level design is extremely precise and grid based around the "limited" movement. Its like Prince of Persia / Flashback in 3d.
They already made a remake of the original game with modern controls and had to completely remake the levels and its just an entirely different game. A good one, but not the same at all. I've always vastly prefered the puzzle/grid based nature of the originals.
Re: F-ZERO 99 Turns The Classic Racer Into A 99-Player Battle Royale, On NSO Today
@Jamie_R Oh I agree it seems innevitable. It just should have been anounced at the same time as this, to avoid certain fans feeling burned by '99 rather than amused and intregued. I'm not saying that I personally am angry/annoyed, but I can forsee many people being so... and that seems unnecessary and easily preventable.
Re: Fasten Your Seatbelts, Horizon Chase 2 Is Out Now On The Switch eShop
More Arcade racers are always welcome. "car racing games" over time slowly went from being my 2nd most played genre in the 80s/90s to one I never even consider buying because they became too po-faced and lost the sense of fun, the bright colours, blue skies and hype-driving music.
I'm glad that every now and again we get a high quality arcade style title. Cruis'n Blast became one of my top played Switch games, felt like coming home.
Re: Stunning Zelda-Like 'Eastward' Plants New Farm-Sim DLC This Winter
I definitely don't need another farming sim, and I've not gotten round to playing Eastward yet, but the pixel art stuns me every time I see footage of it. Its really top tier.
Re: Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Gets Spooky On Switch Next Summer
I've only ever played 1 & 3 (I wasn't a big DS/3DS guy I'm afraid) so I'm very glad for the chance to play this. While I heard it was more level based than the first, which made me less interested back when it came out, the footage makes it look fun. I like that there seems to be a decent variety in the different "mansion"s.
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Wave 6 Brings Back Four Returning Characters This Winter
At least we finally get Diddy. If he'd been left out of this game it would have felt very wrong.
I'm surprised but pretty happy about the physical release of the completed DLC. It bothers me to have a physical game, and then substantial DLC releases but have no physical version. The fact they made it separate to the main game and not a "complete" version hopefully means it will be a reasonable price. Although the fact it doesn't have Wave 6 on the kart is super annoying.
Re: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Brings Some Platform Puzzling To Switch Next February
DK '94 is in my top 10 favourite games of all time. Maybe top 5. This is a remake of the sequel - which I never really played as much as I should have because I found it hard to get over how much I hated the pre-rendered graphics at such a low resolution... this gives me a chance to replay it properly and appreciate the level design and puzzles.
I really, REALLY love this style of puzzle platforming and Mario's "64-esque" moveset in 2D. I was disappointed with the direction the Mario VS Donkey Kong series went in over time, that Wii U game was just not for me in the slightest, sadly. I hope this game does well and leads to more similar titles. Even if its just this, I will relish every second of playing it.
Re: Trombone Champ Makes Noise On Switch With Gyro Controls Today
@Cashews Yes, its absolutely hilarious. Many of the songs feel pretty much impossible to play and give you a genuine sense of panic trying to catch up and you just end up cry laughing at how silly it is and how terrible your efforts sound. Its really a wonderful and unique experience. Can't overstate enough how fun it is, and it is a perfect "spectator sport" for people watching you play and fail, so it became somewhat of a streaming / youtube phenomena... I can only imagine how funny it would be in a communal party situation!
Re: GameCube Classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Is Heading To Switch
I genuinely never thought this would happen, being the direction Paper Mario went in over the years. But with SMRPG and this getting proper remake treatments, if they sell well, I've hopes that Paper Mario games might return to having more traditional RPG mechanics and proper in depth stories and character depth... fingers crossed. Either way, I'm very happy to replay them both.
PS Arlo will FREAK out and make at least 4 hour long rants about Paper Mario.
Re: Trombone Champ Makes Noise On Switch With Gyro Controls Today
@Cashews Certainly for multiplayer it will be a hilarious fun party / family game.
Re: F-ZERO 99 Turns The Classic Racer Into A 99-Player Battle Royale, On NSO Today
This looks a lot of fun but they really should have also dropped a GX announcement, even if just a quick and dirty port like Pikmin 1&2. Felt like raising hope then somewhat dashing it for a lot of fans. Simple GC ports at semi-budget price are a super easy win for Ninty.
For me, and I think a lot of fans, F-Zero is actually predominantly a 1 player experience, challenging yourself to shave milliseconds off your time, or get good enough to beat the track that at first seems impossible.
Turning it into a "fall guys" style experience is super cool as a side project but I don't think it will scratch the F-Zero itch properly for many.
Re: Princess Peach: Showtime! Opens On Switch In March 2024
After what little was shown of it in the previous direct I thought it was super early in development and we wouldn't hear about it for ages - glad to be proved wrong.
I'm 100% sold on this. I loved everything I saw.
Re: Trombone Champ Makes Noise On Switch With Gyro Controls Today
The PC version of this game is an incredible time. It released when I was deep in a spiral of depression but made me laugh and smile for the first time in ages and was just fun times all round. I can't imagine playing it without a mouse but looks like they are giving interesting variety of choices.
Re: Poll: Which Dormant Nintendo Franchise Would You Most Like To See Return?
Wave Race, Star Fox, FZero. All need a comeback. 1080 would be nice too, there's not enough snowboarding games these days, used to be one of my favourite genres - would love a port of SSX Tricky especially.
Eternal Darkness was brilliant, though I'm not sure how well a sequel would do on a Nintendo platform - they don't even bother releasing the Fatal Frame games physically outside of Asia.
Obviously I love Donkey Kong Country - I don't really feel that's really "dormant", sure we'll be getting a new one soon, or at least on the new hardware when thats announced if they are saving it for that.
@Sir_Axeman I'd love a new Banjo platformer. Sadly, not a "Nintendo" franchise. But it might happen, Microsoft and Nintendo seen on good terms.
Re: Video: Sega Releases Stunning Opening Animation For Sonic Superstars
@HammerGalladeBro @Snatcher That animation wasn't made for Sonic Jam specifically, it was sort of a pilot / pitch video for a Sonic animated show by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), and just put into the Sonic World area as a bonus.
The show never got picked up but they did get to work on the DiC Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog show for the intro and some of the episodes. And yes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, etc. too. IIRC they also did animation for Sonic X some years later. I like the 2d bits a lot, but I'm not keen on the mixture of early CG environments with 2d art. I liked the DiC Sonic show a lot though, far more consistent style.
Re: UK Charts: FIFA 23 Takes First Place Ahead Of Switch FC 24 Debut
@Orpheus79V I hope you're right. But logic says if they take a few years to find a good developer and start from scratch to build something decent, everyone will be aware of the fact that EA's "FIFA" changed its name by the time it comes out, and the brand will have lost its power as a videogames franchise.
They must be very aware of the fact that the only way to keep people buying the games because of the brand, and have a chance of going against EA is to release a game called FIFA 24 within the right window to confuse enough people and divert sales. Obviously Konami would be the best candidates right now but I'm sure there's plenty of small indie studios who make sports games that will happily agree to bash something out quickly, or licenese them a game they've already made and just rebadge it and change the names/logos. Hell, I've got a motion capture setup and I can use Unreal Engine, if they chuck me half a million I'll make a passable game single handedly in 6 months for half a mill. Bargain. It'll be rubbish, but we'll sell a tonne.
I know its a different world but that famously happened multiple times in the past where companies bough the rights to specific events like world cups or euro tournaments for a specific year, and then for whatever reason didn't manage to get their game finished in time, so they just bought the rights to a previous game and rebadged it, to not miss out on the sales.
The fact FIFA will 100% lose this battle if they don't release something quickly means it will either be a very rushed game, or a rebadged older title - either way it won't complete with EA who know they have to pull out all the stops and make a spectacular game this time round. Thats why I said "FIFA 24" will be rubbish.
Again, I hope you're right and they take time to actually develop something awesome from teh ground up. Competition is always good, like the old days of FIFA vs ISS / Pr Evo and the multitude of other upstart competitors every year in the 16bit and 32bit days. In order to sell the most, you genuinely had to be the best... til EA cornered the market seemingly permanently. I'd love it if in 2-3 years time we got a genuinely ground breaking wonder game from FIFA. But by doing that, they are leaving millions in easy quick sales on the table, risking millions developing it, and this coming from a company with no experience in devloping games and probably no concept of what actually makes a good game other than their liscensed logos and names. I don't see it happening unless they get an outside offer from someone major like perhaps Sony or Microsoft themselves hoping to get a console exclusive & willing to take the hit.
Re: UK Charts: FIFA 23 Takes First Place Ahead Of Switch FC 24 Debut
@westman98 Well, yes, but also no.
FIFA as a governing body have made clear they want to release their own games without EA. So there likely will be a game called "FIFA 24", made in a hurry by whichever team offers to do it the cheapest for them. I'm sure it won't be great, but it will still be called "FIFA 24" and therefore confuse a lot of casuals / parents.
Assuming you knew that and your sentiment was just that EAFC 24 is the "real" FIFA 24, of course I agree with you. But it doesn't help the dev team if we don't adopt the new name.
Re: UK Charts: FIFA 23 Takes First Place Ahead Of Switch FC 24 Debut
@8BitMonet Yes. FIFA 23 isn't a new game, it came out last year - the number in the title is always one year ahead. As others have said, the reason for the sudden sales is probably due to the fact its been on sale a lot, partly to coincide with the current tournaments, but also to clear old stock before the new game drops, and being bundles with Prime Day console deals.
I have no doubt that FIFA 24, if it even comes out, will be an absolute train wreck. It will probably still sell ok due to casuals not knowing its not the real deal. EA's FC 24 however looks like the first soccer title I might actually pick up for Switch...
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@JohnnyMind Yeah of course! I'm very happy Sonic as a brand overall is on an upswing with success in the 2d & 3d games, comics, tv shows and movies all at record highs... i really want this to continue so Sega know they are on the right path and trust the people doing the great work to keep going without meddling too much and trying to reinvent the wheel every couple of years like they did for over a decade to somewhat mixed results! lol
I love Mario as well, and am super excited for Wonder, but there is no doubt in my mind that it will be a success, and Mario will keep doing well as a brand. Sonic is always more of a risk, so I feel more passionate about its success. If for some reason I could only afford one game, I would buy Sonic, and get Mario later, because they don't need my sale as much and will continue to make games regardless.
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@EarthboundBenjy I'm not sure, and thats an interesting question. Since 2019 its been pretty normal for both Sega of America and Japan employees to use the terms interchangably and Iizuka made an official statement on it around the same time saying that even in the Japanese canon his full name is Dr Ivo Robotnik and Eggman is just his nickname/alias.
I'm pretty sure in Frontiers he's called "Eggman" exclusively but I've seen Kishimoto refer to "Robotnik's creations" when refering to badniks. In the movies he's Robotnik but Sonic calls him "Eggman" like an insult.
I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Superstars similarly uses Robotnik formally and has Sonic call him "Eggman" as a nickname - especially as its classic Sonic and inspired by the old games. But its equally as likely that the ESRB summary was written by a British guy who grew up playing the Megadrive games and just thinks of him as Robotnik, and no-one corrected it. "jump on enemies' heads, causing them to transform into small creatures" certainly sounds lke something Sega would have reworded if the summary was run by them as thats obviously not exactly whats meant to be happening - he's freeing the animals from their mech suit prisons.
Interestingly (to me at least!) in this Sonic Central live stream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbvvteIEoIo) they introduced a new employee that Sega have hired specifically to be the "loremaster" and make sure all media going forward - games, comics, movies, tv shows are all consistent in the characterisation of everyone, and also to create a unified canon to at least try to make all the previous games and media tie together well enough to have a proper canon history for new media to refer to. Everyone from the marketing teams in the West through to the game designers in Japan will run things by him first. So the stance on Robotnik / Eggman will be the same for all media going forward.
Re: Super Nintendo World Hollywood Welcomes Toad To Its Walk-About Cast
@Nikki_boagreis Friends of mine got married at Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland, and that was a fun time! I have an apartment essentially "in" Disneyland Paris and people get married there all the time - often with different themes, not just the typical "royal wedding" you'd imagine. Pirate weddings are quite popular, for example.
@Cashews I'm impressed by the quality of the theming but it is disappointingly small and very claustrophobic when busy - I'd recomend going on a Wednesday morning when it's not a school holiday! lol. The Japanese one is a little bigger and more impressive with another proper attraction, I certainly hope the one in Florida will be at least as big if not bigger tahn that one.
The California based Disney & Universal parks always have real problems with size/expansion as they are in built up residential/city areas. But even in Florida where they have far more space, I don't imagine it will even slightly compare in size or ambition to Galaxy's Edge or Wizarding World.
I'd say its great for what it is, as long as you keep your expectations quite low and don't compare to other larger "immersive world" experiences. Its not really even remotely its own "theme park" (which I see many people here labelling it as), more like an extra "land" in the existing park, like when Disney added the Toy Story areas to some of their parks. You wouldn't go to Disneyland only for Tomorrowland and expect a full day's entertainment, people shouldn't go to Universal only for Nintendo... its certainly a great addition though and high quality for what it is.
If you're a huge Nintendo fan, you'll get a kick out of it regardless, as long as you are aware its very small and don't build your expectations too high... For me, as a massive Muppet fan, I was really happy the first time I experienced the Muppet square in Hollywood studios, even though its only really one attraction, a restaurant, a shop, and some nice theming of the area with photo opportunities, easter eggs etc to be able to call it a small "land".
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@EarthboundBenjy He's Robotnik in the movies... and Iizuka has recently (circa 2019ish) changed his stance and said that official canon is his name is Doctor Ivo Robotnik, but "Eggman" is his nickname.
My headcanon is still the Fleetway version where he originally was a good, tall, slim scientist called Ovi Kintobor... until a mistake with a rotten egg made an "opposite" of him, and his name was reversed! 😂
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@JohnnyMind Yeah that's the only thing that could hurt it in the short term, but Sonic tends to be evergreen, casual audiences keep buying the game long after launch (especially with each subsequent price drop and/or bundling with other Sega games), and there is a big enough amount of die hard fans who'll buy it regardless. As @Grumblevolcano said, Forces was released near Odyssey and sold fine despite even the most fervant hard fans admiting its far from teh best game. Retro enthusiasts and people who love 2d platformers will buy both games, they aren't really in too much competition with each other.
@F_Destroyer No worries. I was concerned too, but the Switch trailer reassured me that they cut back in the correct areas, and left the framerate to target 60.
@Jireland92 They've already anounced 2 different character skins as free bonuses (one for pre-ordering, one for signing up to the mailing list) so I think its a very safe bet they'll do what they did with the recent monkey ball and have multiple retro skins, or even other characters available for micro purchases. Lego versions of the 4 main hero characters is a given, being we have a free Lego Robotnik Skin, and I'd guess "Modern" variations might be coming, as Amy has her modern costume as the other free skin.. though its just her costume, not her full modern redesign to her hair/spikes etc.
Obviously I'd prefer if skins and characters were free and unlockable through gameplay, but as long as its cosmetic things rather than walling off gameplay features or making it "pay to win" ala mobile games, I'm ok with it and its justr an annoying part of modern gaming rather than Sega specifically ruining the game for cash.
I also don't mind if there is a substantial "plus" dlc a year or so down the line, as long as its genuinely newly developed content and doesn't just mean selling a purposefully incomplete game by holding back stuff from the off. The fact we get Amy from the begining is a good sign that they aren't trying to nickle and dime too badly. I love playing her in Origins, but it did always feel like she should have been there from the start, and probably was intended to be, judging by the animated scenes.
They've said that there are 12 all original zones (presumably with multiple acts) so I think thats a decent amount of content. I can easily imagine maybe unlockable skins to retexture them and make them look like retro zones but with the same layouts... or a full DLC with retro zones with new layouts. Either would be cool, I probably wouldn't buy the skins, but would pay for DLC if it was substanially new gameplay content.
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@HotGoomba How did you get your hands on the sequel to Shadow the Hedgehog? They've not even officially revealed it yet!
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
@WaveBoy Check out the launch trailer from Summer Games Fest (on Sonic's YouTube) vs the Switch Trailer from the Nintendo Direct (on Nintendo's YouTube) to see for yourself if the differences in performance bother you. The Switch version clearly is at a lower resolution and is less detailled in the backgrounds, but in my opinion it still looks really nice. Its running at a smooth 60fps on the single player parts too, slowing down the footage I don't notice any frameskips or uneven pacing.
However, the 4 player bits seem slighty less smooth - maybe dropping some frames? But its hard to tell because the camera is more erratic as its trying to find the best center for all 4 characters, and those shots are mostly during set pieces or bosses where I'm not sure if there are intentional slowdowns or jerks to emphasise the appearances, attacks etc. Either way, to my eyes it looks fine and doesn't bother me, but your mileage may vary.
For me, I'll be buying digitally on PC to have the nicest performance and graphics on the big screen, but also buying for Switch to have a physical copy for the shelf, and to play it portably - I'm perfectly happy with what I've seen so far But then I'm a classic Sonic fanboy.
Re: Sonic Superstars Has Been Rated For Switch By The ESRB
HYPE! 😍
I hope they manage to get it out earlier than the rumoured date, I don't want Wonder to eat into its sales, and I personally want enough time to get both on their respective launch days and savour them properly.
But either way - a brand new 2d Sonic and 2d Mario, with both looking excellent, has me giddier for the near future of games than I've been in decades, frankly. With playable Amy and Daisy no less! Finally 🥰
Re: Top 100 Best Nintendo Games Of All Time
@Corvus96 @Ultimapunch For me, the visuals of the remake are very nice looking, but its mostly the extra buttons that make the remake the "best" way to play - however I really don't like the fact you can't use the D-Pad, and every time it slows down or the framerate stutters, it annoys me. I hope that whatever the successor to the Switch is, is backwards compatible and willl run it at a smooth framerate, it really is quite jarring - and the fact they still haven't patched in D-pad support for a game that uses 4 way movement is very frustrating.
I honestly can see why some people would prefer the DX version, even without nostalgia for it. The pixel art is cute and it runs perfectly.
I love Links Awakening, its my favourite Zelda for the story, the design, and the weird quirkiness. But for me, there is no "perfect" version of it. Its the fact you don't have to keep swapping your buttons around for different items that makes me slightly prefer the remake. But as it stands, with the rough performance, its far from conclusively better.
Re: Top 100 Best Nintendo Games Of All Time
Hmm, my top 10 Nintendo games? Assuming we are talking Nintendo published games only, no third parties (otherwise there would be many Konami, Capcom and Shantae games padding out the list)...
1) Super Mario 64
2) Donkey Kong '94
3) Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
4) Animal Crossing New Horizons
5) Super Mario Bros 3
6) Links Awakening (or DX, or remake)
7) Donkey Kong Country (1+2)
8) Kirby's Adventure
9) Cruisin' Blast (Switch version)
10) Yoshi's Wooly World (port it to Switch please!)
Honourable mentions that could have easily been in the top 10 but I find it harder to place in a definitve order: Super Mario World, Wave Race 64, Pokemon Stadium (+Pokemon Blue!), Mario Kart 8 (maybe not deluxe) & MK64, Metroid Fusion, Luigi's Mansion, Star Fox / Star Fox 64, Super Mario RPG, Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Super Mario Land 1/2/3