sdelfin

I echo the sentiments of a handful of others in the comments, Paramount not getting this deal is the one positive in all this. But these gigantic mergers need to be stopped and not much good will come from this level of consolidation.

I see people complaining about Netflix, and I take no issue with people doing so. It just makes me laugh a little because I never bought into streaming services like Netflix. The funny part to me is thinking about how when I was a Netflix subscriber, it was for DVD by mail. And it was the early days of when they did that.

Very easy call for me this week. North America by a mile. The western comic book style is great, and this one is very well executed. Great composition. Very good all around.

Europe's is funny because, at first, it looked totally out of nowhere. It's like the artist did it based on a verbal description of the character. Not quite the green outfit from the game, but it is green, so points for that. Once I viewed it from the perspective of it resembling a pre-1975 or so sci-fi aesthetic, I started to like it more. It has a look similar to the likes of Logan's Run, Buck Rogers, The Phantom, and stuff like that. I don't hate it.

Japan's is well drawn, but obscuring the hero's face on cover art is a huge error. It was the first thing I noticed. It just hurts the effectiveness as a cover.

Edit: No reason not to do the Game Boy version as a "duel" at some point. The two covers for it are both interesting. I just played the Game Boy version again last week. I love the changes they made when bringing it to the Game Boy and I was surprised how good it all turned out.

I was a little bit anxious because, while I am a fan of traditional animation, digital animation often fails to do much for me for various reasons. It's not that good results are not possible, but sometimes it looks really off or allows them to do things that are better off not done. However, I was pleasantly surprised how this turned out. I enjoyed this into animation and am looking forward to it.

PS: Needs more Batman!(just kidding)

I had to sit and think about this one for a bit. I like them all. Europe's is probably the weakest because of the age ratings and that other message on the left side. Japan's is good for what it was going for, but I'm partial to actual shots of the system and games, or logos in this case, so NA gets my vote.

Both covers have similar framing issues. On the Japanese cover, the character overlap takes away from the action pose from the blond kid who looks straight out of Dragon Ball Z. Also, the logo is so big and so high up that it detracts from the other character and makes it hard to see he's holding the ball. The Euro cover has the same problem. The logo is so high that it also makes it difficult to see the ball which is an important element for that pose. In the end, I think the poses on the Euro cover work better for a cover. I think the overall composition is better for the Euro box. And I think the green background, regardless of it being a field, though that's also a nice touch, works better than the red background for Japan.

I do like the console case designs of the past. The Mega Drive/Genesis 1 & 2 had lovely cases, as did the PC Engine, among others. But I also like simpler, "bland" mini-PC style cases, so it just being a box or cube doesn't bother me. The intent is for it to not stand out much. Of course, the real appeal is what it can do and if the price is right. Valve knows from the Deck the price needs to be right, especially since this is the second attempt at a Steam Machine for the living room. If the price is fair, then I love the bland cube design.

It's worth mentioning, they settled on the cube design because that was the best way they found to get the thermal management they wanted with only one, hopefully quiet, fan. Knowing that, I like it even more.

Clearly, the dude on the NA box has that guy who has the look of a hero....in spite of his outfit....and everything else about him. Who wouldn't want to play as that guy?

Okay, in all seriousness, Japan by a mile. I like Toriyama's art(didn't always like it), but the whole thing is conceptually better and more appealing regardless. And professional. It looks way more professional. Credit to Europe for using the Japanese art without modifying it, but putting that horizontal art on a vertical box meant it had to be smaller with a lot of empty space, which is why those pixel portraits are in the lower left. It's so weird how Japan and the US used different box orientations back then. NES was vertical while Famicom was horizontal. SNES was horizontal while Super Famicom was vertical. Weird how they flipped and how out of sync things were back in the day.

They're both pretty good and well executed for what they are. And they convey similar vibes. My pick comes down entirely to composition. The west's cover is dominated by the logo, and all the elements surround it like a ring. For the Japanese cover, the eye is drawn down to the logo, but also to the portion below which is the main element of the cover that isn't the logo. I think Japan's cover does a far better job with the composition since the character elements are not stuck on th edges of the frame. Japan's cover is the one I prefer.

Also, 58 to 42 in last week's poll isn't THAT close.

They're both fine, but somewhat standard fare. They're both nothing special. I think the tighter framing of the Japanese one detracts from it. I also find the background elements of the western cover to be more interesting and purposeful, so that gets my vote.

Good to see Iron Man in it, even though that was not surprising. Also nice to hear Jennifer Hale will voice Phoenix. I've always loved her voice work when I've heard it.

Yeah, add me to the list of those saying neither one is particularly good. I voted for Japan as the better of the two. The US is extremely cluttered. The box tells you that it's the game plus the microphone and voice-recognition unit on the right. Then it tells you again there's a voice-recognition unit in the upper left. And then someone felt it necessary to show the whole setup, if it wasn't clear at that point. It's bad composition. It's redundant. And, on top of that, I hate the North American N64 box template in the first place, so it already has that going against it.

I got 17. A couple of them were tricky. I missed Duck Hunt because my brain was still calibrating to what this quiz actually was, and I think I would have gotten that one if I knew what to expect at that point. But it was fun and I'm happy.

Yeah, it seem likely that the keyboard is either a limited edition thing or it's just extra fancy with the materials. For those who just want a keyboard, 8bitdo has some normal mechanical keyboards that seem to be under $100 and sometimes as low as $60-70 in some cases. I think their Famicom keyboard is the best looking one they've done, and that would be fancy enough for me.

I see some things have changed since my last two comments. I know there was voting for this list and the problem with that is popularity sometimes matters more than quality. Mega Man 4 being higher than 5 and 6 is wrong and might even be illegal in some counties and municipalities. Mega Man 4 is in contention for my least favorite of the series.

I recently revisited the Ninja Gaiden games and, no matter how often I do that, I always come away with the same opinion. I love the first one and the Japanese version of 3, and two is just way behind. I know part two is a favorite of many people, but it does so many things that are the opposite of what I like. They made the sword much less effective than the first game. I don't really like the shadow ninja power ups. I find the environmental hazards irritating. On top of all that, visibility in the game is a problem for me because most of the enemies are a shade of red, your shadow ninjas are red, and most of the stages have a lot of red, so I'm constantly missing enemies coming at me. I don't have those problems in the first and third games.

Anyway, nice to see Sunsoft's Batman so high up, which I didn't expect. It's legitimately among my favorite NES games. It is just a joy for me to play and I never get tired of it. I can also say the same for Shatterhand. Amazing 2D action platformer. It feels like Batman in some ways(punching, the jumping is similar) which I don't think was an accident. Shatterhand led me to Natsume's other games and most of their NES output is very good.

Cool to see this update and a new skin. My favorite is still the classic ninja skin. I love the way that one looks and feels more in line with the original games. But options are great to have.

I appreciate what the western cover is going for by attempting to depict action, but it just looks very static. Terry and Geese especially look stiff. The fighters are basically expressionless. Also, the framing and composition are weak.

While Japan is the generic gaggle of characters, it works far better as a cover. Seeing them next to each other in the actual poll is very telling as the Japanese cover pops. Japan gets my vote.

It has nothing to do with color for me. The robot on the NA cover gets better the more I look at it, but I still prefer the Japanese concept and design more. The NA cover's extreme foreshortening is vary cramped in frame, and the logo being on the fist just doesn't work for me, especially with that font. I think Japan's is better overall.

Cool. I figured Iron Man would be in this. It just makes sense. I would like to see Daredevil is a beat-em-up. He's good at it. But he's not the best fit with the whole cosmic theme(not that it matters all that much). Perhaps there will be a more grounded Marvel beat-em-up later on and he'll be in. This has a good number of characters and about six of them are ones I could see myself using including Iron Man, so I'll have to check out the demo a little bit later today. Gives me something to look forward to.

The explosion at the end reminds me of the fake "Knockout" banner(different visually from the real one) that tricked so many people in the Cuphead DLC.

Some people say the western cover shows more of what the game is about, and that is a fair point, but what the cover shows means nothing to me. I don't really know what it's showing, so I'm not sure that really makes it an effective cover. I just don't think it works very well.

I've always liked full-scene box art. Sure, it looks like the cover for an animated video, but I like animation. I think the Switch logo will prevent me from mistaking it for a DVD. The scene is great. Composition is very well done and the art is good. Just a well executed scene. So my pick is Japan, by a mile.

I didn't immediately realize that was a stylus in the western cover. It's a weird choice. The overall cover is very well done. I think the execution of the Japanese one is a bit weak, from the concept to the composition, including the lack of a background. The Euro/western cover is just so pleasant, so an easy vote for me.

I like anime robots, so the change for Europe doesn't bother me. I think the cover is missing something. It could be more dynamic than it is. Composition is also a bit messed up, especially with how the second robot is covered by a logo. Japan's cover is fine for what it is, but it doesn't do much for me. I prefer the dynamic approach of the NA box. Dynamic doesn't always work, but this one looks well executed to me, so that's my vote.

I'll be curious to read the reviews to see what "open world" means for Metroid. It could mean a lot of things. It could very well just be a larger world with more exploration, but still gated in a similar way to the previous Metroid Prime games. I expect it will be done in an interesting way that is still Metroid. Not all open-world games are created equal. For example, the Batman Arkham games became open-world games after the first one, but still had a lot of structure to keep the player on a path of progression in the game, and I enjoyed those. I get some of the trepidation for those who are not the biggest fans of the concept, and I share them, but we'll have to see how that is implemented. It might be a pleasant surpirse.

I always vote in these polls, even when I hate every option. This might be the single worst Box Art Brawl I have seen. To me, these are both terrible covers. For NA, half a face in this context just looks weird(and bad) to me. But the tattoo seals that and ensures it is terrible. The background? Terrible. Font and orientation? Terrible. Red strip on the side? Terrible.

Euro cover? Also terrible. The planet with the F is there, which is the nicest thing I can say about it. Since Europe's strip is black, it goes better. The font and orientation are ever so slightly preferable to me. But I vote Europe not for what it does, but for what it does not do, and that is having the half face with the tattoo which I think is just very poor.

Modern and digital game pricing doesn't make sense. It's, honestly, not supposed to make sense. You can have a big game be less expensive than a smaller game. I recently plaid $20+ for Ninja Gaiden Ragebound and I don't feel cheated with it costing more than Silksong. Two years ago I got The Ninja Saviors(it was delayed four years on PC, so it came out in 2023) for a bit under 20, even though there are countless games that are less expensive and bigger. The Batman Arkham games are old now, but still look and play great, and I got them for about four bucks apiece. Game pricing doesn't make sense and gamers know that. Silksong isn't priced too low. Wanting it priced higher is silly. It may be a great value at $20 and that's a good thing for gamers. Rejoice. It's refeshing when a companty releases a product and doesn't price it to the extreme of what will be considered acceptable, or push that boundary, such as when there's a new console release.

As others have said, the Euro cover's vibe is that of a horror game. A farmer by day, by night a killer who travels into town to harvest souls to satisfy an insatiable bloodlust. Harvest Moon(of blood)!

North America and Japan share the same key art. The horseshoe is a nice touch. So this comes down to the background and framing. The NA background looks more like a farmhouse to me. I also think the NA cover is a better use of space. The Japanese cover has a lot of empty space as well which I don't think provides much benefit. So NA it is for me.

I finally bought Hollow Knight about six weeks ago during a sale. I wasn't interested in it for a while, but that eventually changed and I was open to trying it. So far, I've only bought it, but have not played it. Not sure when I'll get to it, but I'll get to it.

Aria of Sorrow on the GBA is where I think they really nailed the portable Castlevania formula. The trio of DS games are really well made all around and were more consistent than the GBA games. I was experiencing Castlevania fatigue by the time this one came out and waited a while to get a DS. By that time around 2009, my Castlevania fatigue was gone and I picked up all three of the DS entries. Dawn of Sorrow is really good, but the forced touch elements started to grate on me after a while. I take it Konami got some negative feedback on that since they dropped it. I've heard there are hacks to eliminate the silly touch elements of it which sounds like a big improvement to me. The bulk of the game is excellent, so such a fix could make it nearly perfect.

Both are somewhat weak. I suspected the NA version would be the main vote getter this time because of the grass, but the grass looks weird to me. I understand what they were going for, but it doesn't look cohesive to me. The flower in the corner seems disconnected from the scene, which is not what I think was intended. The logo takes up way too much space in a bad spot. It's squeezing everything else down. It's not great composition.

Japan's is not great. It's also not cohesive with all the different elements, but it's not going for cohesion as much as the western grassy cover. Composition is better overall, and that's my deciding factor today. Japan for me.

@Satans_Therapist You have to keep in mind that a digital controller's directional input, such as a D-pad or an arcade stick, is nothing more than four switches or electrical contacts to the CPU. So a joystick is just four switches representing up, down, left, and right. To the system, it's no different from the other buttons. They just represent directional movements instead of other actions. So diagonals are already just a combination of up or down combined with left or right. To go back to my explanation of how a fireball would work on this, you hold down first. While holding down, you press and hold right. That's what the game sees as diagonal. Then you let go of down which leaves you with right and press an attack button. That sequence of actuation is exactly the same as a joystick(or D-pad), except the joystick makes more sense to most people, including myself. I hope that helps to clear it up further.

@Satans_Therapist some competitive fighting game players find the leverless controllers to be slightly quicker. In competition, even small differences matter. Also, some find these more precise. Others, like myself, don't find it appealing. Sounds like you don't either. That's fine. I think the difference between this and the joycon is the playing position. For the joycon, you'd activate the buttons with your thumb. This is used with the hand over the buttons, which means you could use multiple fingers, which is part of the speed of these.

To do a Street Fighter-style fireball, you'd hold down, press and hold right, then release down. That would be the same input sequence the game sees from the traditional joystick motion, which the game just sees as button presses(or switch activations) anyway.

@mr_benn From what I've heard, those that like leverless say they allow for quicker inputs and are more precise. That sounds plausible since you're basically activating the switches by hand as opposed to moving a joystick. There's probably slightly less room for error than with a stick too, assuming you could get used to playing that way. Personally, even if a leverless controller offers those benefits, it doesn't appeal to me. It doesn't look as fun playing the games that way.

I finally bought Hollow Knight a few weeks back, so I'm going to assume I'm the one who put them over 15 million and pat myself on the back. You're welcome!!!!!!

I wonder if the reason they've finally finished Silksong is because the quality of the food at the office was starting to dip.

But seriously, congrats to them. They sound like nice people. People seem to really love the game and it's nice seeing such a game be such a big hit. It was the word of mouth, along with the developers being responsive to the player base, which is why I decided o finally give it a go. I also appreciated that they put it on GOG.

Well that escalated quickly, in a good way. We went from having no info after a long wait to having a release date out of nowhere. Good for the people who have been patiently waiting. I'm going to miss the jokes about Silksong never releasing. Half Life 3 will have to fill that void.

Me? I've never played Hollow Knight, so I was never bothered one way or the other by the Silksong situation. I took a different approach by waiting a ridiculous amount of time to try Hollow Knight which I bought a few weeks ago. I haven't played it yet as I've had a few other games take priority, but I look forward to checking it out fairly soon.

So this is one of the projects Bitmap Bureau alluded to that was going to be announced soon. While a revival of this property wasn't at the top of my list — though I did love MOTU for a few yeears as a kid — the visuals look excellent and Bitmap Bureau being the developer sounds good to me.

Ha ha! Lots of harsh comments about the NA one. That surprises me because it's not anywhere near as ugly as some other covers we have seen to get this kind of backlash. Last week's Japan Wario cover was pretty awful, especially with his partial face in the middle. And I remember when the vastly superior Japanese F-Zero cover lost to the static and boring NA cover due to nostalgia. But perhaps none of the people trashing the NA cover today voted for the NA cover of F-Zero. Or maybe some did and they too have no taste.

I voted for the NA cover today. It's not because it's good, but because I don't like any of these. I don't usually prefer the NA-ified covers of the era. The art style is typically off. Here, it's okay. It captures the vibe of the game well and the composition is competent. I'm not as quick to say art is cluttered as some are, but today I join that team. Both the Euro and Japan covers are super cluttered, especially Japan's. It's a mess. But I probably still would have picked Japan except I also don't like the art style used here. In particular, the human characters look bizarre in this style. So thanks to the extreme clutter and weak composition, I'm left with NA as the least bad of the three in my opinion. I'm not usually in the contrarian camp when the vote is a blowout, but that's where I'm at today.

Being there to play Metroid 2 when it was new was a very special experience for me, and I imagine it was likely the same for many others. A friend of mine got the game first. I was not planning to get that game, but he gave it his highest recommendation so I decided to get it. The exploration, such as it was, took some getting used to as I'm not big on that sort of thing, but I loved how that game looked and felt. Eventually, thanks to the spider ball, the exploration became a lot of fun. I played through it multiple times and it has always been one of my favorite Game Boy Games. I revisited it a couple of years ago to see if it holds up, and I thought it did. Some have issues with the gameplay, but I think it still plays very well. A map would be nice, but I learned my way around very quickly as a kid and found a map was not necessary a couple of years ago either. The world is simpler than it seems at first. The game does a good job steering you in the right direction as mentioned in a previous comment. Some may not like how the sections are gated, but I didn't have any issues with it. I also liked how Metroid 2 was more combat-focused than Super Metroid. I'm not saying it's a better game, just an aspect I liked about it. Super is of course an excellent game with a different approach.

The writer could have left out the word "different" from the first sentence of the description for the Japanese box and it might have actually been better. It certainly is trying to do something. The character art for the western cover is pleasant enough. And that's all I have to say really. I voted for the NA/Euro cover.

Yeah, Yacht Club made such a great impression on me with the entirety of Shovel Knight. Fantastic package. Incidentally, the final campaign was my least favorite, but I love the whole thing. So of course I'll give extra consideration to whatever they release. They didn't develop Cyber Shadow, but that was quite good. Mina looks very good so far. I don't go out of my way to play Zelda-like games, but I do like them. I thoroughly enjoyed Minish Cap on the GBA when it was new. I should play that again. Starting these games is often the sticking point. I am looking forward to this and it's good to hear some solid news about it as I recently had been wondering what was going on with it.

A shame to see the replaceable battery gone. I really liked that element. I assume they got a lot of feedback to the contrary on that, as I've seen with other things in the past. I have the original Pro+ and I loved that thing. The D-pad was fantastic, giving me Saturn levels of accuracy. I've since found the Ultimate 2C Wired to have a similarly high-quality D-pad. The unfortunate thing is that the membranes in the Pro+ are weak and tear after heavy use. I am not sure if that is a problem for subsequent controllers. I should order some replacements. I also recall that the Pro+ and Pro 2 had higher measured Bluetooth latency than most of the other 8bitdo pads, for some reason. I use things wired a lot, though. I still love all my 8bitdo stuff.

And since nobody asked, I prefer the Sony layout with the D-pad higher than the analog sticks, but I can easily switch back and forth, which is why I have no issues with their Ultimate controllers.

Thursday was exciting with the relese of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, and a surprise release of the demo for Shinobi Art of Vengeance, as well as Earthion. I had previously played the PC demo for Ninja Gaiden and liked it a lot, so I knew I was on board for this. On the first day, I ended up only playing Shinobi. I got Ninja Gaiden(and Earthion) over the weekend. I haven't been able to play much of Ninja Gaiden yet, but it feels good and the sprite work is really nice. But that's something The Game Kitchen seems to be quite good at. That's what got me to take notice of Blasphemous, which I also purchased and haven't played extensively. Anyway, glad to hear the game is well received, leaving aside the issues specific to the Switch. I'm PC all the way on this.

I was quite surprised to see this got a day-one GOG release. With no DRM at all, that means I actually own the game. I'm very happy about that.

@Truegamer79 I'm also on a ninja kick because of these two revivals, and a friend of mine is doing the same. I had actually missed the Messenger, so I decided now was the right time and picked it up on sale. I actually was just playing it about ten minutes ago before commenting. And I also decided I should play through Cyber Shadow another time, so we're on the same wavelength there.

@EarthboundBenjy I've been keeping up with these. Back in the day, us kids would argue over which ninja series was better, Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden. Most us us liked them both, though. So it's funny and fitting that they're coming out a month apart. Also fun how they released a demo for Shinobi on the same day as Ninja Gaiden. Along with Earthion, it made it a great release day for people like me.

The interesting thing about this one is that, despite the different styles, the character placement is very close between them. The Japanese one has the addition of Gollum. Bilbo is facing the opposite direction, but they're in similar poses. Gandalf and Smaug are also similarly placed. I suspect the similarities were not by accident. But there are also drastic differences. The NA one is too dark, from what I see here. It seems to affect visibility. I also prefer the more stylized visuals of the Japanese cover.

Considering some of Nintendo's other business practices at the time with regard to third parties, it's not a big surprise that they would also have some aggressive terms for their third-party developers. It did create openings for competitors to take advantage if they could get a foothold in the market. I think both Sega, with the Genesis and Saturn, and Sony offered better terms for third parties. And Nintendo's reluctance to go to discs in the mid 1990s made it a bit easier for Sony. I'm glad that shift happened and I'd say it ended up being beneficial to both game companies and consumers.

@Eel I appreciate hearing where you're coming from at least. That's all we can do, share our thoughts and experiences. At the end of the day, the options exist now and they're not going away. The only (small) issue I have is when people talk about what was intended and speak of degrading the image. It is the raw pixel output that is artificial. The games simply never looked that way when they were current. The poster above referred to film grain as being inherent, but scanlines are just as inherent to old 240p pixel graphics because the systems such as the SNES were designed specifically based on how CRTs functioned and displayed images. I assume some prefer raw pixels because the scanlines darken and soften the image and some people either don't like it or aren't used to it. Though some seem to prefer it because they've been led to believe that it's correct, which it is not. Again, I'm not arguing that people shouldn't play the games the way they like. The options are here to stay. Same thing with resolution. Some people prefer SNES "pixel perfect"(though I wonder if calling it that has some influence), when that was never the actual aspect ratio on a TV. It was stretched to 4:3 with graphics designed that way.

@SillyG I didn't understand the point of scanlines at first, but once I finally saw it, I could never again unsee it. The idea that it's a degradation in quality is a misconception in the first place. SNES games and other systems of the time were designed with scanlines in mind. The raw pixels were never the intended output. Raw pixels are way too blocky, ruin shading effects, and have colors that are off. With scanlines applied, the color is darkened and results in a more natural look, and it also acts as a primitive form of anti aliasing as it smooths edges and provides some blending. It is raw pixels that degrade the displayed image because it never looked that way on CRTs of the time and was never meant to be displayed that way. The scanlines were factored into the graphics when they were designed. I looked at the images in the Polygon article linked in the piece. If you look at Donkey Kong Country, the shading of the characters is not very effective in the raw pixels. The beaver enemy in particular is a mess. The CRT filter rounds the eyes and makes the shading look convincing rather than a mess of pixels. Same goes for Kong's arm and his lower jaw. The image softening, light anti aliasing, and blending provided by scanlines are more natural and were how the games were designed.

I had a very novel method to avoid getting sucked into the Silksong hype and the disappointment that has come with it. I never played Hollow Knight. For a while, it just didn't seem that appealing to me, and there were some technical elements to it that have since been addressed. I've heard enough good things about it over the years that I decided to give it a shot and just bought it on sale via GOG a few weeks ago. I still have to play it, but I do look forward to it. Crazy how long Silksong has been in development, though it does remind me of some other situations. Hopefully it will satisfy those who are eager for it, whenever that may be.

@Teksette I'll give 1993 Capcom a pass for not having Daredevil in the Punisher arcade game. I may be off in my recollection, but I think that wouldn't have felt right at the time. Plus, they had both characters use guns in that game. One game in which he should have been included was Sega's 1991 Spider-Man arcade game. Hawkeye and Sub Mariner seem so random in that game.

But that Punisher arcade game is fantastic, you are right about that. I'm a big fan of arcade beat-em-ups and have played a ton of them. Punisher is definitely among the best and I've played a lot of it over the years. Glad to see they figured out how to release it on modern platforms. It's a game that deserves to be played by those who enjoy that genre.

They're both not very good, but I always vote. The Japanese cover is a mess, but at least the framing is competent. The composition of the western cover is awful. My eye is drawn to the humanoid-robot thingie, but it's in the upper right of the frame for some reason. The rest of the frame is largely wasted space as the building and trucks don't really add to the frame. The lower left of the cover is especially empty. And then another 600 demerits for the red strip and corner peel which are always ugly. Japan isn't good by any means, but it's better.