The problem with fixed-camera in games of that time is how scenes transitioned screwing up your ability to control things, or how developers would choose terrible vantage points for no good reason other than to mess with the player. I've just been playing some PS2 games with certain sections that do that and sometimes it's just puzzling.
Japan! The zoomed in view of the vehicles on the western cover is fine, but it's missing something. It's just so generic. I've said it many times, the NA N64 covers with the giant red strip and annoying corner peel are so bad and the layout detracts from the box art. A game box would have to be extremely superior in execution to overcome the layout in my eyes. This is not that.
@MSaturn I took a look at a video for the first Capcom Fighting Collection and on the game select screen there are extra options on the bottom including "game settings" where the difficulty settings should be per game. I imagine it should be similar to other collections.
This reminds me of a bit from the old Garfield and Friends cartoon. In the show, there was a game show called "Hit the Buzzer, Win a Cookie". This is the mobile version of that. Click the cookie, win more cookies.
I don't know much about the remake(other than it's scheduled for 2021 according to the trailer...ha ha), but I played the original on the Gamecube and loved it. I hadn't played it in ages, but just finished it again last week. I'm working my way through the second game now, which I also played through back in the day. I got the third game, but never got around to playing it due to life things and forgetfulness, so I intend to fix that and go right into it when I finish the second one.
This isn't particularly surprising. Not only was the Tegra X1 two years old by the time the Switch came out, but it was also significantly limited in the Switch, but it still turned out fine. Just because this chip may have been ready in 2021 doesn't mean it would have been easy to package it in a Switch Pro at the time at a price that could work. Because this is a fixed spec, developers will likely be able to get more out of this than if it were in a PC. There will be optimizations down the line. Also, I'm not sure how DLSS may work with Switch 2, but that may help get more out of it as well. Regardless, the Switch was a big hit despite its hardware limitations, and the Switch 2 will likely succeed as well, while probably being less limited in relative terms.
Japan is the best. Sure, it's cluttered, but it's well done for what it is and doesn't have the problems of the other two. The Euro covers for the N64 are not good. That border is awful. The art is cropped which makes the framing feel crampled. Since it's the same art as the NA cover, it's cramped there too, except way worse for NA because of all the extra stuff. And as I have said many times, the template for the NA N64 boxes is one of the worst ever done, in my opinion. The giant red strip on the side is obnoxious and a giant waste of space because the icons within the strip are quite small. Speaking of obnoxious, the "only for" corner peel is bad.
@NotASockPuppet According to the scorekeeper for these, that isn't the case. Japan isn't even in the lead. I don't know how many times the European covers have won without being the same as the NA covers, but it has happened and I have voted for European covers several times. In the case of N64, I think the NA cover style is one of the worst there has ever been and think it's the worst of this particular bunch. Nostalgia does skew the polls which puts Euro covers at a disadvantage, but there's no way around that.
As I scrolled down the page, my first thought about the western cover was that it was a bit generic, especially with how you can't see the expression on the person's face. I thought to myself, Japan's cover should be better. Then I saw it. Wow! Japan's cover is impressively horrible. It really does look like a print ad of some sort, though I would not rate it as an especially good one. It does nothing for me. It doesn't even communicate that it's a video game. Those little circular icons add nothing of value to the cover and just don't work. I wonder if they're just there because, otherwise, the extremely poor use of space would be even more glaring. The Japanese cover, to me, is the very definition of lazy design. It is totally inadequate as a game cover. It would be only slightly better if it were a magazine ad, though still not good. It is, frankly, one of the worst covers I've seen.
It's May 1 today. If it was April 1, this news would feel right at home as an April Fool's gag. Even throw in some Half Life 3 into the mix. It is a bizarre bit of news, but at least it's progress. Makes me wonder how far along they are. Just because it will be playable at this museum doesn't mean it will be ready for sale in 2025, but it is a good sign for those waiting for this game eagerly.
Both of these are very nice. As they share the same key art, the other elements make the difference. The Japanese one is less cramped, but there's also empty space. The NA one has more background detail, but is more cramped by the large logo and side bar. While others point to it as a negative, I really like the color choices for the western cover. The subdued blues and boosted reds and yellows are unusual and helps it stand out for me. I think it works well in this case, so my vote is for the western version.
I'm not fond of either one. Japan's is overly basic and not particularly interesting to me. The western cover has action going on, but the composition is messy and does not appear to be meant as a cover. The blurry background also gives it an odd feel. With that said, my preference is for the western cover, largely due to how they adapted the logo.
I clicked to find out about the cow, and not even a single mention of it in the interview....
I mentioned in my comment for the other article that it seems a fitting coincidence that 2D Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi are being revived at the same time. It was always a bit of a friendly rivalry as kids debating which was the better ninja series(spoiler: both!). I never played the 3D Ninja Gaiden games, so I can't say much about any references to them here, but I assumed they would take those into account too. Frankly, since Ninja Gaiden never evolved in 2D during the 16-bit era, it feels like it makes sense to stray from the 8-bit formula more. Also, while I understand some people being cautious about the changes, the fact that they're consulting with Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja gives me some reassurance that the decisions should likely make sense for this property.
This new info today has me more excited than before about both Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, and I watched both trailers again. They're both looking very nice visually.
Back in the day, I had a Master System and most of my friends had the NES, so there was a bit of a friendly rivalry over Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden. And that evolved a bit as the Shinobi sequels came out on the Genesis. To be clear, I love both. So it feels fitting that Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden will "face off" again. Back then, it was Sega vs. Tecmo. Now it's Game Kitchen vs. Lizard Cube. Both are looking very nice and I'm excited to play them both. I love me some old-school ninja action. And this coming not long after Shadow of the Ninja Reborn. It's a good time to be a fan of ninja action game revivals.
This one is looking very cool, and the Game Kitchen pixel art is wonderful. This looks pretty different from the old 8-bit games, of course, but I think that makes sense. Ninja Gaiden never evolved in the 16-bit era for some reason. And it's been so long that it feels like it makes sense to reinvent Ninja Gaiden, even though I love the way the original games play, especially parts one and three. I look forward to learning more and seeing how this turns out.
An upgraded Switch is the correct course of action. This is one of the lessons Nintendo learned from the Wii U. They simultaneously learned that changing things up can be a tough sell, and that their marketing needs to be much clearer to avoid confusion, so following Sony's lead of numbering makes sense. The Switch was a great concept that, unsurprisingly, was a smash hit. It makes perfect sense to continue offering the same core experience. The Switch has basically consolidated Nintendo's console and portable businesses. There's no more leaning on the Game Boy and DS as they did in the past. They need the core experience of the Switch 2 to be as appealing as their prior portable systems. Iteration beats innovation there.
Innovation for its own sake is not a good thing. It's even worse when it hurts the core experience. New ideas have to make sense and be compelling. Nintendo is a business too. Again, with a single product line instead of two, they need the Switch to have broad appeal. That means it needs to do the basics right. But Nintendo has innovated in other ways in recent years with the Labo concept, and that augmented reality Mario Kart which was very clever. But you can't innovate every time.
The circle is an odd choice for the NA cover. I don't hate it, but I'm not sure it serves any good purpose. The composition and artwork within it are good. My issue comes at the area outside of the circle. There's wasted space, and the hut and crocodile(?) seem like afterthoughts. I'm assuming they used an existing bit of promo art that was only suitable as a cover if they cropped it.
Not much to say about the Euro/Japan cover other than I think it's better.
Even if I didn't factor in the writing on the boxes like Metroid's, Donkey Kong would be my favorite here. It's just really well executed for what it is. I saw someone above say the Mario Kart cover is cluttered, and I expected that. There is a lot going on, but the composition does a good job of containing it. Mario is the focal point and there's still some space to let everything breath a bit, despite the clutter. It's another strong one. Metroid is another good one, if a bit basic.
None of the Zelda covers do anything for me and are probably the weakest overs of this batch for me. I get what they wanted to depict with the covers and they succeeded, but they're not great as game covers as a result, in my opinion.
"Powered by AI, PLAYi takes away the need to actually play the game in front of you, leaving you time to do all sorts of other things like wash up, go outdoors and question your existence."
All sorts of things, like playing other games while the PLAYi handles my backlog. Brilliant!!!
The NA one is a mess. The little bit of breathing room for the other two covers makes them far easier to look at and understand. On top of the clutter, the NA has a giant logo that makes it worse.
Japan vs. Europe is going to come down to color, logos and banners, and character choices, since they're so similar. I prefer the choices made for the European cover just a bit more. You have Panda man(or is that ManPanda?). I think the dancers look better for Europe too, especially the one on the right. So Europe it is, by a hair.
It's no surprise that massively cropping the vertical original artwork for a horizontal orientation would be difficult. The cropping is well done in this case, but is still not as good as the original, but it's the title and marketing lines that ensure the cover is quite ruined. But at least we know it's the "classic version" as if that means anything. I don't know if the border is normal size here, but it feels gigantic for the NA cover here. It's not good. I voted for Japan.
Layden has the year wrong. The situation happened at CES 1991. This is documented. 1993 is just way too late to be realistic anyway since the PS1 had a 1994 release.
That part toward the end referencing a statement by Layden has an error, and it's probably his error. 1993 is too late. The situation between Nintendo, Sony, and Philips happened at CES 1991. That is known. It also leaves enough time for Sony trying to salvage the venture, attempt to strike a deal with Sega, and then eventually develop the PS1 which would have needed some time, more time than a 1993 date would allow.
@TheBigK I think the gap between official controllers and third-party controllers started to shrink in the Wii/360/PS3 days. All of those systems had their controller issues and it sounds like things are still mixed. Meanwhile, the quality of these various third-party controllers from 8bitdo, Retro Fighters, and a bunch of others have gotten very good. All the 8bitdo stuff I have feels great to use with only long-term durability being an issue in one case so far. I just tested out my 2C wired and the D-pad on this thing is extremely good in my opinion, a nice step up from the 1C.
I've been very happy with my 8bitdo pads despite some issues which I'll go into. Some people have said they have had issues with unwanted diagonals, but I haven't run into that in any of the pads I have tried. I have the Pro+ which is/was amazing. The D-pad feel is as good as any I've used, on par with the old Saturn pads. The only issue with the Pro+ is that the button membranes are weak and eventually tear, which is unfortunate. They are replaceable and inexpensive, but the durability is a shame as I never ran into this before. I have two older pads, and FC30 and an original Zero, from a decade ago. They're also quite good for what they are. The Zero is quite usable on games that don't require complex inputs such as fighting games. I had fun using the Zero to beat Gauntlet IV last year. I have two of the 8bitdo Neo Geo CD controllers and they are fantastic so far. My only concern is if the button membranes are more durable, a concern I have for all the pads now.
As for the Ultimate C controllers, I have three of them now. Straight away, they are the best budget controller generally speaking as far as I can tell. I bought two of the Ultimate C Wired(USB) controllers a while back. They were $20 each and I had a coupon. I recently picked up an Ultimate 2C Wired for the hall-effect sticks and detachable cable. They appear to be $17-20 I haven't used it yet, but will test it out later. It does feel the same in the hand as the older model. The D-pad feel is different, but feels good. I may follow up here after testing. The 2C Wired is also slightly heavier than the previous. Regarding their build quality, they both feel much more solid than my official Xbox Series controller, which I also like, but feels creaky and flexes more in comparison, with buttons that stick sometimes. Aside from the positioning of the D-pads being different from the Pro+, which has my preferred layout, the D-pads are stiffer and not quite as good as the Pro+. I still find the original C D-pads pretty good though. I was just playing fighting games last night for testing. I have to adjust how I use the pad. The only diagonal issue is that it's easy to come off left or right by accident leading me to accidentally jump straight up. I was able to easily adjust by sliding my thumb to the edges of the D-pad and it works just fine for me, but it's not my natural inclination. So I like my C controllers very much. I'll probably be able to test out my C2 later today. The extra L and R buttons may come in handy for me as well.
Update: I have since tested my 2C wired controller. The D-pad immediately felt different to the 1C. I tested it with some top-down games to test for diagonal issues, which there were none. I played a game of The Last Blade, the Neo Geo fighter. As far as first impressions go, the D-pad is excellent. It has the feel I like, very similar to the Pro+ which is one of the best I've ever used. The 1C D-pad is good, but I had to adjust how I play due to a slight difficulty with diagonals. I found it a bit too easy to accidentally come off left or right too soon. With adjustment, I found it to be very good. But the 2C is a significant upgrade. I'd have no problem making the 2C my primary gamepad, and with them costing about $17 each with hall-effect analog sticks, I may get a few more.
-To me, being an early adopter for the sake of it has never appealed to me. I've only been an early adopter a few times and it's always been about the games. Sometimes, mid-gen refreshes are lacking too, or not enough of an upgrade. For example, OLED is not for everyone, or a Pro upgrade can really not offer much that is meaningful. Between the backlog, and my preference for older games, it's easier than ever to just wait.
-I never seek to get 100 percent. With a lot of modern games, they cram in a lot of content, and it's not always fun. Sometimes it just feels like chores. I guess the context makes the difference. For example, I hate collecting things in Zelda games, so I just do the easier ones and important stuff. But I recently played the Batman Arkham games, and I enjoyed doing most of the side quests except for the Riddler stuff. If it's fun, then I'll do it. Going back to Metroid Prime, I loved scanning everything and it never felt like a chore.
-I remember starting out on the Atari 2600 too. The early games that hooked me on the hobby were the likes of Chopper Command, River Raid, and Pitfall. Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo was an important game. Double Dragon was an early favorite as well, and I remain a huge fan of beat-em-up games to this day.
-I think Damien must have talked about his photography before as I expected that answer. Good to know I didn't hallucinate that.
-One thing I've learned from many examples is that the game companies tend to have the worst emulators. For example, Capcom released a mobile collection of Mega Man games that was notoriously bad. The companies just don't care enough about their old games, or they don't have the right people developing the emulators. With that said, I don't know about the specific emulators referred to here.
-Not quite Saturday morning cartoons, but pancakes and BOTW sounds good enough.
-I replay a lot of games as I lean much more retro these days. When I play something more modern that's larger in scope akin to what that letter refers to, I often feel like I spend a good portion of my first run getting a hang of things. For example, I still felt like a rookie pretty deep into Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. I ended up replaying them because I wanted more of the experience, but I wanted to experience the games without fumbling with the controls after finally getting the hang of everything.
-With the size, scope, and requirements of modern games, I view the various standard engines to be a good thing. That seems like it would let game designers focus on designing the game which is the most important. There are downsides to these common engines, as we have seen in some cases. It would be good to see more variety in that regard, at least for big releases. Maybe some engines are a bit more demanding than others. I have no complaints about the results. One of my favorite uses of the Unreal Engine are the modern Guilty Gear games, and a few others, using 3D that look convincingly 2D and a treat to look at.
As I scrolled down, I thought to myself, this has to get better as it goes. And it just never did. This week started bad, and ended bad. These are terrible. The first one with the disembodied face I think is the worst of the bunch. The second one at least has a more realized Mario drawing. But it's still too zoomed in and the logos detract from things(a problem for the first cover too). The Japanese cover is no better as the extreme close up is just not a good concept in my opinion. The best feature of the Japanese cover may just be the border. So my pick for least bad is Europe 2.
@darkswabber If you do any PC gaming and use Steam, the Dadish games are on sale right now until March 20(corrected from my initial statement overestimating the sale by a few days).
There must be some ninja magic in use for the NA cover because it appears Ryu is crouching on top of water. And that does appear to be water because you can see the reflections. And if that wasn't convincing enough, Ryu is crouching on water on the cover for the prior game. The big problem is that the cover concept, while good, is way too much of a rehash of the second game's cover. I'd also say it's the weakest of all the NA covers.
The Japanese cover looks to be a tie in with the anime OVA of 1991. The concept isn't as dynamic or exciting as the NA cover, but I give it extra points for having that signature '80s and '90s anime style. Also, Ryu looks the way he should and is consistent with his look in the game cutscenes. All of these things taken together, I prefer the Japanese cover by a little bit.
@N00BiSH I get that. I'm not trying to sell you. Everyone can use and think what they like. But when someone makes a benign comment suggesting Retroarch and then you reply in such a charged way, then some push back I think is understandable, especially since things aren't so clear cut, but we already went over that. I'll be happy to leave it there.
@N00BiSH While I do like a unified solution, that's not at the top of my list. Frankly, at the time I switched to Retroarch, it did many things better than every other emulator I had access to. Specifically, it was miles ahead of everything else when it came to display output and options. If standalone emulators have gotten better since then, it's directly because Retroarch was far superior for years. Finicky? I don't think I've had any issues since around 2018. Nobody likes the UI at first. But I went through the same thing with MAME and Mednafen(command line), and they're not garbage either. If I could use them, then I could figure out Retroarch. It's actually really easy to use after you get past a few hurdles(like input mapping). But that applies to almost everything, even some standalone emulators I've tried more recently.
I would say the worst UI I've experience goes to Windows 8 by a mile. Retroarch is a joy to use by comparison.
@N00BiSH if literally every other emulator was better, then I wouldn't have switched to Retroarch because it did many things better than every other emulator I had used up to that point.
I kept up with the news back in the GBA days. Ninja Five-0 was a blink-and-you'll-miss it deal. I happened to see a review, which acknowledged the game was probably not going to sell many copies due to no name recognition. But the review was very positive and it was highly recommended to those with retro tastes. I knew I couldn't wait long and I ordered it soon after, so I do have the cart. And while it may not be to everyone's taste, the game lived up to the review for me and was and still is one of my favorites in the GBA library.
"...and if you disagree, well, let's just say...that's very understandable and I respect your opinion."
That's some of my favorite trash talk I've heard. The thing with more of the same is there's always a segment of an audience that might be driven more by novelty. So more of the same won't appeal to them. Some people just have their fill after a time. This is especially true for larger games. But I also think that more of the same is great for great games. Even then, games that do more of the same still often have small differences. I think it's one of those things where that's something reviewers need to point out, and then people have to decide whether that's good or not. Just for clarity, I say this as someone who never gets tired of arcade beat-em-up games and modern games of that sort, so I love me some sameness.
I expected Europe to be quite a bit worse based on the build up in the article, but it is definitely bad. So bad it's good, perhaps, but not "so bad it's good enough to vote for" which is a saying I just made up.
I'm going to assume Japan's cover isn't as washed out as it appears in this image, and other images I've found seem to back this up. So purely on layout, I think Japan's is better. While having the title at the top is fine, I think it works better on the bottom. Japan's also manages a few more characters, which isn't always a good thing. But the NA cover fumbles with the additional logos at the bottom corners. Japan's logos don't get in the way of anything. Japan is my pick.
I finally had a look at this. I like the look they achieved. They did a good job of keeping the lines as minimal as possible. Bold, sharp outlines are a common element of digital art, but that has a tendency to make things look flat and disconnected from the backgrounds. Old anime, and old animation in general, especially stuff that was more serious in tone, tended to minimize dark outlines for the most part. Also, the lines they do have in this art are broken and uneven, and I point that out as a good thing, which goes further in giving it a hand-drawn look despite it possibly being digitally made. For that, I give them a lot of credit for the look of it.
@N64-ROX it's reminiscent of what Sega did in the 1990s with Thunder Force 4. Here was a series of shooters successful enough to reach a fourth instalment, and is considered one of the best games on the Mega Drive/Genesis, so someone in the US had the bright idea to change the title to "Lightening Force". Not only is it likely a misspelling of "lighting", but there's no indication on the cover that it's a Thunder Force game. And if "lightening" was indtended, then that's even more baffling.
I don't think either is particularly good, but I think the western cover is particularly bad. Japan's actually has some decent composition, despite being cluttered with questionable art direction. The eye is drawn where it is supposed to be, to the title and the characters. On the western box, Fox doesn't look important. His ship is off center. The other ship draws the eye away. The mess of logos and borders squeezes the art making it worse. I say it often, but that red side strip and the corner peel make N64 boxes among the worst overall. It amazes me that the N64 box design was conceived by professionals. Japan wins for me.
Been a good week for retro reveals with seeing a proper demonstration of this game along with Neon Inferno. Looks very good to me and I think the art style fits pretty well. I love beat-em-ups so if they incorporate combos into the gameplay as it looks like they have, I'll probably like it. The Shinobi series has always added things with each game, so that would be in line with the series as well.
I've been hearing the debate about OLED vs. LCD for a long time now in phones. I like OLED but it's a non issue for me. In fact, as far as I can tell, I am one of the people that has some kind of sensitivity to OLED flicker. I found myself getting extremely drowsy a few times while using OLED early on. That feeling ceased as soon as I switched to an LCD device. I've also spoken to a contributor on Time Extension who said he got headaches every time he used the OLED Switch, but not the LCD Switch. Back to me, I've found a way to cope with my OLED devices, which is to jack up the brightness to 100 percent, and then dim the screen with an app. That works out very well for me, but I lose adaptive brightness. That wouldn't be an option on any Switch unless Nintendo provided it themselves, and they won't.
I'm the person in my family that sets up new phones for people that don't know how or can't be bothered with that. My mother has a mid-range phone from a few years ago that I've spent plenty of time with. It has an absolutely fantastic LCD screen to the point where I've found myself thinking "Wow, what a great screen" and the reviews for it pointed that out too. Other than the true black of an OLED, it can stand up to any OLED I've used. And I'm sure there are better LCD panels out there. But for me, and leaving any sensitivity out of it, the difference between OLED and LCD is tiny and not clear cut.
A couple of additional things. Back to the sensitivity issue, I've heard and read that there are some screens that have a higher rate of flicker(in this case a good thing) or other methods of dimming. I would like to try one of those screens at some point to see if I can feel a difference. I've heard good things. As I don't really consider OLED clearly superior, at least in terms of image quality, I wouldn't even bother with an OLED TV. Plus, from what I've observed, TVs tend to have the worst panels when it comes to pixel degradation. All the best OLED panels I've heard of in that regard were for mobile devices, including the Switch.
There are things I like and dislike about each one. The Japanese one is well executed, but I find it hard to get into the concept of making the box resemble a gold bar or something like it. It's a bit much. I don't love the renders on the western cover, but the concept and composition are good. I vote for the western cover this week.
I wasn't familiar with this developer or their previous game. This looks very nice visually. The character designs seem good and the stages have sort of an impressionist or watercolor vibe to them. It works pretty well in the screens and teaser. I'll have to make a note.
Motion control, or at least the option for it, seems like a good fit for Okami's brush system. Whether it is actually accurate and responsive is the important part. I've heard a lot of mixed things about that, but many people seem to be fine with it and that version overall. I had some real problems in that regard on the PS2 version of the game, which I also wouldn't recommend to anyone. I've heard the HD versions of the game fix up some of the game's issues. It sounds like his issue is mostly that the port was outsourced.
I agree about the reveal being basically a sneak reveal. It was an acknowledgement of its existence and a tease of new features. I didn't think much of the reveal because I don't like that style of video. Leaks didn't really hurt things, in my opinion. Just as a reveal, I thought it was disappointing. But the Switch was so successful, and Switch 2 looks like it will be another good product that I don't think the reveal matters because it will likely sell itself. Plus there will likely be a much stronger software reveal before too long.
The Japanese cover is awful. I could stop right there. The western cover is odd. The composition is decent and the positioning gives them a convenient place to put the title without it feeling forced in there. However, the platform they're on is so high in the frame that it leaves a lot of empty space at the bottom. While they use it for the various logos, it doesn't change that it feels like a terrible waste of space and isn't well judged. Still, it's way better than the Japanese one.
The timing is an issue sine many people who otherwise might like these will wait. But the Switch sold so many units and may even persist as a value offering like the PS2 did that there may still be a good market for these controllers. Especially with hall-effect sticks, this could be something that those who intend to stick with the original Switch would consider as a long-term fix for JoyCon issues.
My favorite thing about the NA cover is that entity(the god of thunder, perhaps) riding the cloud in the center while playing a drum set, though both covers have a version of him(it?). What makes the difference for me is the anime style of the time for the Japanese one. The main characters look quite a bit better there compared to their lumpy-faced counterparts on the NA cover. Overall, Japan's box is more appealing to me as a result.
These three year olds need to suck it up and git gud!!!!
Okay, in all seriousness, I think the difference for those of us that grew up with difficult games of the 8-bit era is that those were all we had. They were made to be appealing, but they also were the best we had at the time. Now there are so many games from different times. I can't begrudge a kid for preferring to play in a big 3D world with a character that looks like it did in the movie, or something like that. It also highlights how tricky game design can be these days. Not every game should be accessible on difficulty, but a lot of them can be, but then how much is the right balance?
I was very lucky to pick this one up on GBA when it came out. I kept up with GBA news and reviews very closely back in those days. I didn't know much about the game ahead of time, but knew it was the style I was looking for, so I checked the review right away. Even the review alluded to the fact that the game was likely to get lost in the shuffle, so I knew I should not wait too long. I picked it up a few weeks later. While I did keep a few of my GBA boxes, I didn't keep that one. I was very happy that I picked the game up, and that's just for the gameplay and not the collector value, which is just a nice bonus. But I'm glad the game will be more widely available for people.
No hesitation for me, the western art is way better. I am not fond of the general design of N64 boxes with the side strip and corner peel(which the original release of this game has). Luckily, that's barely a factor here and the composition for the box art is excellent and takes that into account. Mario is the focal point and having his head right next to the strip was a great choice as it leaves plenty of room for the background characters, with plenty of breathing room so it doesn't feel cluttered. The low angle of the perspective works and makes it very dynamic. It's really well executed.
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Re: Review: Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Switch) - A Solid Remaster Of One Of PS2's Best, But Stick To 4:3
The problem with fixed-camera in games of that time is how scenes transitioned screwing up your ability to control things, or how developers would choose terrible vantage points for no good reason other than to mess with the player. I've just been playing some PS2 games with certain sections that do that and sometimes it's just puzzling.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: F-Zero X
Japan! The zoomed in view of the vehicles on the western cover is fine, but it's missing something. It's just so generic. I've said it many times, the NA N64 covers with the giant red strip and annoying corner peel are so bad and the layout detracts from the box art. A game box would have to be extremely superior in execution to overcome the layout in my eyes. This is not that.
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Capcom Fighting Collection 2
@MSaturn I took a look at a video for the first Capcom Fighting Collection and on the game select screen there are extra options on the bottom including "game settings" where the difficulty settings should be per game. I imagine it should be similar to other collections.
Re: Goodbye Productivity, 'Cookie Clicker' Is Coming To Switch Next Week
This reminds me of a bit from the old Garfield and Friends cartoon. In the show, there was a game show called "Hit the Buzzer, Win a Cookie". This is the mobile version of that. Click the cookie, win more cookies.
Re: Ubisoft's Prince Of Persia Remake Expected By 2026, But It's Delaying Other Major IP
I don't know much about the remake(other than it's scheduled for 2021 according to the trailer...ha ha), but I played the original on the Gamecube and loved it. I hadn't played it in ages, but just finished it again last week. I'm working my way through the second game now, which I also played through back in the day. I got the third game, but never got around to playing it due to life things and forgetfulness, so I intend to fix that and go right into it when I finish the second one.
Re: Nintendo Switch 2 Hardware Chip Was Potentially Finalised As Early As 2021
This isn't particularly surprising. Not only was the Tegra X1 two years old by the time the Switch came out, but it was also significantly limited in the Switch, but it still turned out fine. Just because this chip may have been ready in 2021 doesn't mean it would have been easy to package it in a Switch Pro at the time at a price that could work. Because this is a fixed spec, developers will likely be able to get more out of this than if it were in a PC. There will be optimizations down the line. Also, I'm not sure how DLSS may work with Switch 2, but that may help get more out of it as well. Regardless, the Switch was a big hit despite its hardware limitations, and the Switch 2 will likely succeed as well, while probably being less limited in relative terms.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Mario Party 3
Japan is the best. Sure, it's cluttered, but it's well done for what it is and doesn't have the problems of the other two. The Euro covers for the N64 are not good. That border is awful. The art is cropped which makes the framing feel crampled. Since it's the same art as the NA cover, it's cramped there too, except way worse for NA because of all the extra stuff. And as I have said many times, the template for the NA N64 boxes is one of the worst ever done, in my opinion. The giant red strip on the side is obnoxious and a giant waste of space because the icons within the strip are quite small. Speaking of obnoxious, the "only for" corner peel is bad.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Mario Party 3
@NotASockPuppet According to the scorekeeper for these, that isn't the case. Japan isn't even in the lead. I don't know how many times the European covers have won without being the same as the NA covers, but it has happened and I have voted for European covers several times. In the case of N64, I think the NA cover style is one of the worst there has ever been and think it's the worst of this particular bunch. Nostalgia does skew the polls which puts Euro covers at a disadvantage, but there's no way around that.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: 1080° Avalanche
As I scrolled down the page, my first thought about the western cover was that it was a bit generic, especially with how you can't see the expression on the person's face. I thought to myself, Japan's cover should be better. Then I saw it. Wow! Japan's cover is impressively horrible. It really does look like a print ad of some sort, though I would not rate it as an especially good one. It does nothing for me. It doesn't even communicate that it's a video game. Those little circular icons add nothing of value to the cover and just don't work. I wonder if they're just there because, otherwise, the extremely poor use of space would be even more glaring. The Japanese cover, to me, is the very definition of lazy design. It is totally inadequate as a game cover. It would be only slightly better if it were a magazine ad, though still not good. It is, frankly, one of the worst covers I've seen.
Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong Will Be Playable At An Australian Museum In September
It's May 1 today. If it was April 1, this news would feel right at home as an April Fool's gag. Even throw in some Half Life 3 into the mix. It is a bizarre bit of news, but at least it's progress. Makes me wonder how far along they are. Just because it will be playable at this museum doesn't mean it will be ready for sale in 2025, but it is a good sign for those waiting for this game eagerly.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Both of these are very nice. As they share the same key art, the other elements make the difference. The Japanese one is less cramped, but there's also empty space. The NA one has more background detail, but is more cramped by the large logo and side bar. While others point to it as a negative, I really like the color choices for the western cover. The subdued blues and boosted reds and yellows are unusual and helps it stand out for me. I think it works well in this case, so my vote is for the western version.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Pikmin (GameCube)
I'm not fond of either one. Japan's is overly basic and not particularly interesting to me. The western cover has action going on, but the composition is messy and does not appear to be meant as a cover. The blurry background also gives it an odd feel. With that said, my preference is for the western cover, largely due to how they adapted the logo.
Re: Feature: "I Can't Believe This Is Happening" - The Game Kitchen On Reviving Ninja Gaiden
I clicked to find out about the cow, and not even a single mention of it in the interview....
I mentioned in my comment for the other article that it seems a fitting coincidence that 2D Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi are being revived at the same time. It was always a bit of a friendly rivalry as kids debating which was the better ninja series(spoiler: both!). I never played the 3D Ninja Gaiden games, so I can't say much about any references to them here, but I assumed they would take those into account too. Frankly, since Ninja Gaiden never evolved in 2D during the 16-bit era, it feels like it makes sense to stray from the 8-bit formula more. Also, while I understand some people being cautious about the changes, the fact that they're consulting with Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja gives me some reassurance that the decisions should likely make sense for this property.
This new info today has me more excited than before about both Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, and I watched both trailers again. They're both looking very nice visually.
Re: Hands On: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound - A Slick, Bloody Return To The Series' 2D Roots
Back in the day, I had a Master System and most of my friends had the NES, so there was a bit of a friendly rivalry over Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden. And that evolved a bit as the Shinobi sequels came out on the Genesis. To be clear, I love both. So it feels fitting that Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden will "face off" again. Back then, it was Sega vs. Tecmo. Now it's Game Kitchen vs. Lizard Cube. Both are looking very nice and I'm excited to play them both. I love me some old-school ninja action. And this coming not long after Shadow of the Ninja Reborn. It's a good time to be a fan of ninja action game revivals.
This one is looking very cool, and the Game Kitchen pixel art is wonderful. This looks pretty different from the old 8-bit games, of course, but I think that makes sense. Ninja Gaiden never evolved in the 16-bit era for some reason. And it's been so long that it feels like it makes sense to reinvent Ninja Gaiden, even though I love the way the original games play, especially parts one and three. I look forward to learning more and seeing how this turns out.
Re: Sony Vet Shuhei Yoshida Says Nintendo Is "Losing Their Identity" With Switch 2
An upgraded Switch is the correct course of action. This is one of the lessons Nintendo learned from the Wii U. They simultaneously learned that changing things up can be a tough sell, and that their marketing needs to be much clearer to avoid confusion, so following Sony's lead of numbering makes sense. The Switch was a great concept that, unsurprisingly, was a smash hit. It makes perfect sense to continue offering the same core experience. The Switch has basically consolidated Nintendo's console and portable businesses. There's no more leaning on the Game Boy and DS as they did in the past. They need the core experience of the Switch 2 to be as appealing as their prior portable systems. Iteration beats innovation there.
Innovation for its own sake is not a good thing. It's even worse when it hurts the core experience. New ideas have to make sense and be compelling. Nintendo is a business too. Again, with a single product line instead of two, they need the Switch to have broad appeal. That means it needs to do the basics right. But Nintendo has innovated in other ways in recent years with the Labo concept, and that augmented reality Mario Kart which was very clever. But you can't innovate every time.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Survival Kids (GBC)
The circle is an odd choice for the NA cover. I don't hate it, but I'm not sure it serves any good purpose. The composition and artwork within it are good. My issue comes at the area outside of the circle. There's wasted space, and the hut and crocodile(?) seem like afterthoughts. I'm assuming they used an existing bit of promo art that was only suitable as a cover if they cropped it.
Not much to say about the Euro/Japan cover other than I think it's better.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Nintendo Switch 2 Special
Even if I didn't factor in the writing on the boxes like Metroid's, Donkey Kong would be my favorite here. It's just really well executed for what it is. I saw someone above say the Mario Kart cover is cluttered, and I expected that. There is a lot going on, but the composition does a good job of containing it. Mario is the focal point and there's still some space to let everything breath a bit, despite the clutter. It's another strong one. Metroid is another good one, if a bit basic.
None of the Zelda covers do anything for me and are probably the weakest overs of this batch for me. I get what they wanted to depict with the covers and they succeeded, but they're not great as game covers as a result, in my opinion.
Re: Introducing PLAYi - A Whole New Way To Not Play
"Powered by AI, PLAYi takes away the need to actually play the game in front of you, leaving you time to do all sorts of other things like wash up, go outdoors and question your existence."
All sorts of things, like playing other games while the PLAYi handles my backlog. Brilliant!!!
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Tomodachi Life
The NA one is a mess. The little bit of breathing room for the other two covers makes them far easier to look at and understand. On top of the clutter, the NA has a giant logo that makes it worse.
Japan vs. Europe is going to come down to color, logos and banners, and character choices, since they're so similar. I prefer the choices made for the European cover just a bit more. You have Panda man(or is that ManPanda?). I think the dancers look better for Europe too, especially the one on the right. So Europe it is, by a hair.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Nobunaga's Ambition (SNES)
It's no surprise that massively cropping the vertical original artwork for a horizontal orientation would be difficult. The cropping is well done in this case, but is still not as good as the original, but it's the title and marketing lines that ensure the cover is quite ruined. But at least we know it's the "classic version" as if that means anything. I don't know if the border is normal size here, but it feels gigantic for the NA cover here. It's not good. I voted for Japan.
Re: Nintendo Left Sony "Standing At The Altar" With SNES Disk Add-On, Says Former PlayStation Exec
Layden has the year wrong. The situation happened at CES 1991. This is documented. 1993 is just way too late to be realistic anyway since the PS1 had a 1994 release.
Re: Random: Hang On, Sony Vet Ken Kutaragi Has A 'SNES PlayStation' Sitting In His Cupboard
That part toward the end referencing a statement by Layden has an error, and it's probably his error. 1993 is too late. The situation between Nintendo, Sony, and Philips happened at CES 1991. That is known. It also leaves enough time for Sony trying to salvage the venture, attempt to strike a deal with Sega, and then eventually develop the PS1 which would have needed some time, more time than a 1993 date would allow.
Re: Review: 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth Controller - Probably The Best Budget Switch Pad
@TheBigK I think the gap between official controllers and third-party controllers started to shrink in the Wii/360/PS3 days. All of those systems had their controller issues and it sounds like things are still mixed. Meanwhile, the quality of these various third-party controllers from 8bitdo, Retro Fighters, and a bunch of others have gotten very good. All the 8bitdo stuff I have feels great to use with only long-term durability being an issue in one case so far. I just tested out my 2C wired and the D-pad on this thing is extremely good in my opinion, a nice step up from the 1C.
Re: Review: 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth Controller - Probably The Best Budget Switch Pad
I've been very happy with my 8bitdo pads despite some issues which I'll go into. Some people have said they have had issues with unwanted diagonals, but I haven't run into that in any of the pads I have tried. I have the Pro+ which is/was amazing. The D-pad feel is as good as any I've used, on par with the old Saturn pads. The only issue with the Pro+ is that the button membranes are weak and eventually tear, which is unfortunate. They are replaceable and inexpensive, but the durability is a shame as I never ran into this before. I have two older pads, and FC30 and an original Zero, from a decade ago. They're also quite good for what they are. The Zero is quite usable on games that don't require complex inputs such as fighting games. I had fun using the Zero to beat Gauntlet IV last year. I have two of the 8bitdo Neo Geo CD controllers and they are fantastic so far. My only concern is if the button membranes are more durable, a concern I have for all the pads now.
As for the Ultimate C controllers, I have three of them now. Straight away, they are the best budget controller generally speaking as far as I can tell. I bought two of the Ultimate C Wired(USB) controllers a while back. They were $20 each and I had a coupon. I recently picked up an Ultimate 2C Wired for the hall-effect sticks and detachable cable. They appear to be $17-20 I haven't used it yet, but will test it out later. It does feel the same in the hand as the older model. The D-pad feel is different, but feels good. I may follow up here after testing. The 2C Wired is also slightly heavier than the previous. Regarding their build quality, they both feel much more solid than my official Xbox Series controller, which I also like, but feels creaky and flexes more in comparison, with buttons that stick sometimes. Aside from the positioning of the D-pads being different from the Pro+, which has my preferred layout, the D-pads are stiffer and not quite as good as the Pro+. I still find the original C D-pads pretty good though. I was just playing fighting games last night for testing. I have to adjust how I use the pad. The only diagonal issue is that it's easy to come off left or right by accident leading me to accidentally jump straight up. I was able to easily adjust by sliding my thumb to the edges of the D-pad and it works just fine for me, but it's not my natural inclination. So I like my C controllers very much. I'll probably be able to test out my C2 later today. The extra L and R buttons may come in handy for me as well.
Update: I have since tested my 2C wired controller. The D-pad immediately felt different to the 1C. I tested it with some top-down games to test for diagonal issues, which there were none. I played a game of The Last Blade, the Neo Geo fighter. As far as first impressions go, the D-pad is excellent. It has the feel I like, very similar to the Pro+ which is one of the best I've ever used. The 1C D-pad is good, but I had to adjust how I play due to a slight difficulty with diagonals. I found it a bit too easy to accidentally come off left or right too soon. With adjustment, I found it to be very good. But the 2C is a significant upgrade. I'd have no problem making the 2C my primary gamepad, and with them costing about $17 each with hall-effect analog sticks, I may get a few more.
Re: Mailbox: Switch 2 FOMO, Spark Games, Pancakes & BOTW - Nintendo Life Letters
-To me, being an early adopter for the sake of it has never appealed to me. I've only been an early adopter a few times and it's always been about the games. Sometimes, mid-gen refreshes are lacking too, or not enough of an upgrade. For example, OLED is not for everyone, or a Pro upgrade can really not offer much that is meaningful. Between the backlog, and my preference for older games, it's easier than ever to just wait.
-I never seek to get 100 percent. With a lot of modern games, they cram in a lot of content, and it's not always fun. Sometimes it just feels like chores. I guess the context makes the difference. For example, I hate collecting things in Zelda games, so I just do the easier ones and important stuff. But I recently played the Batman Arkham games, and I enjoyed doing most of the side quests except for the Riddler stuff. If it's fun, then I'll do it. Going back to Metroid Prime, I loved scanning everything and it never felt like a chore.
-I remember starting out on the Atari 2600 too. The early games that hooked me on the hobby were the likes of Chopper Command, River Raid, and Pitfall. Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo was an important game. Double Dragon was an early favorite as well, and I remain a huge fan of beat-em-up games to this day.
-I think Damien must have talked about his photography before as I expected that answer. Good to know I didn't hallucinate that.
-One thing I've learned from many examples is that the game companies tend to have the worst emulators. For example, Capcom released a mobile collection of Mega Man games that was notoriously bad. The companies just don't care enough about their old games, or they don't have the right people developing the emulators. With that said, I don't know about the specific emulators referred to here.
-Not quite Saturday morning cartoons, but pancakes and BOTW sounds good enough.
-I replay a lot of games as I lean much more retro these days. When I play something more modern that's larger in scope akin to what that letter refers to, I often feel like I spend a good portion of my first run getting a hang of things. For example, I still felt like a rookie pretty deep into Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. I ended up replaying them because I wanted more of the experience, but I wanted to experience the games without fumbling with the controls after finally getting the hang of everything.
-With the size, scope, and requirements of modern games, I view the various standard engines to be a good thing. That seems like it would let game designers focus on designing the game which is the most important. There are downsides to these common engines, as we have seen in some cases. It would be good to see more variety in that regard, at least for big releases. Maybe some engines are a bit more demanding than others. I have no complaints about the results. One of my favorite uses of the Unreal Engine are the modern Guilty Gear games, and a few others, using 3D that look convincingly 2D and a treat to look at.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Mario's Picross
As I scrolled down, I thought to myself, this has to get better as it goes. And it just never did. This week started bad, and ended bad. These are terrible. The first one with the disembodied face I think is the worst of the bunch. The second one at least has a more realized Mario drawing. But it's still too zoomed in and the logos detract from things(a problem for the first cover too). The Japanese cover is no better as the extreme close up is just not a good concept in my opinion. The best feature of the Japanese cover may just be the border. So my pick for least bad is Europe 2.
Re: Dadish Dev's Adorable Gravity-Bending Platformer Jumps Onto Switch Today
@darkswabber If you do any PC gaming and use Steam, the Dadish games are on sale right now until March 20(corrected from my initial statement overestimating the sale by a few days).
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship Of Doom (NES)
There must be some ninja magic in use for the NA cover because it appears Ryu is crouching on top of water. And that does appear to be water because you can see the reflections. And if that wasn't convincing enough, Ryu is crouching on water on the cover for the prior game. The big problem is that the cover concept, while good, is way too much of a rehash of the second game's cover. I'd also say it's the weakest of all the NA covers.
The Japanese cover looks to be a tie in with the anime OVA of 1991. The concept isn't as dynamic or exciting as the NA cover, but I give it extra points for having that signature '80s and '90s anime style. Also, Ryu looks the way he should and is consistent with his look in the game cutscenes. All of these things taken together, I prefer the Japanese cover by a little bit.
Re: Opinion: Nintendo, Let Us Buy The Games Being Delisted From Switch Online
@N00BiSH I get that. I'm not trying to sell you. Everyone can use and think what they like. But when someone makes a benign comment suggesting Retroarch and then you reply in such a charged way, then some push back I think is understandable, especially since things aren't so clear cut, but we already went over that. I'll be happy to leave it there.
Re: Opinion: Nintendo, Let Us Buy The Games Being Delisted From Switch Online
@N00BiSH While I do like a unified solution, that's not at the top of my list. Frankly, at the time I switched to Retroarch, it did many things better than every other emulator I had access to. Specifically, it was miles ahead of everything else when it came to display output and options. If standalone emulators have gotten better since then, it's directly because Retroarch was far superior for years. Finicky? I don't think I've had any issues since around 2018. Nobody likes the UI at first. But I went through the same thing with MAME and Mednafen(command line), and they're not garbage either. If I could use them, then I could figure out Retroarch. It's actually really easy to use after you get past a few hurdles(like input mapping). But that applies to almost everything, even some standalone emulators I've tried more recently.
I would say the worst UI I've experience goes to Windows 8 by a mile. Retroarch is a joy to use by comparison.
Re: Opinion: Nintendo, Let Us Buy The Games Being Delisted From Switch Online
@N00BiSH if literally every other emulator was better, then I wouldn't have switched to Retroarch because it did many things better than every other emulator I had used up to that point.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Pokémon Trading Card Game
I don't like either cover. With that out of the way, I voted for the NA/Euro cover. Why? Because I like the Pokemon logo better. That's all I got.
Re: Konami Adds Incredibly Rare Slice Of GBA Ninja History To The Switch eShop
I kept up with the news back in the GBA days. Ninja Five-0 was a blink-and-you'll-miss it deal. I happened to see a review, which acknowledged the game was probably not going to sell many copies due to no name recognition. But the review was very positive and it was highly recommended to those with retro tastes. I knew I couldn't wait long and I ordered it soon after, so I do have the cart. And while it may not be to everyone's taste, the game lived up to the review for me and was and still is one of my favorites in the GBA library.
Re: Mailbox: Switch 2 Pre-Order Preoccupation, Iterative Crimes - Nintendo Life Letters
"...and if you disagree, well, let's just say...that's very understandable and I respect your opinion."
That's some of my favorite trash talk I've heard. The thing with more of the same is there's always a segment of an audience that might be driven more by novelty. So more of the same won't appeal to them. Some people just have their fill after a time. This is especially true for larger games. But I also think that more of the same is great for great games. Even then, games that do more of the same still often have small differences. I think it's one of those things where that's something reviewers need to point out, and then people have to decide whether that's good or not. Just for clarity, I say this as someone who never gets tired of arcade beat-em-up games and modern games of that sort, so I love me some sameness.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - River King: Mystic Valley (DS)
I expected Europe to be quite a bit worse based on the build up in the article, but it is definitely bad. So bad it's good, perhaps, but not "so bad it's good enough to vote for" which is a saying I just made up.
I'm going to assume Japan's cover isn't as washed out as it appears in this image, and other images I've found seem to back this up. So purely on layout, I think Japan's is better. While having the title at the top is fine, I think it works better on the bottom. Japan's also manages a few more characters, which isn't always a good thing. But the NA cover fumbles with the additional logos at the bottom corners. Japan's logos don't get in the way of anything. Japan is my pick.
Re: Random: Zelda Fan-Project Turns 'Breath Of The Wild' Into Stunning Anime Opening
I finally had a look at this. I like the look they achieved. They did a good job of keeping the lines as minimal as possible. Bold, sharp outlines are a common element of digital art, but that has a tendency to make things look flat and disconnected from the backgrounds. Old anime, and old animation in general, especially stuff that was more serious in tone, tended to minimize dark outlines for the most part. Also, the lines they do have in this art are broken and uneven, and I point that out as a good thing, which goes further in giving it a hand-drawn look despite it possibly being digitally made. For that, I give them a lot of credit for the look of it.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Star Fox 64
@N64-ROX it's reminiscent of what Sega did in the 1990s with Thunder Force 4. Here was a series of shooters successful enough to reach a fourth instalment, and is considered one of the best games on the Mega Drive/Genesis, so someone in the US had the bright idea to change the title to "Lightening Force". Not only is it likely a misspelling of "lighting", but there's no indication on the cover that it's a Thunder Force game. And if "lightening" was indtended, then that's even more baffling.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Star Fox 64
I don't think either is particularly good, but I think the western cover is particularly bad. Japan's actually has some decent composition, despite being cluttered with questionable art direction. The eye is drawn where it is supposed to be, to the title and the characters. On the western box, Fox doesn't look important. His ship is off center. The other ship draws the eye away. The mess of logos and borders squeezes the art making it worse. I say it often, but that red side strip and the corner peel make N64 boxes among the worst overall. It amazes me that the N64 box design was conceived by professionals. Japan wins for me.
Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Brings 2D Ninja Action To Nintendo Switch This August
Been a good week for retro reveals with seeing a proper demonstration of this game along with Neon Inferno. Looks very good to me and I think the art style fits pretty well. I love beat-em-ups so if they incorporate combos into the gameplay as it looks like they have, I'll probably like it. The Shinobi series has always added things with each game, so that would be in line with the series as well.
Re: Talking Point: Why An LCD Screen Isn't The End Of The World For Switch 2
I've been hearing the debate about OLED vs. LCD for a long time now in phones. I like OLED but it's a non issue for me. In fact, as far as I can tell, I am one of the people that has some kind of sensitivity to OLED flicker. I found myself getting extremely drowsy a few times while using OLED early on. That feeling ceased as soon as I switched to an LCD device. I've also spoken to a contributor on Time Extension who said he got headaches every time he used the OLED Switch, but not the LCD Switch. Back to me, I've found a way to cope with my OLED devices, which is to jack up the brightness to 100 percent, and then dim the screen with an app. That works out very well for me, but I lose adaptive brightness. That wouldn't be an option on any Switch unless Nintendo provided it themselves, and they won't.
I'm the person in my family that sets up new phones for people that don't know how or can't be bothered with that. My mother has a mid-range phone from a few years ago that I've spent plenty of time with. It has an absolutely fantastic LCD screen to the point where I've found myself thinking "Wow, what a great screen" and the reviews for it pointed that out too. Other than the true black of an OLED, it can stand up to any OLED I've used. And I'm sure there are better LCD panels out there. But for me, and leaving any sensitivity out of it, the difference between OLED and LCD is tiny and not clear cut.
A couple of additional things. Back to the sensitivity issue, I've heard and read that there are some screens that have a higher rate of flicker(in this case a good thing) or other methods of dimming. I would like to try one of those screens at some point to see if I can feel a difference. I've heard good things. As I don't really consider OLED clearly superior, at least in terms of image quality, I wouldn't even bother with an OLED TV. Plus, from what I've observed, TVs tend to have the worst panels when it comes to pixel degradation. All the best OLED panels I've heard of in that regard were for mobile devices, including the Switch.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Wario World (GameCube)
There are things I like and dislike about each one. The Japanese one is well executed, but I find it hard to get into the concept of making the box resemble a gold bar or something like it. It's a bit much. I don't love the renders on the western cover, but the concept and composition are good. I vote for the western cover this week.
Re: Phoenotopia Devs Reveal Its Next Gorgeous-Looking Metroidvania
I wasn't familiar with this developer or their previous game. This looks very nice visually. The character designs seem good and the stages have sort of an impressionist or watercolor vibe to them. It works pretty well in the screens and teaser. I'll have to make a note.
Re: Random: Hideki Kamiya Would Rather You Not Play Okami On The Wii
Motion control, or at least the option for it, seems like a good fit for Okami's brush system. Whether it is actually accurate and responsive is the important part. I've heard a lot of mixed things about that, but many people seem to be fine with it and that version overall. I had some real problems in that regard on the PS2 version of the game, which I also wouldn't recommend to anyone. I've heard the HD versions of the game fix up some of the game's issues. It sounds like his issue is mostly that the port was outsourced.
Re: Random: Ex-PlayStation Boss Wanted More "Surprises" From Switch 2 Reveal
I agree about the reveal being basically a sneak reveal. It was an acknowledgement of its existence and a tease of new features. I didn't think much of the reveal because I don't like that style of video. Leaks didn't really hurt things, in my opinion. Just as a reveal, I thought it was disappointing. But the Switch was so successful, and Switch 2 looks like it will be another good product that I don't think the reveal matters because it will likely sell itself. Plus there will likely be a much stronger software reveal before too long.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age (GBA)
The Japanese cover is awful. I could stop right there. The western cover is odd. The composition is decent and the positioning gives them a convenient place to put the title without it feeling forced in there. However, the platform they're on is so high in the frame that it leaves a lot of empty space at the bottom. While they use it for the various logos, it doesn't change that it feels like a terrible waste of space and isn't well judged. Still, it's way better than the Japanese one.
Re: Review: NYXI Hyperion 2 - Are These Really "The Ultimate Replacement" For Your Switch Joy-Con?
The timing is an issue sine many people who otherwise might like these will wait. But the Switch sold so many units and may even persist as a value offering like the PS2 did that there may still be a good market for these controllers. Especially with hall-effect sticks, this could be something that those who intend to stick with the original Switch would consider as a long-term fix for JoyCon issues.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Super Ninja Boy
My favorite thing about the NA cover is that entity(the god of thunder, perhaps) riding the cloud in the center while playing a drum set, though both covers have a version of him(it?). What makes the difference for me is the anime style of the time for the Japanese one. The main characters look quite a bit better there compared to their lumpy-faced counterparts on the NA cover. Overall, Japan's box is more appealing to me as a result.
Re: Opinion: My Daughter Made Me Realise That Mario Wonder's Difficulty Options Need Work
These three year olds need to suck it up and git gud!!!!
Okay, in all seriousness, I think the difference for those of us that grew up with difficult games of the 8-bit era is that those were all we had. They were made to be appealing, but they also were the best we had at the time. Now there are so many games from different times. I can't begrudge a kid for preferring to play in a big 3D world with a character that looks like it did in the movie, or something like that. It also highlights how tricky game design can be these days. Not every game should be accessible on difficulty, but a lot of them can be, but then how much is the right balance?
Re: Rare Konami GBA Gem 'Ninja Five-O' Gets February Release Date
I was very lucky to pick this one up on GBA when it came out. I kept up with GBA news and reviews very closely back in those days. I didn't know much about the game ahead of time, but knew it was the style I was looking for, so I checked the review right away. Even the review alluded to the fact that the game was likely to get lost in the shuffle, so I knew I should not wait too long. I picked it up a few weeks later. While I did keep a few of my GBA boxes, I didn't keep that one. I was very happy that I picked the game up, and that's just for the gameplay and not the collector value, which is just a nice bonus. But I'm glad the game will be more widely available for people.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Mario Kart 64
No hesitation for me, the western art is way better. I am not fond of the general design of N64 boxes with the side strip and corner peel(which the original release of this game has). Luckily, that's barely a factor here and the composition for the box art is excellent and takes that into account. Mario is the focal point and having his head right next to the strip was a great choice as it leaves plenty of room for the background characters, with plenty of breathing room so it doesn't feel cluttered. The low angle of the perspective works and makes it very dynamic. It's really well executed.