I believe there are two screen suppliers. I wonder if there's variation between the supplied screens, and perhaps even differences from the same manufacturer if they're using different factories. Someone else mentioned it, but there may be a screen lottery in play. Some people report extreme blur that even casual types can see. Others say their screens have no blur and look amazing. It sounds like not all Switch 2 screens are created equal. Perhaps we'll find out more about that going forward.
The Euro cover is an example of bad composition due to all the wasted space. It's funny how small DK and Diddy are on there. The framing is just not good. The NA cover isn't bad. DK is dynamic and well framed. The background is there, I guess. I like the cel shading. But the cover doesn't grab me. It doesn't at least make me want to know more about it. The Japanese cover is actually interesting to me. The composition of it is excellent. It's very festive in a pleasant way. I like the way DK and Diddy are drawn and colored. Japan's cover is the best one here and is just very nicely done.
My favorite time period of Nintendo is the Gamecube + GBA era. I loved both systems. There were a lot of quality games that I appreciated. Plus, at least on the console side, Nintendo was in the role of underdog, which I thought led to some good things compared to times they were on top.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. Some people are chasing a feeling with the determination of seemingly wanting to return to a previous time. That can sometimes go too far and lead to some odd rituals and such. That isn't to say it has to be extreme. And then we have unintended nostalgia, which is my favorite kind. And I think so many of us move past certain things or experience times in our lives when fun diversions can take a back seat. Then, some time down the line we come across such things again and the interest returns, but that interest also brings us long dormant reminders of the past, with important memories. I've had that experience with gaming and with old TV shows. In some cases, I can vividly remember experiences I had. And it's even better if this kind of nostalgia can reconnect people the way it has here for the author of the piece.
I remember first seeing this done with Game Boy games. It made a lot of sense for those since their boxes were not proper display boxes, in my opinion, and were often discarded. I thought they looked good and people do a nice job with them, so more power to those that want to do tht for Switch stuff, even if those do have proper game cases.
This one was very easy for me. I chose North America with no hesitation. I just don't like the Euro cover much. The Japanese cover does nothing at all for me. NA has great composition to start. The purple background is nice and helps the colorful characters stand out. The overall design is superior in my opinion.
That's about what I expected to happen. It would have been amusing if the blue shell did a lap around the track before hitting him, though, and that seemed plausible enough.
The western cover has very good composition. It has the typical "let's squeeze a ton of characters in the background" approach, and I'm not as fond of how it's done here. I think less would be more here. I also don't really like Ryu's pose and don't think he looks all that great here. I think Ryu was drawn way better on the Japanese cover and I like the action pose. I also like the composition with Akuma and Chun Li. Chun Li is my favorite element of the cover, in fact. Overall, like the Japanese cover a lot more.
It's so funny how we kids back in the day debated which 2D ninja series was better, and now they're being revived at the same time and by European developers with great track records, and apparently with games coming out a month apart. Ryu Hayabusa and Joe Musashi can't seem to get away from each other. That makes me think that there should be a classic-style anime with them teaming up, maybe with Strider Hiryu joining them. I think both games are looking fantastic in their own ways and I'm excited for both of them.
Regarding the art style of Shinobi, I didn't like the Lizardcube style for Streets of Rage 4. It didn't feel right to me and I had some technical issues with it. But I have to give the developers credit because they did include an unusual, but in a good way in my opinion, CRT filter. I liked the way that looked and I appreciate they included that to let me play the game in a way that looked appealing to me. It's funny that they didn't reveal that prior to release. But the visual style feels like a better fit for Shinobi because it does kind of resemble the same visual style from Okami, like a painting. Plus, they made some adjustments to the art for Shinobi, such as the game not having such thick black outlines like in Streets of Rage 4, and that makes a big difference. I'm not against 2D games trying a more modern, drawn 2D aesthetic over pixel art, and I think Shinobi is coming along very nicely in that style, though I wouldn't be against them continuing to include their CRT filter.
I understand the issue with the art. I think it's just the nature of a lot of digital art where you have a lot of crisp lines and large areas of uniform color without any apparent texture. To be clear, I did not like the Streets of Rage 4 art style(more on that in a moment). But, first, I think the art is a better fit in Shinobi, especially with it being a flat, 2D action game, but also because they made adjustments to the SOR4 art, specifically the black outlines are much thinner than in that game. To give credit to Lizardcube, they included an interesting CRT filter in SOR4. It was a bit unusual in its execution, but I liked it a lot and I was able to enjoy the game with the visuals more to my taste. They didn't even publicize that feature ahead of release. It's quite possible Shinobi will get the same treatment. But I like the general look of this one so far as it reminds me of the vibe Okami had with the visuals.
As for the combo gameplay, as beat-em-ups are my favorite kind of game, I welcome combos into Shinobi. There were additions and changes to the Shinobi games as they went. I think adding combos was a logical next thing to try. It's possible it doesn't work, but I think it will.
No hesitation from me. I voted for the NA cover straight away. To be clear, I found all three of these disappointing. The art itself is fine, but nothing is as dynamic as I'd expect from Marvel stuff of the time. None of these are particularly exciting. While the Japan/Euro art isn't badly executed for what it is, it's not good for a cover. Everything just blends together and nothing particularly stands out. To lump all the characters into one giant mass like that leaves a bunch of characters and important elements obscured. The NA cover is somewhat boring, but it's much more visually coherent and, to me, far more appealing.
Thjey're both good if a bit simple and generic in terms of the key art. I like the background in both as it's unusual in a good way. The border on the Japanese one doesn't really enhance things. I think the logo style and placement works better for the western cover, and that's my preference this week.
@WhiteUmbrella No worries. As I was not talking about this game and was referring to the concept in general, I was intentionally unspecific and didn't think it would draw much attention. I can see how there can be misunderstanding, especially in text form. I think it's much like other concepts in game development in that the implementation is the key. It could be done well or not so much. But I have no problem with fixed camera as a concept when done well.
Just last week I was playing Prince of Persia - Warrior Within which is full 3D, but has fixed-camera sections. There was one part that sticks out in which you're being chased and the camera angle suddenly changes the very moment the character must change directions. It's not the worst thing ever and not super difficult, but it is annoying having the time constraint of the chase and ending up running the wrong way because of the camera change every single time.
@WhiteUmbrella I was talking about other games of that era which used fixed cameras in whole or in part. I have played some recently and they do screw up your ability to control things in the moment. And they weren't using tank controls. I was talking about the concept in general. Some developers may have done it well, but others could have done it better.
@-wc- The only explanation I've seen is that some people get hung up on having a portion of the screen not used. They feel short changed somehow. I've seen people say they prefer 4:3 sources cropped to 16:9 for this reason. Same with stretching the image. It also makes things bigger, but at the huge loss of actually losing parts of the picture. It's very strange.
The only time I can think of when it's not so clear is for open matte films. These are things originally shot in 4:3 but were meant to be cropped to 16:9 for theatrical release. A case could be made that either way is fine, and chances are such things are framed more for one than for the other.
There were some that weren't very fond of the visual style of Streets of Rage 4. I was among them, though I do give the developer credit for including the CRT-ish filters which I thought were good and I preferred the game that way. It was weird that those filters were not known until release day. But I like the visual style here for Shinobi. The style is adjusted a bit from SOR4, specifically the dark outlines aren't so prominent. But I also think this style fits better for Shinobi and I like what I have seen so far. While I love pixel art, not everything is going to be pixel art and other things can also look good and this does look that way to me. I also think the addition of combos could be good. As I'm a big fan of beat-em-up games, I like that, but we'll have to see how the execution is and how well it works with 2D Shonibi.
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.
Comments 1,944
Re: Digital Foundry Is "Happy" With Switch 2 But Feels The Screen Is "Problematic"
I believe there are two screen suppliers. I wonder if there's variation between the supplied screens, and perhaps even differences from the same manufacturer if they're using different factories. Someone else mentioned it, but there may be a screen lottery in play. Some people report extreme blur that even casual types can see. Others say their screens have no blur and look amazing. It sounds like not all Switch 2 screens are created equal. Perhaps we'll find out more about that going forward.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Donkey Konga 2
The Euro cover is an example of bad composition due to all the wasted space. It's funny how small DK and Diddy are on there. The framing is just not good. The NA cover isn't bad. DK is dynamic and well framed. The background is there, I guess. I like the cel shading. But the cover doesn't grab me. It doesn't at least make me want to know more about it. The Japanese cover is actually interesting to me. The composition of it is excellent. It's very festive in a pleasant way. I like the way DK and Diddy are drawn and colored. Japan's cover is the best one here and is just very nicely done.
Re: Opinion: I Never Felt True Nostalgia Until I Played GameCube On Switch 2
My favorite time period of Nintendo is the Gamecube + GBA era. I loved both systems. There were a lot of quality games that I appreciated. Plus, at least on the console side, Nintendo was in the role of underdog, which I thought led to some good things compared to times they were on top.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. Some people are chasing a feeling with the determination of seemingly wanting to return to a previous time. That can sometimes go too far and lead to some odd rituals and such. That isn't to say it has to be extreme. And then we have unintended nostalgia, which is my favorite kind. And I think so many of us move past certain things or experience times in our lives when fun diversions can take a back seat. Then, some time down the line we come across such things again and the interest returns, but that interest also brings us long dormant reminders of the past, with important memories. I've had that experience with gaming and with old TV shows. In some cases, I can vividly remember experiences I had. And it's even better if this kind of nostalgia can reconnect people the way it has here for the author of the piece.
Re: Random: Don't Like Switch 2's Physical Game Cases? Try Some Cool Cassette-Styled Ones Instead
I remember first seeing this done with Game Boy games. It made a lot of sense for those since their boxes were not proper display boxes, in my opinion, and were often discarded. I thought they looked good and people do a nice job with them, so more power to those that want to do tht for Switch stuff, even if those do have proper game cases.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast)
This one was very easy for me. I chose North America with no hesitation. I just don't like the Euro cover much. The Japanese cover does nothing at all for me. NA has great composition to start. The purple background is nice and helps the colorful characters stand out. The overall design is superior in my opinion.
Re: Random: Mario Kart World Players, Take Heed - This Is What Happens When You Throw A Blue Shell In First Place
That's about what I expected to happen. It would have been amusing if the blue shell did a lap around the track before hitting him, though, and that seemed plausible enough.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
The western cover has very good composition. It has the typical "let's squeeze a ton of characters in the background" approach, and I'm not as fond of how it's done here. I think less would be more here. I also don't really like Ryu's pose and don't think he looks all that great here. I think Ryu was drawn way better on the Japanese cover and I like the action pose. I also like the composition with Akuma and Chun Li. Chun Li is my favorite element of the cover, in fact. Overall, like the Japanese cover a lot more.
Re: Review: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (Switch 2) - A Superb Port Of An Incredible RPG
It's nice to see Cyberpunk get a second chance at having a product launch and it not being a disaster this time.
Re: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Slashes Its Way Onto The Switch eShop This July
It's so funny how we kids back in the day debated which 2D ninja series was better, and now they're being revived at the same time and by European developers with great track records, and apparently with games coming out a month apart. Ryu Hayabusa and Joe Musashi can't seem to get away from each other. That makes me think that there should be a classic-style anime with them teaming up, maybe with Strider Hiryu joining them. I think both games are looking fantastic in their own ways and I'm excited for both of them.
Regarding the art style of Shinobi, I didn't like the Lizardcube style for Streets of Rage 4. It didn't feel right to me and I had some technical issues with it. But I have to give the developers credit because they did include an unusual, but in a good way in my opinion, CRT filter. I liked the way that looked and I appreciate they included that to let me play the game in a way that looked appealing to me. It's funny that they didn't reveal that prior to release. But the visual style feels like a better fit for Shinobi because it does kind of resemble the same visual style from Okami, like a painting. Plus, they made some adjustments to the art for Shinobi, such as the game not having such thick black outlines like in Streets of Rage 4, and that makes a big difference. I'm not against 2D games trying a more modern, drawn 2D aesthetic over pixel art, and I think Shinobi is coming along very nicely in that style, though I wouldn't be against them continuing to include their CRT filter.
Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Gets New Trailer Detailing Its Fast-Paced Combat
I understand the issue with the art. I think it's just the nature of a lot of digital art where you have a lot of crisp lines and large areas of uniform color without any apparent texture. To be clear, I did not like the Streets of Rage 4 art style(more on that in a moment). But, first, I think the art is a better fit in Shinobi, especially with it being a flat, 2D action game, but also because they made adjustments to the SOR4 art, specifically the black outlines are much thinner than in that game. To give credit to Lizardcube, they included an interesting CRT filter in SOR4. It was a bit unusual in its execution, but I liked it a lot and I was able to enjoy the game with the visuals more to my taste. They didn't even publicize that feature ahead of release. It's quite possible Shinobi will get the same treatment. But I like the general look of this one so far as it reminds me of the vibe Okami had with the visuals.
As for the combo gameplay, as beat-em-ups are my favorite kind of game, I welcome combos into Shinobi. There were additions and changes to the Shinobi games as they went. I think adding combos was a logical next thing to try. It's possible it doesn't work, but I think it will.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes (Dreamcast)
@Krull That was quite amusing and I think it needed to be said, so I'm the one saying it. It's also reasonably plausible.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes (Dreamcast)
No hesitation from me. I voted for the NA cover straight away. To be clear, I found all three of these disappointing. The art itself is fine, but nothing is as dynamic as I'd expect from Marvel stuff of the time. None of these are particularly exciting. While the Japan/Euro art isn't badly executed for what it is, it's not good for a cover. Everything just blends together and nothing particularly stands out. To lump all the characters into one giant mass like that leaves a bunch of characters and important elements obscured. The NA cover is somewhat boring, but it's much more visually coherent and, to me, far more appealing.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Kirby's Star Stacker (Game Boy)
Thjey're both good if a bit simple and generic in terms of the key art. I like the background in both as it's unusual in a good way. The border on the Japanese one doesn't really enhance things. I think the logo style and placement works better for the western cover, and that's my preference this week.
Re: Review: Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Switch) - A Solid Remaster Of One Of PS2's Best, But Stick To 4:3
@WhiteUmbrella No worries. As I was not talking about this game and was referring to the concept in general, I was intentionally unspecific and didn't think it would draw much attention. I can see how there can be misunderstanding, especially in text form. I think it's much like other concepts in game development in that the implementation is the key. It could be done well or not so much. But I have no problem with fixed camera as a concept when done well.
Just last week I was playing Prince of Persia - Warrior Within which is full 3D, but has fixed-camera sections. There was one part that sticks out in which you're being chased and the camera angle suddenly changes the very moment the character must change directions. It's not the worst thing ever and not super difficult, but it is annoying having the time constraint of the chase and ending up running the wrong way because of the camera change every single time.
Re: Review: Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Switch) - A Solid Remaster Of One Of PS2's Best, But Stick To 4:3
@WhiteUmbrella I was talking about other games of that era which used fixed cameras in whole or in part. I have played some recently and they do screw up your ability to control things in the moment. And they weren't using tank controls. I was talking about the concept in general. Some developers may have done it well, but others could have done it better.
Re: Review: Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Switch) - A Solid Remaster Of One Of PS2's Best, But Stick To 4:3
@-wc- The only explanation I've seen is that some people get hung up on having a portion of the screen not used. They feel short changed somehow. I've seen people say they prefer 4:3 sources cropped to 16:9 for this reason. Same with stretching the image. It also makes things bigger, but at the huge loss of actually losing parts of the picture. It's very strange.
The only time I can think of when it's not so clear is for open matte films. These are things originally shot in 4:3 but were meant to be cropped to 16:9 for theatrical release. A case could be made that either way is fine, and chances are such things are framed more for one than for the other.
Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Shows Off Gorgeous Hand-Drawn Action And Environments
There were some that weren't very fond of the visual style of Streets of Rage 4. I was among them, though I do give the developer credit for including the CRT-ish filters which I thought were good and I preferred the game that way. It was weird that those filters were not known until release day. But I like the visual style here for Shinobi. The style is adjusted a bit from SOR4, specifically the dark outlines aren't so prominent. But I also think this style fits better for Shinobi and I like what I have seen so far. While I love pixel art, not everything is going to be pixel art and other things can also look good and this does look that way to me. I also think the addition of combos could be good. As I'm a big fan of beat-em-up games, I like that, but we'll have to see how the execution is and how well it works with 2D Shonibi.
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.