sdelfin

On one hand, it is a bit unfair that various partners have to keep the secret, but then some reveal it early. Though the leaks seemed so small that it didn't really harm anything and probably won't be of much benefit to the leakers anyway. And the fact they did leak could convince Nintendo to find new partners down the line. On the other hand, leaks are common and should be expected. Nintendo had to have expected them. The leaks ended up building some more hype anyway, so it might have been free advertising, intended or not.

I might have a similar opinion and rant towards someone who directs a PS2 game where it takes about 20 minutes of gibberish before you can actually play the game. But that's another matter entirely.

I didn't think all that much of the reveal trailer itself. The original Switch reveal was much better. The actual Switch 2 concept and improvements are very good, though. I'm sure when we see more, it will be more exciting.

For the NA cover, the main Klonoa is a pretty good render for what it is. The cover itself is just a boring concept with middling execution. It's the worst of the three.

With Japan and Europe being similar, it's going to come down to minor things. Europe's is cramped and gets clipped on the side. Japan's is also cramped, though slightly less so, but gets clipped on the bottom. I think the illustration of Klonoa comes across better with the clipping on the left, but showing the leg. The clipped leg of the Japanese one detracts from the character pose, I think. Europe wins for me.

I can't deny that many people love RE4 so it succeeded in that way. My experience was negative, but I'll be brief because I don't want to drag anything down. I thought that the early stages of the game were great. At roughly halfway through the game, it felt like things changed and it became a slog to me. I despised the QTE knife fight and had some other issues. Not everyone will like the same things, and that's how it goes sometimes. From the sound of it, the remake sounds like it fixed various issues and credit to Capcom for making some changes to things that maybe didn't work so well or did not age well like the aforementioned QTE-heavy stuff. If they ever take the additional DRM out of the PC version, I'd be willing to give the remake a shot.

This week's batch provides a good lesson in composition. The framing of the European cover is too tight and the frame is cramped. Crash feels too close to the viewer, in my view. The secondary racers are squeezed in and it feels that way. The logo is crushing everything. The checkered flag background is either badly judged or poorly implemented and only makes everything worse.

The Japanese cover makes most of those same mistakes. The framing is way too tight. Crash is way too tightly framed for what the art is trying to accomplish(for example, it's not dynamic at all). The other racer is practically right on top of him. The logo is crushing them. The clock behind them is also crushing everything, making the framing feel more cramped. The blurring of the background is probably meant to minimize that a tiny bit, but it barely helps anything.

North America's cover, whether it's good or not, is easily the best one here. There's actually a little bit of breathing room and I can feel it immediately. It is simply more pleasant and more coherent visually just for having a tiny bit of space, along with some other elements that show good judgement. Crash is front and center without feeling right on top of the viewer. The secondary characters are clear, but are better placed not feeling like they're right on top of Crash. The extra space makes it so the logo doesn't feel overwhelming. In addition to the background being an actual background, which is itself nice, the color enhances the little bit of breathing room making the composition even more pleasant.

I have no love for the gold boxes. They stood out at the time for being different, but as far as actual box art it's quite boring. The Japanese one is pretty generic as Zelda art goes. It looks like extra promo art that was meant to be in the manual. Still, it wouldn't take much to beat the gold box, and the Japanese cover is enough to win out for me.

An interesting battle this week as we have the typical anime/manga style of the time vs. the typical western comic-book style of the time. And I like both styles, though I gravitated more toward the Japanese style as more anime became available in the US. I did spend some years collecting comics and do love that style when it's done well. The particular western art for this one isn't bad to me, but I've seen better. I think the background characters all look pretty good. "Rastan"(that's who it looks like to me) up front looks overly inked to me. The black areas don't feel entirely well judged, in my opinion, and detract from the finished product. This is not the kind of inking that I love, especially in the style of books in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. This has more of a typical mid-90s look. It actually gives me Valiant Comics vibes, as all their books had a different look from the norm. I do want to give credit to the western cover art for making very good use of the landscape form factor of the box, which wasn't so common.

The issue with the Japanese cover is that it's another jumble of many of the game's characters. But it's boring because it does work, though not every time. What carries the Japanese cover is strong character designs and just a good execution of the art. Japan wins for me.

I had to think about this one for a bit. They're both quite good. The blue background in the western cover is nice. I like the sun being up top, and the curve of the sun goes with the curve of the top banner. For Japan the way the wolf is posed shows off more elements beyond just looking like a white wolf. And of course, the background is really nice for Japan. Eventually, I decided to vote for Japan, but the other cover is very strong too.

@Tempestryke To be clear, I took issue with the game's pacing, not the size or length. Also, when I played Okami, I was hoping for something that felt like Wind Waker, which had a pace I liked, but it was not that for me.

@Tempestryke I don't know what you're even getting at. That would make more sense is I just played Okami recently and knew what I was getting into, but I played it years ago and didn't expect certain things. I've played other adventure games that I thought had much better pacing if that's what you mean(I loved Wind Waker, even the sailing). Plenty of people like the game. Good for them. I'm just sharing why it didn't work for me. Incidentally, I've spoken to fans of the game who acknowledged my complaints were valid. Just saying something is sprawling doesn't mean anything. If you make a game big enough and long enough, you're going to lose some people that want things to go somewhere. Also, back then reviews weren't all that helpful as far as determining if there were elements in the game that weren't to someone's taste. I don't remember the PS2 box advertising "unskippable cutscenes and lots of talking", "mandatory 20 minute intro (with a story they tell you twice) before you can play" or "gets good in the second half"(again, paraphrasing what an actual fan of the game said). Note that I acknowledged that the remakes apparently improved some of those things which I give them credit for, and I'm hopeful enough that the sequel will be good, both for fans of the original, and even those that may not have liked it. And that's because several of the things I mentioned were trends in game development at the time it was made.

I bought Blasphemous earlier this year, but haven't gotten to play it yet. The pixel art is fantastic in it and it looks fun. This also has nice visuals in game. It looks like it will be quite a bit different from the NES games, with lots of new abilities. It almost looks like they combined Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Hagane(which Moonrider did as well, as I recall). And that's fine by me, though I wonder if it will feel like the NES games in some way. This is a case where I think moving forward from the NES games makes sense, whereas in Shinobi I think the closer they stick to the Genesis games, the better. I'll be looking forward to learning more about this.

I wanted to like Okami, but it had too many issues in the PS2 original. There's the intro that is nearly 20 minutes long and cannot be skipped. The gibberish language got tiresome as well, especially since the game is overly verbose. I found the "brush" to be unreliable(sometimes inexplicably so) which led to having to repeat annoying set pieces. I know the later versions fixed certain things. That's why I'm hopeful that the developers avoid some of the worst elements from the first game.

@LadyCharlie I know what you mean. Okami was not a game that respected the player's time all that well. I once came across someone who said that those who were bored in Okami should hang in there because the game got good after the first 20 hours or so. And I thought to myself, I think I'd rather play a game that's fun from the beginning.

First off, the "only for" nonsense in the lower-right corner of both western releases is terrible and a huge waste of space. Also terrible? The entire composition of the Japanese cover. The logo and text ruin that cover because you can see that there is a background, but you can barely see the background making it pointless. It's not good. The NA cover is far better due to the layout and visibility. However, I prefer seeing the different Wario versions on the Euro cover, especially Bat Wario. Europe is my pick this week.

Reminds me of the crossing of the Bridge of Death in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Those that could not successfully answer the five questions(three questions!!) would be cast by magical forces into the Gorge of Eternal Peril much like those emoters did in the video. That's probably the most I can say about Fortnite.

I don't really like either one very much. Both have issues, in my opinion, of elements being undefined. I had trouble figuring out what I was looking at. On the US one, the main character's lower half gets lost in the background a bit. Also, his stance is very odd. I get what Japan's cover is going for, but the main character just looks unclear to me visually. In this case, I vote for the western cover.

Japan's background is just lacking to me. I like the overall composition and concept of the western cover more. Plus, Kirby looks suitably furious, as he should.

This is an interesting comparison because both covers have good elements, but also their fair share of issues. The western cover probably has better composition, and the red background is nice. The cover is also more accurate to the game. With that said, I think the overall art is superior for the Japanese cover. I also love Fist of the North Star/Hokuto No Ken, so I find the Japanese cover more attractive. For those reasons, I vote for Japan.

I always preferred the first one. The second has some improvements, but some elements that felt like a step backward. I didn't find the light and dark worlds all that interesting. I thought the first game had the better difficulty balance. Part two had some tougher regular enemies which made things tedious in spots.

One thing I really liked in part one was that there were no pits anywhere. It made the world seem a bit more believable. The second game had pits. If you fell in, the game put you back on the ground but you took damage. That's not a bad way to do it, but it did lower the immersion for me compared to the first. With that said, I would like to replay the second game at some point hopefully soon.

Regardless of the annoyance of splash screens, the thing that jumps out at me is the claim that GSG provided patches and that Rockstar sat on them this whole time.

If only there was a way to play such a game on the go....

I would assume they were anticipating a slow day and had few appointments. And I suspect that's not the kind of thing that would get a lot of walk-in patients. So it may have made a lot of sense to close early anyway. Maybe some of the potential patients decided to do the same and play through the pain for DQ3.

I thought his first iteration of Link was a better match in terms of scale to the dungeons and the objects within. I did like the room transition he decided on. It was also interesting learning about his process. It's an interesting exercise in game design since it re-imagines something so many are familiar with.

I consider myself lucky in that I don't feel a strong pull from such bonus content. I understand why some are compelled to do everything in a game. I do feel it too, but it's not a strong feeling for me. I've long ago approached Zelda games with the mindset of only doing side quests that aren't ridiculous and sticking with the main quest as much as possible. It may be because I always had a strong preference for straightforward arcade-like design. I have only vague memories of this figurine section, but that's because once I realized what a slog it would be, I simply didn't bother. I have reminded myself that optional bits are optional. I have absolutely no problem with finishing a Zelda game with missing hearts.

Is the Japanese cover a mess? Yes, but it's a glorious mess. I love it. It's so '90s in the best way. It also just looks fun, like they're throwing a party for the hats. That's in contrast to the decidedly un-fun NA cover. The "What is it?" on the Japanese cover really put it over the top for me too. I couldn't vote for Japan fast enough, both because I hate the NA cover, but also because I genuinely like it.

This is an odd coincidence as I just bought these a few days ago after randomly thinking about them one day. I ended up looking them up for PC and saw they were on sale both on Steam and GOG. I ended up going with GOG so that they are mine forever(maniacal laughter). I haven't really had much time to game lately so I haven't played beyond the opening sequence of Asylum but it seems cool and it was just nice seeing it running since I'm not running Windows which makes things a bit less straightforward.

From the review, I'm leaning toward getting this one and will look into some more reviews and videos to learn a bit more, especially more about the secondary weapons. The pixel art is very nice. While I think grab moves tend to make beat-em-ups better and most of the best games in the genre have them, I have played plenty of very good ones without them, with both Konami Turtles arcade games, the 16-bit ports of them(different enough to be worth mentioning), X-Men arcade, and Knights of the Round coming to mind right now. All of those I enjoy quite a bit. They also each have other signature features that counter the loss of grabs. So it's not a deal breaker to me, but it is worth knowing.

As others have said, the comic-panel thing doesn't really seem to matter here. Also, the comic aesthetic isn't as striking or distinct now, due to digital art and coloring, as it was back in the day when they used the four-color process. That was a case of a limitation that shaped the product and became its signature look. As such, Comix Zone looked more authentic, unique, and inventive in terms of presentation.

I always liked Nintendo Karen and her fictional thought process. To be fair, that rooftop party was probably pretty boring before she got there. I also thought the casting was well done and that whoever played Karen did a good job in her role. She had good expressions, but also seemed natural.

I don't think either cover is especially good, but just like another commenter above, I also don't like the upside-down character for the Japanese cover. The yin-yang concept seems better in theory than in execution on the cover. It just doesn't work for me. Because of that, I chose the western cover as the better of the two.

@KingMike That's a pretty good response, creatively speaking. I have to give you credit for that one.

None of these are what I would consider good. The NA black-box design, even when it's silver, is terrible in my opinion. Also, why is there a magnifying glass as part of the "Password Pak" banner? Europe is better because it doesn't use the pixel art, which is especially bad for the game's NA box compared to other games, but it's still not a great layout. And that leaves Japan as the winner! I don't think it's all that good — just boring, really — but it's the one I think is the best of this bunch.

I had Croc when it was new on Saturn but didn't like it due to the camera. I found out years later the PS1 version has a better camera setup. I had an odd urge to revisit Croc several years ago(PS1 version). I was specifically in the mood for a basic 3D platformer with d-pad/tank controls. I ended up having a good time with it. I'm glad to see Croc remastered. There's value in improving it by adding a modern control option, along with offering the original controls, along with other updates.

I also revisited another 3D platformer some time later, a much more famous and popular 64-bit platformer featuring plumbers(supposedly), and I had a miserable time with it. I'm only speaking for myself, but I just did not enjoy it and I mention just for the sake of contrast. I look forward to this, though I wonder if I'll be able to run it on the old GPU I just bought(I truly am retro!).

@ITAFTRS First of all, thank you for the correction. I saw a listing for the game showing the pixel art that was stated to be Norway and/or Scandinavian. I don't know if Norway got a different box from Sweden. It's also possible the listing I saw was just totally wrong. Looking further into it, it appears it may have been the French box.

@Daniel36 You're definitely right that there were sub-variations of the boxes within Europe. I just wanted to correct that one thing as Nintendo was still refining their US box designs. I think there's a bit of editorial discretion that applies with these for the sake of making a better poll/brawl when it comes to selecting the European boxes.

In doing a quick check on this one, it looks like the Scandinavian box was also the pixel graphics like the US box.

If I see a black-box game in one of these polls, there's a 99.999 percent chance I'm voting for a different option. I don't think they have very good design, much of that coming from the blown up pixel art. That applies here. I think the European cover is not a good use of the available space. So Japan wins for me!

@Daniel36 It doesn't look like that method, circle vs. oval, can be applied to these early games. There are many images out there showing early US boxes with the circular seal logos.

@Mgalens I suspect they would use the PS1 version as the base. It sounds like it was the main and best version. I either was not aware or forgot about the PS1 version having the most music. On top of that, the camera is a bit zoomed out for PS1 compared to the Saturn which makes a positive difference in gameplay. The camera was quite frustrating to me on the Saturn. I revisited Croc a few years back, but the PS1 version, and had fun with it. That camera placement really helped a lot.

What comes to mind for me is if this is a situation they would rather conceal, and they may not care about that, then whoever set these up should remember to disable the operating system's sound effects. I don't particularly like those sound effects anyway, so I turn them off any time I install a new operating system.

I love that this project exists. I have no personal connection to these figures, and you can't preserve everything, but it seems like a good call to preserve these Nintendo-related figurines. I love this particular use of modern technology to preserve these digitally and allow people to make their own via 3D printing.

This is a case where I think the longer Japanese box works against it as far as the composition. The western box art fits the narrower format rather nicely. The extra stuff on the Japanese box does not lead to better composition to me. Less is more applies here, so the western box gets me vote.

I do see why people would think it's a "blatant" clone. And if people think that, they can pass on it. In some ways, it's continued an old tradition of game development from back in the 1980s of copying other games and making minor changes. Some games then were pretty close to existing ones on other systems and a bunch of top developers did that. As the stages are not copies and there are graphical differences, to me that's enough to be fine. Especially now, so many years later, there are bound to be more games that look similar than in the past. If you look at Zelda Link to the Past, the visuals in that have become a template for a lot of indie games now.

In this case, the Christmas vibe actually detracts for me as far as overall appeal, but that's just a matter of taste.

The one thing I determined right away is that I liked Japan's the least. The other two are very similar, so I thought about it for a bit. Europe's cover is a bit more cluttered, but it's not a huge difference and you could argue the additional things are at least informative. I'm not fond of the tag line for the NA cover. Despite that, I like the graphic design for the Euro cover more, from the shade of purple of the background, so the frame designs and shapes showing the different elements. It was Europe that got my vote.

I always find it amusing when people go out of their way to criticize places like California while also losing the plot. That isn't to say California is above criticism, but the framing tends to expose a lot of of hypocrisy and ignorance behind it. If you talk to Californians, you'll get a mix of responses including those that are very happy with the conditions in the state including metrics that are objectively better than other states. One of the issues, of course, is cost of living, but that partly stems from supply and demand issues. There are ways to address it, but influential people are desperate to avoid doing that.

As for the law, I think it's good that there is a clarification going forward. Digital distribution is as good or as bad as the specific service. Steam has been great for me and I have no hesitation in using it. In fact, they just updated their user agreement to eliminate arbitration for disputes which I perceive to be a positive move. I do favor GOG though and tend to buy there when I can because as the games are DRM free, as long as I save the installer files, I do own the game. I prefer physical over digital for audio and video content and buy more DVDs and BDs now than I ever did. But as games are often released incomplete or buggy requiring large patches, and with DLC coming later, physical media is a tougher sell for gaming. It's great when it works out, but there are many big downsides to physical media due to the realities of modern gaming. But I've been very happy with digital games on the PC side.

Europe's cover is just a mess. I suppose cramming characters everywhere technically qualifies as composition, but it's not good. Japan's cover benefits quite a bit from the wider frame compared to the NA cover. Japan is the easy choice for me.

@SmaggTheSmug Yeah, MSH vs. SF may be the sweet spot in the collection. It feels a bit more refined and maybe more forgiving than X-Men vs. Street Fighter, aside from the boss fight, but it also feels just right in terms of the gameplay. While MvC1 is still very good, I didn't think the additions made it a better game. While X-Men vs. Street Fighter is a bit less refined, it's not by much and is worthwhile if you like the roster(which I do prefer).

Personally, I don't miss CRTs. They were unwieldy above a certain size. I had some really mixed luck with various monitors only lasting a handful of years. The very last CRT I had was an early HDTV, so it was garbage from a retro-gaming perspective anyway. It was also over 200 pounds. The only thing I'd like to temporarily have a good CRT for is to compare it to an emulation setup and get the scanlines and everything as close as possible. I'm curious how close it can get, but it would also be nice to have the reference. If it's not possible to match the CRT, I'd be okay with that since it would still look very good. As for lag, with quality emulation and enough CPU power(typically not all that much), you can subtract the lag the emulator adds and it works really well. You can get virtually lag free gaming, at least for the 8-bit and 16-bit systems. I haven't tested where the limit is with that.

@Inaroomalone That's right. Thanks. I have a tendency to forget about that one. As a port, it's okay. It does a lot right, but it's also lacking in a lot of ways. Some of that is typical of ports at the time, but some things simply could have been done better, like the color use. One of the biggest problems I had with it when I played it was it was missing the combo variations that end with throws which are a huge part of crowd control in that game. The arcade version is so much better in this case that it really is a great thing that it's finally available.

Punisher is an excellent beat-em-up and a definite highlight here. It's popularity here comes a bit from never having a home version before, unlike the rest of this collection. As for the one-on-one fighters, X-Men vs. Street Fighter is my favorite of this bunch. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter is excellent as well, but the roster is a mixed bag. Marvel Super Heroes is also great, especially if you want a break from the tag-team action and want a straightforward three-round setup. It's a good bit harder on default. I do like how it uses the Infinity Gauntlet saga as the setting and it's cool having to beat Dr. Doom and Thanos. The other games are fine. MvC1 is good, but I didn't love all its changes. MvC2 is well liked, but I hate those backgrounds, so I don't play that one.

On the on hand, the Japanese one highlights Tom Hulett and Simon Lai as the producers(how odd). But on the other hand, the two guys on the cover are so lifeless. The cover also barely depicts anything about the game. The NA cover does have "20th Anniversary" on it which counters the producer credit. It's also just better. NA for the win!

More than ever, it seems like a constant struggle for game developers to balance the length and amount of content in their games. Luckily, I think it's easier to reach different groups. There seems to be a larger audience now for shorter, retro-style experiences. There are plenty of options for those that like longer games. I think the hard part for the players is figuring out or finding the games for them.

I get the idea of value for money being correlated to time spent in the game. A good long game must feel like an excellent value. The problem is some games can feel overly long, and that's not value. Going back to the Gamecube days, I loved Wind Waker. Some people thought it was too short and unfinished. When Twilight Princess came out, it was common to hear it was 40+ hours of gameplay. 40 was like the new thing then and was considered hefty. For me, it felt like a slog, just stretched out specifically to reach a certain length. And plenty of people love it, so that's fine. It was not that it was badly made, but I have no fondness for it. I just bought Shadow of the Ninja Reborn on Steam last week. I think it was $18. I beat it for the first time within 24 hours, but I already felt like I got my money's worth. I went and beat the game several more times, and got a lot better along the way. I yelled at the game a number of times too. I had a great time. A lot of my favorite games are short, but are also games I can play over and over. Punisher arcade, which just finally came to home systems, is a game I can literally play over and over without taking a break and it will never stop being fun for me. But I can totally understand it being too short for many people, even if they like arcade beat-em-ups. I thought Streets of Rage 4 did a great job of making a beat-em-up game longer without hurting the enjoyment. In SoR4, I can play two or three longer stages and feel a similar level of satisfaction compared to a full run of something like The Punisher, so they struck a great balance, in my opinion.

For 3D stuff, Metroid Prime is one of my all-time favorite 3D games and the 15-20 hours to beat it felt just about perfect to me. Other 3D stuff I enjoy, like the Tenchu games are level based with less narrative, so it's easier to jump in and out which makes it easier to add length without feeling long.

Punisher is up there among the greats in the beat-em-up genre. Fantastic to see Capcom include it. It's one of the best.

I don't love everything here, but it's a great package. For me, aside from Punisher, the stars are Marvel Super Heroes(especially for its traditional two-round structure), X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Marvel vs. Capcom is good, but I felt like the previous three were just right, so I didn't love some of the changes and additions as much. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 didn't interest me for a number of reasons, including the music and the 3D backgrounds not being to my taste. I didn't like the backgrounds in Capcom vs. SNK 2 either. But people love MvsC2, so this is a great package.

A school friend showed me X-Men: Children of the Atom when it was new in arcades at a shop near his house. It drew a crowd for sure. I couldn't keep up with the action, but it sure was pretty. It was the first time I saw the CPS2 in action, or the first time I cared as I wasn't interested in Street Fighter Alpha. The only issue was that my enthusiasm for Marvel was already fading when they went on this run. A few years later, I became a devoted SNK King of Fighters fan as I found their characters more appealing. But these are quality games in their own right, and it sure was impressive when it was new.