@TheBigK @Duncanballs @Ruthchild Make sure you manually set the video to "720p60" or higher. When it's on Auto, I find it often says it's using 1080p60, but it's clearly displaying in low quality (480 or lower). I then have to set it manually to make it work.
@Serpenterror Man, GameCube graphics have aged really well (in most cases)! As a bonus, I see that the crowd sprites in TTYD look really good in this video, even though it seems to be using all stock textures. (This fixes the only issue I had with the game's graphics.) Now that I think of it, it's probably using a render-to-texture trick, which automatically benefits from HD rendering.
@AlienX Oh yeah, I'd heard that Secret Rings, especially, ran pretty well on a stock Wii in 60fps mode. It's unfortunate that all games don't come with an option to remove the cap (or turn it on, for that matter), as some 30fps games can run acceptably at 60, while some uncapped games run terribly, and might as well be capped at 30!
And this future-proofs older games beautifully, too!
@Qwiff This makes a lot of sense for the Switch, considering that it's most often limited by bandwidth, from what I've heard. N64 would be another one- it has always been infamously more limited by fill rate (+ Z-buffering and other bandwidth-intensive stuff) than actual polygon counts, but I recently saw a YouTube video by Kaze (a very skilled Mario 64 fangame creator) that demonstrated just how extreme this can be in some cases!
That said, I've come across countless cases in video games, where large scenes with a lot of distant geometry (and by extension, lots of mip-mapping in play) will cause performance dips, whereas other scenes with full-quality textures prove to be no issue. It's complex, and no doubt depends on all kinds of factors, ranging from the hardware to the engine, the actual resolutions of the assets, the amount of overdraw, etc. etc.
@World Yeah, I was disappointed with Macbat 64 for that reason. It felt like a demo. You say Toree (by Siactro, the studio/guy who did Macbat) is an example of a meatier game? HowLongToBeat shows that it's really short, but is there a lot of challenge/replay value, or what?
@Qwiff Yes, HD rendering is much heavier than SD, to the point that I even questioned if it was worth it on early HD-capable hardware. (Though Super Mario Odyssey was able to pull off 900p at 60fps!) A few issues with what you said about TTYD, though:
Paper Mario: TTYD supports full 480p, like all Nintendo-published games of that era. It's most likely rendering internally at either 640x480 or 640x528, as a lot of GameCube games did (even on NTSC).
Even if it was interlaced, that's still 60 unique renders, or frames of animation, that it has to generate. Though you acknowledge this with the estimate of 720x240, the reference to "30fps" just muddies the waters!
2D means less opportunity for low-res mip-maps, but it also offers a significant performance improvement by limiting where the camera can go: a player can't stand at the edge of the map and look across at the whole area at once, for example. The game only has to render a specific slice of the environment, and the devs know exactly what is being rendered. This surely outweighs any performance loss from higher mip levels!
@PikminMarioKirby I think you might be working with a different definition of "geometry". They literally remade the models and environments in MP- just look at any comparison screenshot, and the changes and enhancements will be obvious! (We are talking about the Switch version, right, not the Wii port?)
"Geometry" is simply any mesh/model: polygons grouped into shapes (e.g., Samus, a Space Pirate, the Tallon IV landing area, a tree, etc.). New models can be made without changing the layouts or the basic design of something.
Just want to mention that a cheap magnet the size of a small coin can be quite powerful. Netgear 12-port network switches which are as big as a Series S come with four of these coin-sized magnets, and can be mounted on walls or even ceilings (if you're weird) this way.
Two of these should easily hold a handheld system, especially if the controllers have an indentation to support the system, though I do have to wonder if it's even possible for the magnet strength to sit in a sweet spot: it has to be weak enough for kids to detach the controllers if they need to, but strong enough that larger adults won't accidentally pull the controllers off and fling the system away during a heated game of Mario Kart 8 Super Deluxe Plus!
@PikminMarioKirby Not sure if you knew this, but Metroid Prime Remastered also uses all-new geometry. TTYD might be a more extensive reworking, but I'm not seeing a world of difference between that and MP. All we can really do at this point is speculate as to what's under the hood, of course.
As to capping the game at 30fps, yes, it was common for Japanese devs to hard-code all kinds of stuff and tie the game speed to the framerate. However, changing all of the timings is still far less work than rebuilding a game of that scale from scratch, and we've seen this demonstrated with the likes of Skyward Sword (remaster is 60fps), Super Mario 64 (fanmade decomp is 60fps), and Tales of Symphonia (PS2 port is 30fps, as this apparently took much less effort than optimizing the engine or tweaking the assets).
Additionally, some engines, like Ocarina of Time, start with a high base rate, and then skip frames to meet a target rate: i.e., it's 60fps internally, but set to the number "2" that tells it to skip 2 frames and draw 1 (resulting in its actual 20fps rate). I suspect that this makes games easier to downgrade from 60 to 30, rather than the other way around (it still takes effort!), but I lack the in-depth knowledge to confirm the extent of that.
@PikminMarioKirby So I've heard, but it would be hard to prove that. Unless Nintendo/Intelligent Systems lost the source code, it's much more likely that this is running most of the original game logic under the hood. Again, just like Metroid Prime, which keeps the game logic, but replaces the other assets.
@PikminMarioKirby I've been seeing Metroid Prime: Remastered downplayed a lot. Its graphical engine and assets were completely rebuilt, so doesn't that satisfy the definition of a remake? And if not, how does TTYD qualify, when it seems to be the same thing (original game logic + all new graphics)?
Obviously, MP has "remastered" in the title, but let's not go there- we could be stuck for days, arguing over the definition of a "Remaster" vs a "Remarster" vs a "Reforge" vs a "Reload" vs a "Deluxe Director's Cut", etc. etc.!
EDIT: How many framerate drops did the original TTYD have, anyway? I can still remember the minor one when the camera turns around near the train, because it stood out as the one place where the game inexplicably struggled. And that's it! Even if the remake/refold/recut is 100% stable (which isn't guaranteed!), it's a stretch to claim that as any kind of victory over the original. (Those blurry sprites looked bad even on a CRT, though, I'll give you that!)
@Qwiff We know the Switch is underpowered, yes, but it's still newsworthy when it can't even run an old game as smoothly as the GameCube did. (Tales of Symphonia is another, much worse example, as it doesn't even have enhanced graphics!)
And in general, it's good to know if a game runs smoothly or not. Many of us do notice the difference, and 30fps makes everything look and feel a lot worse. It would be easy to assume that an old game like this will run at 60fps on Switch, so it's helpful to see confirmation that it doesn't.
@Max_the_German @AJB83 That's definitely running at 30fps, unless there's something wrong with my video playback. (And I checked to make sure it was set to the highest video quality!)
There's a Game Shark code to make Extreme-G 2 run at a flawless 60fps on emulators, but I don't know if XG1 has one.
@vio Yeah, Throwback bought up a lot of the orphaned IP when Acclaim went bankrupt, and they have been gradually getting the re-releases going. They don't own everything, though. (I believe someone else has Turok, for example.)
This actually makes sense... is it just me, or did Reeves's delivery of some lines in John Wick already come across as a parody of edgy characters? I thought he did a great job with everything else, but found a few of the speaking bits harder to take seriously!
@Zaruboggan Warrior Within didn't get a Wii port, but Rival Swords was a port of Two Thrones.
PoP 2008 was one of the first 7th-gen games that really felt "next-gen" to me as well! I'd never before seen that combination of massive environments, detailed characters, and realistic shadows, all at once.
@SwagaliciousJohnson That one "architect" line from Warrior Within, right after a certain twist- it's up there with Dracula's "What is a man" monologue as something that's either really cheesy or awesome... and I can't decide which it is. Memorable, either way!
PS: Those Godsmack tracks are a guilty pleasure, too.
@Zeebor15 What's your definition of a remaster, and how does it apply to Ty 1 and 2, but not 3? The Steam version of 3 has all of the same graphical enhancements as the other two, including high resolutions, 60fps, and reworked lighting. Krome even calls it a remaster.
@Zeebor15 Ty 3 has already been remastered, but it's not available on Switch for whatever reason. Any source code must already be up-to-date and in a modern environment at this point, so porting to Switch shouldn't be harder than porting any other modern game.
@MirrorFate2 I'll let AlienX answer, but I would agree that there are a ton of minor nitpicks, and that even when the overall art direction is butchered (which is over half the time in SADX!), it's still outweighed by the performance and QoL upgrades.
@AlienX Each subsequent version of Sonic Adventure messed up more and more details, adding new bugs and graphical downgrades compared to the previous release(s). That said, I still find it hard to recommend the DC version, as it runs at 30fps, has unskippable cutscenes (many of which are redundant), and lacks the Free Camera option (which, as inconsistent as it is, can really help in a tight spot).
The Steam version + Dreamcast restoration gets you the best of both!
As rough as SA is, I do think it deserves more love for what it got right, and I'd love to see it get a proper remake some day... though I don't see that going especially well, considering Sega's track record.
Depends on the case. In general, I just want old games to be available for purchase at an appropriate price. But if I already own those games, then I'm not going to buy them again, unless there are significant upgrades and additions to justify it! Also:
Yes to bonuses like behind-the-scenes content, and especially playable prototypes!
Some old games need a full remaster, whereas others need little to no enhancement: Paper Mario: TTYD looks and runs perfectly fine as-is, and all Nintendo had to do was to make a few tweaks and get it running in widescreen without glitches. Pikmin, on the other hand, suffers from blurry textures and a 30fps cap. Definitely a candidate for remastering. (Ironic, isn't it?)
@Mariotag Either you're thinking of MGS5, or you just gave away a big spoiler for MGS4! (I think it's the former, but I haven't played 4 yet, so I can't say for sure!) I don't know if Solid Snake is in MGS5, but it takes place when he's quite young, so I doubt that David Hayter would have voiced him there.
On that subject, I've wondered what will happen if MG1 and MG2 ever get remade. Bringing back Hayter is a no-brainer, but what about Big Boss? It would be kind of weird to have Hayter voicing him as well, seeing as they talk to each other! Would they get Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss again, so the two Snakes sound similar, yet distinct from each other?
This bit stood out to me: " the game design for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution began at the end of 2000, before the Game Boy Color Shantae had even shipped"
Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but I never knew this. As mentioned in the article, Shantae for GBC came out in 2002, so the GBA sequel was in development long before the original was finished!
@LoneHammerBro These modern releases for old consoles have to be made in small batches, with a lot more print materials (and storage medium materials!) than the average physical game these days, so I get that they're not going to be cheap.
But understanding that doesn't make the prices any lower! I keep seeing releases like this and thinking, "oh, that looks cool, even if the price is a bit steep"... and then I remember that it's in USD, so the Canadian price for just the base game will be $80-90, plus an additional $10-12 in taxes. Forget that.
@Pillowpants The show has been running for so long now that watching the whole thing just doesn't seem reasonably possible! I recommend watching just the first 1 1/2 seasons (the Kanto region and Indigo League), and then deciding if you want to keep going.
I personally thought the Kanto stuff was the best- not because of nostalgia, but because it had a greater sense of progression and purpose. You could see Ash gradually growing stronger and more mature, while even winning over and befriending his former enemies!
Then the writers apparently realized they had a cash cow on their hands, so they slowed the pacing down and settled into a safe formula. I got bored and mostly stopped watching around the 4th season (halfway through Johto), and from what I saw of the Advance era and later, things didn't change.
@HammerKirby Right, Sonic Heroes is the most clear-cut case, where GameCube had slightly better graphics and the best performance.
However, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Turok Evolution all ran at 60fps on GCN, but just 30fps on Xbox! There's a bit of subjectivity there, as LotR in particular drops to 30fps on GCN in some of the busier scenes (thanks to double buffering, it's either 30 or 60, with no in-between), so some may prefer the Xbox's lower, but more stable performance. Star Wars and Turok seem to stay around 60fps the vast majority of the time, from what I've seen, though Turok has less texture detail, and Star Wars appears to lack self-shadowing on the vehicle (literally the only downgrade I could see in that one).
If you're curious, the flip side is that the Xbox versions of Tomb Raider Legend and Avatar: The Last Airbender were 60fps on Xbox, and 30fps on GCN. (Might as well throw in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, considering it's practically a 30fps game on GCN!) There was also Wreckless, where the Xbox version looked like it was from a whole other generation than the others (seriously), though it might've run better on GCN. Then there was Prince of Persia, where he had fingers on Xbox (and didn't speak with a lisp caused by audio compression), and Need for Speed: Carbon, which had N64-grade textures on GCN, and Shadow the Hedgehog, which ran a bit better in 2P mode... you know, maybe saying Xbox was "usually" better is fair. Not guaranteed, as there were both major and minor drawbacks, but it often had the overall edge, however minor.
As for PS2>Xbox, I've heard of the ones you mentioned, but the standout has to be Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. The PS2's graphics are almost a generation leap over the other platforms (seriously again!), the gameplay is better, and there's even content that's missing from the other versions!
Anyway, that's the extent of what I can think of. At the end of the day, you can't go too wrong with Xbox, even if its performance advantage might not have been all it was cracked up to be. Thanks for tolerating this overly long post!
@-wc- Yeah, most ports just aimed for parity with PS2, and I can think of a few which fell short of even that target.
But it's telling that GCN->PS2 ports always ended up downgraded in some way, whereas PS2->GCN ports usually ended up equal or better than the original. And again, Nintendo's hardware sometimes outperformed the cutting-edge Xbox console of that time, which is absolutely unthinkable now!
@HammerKirby I'm not sure that the Xbox "usually" had the best version. "Often", definitely, but I can think of several games that ran more smoothly on GameCube (and it's not like I have an entire encyclopedia of platform comparisons in my memory)!
The GameCube did have a few truly awful ports, though, I'll give it that! (Xbox had lots of so-so ports, but I'm not aware of any outright disasters.) Nintendo is addicted to limited storage capacity, apparently, considering they've been hamstrung by it so many times.
@-wc- GameCube ports were usually "phoned in", due to the smaller user base, and they still ended up running better than their PS2 (and sometimes even Xbox) counterparts!
It's crazy to think that the GameCube is, in terms of horsepower, effectively one generation behind Nintendo's current hardware.
@Anachronism That'd be me, about 10 years earlier: I was aware of the SNES and Genesis, but didn't really know anything about them. All I really knew at the time was the NES, and I enjoyed it, even though it was already outdated and nearing the end of its life.
When the GameCube was around, even the 16-bit systems (which were only about as old as the 3DS is now!) seemed ancient by comparison! Still didn't stop me from buying and playing old games along with the new, though.
@Anachronism That time frame makes sense now (or at least I feel that it does), but did you have the same opinion when the GameCube was new? The NES was still too recent to count as retro, by that standard!
Obviously not, because I was an adult during the 3DS's lifetime. Same goes for Wii and Wii U. Those aren't even old, for one (they came out just a few years ago), and they will never be retro! /denial
This "retro" debate is one of those weird cycles with both a relative and an absolute side... Is it taking longer for consoles to become "retro", because the technical advancements aren't as dramatic as before, or is it just our perspective changing as we grow older? It's like how any age- we'll say 40- feels younger than it did before... did the culture change, so 40-year-olds look/act younger now, or is it just that our opinions are changing as we approach that age (or leave it behind)?
@Serpenterror There are three different concepts here. You're right about refresh rate and FPS being different: an NTSC TV was always 60Hz, but a lot of games ran at 30, 20, or lower, especially once the PlayStation brought 3D gaming into the mainstream. (Essentially, they'd output the same frame to the TV two or three times in a row.)
But you touched on a third component: animation rate. 2D fighters like Street Fighter II almost always ran at 60fps. This meant that the camera and sprites could slide around at 60fps. However, just like with the many 60fps platformers (e.g., Super Mario Bros), the animations were drawn, stored, and played back at lower rates. Hand-drawn animation at 60fps just isn't feasible, so most games used maybe 5-15fps animations. (A few games use 24-30fps animations, and they look ridiculously smooth for what they are.) If you watch a video of pretty much any 2D game in slow motion, you'll notice that the characters and camera are moving around on every frame, but the actual character animations only update (that is, the graphics actually change) after several frames.
@Serpenterror Most SNES games ran at 60fps, which was the native refresh rate of NTSC TVs. (The gist of interlacing is that it makes for a slightly fuzzy image, not a halved framerate- though most SNES games ran in progressive scan, making that largely irrelevant.)
But you're probably right that it can't be easily changed. There were some games that could flip between 30 and 60fps back then, without changing the game speed, but that was a rarity. Most of them were hard-coded to run at one rate or another- and deviating from that rate would cause the gameplay to speed up or slow down.
Oh, and regarding the aspect ratio, SNES games typically ran at 256x224, which works out to 8:7 in pixel counts. These games got stretched out to fill a 4:3 screen, of course, but that was analogue tech and didn't have shimmering. To avoid shimmering on modern hardware, you have to either use a bilinear (blur) filter, or do pixel perfect mode, which means the largest you can go on a docked Switch is 4x scale, or 1024x896. That's effectively "windowed", with black bars on all sides.
Just want to point out how fitting it is that a game called "Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!" was leaked by someone stealing WayForward's garbage.
@imadeanaccount I can only think of one reason for its popularity: waifus.
Okay, more seriously, there's a lot of silly dialogue, as well as a lot of parodies and references. The protagonist is a total goofball, and her ramblings can be considered hilarious and charming, or perhaps annoying. That's really the thing: the game lives or dies based on the humour of its writing.
Gameplay is a pretty basic turn-based JRPG, except you can move around freely during your turn, and try to line up your attacks to hit multiple enemies at once- it's kind of reminiscent of Quest 64 in that regard. But unfortunately, there are only 4 dungeons, and they keep showing up on each new planet you visit. And I don't mean 4 dungeon themes, where you keep seeing unique dungeon layouts reusing the same canyon graphics or whatever. I mean it's literally the same layout.
I hoped it would get better, but ultimately quit maybe ~10 hours in, when I saw it wasn't going to change or improve.
@geo-shifter Similar story here: thought the concept was great, and that it had tons of potential for a fun story and interesting environments... instead, it's just incredibly generic and repetitive, with each "planet" having the exact same levels (Generic Warehouse #1). Couldn't they have made the Wii planet colourful and kiddy, and the Xbox planet look like Gears of War or something? This should have been ripe for parody! The difficulty is also broken, at least in the Re;Birth version. (Requires lots of grinding, unless you use the DLC characters, one of which is invincible because her stats are so much higher than the enemies'.) I probably got about as far as you did before shelving it.
The deciding factor would be for everything to be DRM-free and not require an internet connection. If we jump ahead 30 years from now, when the servers are long gone, can I still play the game I purchased? If the answer is no, then forget it.
I do bend this rule often enough (buying games on Steam or Xbox), but that's mainly for very low-priced games. I still expect to be able to play my digital purchases in the future, one way or another, but I don't stress over it as much when I paid just $3! So price drops are a factor, as well.
@Wolfenpilot687 Exactly. The issue is less about physical vs digital, and more about whether we have control over the things we've purchased.
If I buy a game on GOG, I can install it on all of my computers, archive it on multiple hard drives, burn it to DVDs, etc., and after the initial download, this can all be done without an internet connection!
While companies keeping games available for purchase and download forever is absolutely ideal, I recognize that it's not always possible. But if we have the ability to archive and reinstall our games without restriction, then that's real ownership- more so than owning a modern disc or cartridge in many cases.
I know Nintendo would never go for this, as they think everyone would just steal their games (good thing their closed system prevents piracy from ever happening today, yep!), but the massive sales numbers on DRM-free games like The Witcher paint a different picture.
@Rainbowfire You might be onto something, there. A lot of newer games try to emulate a pixelated and/or low-poly aesthetic, but they don't always succeed: the result is often something that looks vaguely retro on the surface, but fails to actually capture what made those older games look so good (spoiler: it's not the jagged pixels and flat polys)!
Very broadly speaking, I'd describe '90s graphics (both 2D and 3D) as attempting to portray rich detail, without being able to go fully into high fidelity/realism. In the modern day, there's no shortage of realistic games, but those obviously don't have much of a stylized or fantasy side. And there are also plenty of cartoonish games, but many of those tend to be sparse on detail, with low-contrast texture work and little in the way of moody lighting.
@120frames-please Not saying 120Hz isn't welcome, but it's a bit of an overly high bar, considering that most Switch games can't even maintain 60fps! If "Switch 2" had a 90Hz or 120Hz screen, only lightweight games such as remasters would be able to take advantage of it, while any modern AAAs... well, we can look to the Series S to provide that info.
Personally, all I really want is 60fps and fast loading- and preferably graphics that aren't terrible, but even that is negotiable. My standards aren't that high!
I liked the article itself, but there are some weird decisions in the poll. How do the Super Mario Advance games count as remakes? They're ported directly from the SNES, and don't even change the graphics. (Even calling them remasters is a stretch.) Metroid Prime Remastered, on the other hand, is a full graphical remake, even if it has "remaster" in its title. Isn't it just as much of a remake as Ocarina of Time 3D?
PS: Just recently got around to playing Zero Mission, and I'm glad I did. It's excellent, though that should be no surprise, considering it's in the Metroid series! But it really does go above and beyond.
I don't really get the demand for an HD-2D remake. The original is still great, and I'm content to just replay that.
Now, if they wanted to do a fully 3D remake, that would catch my attention, whether it's with FF7R or FF4DS graphics. But why doesn't the poll have an option for a modern remake that doesn't involve the whole heavy-handed 7 Remake treatment?
@-wc- I find handheld gaming to be so uncomfortable compared to a proper console or PC. It'll do if I'm in a hospital waiting room or something, but that doesn't come up often enough to justify it! I'd definitely take the cheaper and/or more powerful console over the hybrid option, any day.
And while we are apparently a small minority, it's hard to say that definitively, given that there's no other option! How many people bought the Switch because they wanted a Switch, and how many bought it because it was the only way to play those Nintendo exclusives?
Comments 287
Re: Video: How Does Paper Mario: TTYD On Switch Compare To The Original?
@TheBigK @Duncanballs @Ruthchild Make sure you manually set the video to "720p60" or higher. When it's on Auto, I find it often says it's using 1080p60, but it's clearly displaying in low quality (480 or lower). I then have to set it manually to make it work.
Re: Bayonetta Origins Director Empathises With Paper Mario Dev, Suggests Reasons For 30FPS
@Serpenterror Man, GameCube graphics have aged really well (in most cases)!
As a bonus, I see that the crowd sprites in TTYD look really good in this video, even though it seems to be using all stock textures. (This fixes the only issue I had with the game's graphics.) Now that I think of it, it's probably using a render-to-texture trick, which automatically benefits from HD rendering.
Re: Bayonetta Origins Director Empathises With Paper Mario Dev, Suggests Reasons For 30FPS
@AlienX Oh yeah, I'd heard that Secret Rings, especially, ran pretty well on a stock Wii in 60fps mode. It's unfortunate that all games don't come with an option to remove the cap (or turn it on, for that matter), as some 30fps games can run acceptably at 60, while some uncapped games run terribly, and might as well be capped at 30!
And this future-proofs older games beautifully, too!
Re: Review: Corn Kidz 64 (Switch) - A 64-Bit Throwback That Nails The Retro Vibe
@World Thanks for clarifying! That still sounds like a step in the right direction.
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@Qwiff This makes a lot of sense for the Switch, considering that it's most often limited by bandwidth, from what I've heard. N64 would be another one- it has always been infamously more limited by fill rate (+ Z-buffering and other bandwidth-intensive stuff) than actual polygon counts, but I recently saw a YouTube video by Kaze (a very skilled Mario 64 fangame creator) that demonstrated just how extreme this can be in some cases!
That said, I've come across countless cases in video games, where large scenes with a lot of distant geometry (and by extension, lots of mip-mapping in play) will cause performance dips, whereas other scenes with full-quality textures prove to be no issue. It's complex, and no doubt depends on all kinds of factors, ranging from the hardware to the engine, the actual resolutions of the assets, the amount of overdraw, etc. etc.
Re: Review: Corn Kidz 64 (Switch) - A 64-Bit Throwback That Nails The Retro Vibe
@World Yeah, I was disappointed with Macbat 64 for that reason. It felt like a demo.
You say Toree (by Siactro, the studio/guy who did Macbat) is an example of a meatier game? HowLongToBeat shows that it's really short, but is there a lot of challenge/replay value, or what?
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@Qwiff Yes, HD rendering is much heavier than SD, to the point that I even questioned if it was worth it on early HD-capable hardware. (Though Super Mario Odyssey was able to pull off 900p at 60fps!) A few issues with what you said about TTYD, though:
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@PikminMarioKirby I think you might be working with a different definition of "geometry". They literally remade the models and environments in MP- just look at any comparison screenshot, and the changes and enhancements will be obvious! (We are talking about the Switch version, right, not the Wii port?)
"Geometry" is simply any mesh/model: polygons grouped into shapes (e.g., Samus, a Space Pirate, the Tallon IV landing area, a tree, etc.). New models can be made without changing the layouts or the basic design of something.
Re: Rumour: 'Switch 2' Will Reportedly Feature Magnetic Joy-Cons
Just want to mention that a cheap magnet the size of a small coin can be quite powerful. Netgear 12-port network switches which are as big as a Series S come with four of these coin-sized magnets, and can be mounted on walls or even ceilings (if you're weird) this way.
Two of these should easily hold a handheld system, especially if the controllers have an indentation to support the system, though I do have to wonder if it's even possible for the magnet strength to sit in a sweet spot: it has to be weak enough for kids to detach the controllers if they need to, but strong enough that larger adults won't accidentally pull the controllers off and fling the system away during a heated game of Mario Kart 8 Super Deluxe Plus!
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@PikminMarioKirby Not sure if you knew this, but Metroid Prime Remastered also uses all-new geometry. TTYD might be a more extensive reworking, but I'm not seeing a world of difference between that and MP. All we can really do at this point is speculate as to what's under the hood, of course.
As to capping the game at 30fps, yes, it was common for Japanese devs to hard-code all kinds of stuff and tie the game speed to the framerate. However, changing all of the timings is still far less work than rebuilding a game of that scale from scratch, and we've seen this demonstrated with the likes of Skyward Sword (remaster is 60fps), Super Mario 64 (fanmade decomp is 60fps), and Tales of Symphonia (PS2 port is 30fps, as this apparently took much less effort than optimizing the engine or tweaking the assets).
Additionally, some engines, like Ocarina of Time, start with a high base rate, and then skip frames to meet a target rate: i.e., it's 60fps internally, but set to the number "2" that tells it to skip 2 frames and draw 1 (resulting in its actual 20fps rate). I suspect that this makes games easier to downgrade from 60 to 30, rather than the other way around (it still takes effort!), but I lack the in-depth knowledge to confirm the extent of that.
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@PikminMarioKirby So I've heard, but it would be hard to prove that.
Unless Nintendo/Intelligent Systems lost the source code, it's much more likely that this is running most of the original game logic under the hood. Again, just like Metroid Prime, which keeps the game logic, but replaces the other assets.
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@PikminMarioKirby I've been seeing Metroid Prime: Remastered downplayed a lot. Its graphical engine and assets were completely rebuilt, so doesn't that satisfy the definition of a remake? And if not, how does TTYD qualify, when it seems to be the same thing (original game logic + all new graphics)?
Obviously, MP has "remastered" in the title, but let's not go there- we could be stuck for days, arguing over the definition of a "Remaster" vs a "Remarster" vs a "Reforge" vs a "Reload" vs a "Deluxe Director's Cut", etc. etc.!
EDIT: How many framerate drops did the original TTYD have, anyway? I can still remember the minor one when the camera turns around near the train, because it stood out as the one place where the game inexplicably struggled. And that's it! Even if the remake/refold/recut is 100% stable (which isn't guaranteed!), it's a stretch to claim that as any kind of victory over the original. (Those blurry sprites looked bad even on a CRT, though, I'll give you that!)
Re: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Frame Rate Revealed
@Qwiff We know the Switch is underpowered, yes, but it's still newsworthy when it can't even run an old game as smoothly as the GameCube did. (Tales of Symphonia is another, much worse example, as it doesn't even have enhanced graphics!)
And in general, it's good to know if a game runs smoothly or not. Many of us do notice the difference, and 30fps makes everything look and feel a lot worse. It would be easy to assume that an old game like this will run at 60fps on Switch, so it's helpful to see confirmation that it doesn't.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's N64 Library With Two More Titles
@Max_the_German @AJB83 That's definitely running at 30fps, unless there's something wrong with my video playback. (And I checked to make sure it was set to the highest video quality!)
There's a Game Shark code to make Extreme-G 2 run at a flawless 60fps on emulators, but I don't know if XG1 has one.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's N64 Library With Two More Titles
@vio Yeah, Throwback bought up a lot of the orphaned IP when Acclaim went bankrupt, and they have been gradually getting the re-releases going. They don't own everything, though. (I believe someone else has Turok, for example.)
Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Climbs The Charts To Nab Third Place
How does everyone not already own two copies of Mario Kart by now?
Re: Keanu Reeves Will Reportedly Voice Shadow In Sonic The Hedgehog 3
This actually makes sense... is it just me, or did Reeves's delivery of some lines in John Wick already come across as a parody of edgy characters? I thought he did a great job with everything else, but found a few of the speaking bits harder to take seriously!
Re: Poll: What's The Best Prince Of Persia Game? Rate Your Favourites For Our Upcoming Ranking
@Zaruboggan Warrior Within didn't get a Wii port, but Rival Swords was a port of Two Thrones.
PoP 2008 was one of the first 7th-gen games that really felt "next-gen" to me as well! I'd never before seen that combination of massive environments, detailed characters, and realistic shadows, all at once.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Prince Of Persia Game? Rate Your Favourites For Our Upcoming Ranking
@SwagaliciousJohnson That one "architect" line from Warrior Within, right after a certain twist- it's up there with Dracula's "What is a man" monologue as something that's either really cheesy or awesome... and I can't decide which it is. Memorable, either way!
PS: Those Godsmack tracks are a guilty pleasure, too.
Re: TY The Tasmanian Tiger: Bush Rescue Bundle Announced For Switch
@Zeebor15 What's your definition of a remaster, and how does it apply to Ty 1 and 2, but not 3? The Steam version of 3 has all of the same graphical enhancements as the other two, including high resolutions, 60fps, and reworked lighting. Krome even calls it a remaster.
Re: TY The Tasmanian Tiger: Bush Rescue Bundle Announced For Switch
@Zeebor15 Ty 3 has already been remastered, but it's not available on Switch for whatever reason. Any source code must already be up-to-date and in a modern environment at this point, so porting to Switch shouldn't be harder than porting any other modern game.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Exclusives
Is this a list of the best exclusives, or just an exhaustive list of exclusives?
Re: Feature: 33 Games We're Surprised Still Aren't On Switch
@MirrorFate2 I'll let AlienX answer, but I would agree that there are a ton of minor nitpicks, and that even when the overall art direction is butchered (which is over half the time in SADX!), it's still outweighed by the performance and QoL upgrades.
Which cutscene in SA2B is nonsensical?
Re: Feature: 33 Games We're Surprised Still Aren't On Switch
@AlienX Each subsequent version of Sonic Adventure messed up more and more details, adding new bugs and graphical downgrades compared to the previous release(s). That said, I still find it hard to recommend the DC version, as it runs at 30fps, has unskippable cutscenes (many of which are redundant), and lacks the Free Camera option (which, as inconsistent as it is, can really help in a tight spot).
The Steam version + Dreamcast restoration gets you the best of both!
As rough as SA is, I do think it deserves more love for what it got right, and I'd love to see it get a proper remake some day... though I don't see that going especially well, considering Sega's track record.
Re: Talking Point: Should We Be Expecting More From Remakes And Remasters?
Depends on the case. In general, I just want old games to be available for purchase at an appropriate price. But if I already own those games, then I'm not going to buy them again, unless there are significant upgrades and additions to justify it! Also:
Re: Video: Solid Snake Himself Dives Into A Brief History Of Metal Gear Solid
@Mariotag Either you're thinking of MGS5, or you just gave away a big spoiler for MGS4! (I think it's the former, but I haven't played 4 yet, so I can't say for sure!)
I don't know if Solid Snake is in MGS5, but it takes place when he's quite young, so I doubt that David Hayter would have voiced him there.
On that subject, I've wondered what will happen if MG1 and MG2 ever get remade. Bringing back Hayter is a no-brainer, but what about Big Boss? It would be kind of weird to have Hayter voicing him as well, seeing as they talk to each other! Would they get Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss again, so the two Snakes sound similar, yet distinct from each other?
Re: Feature: "The Odds Seemed Just Astronomical" - Reviving Lost Media With Shantae Advance
This bit stood out to me: " the game design for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution began at the end of 2000, before the Game Boy Color Shantae had even shipped"
Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but I never knew this. As mentioned in the article, Shantae for GBC came out in 2002, so the GBA sequel was in development long before the original was finished!
Re: Feature: "The Odds Seemed Just Astronomical" - Reviving Lost Media With Shantae Advance
@LoneHammerBro These modern releases for old consoles have to be made in small batches, with a lot more print materials (and storage medium materials!) than the average physical game these days, so I get that they're not going to be cheap.
But understanding that doesn't make the prices any lower!
I keep seeing releases like this and thinking, "oh, that looks cool, even if the price is a bit steep"... and then I remember that it's in USD, so the Canadian price for just the base game will be $80-90, plus an additional $10-12 in taxes. Forget that.
Re: Pokémon Executives On Anime Return Of Ash And Pikachu: "Anything Is Possible"
@Pillowpants The show has been running for so long now that watching the whole thing just doesn't seem reasonably possible! I recommend watching just the first 1 1/2 seasons (the Kanto region and Indigo League), and then deciding if you want to keep going.
I personally thought the Kanto stuff was the best- not because of nostalgia, but because it had a greater sense of progression and purpose. You could see Ash gradually growing stronger and more mature, while even winning over and befriending his former enemies!
Then the writers apparently realized they had a cash cow on their hands, so they slowed the pacing down and settled into a safe formula. I got bored and mostly stopped watching around the 4th season (halfway through Johto), and from what I saw of the Advance era and later, things didn't change.
Re: Review: Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch) - Does The Series Proud, But Best Played Elsewhere
@HammerKirby Right, Sonic Heroes is the most clear-cut case, where GameCube had slightly better graphics and the best performance.
However, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Turok Evolution all ran at 60fps on GCN, but just 30fps on Xbox! There's a bit of subjectivity there, as LotR in particular drops to 30fps on GCN in some of the busier scenes (thanks to double buffering, it's either 30 or 60, with no in-between), so some may prefer the Xbox's lower, but more stable performance. Star Wars and Turok seem to stay around 60fps the vast majority of the time, from what I've seen, though Turok has less texture detail, and Star Wars appears to lack self-shadowing on the vehicle (literally the only downgrade I could see in that one).
If you're curious, the flip side is that the Xbox versions of Tomb Raider Legend and Avatar: The Last Airbender were 60fps on Xbox, and 30fps on GCN. (Might as well throw in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, considering it's practically a 30fps game on GCN!) There was also Wreckless, where the Xbox version looked like it was from a whole other generation than the others (seriously), though it might've run better on GCN. Then there was Prince of Persia, where he had fingers on Xbox (and didn't speak with a lisp caused by audio compression), and Need for Speed: Carbon, which had N64-grade textures on GCN, and Shadow the Hedgehog, which ran a bit better in 2P mode... you know, maybe saying Xbox was "usually" better is fair. Not guaranteed, as there were both major and minor drawbacks, but it often had the overall edge, however minor.
As for PS2>Xbox, I've heard of the ones you mentioned, but the standout has to be Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. The PS2's graphics are almost a generation leap over the other platforms (seriously again!), the gameplay is better, and there's even content that's missing from the other versions!
Anyway, that's the extent of what I can think of. At the end of the day, you can't go too wrong with Xbox, even if its performance advantage might not have been all it was cracked up to be.
Thanks for tolerating this overly long post!
Re: Review: Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch) - Does The Series Proud, But Best Played Elsewhere
@-wc- Yeah, most ports just aimed for parity with PS2, and I can think of a few which fell short of even that target.
But it's telling that GCN->PS2 ports always ended up downgraded in some way, whereas PS2->GCN ports usually ended up equal or better than the original.
And again, Nintendo's hardware sometimes outperformed the cutting-edge Xbox console of that time, which is absolutely unthinkable now!
Make that at least two of us who miss those days.
Re: Review: Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch) - Does The Series Proud, But Best Played Elsewhere
@HammerKirby I'm not sure that the Xbox "usually" had the best version. "Often", definitely, but I can think of several games that ran more smoothly on GameCube (and it's not like I have an entire encyclopedia of platform comparisons in my memory)!
The GameCube did have a few truly awful ports, though, I'll give it that! (Xbox had lots of so-so ports, but I'm not aware of any outright disasters.)
Nintendo is addicted to limited storage capacity, apparently, considering they've been hamstrung by it so many times.
Re: Review: Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch) - Does The Series Proud, But Best Played Elsewhere
@-wc- GameCube ports were usually "phoned in", due to the smaller user base, and they still ended up running better than their PS2 (and sometimes even Xbox) counterparts!
It's crazy to think that the GameCube is, in terms of horsepower, effectively one generation behind Nintendo's current hardware.
Re: Random: New Pokémon Ad Positions 3DS As 'Retro', And The Internet Disagrees
@Anachronism That'd be me, about 10 years earlier: I was aware of the SNES and Genesis, but didn't really know anything about them. All I really knew at the time was the NES, and I enjoyed it, even though it was already outdated and nearing the end of its life.
When the GameCube was around, even the 16-bit systems (which were only about as old as the 3DS is now!) seemed ancient by comparison! Still didn't stop me from buying and playing old games along with the new, though.
Re: Random: New Pokémon Ad Positions 3DS As 'Retro', And The Internet Disagrees
@Anachronism That time frame makes sense now (or at least I feel that it does), but did you have the same opinion when the GameCube was new? The NES was still too recent to count as retro, by that standard!
Re: Random: New Pokémon Ad Positions 3DS As 'Retro', And The Internet Disagrees
Obviously not, because I was an adult during the 3DS's lifetime. Same goes for Wii and Wii U. Those aren't even old, for one (they came out just a few years ago), and they will never be retro!
/denial
This "retro" debate is one of those weird cycles with both a relative and an absolute side... Is it taking longer for consoles to become "retro", because the technical advancements aren't as dramatic as before, or is it just our perspective changing as we grow older?
It's like how any age- we'll say 40- feels younger than it did before... did the culture change, so 40-year-olds look/act younger now, or is it just that our opinions are changing as we approach that age (or leave it behind)?
Re: Review: Top Racer Collection (Switch) - Three Classic Racers And The Odd Backfire
@Serpenterror There are three different concepts here. You're right about refresh rate and FPS being different: an NTSC TV was always 60Hz, but a lot of games ran at 30, 20, or lower, especially once the PlayStation brought 3D gaming into the mainstream. (Essentially, they'd output the same frame to the TV two or three times in a row.)
But you touched on a third component: animation rate. 2D fighters like Street Fighter II almost always ran at 60fps. This meant that the camera and sprites could slide around at 60fps. However, just like with the many 60fps platformers (e.g., Super Mario Bros), the animations were drawn, stored, and played back at lower rates. Hand-drawn animation at 60fps just isn't feasible, so most games used maybe 5-15fps animations. (A few games use 24-30fps animations, and they look ridiculously smooth for what they are.)
If you watch a video of pretty much any 2D game in slow motion, you'll notice that the characters and camera are moving around on every frame, but the actual character animations only update (that is, the graphics actually change) after several frames.
Re: Review: Top Racer Collection (Switch) - Three Classic Racers And The Odd Backfire
@Serpenterror Most SNES games ran at 60fps, which was the native refresh rate of NTSC TVs. (The gist of interlacing is that it makes for a slightly fuzzy image, not a halved framerate- though most SNES games ran in progressive scan, making that largely irrelevant.)
But you're probably right that it can't be easily changed. There were some games that could flip between 30 and 60fps back then, without changing the game speed, but that was a rarity. Most of them were hard-coded to run at one rate or another- and deviating from that rate would cause the gameplay to speed up or slow down.
Oh, and regarding the aspect ratio, SNES games typically ran at 256x224, which works out to 8:7 in pixel counts. These games got stretched out to fill a 4:3 screen, of course, but that was analogue tech and didn't have shimmering. To avoid shimmering on modern hardware, you have to either use a bilinear (blur) filter, or do pixel perfect mode, which means the largest you can go on a docked Switch is 4x scale, or 1024x896. That's effectively "windowed", with black bars on all sides.
Re: Several WayForward Prototypes Appear Online Following Data Leak
Just want to point out how fitting it is that a game called "Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!" was leaked by someone stealing WayForward's garbage.
Re: Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth Trilogy Launches On Switch In 2024
@imadeanaccount I can only think of one reason for its popularity: waifus.
Okay, more seriously, there's a lot of silly dialogue, as well as a lot of parodies and references. The protagonist is a total goofball, and her ramblings can be considered hilarious and charming, or perhaps annoying. That's really the thing: the game lives or dies based on the humour of its writing.
Gameplay is a pretty basic turn-based JRPG, except you can move around freely during your turn, and try to line up your attacks to hit multiple enemies at once- it's kind of reminiscent of Quest 64 in that regard. But unfortunately, there are only 4 dungeons, and they keep showing up on each new planet you visit. And I don't mean 4 dungeon themes, where you keep seeing unique dungeon layouts reusing the same canyon graphics or whatever. I mean it's literally the same layout.
I hoped it would get better, but ultimately quit maybe ~10 hours in, when I saw it wasn't going to change or improve.
Re: Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re;Birth Trilogy Launches On Switch In 2024
@geo-shifter Similar story here: thought the concept was great, and that it had tons of potential for a fun story and interesting environments... instead, it's just incredibly generic and repetitive, with each "planet" having the exact same levels (Generic Warehouse #1). Couldn't they have made the Wii planet colourful and kiddy, and the Xbox planet look like Gears of War or something? This should have been ripe for parody!
The difficulty is also broken, at least in the Re;Birth version. (Requires lots of grinding, unless you use the DLC characters, one of which is invincible because her stats are so much higher than the enemies'.)
I probably got about as far as you did before shelving it.
Re: Talking Point: What Would Make You Happy To Give Up Physical Games And Go 100% Digital?
The deciding factor would be for everything to be DRM-free and not require an internet connection. If we jump ahead 30 years from now, when the servers are long gone, can I still play the game I purchased? If the answer is no, then forget it.
I do bend this rule often enough (buying games on Steam or Xbox), but that's mainly for very low-priced games. I still expect to be able to play my digital purchases in the future, one way or another, but I don't stress over it as much when I paid just $3! So price drops are a factor, as well.
Re: Talking Point: What Would Make You Happy To Give Up Physical Games And Go 100% Digital?
@Wolfenpilot687 Exactly. The issue is less about physical vs digital, and more about whether we have control over the things we've purchased.
If I buy a game on GOG, I can install it on all of my computers, archive it on multiple hard drives, burn it to DVDs, etc., and after the initial download, this can all be done without an internet connection!
While companies keeping games available for purchase and download forever is absolutely ideal, I recognize that it's not always possible. But if we have the ability to archive and reinstall our games without restriction, then that's real ownership- more so than owning a modern disc or cartridge in many cases.
I know Nintendo would never go for this, as they think everyone would just steal their games (good thing their closed system prevents piracy from ever happening today, yep!), but the massive sales numbers on DRM-free games like The Witcher paint a different picture.
Re: Review: Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore (Switch) - An Adroit Homage To The Worst Zelda Games
Admit it, Chris, you wanted to give this an 8, but knocked it down to a 7 so you could say "GOOD".
Zelda approves, I'm sure.
Re: Switch Is Getting Another N64-Inspired Platformer, And It Looks Great
@Rainbowfire You might be onto something, there. A lot of newer games try to emulate a pixelated and/or low-poly aesthetic, but they don't always succeed: the result is often something that looks vaguely retro on the surface, but fails to actually capture what made those older games look so good (spoiler: it's not the jagged pixels and flat polys)!
Very broadly speaking, I'd describe '90s graphics (both 2D and 3D) as attempting to portray rich detail, without being able to go fully into high fidelity/realism. In the modern day, there's no shortage of realistic games, but those obviously don't have much of a stylized or fantasy side. And there are also plenty of cartoonish games, but many of those tend to be sparse on detail, with low-contrast texture work and little in the way of moody lighting.
Re: More Switch 2 Rumours Surface In New "Exclusive" From Reuters
@120frames-please Not saying 120Hz isn't welcome, but it's a bit of an overly high bar, considering that most Switch games can't even maintain 60fps! If "Switch 2" had a 90Hz or 120Hz screen, only lightweight games such as remasters would be able to take advantage of it, while any modern AAAs... well, we can look to the Series S to provide that info.
Personally, all I really want is 60fps and fast loading- and preferably graphics that aren't terrible, but even that is negotiable. My standards aren't that high!
Re: Talking Point: What's The Best Nintendo Remake Ever?
I liked the article itself, but there are some weird decisions in the poll.
How do the Super Mario Advance games count as remakes? They're ported directly from the SNES, and don't even change the graphics. (Even calling them remasters is a stretch.) Metroid Prime Remastered, on the other hand, is a full graphical remake, even if it has "remaster" in its title. Isn't it just as much of a remake as Ocarina of Time 3D?
PS: Just recently got around to playing Zero Mission, and I'm glad I did. It's excellent, though that should be no surprise, considering it's in the Metroid series! But it really does go above and beyond.
Re: Review: GRIME Definitive Edition (Switch) - A Poor Port Of A Superb Soulslike Metroidvania
@dartmonkey I've heard people say to "take the L", but it seems that those silly art monkeys interpreted it literally!
Re: Don't Expect A Remake Of Final Fantasy 6 Soon, If Ever
I don't really get the demand for an HD-2D remake. The original is still great, and I'm content to just replay that.
Now, if they wanted to do a fully 3D remake, that would catch my attention, whether it's with FF7R or FF4DS graphics. But why doesn't the poll have an option for a modern remake that doesn't involve the whole heavy-handed 7 Remake treatment?
Re: 'Switch 2' Launching This Year With 8-Inch LCD Screen, According To New Analyst Rumour
@-wc- I find handheld gaming to be so uncomfortable compared to a proper console or PC. It'll do if I'm in a hospital waiting room or something, but that doesn't come up often enough to justify it!
I'd definitely take the cheaper and/or more powerful console over the hybrid option, any day.
And while we are apparently a small minority, it's hard to say that definitively, given that there's no other option! How many people bought the Switch because they wanted a Switch, and how many bought it because it was the only way to play those Nintendo exclusives?
Sorry I can only give you one like, btw!