@Truegamer79 Super Mario World did run at 60fps (like almost everything back then), so that was a non-issue. If it had run at only 30, it wouldn't look or feel nearly as good to play, and you'd probably find yourself missing some of the tougher jumps.
PS: This doesn't go quite so far back, but I distinctly remember F-Zero X, Super Smash Bros., and the Dreamcast's library in general being praised for their smooth motion compared to other games of the time. Not as many people knew why at the time, but there was a noticeable difference.
@nocdaes Yeah, they really coasted on the Wii U's library, especially earlier on. Not saying the Switch doesn't have some great games of its own, but it's been quite disappointing (if partially understandable) to see Nintendo's complacency around many of its franchises, simply being content to put out ports of DKC: Tropical Freeze, etc., and call it a day.
On the bright side, there's not much left for them to mine in the future, so the Switch 2 or whatever is going to have to stand on the merits of its own library. Hopefully, this will push Nintendo to do a new Donkey Kong Country, 3D Mario, etc., early on, as there won't be so many ports to fill the gaps.
@weelz79 Double, not half. Previous versions were locked to 30fps (even the GameCube version!), probably due to a bunch of stuff being hard coded for certain timings.
This trailer shows that, like Castle Crashers, this has received a very late- yet welcome- upgrade to 60fps, at least on most platforms. Let's just hope it isn't deemed too hard for the Switch to run (see MGS2&3).
@Serpenterror That's not even true, though. The original PS2 version of MGS2 was 60fps, though MGS3 was 30fps. Both of these games were 60fps on Xbox 360 and PS3, however. That means the issues (if any) introduced by running MGS3 at a higher framerate have already been dealt with.
A bare-bones port like RDR on PS4 is one thing, but this collection is literally downgraded from previous releases, just like Tales of Symphonia was. That's what makes this sit especially badly with many people.
@Ironcore Yeah, how many 30fps games look twice as good as Mario Odyssey, Metroid Prime Remastered, etc.?
It's hard to compare them, as drawing every second frame is a huge sacrifice to make, but it also gives a huge advantage in terms of processing time. Unless a 30fps game is extremely impressive, I can't get past the fact that the devs had to cut the performance in half in order to edge out the top 60fps games.
Plus, I'd personally choose to play with weak graphics and 60fps over better graphics and 30fps, as the difference constantly affects how the game looks and feels.
@DKing64
(Edited for clarity) Obviously, Mega Man X doesn't offer the same level of physics simulation or user interaction of TotK, but that's not the point. The point is that the patent description (as quoted in the article) is very broad/vague, to the point that it accurately describes what Mega Man X already did 30 years ago!
If you're skeptical that MMX does this, feel free to go try the game and see it for yourself. While riding on the moving carts in the Armored Armadillo stage, you can jump straight up, and it keeps you in line with the cart so that you can land back on it. And if you try to jump off, your jump/dash speed will have the speed of the cart added to it, potentially giving you a huge boost- or having you go slightly backwards, if you jump off at the wrong time!
@locky-mavo When a product isn't to your liking for whatever reason, there's no obligation to be grateful and thank the company. It's a product that costs money, not a gift.
It's not "self-entitled" to turn down that product, or even to voice your criticisms of it- especially if there are specific issues that the company could potentially resolve (complaining about cut content or poor performance, calling for a price drop, etc.).
And just in case it needs to be said, I'm not justifying bad behaviour (e.g., harassing the devs). But there's a place for negative opinions, and some of the talk I hear online of "entitlement" versus "gratitude" is really not fitting or healthy.
@Serpenterror A game that is 30fps can, in fact, magically become 60fps. You literally just have to change a number.
Of course, there can be bugs, like broken physics, or the game running too fast (see almost every Japanese game made before 2015), and that's a real problem with updating some games. But many games work flawlessly after tweaking a single number, and RDR has already been made to run at 60fps on both PS3 and Xbox 360 emulators.
I know many of these comments are wishes, not predictions (loving the love for F-Zero in some of these!), but how many heavy hitters will Nintendo actually release at launch?
I don't doubt that they'll have some great games in the following years, but their launches tend to consist of gimmicks (1-2-Switch), gems we didn't know we wanted (Luigi's Mansion), or both (Nintendo Land). And of course, a cross-gen Zelda release has been done twice, but they've already dropped TotK on Switch, so that ship has sailed.
Hey, maybe we'll be blown away by an all-star lineup including Metroid Prime, the next big 3D Mario, and a worthy sequel to F-Zero GX. Not holding my breath, though! As someone who already got Twilight Princess for GCN and BotW for Wii U, Nintendo's launches are usually not especially interesting- the good stuff comes later!
@Waluigi451 Oh yeah, New Super Mario Bros. was a visual departure from the classics for sure, and it was arguably a refreshing return to the classic formula back in 2006- just as Sonic Mania was a nice return to Sonic's roots in 2017! But NSMB churned out three sequels in just a few years, and they did little to advance the graphics, presentation, or gameplay.
Had the sequels been spread out better, and had they done more to advance the series, there wouldn't be an issue. And had Sonic Mania come out with one sequel that adds 6+ new zones and brings back a few more favourites, then I think the majority of Sonic fans would have loved it.
On the other hand, if we were on Sonic Mania 4 already in 2023, and they were still using the same play mechanics on all the same zones (Green Hill and Chemical Plant, woo!), book-ended by the exact same story, then that would be an extremely disappointing turn for Sonic!
@sdelfin Interesting... I hadn't thought of the line thickness as being a factor in the "Flash game" look. The first thing that I notice is when games go with very flat, low contrast artwork, with a low frequency of detail. It contributes to the Flash look in HD, or the "indie pixel game" look in pixel art.
That, and using sprite rotation to "animate" the characters, instead of drawing actual animation frames!
@Waluigi451 I would have wanted a Sonic Mania 2, but I agree with your overall sentiment: it's good if the series moves forward, and the last thing I'd want is to see Sonic get stuck in an endless line of "Manias" that doesn't do anything fresh. (You mention Mario moving forward, but ironically, it was New Super Mario Bros. that immediately came to mind.)
As much as I feel that pixel art is overused these days, I would've loved to see a sequel to Mania, and it seemed like such an obvious move: all the groundwork is already there, so just make more of the same, with more new zones this time around... and no Green Hill!
Otherwise, yeah, it's great if they're keeping the tight gameplay of the 2D games, but making something more visually advanced. Seems like the best direction for 2D Sonic to take, though again, no Mania 2 seems like a major missed opportunity.
@Nintoz It is great! Whenever the topic of F-Zero, or Wave Race, or any other neglected series comes up, the naysayers always like to point to the "underwhelming" sales (e.g., 1 million) in the past. But with the likes of Metroid and Pikmin seeing newfound success- not that they were failures before!- it goes to show that things have changed in the past two decades or so.
The Switch has a massive install base, so any game sales can potentially be 5x higher than they were in the GameCube days. And Switch owners really love building their libraries (esp. with first/second-party games), so things are better than they were in the Wii era as well (when some of the deeper cuts may not have had as much of a chance).
@wollywoo I thought Pikmin 1 would be stressful because of its time limit, and Pikmin 2 would be just right. Ironically, 2 ended up being the more stressful one, with its seemingly endless dungeons. Good game, but the second half gets bogged down at times.
I ended up loving 1, and it was also less stressful... except for the last bit, when I suddenly realized that I could still finish within the time limit on my first run, if I did those last few days perfectly! (This is after playing almost the whole game while not always knowing where to go, and not being especially careful with my time management. I suddenly had to tighten up for the last stretch!)
@RasandeRose Just want to clear this up, because when you say "They're still native low resolution", and keep using the word "upscaled", it sounds like you may have been using an upscaling device/technique, not actually playing in native HD/4K.
Taking 480p (or 480i!) output and blowing it up to fit your modern TV never works especially well. At best, you'll get jagged edges everywhere, and otherwise, things will be blurred or smeared.
By rendering in native HD using an emulator, the game is literally in HD, just like a remaster. Of course, all of the assets are the same (again, like most remasters), but many games from the 6th gen and later have surprisingly crisp textures that need HD rendering to really show up at their full quality. 480i on a CRT still looks good, I agree, but the texture detail fades away at a short distance.
Fantastic system, backed by an all-star library of games, the likes of which we've never seen since! This was the peak of Nintendo, and arguably of gaming in general.
As a bit of a flex: I picked up 42 of these top 50 titles back in the day. 44-45, if you count releases on other platforms.
The SNES versions are great, but they lose some of the NES games' distinct identity and charm. The black-and-white level from SMB1 (6-3) is now in full colour, SMB3 no longer looks like a stage play, SMB3's undergrounds are no longer trippy outer space environments, and those booming drum samples in SMB3 have been replaced with generic, tinny, boring ones.
Plus, Nintendo based All-Stars off SMB3's Japanese 1.0 release (and hastily ported the two most obvious US changes over), so some bugfixes are missing, as is the "New Game +" which gives you 28 P Wings.
These nitpicks are nothing that a new player would care about, but it's kind of a bummer for those of us who started with the NES originals.
@somnambulance I think retro-styled games are much more interesting when they actually work on old consoles, but I agree that this isn't the most accessible way to do things.
I do still have a few GBCs kicking around, but I'd just end up loading the ROM into an emulator so I could play with a comfortable screen and controller, anyway. And with as many new titles (plus re-releases of older ones!) are coming to old systems now, I'd go broke if I tried to snap up all of the games that look interesting!
I liked how Micro Mages on NES had both the physical collector's editions, plus a very affordable ROM download as an option.
As far as technical reasons go, the shadows make sense, as they can't move or change. However, the sun goes down in Mario Kart Tour, even though it doesn't affect the shadows at all. Was this graphical shortcoming acceptable on the mobile game, but not on the flagship Mario Kart?
It's not really jarring, though, since the sun's position/angle only changes slightly. If the sun was moving across the sky (which should realistically make the shadows flip around midway through the race), that would be a bigger issue.
@Chunkboi79 This was genuinely a fear of mine, especially during the Wii era. Nintendo really loved to keep their budgets and dev time to a minimum, and it seemed doubtful that they'd give a new F-Zero the amount of content and budget that it deserved.
Now, between the scope and polish Nintendo has shown in some of their HD games, and learning that Amusement Vision still makes good games under a different name, I'm somewhat more confident that a new F-Zero could be up to par.
But of course, we now have the issue of whether the series will ever come back at all, seeing as it has been a full 20 years since the last main entry, it's passing Kid Icarus for (as far as I know) the longest drought that a Nintendo series has ever had, and Nintendo apparently still hates it.
@samuelvictor The Japanese versions are just called "Xenoblade", "Xenoblade 2", etc., but all of the other regions add "Chronicles" to the titles, for some reason. "Xenoblade 1" and "Xenoblade Chronicles" are, in fact, the same game!
@Captain-N Back when I was a kid, I heard a rumour that those hanging lights were traps- basically a ball-and-chain type thing- and would sometimes start swinging, making that room much more difficult.
After being lucky enough to find them dormant several times in a row, it became clear that this was completely made up!
Did anyone else talk about this, or was it a unique/local hoax?
PS: I'm going to look up other versions of that manual, just to be sure the lights aren't mentioned... sometimes revisions can throw you off, so you start doubting what you saw. See also: certain US/Canadian versions of SMB3 using the Japanese world names (e.g., "Castle of Koopa"), or the earliest PlayStation manuals including the pronunciation of each button ("eks", not cross!). These are both very real!
EDIT: Looks like the North American B&W and colour variants both have the exact same content, and Japan is pretty close. Finding PAL manuals is nearly impossible, apparently.
@Browny I thought it was a common opinion that Tooie was bloated. It drastically cut back on the collectibles (possibly in response to DK's excesses?), but doubled down on backtracking and unnecessary new mechanics. I also found the huge levels to be difficult to navigate at times, with too few unique landmarks (e.g., which generic cave entrance goes where?), and too many "you can't get there from here" places where a shortcut was sorely needed. A few tweaks to level design, and the ability to switch forms/characters on the fly would have gone a long way!
But we'll see what TotalHenshin has to say, as well!
@__jamiie I thought it was a typo of "InfoGames", the first time I heard of the company!
IIRC, it's a French name, and it was going to be "Infogramme", which makes decent sense in English as well... then the spelling was changed, while the pronunciation stayed the same- this still makes sense in French, I guess, but it breaks it for us English speakers.
@Tharsman Interesting! I didn't know CoD ran on id Tech until now, but looking it up, it seems that CoD1 ran on vanilla id Tech (same as Quake III), with most subsequent entries using an increasingly modified version of id's code called IW Engine. However, aside from Cold War, the newest ones are using all new code.
Doom Eternal does also list the 1050Ti (about on par with a 960) as a minimum requirement. But it's a good parallel, regardless: both modern Doom and modern CoD have advanced graphics, are pretty heavy with the settings turned up, and yet are able to run at 60fps on Xbox One and PS4. If Doom can run on Switch (albeit at 30-ish fps), then CoD may get similar results.
On the other hand, some engines can get bloated with too much being crammed in, and no amount of geo/texture reduction will fix things. Features instead have to be rewritten or thrown out to restore good performance. Guess we'll see where the IW Engine stands, if it comes to Switch!
@Gamer_Griff Rare Replay deserves to be on more platforms- I don't know why it has to be locked to Xbox. A Switch port makes a lot of sense, considering Rare's association with Nintendo, but doesn't seem feasible, considering that not only would the core package (with all of its emulators) have to be ported, but also every single Xbox 360 game that's included. You'd think PC would be a no-brainer, though.
@Tharsman Are you talking about the latest CoD games, or those from a few years back? Because the latest ones need a GTX 960 or 670 at minimum- those are close to 10x as capable as the Switch, both on paper and in practice.
(You might be surprised how well some ancient PC hardware holds up!)
A 60fps CoD of some kind is definitely possible on Switch, and considering the games that came out on the weaker Xbox 360, it could even look quite good.
But how many modern engines can scale that low? It might have to be built separately, or at least with heavy modifications besides turning down the graphics.
@acidflare Those figures are for the PC versions of the Arkham games, though, which support way higher texture (and video) resolutions than Switch. You can probably knock a gigabyte or two off the first two games, and take off half the file size of Knight. Maybe even more, with better compression. Just guessing, though, as I haven't analyzed the folders to see what all is in there.
Also, Spyro Reignited is 39 GB on PC, which is easily small enough to fit on a dual-layer BD. The third game was probably just not ready on time.
@huyi Why did you say "basically"? Epic literally gave this collection away for free a while back!
And yeah, while I understand that some people need the portable aspect of the Switch (and carrying a laptop and controller around isn't quite the same!), I do find it odd how averse some others are to playing on PC in general. You don't even need a gaming PC- just a typical office laptop now has better graphical capabilities than the Switch (even my office laptop from 2015 came close!), and the whole aspect of tweaking settings is typically a non-issue, unless you really care about having the best possible graphics you can get at 60fps... in which case you wouldn't tolerate most consoles/handhelds, anyway.
@Mgalens Most games were 60fps from the beginning (even on Atari, etc.), with 30fps being a common compromise in the '90s to get 3D graphics working on systems like the PlayStation. 60fps again became the norm for a while in the PS2 era, but then the push for better graphics led to some dire performance all around in the "HD" era.
I've noticed what you're saying, too, with people asking "how did you play video games for the past 20/30/50 years before 60fps existed????", despite many of us growing up playing almost exclusively 60fps games!
@somnambulance I think the NSMB games are all great in themselves (well, three of them- I haven't gotten around to NSMB2 just yet). The heavy-feeling controls take some getting used to, but there are some clever and fun level designs across the series, and the challenge mode in NSMBU is surprisingly addictive.
The issue is mainly the stale presentation: all four games have the same old plastic graphics, the same non-existent storyline, the same tired level theme tropes (grassland, desert, seaside, etc.)... it felt like Nintendo just released the same game four times in six years.
You could take any one of these games, and it'd be great on its own. It was most likely the rapid-fire release schedule and near-total lack of innovation that left a bad taste in people's mouths.
This looks like what the past few NSMB games should have been!
I mean, they were all fun (with U's challenge mode being especially compelling), but the visual style and level themes were getting really stale. (Oh, gee, world 2 is a desert? What a surprise.)
@gorillazrulez The early 2000s, especially, were a fantastic time to be a gamer, and a Nintendo fan particularly!
I'm always glad to see younger gamers taking an interest in the classics, and fortunately, there are ways to experience these older games today (on top of all the new stuff).
@KingMike That's because Square Enix insisted on getting an A rating for the GBA version. I expect (and hope!) that they'd be okay with a hypothetical 3D remake of VI being rated C (15+), as VII Remake was.
Because yeah, VI had some heavy stuff, and those low-res graphics were the only thing keeping it in kid-friendly territory!
Comments 287
Re: Early Tech Analysis Investigates Paper Mario Thousand-Year Door Switch FPS & Resolution
@Truegamer79 Super Mario World did run at 60fps (like almost everything back then), so that was a non-issue.
If it had run at only 30, it wouldn't look or feel nearly as good to play, and you'd probably find yourself missing some of the tougher jumps.
PS: This doesn't go quite so far back, but I distinctly remember F-Zero X, Super Smash Bros., and the Dreamcast's library in general being praised for their smooth motion compared to other games of the time. Not as many people knew why at the time, but there was a noticeable difference.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Time, Where To Watch, Our Predictions
@nocdaes Yeah, they really coasted on the Wii U's library, especially earlier on. Not saying the Switch doesn't have some great games of its own, but it's been quite disappointing (if partially understandable) to see Nintendo's complacency around many of its franchises, simply being content to put out ports of DKC: Tropical Freeze, etc., and call it a day.
On the bright side, there's not much left for them to mine in the future, so the Switch 2 or whatever is going to have to stand on the merits of its own library. Hopefully, this will push Nintendo to do a new Donkey Kong Country, 3D Mario, etc., early on, as there won't be so many ports to fill the gaps.
Re: This Blockbuster VHS Switch Game Case Will Give You A Lovely Dose Of Nostalgia
@Joeynator3000 Well, you can put M-rated games in it, after all!
Re: Newgrounds Classic 'Alien Hominid' Returns In HD Remaster On Switch
@weelz79 Double, not half.
Previous versions were locked to 30fps (even the GameCube version!), probably due to a bunch of stuff being hard coded for certain timings.
This trailer shows that, like Castle Crashers, this has received a very late- yet welcome- upgrade to 60fps, at least on most platforms. Let's just hope it isn't deemed too hard for the Switch to run (see MGS2&3).
Re: Metal Gear Solid 2 And 3 Will Have Lower Frame Rates On Switch, Konami Confirms
@Serpenterror That's not even true, though.
The original PS2 version of MGS2 was 60fps, though MGS3 was 30fps.
Both of these games were 60fps on Xbox 360 and PS3, however.
That means the issues (if any) introduced by running MGS3 at a higher framerate have already been dealt with.
A bare-bones port like RDR on PS4 is one thing, but this collection is literally downgraded from previous releases, just like Tales of Symphonia was. That's what makes this sit especially badly with many people.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Graphics - The Most Beautiful Switch Games
@Ironcore Yeah, how many 30fps games look twice as good as Mario Odyssey, Metroid Prime Remastered, etc.?
It's hard to compare them, as drawing every second frame is a huge sacrifice to make, but it also gives a huge advantage in terms of processing time. Unless a 30fps game is extremely impressive, I can't get past the fact that the devs had to cut the performance in half in order to edge out the top 60fps games.
Plus, I'd personally choose to play with weak graphics and 60fps over better graphics and 30fps, as the difference constantly affects how the game looks and feels.
Re: Metroid Dread Developer Has "Two Large Undisclosed Titles" In The Works
How about...
Metroid: Dreadlocked?
Re: Metroid Dread Developer Has "Two Large Undisclosed Titles" In The Works
@nocdaes Why not both?
I'm not about to wish away more Metroid games, but I'd be down for a new 2D or 3D Donkey Kong as well.
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Loading Sequence Patent Filed By Nintendo
@DKing64
(Edited for clarity) Obviously, Mega Man X doesn't offer the same level of physics simulation or user interaction of TotK, but that's not the point. The point is that the patent description (as quoted in the article) is very broad/vague, to the point that it accurately describes what Mega Man X already did 30 years ago!
If you're skeptical that MMX does this, feel free to go try the game and see it for yourself. While riding on the moving carts in the Armored Armadillo stage, you can jump straight up, and it keeps you in line with the cart so that you can land back on it. And if you try to jump off, your jump/dash speed will have the speed of the cart added to it, potentially giving you a huge boost- or having you go slightly backwards, if you jump off at the wrong time!
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Loading Sequence Patent Filed By Nintendo
"when the character is on top of an object, the movement of the dynamic object is added to the movement of the player’s character"
Mega Man X did this in 1993, and there were probably other games that did it even earlier.
Re: Red Dead Redemption Fans Aren't Happy About Rockstar's "Lazy Port"
@locky-mavo When a product isn't to your liking for whatever reason, there's no obligation to be grateful and thank the company. It's a product that costs money, not a gift.
It's not "self-entitled" to turn down that product, or even to voice your criticisms of it- especially if there are specific issues that the company could potentially resolve (complaining about cut content or poor performance, calling for a price drop, etc.).
And just in case it needs to be said, I'm not justifying bad behaviour (e.g., harassing the devs). But there's a place for negative opinions, and some of the talk I hear online of "entitlement" versus "gratitude" is really not fitting or healthy.
Re: Red Dead Redemption Fans Aren't Happy About Rockstar's "Lazy Port"
@Serpenterror A game that is 30fps can, in fact, magically become 60fps. You literally just have to change a number.
Of course, there can be bugs, like broken physics, or the game running too fast (see almost every Japanese game made before 2015), and that's a real problem with updating some games. But many games work flawlessly after tweaking a single number, and RDR has already been made to run at 60fps on both PS3 and Xbox 360 emulators.
Re: Talking Point: Which Nintendo IP Should 'Switch 2' Launch With?
I know many of these comments are wishes, not predictions (loving the love for F-Zero in some of these!), but how many heavy hitters will Nintendo actually release at launch?
I don't doubt that they'll have some great games in the following years, but their launches tend to consist of gimmicks (1-2-Switch), gems we didn't know we wanted (Luigi's Mansion), or both (Nintendo Land). And of course, a cross-gen Zelda release has been done twice, but they've already dropped TotK on Switch, so that ship has sailed.
Hey, maybe we'll be blown away by an all-star lineup including Metroid Prime, the next big 3D Mario, and a worthy sequel to F-Zero GX. Not holding my breath, though! As someone who already got Twilight Princess for GCN and BotW for Wii U, Nintendo's launches are usually not especially interesting- the good stuff comes later!
Re: Talking Point: Which Nintendo IP Should 'Switch 2' Launch With?
@KevynOnVideo This is making me sad, because it's too accurate.
All you're missing is the obligatory 1:1 port of TotK to get people excited.
Re: Talking Point: Which Nintendo IP Should 'Switch 2' Launch With?
@StarPoint When did a Metroid title ever come out at launch? I'm going over consoles and handhelds in my mind, and I can't think of anything.
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Store Your Games Collection?
@Jerematic She calls you her "games collection" (or vice versa)?
We didn't need to know that.
Re: Sonic Mania 2 Didn't Happen Because Sega Wanted To "Move Beyond" Pixel Art
@LXP8 Yep, it's literally Sheik's model from OoT (N64 version), just with the mask removed.
Re: Sonic Mania 2 Didn't Happen Because Sega Wanted To "Move Beyond" Pixel Art
@Waluigi451 Oh yeah, New Super Mario Bros. was a visual departure from the classics for sure, and it was arguably a refreshing return to the classic formula back in 2006- just as Sonic Mania was a nice return to Sonic's roots in 2017! But NSMB churned out three sequels in just a few years, and they did little to advance the graphics, presentation, or gameplay.
Had the sequels been spread out better, and had they done more to advance the series, there wouldn't be an issue. And had Sonic Mania come out with one sequel that adds 6+ new zones and brings back a few more favourites, then I think the majority of Sonic fans would have loved it.
On the other hand, if we were on Sonic Mania 4 already in 2023, and they were still using the same play mechanics on all the same zones (Green Hill and Chemical Plant, woo!), book-ended by the exact same story, then that would be an extremely disappointing turn for Sonic!
Re: Sonic Mania 2 Didn't Happen Because Sega Wanted To "Move Beyond" Pixel Art
@sdelfin Interesting... I hadn't thought of the line thickness as being a factor in the "Flash game" look. The first thing that I notice is when games go with very flat, low contrast artwork, with a low frequency of detail. It contributes to the Flash look in HD, or the "indie pixel game" look in pixel art.
That, and using sprite rotation to "animate" the characters, instead of drawing actual animation frames!
Re: Sonic Mania 2 Didn't Happen Because Sega Wanted To "Move Beyond" Pixel Art
@Waluigi451 I would have wanted a Sonic Mania 2, but I agree with your overall sentiment: it's good if the series moves forward, and the last thing I'd want is to see Sonic get stuck in an endless line of "Manias" that doesn't do anything fresh. (You mention Mario moving forward, but ironically, it was New Super Mario Bros. that immediately came to mind.)
Re: Sonic Mania 2 Didn't Happen Because Sega Wanted To "Move Beyond" Pixel Art
As much as I feel that pixel art is overused these days, I would've loved to see a sequel to Mania, and it seemed like such an obvious move: all the groundwork is already there, so just make more of the same, with more new zones this time around... and no Green Hill!
Otherwise, yeah, it's great if they're keeping the tight gameplay of the 2D games, but making something more visually advanced. Seems like the best direction for 2D Sonic to take, though again, no Mania 2 seems like a major missed opportunity.
Re: Japanese Charts: Pikmin 4 Posts An Out Of This World Debut, Knocking Zelda From The Top Spot
@Nintoz It is great!
Whenever the topic of F-Zero, or Wave Race, or any other neglected series comes up, the naysayers always like to point to the "underwhelming" sales (e.g., 1 million) in the past. But with the likes of Metroid and Pikmin seeing newfound success- not that they were failures before!- it goes to show that things have changed in the past two decades or so.
The Switch has a massive install base, so any game sales can potentially be 5x higher than they were in the GameCube days. And Switch owners really love building their libraries (esp. with first/second-party games), so things are better than they were in the Wii era as well (when some of the deeper cuts may not have had as much of a chance).
Re: Random: YouTuber Speedruns Touching Grass (In Every Mario Game)
@Savage_Joe I just had to check this, and yes, it does have green grass by default!
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Pikmin 1+2 On Switch
@wollywoo I thought Pikmin 1 would be stressful because of its time limit, and Pikmin 2 would be just right. Ironically, 2 ended up being the more stressful one, with its seemingly endless dungeons. Good game, but the second half gets bogged down at times.
I ended up loving 1, and it was also less stressful... except for the last bit, when I suddenly realized that I could still finish within the time limit on my first run, if I did those last few days perfectly! (This is after playing almost the whole game while not always knowing where to go, and not being especially careful with my time management. I suddenly had to tighten up for the last stretch!)
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Pikmin 1+2 On Switch
@JONOFTHEJONS Some of the facts they share may be inconvenient.
People might even develop opinions based on those facts!
Re: The GameCube And Wii Emulator Dolphin Is No Longer Coming To Steam
@RasandeRose Just want to clear this up, because when you say "They're still native low resolution", and keep using the word "upscaled", it sounds like you may have been using an upscaling device/technique, not actually playing in native HD/4K.
Taking 480p (or 480i!) output and blowing it up to fit your modern TV never works especially well. At best, you'll get jagged edges everywhere, and otherwise, things will be blurred or smeared.
By rendering in native HD using an emulator, the game is literally in HD, just like a remaster. Of course, all of the assets are the same (again, like most remasters), but many games from the 6th gen and later have surprisingly crisp textures that need HD rendering to really show up at their full quality. 480i on a CRT still looks good, I agree, but the texture detail fades away at a short distance.
Re: Sega President Teases Possible Sonic "Reboots And Remakes"
@samuelvictor Nice! I look forward to hearing more about this as it comes together.
Re: 50 Best GameCube Games Of All Time
Fantastic system, backed by an all-star library of games, the likes of which we've never seen since! This was the peak of Nintendo, and arguably of gaming in general.
As a bit of a flex: I picked up 42 of these top 50 titles back in the day. 44-45, if you count releases on other platforms.
Re: Sega President Teases Possible Sonic "Reboots And Remakes"
@fpcreator2000 When you say a remake of the 8-bit Sonics, are you thinking of a straightforward graphical overhaul, or a more dramatic reimagining?
On a related note, be sure to check out the fan-made Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit remake, if you haven't already done so!
Re: Poll: Super Mario All-Stars Is 30 Years Old - Do You Prefer The NES Or SNES Versions Of The Classics?
The SNES versions are great, but they lose some of the NES games' distinct identity and charm. The black-and-white level from SMB1 (6-3) is now in full colour, SMB3 no longer looks like a stage play, SMB3's undergrounds are no longer trippy outer space environments, and those booming drum samples in SMB3 have been replaced with generic, tinny, boring ones.
Plus, Nintendo based All-Stars off SMB3's Japanese 1.0 release (and hastily ported the two most obvious US changes over), so some bugfixes are missing, as is the "New Game +" which gives you 28 P Wings.
These nitpicks are nothing that a new player would care about, but it's kind of a bummer for those of us who started with the NES originals.
Re: Brand-New Game Boy Color ARPG 'Far After' Is Now Up For Pre-Order
@somnambulance I think retro-styled games are much more interesting when they actually work on old consoles, but I agree that this isn't the most accessible way to do things.
I do still have a few GBCs kicking around, but I'd just end up loading the ROM into an emulator so I could play with a comfortable screen and controller, anyway. And with as many new titles (plus re-releases of older ones!) are coming to old systems now, I'd go broke if I tried to snap up all of the games that look interesting!
I liked how Micro Mages on NES had both the physical collector's editions, plus a very affordable ROM download as an option.
Re: Random: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Sunset Wilds Is Missing One Key Thing
As far as technical reasons go, the shadows make sense, as they can't move or change.
However, the sun goes down in Mario Kart Tour, even though it doesn't affect the shadows at all. Was this graphical shortcoming acceptable on the mobile game, but not on the flagship Mario Kart?
It's not really jarring, though, since the sun's position/angle only changes slightly. If the sun was moving across the sky (which should realistically make the shadows flip around midway through the race), that would be a bigger issue.
Re: Takaya Imamura: F-Zero Hasn't Been Revived Because Mario Kart Is Nintendo's "Most Popular Racing Game"
@Chunkboi79 This was genuinely a fear of mine, especially during the Wii era. Nintendo really loved to keep their budgets and dev time to a minimum, and it seemed doubtful that they'd give a new F-Zero the amount of content and budget that it deserved.
Now, between the scope and polish Nintendo has shown in some of their HD games, and learning that Amusement Vision still makes good games under a different name, I'm somewhat more confident that a new F-Zero could be up to par.
But of course, we now have the issue of whether the series will ever come back at all, seeing as it has been a full 20 years since the last main entry, it's passing Kid Icarus for (as far as I know) the longest drought that a Nintendo series has ever had, and Nintendo apparently still hates it.
Re: Takaya Imamura: F-Zero Hasn't Been Revived Because Mario Kart Is Nintendo's "Most Popular Racing Game"
@falkyn So essentially, any F-Zero after GX is cursed with Melee syndrome?
Re: Feature: Donkey Kong Cymru: The Extremely Brief History Of Welshness In Nintendo Games
@samuelvictor The Japanese versions are just called "Xenoblade", "Xenoblade 2", etc., but all of the other regions add "Chronicles" to the titles, for some reason.
"Xenoblade 1" and "Xenoblade Chronicles" are, in fact, the same game!
Re: Feature: 8 Strangest Super Mario Urban Legends - Which Mario Myths Are True?
@Captain-N Back when I was a kid, I heard a rumour that those hanging lights were traps- basically a ball-and-chain type thing- and would sometimes start swinging, making that room much more difficult.
After being lucky enough to find them dormant several times in a row, it became clear that this was completely made up!
Did anyone else talk about this, or was it a unique/local hoax?
PS: I'm going to look up other versions of that manual, just to be sure the lights aren't mentioned... sometimes revisions can throw you off, so you start doubting what you saw. See also: certain US/Canadian versions of SMB3 using the Japanese world names (e.g., "Castle of Koopa"), or the earliest PlayStation manuals including the pronunciation of each button ("eks", not cross!). These are both very real!
EDIT: Looks like the North American B&W and colour variants both have the exact same content, and Japan is pretty close. Finding PAL manuals is nearly impossible, apparently.
Re: Best Nintendo 64 Platformers - Every N64 3D Platformer, Ranked By You
@Browny I thought it was a common opinion that Tooie was bloated.
It drastically cut back on the collectibles (possibly in response to DK's excesses?), but doubled down on backtracking and unnecessary new mechanics. I also found the huge levels to be difficult to navigate at times, with too few unique landmarks (e.g., which generic cave entrance goes where?), and too many "you can't get there from here" places where a shortcut was sorely needed.
A few tweaks to level design, and the ability to switch forms/characters on the fly would have gone a long way!
But we'll see what TotalHenshin has to say, as well!
Re: Best Nintendo 64 Platformers - Every N64 3D Platformer, Ranked By You
@__jamiie I thought it was a typo of "InfoGames", the first time I heard of the company!
IIRC, it's a French name, and it was going to be "Infogramme", which makes decent sense in English as well... then the spelling was changed, while the pronunciation stayed the same- this still makes sense in French, I guess, but it breaks it for us English speakers.
Re: Random: What Does Link Weigh In Tears Of The Kingdom? One Fan Builds Scale To Find Out
@Maxz That's only because of his heavy clothes.
Re: Xbox Boss Says Call Of Duty Would Run "Relatively Great Compared To Other Switch Games"
@Tharsman Interesting! I didn't know CoD ran on id Tech until now, but looking it up, it seems that CoD1 ran on vanilla id Tech (same as Quake III), with most subsequent entries using an increasingly modified version of id's code called IW Engine.
However, aside from Cold War, the newest ones are using all new code.
Doom Eternal does also list the 1050Ti (about on par with a 960) as a minimum requirement. But it's a good parallel, regardless: both modern Doom and modern CoD have advanced graphics, are pretty heavy with the settings turned up, and yet are able to run at 60fps on Xbox One and PS4. If Doom can run on Switch (albeit at 30-ish fps), then CoD may get similar results.
On the other hand, some engines can get bloated with too much being crammed in, and no amount of geo/texture reduction will fix things. Features instead have to be rewritten or thrown out to restore good performance.
Guess we'll see where the IW Engine stands, if it comes to Switch!
Re: Xbox Boss Says Call Of Duty Would Run "Relatively Great Compared To Other Switch Games"
@Gamer_Griff Rare Replay deserves to be on more platforms- I don't know why it has to be locked to Xbox.
A Switch port makes a lot of sense, considering Rare's association with Nintendo, but doesn't seem feasible, considering that not only would the core package (with all of its emulators) have to be ported, but also every single Xbox 360 game that's included.
You'd think PC would be a no-brainer, though.
Re: Xbox Boss Says Call Of Duty Would Run "Relatively Great Compared To Other Switch Games"
@Tharsman Are you talking about the latest CoD games, or those from a few years back? Because the latest ones need a GTX 960 or 670 at minimum- those are close to 10x as capable as the Switch, both on paper and in practice.
(You might be surprised how well some ancient PC hardware holds up!)
A 60fps CoD of some kind is definitely possible on Switch, and considering the games that came out on the weaker Xbox 360, it could even look quite good.
But how many modern engines can scale that low? It might have to be built separately, or at least with heavy modifications besides turning down the graphics.
Re: Batman Arkham Trilogy For Switch Only Includes One Title On The Game Cartridge
@acidflare Those figures are for the PC versions of the Arkham games, though, which support way higher texture (and video) resolutions than Switch. You can probably knock a gigabyte or two off the first two games, and take off half the file size of Knight. Maybe even more, with better compression. Just guessing, though, as I haven't analyzed the folders to see what all is in there.
Also, Spyro Reignited is 39 GB on PC, which is easily small enough to fit on a dual-layer BD. The third game was probably just not ready on time.
Re: Batman Arkham Trilogy For Switch Only Includes One Title On The Game Cartridge
@huyi Why did you say "basically"? Epic literally gave this collection away for free a while back!
And yeah, while I understand that some people need the portable aspect of the Switch (and carrying a laptop and controller around isn't quite the same!), I do find it odd how averse some others are to playing on PC in general.
You don't even need a gaming PC- just a typical office laptop now has better graphical capabilities than the Switch (even my office laptop from 2015 came close!), and the whole aspect of tweaking settings is typically a non-issue, unless you really care about having the best possible graphics you can get at 60fps... in which case you wouldn't tolerate most consoles/handhelds, anyway.
Re: The FTC Doesn't Seem To Think Switch Is A Serious PlayStation & Xbox Competitor
@Mgalens Most games were 60fps from the beginning (even on Atari, etc.), with 30fps being a common compromise in the '90s to get 3D graphics working on systems like the PlayStation. 60fps again became the norm for a while in the PS2 era, but then the push for better graphics led to some dire performance all around in the "HD" era.
I've noticed what you're saying, too, with people asking "how did you play video games for the past 20/30/50 years before 60fps existed????", despite many of us growing up playing almost exclusively 60fps games!
Re: Talking Point: Is Super Mario Bros. Wonder Really A Departure From The 'New' Series?
@somnambulance I think the NSMB games are all great in themselves (well, three of them- I haven't gotten around to NSMB2 just yet). The heavy-feeling controls take some getting used to, but there are some clever and fun level designs across the series, and the challenge mode in NSMBU is surprisingly addictive.
The issue is mainly the stale presentation: all four games have the same old plastic graphics, the same non-existent storyline, the same tired level theme tropes (grassland, desert, seaside, etc.)... it felt like Nintendo just released the same game four times in six years.
You could take any one of these games, and it'd be great on its own. It was most likely the rapid-fire release schedule and near-total lack of innovation that left a bad taste in people's mouths.
Re: Talking Point: Is Super Mario Bros. Wonder Really A Departure From The 'New' Series?
This looks like what the past few NSMB games should have been!
I mean, they were all fun (with U's challenge mode being especially compelling), but the visual style and level themes were getting really stale. (Oh, gee, world 2 is a desert? What a surprise.)
Re: Random: Remastered Nintendo Space World 2000 Video Shows Unseen Footage
@gorillazrulez The early 2000s, especially, were a fantastic time to be a gamer, and a Nintendo fan particularly!
I'm always glad to see younger gamers taking an interest in the classics, and fortunately, there are ways to experience these older games today (on top of all the new stuff).
Re: Super Mario RPG Is Getting A Remake This November, And It Looks Amazing
Looks great! They've even got it running at 60fps, both in-game and... in the FMVs?!
Re: Random: Some Square Enix Staff Really Want A Final Fantasy VI Remake
@KingMike That's because Square Enix insisted on getting an A rating for the GBA version. I expect (and hope!) that they'd be okay with a hypothetical 3D remake of VI being rated C (15+), as VII Remake was.
Because yeah, VI had some heavy stuff, and those low-res graphics were the only thing keeping it in kid-friendly territory!