@Justifier The game's fully in Japanese, there's no English, or any other language sub/dub. The only thing the language tab changes is the added on-screen instructions (the Saturn version's options menu was already in English).
@Guile Unfortunately, there are no free themes on the Japanese Theme Shop.
Also same with videos, there's nothing free to download. There's videos you can watch on the eShop, notably trailers on the game pages, and videos starring the comedy duo Yowiko, showcasing various games, but none can be downloaded from what I can see.
They are videos to buy, but the cheapest I've seen was for the first three episodes of "Shaun the Sheep." for ¥105.
There's a fourth game in The Denpa Men series that can be found in the free section. It's a freemium game, with my understanding being a stamina bar needs recharging either over time or through purchased items. Can't really say much about it as I haven't played it myself.
There's also a game called "Heybot! Hebo Hebo! Heybotournament!" a game starring a yellow robot, it's a match 3 puzzler, that's free to download, but does mention in-game purchases.
EDIT: This is alongside the same stuff that is available in the west like Pokémon Picross and Flipnote Studio 3D.
@KingMike What makes it worst for Sega Archives vol.3 is that the digital version was removed from the eShop last December, so the physical version is the only one available now.
@Guile Did a quick search on the eShop via the magnifying glass. With price range set to "free-0" I found Badge on Page 9 on default settings (page 1 when listed by popularity).
@HammerGalladeBro @AlanaHagues Strange, it says Pictologica is still available on my Japanese 3DS on the free downloads page. The bit where the price would be translates to "offers in-game purchases".
Just in case anyone's interested, here's the current top Japanese 3DS games, according to the Japanese 3DS eShop's ranking pages. English title used where possible, asterisk means it is/was on sale.
Retail Games
1) Monster Hunter Stories[/strong]
2) Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers
3) Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns*
4) Senran Karuga 2*
5) Senran Karuga Burst*
6) Story of Seasons*
7) Fire Emblem Awakening
8) Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
9) Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns Plus*
10 Etrian Odyssey Nexus
1) Pokemon Crystal
2) Summer Carnival '92 Recca
3) Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)
4) Pokemon Yellow
5) Live A Live
6) Pokemon Gold
7) Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
8) Zelda: Oracle of Ages
9) Pokemon Silver
10) Pokemon Red
@yokokazuo I've been using Play-Asia for buying eshop vouchers (and EX Troopers did get a physical release).
Where's the option for "I already have a Japanese 3DS". Though, I do wish it was a New 3DS for those few Super Famicom games.
The Japanese 3DS store has some DSiWare titles that are either exclusive to it, like the excellent DSiWare shooter Sagittarius-A-Star, or where delisted in the west. Such as the Go Series games (Picdun, Spiky Blowfish, and Captain Sub, etc), as well as other titles like the original Go! Go! KokoPolo.
@AlexHarford Actually VVVVVV is still available - I'm in the UK too, by the way and just checked - but you have to buy it directly from the 3DS eShop, it's unpurchaseable - and appears delisted - on the game's webpage for some strange reason.
@COVIDberry In this case, given what that sentence is implying, the meaning's going be the same either way. In such circumstances, I'd hope both kinds of "pants" were changed.
To elaborate on mine and Kate's reply. Pants/underwear go over the bum, what's the grossest thing bums are associated with? Pants in British slang is basically a G-rated synonym for that.
@COVIDberry It worth noting that when a British person uses the word "pants" (outside of its comedic meaning), we're usually referring to underwear, not trousers or the like.
@RainbowGazelle Microsoft did much the same thing years ago with the original Xbox's service (admittably, there wasn't much to buy on the service, outside a bit of DLC).
@AcridSkull Yes you can transfer WiiWare and VC games to an SD card, the shop also gives you the option of downloading straight to the SD card, rather than internal storage. All the games I brought on the Wii shop are stored on a couple of SD cards,* as they collectively take up more space than the Wii has internal memory (technically the Wii U's Wii mode only gets the same amount of space to work with that the original Wii had).
*By that I mean the same data on two seperate SD cards, one as a backup of the other. I've also copied the files from the SD card onto two separate hard drives via my PC, again as backup in case a problem happens with both SD cards.
EDIT: And bear in mind that the data is still locked to the origin console.
@BionicDodo That character throws ofuda, rectangle paper tags with wards on them to dispell demons, as her main attack. The other characters have more conventional weapons, like throwing stars/knives.
Both of these are excellent titles, well worth the pick up (I'm going to get them for portablitiy).
@outrun2sp I know this is probably about six years too late to matter at this point, but, as the author of that video, I would actually side with the reviewer's appraisal of the game.
Yes even to the point where the highest score I would be comfortable in giving the game was a 6/10 (and that was at the time I made that video). Even then, I'm not sure if I'd be so... generous these days.
@tysonfury The game was translated for its original Wii Virtual Console release.
@wolvesboy Just checked, if you own it on Wii VC, it is the usual offer price of £1.79. Personally, I really only upgrade if the Wii U version is 60Hz and the Wii one's 50. So I'm going to get StarTropics as an "upgrade", while leaving the other two.
Though granted, I can see the appeal/need to play the game on the pad, especially if the TV it's plugged into is shared/or in the living room, etc.
@TheGoof Stuttering Craig of Screw Attack came up the name of this series when Larry was making videos for them and suggested a series about games that never made it to the USA.
While it would be sad if Konami decides to leave the console gaming business to focus on other industries (like its Pachinko and slot machines), I wouldn't begrudge the company from restructuring and re-focusing itself to survive in the increasingly difficult world that gaming has become.
Still, it would also be good if the company decided to make games that were within its means, even if that requires them to publish less games a year. Still is this just speculating and rumour at the moment, who knows what the future holds.
@Quorthon - Just a quick note. The rights for Baten Kaitos are owned by Bandai Namco, who still hold the trademark for the first title/franchise. Any new entry in the series would have to go through them. They have let the mark for Origins slide however, but since they own the core name, it's kind of a moot point.
I pre-ordered my copy of Bayonetta 2 back early September from Amazon UK for £31.85. They upgraded to the Special Edition - with the first game - when the pack was announced, absorbing the costs themselves. The game arrived on Friday.
@llamareborn @andrea987 Squids Odyssey is still crossbuy on 3DS - in Europe - according to the developer's twitter feed. Going to be picking it up during this sale myself.
@Yurikun The original games on NES and SNES were more or less straight 2D action platformers (2 was... different, but was generally 2D platforming).
Since the Playstation's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night game was released, the 2D games have taken the Metroid series - particularly Super Metroid - as an inspiration, with RPG embellishments (items, levelling up, stories/text).
Essentially they became games about exploration, with platforming, fighting monsters, gaining XP and collecting fallen loot for good measure.
All three of the GBA titles are pretty good titles and worth getting IMO.
@rjejr RainbowGazelle is talking about Amazon UK, who don't charge for release-day delivery for videogames (and possibly other items), regardless of whether you're Prime or not and have had said policy for a while.
What Amazon USA do is, of course, up to them and unfortunately they charge for the service.
@ICHIkatakuri Yeah, I got that email regarding Bayonetta as well, was a nice surprise and I'll happily take it.
I might buy Life Force, but the only game I'm certainly getting this week is Hyrule Warriors, physical, from Amazon.
@unrandomsam The only optimisation done to Link to the Past was to the music, which was sped up to compensate. Nothing else beyond that I'm afraid.
The Wii U eShop page for the game does helpfully states that ALTTP's "Gameplay, demos and animations" run at PAL/50Hz, before stating that the aspect ratio has been corrected.
I've got the game on GBA, which runs at the proper speed, so I'm not likely to buy the game even at a discounted rate. Might grab a copy of Link's Awakening while it's on offer though.
Since I'd registered my 3DS back at its original launch and am in no hurry to buy a second (at least not until New 3DS' european release comes about), I'm afraid that I won't be able to take advantage of this offer.
Still, it's good for those who have yet to buy the console though.
@Damo "An upgraded port of David Crane's iconic Atari 2600 title"
I'd think you'll find that the game originally came out for the Commodore64 and the Atari 8-Bit; the 2600 version being one of the later ports.
As to the debate, the Master System version wins hands-down in my books, it controlled better in general then the NES version, didn't have you going to the gas station every few minutes to refill your tank and the tower climb and subsequent battle with Gozer was actually possible to do without cheating.
@PALgamer None that I've ever found online, which is why I've been keeping my own list for this for a while. Maybe I should post it online (or at least in the VC forums).
According to the eShop, the present eight games on Wii U VC are using the European 50Hz version: "Balloon Fight", "Kirby's Adventure", "Harvest Moon", "Pop 'n Twinbee", "Pop 'n Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure", "Super Metroid", "The Legend of the Mystical Ninja", and "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past".
@XyVoX My understanding of where it says "PAL version" or "USA version", is that the reviewer reviewed the game in the territory that it came out - or at least where they reviewed it - first on; that being either a PAL designated Wii U or a USA one (e.g. if they reviewed a game on a UK Wii U, it would state "PAL version", irrespective of its actual refresh rate).
Insofar as I've seen It's never been meant as an indicator of whether the game is 50HZ or 60HZ. For that info you should either check the "download" page updates on this site, or the game's info page on the eShop.
Also note that it says "PAL version" for the 3DS reviews of both Mega Man 5 and 6, the 3DS being a system that runs all it's titles at full speed so far.
@JakeShapiro Pac-Land and Pac-Man Collection have just been released on the EU Wii U eShop with Thursday's update, along with the alreadly announced stuff (at least in the UK). Both have 30% off until 19th June.
This is the reason I have a 50/60Hz switch on my main Mega Drive, and soon - I hope - my main SNES, and why I rarely buy anything other than Hanabi and Turbografx games on the VC.
@Mach-X
“Slower refresh”
Hardly relevant to most things outside of the gaming world and made for NTSC TV.
50hz interlaced is 25 complete frames a seconds, so most companies ran/run their theatrical films in 25fps on PAL without having to resort to the telecine 3:2 pulldown – and the problems it involves* - that NTSC has to do to get 24fps to work on a format that runs at 60hz (or 30fps), since it cannot go down the speedup route without speeding up the film to an intolerable rate (+1fps increase in speed is a lot less noticeable to most than +6fps would be).
“…an aspect ratio not compatible with film/tv being produced in hollywood.”
The aspect ratio of PAL TVs is - and always was - exactly the same as NTSC TV, 4:3 on a “square” “Full Frame” - or 1.33:1 - TV and 16:9 for a widescreen – or 1.78:1. These aspects have always been global standards on both TV formats since their inceptions.
Basically PAL has the same picture ratio as NTSC, but a higher resolution (however slight). For a modern example, say the difference between a 40” 1080 and a 40” 720 TV, the screen is the same physical size, but I know which would offer a potential sharper picture. The reason for the squashed image in games is because of poor encoding, not a difference in aspect ratio.
Consoles outputted the lines as normal back then, but since they where based on the NTSC standard**, the amount did not tally with the lines on the PAL TV it was outputting to, end result, the unused lines are left empty, distorting the picture and giving us the fake boarders, and squashing the image from 4:3 into a mockery of widescreen.
As others have said, PAL’s main goal was to eliminate the color shifting issues that NTSC can suffer through poor reception, without the need of a tint control knob. Note the word reception, meaning station transmissions, rather than playback with a domestic source sans signal fluctuations (e.g. DVD, VHS).
*Double image caused by using the interlaced nature of SDTVs to take a picture of one frame and combine it with the next frame, to make up the needed extra frames (though to be fair this is hardly noticeable). Then there’s the judder effect that happens with pulldown, particularly when the screen scrolls horizontally due to a slight error inherent in the process when compared to how film frames are shown.
Note that it is completely possible to do pulldown in PAL, by holding every twelth frame for longer than the rest, which unfortunately causes the image to jerk a couple of times a second (though it’s generally done when converting NTSC TV shows out of necessity: i.e. to avoid the same problem that games have, seeing as you’re trying to convert a program made at 30fps onto a 25fps format.
**Outside of properly optimised games where the extra lines have the image data added for their PAL release.
Yes, but Nintendo owns Donkey Kong and all the games of his outright, they're not Rare's in any sense other than the fact that the company developed them - that includes DK64.
When the two companies split Rare kept all the original IPs that they had created, whilst Nintendo kept all their original IPs.
Sorry to tell you this, but that's spike maze is just a alternative route you can take, it still leads Alex to Jaken the Great and the same ending. Oh and the idea is to get inbetween the first spikes and DON'T press up, Alex will stay below the upper spikes by himself as long as you never press up - or down - on the pad.
Well remember what the article says: PEGI doesn't generally give out the names of the games it has rated until they're actually released. It's likely that all their current rated games are being kept hidden.
Still as least I can play catch up with some older releases, rather than have to add more titles to an already insane wish list. Though there are plenty of games on the Coming Soon list that I for one wouldn't mind seeing on the VC.
"But it's much slower than shown in the video up there, I mean, the pace isn't that fast."
Giving that the poster of that video is from the USA, then it's probable that he's playing it at the 60HZ that the game was intended to be played in, which would be faster than the 50HZ PAL mode we have.
Comments 55
Re: Review: STEAM-HEART'S Saturn Tribute (Switch) - A Disappointing Return For A Notoriously Saucy Shooter
@Justifier The game's fully in Japanese, there's no English, or any other language sub/dub. The only thing the language tab changes is the added on-screen instructions (the Saturn version's options menu was already in English).
Re: Feature: Best Japan-Exclusive 3DS Games - 13 Titles We Wish Had Come To The West
@Guile Unfortunately, there are no free themes on the Japanese Theme Shop.
Also same with videos, there's nothing free to download. There's videos you can watch on the eShop, notably trailers on the game pages, and videos starring the comedy duo Yowiko, showcasing various games, but none can be downloaded from what I can see.
They are videos to buy, but the cheapest I've seen was for the first three episodes of "Shaun the Sheep." for ¥105.
There's a fourth game in The Denpa Men series that can be found in the free section. It's a freemium game, with my understanding being a stamina bar needs recharging either over time or through purchased items. Can't really say much about it as I haven't played it myself.
There's also a game called "Heybot! Hebo Hebo! Heybotournament!" a game starring a yellow robot, it's a match 3 puzzler, that's free to download, but does mention in-game purchases.
EDIT: This is alongside the same stuff that is available in the west like Pokémon Picross and Flipnote Studio 3D.
@KingMike What makes it worst for Sega Archives vol.3 is that the digital version was removed from the eShop last December, so the physical version is the only one available now.
Re: Feature: Best Japan-Exclusive 3DS Games - 13 Titles We Wish Had Come To The West
@Guile Did a quick search on the eShop via the magnifying glass. With price range set to "free-0" I found Badge on Page 9 on default settings (page 1 when listed by popularity).
Re: Feature: Best Japan-Exclusive 3DS Games - 13 Titles We Wish Had Come To The West
@HammerGalladeBro @AlanaHagues Strange, it says Pictologica is still available on my Japanese 3DS on the free downloads page. The bit where the price would be translates to "offers in-game purchases".
Re: PSA: It's The Final Countdown For 3DS And Wii U eShop Credit Card Payments (North America)
@UltimateOtaku91 I believe Legacy was delisted a year ago from the UK eShop.
Re: PSA: It's The Final Countdown For 3DS And Wii U eShop Credit Card Payments (North America)
@belmont I merged my Japanese 3DS ID with an account on my UK Switch.
Re: Here Is This Week's 3DS eShop Chart, Pokémon Crystal Is At The Top (Again)
@Z-Core Just in case you didn't know, Zara only runs on the "New" models of 3DS.
Re: Here Is This Week's 3DS eShop Chart, Pokémon Crystal Is At The Top (Again)
Just in case anyone's interested, here's the current top Japanese 3DS games, according to the Japanese 3DS eShop's ranking pages. English title used where possible, asterisk means it is/was on sale.
Retail Games
1) Monster Hunter Stories[/strong]
2) Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers
3) Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns*
4) Senran Karuga 2*
5) Senran Karuga Burst*
6) Story of Seasons*
7) Fire Emblem Awakening
8) Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
9) Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns Plus*
10 Etrian Odyssey Nexus
eShop Games
1) Kirby Blowout Blast
2) Pokémon Dream Radar
3) 2D NES Classics: Kirby's Adventure
4) Pocket Card Jockey
5) Dragon Quest III
6) Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe
7) Dragon Quest II
8) Elminage II*
9) Dragon Quest
10) Kouenji Joshi Soccer 3*
VC
1) Pokemon Crystal
2) Summer Carnival '92 Recca
3) Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)
4) Pokemon Yellow
5) Live A Live
6) Pokemon Gold
7) Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
8) Zelda: Oracle of Ages
9) Pokemon Silver
10) Pokemon Red
Re: Feature: Is It Worth Importing A Japanese 3DS For These Virtual Console Games?
@yokokazuo I've been using Play-Asia for buying eshop vouchers (and EX Troopers did get a physical release).
Where's the option for "I already have a Japanese 3DS". Though, I do wish it was a New 3DS for those few Super Famicom games.
The Japanese 3DS store has some DSiWare titles that are either exclusive to it, like the excellent DSiWare shooter Sagittarius-A-Star, or where delisted in the west. Such as the Go Series games (Picdun, Spiky Blowfish, and Captain Sub, etc), as well as other titles like the original Go! Go! KokoPolo.
Re: Feature: 23 Best Wii U eShop Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
@Hikingguy @Kyloctopus @Sheekago @nukatha Year Walk was apparently delisted on the US eShop, it is still on the EU/UK eShop.
Re: Feature: 29 Best 3DS eShop Games You Should Get Before They're Gone Forever
@AlexHarford Actually VVVVVV is still available - I'm in the UK too, by the way and just checked - but you have to buy it directly from the 3DS eShop, it's unpurchaseable - and appears delisted - on the game's webpage for some strange reason.
Re: Random: Pokémon Whips Were Once Considered, But Game Freak Thought It Was "Too Cruel"
@Clyde_Radcliffe Both games had throwable fruit in them. The Pester Balls where replaced with Illumina Orbs.
Re: Reminder: It's Turkey Day In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
@Matty1988 Franklin lampshades this as well.
"I understand it's Turkey Day, but you wouldn't believe the way they choose to celebrate it in some places."
Re: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D To Be Temporarily Removed From The 3DS eShop
@Stocksy On the UK eShop, £17.99 (personally brought it on sale, 50% for £8.99).
Re: Mini Review: Gleylancer - A Brilliant 16-Bit Shmup Sparkles With Mod Cons
@Roz1281 to follow of Lizard's post, it's an abbreviation of MODern CONvenienceS.
Re: Review: Project Starship X - An Unconventional Shmup That's Full Of New Ideas
@COVIDberry In this case, given what that sentence is implying, the meaning's going be the same either way. In such circumstances, I'd hope both kinds of "pants" were changed.
To elaborate on mine and Kate's reply. Pants/underwear go over the bum, what's the grossest thing bums are associated with? Pants in British slang is basically a G-rated synonym for that.
Re: Soapbox: Retro Nintendo Games Cost Too Much, But Nostalgia Is Expensive
@COVIDberry It worth noting that when a British person uses the word "pants" (outside of its comedic meaning), we're usually referring to underwear, not trousers or the like.
Re: Animal Crossing, Mario And Star Fox Discounts Appear In Latest My Nintendo Rewards (Europe)
@johnvboy Argos' website has Home Designer for £2 as part of a sale at the moment, depending on stock in your area (along with some other 3DS titles).
Re: Feature: The 50 Best Nintendo 3DS Games Of All Time - Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing And More
@NintendoLife In Animal Crossing: "Becoming major" I believe you meant "Mayor".
Re: Get Discounts On Zelda, Metroid, Splatoon And More With The Latest European My Nintendo Rewards
@shoeses The offered discount for Xenoblade is for the Virtual Console release of the Wii game.
Re: Reminder: The Wii Shop Channel Closes This Month, Here's What That Means For You
@RainbowGazelle Microsoft did much the same thing years ago with the original Xbox's service (admittably, there wasn't much to buy on the service, outside a bit of DLC).
@AcridSkull Yes you can transfer WiiWare and VC games to an SD card, the shop also gives you the option of downloading straight to the SD card, rather than internal storage. All the games I brought on the Wii shop are stored on a couple of SD cards,* as they collectively take up more space than the Wii has internal memory (technically the Wii U's Wii mode only gets the same amount of space to work with that the original Wii had).
*By that I mean the same data on two seperate SD cards, one as a backup of the other. I've also copied the files from the SD card onto two separate hard drives via my PC, again as backup in case a problem happens with both SD cards.
EDIT: And bear in mind that the data is still locked to the origin console.
Re: Double Dose Of Sengoku Arriving Next Week On Switch eShop
@BionicDodo That character throws ofuda, rectangle paper tags with wards on them to dispell demons, as her main attack. The other characters have more conventional weapons, like throwing stars/knives.
Both of these are excellent titles, well worth the pick up (I'm going to get them for portablitiy).
Re: The Iconic Danger Mouse Comes To Switch With The Danger Games
@Whopper744 The Eighties version did air on Nickelodeon in the US back in the channel's early days, along with its spiritual successor Count Duckula.
https://youtu.be/SbKMYLv1b_E
Re: Review: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GameCube)
@outrun2sp I know this is probably about six years too late to matter at this point, but, as the author of that video, I would actually side with the reviewer's appraisal of the game.
Yes even to the point where the highest score I would be comfortable in giving the game was a 6/10 (and that was at the time I made that video). Even then, I'm not sure if I'd be so... generous these days.
Re: Nintendo Download: 10th August (Europe)
@gaga64 That's price is actually for "Kirby's Adventure Wii" - aka "Kirby's Return to Dreamland".
@ThomasBW84 You might want to correct the name and link.
Re: Nintendo Download: 9th June (Europe)
@LegendOfPokemon Yeah, the first Pokemon Ranger came to Wii U a year last February.
If it wasn't for that recent "5 year anniversary" thing, I might have considered one of the Ranger games, as is, I'm picking up a few sale items.
I'll likely be picking up a physical copy of Kirby sometime in the near future, but I'm not in any great hurry.
Re: Nintendo Download: 3rd September (Europe)
@tysonfury The game was translated for its original Wii Virtual Console release.
@wolvesboy Just checked, if you own it on Wii VC, it is the usual offer price of £1.79. Personally, I really only upgrade if the Wii U version is 60Hz and the Wii one's 50. So I'm going to get StarTropics as an "upgrade", while leaving the other two.
Though granted, I can see the appeal/need to play the game on the pad, especially if the TV it's plugged into is shared/or in the living room, etc.
Re: Video: How Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Dev Factor 5 Gave Sonic His Home Video Game Début
@TheGoof Stuttering Craig of Screw Attack came up the name of this series when Larry was making videos for them and suggested a series about games that never made it to the USA.
Re: Talking Point: Is Konami About To Exit The Console Game Business?
While it would be sad if Konami decides to leave the console gaming business to focus on other industries (like its Pachinko and slot machines), I wouldn't begrudge the company from restructuring and re-focusing itself to survive in the increasingly difficult world that gaming has become.
Still, it would also be good if the company decided to make games that were within its means, even if that requires them to publish less games a year. Still is this just speculating and rumour at the moment, who knows what the future holds.
@Quorthon - Just a quick note. The rights for Baten Kaitos are owned by Bandai Namco, who still hold the trademark for the first title/franchise. Any new entry in the series would have to go through them. They have let the mark for Origins slide however, but since they own the core name, it's kind of a moot point.
http://www.trademarkia.com/baten-kaitos-76413946.html
http://www.trademarkia.com/baten-kaitos-origins-76662310.html
Re: Poll: Buying Bayonetta 2 - eShop Convenience or Battling for Copies in Stores?
I pre-ordered my copy of Bayonetta 2 back early September from Amazon UK for £31.85. They upgraded to the Special Edition - with the first game - when the pack was announced, absorbing the costs themselves. The game arrived on Friday.
Good to hear that it's selling well.
Re: Nintendo Download: 16th October (Europe)
@llamareborn @andrea987 Squids Odyssey is still crossbuy on 3DS - in Europe - according to the developer's twitter feed. Going to be picking it up during this sale myself.
https://twitter.com/TheGameBakers/status/522720080044752896
Re: Download: Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Special Demo Version
Ended up with a spare code to giveaway. So here it is for some lucky - or just plain quick - someone to enjoy.
"A05RKJ7P1RQSTW5U"
Re: Nintendo Download: 9th October (Europe)
I'd get Ufouria if it's in 60HZ, but otherwise I'll pass as I've already got the game on my Wii U's "Wii" VC.
I also have a PS3 and a PC copy of Guacamelee, I don't need a third, though I'd recommend it to anyone who's thinking about getting it.
Otherwise there's nothing for me here. Still that just means more time to play Smash.
Re: Nintendo Confirms Two More Début Releases Coming to the Virtual Console
@Yurikun The original games on NES and SNES were more or less straight 2D action platformers (2 was... different, but was generally 2D platforming).
Since the Playstation's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night game was released, the 2D games have taken the Metroid series - particularly Super Metroid - as an inspiration, with RPG embellishments (items, levelling up, stories/text).
Essentially they became games about exploration, with platforming, fighting monsters, gaining XP and collecting fallen loot for good measure.
All three of the GBA titles are pretty good titles and worth getting IMO.
Re: Nintendo Download: 18th September (Europe)
@rjejr RainbowGazelle is talking about Amazon UK, who don't charge for release-day delivery for videogames (and possibly other items), regardless of whether you're Prime or not and have had said policy for a while.
What Amazon USA do is, of course, up to them and unfortunately they charge for the service.
@ICHIkatakuri Yeah, I got that email regarding Bayonetta as well, was a nice surprise and I'll happily take it.
I might buy Life Force, but the only game I'm certainly getting this week is Hyrule Warriors, physical, from Amazon.
Re: Nintendo Download: 11th September (Europe)
@unrandomsam The only optimisation done to Link to the Past was to the music, which was sped up to compensate. Nothing else beyond that I'm afraid.
The Wii U eShop page for the game does helpfully states that ALTTP's "Gameplay, demos and animations" run at PAL/50Hz, before stating that the aspect ratio has been corrected.
I've got the game on GBA, which runs at the proper speed, so I'm not likely to buy the game even at a discounted rate. Might grab a copy of Link's Awakening while it's on offer though.
Re: Nintendo Launches a Free 3DS Game Promotion in Europe
Since I'd registered my 3DS back at its original launch and am in no hurry to buy a second (at least not until New 3DS' european release comes about), I'm afraid that I won't be able to take advantage of this offer.
Still, it's good for those who have yet to buy the console though.
Re: Video: Which 8-bit Version Of Ghostbusters Are You Gonna Call?
@Damo
"An upgraded port of David Crane's iconic Atari 2600 title"
I'd think you'll find that the game originally came out for the Commodore64 and the Atari 8-Bit; the 2600 version being one of the later ports.
As to the debate, the Master System version wins hands-down in my books, it controlled better in general then the NES version, didn't have you going to the gas station every few minutes to refill your tank and the tower climb and subsequent battle with Gozer was actually possible to do without cheating.
Re: Amazon Pre-order Bonus Will Light Up Your Sonic Boom Characters
@Ichiban I was thinking that exact same thing, Tronic Boom indeed.
I have no desire for this, although it doesn't seem to be on offer in the UK anyway. Still it's a harmless bit of DLC I suppose.
Re: Nintendo Confirms a Huge Range of eShop Discounts to Celebrate Super Smash Bros.
@PALgamer None that I've ever found online, which is why I've been keeping my own list for this for a while. Maybe I should post it online (or at least in the VC forums).
According to the eShop, the present eight games on Wii U VC are using the European 50Hz version: "Balloon Fight", "Kirby's Adventure", "Harvest Moon", "Pop 'n Twinbee", "Pop 'n Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure", "Super Metroid", "The Legend of the Mystical Ninja", and "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past".
Re: Nintendo Confirms a Huge Range of eShop Discounts to Celebrate Super Smash Bros.
@XyVoX My understanding of where it says "PAL version" or "USA version", is that the reviewer reviewed the game in the territory that it came out - or at least where they reviewed it - first on; that being either a PAL designated Wii U or a USA one (e.g. if they reviewed a game on a UK Wii U, it would state "PAL version", irrespective of its actual refresh rate).
Insofar as I've seen It's never been meant as an indicator of whether the game is 50HZ or 60HZ. For that info you should either check the "download" page updates on this site, or the game's info page on the eShop.
Also note that it says "PAL version" for the 3DS reviews of both Mega Man 5 and 6, the 3DS being a system that runs all it's titles at full speed so far.
EDIT: In the download update for the EU region that included Mega Man 5 and 6's release, Nintendolife did state that both games where "the US version of the game" https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/07/nintendo_download_24th_july_europe
EDIT: Though, granted, I can see now labelling stuff as PAL in any way - given the format's game history - could be confusing.
Re: Pac-Land and Pac-Man Collection Chomp Onto North American Wii U Virtual Console
@JakeShapiro Pac-Land and Pac-Man Collection have just been released on the EU Wii U eShop with Thursday's update, along with the alreadly announced stuff (at least in the UK). Both have 30% off until 19th June.
Re: Talking Point: The Virtual Console's PAL Problem
This is the reason I have a 50/60Hz switch on my main Mega Drive, and soon - I hope - my main SNES, and why I rarely buy anything other than Hanabi and Turbografx games on the VC.
@Mach-X
“Slower refresh”
Hardly relevant to most things outside of the gaming world and made for NTSC TV.
50hz interlaced is 25 complete frames a seconds, so most companies ran/run their theatrical films in 25fps on PAL without having to resort to the telecine 3:2 pulldown – and the problems it involves* - that NTSC has to do to get 24fps to work on a format that runs at 60hz (or 30fps), since it cannot go down the speedup route without speeding up the film to an intolerable rate (+1fps increase in speed is a lot less noticeable to most than +6fps would be).
“…an aspect ratio not compatible with film/tv being produced in hollywood.”
The aspect ratio of PAL TVs is - and always was - exactly the same as NTSC TV, 4:3 on a “square” “Full Frame” - or 1.33:1 - TV and 16:9 for a widescreen – or 1.78:1. These aspects have always been global standards on both TV formats since their inceptions.
Basically PAL has the same picture ratio as NTSC, but a higher resolution (however slight). For a modern example, say the difference between a 40” 1080 and a 40” 720 TV, the screen is the same physical size, but I know which would offer a potential sharper picture. The reason for the squashed image in games is because of poor encoding, not a difference in aspect ratio.
Consoles outputted the lines as normal back then, but since they where based on the NTSC standard**, the amount did not tally with the lines on the PAL TV it was outputting to, end result, the unused lines are left empty, distorting the picture and giving us the fake boarders, and squashing the image from 4:3 into a mockery of widescreen.
As others have said, PAL’s main goal was to eliminate the color shifting issues that NTSC can suffer through poor reception, without the need of a tint control knob. Note the word reception, meaning station transmissions, rather than playback with a domestic source sans signal fluctuations (e.g. DVD, VHS).
*Double image caused by using the interlaced nature of SDTVs to take a picture of one frame and combine it with the next frame, to make up the needed extra frames (though to be fair this is hardly noticeable). Then there’s the judder effect that happens with pulldown, particularly when the screen scrolls horizontally due to a slight error inherent in the process when compared to how film frames are shown.
Note that it is completely possible to do pulldown in PAL, by holding every twelth frame for longer than the rest, which unfortunately causes the image to jerk a couple of times a second (though it’s generally done when converting NTSC TV shows out of necessity: i.e. to avoid the same problem that games have, seeing as you’re trying to convert a program made at 30fps onto a 25fps format.
**Outside of properly optimised games where the extra lines have the image data added for their PAL release.
Re: Rare: Fate Was Against Us With Goldeneye
@ Bensei
Yes, but Nintendo owns Donkey Kong and all the games of his outright, they're not Rare's in any sense other than the fact that the company developed them - that includes DK64.
When the two companies split Rare kept all the original IPs that they had created, whilst Nintendo kept all their original IPs.
Re: SnakeByte Christmas Compo - Win Yourself Some Wii Goodies
"E3 reveals new security measures"
Re: Alex Kidd in Miracle World
@ Sam
Sorry to tell you this, but that's spike maze is just a alternative route you can take, it still leads Alex to Jaken the Great and the same ending. Oh and the idea is to get inbetween the first spikes and DON'T press up, Alex will stay below the upper spikes by himself as long as you never press up - or down - on the pad.
Re: Drake's Ratings Roundup - June 2008
@ mummydaddy
Well remember what the article says: PEGI doesn't generally give out the names of the games it has rated until they're actually released. It's likely that all their current rated games are being kept hidden.
Re: EU VC Releases - 20th June - Epic Fail
Ouch for us Europeans huh...
Still as least I can play catch up with some older releases, rather than have to add more titles to an already insane wish list. Though there are plenty of games on the Coming Soon list that I for one wouldn't mind seeing on the VC.
Re: Alex Kidd in Miracle World
"But it's much slower than shown in the video up there, I mean, the pace isn't that fast."
Giving that the poster of that video is from the USA, then it's probable that he's playing it at the 60HZ that the game was intended to be played in, which would be faster than the 50HZ PAL mode we have.
Re: Alex Kidd in Miracle World
He eats a Hamburger on the version that was built into the Master System consoles; on the original cartridge version he ate a Rice Cake.