GAME's swift decline is still kinda sad to think about and I feel like we're getting close to Fraser Group just completely gutting the brand down the line.
I picked up the digital deluxe and don't regret it, I think it might actually be a better Metroidvania than Metroid Dread was, and I loved that game.
It's a shame that an Ubisoft executive said something so phenomenally stupid that people are (rightfully) put off, because a Switch game that runs at 1080p 60 and looks and plays THIS GOOD deserves people's attention and time.
Gotta be Europe then Japan in that order for me. I'm all for understated simplicity.
The American box art feels like an advertisement, which probably helps in the store, but when I've already paid money for the game it just feels like I've bought a commercial for the product I already paid for.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Collection were my go-to games this year, I know Klonoa's technically old games and all, but it's such a fantastic remaster.
It’s still kinda baffling to me that Switch didn’t get the recent Mass Effect trilogy. But I felt that way about the Burnout Paradise remaster and that did, eventually, make its way over so who even knows at this point. EA clearly aren’t in any rush to give Switch players day-and-date versions of their games.
I’m wondering when this song will be up for sale on iTunes or elsewhere. Bump of Chicken’s stuff has been sold on digital stores for a short while now, so it would be nice to get this.
Because it's not specified by anybody - I imagine it's a similar issue to what happened with To The Moon earlier this year - the PEGI rating was found to be incorrect or inaccurate by PEGI and the game has to be pulled while they re-rate it.
It doesn't take too long, I think To the Moon was back up within a week.
Not at all surprised by the Level-5 titles being so high on the packaged list - all of the titles present have been 1000 yen on sale multiple times this year. At that price, even I felt the need to double-dip on a few of them.
It’s probably worth it if you carry your entire Switch setup, system and dock, around a lot, like between multiple houses or whatever, but at that point you’re probably better off buying a second Dock Set secondhand.
Definitely not the first of these sorts of inexpensive SoC emulator devices to “borrow” the aesthetics of the Switch, and certainly not the last. That said, I think this one has one of the better SoCs you’ll find in the sub-$100 range for these sorts of devices.
I saw the funny side, but now I want Hideki Kamiya to go all in on a crazy scrolling shooter once his upcoming game is wrapped, it’s clear from this trailer and his twitter that he has a lot of love for that style of game, and it would be a nice way to round off all of the obvious Shmup-inspired segments in his previous directorial outings.
Given everything Level-5 has shown on the game’s official Twitter, I’m kinda surprised that The Snack World managed to keep its PEGI 7 rating in Europe. Not that I’m complaining, if this gets it out to a wider audience perhaps people will see I’m not crazy for shilling a 4 year old 3DS title for this long.
I do feel bad for a team like this that put out a game that clearly has a lot of care put into it, even with its lower budget, and then just... fails to find any real audience even with decent review scores under their belt. I guess this is just the nature of a market where a couple of dozen games launch across all platforms on any given week.
@ALinkttPresent pretty sure that Nintendo have always been closer to a 50/50 male:female demographic, at least in the handheld space, and definitely higher than the 70/30 and 80/20 that Sony and MS analytics point to in the home console space.
If anything, this is a good thing for everybody because, well, a more diverse user base ultimately leads to a more diverse selection of games, and we’re seeing that with titles like Ring Fit Adventure getting equal promotion and prominence to stuff like Luigi’s Mansion and Pokémon.
@sanderev part of me was tempted to say that at least the €100 you’ve gotta pay is a one time deal, but honestly, it’s also the price difference between a Lite and a “proper” switch, so if things like the IR Camera and Single Joycon games are deal breakers for you, at least you’re forewarned.
Still, given the Lite is very much a “for kids” model, I doubt there’s much overlap between their target demographics.
As others have stated- this is by no means a commitment to streaming tech.
Nintendo have been down with adopting things like mobile gaming, Gacha business models and subscription services, but always on their own terms with their own twists. I'm sure Nintendo acknowledges that unless you push for lag-free gameplay, a technological impossibility, or at least improbability, the user experience in streamed products is inherently lesser than packaged/digital products, and unless that changes, they won't be pushing for it as eagerly as, say, Sony or Google seems to be.
I mean, it's a bit upsetting that this isn't the case, but I absolutely get it. The game has something like 12 different voiced languages, it's a lot of effort and coordination to get 24 actors (assuming just Pit and Palutena return) all over the world to be available and ready to do a few lines of voiceover for a taunt not a lot of people are going to see.
Perhaps Sakurai could reconsider if the game receives Long term support beyond the fighter pass, but I'm not holding my breath or holding him to that.
@TurboTEF I mean, you can pick from some really good titles like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Bravely Second, so I do have to wonder why they're using those three as an example of what's on offer, even as somebody who likes Tri-Force Heroes.
I feel like this is going to be the 3DS's third party sendoff, and after a few ports/remakes/compilations from Nintendo, that'll well and truly be it for the 3DS. Sad times, but it had a good eight year run.
@Ttimer5 the theoretical maximum of the Micro SDXC standard is 2TB. We're only just getting to the point where a 512GB card is a consumer product, and 1TB is being prototyped by flash memory companies as we speak. I reckon it'll be at least 2022 before 2TB is even a thing you can buy. At least.
Kind of impressed by the sheer number of 2017 titles still lingering in this list, though I suppose it makes sense given that Nintendo's business model relies heavily on those sorts of "evergreen" titles that never truly fall out of popularity.
@Stocksy The next two games on the list are single-player only titles, and overall, about half of the games on the list have a heavy single-player focus, with a good number of those being SP-only titles like Skyrim, Xenoblade and Octopath. There's nothing to worry about. Single player games aren't going anywhere.
@Yosher since you got me all worried, I just thought I'd check - if you do a system-to-system transfer, your save data for games that cannot Cloud Save is transferred across, so that's always an option if you really want to make sure your Pokémon and Splatoon progress stays with you forever.
Since I have my reasons to doubt this will get a proper EU/US release (Koei are convinced it wouldn't sell all that well); I have to wonder- will importers be able to play this with the English text present in the Asian release of its PS4 and Vita counterparts?
If that's a yes, then I hope that the people awaiting this game with bated breath (fnerr fnerr) enjoy the region-free nature of the Switch and the ease of setting up a Japanese account.
@Giygas_95 As far as I'm aware, NoE's been very hands-off with how Yasha handles Russia, so I'd assume that means they've been unable to directly intervene in the whole situation, especially if rank-and-file employees don't have a direct line to NoE and have to go through the higher-ups.
I'm glad they're at least outright willing to say it. It's kind of sad looking at things like the PS Vita subreddit where people will cling on to the few games still slowly trickling out for the thing and claim rumours of the system's death are greatly exaggerated.
I'm currently making slow progress through Labyrinth of Refrain, a title of NIS's that originally launched on Vita and got ported to Switch. I honestly think NIS titles serve a market and a niche Nintendo themselves probably couldn't, and if this cooperation between the two companies leads to a long-term support of the Switch by the company, not to mention some new, original software for it, then it's absolutely a good thing for everybody involved.
I'm glad we got this version of Refrain in the west because, frankly, while I'd have played and loved it just the same on my Vita, there's really something to be said for the convenience of just docking the console when my eyes hurt and I need a larger screen - doing that with the Vita required a whole other piece of hardware and a painful "move the memory card and the game to the Vita TV and hope nothing breaks" process that took multiple minutes at the best of times.
Rather than make a "lol but 980 of them suck" joke, I have an actual valid question - how many of the 1,000 games the Switch has are ACA titles or similar ports/emulations of retro titles?
I'm not asking this as a "gotcha, they don't count" question, more out of curiosity, because to me, the switch represents possibly the single best retro arcade machine money can buy, due to the sheer amount and quality of retro stuff on offer there.
To my understanding, ATGames are causing a lot of bridges to be burned now - they no longer have the Intellivision license, killing one of the pillars of their "flashback" line, and I reckon the SEGA license they have will go away next. I can guarantee that Bandai Namco doesn't want to be involved with knowingly deceiving their customers into buying an inferior product, for that matter, so perhaps they'll beat SEGA at the whole "total revocation of licenses" thing.
All in all, there's only one lesson to be learned from AtGames - if your business relies on licenses to remain afloat, do not do things that jeopardise your future ability to work with licensors.
@SuperGhirahim64 To be fair, their Atari and Intellivision flashbacks -were- decent little emulation consoles. Heck, at one point, the Atari flashback was a true SoC clone - no emulation, and you could even solder an old Atari 2600 cartridge port to it to play your original carts!
But, honestly, pretty much everything else they've licensed is garbage. 100% total garbage.
@Tigrinus1975 I doubt it. It seems to be the one acquired brand Future has any interest in keeping, probably because it serves a niche the PlayStation and Xbox magazines can't.
@Dogorilla I'll have to look this up, since it seems like the kind of thing I'd be interested in reading, especially if it has a similar sort of style to mags like NGamer.
@Pj1 oh yeah, I sub to Retro Gamer, and I love the sheer variety of stuff they cover, but it's not quite the same as a normal gaming magazine, where the previews and reviews are the draw, since it instead focuses primarily on long-form features. That said, they do seem to have more of a Nintendo focus of late due to the sheer number of retro and arcade compilations the Switch is getting, so we'll see.
@bimmy-lee I don't think it's been confirmed for international release yet, but Natsume USA has been doing very well with the series on 3DS and PC, so... maybe we'll get it?
I dunno, the sheer number of never-localised games on the collection probably makes this a fairly intense undertaking for localisation -unless- you just forego the translation and hope the fanbase is willing to buy it largely unaltered.
Honestly, for a September Direct, that's what was needed. A lot of quickfire announcements sure to please pretty much everybody. For every "I couldn't care less" level announcement they made, there was an announcement that was big deal to me like World of Final Fantasy Maxima, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon remake or Yo-Kai Watch Busters getting the update (I bet people forgot about that!).
Oh, and just casually dropping Isabelle and a new Animal Crossing title at the very end was devious. I love it.
So, uh, the creators of the tool used to infringe on intellectual property felt the need to protect their own intellectual property from being infringed? okaaaaaaaaay then?
Inti are probably my favourite developer at the moment. They have an absurdly consistent track record for making quality side-scrollers, retro reboots and... on-rails shooters with cheesecake-tier fanservice (for real, though, GalGun's alright).
Copen and his 8-way dashing could carry the Gunvolt series long-term, but I hope GV proper doesn't get booted out of his own series in favour of him; because there's something super satisfying about the way GV as a character plays.
Nintendo actually doing the best possible thing and replacing the buttons and Circle Pad seemingly free of charge is just excellent. I mean, it makes sense, mainboard replacements require you to poke about in there anyway, so why not gain a little goodwill for the price of some plastic?
Reports that Detective Pikachu refuses to give up his badge and gun are as of yet unconfirmed; so he is considered both armed and extremely dangerous.
To be serious for a moment, I'm not at all surprised two fairly niche games (A graphic adventure and anime tie-in Musou) failed to set the world on fire. I have and am really enjoying both games, but I don't think it's unfair to say they're not everybody's cup of tea, and I'm sure Nintendo and Koei Tecmo are taking that into account.
I think it's fair to be realistic and say that it's unlikely that the Switch will surpass sales of the Wii; unless it has a title that hits the mainstream in the same way Wii Sports or Wii Fit did - a sudden phenomenon that makes sure even people who never play video games (a shrinking demographic due to the ubiquity of phone/tablet games) are convinced.
Honestly, as long as Nintendo keeps first-party momentum as brisk as it has been - a title or two every month, with smaller remakes or first-party published ports of third-party games like TWEWY and DQ Builders filling gaps in the schedule; they're golden. The thing's selling so well there's shortages of the plastic used to manufacture game cartridges - a thing that's been unheard of since the Famicom days.
@Kalmaro Whenever Pokémon hits the Switch - be that this year or next year, Nintendo will finally talk about discontinuation of the 3DS. I mean, momentum of first-party releases in general will likely dry up after the launch of Detective Pikachu, and outside of maybe Atlus, third party support will likely slow to a crawl this year, too.
I feel like people need a reminder of the ESA's past behaviours- this is a body that has defended the use of lootboxes and similar methods of exploiting addictive personalities for YEARS now. Indeed, they are a pressure group that exists entirely to justify the awful business models of companies like EA and Activision/Blizzard. There should be absolutely no doubt that they are going to downplay addiction as being a problem in the same fiscal year where people are openly talking about how addictive freemium business models can make spending money, and major backlashes are happening over such models in paid for products.
The WHO isn't here to take video games away, or to label all consumers of games as addicts, but the ESA certainly are here to justify the practices that turn consumers into addicts.
At a cool £8.74 a piece, SMT and 7th Dragon provide two of the best 3DS RPG experiences for your money. If you have even the faintest level of interest in the genre, pick these two up!
@QwertyQwerty Couldn't possibly agree more. The second-screen and all associated concepts were, in my opinion, at their best when they provided the option to complement an otherwise functionally complete game. You didn't -need- to use the second screen for quick menu and map functions in Zelda Wind Waker and Twilight Princess; but the option and the convenience found in said option were welcome upgrades to excellent games. Given how sparingly Nintendo have used the touch screen, motion controls and other associated hardware in Switch games, they've clearly worked that out; and I think we'll see fewer titles that take the other approach to utilising more "gimmicky" functions of the Switch's hardware.
I picked up the Switch version and got to play a little bit of it before heading to work, and frankly, I don't see myself majorly regretting missing out on the PS4 release - the game seems fairly short, an issue it shares with Generations, and I reckon it'll go on discount fairly quickly.
I think at this point, provided yearly Just Dance and Karaoke continues to hit the Wii every October/November, the Wii may very well continue to get retail games for longer than the PS1 or PS2 did. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me, these continue to do very well with the audience they're made for, and I'm sure the publishers and music licensors are making a healthy profit.
Comments 181
Re: Retailer GAME Is Reportedly Ending In-Store Pre-Orders
GAME's swift decline is still kinda sad to think about and I feel like we're getting close to Fraser Group just completely gutting the brand down the line.
Re: Poll: So, Will You Be Getting Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown?
I picked up the digital deluxe and don't regret it, I think it might actually be a better Metroidvania than Metroid Dread was, and I loved that game.
It's a shame that an Ubisoft executive said something so phenomenally stupid that people are (rightfully) put off, because a Switch game that runs at 1080p 60 and looks and plays THIS GOOD deserves people's attention and time.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Donkey Konga
Gotta be Europe then Japan in that order for me. I'm all for understated simplicity.
The American box art feels like an advertisement, which probably helps in the store, but when I've already paid money for the game it just feels like I've bought a commercial for the product I already paid for.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel - Kirby's Adventure
The JP boxart features Kirby With A Gun, so it's clear who the real winner is here.
Re: Poll: Rate Your Favourite Switch Games Of The Year 2022
Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Collection were my go-to games this year, I know Klonoa's technically old games and all, but it's such a fantastic remaster.
Re: BioWare Had Plans For A First-Person Mass Effect Game On Nintendo DS
It’s still kinda baffling to me that Switch didn’t get the recent Mass Effect trilogy. But I felt that way about the Burnout Paradise remaster and that did, eventually, make its way over so who even knows at this point. EA clearly aren’t in any rush to give Switch players day-and-date versions of their games.
Re: Random: Shulk's Voice Actor Stars In The Latest Mario Golf TV Ad, And It's A Must-See
I’ve seen this a few times and I knew that the voice was familiar for some reason. Glad Adam is still getting work for Nintendo in some capacity!
Re: Random: Pokémon Fans Are Loving Bump Of Chicken's Nostalgic New Music Video
I’m wondering when this song will be up for sale on iTunes or elsewhere. Bump of Chicken’s stuff has been sold on digital stores for a short while now, so it would be nice to get this.
Re: Takeshi And Hiroshi Has Been Temporarily Removed From The Switch eShop In Europe
Because it's not specified by anybody - I imagine it's a similar issue to what happened with To The Moon earlier this year - the PEGI rating was found to be incorrect or inaccurate by PEGI and the game has to be pulled while they re-rate it.
It doesn't take too long, I think To the Moon was back up within a week.
Re: The 30 Most-Downloaded Switch Games During The First Half Of 2020 (Japan)
Not at all surprised by the Level-5 titles being so high on the packaged list - all of the titles present have been 1000 yen on sale multiple times this year. At that price, even I felt the need to double-dip on a few of them.
Re: Random: Could This Be The Most Pointless Switch Accessory Yet?
It’s probably worth it if you carry your entire Switch setup, system and dock, around a lot, like between multiple houses or whatever, but at that point you’re probably better off buying a second Dock Set secondhand.
Re: Random: This Fake Switch Costs $80, But Don't Expect It To Play Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Definitely not the first of these sorts of inexpensive SoC emulator devices to “borrow” the aesthetics of the Switch, and certainly not the last. That said, I think this one has one of the better SoCs you’ll find in the sub-$100 range for these sorts of devices.
Re: M2 Is Making A Stupidly Expensive Shooter More Affordable On Home Consoles
M2 and Hamster are making the Switch the single best retro handheld possible, and that’s always good.
Re: Hideki Kamiya Explains PlatinumGames' Disappointing April Fools' Joke
I saw the funny side, but now I want Hideki Kamiya to go all in on a crazy scrolling shooter once his upcoming game is wrapped, it’s clear from this trailer and his twitter that he has a lot of love for that style of game, and it would be a nice way to round off all of the obvious Shmup-inspired segments in his previous directorial outings.
Re: Review: Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold - Endearing RPG Action With Bags Of Character
Given everything Level-5 has shown on the game’s official Twitter, I’m kinda surprised that The Snack World managed to keep its PEGI 7 rating in Europe. Not that I’m complaining, if this gets it out to a wider audience perhaps people will see I’m not crazy for shilling a 4 year old 3DS title for this long.
Re: FutureGrind Dev Slashes Switch eShop Price After Disappointing Sales
I do feel bad for a team like this that put out a game that clearly has a lot of care put into it, even with its lower budget, and then just... fails to find any real audience even with decent review scores under their belt. I guess this is just the nature of a market where a couple of dozen games launch across all platforms on any given week.
Re: Doug Bowser Says More Female Consumers Are Buying The Switch Lite
@ALinkttPresent pretty sure that Nintendo have always been closer to a 50/50 male:female demographic, at least in the handheld space, and definitely higher than the 70/30 and 80/20 that Sony and MS analytics point to in the home console space.
If anything, this is a good thing for everybody because, well, a more diverse user base ultimately leads to a more diverse selection of games, and we’re seeing that with titles like Ring Fit Adventure getting equal promotion and prominence to stuff like Luigi’s Mansion and Pokémon.
Re: Get Your Thinking Caps On For Brain Training, Coming To Switch In January
@sanderev part of me was tempted to say that at least the €100 you’ve gotta pay is a one time deal, but honestly, it’s also the price difference between a Lite and a “proper” switch, so if things like the IR Camera and Single Joycon games are deal breakers for you, at least you’re forewarned.
Still, given the Lite is very much a “for kids” model, I doubt there’s much overlap between their target demographics.
Re: Random: Don't Worry, Nintendo Switch's 'X' Button Is Still Called 'X'
Oh good, I was worried I’d have to start calling them the “A, B, Cross, Y” buttons!
Re: Nintendo "Looking" At Game Streaming But Is Focused On "Seamless" Play Experiences For Now
As others have stated- this is by no means a commitment to streaming tech.
Nintendo have been down with adopting things like mobile gaming, Gacha business models and subscription services, but always on their own terms with their own twists. I'm sure Nintendo acknowledges that unless you push for lag-free gameplay, a technological impossibility, or at least improbability, the user experience in streamed products is inherently lesser than packaged/digital products, and unless that changes, they won't be pushing for it as eagerly as, say, Sony or Google seems to be.
Re: SanDisk's 1TB Micro SD Card Is Perfect For Your Switch, And It's Finally Available To Buy
Consumer 1TBs took less time to show up than I expected. Still, that price. I reckon Black Friday will see some decent discounts on that, at least.
Re: Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Fighters Won't Receive Custom Palutena's Guidance Sequences
I mean, it's a bit upsetting that this isn't the case, but I absolutely get it. The game has something like 12 different voiced languages, it's a lot of effort and coordination to get 24 actors (assuming just Pit and Palutena return) all over the world to be available and ready to do a few lines of voiceover for a taunt not a lot of people are going to see.
Perhaps Sakurai could reconsider if the game receives Long term support beyond the fighter pass, but I'm not holding my breath or holding him to that.
Re: Deals: School's Out, Time For A New Nintendo 2DS XL Bargain Bundle
@TurboTEF I mean, you can pick from some really good titles like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Bravely Second, so I do have to wonder why they're using those three as an example of what's on offer, even as somebody who likes Tri-Force Heroes.
Re: Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Rated By The Australian Classification Board
I feel like this is going to be the 3DS's third party sendoff, and after a few ports/remakes/compilations from Nintendo, that'll well and truly be it for the 3DS. Sad times, but it had a good eight year run.
Re: These Officially-Licensed Micro SD Cards Are A Snazzy Solution To Your Switch Storage Woes
@Ttimer5 the theoretical maximum of the Micro SDXC standard is 2TB. We're only just getting to the point where a 512GB card is a consumer product, and 1TB is being prototyped by flash memory companies as we speak. I reckon it'll be at least 2022 before 2TB is even a thing you can buy. At least.
Re: Nintendo Reveals That Fortnite Was The Most-Played Switch Game Of 2018 In Europe
Kind of impressed by the sheer number of 2017 titles still lingering in this list, though I suppose it makes sense given that Nintendo's business model relies heavily on those sorts of "evergreen" titles that never truly fall out of popularity.
@Stocksy The next two games on the list are single-player only titles, and overall, about half of the games on the list have a heavy single-player focus, with a good number of those being SP-only titles like Skyrim, Xenoblade and Octopath. There's nothing to worry about. Single player games aren't going anywhere.
Re: Nintendo Uploads Consumer Service Video Explaining How To Prepare Your Switch For Trade-In Or Sale
@Yosher since you got me all worried, I just thought I'd check - if you do a system-to-system transfer, your save data for games that cannot Cloud Save is transferred across, so that's always an option if you really want to make sure your Pokémon and Splatoon progress stays with you forever.
Re: Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet Is Splashing Onto The Switch Early Next Year
Since I have my reasons to doubt this will get a proper EU/US release (Koei are convinced it wouldn't sell all that well); I have to wonder- will importers be able to play this with the English text present in the Asian release of its PS4 and Vita counterparts?
If that's a yes, then I hope that the people awaiting this game with bated breath (fnerr fnerr) enjoy the region-free nature of the Switch and the ease of setting up a Japanese account.
Re: Feature: Inside The Twisted And Abusive Culture Of Yasha Haddaji's Nintendo Russia
@Giygas_95 As far as I'm aware, NoE's been very hands-off with how Yasha handles Russia, so I'd assume that means they've been unable to directly intervene in the whole situation, especially if rank-and-file employees don't have a direct line to NoE and have to go through the higher-ups.
Re: PQube Drops PS Vita Support To Focus On Switch Development
I'm glad they're at least outright willing to say it. It's kind of sad looking at things like the PS Vita subreddit where people will cling on to the few games still slowly trickling out for the thing and claim rumours of the system's death are greatly exaggerated.
Re: Atomic Robo-Kid, Forgotten Hero Of The '80s, Is Coming To Switch This Week
@Moroboshi876 I keep forgetting we're getting both Puzzle Bobbles on Switch and every time somebody reminds me I feel like a kid again.
Re: Atomic Robo-Kid, Forgotten Hero Of The '80s, Is Coming To Switch This Week
Haven't HAMSTER been really good at near day-and-date worldwide releases for ACA titles, or is that just the memory banks acting up again?
Re: Nintendo Was "Extremely Supportive" Of Nippon Ichi During Switch Development Of Disgaea 5
I'm currently making slow progress through Labyrinth of Refrain, a title of NIS's that originally launched on Vita and got ported to Switch. I honestly think NIS titles serve a market and a niche Nintendo themselves probably couldn't, and if this cooperation between the two companies leads to a long-term support of the Switch by the company, not to mention some new, original software for it, then it's absolutely a good thing for everybody involved.
I'm glad we got this version of Refrain in the west because, frankly, while I'd have played and loved it just the same on my Vita, there's really something to be said for the convenience of just docking the console when my eyes hurt and I need a larger screen - doing that with the Vita required a whole other piece of hardware and a painful "move the memory card and the game to the Vita TV and hope nothing breaks" process that took multiple minutes at the best of times.
Re: Video: New Nintendo Switch Trailer Celebrates The Console's 1,000+ Games
Rather than make a "lol but 980 of them suck" joke, I have an actual valid question - how many of the 1,000 games the Switch has are ACA titles or similar ports/emulations of retro titles?
I'm not asking this as a "gotcha, they don't count" question, more out of curiosity, because to me, the switch represents possibly the single best retro arcade machine money can buy, due to the sheer amount and quality of retro stuff on offer there.
Re: AtGames Disappoints Again With The Bandai Namco Flashback Blast
To my understanding, ATGames are causing a lot of bridges to be burned now - they no longer have the Intellivision license, killing one of the pillars of their "flashback" line, and I reckon the SEGA license they have will go away next. I can guarantee that Bandai Namco doesn't want to be involved with knowingly deceiving their customers into buying an inferior product, for that matter, so perhaps they'll beat SEGA at the whole "total revocation of licenses" thing.
All in all, there's only one lesson to be learned from AtGames - if your business relies on licenses to remain afloat, do not do things that jeopardise your future ability to work with licensors.
@SuperGhirahim64 To be fair, their Atari and Intellivision flashbacks -were- decent little emulation consoles. Heck, at one point, the Atari flashback was a true SoC clone - no emulation, and you could even solder an old Atari 2600 cartridge port to it to play your original carts!
But, honestly, pretty much everything else they've licensed is garbage. 100% total garbage.
Re: UK Gaming Magazines GamesMaster and GamesTM Set To Close Next Month
@Tigrinus1975 I doubt it. It seems to be the one acquired brand Future has any interest in keeping, probably because it serves a niche the PlayStation and Xbox magazines can't.
@Dogorilla I'll have to look this up, since it seems like the kind of thing I'd be interested in reading, especially if it has a similar sort of style to mags like NGamer.
@Pj1 oh yeah, I sub to Retro Gamer, and I love the sheer variety of stuff they cover, but it's not quite the same as a normal gaming magazine, where the previews and reviews are the draw, since it instead focuses primarily on long-form features. That said, they do seem to have more of a Nintendo focus of late due to the sheer number of retro and arcade compilations the Switch is getting, so we'll see.
Re: UK Gaming Magazines GamesMaster and GamesTM Set To Close Next Month
This leaves Edge as the only magazine covering Nintendo systems and games in the UK.
... If I want a sleeping aid, maybe I'll consider it.
Re: Kunio-kun: The World Classic Collection Adds Double Dragon Trilogy
@bimmy-lee I don't think it's been confirmed for international release yet, but Natsume USA has been doing very well with the series on 3DS and PC, so... maybe we'll get it?
I dunno, the sheer number of never-localised games on the collection probably makes this a fairly intense undertaking for localisation -unless- you just forego the translation and hope the fanbase is willing to buy it largely unaltered.
Re: Opinion: What Did You Think Of Today's Nintendo Direct?
Honestly, for a September Direct, that's what was needed. A lot of quickfire announcements sure to please pretty much everybody. For every "I couldn't care less" level announcement they made, there was an announcement that was big deal to me like World of Final Fantasy Maxima, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon remake or Yo-Kai Watch Busters getting the update (I bet people forgot about that!).
Oh, and just casually dropping Isabelle and a new Animal Crossing title at the very end was devious. I love it.
Re: Switch Piracy Tool Could Brick Your System Because It Contains (Wait For It) A Piracy Countermeasure
So, uh, the creators of the tool used to infringe on intellectual property felt the need to protect their own intellectual property from being infringed? okaaaaaaaaay then?
Re: Super Neptunia RPG Brings Side-Scrolling Dungeons And Turn-Based Battles To Switch
Speaking as a long-time fan of the Neptunia games, it's great to see one that doesn't re-use assets from previous games super liberally.
I'm pretty sure they haven't changed the Dogoo (slime) model at all since 2010.
Re: Inti Creates Announces New Bloodstained And Gunvolt Titles For Switch At BitSummit
Inti are probably my favourite developer at the moment. They have an absurdly consistent track record for making quality side-scrollers, retro reboots and... on-rails shooters with cheesecake-tier fanservice (for real, though, GalGun's alright).
Copen and his 8-way dashing could carry the Gunvolt series long-term, but I hope GV proper doesn't get booted out of his own series in favour of him; because there's something super satisfying about the way GV as a character plays.
Re: Random: Nintendo Fixed One Man's Out Of Warranty, First-Gen 3DS For Next To Nothing
Nintendo actually doing the best possible thing and replacing the buttons and Circle Pad seemingly free of charge is just excellent. I mean, it makes sense, mainboard replacements require you to poke about in there anyway, so why not gain a little goodwill for the price of some plastic?
Re: Detective Pikachu Is Off The Case As It Debuts At Number 23 In The UK Charts
Reports that Detective Pikachu refuses to give up his badge and gun are as of yet unconfirmed; so he is considered both armed and extremely dangerous.
To be serious for a moment, I'm not at all surprised two fairly niche games (A graphic adventure and anime tie-in Musou) failed to set the world on fire. I have and am really enjoying both games, but I don't think it's unfair to say they're not everybody's cup of tea, and I'm sure Nintendo and Koei Tecmo are taking that into account.
Re: Switch's Second Year Will Be "Crucial" Says Nintendo President
I think it's fair to be realistic and say that it's unlikely that the Switch will surpass sales of the Wii; unless it has a title that hits the mainstream in the same way Wii Sports or Wii Fit did - a sudden phenomenon that makes sure even people who never play video games (a shrinking demographic due to the ubiquity of phone/tablet games) are convinced.
Honestly, as long as Nintendo keeps first-party momentum as brisk as it has been - a title or two every month, with smaller remakes or first-party published ports of third-party games like TWEWY and DQ Builders filling gaps in the schedule; they're golden. The thing's selling so well there's shortages of the plastic used to manufacture game cartridges - a thing that's been unheard of since the Famicom days.
@Kalmaro Whenever Pokémon hits the Switch - be that this year or next year, Nintendo will finally talk about discontinuation of the 3DS. I mean, momentum of first-party releases in general will likely dry up after the launch of Detective Pikachu, and outside of maybe Atlus, third party support will likely slow to a crawl this year, too.
Re: ESA Attacks World Health Organisation's Decision To Classify Gaming Addiction As A Mental Disorder
I feel like people need a reminder of the ESA's past behaviours- this is a body that has defended the use of lootboxes and similar methods of exploiting addictive personalities for YEARS now. Indeed, they are a pressure group that exists entirely to justify the awful business models of companies like EA and Activision/Blizzard. There should be absolutely no doubt that they are going to downplay addiction as being a problem in the same fiscal year where people are openly talking about how addictive freemium business models can make spending money, and major backlashes are happening over such models in paid for products.
The WHO isn't here to take video games away, or to label all consumers of games as addicts, but the ESA certainly are here to justify the practices that turn consumers into addicts.
Re: Nintendo Download: 23rd November (Europe)
At a cool £8.74 a piece, SMT and 7th Dragon provide two of the best 3DS RPG experiences for your money. If you have even the faintest level of interest in the genre, pick these two up!
Re: Wii U's Failure Is Responsible For Switch's Success, Says Reggie
@QwertyQwerty Couldn't possibly agree more. The second-screen and all associated concepts were, in my opinion, at their best when they provided the option to complement an otherwise functionally complete game. You didn't -need- to use the second screen for quick menu and map functions in Zelda Wind Waker and Twilight Princess; but the option and the convenience found in said option were welcome upgrades to excellent games. Given how sparingly Nintendo have used the touch screen, motion controls and other associated hardware in Switch games, they've clearly worked that out; and I think we'll see fewer titles that take the other approach to utilising more "gimmicky" functions of the Switch's hardware.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Analysis Points To Switch Sonic Forces Being The Worst Version
I picked up the Switch version and got to play a little bit of it before heading to work, and frankly, I don't see myself majorly regretting missing out on the PS4 release - the game seems fairly short, an issue it shares with Generations, and I reckon it'll go on discount fairly quickly.
Re: Random: Don't Forget This Week's Musical Retail Arrival on Wii
I think at this point, provided yearly Just Dance and Karaoke continues to hit the Wii every October/November, the Wii may very well continue to get retail games for longer than the PS1 or PS2 did. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me, these continue to do very well with the audience they're made for, and I'm sure the publishers and music licensors are making a healthy profit.