This isn't the first trivial, definitively not-news, trend NintendoLife has picked up on to spam articles for clicks. I've humored it because most of the old-guard Nintendo sites aren't what they used to be anymore, if they are even still around, but I don't care to scroll through noise for news anymore.
@LaytonPuzzle27 Thank heavens for that! Still, having that done as DLC is the same nonsense as was done with the Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology on 3DS: Update game with dogshit new artstyle, charge extra for game to not make player want to stab his own eyes out... (At least this one is free at first.)
@Sakura7 Never have been able to get into Baten Kaitos, but would still be cool to see. Trails in the Sky trilogy would definitely be cool too, and it's literally impossible to show enough love to the Shining Series.
Thinking about it some more, also want some Wild Arms, Xenosaga, Dark Cloud, and collections of Shin Megami Tensei and Growlanser for some official localizations of games in those series.
While at it, Mega Man Legends 1 & 2, too. Maybe even find a way to get Landstalker and a localized Lady Stalker together in a release? Basically, just compile all series on carts on Switch; that's what I seem to want!
I'm really digging this trend, plus the general return to form for the "JRPG" genre as a whole in recent years.
As for other blasts from the past I'd like to see:
Capcom: Breath of Fire collection. Falcom: Ys Collection. Konami: Let's see that Suikoden 1 & 2 for PSP that was never localized given the Switch treatment. Sega: Skies of Arcadia! SquareEnix: Star Ocean 1 & 2 remakes for PSP, and do something with the Ogre series!
The article thumbnail finally clicked for me! The similar, and unpleasant, sense of deja vu this thing's art style has evoked in me all this time is because it reminds me of Antz...
A fair warning to everyone, the 3.0 in the name isn't just for kicks. The guy that makes this has released some earlier versions that wound up frying some peoples' Gamecubes. This one may be perfectly fine, but I'll be waiting for the GCVideo X by BadAss Consoles, instead.
Link is about as pure an expression of the classic masculine, archetypal hero figure as can be, so it would be a huge disservice and subversion to shoehorn a female version of Link into the games.
Understand that the subversion works both ways:
1) If Link is simply "gender swapped" with a female model, with no other changes to narrative or personality, all you have is a superficial facade, confusing the themes and presenting a "female" avatar without any qualities allowing the player to interact with a story from a genuine, feminine perspective.
2) If a female Link IS given the full treatment, then the structure of the Zelda series would have to be modified sufficiently to be unrecognizable, because masculine and feminine archetypes are very different. This also denies women the chance to explore their masculine side by acting out the masculine, archetypal drama through playing Zelda games as they currently exist. (Which many of them clearly do, because there are A LOT of female Zelda fans out there.)
Also, if Kadokawa is interested in porting enhanced games to Switch, how about some Natural Doctrine love while they're at it? (Very flawed game that I nonetheless really enjoyed.)
Guess I'll hold off playing it until the Switch version because those are some very nice enhancements. (Especially being able to use more characters in battle!) Just hope they add subtitles to the cutscenes, too. English dub is hard to listen too, but selecting Japanese audio isn't super useful when you don't get the story from the cutscenes!
@roboshort I never understood how this was the case. It's true, most of the narrative about Ultra Smash when it came out was that it still played well but just didn't have enough content. As my other comments on this page attest to, I strongly disagreed with that assessment, and for the life of me could never understand how people felt it still played fine. Maybe it's because of how long it had been since Power Tennis? Perhaps people simply forgot how past Mario Tennis games truly played, or maybe there were simply a new generation of gamers that hadn't even played them before?
@JimmySpades I agree that Ultra Smash was rushed out and that was perhaps the major reason for its lack of content. However, its lack of content was the least of my issues with the game.
I bought the game knowing it was bare bones, having decided that was an acceptable con for the pro of finally having some new Mario Tennis to play on my TV. Where my limited expectations still managed to plummet to rock bottom was in the actual, core gameplay of the title. Not even a lack of polish or refinement, but fundamental changes to character movement, ball control, and basic shot mechanics. For instance, lobs were crazy easy to get to, regardless of position, and drop shots were shockingly useless, as they all automatically sailed to mid court instead of being able to place them just over the net.
As far as I can tell, chance shots were to blame for the above. What are chance shots? They are, essentially, powered up smashes, lobs, and drop shots. What purpose do they seem to serve? To allow you to deliver a score-able shot. Turn them off, and you're left with the watered down remains of a tennis system that revolves around chance shots for any kind of offense in the game.
That is my concern for Aces. Not content, but will the pure, technical, gimmick free tennis mechanics of the past titles make a return or not.
@thesilverbrick Don't get me wrong, I still believe in them! You can't make those good of Mario sports games, the Golden Sun series, and mother-effing SHINING FORCE by accident. Come on Camelot, you're better than this!
Nintendo, Camelot, please do right by this game. Mario Tennis 64 and Power Tennis are some of my favorite games of all time, and the story mode from Power Tour that you've invoked in the description of this game is also a hell of a target to live up to. Hell, I even loved Mario Tennis on the Virtual Boy! (Though it's not technically part of Camelot's series.)
But Ultra Smash was a travesty... like, seriously, one of the most disappointing games I've ever played! Hell, it was a worse follow up than even Warrior Within to Sands of Time! (I skipped Mario Tennis Open) And no, not just because of the lack of content, which was shameful in its own right. The core mechanics were seriously wrong in that game! Chance shots are a horrible mechanic, and while you can turn them off, Ultra Smash's core mechanics were influenced by them in such ways as to seriously break the pure, refined arcade tennis gameplay of its forebears.
@NIN10DOXD I clarified my trendy comment in another comment, so feel free to search for that if you're interested. As for your educated remark... well, let's be honest, there isn't anything real there to reply to.
@MisterKorman Forgive me for a rushed reply, as I'm eager to get to bed, but I don't wish to leave you unaddressed.
I'd disagree that the connection is a stretch, as trans-sexual and trans-gender seem neatly wound up in each other as concepts, at least in the modern context in which they are commonly discussed.
I do see how my initial comment seems a bit snide, and I probably intended it that way to an extent, though again, I don't believe that makes it irrelevent to the story.
Okay, so the "trendiness" of the "movement": My characterization of it as such isn't meant as a dismissal of gender dysphoria, itself, in any way. I'm perfectly content with the idea of the condition and those that suffer it. Where the "trendy" part comes in is the trend of non-gender dysphoric students going into universities and then suddenly finding themselves identifying as "whatever". I find that to be a disingenuous trend, and one which shouldn't be accepted and affirmed so readily without addressing the proclivities of young, highly open-minded, identity "eager" kids.
What makes me sad is the painfully ironic "you do you" attitude that leaves people to drown in their own pathologies for the sake of their "happiness", as though any of us really know what genuine happiness is, much less can be expected to manifest it for ourselves.
@noobish_hat Wow, kinda feels like you're bringing a lot of extra baggage with you, there.
Sargon is... okay. He's good to keep a pulse on to know where some of current news of this nature is happening, but his style and arrogance can be a bit off-putting.
For what's happening specifically in universities, best to stick with the actual professors: Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt, Bret Weinstein, Camille Pagila, Gaad Sad, to name a few of the more prominent names that have spoken in opposition to the growing trends in education.
As a bonus, I also recently found quillette.com, an online "magazine" which has impressed me with it's high quality articles that touch on these subjects, among others, but admittedly I've only read about three of them so far.
This is getting increasingly off topic, though, so I'll leave it at that.
@MisterKorman Long, long, loooooong story short: A lot of the current, "trendy", trans-gender/trans-sexual movement is generated from the humanities in schools these days, especially the likes of gender and women's studies. Same with the socialist/communist movement shared by largely the same crowd.
I get it's kind of funny and news is slow, but with this sort of nonsense being as rampant as it is in colleges and universities now days, this is just too sad to be funny anymore.
The whole appeal of getting a Fire Emblem Warriors was the characters, so for them to focus on Awakening (very disappointing) and Fates (trash... just trash) is just so, so, so, BORING! (I am looking forward to playing Echoes, though, just the wife called dibs on our copy this time.)
Maybe if they really invest in a solid base for the game's systems and architecture, they can make it almost a service across the life of the Switch with constant, really robust, DLC packs from all the prior Fire Emblem titles. I'd pick it up then, but with the current focus, I'll have to pass...
Comments 21
Re: Bowsette Now Has Her Own Online Petition And A Fan Gathering Taking Place In Japan
This isn't the first trivial, definitively not-news, trend NintendoLife has picked up on to spam articles for clicks. I've humored it because most of the old-guard Nintendo sites aren't what they used to be anymore, if they are even still around, but I don't care to scroll through noise for news anymore.
Re: Video: Watch The Debut Trailer For The Remakes Of Langrisser I & II
@LaytonPuzzle27 Thank heavens for that! Still, having that done as DLC is the same nonsense as was done with the Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology on 3DS: Update game with dogshit new artstyle, charge extra for game to not make player want to stab his own eyes out... (At least this one is free at first.)
Re: Remakes Of Langrisser I And II Are Switch-Bound
@Sakura7 Never have been able to get into Baten Kaitos, but would still be cool to see. Trails in the Sky trilogy would definitely be cool too, and it's literally impossible to show enough love to the Shining Series.
Thinking about it some more, also want some Wild Arms, Xenosaga, Dark Cloud, and collections of Shin Megami Tensei and Growlanser for some official localizations of games in those series.
While at it, Mega Man Legends 1 & 2, too. Maybe even find a way to get Landstalker and a localized Lady Stalker together in a release? Basically, just compile all series on carts on Switch; that's what I seem to want!
Re: Remakes Of Langrisser I And II Are Switch-Bound
I'm really digging this trend, plus the general return to form for the "JRPG" genre as a whole in recent years.
As for other blasts from the past I'd like to see:
Capcom: Breath of Fire collection.
Falcom: Ys Collection.
Konami: Let's see that Suikoden 1 & 2 for PSP that was never localized given the Switch treatment.
Sega: Skies of Arcadia!
SquareEnix: Star Ocean 1 & 2 remakes for PSP, and do something with the Ogre series!
Re: Video: Here's A Look At The Mega Man: Fully Charged Animated Series
The article thumbnail finally clicked for me! The similar, and unpleasant, sense of deja vu this thing's art style has evoked in me all this time is because it reminds me of Antz...
ANTZ!
Re: Hardware Review: GameCube HDMI Adapter - GC Video Plug 'n Play 3.0
A fair warning to everyone, the 3.0 in the name isn't just for kicks. The guy that makes this has released some earlier versions that wound up frying some peoples' Gamecubes. This one may be perfectly fine, but I'll be waiting for the GCVideo X by BadAss Consoles, instead.
Re: This Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Linkle Mod Isn't Official, But It Really Should Be
Link is about as pure an expression of the classic masculine, archetypal hero figure as can be, so it would be a huge disservice and subversion to shoehorn a female version of Link into the games.
1) If Link is simply "gender swapped" with a female model, with no other changes to narrative or personality, all you have is a superficial facade, confusing the themes and presenting a "female" avatar without any qualities allowing the player to interact with a story from a genuine, feminine perspective.
2) If a female Link IS given the full treatment, then the structure of the Zelda series would have to be modified sufficiently to be unrecognizable, because masculine and feminine archetypes are very different. This also denies women the chance to explore their masculine side by acting out the masculine, archetypal drama through playing Zelda games as they currently exist. (Which many of them clearly do, because there are A LOT of female Zelda fans out there.)
Re: God Wars: Great War Of Japanese Mythology Brings Eastern Legends To Switch
Also, if Kadokawa is interested in porting enhanced games to Switch, how about some Natural Doctrine love while they're at it? (Very flawed game that I nonetheless really enjoyed.)
Re: God Wars: Great War Of Japanese Mythology Brings Eastern Legends To Switch
Really! REALLLY!! I JUST bought this for PS4!
Guess I'll hold off playing it until the Switch version because those are some very nice enhancements. (Especially being able to use more characters in battle!) Just hope they add subtitles to the cutscenes, too. English dub is hard to listen too, but selecting Japanese audio isn't super useful when you don't get the story from the cutscenes!
Re: Mario Tennis Aces Brings A GBA-Style Story Mode To Switch
@roboshort I never understood how this was the case. It's true, most of the narrative about Ultra Smash when it came out was that it still played well but just didn't have enough content. As my other comments on this page attest to, I strongly disagreed with that assessment, and for the life of me could never understand how people felt it still played fine. Maybe it's because of how long it had been since Power Tennis? Perhaps people simply forgot how past Mario Tennis games truly played, or maybe there were simply a new generation of gamers that hadn't even played them before?
Re: Mario Tennis Aces Brings A GBA-Style Story Mode To Switch
@JimmySpades I agree that Ultra Smash was rushed out and that was perhaps the major reason for its lack of content. However, its lack of content was the least of my issues with the game.
I bought the game knowing it was bare bones, having decided that was an acceptable con for the pro of finally having some new Mario Tennis to play on my TV. Where my limited expectations still managed to plummet to rock bottom was in the actual, core gameplay of the title. Not even a lack of polish or refinement, but fundamental changes to character movement, ball control, and basic shot mechanics. For instance, lobs were crazy easy to get to, regardless of position, and drop shots were shockingly useless, as they all automatically sailed to mid court instead of being able to place them just over the net.
As far as I can tell, chance shots were to blame for the above. What are chance shots? They are, essentially, powered up smashes, lobs, and drop shots. What purpose do they seem to serve? To allow you to deliver a score-able shot. Turn them off, and you're left with the watered down remains of a tennis system that revolves around chance shots for any kind of offense in the game.
That is my concern for Aces. Not content, but will the pure, technical, gimmick free tennis mechanics of the past titles make a return or not.
Re: Mario Tennis Aces Brings A GBA-Style Story Mode To Switch
@thesilverbrick Don't get me wrong, I still believe in them! You can't make those good of Mario sports games, the Golden Sun series, and mother-effing SHINING FORCE by accident. Come on Camelot, you're better than this!
Re: Mario Tennis Aces Brings A GBA-Style Story Mode To Switch
@thesilverbrick Ultra Smash was developed by Camelot, too...
Re: Mario Tennis Aces Brings A GBA-Style Story Mode To Switch
Nintendo, Camelot, please do right by this game. Mario Tennis 64 and Power Tennis are some of my favorite games of all time, and the story mode from Power Tour that you've invoked in the description of this game is also a hell of a target to live up to. Hell, I even loved Mario Tennis on the Virtual Boy! (Though it's not technically part of Camelot's series.)
But Ultra Smash was a travesty... like, seriously, one of the most disappointing games I've ever played! Hell, it was a worse follow up than even Warrior Within to Sands of Time! (I skipped Mario Tennis Open) And no, not just because of the lack of content, which was shameful in its own right. The core mechanics were seriously wrong in that game! Chance shots are a horrible mechanic, and while you can turn them off, Ultra Smash's core mechanics were influenced by them in such ways as to seriously break the pure, refined arcade tennis gameplay of its forebears.
Redeem this series, please!
Re: Random: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
@NIN10DOXD I clarified my trendy comment in another comment, so feel free to search for that if you're interested. As for your educated remark... well, let's be honest, there isn't anything real there to reply to.
Re: Random: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
@MisterKorman I appreciate your humility, though there was no offense on my part for which you need be concerned.
Your perspective prompted me to reflect further on the topic and come to new articulations of my thoughts, so thank you for engaging with me.
Re: Random: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
@MisterKorman Forgive me for a rushed reply, as I'm eager to get to bed, but I don't wish to leave you unaddressed.
I'd disagree that the connection is a stretch, as trans-sexual and trans-gender seem neatly wound up in each other as concepts, at least in the modern context in which they are commonly discussed.
I do see how my initial comment seems a bit snide, and I probably intended it that way to an extent, though again, I don't believe that makes it irrelevent to the story.
Okay, so the "trendiness" of the "movement": My characterization of it as such isn't meant as a dismissal of gender dysphoria, itself, in any way. I'm perfectly content with the idea of the condition and those that suffer it. Where the "trendy" part comes in is the trend of non-gender dysphoric students going into universities and then suddenly finding themselves identifying as "whatever". I find that to be a disingenuous trend, and one which shouldn't be accepted and affirmed so readily without addressing the proclivities of young, highly open-minded, identity "eager" kids.
What makes me sad is the painfully ironic "you do you" attitude that leaves people to drown in their own pathologies for the sake of their "happiness", as though any of us really know what genuine happiness is, much less can be expected to manifest it for ourselves.
Re: Random: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
@noobish_hat Wow, kinda feels like you're bringing a lot of extra baggage with you, there.
Sargon is... okay. He's good to keep a pulse on to know where some of current news of this nature is happening, but his style and arrogance can be a bit off-putting.
For what's happening specifically in universities, best to stick with the actual professors: Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt, Bret Weinstein, Camille Pagila, Gaad Sad, to name a few of the more prominent names that have spoken in opposition to the growing trends in education.
As a bonus, I also recently found quillette.com, an online "magazine" which has impressed me with it's high quality articles that touch on these subjects, among others, but admittedly I've only read about three of them so far.
This is getting increasingly off topic, though, so I'll leave it at that.
Re: Random: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
@MisterKorman Long, long, loooooong story short: A lot of the current, "trendy", trans-gender/trans-sexual movement is generated from the humanities in schools these days, especially the likes of gender and women's studies. Same with the socialist/communist movement shared by largely the same crowd.
Re: This Woman Loves Tetris So Much She's Going To Marry Her Copy
I get it's kind of funny and news is slow, but with this sort of nonsense being as rampant as it is in colleges and universities now days, this is just too sad to be funny anymore.
Re: Feature: We Quiz the Fire Emblem Warriors Developers On Characters, Game Design and More
The whole appeal of getting a Fire Emblem Warriors was the characters, so for them to focus on Awakening (very disappointing) and Fates (trash... just trash) is just so, so, so, BORING! (I am looking forward to playing Echoes, though, just the wife called dibs on our copy this time.)
Maybe if they really invest in a solid base for the game's systems and architecture, they can make it almost a service across the life of the Switch with constant, really robust, DLC packs from all the prior Fire Emblem titles. I'd pick it up then, but with the current focus, I'll have to pass...