Messages

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: May 05, 2024, 04:30:44 AM »

Day 627. There is little water, no food and definitely no nintendo directs.

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TalkBack / Re: Indie World Presentation To Air April 17

« on: April 19, 2024, 11:12:10 AM »

Care to elaborate? Were you expecting something like Silksong or just didn't like what was shown?

I was hoping for pizza tower on the switch. I was prepared to rebuy it to support tour de pizza. Plus pizza tower is one of the best games ever made.

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TalkBack / Re: Indie World Presentation To Air April 17

« on: April 18, 2024, 10:41:21 AM »

 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 18, 2024, 10:35:20 AM »

I think we’ve come to an impasse where your definition of piracy and emulation are dissimilar to my own. I see emulation as an act of preservation, while piracy is an act of theft. The thing is already preserved, you are stealing it because you don’t want to access its method of preservation.

Where this becomes morally gray- which, despite the tendency to shout “**** nuance,” is a thing that does exist- is how that preservation is taking place. I suppose it has something to do with ownership, as well. I know disclaimers on software exist, and that they state that illegal copying and redistribution of a product can land you in legal trouble. The law of man is a self-fabricated one, however, and I think it would be better to have a discussion about what constitutes illegal redistribution, because no, I don’t think an individual distributing game that is no longer accessible on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for the purposes of emulation is piracy because you can no longer reasonably purchase that software, but yes, an individual distributing Tears of the Kingdom a week after it was released for the purposes of emulation is piracy.

If you have some counter to this mentality, I’d genuinely be curious about your reasoning, because I’m open to a discussion and I am not going to insult you for disagreeing with my interpretation.

I guess my views are (for AAA piracy) pirating and emulating old games you cannot buy (subscriptions don't count, because I cannot own my purchases, they will be taken away as soon as I stop paying) is morally ok. Pirating current gen AAA games (or old games made accessible for a fair price aka not full price for a port and not a remake) is not morally clear, but I'm unsympathetic to nintendo and big companies generally.

The World Economic Forum wants us all to "own nothing, rent everything, no privacy, eat bugs, live in pods". Combine this with ai and robots probably replacing almost all human jobs in the next few decades, and I don't have a lot of sympathy left for big companies.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 18, 2024, 10:30:46 AM »

I don't think it's "morally right" to pirate brand new games that are in no danger at the moment of becoming unavailable or inaccessible. I'm absolutely onboard with preserving games from previous generations however you can, but to me the line stops there.

I think for indie devs, it's morally wrong to pirate, but AAA devs it's usually ok. Nintendo's developers may be the best in gaming, but Nintendo the company are assholes a lot of the time. Despite my views, I buy AAA games instead of pirating because I want to support them. But I know that if the company can get away with screwing me as a customer, they will do that. Nintendo is not my friend.

Basically I'll support the games and buy them, but I will always keep my options open. You never know when online games will get delisted.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 18, 2024, 10:28:28 AM »

The **** happened here?

People were bored talking about Nintendo. It's on-topic. 

We (really just I) have no games to play so I'm blasting off in the forums.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 17, 2024, 08:23:56 AM »

You and your boyfriends first made the claim that piracy hurts game sales before me.

Your logical fallacy is [ad hominem].

BTW, this started because you first claimed that piracy is morally correct. There's no point in discussing this further when you've Neo-dodged every criticism about the original claim.

Stealing implies someone had something taken from them. Piracy never takes the original game away from the dev, it just makes a copy. You're talking about nintendo like they're a starving indie company when they're the richest company in japan period.

Your logical fallacy is [strawman].

They have sold over 140 million switches, made over 1 billion dollars of profit on software sales and the switch is on pace to become the best selling console of all time. I think they won't lose sleep if a few million pirate their games, especially as the switch has been pirated day one.

Your logical fallacy is [special pleading].

Won't lose sleep? Nintendo literally sued Yuzu into oblivion because of people pirating Tears of the Kingdom.

If piracy hurt sales as you pretend it does, the switch would of failed.

Your (informal) logical fallacy is [false dilemma].

At least someone here comprehends how piracy preserves old games. But tbh yall sound like boomers who bought the "you wouldn't steal a car" anti piracy campaigns, and can't move on and accept that publishers do a piss poor job of providing access to their legacy titles.

LOL, no one was saying otherwise (though there's more nuance than you presented). The difference is you're the only one claiming its "morally correct".

Piracy is morally correct. 

You guys can't claim strawman when earlier one of you said piracy was stealing.

Yeah they sued yuzu, it was their choice to do so. Nothing would of happened to them had they not done so. They created the problem.

It's not a false dilemma as you all have clearly stated piracy hurts game sales. At the very least smaller nintendo games like metroid dread and pikmin 4 should've flopped if piracy was truly an issue. If it truly is a "false dilemma" to counter your claim of piracy being stealing and hurting nintendo's business, what other conclusions can there be when the switch has been so financially successful? It is black and white. You are wrong and I am right.

It's not morally correct to use piracy to preserve old games, or new ones? There's no "nuance" it is morally correct to pirate, at least when it comes to aaa games.

https://youtu.be/_Fu4pE46-zM

Piracy is a blanket term that encompasses theft. Emulation is a more specific one that applies to all of the points that you’ve raised. Emulation implies ownership, and once something is owned, it is the right of the owner to distribute/emulate it at their discretion.

When one can no longer buy something, they have reason to emulate.

Also, resorting to homophobic name calling as a means of positing the superiority of your perspective is petty and immature. Do better. You came here for reasonable discussion because you felt shut out of other communities.

Emulating old games almost always requires illegally downloading roms aka piracy. 99% of people emulating aren't paying hundreds of dollars to buy a legitimate copy of the game to then dump.

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TalkBack / Re: Indie World Presentation To Air April 17

« on: April 16, 2024, 11:15:27 AM »

Pizza Tower and SilkSong

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 15, 2024, 04:55:05 AM »

I mean I agree with you that piracy can be bad for current gen games, especially indie games. I never pirate indie games. But if it was 1 million people pirating something like virtual boy wario land? There's no harm being done because nintendo isn't even selling it.

You moved the goal post, and I’m not interested in going down that rabbit hole here. If you want to have that conversation, start a new thread or use this one I created in 2022.

Even then for AAA games, there is no good evidence that 1 pirated copy = 1 lost sale. Especially because publishers rarely make demos anymore and a lot of people use piracy to demo games to see if they'll actually like them. Only steam has good refund policies afterall. It inherently relies on an assumption.

LOL, what? That’s irrelevant.

I mean for super popular stuff like Zelda, Mario and Pokemon they can survive, but pirates don't just stop at these games.  How would you feel if Metroid Prime 4 gets pirated over 1 million times?  Even if not every single one of those pirating the game would buy it, for smaller franchises, just getting a few hundred thousand more sales can be what makes the difference between companies greenliting sequels or deciding it's not worth continuing this franchise.

I agree with the rest of your post. Just wanted to highlight these bits.

While Nintendo’s methods may often seem draconian, no company can afford to set a weak precedent. It becomes that much harder to fight it the next time when bad faith actors push a little farther.

You know what, I take back what I said. Pirating modern games is good actually  . AAA companies like scumbag nintendo who shut down fangames, never rerelease the majority of their old games, force you to pay for online multiplayer like the other consoles, constantly treat consumers like ****-they don't deserve any respect.

There has never been a single case of piracy hurting a games sales. Ever. I dare you to prove me wrong.

It's relevant. Before Steam piracy was far more rampant on PC, but in the eternal words of Lord Gaben- "piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue". Steam gave the consumer a good experience and a good service, and now they're one of the biggest gaming companies in the world and the number one store on PC.

Having a precedent of piracy being allowed would be an objectively good thing for consumers and even developers. If companies refuse to consistently put out demos, and refuse to allow access to their older games, piracy will find a way.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 15, 2024, 04:27:30 AM »

Totk has already sold over 20 million copies. The switch is heavily pirated and is about to become the best selling console of all time. But sure, piracy is definitely significant 

I mean for super popular stuff like Zelda, Mario and Pokemon they can survive, but pirates don't just stop at these games.  How would you feel if Metroid Prime 4 gets pirated over 1 million times?  Even if not every single one of those pirating the game would buy it, for smaller franchises, just getting a few hundred thousand more sales can be what makes the difference between companies greenliting sequels or deciding it's not worth continuing this franchise.

Companies like Nintendo kind of have to do all they can to fight piracy to protect all kind of games on their systems.  If it was something that became easy to do that wasn't being fought against I can guarantee you Switch software sales would be taking a much bigger hit.

That's why I always laugh when some gamers act like Nintendo is the worst company in the world for going after companies like Yuzu.  I mean, Yuzu was literally encouraging people to pirate Switch games and was even making money off of said piracy.  It's like seriously, if Nintendo didn't do anything it would just be encouraging others to do the same thing and before you know it, piracy is a much bigger issue that's easier for the average person to do as well.

If metroid prime 4 got pirated 1 million times, it would be great as said pirates would inevitably spread positive word of mouth, making the actual game sales higher than they would have been.

Your theory about ease of pirating being a potential threat is flawed as indie games almost always can be easily pirated, especially if they're on gog with no drm. But indie games haven't been negatively effected by piracy.

By fighting piracy you're also killing game preservation as the license holders prefer to manipulate the market with artificial scarcity (disney vault stuff) instead of individually selling all their legacy titles for a reasonable price (not $60), no subscription, no drm. Nintendo's virtual console used to be similar to this, but now it's a subscription so "you will own nothing and you will be happy"

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 11, 2024, 05:21:46 AM »

Yes, deservedly punished. Nintendo's entire reason for using mini discs for the gamecube was to stop piracy. This made development unnecessarily harder for third parties which punished nintendo by not porting their games to the console. I may love the gamecube but that was an objectively terrible decision on nintendo's part. If they'd of just used dvds like the competition I guarantee you the gamecube would've had far better third party support.

I'm a third party. I've got a game I want to release on a console and I've got two choice. On one console, it would be a little simpler to format my game to work on it. On the second console, it would take a little extra effort. However, if I release it on the first console, it will be very easy for some people to pirate the game. On the second console, it will be harder for people to pirate the software. Which should I choose? I'll go with the second. Anti-piracy measure will help to ensure people actually buy the product we put the time and money into making instead of someone uploading it for free and hurting our sales.

But wait! The first console has five times the userbase size as the second console. 50 million potential customers compared to 10 million customers of the second. Since the first is a bit easier to develop for, I guess we'll prioritize that even though there may be some loss due to piracy. Whew. That was close. Can you believe we almost chose the second console for a moment? They were actually trying to help protect our sales; Can you imagine that?! What a bunch of losers! Screw them and their console! I hope it goes out of business. In fact, let's tell our friends at other third parties to also not release stuff on that second console to teach them a lesson about how we are cool if our stuff gets pirated.

Your logic is flawed, Dinar87. Mini-discs were not the deciding factor for third parties when it came to releasing stuff on GameCube. If PS2 had mini-discs to also combat piracy, third parties when it have been cool with it. They wouldn't have all flocked to Xbox because it was the only one to use DVDs in this hypothetical. It was about the userbase and potential customers. (It was also about Sony and MS throwing money at third parties to help get some exclusive games and spur development. A problem with the industry that has continued for years but that's a whole other thing.) Quit creating a false narrative or buying into one that third parties wanted to "punish" Nintendo because of anti-piracy measures.

(And, for the record, I always though mini-discs were cool. It seemed like another leap to the future. They could create a store these huge games on these small discs. Wii with DVDs seemed like a step back.)

That assumes piracy would significantly affect the sales, which there is no proof of such. Only claims made by the companies themselves, again with them providing no proof. You cannot prove that the pirates would of bought your game if they weren't able to pirate them. A lot of pirates also come from third world countries where they couldn't afford the latest games anyways. Game of thrones is the most pirated tv show of all time afaik. Also one of the most successful tv shows of all time. Totk has already sold over 20 million copies. The switch is heavily pirated and is about to become the best selling console of all time. But sure, piracy is definitely significant 

If mini discs weren't an issue, why did the gamecube barely get any third party support compared to even the xbox, which sold similarly to the gamecube? The xbox has over 300 more games than the gamecube. If there was no difference, why 300 more games?

Same with the n64 cartridges. If they weren't a big deal for third parties, then why did the ps1 sell so well? How come the n64 didn't get games like final fantasy 7? The answer is square enix tried to port final fantasy 7 to the n64 but nintendo's dumb decision to use catridges and less powerful hardware at the time made it impossible.
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20240215-27218/

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 11, 2024, 05:15:35 AM »

In the Yuzu lawsuit, Nintendo claimed Tears of the Kingdom was pirated ~1 million times. Sure, those people are the minority when talking about a game that sold ~20 million. Contextually, that’s still a significant number even if some of them wouldn’t have played the game had they not been able to steal it.

I’ll die on the emulation hill as I consider it essential while acknowledging some people use it in bad faith. Piracy is dicier. Tons of games never left Japan and/or are likely stuck on original hardware forever because they’re not popular enough to rerelease. I generally look the other way even if I, personally, try to buy loose copies. Citing games that either have been rereleased or likely will be rereleased (again) is wild to me.

I mean I agree with you that piracy can be bad for current gen games, especially indie games. I never pirate indie games. But if it was 1 million people pirating something like virtual boy wario land? There's no harm being done because nintendo isn't even selling it.

Even then for AAA games, there is no good evidence that 1 pirated copy = 1 lost sale. Especially because publishers rarely make demos anymore and a lot of people use piracy to demo games to see if they'll actually like them. Only steam has good refund policies afterall. It inherently relies on an assumption.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 10, 2024, 07:04:05 AM »

That's just nonsense. It's really pathetic the way some people try to justify their entitlement like that

Entitlement? For the record I don't mean pirating switch games or any current gen games. I mean old games nintendo refuses to be made available.

As I said with the gamecube, the mini discs decision was a bad one and nintendo made things a lot harder for third parties for no good reason. There will always be people who pirate the latest games, but they're a minority. Decisions like forcing minidiscs which had less memory than standard dvds turned away third party companies.

Unless you think being able to access old games like pokemon emerald and super mario sunshine is "entitled" in which case you're a fanboy.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: April 10, 2024, 04:43:28 AM »

I predict Prime 4 will just be a Switch 2 title.

Likely, that's all Switch 2 will have going for it for the first year. Other than backwards compatibility, and upgraded version of games.

Now the question is will Nintendo name Switch 2 something sensible like Switch 2, or something stupid that confuses people? Did they learn their lesson with the Wii U, or has the success of the Switch made them forget how Wii was successful too before Wii U came out?

It's kind of funny to think that the Switch has been out so long, that there is a generation of kids who don't understand the concept of an upgraded generation.

Imagine if we actually get the Switch Attach name.....

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 10, 2024, 04:34:48 AM »

Nintendo definitely got deservedly punished with the mini discs and cartridges, fucking over developers in an evil attempt to stop piracy (which is morally correct). But the games themselves were amazing.

Aaaaaaannnnddd, you lost me with that take.



Deservedly punished? Piracy is morally correct? Now I feel bad for agreeing with you about being bored with Nintendo's release schedule of late. 

Yes, deservedly punished. Nintendo's entire reason for using mini discs for the gamecube was to stop piracy. This made development unnecessarily harder for third parties which punished nintendo by not porting their games to the console. I may love the gamecube but that was an objectively terrible decision on nintendo's part. If they'd of just used dvds like the competition I guarantee you the gamecube would've had far better third party support.

And yes, I think piracy is morally correct (unless it's indie devs) as many companies, including nintendo themselves, want you to "own nothing and be happy". That's why they won't let you access the majority of their old games, and that's why you can no longer outright buy legacy titles on the switch. Virtual console? Gone, now it's a subscription and you lose everything once you stop paying.  I want to OWN my games, not rent them. Not to mention nintendo's toxic behavior when it comes to fan games and emulation, while never bothering to rerelease most of their old games.

Piracy preserves old games that companies no longer provide access for. There's even been many cases where old games are delisted from online stores either because of a new rerelease or because of licensing issues.

Nintendo makes great games, but as a company they are bad.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 10, 2024, 04:24:50 AM »

But if they’ll be fine, why worry?

THEY'LL be fine, we won't be. Nobody makes games like Nintendo does, so when they don't put out the entire industry suffers.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 08, 2024, 09:47:27 AM »

I don't argue that we need Metroid Prime 4, but my reasons are more selfish than anything. I think, with the approaching midway point in the year, we'll get a more tangible look at what is in store for us for the Switch's final holiday season. Whether that's more ports or MP4 as a last hurrah (similar to the Wii U era, where Nintendo seemed committed to following through with their claims of "we're making a Zelda for this console, trust us") will be up to how much pressure Nintendo feels at this point to maintain momentum for Switch or keep their most loyal customers ravenous for the Switch successor.

Nintendo could easily give us nothing this year and still be fine. So my worry is because of this, games like metroid prime 4 (even though it's rumored to be already finished) will be made to wait longer to coincide with the launch of the next nintendo console.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 07, 2024, 05:56:47 AM »

We need Metroid Prime 4 this year. A lot of people say Nintendo is saving it for crossgen but that doesn't make sense when probably the next 3d mario and other big games will also be releasing, then Prime 4 gets no attention.

Metroid Prime 3 was IIRC the first Wii game announced and apparently had good marketing at the time, yet it got destroyed by all the other more popular games releasing at that time.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 07, 2024, 05:47:21 AM »

I never ended up buying a Switch because I was waiting for whatever upgrade was going to come out. It would have been the OLED Switch, but that came out so late I thought  "what was the point?" So, I never bought that either. I pretty much skipped this generation. I got gifted a ps4 in 2017 and just bought up some of the main games there.

At the same time. I have a Wii U. So, it isn't like I missed out on 1/4 of the games that came out for Switch.

It was a weird generation because I turned my room into a Mario room with blue turquoise sky walls and all and played ps4 the whole time. My office room I turned into horror themed.

If you ever get a switch I once again recommend Metroid Dread and Fire Emblem Three Houses.

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Reader Reviews / Re: Hell is Playing a Sonic game in 2024

« on: April 02, 2024, 05:19:08 AM »

Why.

Why.

Why do I do this to myself? It's past the point of morbid curiosity at this point- it has to be putrefied curiosity, or perhaps, post-mortem curiosity. Or maybe I'm just a cheap sick loser who saw Sonic Superstars on sale for 25 bucks and, after hearing the mild response it received in the form of "uh, yeah, don't get it full price but it's okay I suppose," I decided to test fate once again and throw myself into the realm of kusoge masking as some legacy franchise.

But you see, in subjecting myself to yet another form of torture, I have come out stronger. I know that Sonic can no longer hurt me. Every attempt at a new innovative 3D platforming style has failed, spectacularly, but I still held out hope for 2D Sonic. Even though Sonic Mania was frankly just kind of okay, I believed in my heart of hearts that Sonic Team could take a good hard look at what people liked from that game and maybe implement it in a new Sonic title.

So what did people like in Sonic Mania?

• Good Art Style?
• Good Music?
• Clearly Defined Level Gimmicks?
• A Lack of Pinball Mechanics every two goddamn seconds?

Sonic Superstars has none of these things. And now I know that I will never play a Sonic the Hedgehog game again.

I'm so tired of bad Mega Drive synths being used for nostalgia bait. I'm so tired of 90s zigzags and primary color menu screens. I have never cared about Fang the Sniper, and after playing this game, I never will care about Fang the Sniper. But I just can't stand the idea of spectacle over control any more.

Sonic Superstars allows you to play as "the gang," which should baffle those of us old enough to remember when Sega made a big deal about Sonic being the only playable character in Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Hey, that was garbage too, but how is Sonic Superstars in comparison? Well, it's better. Sonic actually moves like he did in the old game, which isn't like, a huge feat considering some guy managed to do it several years ago. But There's tiny little changes to other members of the cast that make this game harder to control and enjoy, though. It's weird stuff that maybe only someone who is a psychopath that played Sonic 3 and Knuckles a lot. As a big Knuckles fan, I was disappointed.

There are a few things that piss me off about Sonic Superstars. First of all, the art style is plasticky in a similar vein to New Super Mario Bros., but those games had good level design. The revolutionary new zones are all pretty awful thematically, and arguably remixes of classic level themes. Like, Mania had a train. It had a newsprint garden. It had a funky 90's themed music city. This game has... an island. A jungle. An ice. A FUCKING PINBALL "Carnival" but it's just Casino Night- apparently this gets spooky in act 2 but since the graphics have no sense of personality, it was barely noticeable. The utter lack of effort in making inventive level themes is insane.

I mean, I'm just going to go off on the art style for a second, because I cannot believe Sonic Mania beats this game from a visual standpoint. How are we living in a world where Sonic's brand has multiple excellent cases of animation formats and this is the art style they choose for the latest 2D platformer? It's definitely indicative of the developer's previous works, but I had a section planned for a dramatic reveal later in this rant, so I'm not going to mention them here. Oh, and speaking of aesthetic inconsistency, how do you make a Sonic game WHERE NONE OF THE MUSIC IS GOOD?! Sound design as a whole is migraine-inducing.

The level gimmicks in this game are always annoying because they slow things down or are just poorly designed. Some are literally worse versions of gimmicks that have existed in older games- there's rocket sections that you can't control, there's drilling sections with rocks in the sand meant to... slow you down? There's slippy slides that make you... slippy slide. There's one gimmick in zone called Press Factory that felt unique- where the floor continuously bounces you in timed intervals- but these are the rare exception in a sea of just... bland ****. But for each new gimmick and idea, there's something that has already been done, and likely even better. Too many of these gimmicks result in auto-running sequences, which is the antithesis of fun- I like when I build up speed in classic Sonic games because launching myself off of a ramp whenever I wanted was a thrilling unknown- would I even end up in a part of the level that was functional? Old Sonic games actually accounted for this. Superstars does not.

Oh, the stages are also like, seven minutes long. I hate it.

Special/bonus stages! Hey, you want to stop playing a mediocre platformer and instead play some of the most aggravating special stages ever? Okay, let's reach into the old nostalgia bag and see which one we're- what's that? Everyone loves blue spheres? Everyone would gladly do more blue spheres? There's rarely a new special mode that's better than blue spheres? Oh, let's bring back the rotating mazes from Sonic 1 that sucked and give them more cheap gimmicks and then create a web-slinging emerald chase game that is never explained thoroughly in any way and is extremely frustrating! Whoo!

What's worse is that, if you fail the rotating mazes, you just keep doing the same one over and over. And you might say "well, that way you can practice them and get better!" They are not fun. They give you a bad in-game currency that you can use to by costumes, because apparently that's why people play Sonic games.

"But what about the Emerald Powers, Evan? I was promised Emerald Powers! I deserve Emerald Powers!" They too are also bad, and because the stage design is so bad, developer Arzest (of Yoshi's New Island fame!) decided to telegraph when exactly you should use them, because they also only recharge every time you hit a goalpost checkpoint so god forbid you want to experiment with them all over. Oh, also many of them are stupid and highly situational and once activated will help you complete a very simple challenge and then they will last entirely too long. Like, sometimes the telegraphed "use (x) Emerald Power here!" indicator pops up, you use the power, and you just... get a medal. The only challenge was actively selecting one of these tools. God, it sucks so bad.

I should mention that you get about 3-5 second of inactivity when you transition from a special/bonus stage, which is a minor inconvenience that really adds up.

The bosses. Dear god, where to begin? Some are painfully long, some have weaknesses that utilize mechanics that are never telegraphed throughout the entire fight, and some will just... kill you randomly for no reason. I'll be honest, the malice that fuels this rant was started by a mini-boss in Golden Capital, which is a giant rampaging piggy bank that... steals all of your rings at the start of the battle. I'm sorry, what? Why would you do that? How is that fun? Every obstacle it throws at you can just instantly kill you. Since so many bosses have brief periods of vulnerability, also, and the game is really bad at letting you know which bosses this applies to and which do not. See, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze got away with having long, insane boss battles because it was a good game. Sonic Superstars is not.

I did not finish Sonic Frontiers because, at a certain point, I knew what the rest of the game would be, and my obsessive compulsive tendencies would not allow me to do anything less than clear each of the game's bad open-zones of all their collectibles. I frankly thought that would be a waste of my time. But I just stopped playing Sonic Superstars because I wasn't having fun. Like, I don't need to be good at a game in order to have fun- I beat the entirety of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and got my ass handed to me the entire time. I played Sonic Colors and was happy to return to stages because they were small and short and offered easily telegraphed goals.

I just gave up. I have no will to continue. If Sega refuses to put any effort into Sonic games, why should I?

It's funny that Sonic Superstars came out the same year as Super Mario Bros. Wonder, because I have done everything in my power to avoid playing both of them because I wasn't sure I could justify a 60 dollar platformer. But I know deep in my soul that I would probably feel better after playing Wonder at full price much more than Superstars at 25 bucks. But that's just a theory- a game etc. etc.

I gotta end this review on a banger zinger like last year's review. Dear god, I can't believe I did this same thing last year. Uh, okay, here it goes:

Play Toree 3D, Toree 2, Toree Genesis, or the upcoming Toree Saturn. They understand Sonic the Hedgehog better than anything Sega has put out in the last decade.

**** this.

As a huge sonic mania fan, I did not buy sonic superstars. Bad music, bad art style and graphics (somehow looking worse than gens classic sonic back from 2011??), bad pacing with some zones only having one act, the boss battles.

Not to mention Izuka calling pixel art "outdated"

I'm happy it sold badly.

21

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 01, 2024, 12:29:49 PM »

I think that extra power for the GameCube might be another reason why it gets more fondly remembered for that era. 

It's the entire reason.  Most people get hung up on the fact that the Gamecube was comparable to the competitors while Nintendo has been a generation behind since.  But completely ignored Nintendo's decision to use mini Disc instead of the standard DVD's like Sony/Microsoft combined with the systems lackluster sales made many third parties completely ignore the system because it wasn't worth the hassle.

The Switch on the other hand despite being a generation behind, was designed to handle the various game engines that most developers were using, so they could scale their games to run on the Switch much easier.  So even before the Switch gained the massive sales it did, many third parties where able to have games ready for the system even if they didn't have much faith in it because it was easier to port games for it then they could back in the Gamecube era.  And then when the Switch gained the massive sales it did, we started seeing ports of some of the more popular titles from the PS4 era because the hardware once again allowed for such a thing.

This is why when I've seen comments from some Gamecube fans saying the Gamecube was the last Nintendo system to have good third party support I have to roll my eyes so hard they literally fall out of my head.  The Gamecube was still Nintendo designing hardware for their own developers without a thought to third parties.  The Switch on the other hand was the first Nintendo system actually designed with third party support in mind and as a result, has by far the best third party support in Nintendo history.

I don't mind people saying the Gamecube is their favorite Nintendo system, but I do mind when they make stuff up.  Saying the Gamecube had better third party support then the Switch is just factually incorrect, when the actual data shows the complete opposite.


Oh and Gamecube fans are complete fucking hypocrite when you praise games like Luigi's Mansion 1, Wind Waker, Paper Mario TTYD, but then turn your nose at the recently released Princess Peach Showtime.  Quite a few of these highly praised Gamecube titles were incredible easy game, and yet the same people we now praise these games, say they have no interest in the recent Princess Peach Showtime because it looks too easy.  Give me a fucking break.

Seriously, this is why I have no respect for opinions like this.  This are the very definition of peak nostalgia blinding people.  Seriously, if Princess Peach Showtime was released on the Gamecube 20 years ago, the same people who refuse to play it now because it's an easy looking game, would be praising it as a masterpiece like they do to many of these extremely easy Gamecube era games.

Nintendo definitely got deservedly punished with the mini discs and cartridges, fucking over developers in an evil attempt to stop piracy (which is morally correct). But the games themselves were amazing.

You might be right about nostalgia, but even then the princess peach game would probably run better back then in 60fps as opposed to 30. Hell the REMAKE of TTYD seems to be running at 30fps when the 20+ year old original ran better.

22

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 01, 2024, 12:24:30 PM »

Then of course you can always come to the darkside and start playing Sony software. Some of my favorite games from last gen were never released on Nintendo consoles.

Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned! Banned!!!! 

There's a lot of GC software that hasn't quite been surpassed or is iconic.

Quality over quantity for the gamecube IMO. Pokemon Colosseum and XD gale of darkness are the best pokemon games and put the likes of scarlet and violet to shame. Paper Mario TTYD is the best one in that series too. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 both on the gamecube were amazing. Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Pikmin 1 and 2. Luigi's mansion 1 was actually creepy unlike the sequels.

And there it is. The same point I was making in my earlier post. 20 years on and a lot of fans now see the GameCube had a lot of significant entries and high points for quite a few of Nintendo's franchises. It's like a film franchise. For instance, James Bond. There are certain movies that are considered the best, the worst and others that are good and ok yet even some of those entries can be a person's favorite for whatever reason. When looking at series like Metroid or Paper Mario or Smash Bros (or, heck, Sonic too, as mentioned by me and Dinar87), software released on the GameCube for various Nintendo franchises often ranks on the high side or top of the Best Games list for those franchises.

And to add a little bit more context to something and my perspective:

Especially in recent years where there's suddenly been all this Gamecube nostalgia and Nintendo fans declaring the Gamecube the greatest system ever made and how the Gamecube era was the best time, when it's like, are you fucking kidding me.

Recent years? The GameCube nostalgia was already happening after a couple of the Wii years. I know. I've been here and I've been part of it! 

I've mentioned it before but I'll bring it up again. During the N64 years, I was falling out of gaming love. First, it took a long time before I even got an N64. It was basically around the time DK64 came out. There was some stuff that I liked to play or enjoy but I was finding myself interested in other things. My brother played a lot more N64 than me. He'd rent games and I wouldn't even bother to play them once unlike all the years with our Super Nintendo. I can think of quite a few games in which I'd check in on him and watch him play a little bit of something and then go off and pursue other hobbies. Years later, I found myself wanting to track down and try some of that software that I missed out. When the GameCube was released, we ended up getting it early compared to the N64. Feburary 2002. The GameCube really reignited my love of gaming. I loved the controller way more than the N64 one and the level of graphics and what game design had learned from going into 3D just seemed so much more refined at that time. It took awhile to acquire software for it but I would replay a lot of the games I had for it over and over because I just enjoyed them. You can say that it might also be that I had more free time to play games on the GameCube as it was during that time I would graduate high school and begin working but I'm not sure how true that it is. I had a lot of time also while growing up to play SNES and N64 but GameCube software just spoke to me more.

It was that passion for GameCube stuff that led me to PlanetGameCube and posting on these forums. I remember back then how the community was despairing at Nintendo's shrinking market share. How Sony had the lion's share of 3rd party support and XBox was making waves with Halo and online multiplayer while Nintendo was choosing to sit out online for the Cube. How every decision Nintendo made was being scrutinized and if they could ever reclaim the market. I do think a big part of that is because of the passion a lot of us GameCube users felt from feeling that the actual product, the software and the hardware, were really great. It was the idea that if people would get past the "kiddy" label or the "purple lunchbox" dismissal then they would find that there was terrific software on it that was top class compared to what the other companies had. I mean, take away Halo and what other software are people reminiscing about for the original XBox? Most of it is practically forgotten while much more GameCube software, both third party and Nintendo, have withstood the time.

I'll also say that the GameCube is the system in which I've easily played the most multiplayer gaming on. Perhaps that's a factor in my continued love for it. There's definitely some added appeal when you can play software in-person with friends but that was also what Nintendo was focused more on. In-person multiplayer over online multiplayer and a lot of titles were and still are great for that.

Even with the Nintendo criticism on these forums, there was still a lot of excitement over what the next games in a series could be like for a Nintendo franchise and also a lot praise for software that was being released for the Cube. People were often quite happy with what they were playing and talking about it here. Despite the negativity people might feel about Nintendo's future, I was very happy with pretty much everything I was playing for the system at the time even janky stuff like Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Heroes. Maybe I was less cynical or less experienced with gaming so it made a difference with things still seeming new and fresh. I'm not sure. Yet, it feels like a lost time in game development when Sony and MS went HD and suddenly everything had to be a huge software seller to afford the development of a title and the market changed in how it made and released games.

When the Wii came out, I found myself disappointed somewhat with Nintendo's software for it and despite Nintendo's goal of trying to win back lapsed gamers, it actually made me a lapsed gamer as I just wasn't liking the system as I did the GameCube and my gaming time went very low and almost non-existent for a few years. At least for console gaming. DS was still keeping me a bit more active. The next time I felt like I had during the Cube year was actually with the 3DS and its early years. It got me reignited again and I really enjoyed a lot of the early software on it. The design of games and their length somewhat reminded me of games developed during the time of the Cube and PS2. Now, I find it comes in waves. If I play something really great like BotW or Hollow Knight then that can get me excited about gaming again and I'll start playing a bunch of other software. Yet, since a lot of other software can be middling then that enthusiasm can wane.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I've found that Nintendo Directs can sometimes act as a way of reigniting that enthusiasm. Just from watching a trailer of a game that might be a favorite entry of mine or looks like a sure winner, that can get me going to get back at playing games as I wait for that title to release. When that isn't there, which has been the case for over half a year then I feel the boredom that Dinar87 mentions. My gaming time has been very low these past six months. There was a bit of time in mid-February when I wanted to get back to gaming and finish up some titles I'd been working on and start up some new stuff and was playing my Switch a bit more regularly but that enthusiasm soon faded away. It's this vibe that there is nothing pressing to play right now. I'm not missing out on anything. There's nothing announced that's coming out soon where I feel I should catch up on a past title. With all the retro games I seem to be playing on Switch like N64 games or ports like Final Fantasy or Ori and the Blind Forest, it just seems like I can get to those whenever. I've waited this long to play them, they can wait some more before I get to them. Meanwhile, there can be new movies or TV Shows or books that I want to see now and don't want to be spoiled on or don't want to fall behind on. So, these things end up winning my time because the current offerings, particularly from Nintendo, don't seem as fresh or exciting.

There was a great quote from Miyamoto about how games have become these consumables that folks just try once and then discarded but like a great book or movie, they can sometime not be fully enjoyed until they are experienced repeatedly.

TLDR: replay an older game you enjoyed or try out a multiplayer game.

On the subject of time, there are a lot of games I'd like to replay and I have been returning to things slowly like stuff on the Switch apps or in my personal gaming collection. The problem is that I often feel guilty about doing so because there's so many games I've acquired that I've yet to play so why am I now returning and spending more time on something I've already played and finished. Usually, though, replaying a game doesn't take as long as the first time as you know more what to do and how to play it but it also makes me more aware of past games that do things which can waste a player's time which is why I love the save state or rewind feature with the Switch app titles to help speed a replay along. Sometimes I wonder why I'm buying new stuff if I just want to replay the games I already have. Gamers - We're Never Satisfied!

Damn that sounded like a good time to be a passionate fan. Sure nintendo wasn't as popular but the games were all extremely fun. I wish I'd grown up with forums instead of youtube. Modern youtube is an insult to what the site used to be.

23

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: April 01, 2024, 12:19:51 PM »

I remember getting a little bored in the Wii U days and I think I was just buying and playing the big first party releases. Then I started trying out third party games, replaying games, buying other nintendo systems (3DS), and eventually buying non-nintendo consoles. Now I have way too much to play (link to backloggery is in my signature) and even if there were no new games forever I would have enough to play. I am guessing that some of these options won't float with others as buying other systems takes extra money, so my advice would be to replay some older games. I get so much enjoyment out of replays either going for 100% completion, trying a harder difficulty, using different settings, or going for a speedrun. There was a great quote from Miyamoto about how games have become these consumables that folks just try once and then discarded but like a great book or movie, they can sometime not be fully enjoyed until they are experienced repeatedly. For Switch in particular I have put 50 hours into Mega Man 11 which can be beat in just an hour.

Another option is to get hooked on a game that never ends like Splatoon. I sometimes feel like I could just play Splatoon and nothing else and be happy. Of course there are a ton of great multiplayer games on switch that offer such extended replayability because of the online multiplayer. Some other great ones on Switch include the Mario Sports games and Mario Maker 2.

Then of course you can always come to the darkside and start playing Sony software. Some of my favorite games from last gen were never released on Nintendo consoles.

TLDR: replay an older game you enjoyed or try out a multiplayer game.

I used to be a huge sony fan as well as nintendo, before the ps4 era when suddenly every game had to be a "cinematic masterpiece" like the last of us. Series like ratchet and clank lost their edgy humor. Jack and daxter, sly cooper, etc.. all dead.

24

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 29, 2024, 12:43:53 PM »

You really have to look beyond Nintendo published games or you'll never be happy since it's impossible for Nintendo to constantly release certain types of games every single year. 

You mention 2018, 2020 and 2021 as dry years when in reality they were anything but.

2018 had 177 games that received positive reviews.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/2018/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&page=1

2020 had 149 games that received positive reviews.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/2020/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&page=1

2021 had 136 games with positive reviews.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/2021/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&page=1


We're almost to the end of March and the Switch has had 22 games with positive reviews.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/current-year/metascore/?platform=nintendo-switch&page=1

Plus two of the highest reviewed games are Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Unicorn Overlord.  The new Prince of Persia is a Metroid style game and Unicorn Overlord is a Strategy RPG, the same genre Fire Emblem is in.  That's 2 highly reviewed games that should be appealing directly to you, but you seem to be ignoring them because they're not from Nintendo.


Seriously, this is one of the reason why I've grown distant from many of the hardcore Nintendo fans online.  The Switch has been home to an insane amount of high quality games that just get completely ignored by the kind of people said games are literally being made for.  Especially in recent years where there's suddenly been all this Gamecube nostalgia and Nintendo fans declaring the Gamecube the greatest system ever made and how the Gamecube era was the best time, when it's like, are you fucking kidding me.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/gamecube/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=2001&releaseYearMax=2024&platform=gamecube&page=1

The Gamecube had 187 games that received positives reviews its entire lifespan.  In comparison, the Switch in just 2018 alone had 177 positive reviewed games and 2018 was supposed to be such a terrible year with nothing to play. 

Never before has a Nintendo system offered the variety and gameplay experiences that the Switch has and yet some people are acting like we're in the final days of the Wii all over again.  The Wii in 2011 and 2012 COMBINED had only 19 games with positive reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/wii/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=2011&releaseYearMax=2012&platform=wii&page=1

The Switch has literally had more good games released for it in less then 3 months of this year alone, then the Wii had it's entire last 2 years combined.

Still, a lot of Indie stuff can be rather short and fleeting and third party stuff can lack that Nintendo polish and magic that keeps you wanting more. Nothing hits quite like the hype for a new entry in a Nintendo series you love that looks like it could be blast to play.

Only that's not true, there's a lot of indie and third party stuff on Switch that's just as good as the types of games Nintendo releases.  This is N64 Yamauchi era propaganda that too many still have in their heads.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/nintendo-switch/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=2017&releaseYearMax=2024&platform=nintendo-switch&page=1

Just go down the list.  Yes, Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Tear of the Kingdom are at the very top but after them you have lots of third party titles right around what Nintendo's releasing.  Yes every gen the very top Nintendo games like Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, Breath of the Wild get the best reviews, but those titles are very rare even by Nintendo standards.  Outside of the very top 1-3 Nintendo games each gen, the best third party games are easily competing with everything else.

99% of those great games were third party, and I'm already aware of most of them.

I'm not interested in any ubisoft games, especially after what they did to poor rayman. Prince of persia also doesn't seem that interesting to me? A desert arabic environment doesn't seem as cool as a biologic space station or a haunted castle. The art style also looks too cartoon-y.

Unicorn overlord, I will get into if they announce a sequel and promise the series is worth investing in. I don't just want good games, I want series to be excited for and have games to look forward to.

Quality over quantity for the gamecube IMO. Pokemon Colosseum and XD gale of darkness are the best pokemon games and put the likes of scarlet and violet to shame. Paper Mario TTYD is the best one in that series too. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 both on the gamecube were amazing. Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Pikmin 1 and 2. Luigi's mansion 1 was actually creepy unlike the sequels.

25

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo

« on: March 29, 2024, 12:38:13 PM »

My wall of text aside, one thing I'd like to know from Dinar87 is what are the games/series from Nintendo that you are a fan of and that you want to see new entries for to get hyped? Are there some series you've never played or tried? Are there some you've tried but just don't care for?

Ok so...

-Metroid Prime 4 obviously
-A new 3d mario like 64, Sunshine and Odyssey. Cautious about open world 3d mario if the rumors are true.
-A new 2d Metroid
-new Fire emblem in the style of Echoes and Three Houses, not Engage
-new F ZERO
-Pikmin 5
-Xenoblade Chronicles 4
-A brand new Paper Mario in the style of TTYD, but actually runs at 60fps like the original TTYD did. Minor nitpick but I grew up with the gamecube and it's wild that to this day its games still run the best frame rate wise out of all modern nintendo consoles.
-New Smash, but have a bigger story mode like brawl again. Also generally have lots of unlockables and single player content.


As for non-nintendo games/backlog games

-Sonic frontiers
-Sonic X Shadow generations
-Persona 3 Reload
-Persona 4 Golden
-Persona 6
-Metaphor Re Fantazio
-Tekken 8


Most wanted sequels of all time...

-Pizza Tower 2
-Sonic Adventure 3 (let's just pretend 06 never happened)
-Fire Emblem Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn sequel.
-Bloodstained Ritual of the Night 2
-Metroid Fusion remake (more of a horror game than the original, similar to Alien Isolation but 2d)



What about you?