Messages

1

TalkBack / RE:EDITORIALS: On Ratings

« on: October 17, 2007, 09:04:26 AM »

I think a much better indicator is if a game lives up to the expectations put onto it - for Nintendo more than anyone.  Does Smash Bros Brawl disappoint after the blitz of information?  How about Mario?  For new franchises, does it deliver everything you'd expect from the genre?  Does it exceed or disappoint?

I think a simple, school-like grade, A through F, next to an indication of whether the game lives up to the media surrounding it, would be plenty for me.

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TalkBack / RE:EDITORIALS: On Ratings

« on: October 17, 2007, 08:56:34 AM »

A wonderful editorial, and I mostly agree.
I've never understood why popular media such as music, TV and movies are ranked on scales up to 4 or 5 (not including point fives), and yet video games are largely based on a hundred point score.

I see an incredible value in a simple ratings system - only four-star movies should make it on Roger Ebert's top ten list, right?  Otherwise, the ratings are pointless.  But video game ratings are ridiculous.  Ever go to University?  Papers aren't graded out of a hundred, they're given a set of five letters with +/- modifiers.  Why not use that system?  Why not use the four star system that movies use, with "point fives" being granted to games that don't quite excel enough to make it into the next tier?

IGN is perhaps the worst for this, giving new ratings to games on the Wii's Virtual Console Service, games that have been around for as much as 25 years.  Thank goodness NWR chose a three tiered format for those, as opposed to an arbitary and dated scale.

I'm happy if I agree that Zelda deserves an "A".  Minus or Plus, I know that it's clearly reviewer opinion.  And that I can read about.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Smash Bros. Dojo Update Discussion

« on: September 24, 2007, 09:48:20 AM »

Haven't been to the forums in a while... it's been busy!
I've given more thought to Mii characters as playable fighters - I can't imagine that they wouldn't be unlocked from the start.  Unlocking Miis means unlocking the menu to set up Miis to nametags, etc.  To hide that menu at first and make it come up later seems counterintuitive.

I'm loving the daily updates though, and today was no exception - I'm really happy that stickers are not replacing the awesomeness of hundreds of trophies.  But what I'm really blown away by is the sheer depth of the game.  Ten extra characters added to the roster including the three pokemon, (that we know of), stickers, trophies, more music, new stages, a full-fledged one player mode, online modes, and more still being announced...

It's going to be just like Melee - a top seller and system seller for the next five years.

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TalkBack / RE:Metroid Prime 3 Prompts System Update

« on: August 28, 2007, 10:43:26 AM »

It seems highly, highly likely that the update, which is only necessary for Wiis that play Metroid, is to enable the achievement tokens to be passed around through the message centre.  (Read up on your Metroid previews if you have no idea what I'm talking about).

Since Metroid fans are the only one getting it, I'm assuming it's for Prime only online features, right?

Oh, and Super Paper Mario, which is famous for having an update on it, doesn't run an update screen if your Wii is up to date - so Metroid didn't just 'check' - it's for Metroid specifically.  Unless Nintendo is going backwards with their system updates.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Official "I WANT THIS STAGE IN THE GAME" Thread

« on: August 21, 2007, 09:40:49 AM »

I'd like a Super Paper Mario 2-D to 3-D flipping stage.  I think that could be very dangerous and equally hilarious to suddenly find yourself over a pit you didn't see in 2-D.

Also - I think a Phazon-floored environment would be cooler than the rising lava stage of SSBM.  You can walk around on it, but it drains your life.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Assist Trophy Discussion and Speculation

« on: August 21, 2007, 09:35:44 AM »

I really think this is going to be a really fun and random part of the game.  It's a good way for some long dead franchises to get a boost back into d-list stardom!

I'd really like to see some Punch-out appearances (on the main roster, but I'll settle for assist trophies).  King Hippo, Bald Bull, even Glass Joe would be fun.  I'd also really like an assist trophy that does nothing but change the background music for a time - like Magikarp but funnier.

I'd say Mii Parade too, but that's going to be the Mii-as-a-playable-character's Final Smash.  (C'mon, it's gonna happen!)

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Super Smash Bros. Brawl

« on: May 21, 2007, 04:25:16 PM »

$5 says that Wi-fi will be two players at a time - and it won't be competitive, but some bizarre co-op / race play.  The mechanics in Smash battles fly far faster than the Wii is capable of transmitting.  I'm putting my money (all $5 of it) on some interesting variation of Smash Bros Adventure mode for Wi-fi... think Little Big Planet with punching.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Super Smash Bros. Brawl

« on: May 21, 2007, 08:05:58 AM »

I used the google translator on Nintendo.jp:
May 22nd in the afternoon, the [sumabura] fist does [riniyuaruopun]
Not that I understand that, but it links to the Smash Bros. Page.  sooo..... 'In the Afternoon'.

It's 4:00 AM over there right now.  Noon in Japan is 11:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM Pacific.

Also, here are my predictions for this announcement:  Gameplay footage shown, confirming returning characters from SSBM (at least the 14 unlocked from the top of SSBM, if not more), Sonic the Hedgehog as a big 'reveal', kinda like Snake was last year around this time, Miis as playables... and at least five new stages revealed.  I can't wait to see the new character renders of Captain Falcon and Bowser, especially.
Note: I hold onto the belief that no characters will be cut, since SSBB is being built from the code for SSBM, so there's no reason characters couldn't make it in.  Even Ice Climbers.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Super Smash Bros. Brawl

« on: May 21, 2007, 06:47:37 AM »

Current Time in Japan:  2:45 AM
Don't expect a site update until at least business hours.  Soo.... another 5-1/2 hours minimum.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Super Smash Bros. Brawl

« on: May 21, 2007, 02:58:05 AM »

Well, in any case - all will be revealed in.... 1 hour now.  www.smashbros.com is going to explode.
Over at Serebii.net, they're all wondering if Lucario will be a playable.  Serebii seems to think he was designed specifically for Smash Bros.
EDIT: 20 minutes.  :-)

2nd Edit:  20 hours...?
 

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:TMNT (GBA, because every other version is junk)

« on: March 29, 2007, 07:09:06 AM »

Well, if making a good 2-D multiplayer brawler implies risk for developers, then they should be cashing in on established franchises that sell well to minimize risk of poor sales.  I'd pay good money to play a ol' fashioned 2-D brawler with a few friends, if it had a strong cast of unlockable characters, as well as other elements that make TMNT GBA such a good game.

Specifically, I'm thinking about the 6-player X-Men arcade game, and how it could be updated massively.  Or even a Smash Bros. approach, with multiple franchises.  A Capcom-themed side scrolling brawler would be amazing, if only for the character depth.  Bring back Haggar!

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:EA's Wii exclusive music game REVEALED! Boogie. First screens!

« on: March 23, 2007, 04:27:26 AM »

Ugh...
I bought the Wii so that my girlfriend would play video games with me... not so I would have to play video games with her.  This definately looks like something I will loathe - and eventually own - thanks to her...

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:eBay: 493 Pokemon, all shiny, hacked games for sale - $100

« on: March 23, 2007, 04:10:09 AM »

Quote
Hackers will probably be a small minority out of the group of players who have all level 100's with perfect stats.

There are hidden stats not shown in the game.  Each of the six stats (HP, Atk, etc) are given a random value between 0-31 (so, 32 possible values), that influence how high the stats go.  They make a huge difference.  So when a hacker comes in with all hidden stats at 31...
Well, put it this way - the odds of catching one in the wild would be 32 to the power of 6 - or 1 in 1,073,741,824.  You have better odds winning a lottery.  And odds of catching a shiny are one in 8192, putting the odds at over 1 in 8 trillion for a perfect stat shiny.  Breeding gives you some control, but not a significant enough amount to even think about competing with hackers.
By that, I'd say that hackers are the only people playing the level 100's with perfect stats.
It also makes it really easy for Nintendo to spot if they wanted to.  But are they going to?  

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General Gaming / RE:Sony (and Friends) getting hit Hard lately (or How Bad Decisions can Make any Business go Sour)

« on: March 21, 2007, 03:08:36 AM »

Sorry, I'm a step behind on the FF XIII discussion...
Remember that Sony's success rides on them being able to sell PS3s.  And FF XIII - and for that matter the GTA series - moves systems.  Sony knows that it's major franchises and supporters are dwindling, they are going to make a pretty serious grab and what they can retain.
That being said, don't expect Microsoft to buy out Take Two without SCEA entering the fray.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: March 21, 2007, 02:56:58 AM »

Hah hah - I did some more research on Nintendo's American traded stock...
Turns out that the $35.75 price is actually worth an eighth of a Japanese traded share.  Also, Nintendo is prohibitively expensive - the minimum investment is 100 shares.  So market price $35.75 x 8 x 100 = $28,600 minimum investment.  Sooooooo.... good for couchmonkey?

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Nintendo Gaming / GTA Wii? Reggie says "It's up to Take Two"

« on: March 20, 2007, 10:55:23 AM »

From Videogame Charts News

Quote
Nintendo Talks GTA & Wii
11:13 PST | Jordan | Print News | Mail News
In an interview with an American television station, Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, said that Nintendo has done all it can to persuade Take-Two Interactive Software to bring the Grand Theft Auto franchise to Nintendo consoles, and it is now up to the third party publisher to decide whether Rockstar Games' immensely popular series will appear on Wii. We should know more later in 2007 regarding this issue.

This is huge - Take Two just got a new CEO to help with lagging profits, and Manhunt 2 is already confirmed from Take Two.  If Reggie is pulling out all the stops, like we know he does, Rockstar could be hitting up the Wii with one of the most sucessful franchises of all time.

Congratulations on the coup, Nintendo, if you can pull it off.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: March 20, 2007, 09:28:59 AM »

I don't know if this is it's own thread or if it belongs here but...
Click here for Nintendo's Stock Data...
It's the highest it's been since Nintendo went public in 1991.  Scratch that - it's the highest it's ever been.  If Nintendo fanboys ever put their money where their mouth is...

[14X Chain]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Panel de Pon for DS!!

« on: March 20, 2007, 08:48:24 AM »

Omega W...heh heh
Panel De Pon is one of the hands down best puzzle games of all time.  There is just such a rush when you can set up an unprecedented personal best of a chain.  On the old Tetris Attacks, I considered myself to be fairly blindingly fast - my personal record is a 14X Chain... at least I think it was a 14X... after 13, the number counter stops going up and it's just replaced with two question marks.  It could have been 15, but I doubt it. /brag

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:eBay: 493 Pokemon, all shiny, hacked games for sale - $100

« on: March 20, 2007, 08:02:48 AM »

Wow - I actually got a response from Nintendo:

Quote
Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,
I appreciate your taking the time to share your comments regarding sale of Pokemon game characters via the internet.  Rest assured that your e-mail will be forwarded to the appropriate department for further review.
Thank you for your e-mail.
Nintendo of America Inc.
Bruce Mann

Huh.  Should we start a letter writing campaign?  Nah.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:eBay: 493 Pokemon, all shiny, hacked games for sale - $100

« on: March 20, 2007, 07:06:41 AM »

I cannot find, for the life of me, if there are random online battles.  There are 32 friend code slots, and I know you can download teams from humans to be played by AI... but I can't find if there is or is not random Tetris or MK-style matchups.

Either way I'm not happy... random matchups means meeting hacked pokemon, and no random matchups means painful searches for friend codes around the same ability level as myself... and then trying to find them randomly online.  So it's either the half-decent Mario Kart model with hacking... or the painfully labourous Animal Crossing model without it.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Cooking Mama out tomorrow

« on: March 20, 2007, 05:35:35 AM »

I was just at gamerankings.com - no one, and I mean no one has reviewed it.  I'm thinking NWR's posted release date of April is right.  Also, Bestbuy / Futureshop are listing it as 'out of stock'.  So... no, not coming out today.  Darn it!

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:eBay: 493 Pokemon, all shiny, hacked games for sale - $100

« on: March 20, 2007, 05:11:55 AM »

From my understanding, though, the online battle tower ranks teams based on how good they are in practice.  I just think it's a shame if Nintendo doesn't weed out those artificial ranks.  I don't want, say, Caterkiller  to be the absolute best pokemon player ever, and be ranked 1024th because cheaters are using perfect stat adjusted legendary pokemon with ever TM at their disposal an infinite amount of times.

From what I understand, the hacked stats are 'legal', but perfect 31 hidden values for every single stat is pretty ridiculous.  It will just make two tiers of battling, hacked and not hacked.

Anyway, I sent an e-mail to Nintendo customer queries yesterday, I'll post if I ever get a response.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Panel de Pon for DS!!

« on: March 19, 2007, 08:29:49 AM »

Hurray!

However, it does mean my favourite Tetris Attack won't be coming to the virtual console for a long, long time...

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Nintendo Gaming / eBay & Nintendo battle sure to ensue...

« on: March 19, 2007, 08:28:20 AM »

Click me

Yeesh, what a long link.  Anyway - it links to an eBay auction for the Japanese Pokemon Diamond game, hacked with all 493 pokemon, all shiny, 999 of every item, perfect stats, perfect collections of everything, but without the game itself even started yet.

So... I could be playing online against this?  The much heralded Battle Tower, home of the best teams, all with individual ranks, is going to be abused by hackers?  Is Nintendo taking any action against this kind of thing?

For that matter, is Nintendo going to prohibit sales of virtual data?  ie eBay auctions for level 100 shiny Mewtwos?  I know it's been done, it's possible, but what is Nintendo doing?  I don't want hacker cheaters making a mint on eBay because of this...  

[Tecmo Bowl]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official "Virtual Console Mondays" Thread

« on: March 12, 2007, 10:18:41 AM »

From Wikipedia's Tecmo Bowl article:
"The 2007 Virtual Console release is a modified version of the game without the NFLPA license- players are represented only by number and not by name."

So, this represents the first game modified from the original in re-release on the Wii, if I'm not mistaken.

It also bodes really poorly for the future of the excellent and legendary Tecmo Super Bowl (or any SNES NFL games).  Stupid EA.