Messages

[was]

101

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Diddy Kong Racing

« on: May 12, 2006, 02:03:31 PM »

King Kong wasn't supposed to be public domain, but while Universal was suing Nintendo over a Japanese person's poor grasp of the English language, Lincoln and Kirby did their homework and discovered that Universal had previously argued in court that King Kong was public domain, in order to get some sort of advantage in something or the other.


TrueNerd: Diddy Kong Racing has bananas laid out all over the course and picking them up adds to your top speed, and there are boost powerups, and stuff like that, so you need to decide which ones are worth going out of your way for. Assuming other characters don't beat you to them. IIRC.

There's no snaking. And there's no "rubber band" (which is where the computer players are allowed to defy the laws of physics and always hang on your butt, passing you if you make the slightest mistake, no matter how well you were driving beforehand). And the characters are fully polygonal, not made of five-frame sprites. DKR was much better than MK64, IMO.

102

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Diddy Kong Racing

« on: May 12, 2006, 01:01:52 AM »

Nintendo owned everything Rare made back when they were working for Nintendo. But then Nintendo gave/sold Rare most/all of the things they wanted when they split up. How else can we explain:

Banjo Kazooie: Published by Nintendo. Owned by Rare.
Perfect Dark: Published by Rare (actually a ruse). Owned and used by Rare.
Krystal: The original star of the Rare-created Dinosaur Planet, which played host to Fox McCloud. Owned and used by Nintendo.
Conker: Created for Diddy Kong Racing, a Nintendo-owned "Donkey Kong game". Owned and used by Rare.

That's why Rare still likes Nintendo. Because they were fair about the split. Although I figured Diddy Kong Racing would be history because of it, since Banjo and Conker became owned by Rare (although Nintendo "censoring" Conker for future releases would've been priceless).

But hey, if Nintendo can give Cpt. Falcon to Sega, and Fox and Krystal to Namco, then I shouldn't have been surprised that they'd lend Diddy to Rare, or that Rare might lend Banjo and Conker to Nintendo (for the DS only), or that Konami would lend Solid Snake to Nintendo so that a guy who quit working for Nintendo can make Smash Bros.

103

Nintendo Gaming / RE: ign pans nintendo's e3 conf

« on: May 10, 2006, 01:51:55 PM »

Quote
I really enjoyed the conference on a whole. As others have said, I think my expectations were a bit different. I wanted to see games and I wanted to see them played with the controller.

That's the job of the show floor (and with 27 playable games, they're doing a damn good job of it). Not the pre-show press conference.


Nintendo is lucky to have beaten Sony and MS, in the eyes of Nintendo fans (their usual E3 score). Because Sony and MS came in to the show with nothing much to speak of (a cobbled-together PS3 and the ever-obvious Halo 3), while Nintendo came in with everything. They should have dominated. But no, they want to "tease" us some more, and "give us a taste" even though we already had a pretty good idea what this tasted like, because these oversecretive bastards have been telling us to "wait for E3" since before the last E3, and the console is most likely launching in less than six months.

Oh no! Sony stole the Revmote functionality? Big deal. Delays won't stop that. The N64 launched a year after the PSX, but that didn't stop Sony from stealing analog. Should Nintendo delay the Wii for another year, only to watch the remote get stolen anyways? What would be the point? That's the problem with Nintendo's lack of competition. They can run away. Go chart some new blue ocean, kick back and make it look so easy and profitable, and someone will inevitably come along, put up more of a fight, and take a bite out of them. You can't hide from that under a veil of secrecy.

I would imagine that we didn't hear Nintendo's price because of Sony's $600 announcement. Nintendo was probably all set for Sony to come in with something like an extremely agressive $300, at which point the'd go with something like $150. But since Sony's gone a lot higher, they're wondering how high they can go. $250? $300? They shouldn't have to worry about price drops from MS for now, thanks to Sony's announcement. Yeah, that sucks. But my bigger (well, more immediate) problem with that train of thought is that Nintendo is supposed to go into E3 with contingency plans. $600 isn't off the scale of predictability, so Nintendo should've had their prepared response ready at a moment's notice.

Also there's the fact that Nintendo's not taking advantage of Sony's timing. Sony said $600 and we all had a good laugh. Then we all turned to Nintendo, expecting to repeat the joke in a more official manner. All Nintendo had to do was say something in a "low two" and we'd all be laughing at Sony again. But then Nintendo goes and says "Price doesn't matter." WTF? Not only did that just kill the joke, but now we have to wonder if the joke's really on Nintendo.  

104

Nintendo Gaming / RE: ign pans nintendo's e3 conf

« on: May 10, 2006, 02:25:36 AM »

105

TalkBack / RE: Nintendo's Media Briefing Summary

« on: May 09, 2006, 02:56:06 PM »

Quote
With regards to the price and availability of the console, Reggie said that mum will remain the word for now. Most likely Nintendo was waiting to hear Sony’s price point and official date, which was announced yesterday.

106

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Official Nintendo E3 Press Conference Is Happenin'! Thread

« on: May 09, 2006, 01:58:52 PM »

I haven't read everything yet, but my first impressions are that putting out Zelda TP in two versions is bogus, and that Nintendo failed yet again to deliver on the hardware details, preferring to be a cocktease. Even though they have no time left to reveal the details. Bogus.

Also, the "name" issue still stinks up the joint. Oh, LOL, Reggie made a nervous pun about it. They didn't fix the name, nor do anything to make anyone happier about it. But at least now we know they won't ever do anything about it, so we can accept that it sucks and move on.

These things are dark spots on an otherwise surprisingly good E3 showing.

107

Nintendo Gaming / RE: So what was the last secret?

« on: May 09, 2006, 01:48:59 PM »

It's the speaker on the weemote. As just a speaker on the remote it's a lame gimmick, but as an audio compliment to the rumble it's a sweet improvement.

108

General Gaming / RE: Sony E3 2006 Press Conference

« on: May 08, 2006, 06:09:36 PM »

Quote
I wonder what the reaction of the crowd was when Sony revealed that they were stealing Nintendo's idea, and doing a crap job of it. Personally i would be booing and throwing whatever was in my hands at them.

I saw someone saying that someone in the front row laughed.

109

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Sony half-assed ripped off Nintendo

« on: May 08, 2006, 06:05:50 PM »

I'm surprised they didn't say that there wasn't enough power left in the batteries for rumble after their weemote wipoff.

But I guess they don't ... *battery dies*

[Mario]

110

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Sony half-assed ripped off Nintendo

« on: May 08, 2006, 05:30:03 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
LOL this only has 6 degrees of control. It's basically a joystick you can tard around with in the air, what a JOKE

It might be possible that they intended to say 6 axes of control. Up, down, left, right, forward, backward. Or maybe rolling in some directions.

We should probably be careful not to underestimate Sony. Plus even six degrees would still enable quite a lot, if used well. Of course, if all Sony has is a weak "box lifting demo" right now, and they're launching the system in November, then they most certainly won't have any quality uses of the feature until well after launch, if ever. But still, it's something they can boast about, and can probably shake some people's Rev hype.

[mantidor]

111

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Sony half-assed ripped off Nintendo

« on: May 08, 2006, 05:10:40 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
LMAO $500? they are insane.

PS3 = $600
PS3 Retard Pack = $500

112

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Sony half-assed ripped off Nintendo

« on: May 08, 2006, 04:58:15 PM »

Nintendo's appropriate response?

Ditch the unpopular "Wii" name and go back to "Revolution". But write it in the Spiderman font.

113

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Sony half-assed ripped off Nintendo

« on: May 08, 2006, 04:54:28 PM »

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6149470.html

Bananarang is gone. Dual Shock 3 is a wireless Dual Shock clone with ripped off Revmote functionality.

114

TalkBack / RE: Three New Games From Square-Enix

« on: May 08, 2006, 02:49:40 PM »

Kenshin Dragon Quest came out a couple years ago in Japan, and had a lot of potential, but was kind of lame, because Enix supposedly built the entire game within 3 months of deciding that the technology in their Revmote-style sword was a good idea. It apparently didn't even have any story, or anything good that Enix is known for, beyond a Dragon Quest logo on the box. Because Enix thought it would sell based on the Revmote-style gimmick and brand name alone.

Dragon Quest Swords on the Revolution/Wii has been a no-brainer since the moment the Revolution's secret was announced. If Enix has been working on the game since they heard of the Revolution, it should be fantastic. If they just slapped it together because it was so obvious that it required zero thought, then it'll suck massively.

The name "Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen & The Tower of Mirrors" suggests that this one will have a plot. Unfortunately, it might also suggest that there's only one dungeon (tower) in the entire game.

With Dragon Quest 8, there seems to be a building demand for freshness in the gameplay of the DQ series. Dragon Quest Swords could very well become the new standard for Dragon Quest, assuming the game has the required depth and addictive qualities of the original. Unfortunately the game won't be able to boast about it's graphics. Not even because graphics apparently aren't the Wii's strong suit, but because Enix hasn't apparently hired anyone big like Level 5 to provide the graphics. But there's a chance (best case scenario here) that they'll be as good as Dragon Quest 8. Enix supposedly got one of their other teams to reproduce Level 5's DQ8 graphics on the PSP, so they should be able to do the same for the better-than-PS2 Rev/Wii.

115

TalkBack / RE: Yuji Naka Leaves Sonic Team

« on: May 08, 2006, 01:59:48 PM »

With only $100,000 at his disposal, it's a safe bet that his first game is going to be for either the GBA, PS2, DS, or Revolution/Wii.

Does that make another portion of the Nights rumor (that it's Nintendo-exclusive) possibly true?

[mantidor]

116

Nintendo Gaming / RE:A Revolution in China?

« on: May 07, 2006, 05:01:15 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidor
oh yeah I was sure you knew about piracy in China, I was confirming that for some odd reason, in the early days of piracy with the Famicom/NES, Zelda and Metroid were almost never pirated and thus became unknown in the region ("That guy is a woman!?", I get that a lot around here when playing metroid, even among what we could call traditional gamers). Im sure that being Zelda the first cartridge with a battery backup made things difficult for pirates, but I have no idea why Metroid was also left behind.

Metroid and Zelda were Famicom Disk System games, not Famicom games. That's probably where the disconnect comes from.

Since FDS games were writable, they often had save features, but the FDS didn't come out in America, so they had to work their way around it. That's why Metroid had such a huge and complicated password system (the Justin Bailey password apparently didn't exist in the original FDS version, because it didn't have passwords). The battery backup was invented for the American version of Zelda 1.

But I was under the imnpression that the Famicom Disk System was bootlegged to all heck. Because all you had to do was put together some custom disks, and then you could easily write whatever game you wanted onto them.

And the HK guys didn't even stop there. They bootlegged the American NES versions (as Famicom carts). I've got a couple of those. And I don't have one, but I've heard that there's even an HK version of Metroid for the Famicom out there, where they took the original FDS version and put it onto a battery backup Famicom cart, and it's supposed to be better than either the NES or FDS versions.

Here's a pic of some cool FDS bootlegs, for your enjoyment.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9330/fdsgames5px.jpg

Notice how none of the disks actually have "Nintendo" stamped into them, and how Mario 3 says it's supposed to be played in a Game Doctor.

[IceCold]

117

TalkBack / RE:DS Lite Gets a US Release Date

« on: May 06, 2006, 03:12:28 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: IceCold

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
What's so shocking about the price? There is no sane reason to charge more for the Lite than the standard DS, in fact it should be cheaper because there's less material involved.

The screens?

Apparently you can enable the DSLite brightness settings on the DS's screens by overwriting the DS's firmare with the DSLite's firmware (which is an unauthorized procedure, and would undoubtedly void your warranty). But that drains the battery faster.

The DSLite has a bigger battery.

118

TalkBack / RE: DS Lite Gets a US Release Date

« on: May 04, 2006, 01:05:30 PM »

I'm not surprised by the price. The DS wasn't selling at $130 in America. NOA had two choices, they could either offer another price drop, or an upgrade to the DSLite. They can't just bring out the DSLite and increase the price, the way Nintendo did in Japan.

I figured that NOA's voluntary "stepping aside" on the DSLite and letting all of it's stock get gobbled up by Japan was a pretty clear indicator that they weren't going to try and charge the same as Japan.

119

TalkBack / RE: Midway Charges Into E3

« on: May 04, 2006, 02:45:14 AM »

Yep. If the "Wii" version of Blitz actually had a different release date than the others, then I think they'd have specified it, like they did with Ant Bully.

And considering that October isn't unreasonably far away from November, which they specifically mentioned, I think it's quite safe to think the Revolution/Wii/whatever will be available (in America even) no later than October.


I should've probably used actual words in my last post.

120

Nintendo Gaming / RE: My Wii Focus Group & Results

« on: May 03, 2006, 11:19:37 PM »

Quote
Jonny, you can vent all you want about the name, but the above few posters are right; Nintendo has handled it as best they could. You contradicted yourself by asking why Nintendo would reveal it in its own announcement, then admitting that "mainly gamers" would hear about it. This thread is about nongamers, right? The backlash from the name would come from the gamers if anywhere, which is why they released it two weeks earlier. The focus at E3 just can't be the name, so it was better to get it over and done with. Then, the nongamers would hear about the name later, together with the system, the games and the controller.

Why do people seem to think that in order for Nintendo to have a name that would be acceptable to non-gamers, it inevitably has to be hated by 95% of the gaming population?

Quote
I think you misunderstood Hostile; he meant that your survey was ridiculous in that it asked the nongamers what they felt about the name in itself, and not as a package with the Wii.

Do you honestly believe that "Wii" is the verbal embodiment of the Revolution?

121

TalkBack / RE: EDITORIALS: Wii Will Get Over It, Won’t Wii?

« on: May 03, 2006, 11:08:17 PM »

Great article Rick. I figured you'd be stepping into a hornet's nest by saying anything, but you came across really solid. My only complaint would be that it wasn't "all encompassing" enough, but that'd be quite hard to do, and something is definitely better than nothing.


BTW, as for my own opinions on "Wii", they haven't softened at all. But I'm avoiding talking about it because I don't want to upset anyone and I've already said my piece.

Some vague things I do want to adress though...

The argument that non-gamers don't have a problem with the name. That's because Nintendo is completely irrelevant to them. It's not a plus.

The argument that it will be accepted if they put out a billion ads/sell a billion units. That's true of anything.

The argument that N-fans are immature and flip out over nothing. Not something that we should really be pointing out, and not a factor anyways, seeing how "Wii" became the joke of the entire industry, not just Nintendo fansites.

The fact that the Rev will still has games in the pipeline that won't be canned by the name change, and those games (and future ones) may in fact be revolutionary. True. But Nintendo may well be building themselves an image problem here that'll be even bigger than the one that plagued the GameCube. Tell me that won't affect future development decisions. The stylish Revolution was doing a very good job of deflecting criticism (assuming Nintendo were to unveil a price that compensated for it's apparent hardware weakness, and the Revmote delivered).

[Mike S says:]

122

TalkBack / RE: Midway Charges Into E3

« on: May 03, 2006, 05:23:09 PM »

Quote
Mike S says: It's important to note that just because Midway says the game is coming in October doesn't mean it will be coming out on Wii in October. There's a good chance that October is when the game first becomes available on any console.

Quote
Blitz®: The League™ (Xbox 360™, Nintendo Wii™, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system; October 2006)

The Ant Bully (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC; July 2006 – Nintendo Wii; November 2006)

 

[VGrevolution]

123

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo Ads Win Awards

« on: May 03, 2006, 01:51:24 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: VGrevolution
But I thought Nintendo was sucky when it came to marketing? At least that is what everyone says

I need to make you watch "HOTNEWZ 64".

Speaking of which, if NCL won't let NOA put demo discs in Nintendo Power, they should at least be making regular promo DVDs like they did on VHS.

And comics. Since that time when they came out with the LTTP comics in NP, we've missed out on volumes of official manga for Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages/Seasons, Four Swords, and probably a lot more.

124

TalkBack / RE: Tomb Raider: Legend to have

« on: May 03, 2006, 12:59:07 PM »

I'm pretty sure the extra feature is going to be that they removed the nipple.

125

TalkBack / RE: DS Rumble Pak Now Free with Metroid Prime: Hunters

« on: May 02, 2006, 03:43:29 PM »

Free WiFi dongle would've been a better idea.

I know I said they missed the boat on free dongles by not giving them out with Mario Kart, but if they can overlap and try again with the Rumble Pak, they can overlap and try again with the WiFi dongle.

BTW, doesn't giving the Pak away free with Metroid Prime Pinball, and then giving it away free with Metroid Prime Hunters, cause an abnormally large overlap?