Messages

1326

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 501: Faint Praise

« on: December 18, 2016, 02:29:09 PM »

Hopefully Chibi-Robo will also make it to GameCube VC, it's obscenely expensive on disc. Probably won't be as profitable for Nintendo as say Eternal Darkness, Smash Melee or Paper Mario TTYD, but I'm hoping they'll also release some of the less obvious ones. Baten Kaitos Origins is a really good shout too.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U Nintendo Network ID - Read the First Post (even if you've already posted!)

« on: December 17, 2016, 12:14:13 PM »

Hey feel free to add me, I'd be down for some Splatoon or Pokkén. But honestly I mostly enjoy drawing dumb doodles on Miiverse!


NNID: Steefosaurus

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TalkBack / Re: Yooka-Laylee Making Platform Switch, Wii U Version Cancelled

« on: December 13, 2016, 02:27:23 PM »

Awwww dang, was kinda counting on this and Zelda to be the last 2 big releases for Wii U... Any chance they'll be able to make it for Switch launch (window) this late in development? Could see this doing very well with the Nintendo audience, especially in early days of the console's life with not as much competition.

Hope backers will be treated well, be it with a Switch code or possible refunds or something. Can't expect everyone to have Switched over right away I don't think.

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NWR Feedback / Re: Why do you think NWR's forums rarely get active new members?

« on: December 12, 2016, 03:09:23 PM »

It's cool that y'all are thinking about this, but I don't think I'll ever be sold on creating even more clutter. Why create three subforums that are essentially just 1 or 2 threads each? (announcements, rules, introductions)

I would say have 3 or 4 forums: General chat, Gaming, NWR interactive (if merging talkback & podcasts doesn't crash the site!) and maybe the funhouse (child the mafia). Stick the forum rules & announcements as two or even one combined stickythread at the top of General, second sticky for new members, third for NNIDs/PSN/etc.

Ideally, I would make Funhouse & mafia a combined childboard to General Chat; they look alienating if I have to actively venture in there. I keep missing matchmaking posts from Phil because they're in that dumb subforum. Similarly, I don't currently have a handheld so never go there - as a result I missed out on Khush's thread on Warioland. See a pattern? People only go to subsections they feel are relevant to them. Having fewer of them means they're gonna see more of the active threads.
Consolidating all of these would make sure that when I go to a board I see all the new active threads at once and can pick & choose from there.

Gameplay, strategy & hardware should just merge into gaming for sure. Far too little use to warrant cluttering the forum index.

Extra TV and film boards sounds like even more unnecessary clutter to me. They would only become relevant if that many threads on different shows/movies do indeed crop up (they currently don't). It's a bit like solving a problem that isn't there (yet). Besides, a full page 1 of active threads in the general chat section would be a great "problem" to have - itd mean the forum is active!

I think it should be crucial to downsize to the current userbase, you can always add forums again where necessary if Switch grows the userbase again. In the meantime, those new members will then find a small but active forum, rather than a giant one with only very limited use in but a few subsections. Much more inviting. It's a public forum; perception should be the prime concern when wanting to attract new members!

Hope this doesn't across as know-it-ally, or pooping on ideas. But I think further categorisation is the exact opposite direction a forum with a small userbase should head, because it splinters those users further from each other. If you only have X amount of members, fine, but make sure they're running into eachother as much as possible to keep things lively.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Mario Run, Breath Of The Wild Switch Shown On Jimmy Fallon Show

« on: December 08, 2016, 04:00:00 PM »

This is what Nintendo needs to be doing, getting some mainstream exposure for their products. This is what helped make Wii the massive seller it was, appearing on shows like The Tonight Show and Ellen.

Hate to be "that person", but I mean, they also showed off Wii U at a Jimmy Fallon show... Though Fallon's audience has surely grown by now and they didn't show off any gameplay at that Wii U reveal, so hopefully things won't be too comparable haha.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: I boxed up my Wii U today...

« on: December 08, 2016, 02:42:43 AM »

I love how everyone keeps saying they have all these Wii U games in their backlog, as if you're ever going to get around to playing them. I mean I love the system but lack of games was it's biggest sin. Unless you don't have Steam or a Playstation and you like mini games that only make you wish you had something more to play then yeah it's got games.

Haha yeah I mean, you're most likely right. Looking at my gaming history, there's a good chance a few titles will never really get played. That said, Wii U is my primary gaming platform and it's not just indie titles or future ones like Yooka-Laylee & Breath of the Wild keeping me hooked on it for now.
From the retail games I'm still definitely going to play Rayman Legends, Captain Toad, Pikmin 3, Pokkén and Xenoblade X. With a few more candidates if they ever drop in price enough. Add to that some virtual console stuff I missed out on in earlier generations, as well as interesting indie titles and I could easily add another 15~ titles to it which would make Wii U one of my biggest personal libraries ever.

Of course all of this does indeed depend on whether I actually do get around to them like you say. :p

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: December 06, 2016, 05:57:42 PM »

So From Software is considering porting Dark Souls to Switch.

I wonder what ridiculous exclusive title Nintendo is funding them to put on the console.

Darkey Kong: Droppical Bleed.

(Or maybe Lost Kingdoms 3?)

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: I boxed up my Wii U today...

« on: December 06, 2016, 05:21:04 PM »

Always interesting to see how people's experiences vary yeah! For me it's not only my designated Netflix device, but I've got a solid 25 games I'm still eyeing. Granted some of those are shorter eShop titles but I could be well occupied for the next year at the very least.

Benefit of jumping onto a system late and having skipped the previous console generation perhaps? But yeah, despite all its shortcomings Wii U is steadily pacing towards becoming my favourite system of all time. It won't move to the closet for a while yet, I think.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Top 10 Nintendo published games (2000 - 2009)

« on: December 05, 2016, 05:18:11 PM »

All right I'll play. I hope all of these were Ninty published, think so anyway. Also kinda annoying 2010 isn't allowed haha, Sin & Punishment Star Successor would've been a high contender!
There's a lot of obvious greatest hits missing, like Mario Galaxy and Wind Waker but to my eternal shame I've not played enough of those to really speak on them.

1. Metroid Prime - played this years after release after remembering all the hype it got in magazines and thinking it could never live up to the 10/10 scores I was seeing. While I don't think it's perfect (that ending fetchquest...), it came very, very close.
2. Super Smash Bros. Melee - yeah its sequel had a better roster, but this one still gets pulled out from time to time. The leap from 64 to Melee is spectacular too.
3. F-Zero GX - I'm absolutely awful at this but it really, really hooked me for a while. If you could somehow capture its essence in pill format, rave culture would be revived overnight. *nyeeeeowwww*
4. Pokémon Gold/Silver - the Western releases were in 2000 & 2001 right, so I'm counting this. Improved on the original so much, people are praising the convenience improvements in Sun/Moon right now - Gold/Silver did a similar thing back then. And it was in colour! Had two main quests! A great sequel.
5. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - this felt very daunting initially. So many numbers & missions, anime tropes that were unfamiliar to me, it demanded slow methodical gameplay which I wasn't used to... But some of the characters really grew on me, I even read all those static dialogues it would let me. I messed up early on and tore a family of brothers apart. It tackled potent issues like racism head-on, a type of social commentary I often found lacking in games back then (also why I love Beyond Good & Evil so much).
6. Star Fox Adventures - yeah it's objectively not very good. It kinda falls apart halfway through and has some incredibly frustrating parts, a crap ending and some suuuuper cringey cutscenes. But that hub-world is gorgeous, the music is so atmospheric, I like the brief Arwing sections, the social order of the dinosaurs... But yeah. Rose tinted glasses all the way.
7. Wii Sports - feels kinda weird including this maybe, but EVERYONE wanted to play Wii tennis or boxing with you during this moment in time. Wii felt like it would revolutionize gaming, and I really wanted to buy into the motion illusion. It was so accessible, brought people together. For social impact alone this stands out.
8. Doshin The Giant - anyone remember this? The GameCube port of a 64DD game. My gaming has always been pretty limited to mostly Nintendo, but I did see god-sims like Black & White on PC at friends. To have something like that on console was pretty cool. I don't know if this would really hold up nowadays, it was pretty obtuse to be honest. But also very quirky and unlike anything else on the market.
9. Mario Power Tennis - sure, it's just tennis. But with singles, doubles, multiplayer, special moves, quite a big roster, a hilarious opening FMV, weird challenges and a few single player modes this was really cool. Secretly more fun than multiplayer staples like Mario Party.
10. Wave Race: Blue Storm - this GameCube launch title's controls were a little less intuitive than its predecessor's, but it was still a good time. The wave physics and just general look of the water really impressed me back then. Years later I read in a magazine how to unlock a "sarcastic announcer" who mocks your skills during the race. It feels like those types of dumb cheats have been less prevalent in recent years.

Boom! Maybe if I thought longer about it things like Eternal Darkness or DK Jungle Beat would push a few ones off the list but eh. Also makes me realise how little things I played on Wii... DKC:R was 2010 so that isn't eligible sadly.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Not a hater but... (future prediction)

« on: December 04, 2016, 04:00:01 PM »

Anyway, even before January's full unveiling, at this juncture I consider anything less than 3DS-family sales to be underperforming for Switch. Underperforming also doesn't mean failure. If it ended up with 50 million units sold, that's still good, but it should still sell more. After next year, Switch will have almost all of Nintendo's first party output. To me, that's more than enough to push it over 15 million sales. Nintendo might get that in Switch's first year.

Idk about this, I mean granted I'm by no means an expert and don't really follow sales much. But hasn't 3DS moved like, 60 million units? Do consoles outsell handhelds usually? (I'm asking because I wouldn't know!)
Given Nintendo's track record with things like N64, GameCube, Wii U wouldn't something in the 30-40 mill frame make more sense? I don't know if it's really going to take off like Wii did to be honest.

If people really start using Switches out of the house so they're visible in public, they have fun unique games as well as the ones people want (shooters, sports games, western RPGs), then yeah I could see it being successful. Definitely think you're right that it will surpass Wii U, but it will need to do so fairly quickly if they really want it to catch on.


Things like battery life, durability and lightning-in-a-bottle moments of tapping into whatever cultural zeitgeist is relevant at the time all seem like (at this point) still very uncertain aspects. Hoping to be wrong here but I definitely understand why people have reservations.

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General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: December 04, 2016, 03:05:48 PM »

If I remember correctly the last game I've purchased was on Steam and it's called TI-8000 or something like that. It's a programming game and I've not really understood what to do so I've "played" (if we can call this playing, more like trying to find which button to press) for about 30 minutes. Yea...

Does it basically try to emulate one of those TI-graphic calculators? I know people write simple games in those, they could be pretty versatile. Think a friend of mine found a code for it to run a simple version of poker or maybe blackjack? Tbh I mostly remember trying to draw immature shapes by plotting intersecting linegraphs.

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TalkBack / Re: Pokémon Go, Breath Of The Wild Emerge Victorious At 2016 Game Awards

« on: December 02, 2016, 06:24:13 AM »

Always interesting how these kinds of awards are handled. Imagine if there was an Oscar for most anticipated film. Not saying video games should emulate the (by no means perfect) Academy Awards, but it's basically just a hype award.

Pokémon Go winning does seem deserved if only for its impact. Basically rewrote a whole bunch of social norms for a few months over Summer. Severed is my personal GOTY by a long shot so would've liked to see that win. Not sure if splitting handheld from phonegames would've helped it in this case, since it was a mobile release first.

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General Gaming / Re: Lindemann Syndrome Anonymous (LSA): The Backlog Thread.

« on: November 30, 2016, 08:04:04 PM »

Yeah agreed that RPGs are difficult to return to sometimes, although Tokyo Mirage is fairly forgiving in that regard since you can reread what you're meant to do on the gamepad.

For me it's easiest to juggle one game per system (let's say 1 Wii U disc and 1 digital game, plus something on PC and/or on a second console hooked up). Really helps too if only one or two of them are storyheavy. Sure it's not like most videogame narratives are exactly James Joyce, but it's still to just forget what you're meant to aim for next sometimes.

Therefore my ideal set-up is to have an RPG or a long/storyheavy game going as sort of the 'main' game. And then I play a simple platformer or racing game alongside this. Imagine a sim or sportsgame or online shooter or something could fill that same role; something you already know how to play and can play in short bursts and then leave alone again with ease.

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General Gaming / Re: Lindemann Syndrome Anonymous (LSA): The Backlog Thread.

« on: November 29, 2016, 06:15:36 PM »

However, like I just mentioned, I've got a shortlist of games I'm currently sticking to playing through first. Thus, I'm afraid I'm not going to be playing the game ASAP just yet. But, with the way things are going, I can see myself making another short list after I finish this one and there's a strong possibility FE:PoR will make that one. I am curious to see why Soren choose that character as his namesake on these forums, for one. For that matter, I should probable add Skies of Arcadia Legends to my next shortlist and start playing all my expensive GC games. But that is a concern I don't need to worry about for some time.

Probably a better system for reducing the backlog clutter yes! Skies of Arcadia Legends is also on my list still, along with that other giant GameCube RPG - Tales of Symphonia. Knowing the amount of hours they will probably take however, I constantly put them off. I've still got some miscellaneous stuff for that system left to go through, like Billy Hatcher, Geist, Lost Kingdoms 2 and Odama.

None of those will light the world on fire (well, Odama might), but they're sure going to be shorter than those two giant RPGs. Think I might copy your approach and focus on the stuff I'm truly excited about it, rather than trying to whittle down the volume first.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: November 29, 2016, 12:37:25 PM »

Fully agree.
I remember playing through this game on GBA at launch. Want to know how to make a bad platformer even worse? Stick it on a tiny, poorly lit screen and downgrade the (originally, pretty decent) music.


That said, I'm glad the series didn't die out after that first bad entry. Rayman Origins is pretty awesome.

Yikes that sounds even worse... I think there's another handheld version which is meant to be better, maybe GBC?
And yeah I hope this didn't come off too negative, but it was probably the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a game? I've enjoyed Rayman 3 and Origins in the past and am technically 1 level into Legends already, but this really kinda soured me on the character for now. Will continue with Legends soon though to remind me how good the franchise can be when handled well.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: November 29, 2016, 11:23:00 AM »

Okay this ain't even a review, just gonna vent. Rayman for PS1, let's go.

So for a 1995 platformer this all looks pretty great right? Colourful, the animation is supersmooth mostly too. Soundtrack is decent, sound effects less so. However presentation only gets you so far. See all those spikes? That's Rayman for ya.

So this game definitely credits several people as "tests" (?) in the end-credits. Not sure what they tested but it sure wasn't playability. It controls alright~ish, if a bit finnicky and sluggish which would be alright, were it not for the absolutely satanic level design.
This game does absolutely everything it can to willingly screw you over! Spike traps, off-screen death drops, enemies spawning behind you, invisible spikes, spikes with a longer hitbox than their sprite makes it seem. Some vital parts of the level can only be triggered by standing on specific spots (unmarked of course).

There's regular enemies who take 3+ hits, constantly duck under your punches, there's enemies too small to even hit at all, they all respawn constantly anyway. If they hit you, get out asap cos your invincibility frames are very short - there's one beetle in particular who can go straight to hell. He'll regularly drain your three-block healthbar. And then you can start a level all over, or maybe only halfway back if there's a checkpoint (way too few of them).

But why even have a healthbar if you're just gonna make almost everything a 1-hit kill? And of course your lum count resets everytime so good luck farming 100 of them for one measly extra life. Now, maybe I just suuuuuck hard at platformers, but I just cheesed the whole game with the 99-lives code which I used FOUR TIMES. That's 396 lives, almost all of which I lost!! Oh and of course it ends on a dissapointing bossfight where you don't even fight the actual bad guy, who's already barely characterised. Oh and just to put a cherry on top of it, you can't even get to the bossfight without 100%-ing all the levels! I was at like 40% max, so yelled a big loud swear at the TV and used another cheatcode to get there.

Rayman absolutely astounds me, because it became a big franchise right? For part two they literally built two full games (Tonic Trouble as a test and then Rayman 2). That's cool and all but who in their right mind played this and thought "yeah this needs a big-budget full 3D sequel! It'll be our new mascot!"
Sure Rayman 1 is gorgeous, but that's literally it's only selling-point. Maybe it just sold stupidly well or something? Look, I like Michel Ancel's work a lot and future Rayman games were much better, but this game was absolutely screaming for an Easy Mode or something.

Rating: Rayman is the biggest proof I've ever seen how 1 aspect (difficulty) can utterly destroy almost any merit an otherwise fine~ish game has. Recommended to absolutely nobody, watch it on YouTube if you must. 2.5/10 solely for the visuals.

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General Gaming / Re: Lindemann Syndrome Anonymous (LSA): The Backlog Thread.

« on: November 29, 2016, 08:28:11 AM »

Maybe for 2017 we should turn this into a "reduce the backlog" thread instead? Like let's all try to finish/at least play one game per month or whatever. Beating a backlog is obviously futile, but we can surely try?

Khushrenada -- you HAVE to try Fire Emblem Path of Radiance ASAP. I beat it many years ago and it's one of my absolute favourites on GameCube. Stellar game, just turn off the battle animations and make sure you get the Soren/Ike bromance going for great character development. Over here the game actually sells for more on the 2nd hand market than I ever bought it for now, and it's been REALLY tempting to cash those 80 dollars. But haven't been able to part with it yet - what if I wanna play it again?!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: 11/26 Mario Kart 7, anyone?

« on: November 29, 2016, 08:19:37 AM »

Sadly I don't have any of the recent Mario Karts. Or a 3DS for that matter. I liked the idea in one of these other threads to form a squidsquad in Splatoon sometime, but idk how many people are still playing it? I was never good at Splatoon but it is a lot of fun so would join anyway.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Run the Series: Wario Platformers

« on: November 25, 2016, 07:40:25 PM »

What is going on with the forums software and polls? On this poll and the Donkey Kong poll last Run the Series thread, the first option has been dropped to the bottom of the poll mysteriously after a few days. What is doing that?

Just a corrective measure surely; it'd be unacceptable for the Virtual Boy installment not to get top billing like it deserves!

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TalkBack / Re: eShopping - November 24, 2016

« on: November 25, 2016, 07:38:26 PM »

The last one came out two weeks ago, so expect them at that rate usually!

Neat, thanks! The eShop has really saved the Wii U for me. I mean, the Nintendo titles were always going to be quality, but things like Severed, Affordable Space Adventures, Year Walk, Shantae, Octodad, Spy Chameleon etc. have really been the highlights of Wii U for me. So seeing more stuff you'd normally overlook is aces.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Run the Series: Wario Platformers

« on: November 25, 2016, 06:06:42 AM »

Wario games are typically always 'kinda' on my radar, but I rarely ever purchase them. Currently my Wii U wishlist includes WarioLand 4 & Shake It, and at various points in time I've considered getting WarioLand 2 or 3. Also saw friends having fun with WarioWare, but again never played it myself.


Exception to this rule was Wario World which I remember buying as an impulse-purchase. It hadn't reviewed great in the gaming magazine I read back then (and was my only source of news for games), scoring maybe 5 or 6 out of 10 for being too short and rather repetitive.

However I had a surprising amount of fun with it, replayed some of the bossfights dozens of times. There were these underground jump puzzle rooms hidden below trapdoors where you could switch the camera in 90 degree angles (I think the camera was fixed in the rest of the game?). It also had this weird gimmick where you'd fall off a stage into a kind of netherworld, losing coins until you found a spring to launch you back up. Always hated that, since it also had a regular lives system and this just wasted your time.

Years later I found out Wario World was actually developed by Treasure, who did Mischief Makers on N64, the Sin & Punishment games and Ikaruga (which I've still never beaten). Not the type of game you associate with them, I tend to think of them as a shooter/2D platformer studio - so it's interesting they also made one kinda odd wrestling inspired 3D platform/brawler.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: November 25, 2016, 05:54:47 AM »

For the sake of comparison (using Media Create Sales numbers):

Pokemon X and Y - 1.87 million
Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - 1.51 million
Pokemon Sun and Moon - 1.89 million

Pretty darn good. I'm also curious to see what the numbers from North America and Europe will look like.

So are those X/Y sales lifetime sales, or also just the launch? Because those are in the same ballpark and I kinda expected Sun/Moon to obliterate the previous records. The Gen 3 remakes doing lesser makes sense to me, they're 'just' remakes, reviewed less well and they're based on one of the weaker regions too (imo).

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TalkBack / Re: eShopping - November 24, 2016

« on: November 25, 2016, 05:44:18 AM »

Hey I like this type of round-up, are there gonna be more of them maybe once a month or so?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: EA is going to bring "one of their bigger games" to the Switch.

« on: November 18, 2016, 10:54:26 AM »

Great, now I'm going to be disappointed when this invariably doesn't happen. Thanks a lot!

As someone who would love a sequel or spiritual successor, this post saddens me.

Soz y'all. For what it's worth, the multiplayer of it definitely doesn't hold up, and the music/sounds were always pretty terrible on it...

On a serious note, if EA aren't talking about any of their big sports games (which a system really needs btw), then I kinda hope this might be them talking about Fe.
It was shown at E3 this year so might be too far in already, but a stylish 3D platformer that looks somewhat family friendly could sell gangbusters on a Nintendo system.

[/font]

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General Gaming / Re: Post happy video game music here

« on: November 17, 2016, 01:06:24 PM »

Never tried a Klonoa game yet, even though it's been on my list for ages. Came thiiiiiis close to getting Wiimake but for whatever reason didn't buy it on the spot and of course never saw it again.

Anyway who remembers Monkey Racing?!