Messages

26

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2024?

« on: February 14, 2024, 11:26:40 AM »

1. Switch Successor will release in the 2nd half of the year.
2. Switch Successor will be 100% backward compatible with Switch games.
3. A new 3D Mario games will come out in the 2nd half of this year for Switch Successor as well.  It will be a fully open world game.  Basically Bowsers Fury was a playable beta for what Nintendo had in store for the next 3D Mario.
4. Actual gameplay footage for Metroid Prime 4 will be revealed.  The game will be moved to the Switch Successor to take full advantage of that systems power.  There will be no cross gen version with Switch, since Metroid is no where near as popular as Zelda to justify such a thing.
5. A new Donkey Kong platformer will be revealed.  I'm not sure if it'll be 2D or 3D, but it will be a new platformer where you control Donkey Kong.
6. A new 2D Zelda will finally be revealed as well.
7. Nintendo will keep the regular Switch alive with more remakes and remasters.  I predict at least 3 new remakes or remasters of Nintendo games for the regular Switch.
8. A new IP will be revealed for the Switch Successor.
9. Mario Kart 9 will be revealed, but a 2025 release date.
10. The next Smash Bros will also be revealed but will also have a 2025 release date.

27

General Gaming / Re: Games Beaten, Completed, or Played in 2023

« on: January 04, 2024, 01:57:26 PM »

Everything I beat was on the Switch this year.

Games Beaten

Xenoblade 3
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Maxim Mode)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Julius Hard Mode)
Bayonetta 3
Astalon: Tears of the Earth
No More Heroes 3
Another World
Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
Teslagrad
Kaze and the Wild Masks
Gradius (Arcade Japanese version)
Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisp
Salt and Sanctuary
Lost Ruins
Super Mario Wonder
Cathedral
A Hat in Time
Streets of Rage 4
Aggelos
Wonder Boy Returns Remix
Roar of Revenge
Super Mario RPG Remake
Disney's Aladdin (Virgin Genesis version)
Disney's Aladdin (Capcom SNES version)
Minoria

Games played but not beaten

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Miriam Hard Mode)
Gradius (Arcade Western Nemesis version)
Salamander (Arcade)
TYPHOON (A-JAX) (Arcade)
Thunder Cross (Arcade)
Iron Crypticle
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
Shantae
Disney's The Lion King (Played both the SNES and Genesis version on the Collection)


So I did pretty good this year considering Xenoblade 3 and Tears of the Kingdom took up close to half of my overall game time for the year.

28

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch is so popular people don't even post

« on: January 03, 2024, 11:03:07 AM »

The Switch does have tons of ports and re-releases.  But I don't find it to be a problem because the Switch has strong enough third party support that there are enough new games on the system available that you could avoid the re-releases and still have a healthy backlog of stuff to play.  Prior to the Switch Nintendo would remake an old game and that was it, for like a three month window.  Play this port or play nothing.

I also wouldn't discount PS4 ports even if they come a few years late.  Again, back in the Gamecube days a port of a well regarded PS2 game was a valuable entry in the library.  That sort of thing isn't great if you own all the current systems but if you only own the Nintendo one then that's essentially a new game.  It's the sort of thing that between the SNES and Switch was rare for Nintendo consoles.  Over the last year I'm starting to see the types of games I'm interested in get announced for the PS5 and not the Switch but prior to that I could kind of assume that the Switch would get the games I'm interested in.  And if that's happening for like 80% of the games on your radar then you don't get hung up on the missing 20%.

It's also funny how some people discount ports that are on the Switch when the hybrid nature of the Switch makes those ports handheld games as well.  I mean half of the GBA's success 20 years ago was getting handheld ports and remakes of SNES games.  So when the Switch gets a late port, it's no real different than the ports and remakes the GBA was getting.

So to 99% of the general public (since less than 1% even know the Steam Deck exist), the Switch is the only way to play many of these games on a handheld.  So the Switch getting ports that are considered late, it's not a big deal compared to previous home console only systems when the handheld benefit is a pretty big deal to make some people want to buy it, even if they might already own it on a different system.

29

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch is so popular people don't even post

« on: December 26, 2023, 11:03:53 AM »

That's because the Switch actually has games people want to play so there's less time to post.  The original tag line was "where Nintendo fans go to bitch", so since there's not much to bitch about anymore, no more post.

30

TalkBack / Re: Atari Acquires Developer Digital Eclipse

« on: November 05, 2023, 04:22:28 PM »

Since several of Digital Eclipse game Collections they've made for Capcom and Konami have managed to be million sellers, you'd have to imagine Atari would still allow them to work with other third party publishers on other retro game collections.

I mean that would be rather weird for Atari to buy a company like Digital Eclipse and not let them keep working on the kind of things that made them famous in the first place.  But then again Atari has a very long history of making bad decisions so yeah, this could go either way. 

31

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter

« on: November 05, 2023, 04:12:56 PM »

I managed to finish Mario Wonder before the end of October so might as well get my thoughts on that one.

Super Mario Wonder

Well here it is, the first 2D Mario in over a decade that everyone has been going crazy over because they moved away from the New series into something different again.  So how does it hold up from a 2D Mario hardcore like myself?  Well for the most part pretty good but it's does have some glaring issues.

What I love the best about the game is how it's the first 2D Mario since Bros 3 to actually try and match that games creativity.  The thing that made Bros 3 my favorite game in the 2D series is just the complete variety of gameplay in each level.  So many one off idea's, and one off enemies to make things fresh with every level that no 2D Mario since then was able to match, until now.  Mario Wonder actually does a great job of making every level feel fresh with lots of new enemies and gameplay that will be used once, and then moved on.  I also like how the levels are shorter like Bros 3 and Luigi U, which means nothing every overstays it's welcome and going back into a level to find any thing you missed doesn't take very long.

The game also has an amazing first few hours since they give you access to harder optional levels early on along with the normal levels so combined with the shorter level length, the beginning of the game was non stop fun since it didn't suffer from intro that World and New Super Mario Bros Wii and U have were the first few world area's can feel a little boring because of how easy they are.

But then I reach the 3rd main area of the game and suddenly start to realize, the overall difficulty isn't getting any harder.  I mean there's still optional harder levels every once and a while, but the average 3rd World level feels about the same in difficulty as the average 2nd world level.  I'm thinking, OK, I'm not quite halfway through yet so I'd imagine things will pick up once I hit the 4th world since New Super Mario Bros Wii and U both get noticable difficulty increases in their second half.  Nope I was wrong, it doesn't get any harder until the second half of the second to last world.

So yeah, this is the biggest problem with Mario Wonder, the difficulty on the average level for most of game is just a straight line.  There's a star rating system for each level to tell you how difficult is is, but to me the 1-3 star range all feel about the same.  Only 4 and 5 stars actually feel noticeable more difficult from the rest but that don't make up the majority.  To me the 1st world overall is the easiest, but then world 2-5 all feel the same in terms of difficulty until then finally the 6th and 7th world finally increase the difficulty but even their average level is easier then what the later levels of Mario World, NSMB Wii and NSMB U where. 

It also has the same problem Mario Galaxy 1 and Mario Odyssey have in the Wonder flower sections where these area's are really creative and visually striking, but much of the gameplay they introduce in them is too easy and end before they can take full advantage of the idea they created.  Now a few of these Wonder section do get expanded on in the Bonus World levels that are the hardest levels in the game and these levels are by far the best in the game as a result as well.  It really makes me wish they would have done more with a lot of these Wonder flower sections, especially since many of them are optional in the first place.  It's like since they're optional, the developers shouldn't have worried about them being too hard since less skilled players couldn't have just skipped them if the section was too much for them.  I guess they wanted to make sure everyone could see most of the Wonder flower sections since those were a major selling point of the marketing so that's why most are just extremely easy to do.

Now overall the game is still really fun, the shorter levels that are all unique made me never get bored even if many were easier then I would have liked.  It did have very hard final bonus level for doing everything like the 3D Mario's have that literally took me close to 2 hours to finish, so it ended on a very high note for me at least.

If I were to put Mario Wonder in my Top 5 Mario list, it'd go like this.

1. Super Mario Bros 3
2. New Super Luigi U
3. New Super Mario Bros U
4. Super Mario Wonder
5. New Super Mario Bros Wii

Super Mario Bros 3 is still at the top since it has a large variety of gameplay with a great challenge to back it up.  New Super Luigi U is right behind it since it has the shorter and challenging levels like Bros 3, but the gameplay isn't quite a varied.  New Super Mario Bros U starts slower then Wonder but the difficulty does get noticeably harder around the 3rd World and keeps bumping it up each World as well which makes the overall game more exciting.  New Super Mario Bros Wii might have originally been higher since the overall second half is more difficulty then Wonder, but not that much compared to the other top 3 games.  Plus I found NSMB Wii Bonus world stages not that great for the most part, while in Wonder the Bonus World levels are some of the best levels I've played in a 2D Mario, so that gives Mario Wonder the slight edge over NSMB Wii.



Oh and while I'm at it, might as well add Cathedral since I almost finished it this week and I had the majority of the game done by October 31'st

Cathedral

You know how I said my biggest problem with Mario Wonder was how they didn't use many of it's idea's to their fullest.  Well Cathedral shows that's it's possible to have the opposite problem, and run your idea's into the ground.  I compared it earlier to a Wonder Boy title, but it goes on way longer then any of those games.  It's trying to be all retro like them, but the older Wonder Boy games are all less then 10 hour experiences while this game took me over 20 hours to beat.  The only Wonder Boy game that's even close to this length was the recent Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom and that game took me less then 20 hours and had way more gameplay variety then Cathedral does. 

Now it's got some good gameplay sections that do a good job of representing the gameplay you'd find in a classic Wonder Boy, but then it decides to keep stretching it out until you just get exhausted.  The Final Area's in particular is the perfect example.  It's starts out with a pretty challenging platforming area filled with instant death spikes trying to crush you, then followed by a super bullshit boss fight.  You'd think ok, now the final boss must be right around the corner but then no, here's a new large dungeon that has 5 different things you have to collect to unlock a door that looks like the final boss will be behind it.  So after you get all these and unlock the door, it turns out here's a bunch of platforming and puzzles sections based on area's from the rest of the game that you have to do as well now.  Then you finally get to fight the final boss who's was pretty challenging, but I really enjoyed the fight itself, but the final area's didn't need to be anywhere near that length to get to this fight.

This game is like the perfect example of how these small indie games can be just as bloated as their AAA counterparts.  The developers are making something like the classic Wonder Boy titles, but don't seem to realize the classic Wonder Boy games were all sub 10 hours games for a reason.  I mean there's are some good idea's and boss fights in this game I really enjoyed, but there's a lot of frustrating things that make it hard for me to recommend this to anyone that isn't super hardcore into the classic Wonder Boy style titles and even then, I warn people to be prepared for a lot of BS.  Since it goes on way longer then any of those games and isn't anywhere near as polished, don't buy it unless it's on sale or else you might be really disappointed.

Now I don't want people to think I hate the game because there's was quite a few area's in the game that I really liked.  It's just it's so frustrating that the signs of something that could have been truly great are their if the devs didn't stretch themselves so thin by making something way bigger then it needed to be.

32

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter

« on: October 20, 2023, 03:55:54 PM »

Well with Mario Wonder out, no more spooky games this October.  Well, I guess levels with Boo's could be considered spooky, but I haven't gotten to any of them yet.  But I did manage to play a few games that would fit the Halloween theme pretty well before Mario Wonder came out.

Salt and Sanctuary

So this game is basically a 2D Demon/Dark Souls.  The gameplay is a complete clone of what you would expect from the Souls games, except in 2D.  But hey, it does a pretty good job of being like the game it was clearly inspired by.  I had fun for the most part, exploring the world and killing most of the bosses.  My biggest problem though some area's of the game have enemies that blend in with the backgrounds too much, as well as traps that are hard to see as well since they also blend in with the background.  Like most of my death outside of boss fights are from **** I didn't even notice until it was too late.  This is my biggest issue with a lot of indie games in general is they get so obsessed with their ART, and don't seem to realize how hard it is for the rest of us to tell what the **** is even going on in their games at times.

Lost Ruins

Well this is a dark metroidvania staring anime girls.  When you first start the game the message even tells you this is going to be a survival experience where every decision matters.  So I'm thinking OK, this will also be a Soul-like experience as well, since we all know these indie's love to make everything either a Souls or Rouge-like these days.  Well for the 30 minutes, it was kind of like that with my character having limited items to heal, and slower combat that you had to be more careful with.

But then you find equipment you can equip that autofills your HP after taking any damage, which completely destroys whatever survival experience that developers where trying to do.  Seriously, it only takes about an hour until you realize just how broken some of the abilities you can equipment can make your character, and the rest of the game is just a joke difficulty wise.  Every non-boss enemy I was able to one-shot by the half way point of the game, and even the bosses go down pretty fast once you realize their patterns.

At least it was a short game, takes less then 5 hours to beat.  After you beat it it had a new mode that lets you play as different characters, that once again, they also become easy to cheese the game after about an hour as well.  At the end of the day it was an overall OK experience, especially since I bought it on sale, but the game completely fails at being this challenging survival experience it literally advertises itself as when they make it super easy to cheese the whole thing.

Iron Crypticle

So this game is pretty much Smash TV, but with a Ghost and Goblin setting.  The levels you play on the first floor was actually pretty fun and then the difficulty picks up quite a bit on the second floor but I was still enjoying it.  Then you reach the 3rd floor and the game becomes total fucking bullshit.  Seriously, if you don't have the right upgrades to your character by then, you're pretty much fucked.  Way too many enemies are now onscreen, with projectiles flying everywhere making it almost impossible to even tell what the **** is going on.

Now this wouldn't be a problem if you could upgrade your characters right but all character upgrades are done by RNG.  Sometime the shop that sells the upgrades won't even appear depending on the path you take, which means you might as well restart the game since you'll be screwed when you get to the 3rd floor.  Of course even if you do get to the shop, the upgrades you can buy are also decided by RNG, which means you might not even be allowed to buy the upgrades you need the most, which once again means you'll be screwed by the time you reach the 3rd floor.  Seriously, **** this game, it's nothing but RNG garbage.

Cathedral

So this is pretty much if you made Shovel Knight a metroidvania, but with a more Ghost and Goblins setting as well.  I wasn't able to finish this one before Mario Wonder came out, but I'll go back to it after I'm done with Wonder.  I played it for over 5 hours and for the most part I'm digging it, but it's got some glaring issues.  The biggest is in vertical area's of the game, the screen wont scroll until your right at the top of the screen, which means you will take unavoidable hits from enemies and stage hazards because you literally can't see the damn things.  Also has an annoying habit of randomly spawning some enemies right in your path during platforming sections.

Still interested in coming back to this one since overall it reminds me a lot of a Wonder Boy titles so I'd like to finish it.

33

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Unconfirmed(?) FTC Leak: MS hoping to buy Nintendo (and Valve)

« on: September 22, 2023, 11:03:45 AM »

Hopefully news like this will finally make people stop sucking Phil Spencer's dick and realize he's no different then the rest Microsoft management.  Every time Microsoft would buy another studio, so many comments online praise Phil for being so smart in his decisions, like no one else would have thought of that.  Seriously, if Phil was so smart he would have restructured Microsofts internal studio's run better, as well as put a greater emphasis on quality.

Instead as Broodwar already said, they just use their massive war chest to buy all competition.  The most telling example is how Halo used to be the premier online shooter until Call of Duty surpassed it.  Instead of making the right steps to compete, they just fumbled the ball over and over again.  No surprise that when the most recent Halo which they spent years hyping up ended up being a joke, they finally said "**** it" and just bought up Activision so they could have Call of Duty themselves.

This would have been like if Nintendo, after Skyrim surpassed Skyward Sword, decided to just buy Bethesda themselves instead of creating Breath of the Wild to compete.  This is why it's so annoying that many don't seem to have a problem with Microsoft buying up all these studio's.  Microsoft is by far the worst 1st party developer, with many of it's studio's being poorly run with no reguards for quality.  People really want these guys in charge of most of the industry?

Yes Nintendo and Sony do publish games of lesser quality as well, but they at least have studio's that they expect Game of the Year worthy titles from and fund those studio's well.  Microsoft is too incompetent to even do that.  When Microsoft does publish a higher quality game it's usually by accident instead of actual good leadership on their end.

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TalkBack / Re: Mario vs. Donkey Kong Remake Scampers onto Switch This February

« on: September 16, 2023, 11:15:51 AM »

I think this is the better game to remake since DK 94 is already an amazing game.  As we saw with something like Links Awakening, games that are already regarded as masterpieces, Nintendo doesn't change that much with the remake.  So if they remade DK 94 it would have been pretty close to the same game but with better graphics. 

I'd hope with this game, since it wasn't as highly praised, it'll get the Zero Mission treatment where they make a lot of changes and add significant new content to improve on it.  Then we'll finally have a sequel to DK 94 that's closer in quality to that game, which the original GBA game while still good, wasn't quite there.  That's why I prefer games like this getting remakes since they can benefit more then games that are already amazing and don't really need any major changes.

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TalkBack / Re: Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door Remake Announced For 2024

« on: September 16, 2023, 10:55:30 AM »

I have only played the newer Paper Mario games so this would be my first time playing the game. I do find it odd that they did not start with remastering the first game, but people really seem to like this one so I will give it a go.

Probably because the original Paper Mario has been available on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console, and the Nintendo Switch Online service.  Meanwhile TTYD has been stuck on only the Gamecube for almost 20 years now.  So to a much larger audience this is basically a new game to them, compared to the original which was available on both the Wii and Switch.

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TalkBack / Re: Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door Remake Announced For 2024

« on: September 15, 2023, 05:46:26 PM »

And then after telling everyone not to buy it, someone points it that it is selling less than Origami King so then they freak out because that means Nintendo won't make a new Mario RPG since people clearly aren't buying the "best" RPG one so now they need to get people to buy it while still hating it. Will laugh-o if that happens.

Looks like it's starting to happen. With the news that the Switch version is only 30FPS compared to the Gamecube which is 60FPS, I see some on the internet already refusing to buy this now.  Which is really funny since the original at 60FPS is still a really slow paced game with characters that already move choppy because of the paper theme.

I can understand fast paced games like racers, platformers and action games feeling like a downgrade going from 60FPS to 30FPS, but for this game it's just laughable to see people getting that offended.  After all these years of cursing Nintendo to make a new Paper Mario like TTYD, they're going to give up their best chance over a very petty reason.

37

TalkBack / Re: F-ZERO Returns Today as the Next 99-player Title

« on: September 15, 2023, 05:37:10 PM »

As for F-Zero GX, word on the street was that it crossed 1.5 million and this knowledge came about 5 years ago from Nagoshi himself. Here's Nintendo Life's article in which he states it at that amount and being proud of the sales for it. F-Zero GX also made the list of Player's Choice games on the GameCube and had some copies made with the yellow branding which meant it was at least a million seller. Considering GameCube console sales were much lower compared to SNES and most other Nintendo consoles, the fact that GX did about half the SNES sales is actually a positive thing showing why the demand is there for a follow-up entry.

Either that interview mistranslated how much it sold or Nagoshi confused the games numbers with a different game, because Nintendo's own internal sales numbers have the game below one million.

https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/nintendo-software-and-hardware-sales-data-from-1983-to-present.170/

This is a list of all Nintendo million sellers as of June 2023, straight from Nintendo's Public Relationship Department and GX never crossed the million mark worldwide.  The only F-Zero games to do that where as follows.

SNES - 2.85 million
X - 1.10 million
Maximum Velocity - 1.05 million

Now that same Nintendolife article says it's source is a thread on ResetEra.  If you go to the thread on Reset Era where the source is from, somebody on that thread says the last numbers we had from places like NPD in America and Media Create had GX at only 338k in America and 80k in Japan.  They also say it did 99k in Europe but no source on that.  The NPD and Media Create numbers are accurate since during the mid to late 2000's, NPD wasn't has harsh on leaks like they would become years later so people on Neo Gaf would report the North American number for games all the time and I remember F-Zero GX were somewhere over 300k, so only 338k in America sounds right.

So best case scenario, GX only did over 500k wordwide, which for a game as expensive to make as GX is not very good.  Yes it was on the Gamecube which underperformed, but look at other mid-tier Nintendo series back on it.

Metroid Prime - 2.84 million
Star Fox Adventure - 1.82 million
Pikmin - 1.6 million
Pikmin 2 - 1.12 million
Metroid Prime 2 - 1.10 million

For a game like GX, it was critically acclaimed and well loved by the people who played it.  So why did it fail to sell anywhere close to other similar Nintendo franchises?  Nintendo did all they could to make this series more popular and it didn't work.  This is why F-Zero died while Metroid, Star Fox and Pikmin all got new installments after the Gamecube era.

38

TalkBack / Re: Princess Peach: Showtime Launching March 22

« on: September 14, 2023, 07:08:50 PM »

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this.  This game looks like it could be amazing based on what they showed.  Nice variety of gameplay with more yet to be shown.  Definitely something that has a lot of potential.

39

TalkBack / Re: Another Code Games, Including Wii Title Unreleased In North America, Being Remade For January La

« on: September 14, 2023, 06:56:16 PM »

Even though I wasn't that interested in either game back in the day, I might pick this up on sale in the future.  The most exciting part is hopefully other lesser known Wii and DS games getting remakes now.  I'd love to see a Pandora's Tower remake or remaster, especially since the North American Wii versions have that terrible bug that will cause the game to freeze at the end.  Maybe Disaster: Day of Crisis might finally come out as well.

40

TalkBack / Re: Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door Remake Announced For 2024

« on: September 14, 2023, 06:15:02 PM »

At last, all the Thousand Year Door fans can finally shut the **** up.

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll find some change in the remake that they'll argue butchers the entire experience now.  Then they'll be mad that more people are playing the inferior Switch version instead of the superior Gamecube version.

41

TalkBack / Re: F-ZERO Returns Today as the Next 99-player Title

« on: September 14, 2023, 06:03:17 PM »

We haven't had a new F-Zero in 20 years and this is what we get?  I'm getting Federation Force vibes here, where a franchise with a cult following gets ignored for years and then finally shows up again with a spinoff instead of a proper sequel.  I'm not even on NSO so I can't play it.

Not that this specific game is necessarily a bad idea, it's just the PR of it.  Make a new F-Zero game and then later this or even a remake of an F-Zero alongside it and it's fine.  But instead it's like you didn't give the fans what they asked for but act like you did, which pisses them off more.  Spin-offs are for healthy franchises that get regular releases, not dormant franchises where each release is an event.

What fans though?  The reason F-Zero hasn't had a game in 20 years is because the original on the SNES was by far the best selling game in the franchise and every sequel, sold worse and worse.  The original SNES game sold close to 3 million copies, while the N64 sequel barely passed 1 million, despite the N64 game being a huge upgrade in players and content.  Then you have GX which has even more content, and was obviously very expensive to make, sell even less.  It was one of the few Nintendo games on the Gamecube that couldn't even cross the one million mark.  Then you get the two GBA games based off the anime which were two of the worst selling Nintendo games of all time.

So an actual new game had no chance of realistically happening.  It was always either going to be a remaster of GX, or something like this.  I'd argue that something like F-Zero 99 is a much better way of getting people interested in the series then a remaster of GX.  F-Zero 99 allows 99 people to race at once in fast paced races that can end in people dying, or even killing their fellow racers is going to bring a lot more attention, especially with videogame streamers that have millions of views.  This is going to cause a lot more people who've never played an F-Zero before to become interested and try this out.

In comparison an F-Zero GX remaster would have been lucky if it could even get a dozen racers online, and that's assuming Nintendo would even be willing to spend the money on adding online play to such a remaster for a game that didn't sell that well back in the day.  Outside of people with Gamecube nostalgia, an F-Zero GX remaster would not have gotten the attention that F-Zero 99 will probably have in the future once more word of mouth gets out.

Seriously, anyone that wants a new F-Zero should be happy that F-Zero 99 now exist.  If it's successful enough then maybe Nintendo might seriously consider making a new game, because otherwise they have no reason to. 

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 839: Man Buys $220 Portable System, Plays Karnov

« on: September 13, 2023, 04:46:09 PM »

I think Nintendo of America published Quest for Camelot in North America, which may explain why it's on the Switch Online selection.
(Nintendo of Europe published it in Europe) .

Which may pave the way for Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!

It also helps that the movie it's based off of was a flop so getting the rights from WB were probably dirt cheap.  Other license based games that Nintendo published like Hamtaro might be more expensive then Nintendo is willing to pay.  I mean we did get Goldeneye, but that was Nintendo working with Microsoft to make a deal, so I imagine Microsoft helping pay the bill to get the James Bond license made that happen. 

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TalkBack / Re: Unity Planning Per-Install Fees To Developers And Platform Holders Despite Massive Backlash

« on: September 13, 2023, 04:39:30 PM »

I'm pretty sure this has to be illegal asking for money for games that are already released.  That's like a landlord raising your rent and then saying you owe them for previous months as well now, even though you paid those previous months at what the price at that time was.

Almost makes you wonder if John Riccitello is secretly working for some vulture capital firm that wants him to intentionally tank the company so they can swoop in and buy up all of Unity's assets for cheap.

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

« on: September 13, 2023, 04:26:22 PM »

Though I would like backwards compatibility with both digital purchases and physical ones.  I'll keep my Switch 1 so it won't be like these games will disappear for me but I'd like to just keep one system docked that plays everything.  My DS was essentially retired once the 3DS came out but I played DS games on it as much as 3DS games.  I would love to be able to do that with the Switch.  Also if it's backwards compatible then the eShop will stick around longer.  Nintendo has been brutal with retiring their online stores so early but they'll have no reason to if digital Switch games can be purchased for the Switch 2.

The only Nintendo system in over 20 years that hadn't been backward compatible was the Switch because it was basically the successor to both the Wii U and 3DS so it would have been impossible to allow the system to play both of those games.  I mean just putting in a disk drive to play Wii U games would have required the system to be much bigger and less handheld friendly, and more expensive.  And 3DS games since they require a dual screen would have made things an even bigger mess.

Since the Switch successor doesn't have to worry about dealing with that kind of crap, it'll be backwards compatible with the Switch like all previous handheld systems where, as well as the Wii and Wii U were.  I mean this is the company that gave the Wii, Gamecube backward compatibility even though the Gamecube unperformed.  With the Switch literally Nintendo most successful system of all time that's still selling software like crazy, there's a zero percent chance it's successor won't be able to play its games.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

« on: September 01, 2023, 11:01:39 AM »

Well i came so close to finishing Tears of the Kingdom.  Just a few more shines and major side quest left before I call it quits.  Now I did technically beat Ganondorf and watched the end credits, so I kind of beat the game, but I'm still playing because I want to do all the Shrines and most of the side quest, so I cant really cross it out of my backlog yet.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

« on: August 10, 2023, 10:54:09 AM »

I'm actually kind of surprised at how breezy this game is, since it was released during the height of the rental era where many games were made more difficult to combat rentals.

Technically it was made more difficult.  The North American/PAL version adds more enemies to certain parts of the game compared to the Japanese version.  You also have to beat the game on Expert mode to get the full ending in the Western version, while the Japanese version gives you the full ending just for beating Normal mode.  Of course the full ending is just about an extra 5 second cutscene but it's still something they made harder to see in the western versions.

The thing I find so weird about Bloodlines is it's the only Castlevania with limited continues but it still has a password system.  As long as someone writes down the password after each level, you basically have unlimited continues anyway, so why even have the continue limit?  I guess using a continue starts you back at the last checkpoint while Password at the beginning of each level, so there's kind of a tradeoff but it still kind of negates the point of limited continues which are suppose to make people replay the whole game when they're giving them another way to just restart the last level instead.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

« on: August 03, 2023, 11:00:54 AM »

Also, I figured out hard mode for Kirby's Dream Land. Looking at the message again, I needed to press those buttons while on the title screen. So reset the game, entered them and started it up. Those enemies are OUT FOR BLOOD!!! They ain't waiting for Kirby to come at them. They are taking the fight to him. It's clearly going to take some effort to get through that game now. Fortunately, for the purpose of Backlaugust, I can worry about that for next month while I move on to getting the credits for some other games. Definitely curious to find out what hard mode Kirby will be like when I get back to it later.

Yeah that was my biggest surprise when I played the game for the first time back in 2010.  I was expecting something like Adventures Extra mode where Kirby has less life but everything else is the same.  Nope, Dream Land has new enemies that are way more aggressive and the bosses that are much harder.

It kind of makes me wish all Kirby game did something similar to this.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

« on: August 02, 2023, 09:35:12 PM »

Playing it again, I reminded that I really don't know the game as well as I think I do. My main exposure to Kirby's Dream Land has been Kirby Super Star and it is that version I have played way more and am more familiar with. I'm pretty sure the first time I ever played the actual original GB version was when I played it in the 25th Anniversary collection and was surprised to find out there was a world/level that had been excluded in the Superstar version with a Blimp boss battle. Totally surprised me. Playing the original again now for maybe only the second time is still a bit of a surprising experience. It's strange to not have the copy ability and levels just aren't what I expect. I don't think I made the connection that the spicy curry item in Smash Bros. comes from this game. I'm pretty sure that's the spicy curry that you in eat in a couple levels and then seem to shoot out some flames with. I feel I learned something new playing this. The challenge is still pretty mild though it would also probably been a bit harder if I didn't use the 3DS VC save states to help move things along faster. When thinking about versus other GB games, I still put it on the positive side of titles worth playing and think of it as the equivalent of Super Mario Land. Overall, it will get a quick snap judgement rating of 2.5/5 stars.

Did you play the Hard mode that the game tells you how to unlock after you beat it?  I like how it adds completely new enemies to the game and the bosses get a lot tougher.  It's still the hardest traditional Kirby game, that's not the optional True Arena's from the later games.  It's always funny how the biggest complaint people have is the Kirby series being too easy, when the first game had a legit Hard mode that made it significantly more challenging.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

« on: August 01, 2023, 07:16:17 PM »

Well I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom since May so I'd say that counts as a backlog game.  Lets see if I can finally finish it by the end of the month.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: August 01, 2023, 07:07:46 PM »

It's not so much Nintendo stopped being ambitious, it's just they thought people preferred the dungeons and puzzles in the 3D games more then the exploration.  That's why each game got more and more linear but the dungeons got bigger with more impressive set pieces through out.  Something like Skyward Sword is insanely ambitious for what it was doing, an adventure game filled with motion controlled gameplay and the overworld being one giant dungeon. 

This is why even to this day, there are no other 3D games with area's like the dungeons in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.  Nintendo was pushing the limits with interactivity in large environments and how the gameplay in one area effected the next.  This is why when I finally played Okami for the first time 2 years ago, it was a massive disappointment.  Seriously, this is the game people had been declaring secretly the best Zelda for years?  The dungeons in Okami are all a bad joke compared to any of the 3D Zelda.  Even Wind Waker which has some of the weakest dungeons in Zelda, is still lightyears ahead of the crap Okami tries to pass as a dungeon.  From a design standpoint, what Nintendo was doing with the dungeons was far beyond what the rest of the industry was making not only at the time, but even to this day. 

It's just when another fantasy based adventure game called Skyrim came out at the same time and does over 20 million more in the same holiday season, Nintendo released that what the larger gaming audiences want was difference then what they thought.  Before Skyrim, each new Zelda game sold comparable or better then other popular fantasy based games at the time.  After Skyrim created such a huge gap, it finally made things pretty clear to Nintendo how to properly grow the series to a larger audience.