Messages

1

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Who truly is a Nintendo first party? (plus boring Rev FAQ)

« on: May 31, 2005, 05:24:02 PM »

Terranigma Freak:

Nintendo R&D1 made the first two Fire Emblem games.  Of course, ex-R&D1 employees eventually founded Intelligent Systems, and Nintendo formed a partnership and then bought out the new company.  At some point, Nintendo exclusively handed the franchise off to Intelligent Systems.  It makes sense that it occurred with Fire Emblem 3, since R&D1 was focusing on the GameBoy at the time.  A lot of people often get confused about who created what, and it doesn't help that R&D1 and Intelligent Systems collaborated on games later on down the line.  Super Metroid was directed and designed by R&D1, but Intelligent Systems programmed the title, for instance.  The two companies are closely interlinked, but they are not the same.

Also, I'm pretty sure Nintendo owns a small stake in Hudson, and they do have a 2nd-party like agreement on the Mario Party titles.  It'll be interesting to see what happens to Mario Party now that Konami has completely bought out Hudson.

2

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The "new" Gamecube exclusive Sonic game has been probably revealed

« on: May 19, 2005, 04:22:19 AM »

I have to say that I'm greatly disappointed in Sonic Gems Collection.  The only game that I have any interest in, with all due deference to Sonic R & Sonic The Fighters,  is Sonic CD.  What puzzles me even more is some of the choices they've made in compiling games.  If they have a Sega CD emulator up and running (which they must have for Sonic CD), then why not include Knuckles Chaotix?  If they have a Saturn emulator up and running (which they must have for Sonic R), then why not include NiGHTS?  Why this strange fascination with giving us Game Gear titles that are already included in Sonic Adventure DX anyway?  There are only two possible saving graces for this collection: bonus games (and there are some rumored to be included), and price (which better be $29.99 at most).

3

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Thursday-aton!

« on: May 18, 2005, 04:28:03 AM »

I really wouldn't put too much stock in the videos.  I think they were simply an attempt to get people hyped up for the press conference.  For those that didn't see, there were four videos.  The starting video was apparently random, since I got Reggie first.  Once you got through all four clips, you looped through again in the same order.  I have a 56k connection, so two of the videos didn't work so hot for me, but based on what I saw:

Reggie Clip:  A very short clip.  Reggie appears and basically says, "Don't make me do it.  I'll take your name."  Rather amusing.

Female Clip:  There's a female Nintendo employee at a conference table (not Perrin Kaplan, Bill.  Do you even know what Perrin looks like?  Perrin is a brunette, close to middle-age lady who looks decent for her age.  The woman in the clip was young, had short blonde hair, and was quite frankly pretty hot )  Anyway, she's going through an itinerary - "We have the launch party on Tuesday, the website up on Wedensday, going to a presentation on Thursday - I'm looking forward to it - and on Friday"  At this point, the woman looks directly into the camera and says, "Guys, we are so busy.  Can you come back later . . ." And my connection went out from there, although I think there was a bit more.

Face Clip:  Basically concentrates on two eyes that look shiftily around.  I couldn't get to the end of the clip, so I don't know whether they panned down and showed the face frowning.

Male Clip:  I have no idea about this one, since it didn't work for me at all.  There's a guy at a conference table, and he's jibber-jabbering about the E3 presentation, but the connection here was so static-y that I really couldn't make out anything.

Just hype for the conference presentation.  Those who are putting undue attention on Thursday (and I have no idea why the focus is on Thursday in the first place, if anything, based on the clip it should be on Friday) are simply concentrating on one small facet of the videos to the detriment of the whole picture.

4

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: May 12, 2005, 04:27:46 AM »

Quite frankly, I'm pretty sure that it came down to money in the end rather than philosophy.  Apparently, Silicon Knights has doubled its staff since the breakup with Nintendo.  While Nintendo probably was willing to continue funding SK at current levels, I doubt they were going to bankroll a Rare-like expansion without SK first having a Rare-like hit.  Thus, SK broke ranks with Nintendo and found someone who was willing to bankroll their expansion - Sega (with perhaps Microsoft as a second partner if the shadowy rumors are correct).

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TalkBack / RE:Nominees For 5th Annual GDC Awards Chosen

« on: February 15, 2005, 03:18:30 PM »

Just a quick heads up - the first five nominees under New Studio are correct.  The next five nominees are actually up for the Audio award, but the PGC article forgot to include that heading.

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TalkBack / RE:Punch Out Bonuses in Fight Night Round 2

« on: January 25, 2005, 01:31:46 PM »

Somebody gag me.  Little Mac is the star of the original Punch-Out!!.  Super Punch-Out!!'s protagonist is unnamed (actually, you input your own name), but definitely sports a different look than Little Mac.  Originally, I thought the person who wrote the PR release simply had no clue what they were talking about, but after looking at the pictures it becomes apparent that EA tried for a 3D emulation of the Super Punch-Out!! character rather than Little Mac.  So apparently no one on the development team knew the difference.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, since the character model looks like ass no matter what they were going for.

“We grew up as fans of the Punch-Out!! series that delivered hands-down, the best boxing gaming experience of its time,” said Kudo Tsunoda, executive producer, EA Chicago.   <-- Effing clownboat.  It's moments like these that I'm glad that the last EA game I bought was Madden '94.

[Deguello]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Steven Kent "Pulls an IGN"

« on: January 12, 2005, 01:59:42 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Deguello
The worst part is that this article is so poorly written and ill-thought.  I mean, reading negative press is one thing.  Reading negative press that looks like it was written for the IGN forums is another.

Deguello:  The article posted on forums and the one that Kent actually wrote are not the same.  Since you can't copy/paste from PDF, some dimwit loosely transcribed the original article.  The content is practically the same, but the tone is miles apart.  Kent's real article is polished, lucid, and less alarmist.  Compare paragraph #3:

Forum Version:
As Microsoft entered the console wars, a lot of people asked, “Can
the market support three competitors?” The answer seems to be,
“Yes, but the guy who comes in last always dies.”

PDF Version:
When Microsoft entered the videogame hardware fray with XBox, the wheels of fate began to turn. History says the market will support three consoles for a while, but the company that sells the least amount of units eventually faces radical change.

The PDF version can be found at www.vgtm.com.  If you didn't like the ideas behind the article posted here, you probably won't like the ideas in Kent's real article either, although he does illuminate and explain certain points better.  But at least his real article doesn't come across like it was written by an elementary school kid.

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TalkBack / RE:Square Enix Talks Nintendo DS

« on: October 08, 2004, 12:46:15 AM »

Square has already revealed that Egg Monster Heroes, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy III, a new Secret of Mana, and an edition of the Dragon Warrior slime spin-off games are in the works for the system.  Considering that those five games almost equal Square's entire GBA output, I doubt that any new games will be revealed until E3 2005, if then.

[Ian Sane]

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TalkBack / RE:Huge Nintendo DS Japan Update

« on: October 07, 2004, 01:29:57 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
It looks to me that Nintendo did have decent plans for a launch lineup.  They just stupidly set the American launch to be first and thus completely wanged the American launch lineup.  If all of your games are being made in Japan you should launch in Japan first.  I'm thinking NCL and NOA didn't pay enough attention to what each other were doing.

Actually, I think Nintendo of America's preeminent goal is to get the DS out before Thanksgiving, consequences on the launch lineup be damned.  From a monetary point of view, it makes perfect sense to have your new product out before the busiest holiday shopping week of the year.  I'm still baffled that none of these other titles could be available for the North American launch (how much effort would it take to port a game like Wario Ware?), but the silver lining in the launch lineup is that this will cause early adopters to take a second look at games they might not typically consider buying - 3rd-party games at that.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: August 16, 2004, 08:22:44 PM »

People have overly high expectations if they're not impressed with Symphonia's sales.  To put things in perspective, Tales of Destiny for the original Playstation sold 60,000 total units. Tales of Destiny II sold 40,000 units total. In one month, ToS has outpaced Skies of Arcadia Legends's complete sales for an entire year and a half.  If Namco continues to ship copies out to stores, word of mouth should further fuel sales.  This is a very good start.  Let's see if Namco follows up.

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Podcast Discussion / RE:Radio Trivia Results for 8/6/04

« on: August 08, 2004, 07:45:09 AM »

TYP:

I appreciate you skewing the trivia with games that only I've played, but next time you secretly try to hand me victoly , make sure I'm going to show up first.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: June 29, 2004, 11:32:04 AM »

http://www.nintendojo.com/infocus/view_item.php?1088346709

How do you spell zombie in Spanish?  C - A - T - T - L - E

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: June 23, 2004, 09:44:34 AM »

Syl:

The Nintendo-published numbers are only for the month of May.  The exact number of units, the exact number of dollars generated for the month.  

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General Gaming / RE:please share thoughts on these old games

« on: May 19, 2004, 03:39:17 AM »

Joe:

An interesting selection.  I'll provide feedback where I can.

StarTropics & StarTropics II:  

The original StarTropics is one of my favorite games for the NES.  The sequel, unfortunately, I found to be a bit lackluster. It's hard to pinpoint where exactly the second game fails.  While the original wasn't nonlinear, it certainly did a better job of conveying a feeling of openness.  The second game feels more confined and less difficult.  Also, I think some were disappointed with the story arc of the sequel, which is radically different from the original, although I'll always a hold a fond place in my heart for the Oxford Wonder World.

Faxanadu & Legacy of the Wizard:

Both of these games were developed by Falcom.  The former was brought to the U.S. by Hudson, the latter by Broderbund.  Both are sidescrolling adventures with a focus on fantasy, but that's where the similarities end.  Faxanadu has better graphics and is more tightly constructed.  

The best way to describe Legacy of the Wizard is as a sidescrolling version of the original Zelda.  The game is disturbingly nonlinear and gives absolutely no hints on how to progress.  There are five playable characters (father, mother, son, daughter, and dog) each with unique abilities, which seems pretty cool at first . . . until you've progressed one way in the dungeon for thirty minutes and find that the particular character that you've selected can go no further.  

The game is incredibily difficult and despite spending 100 - 150 hours of my youth on the game, the farthest I ever got was defeating the first of five bosses.  Unless you use a FAQ, be prepared to make a detailed map of the dungeon and suffer plenty of headaches.

Hydlide:

I hope this game is rare, if only for the fact that it would warm my heart that most of the videogaming populace was spared this atrocity.  From the Gamecube to the NES, I own 150+ games and this is certainly the worst of the bunch.  I can't believe this game was released at the same time as Dragon Warrior and the Legend of Zelda.  To peruse Hydlide's crimes against humanity, view the following document:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/review/R10898.html

[AiAi]

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NWR Feedback / RE:Yikes, what is going on with Planet Gamecube reviews?!?

« on: April 22, 2004, 08:25:47 PM »

Originally posted by: AiAi

Quote


I disagree with the "half-hour" statement.  Eg:  When I first started playing Metroid Prime, I thought it would have became the best game I have played, but after about 15 hours, I got bored if it and couldn't be half-assed to finish it.

That's really odd.  Based on the first half hour, my initial impression was that Retro had really screwed up the game.  In fact, after my first sitting, I didn't play the game again for another three months.  However, when I finally got around to to playing again, I discovered that the more I played the game, the happier I was with the product.  After completion, my opinion is that it's the best game for the Gamecube so far.

Anyway, I'm backing up your general point that you shouldn't prejudge a game after only a half a hour.  Our completely opposite experiences with Prime will attest to that.  

[Madman Adam]

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TalkBack / RE:Capcom Announces Viewtiful Joe 2

« on: April 22, 2004, 02:55:47 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Madman Adam
But the reason that the PS2 is getting Viewtiful Joe 2 is because the original didn't have as high a sales figure as Capcom would have liked.  And even if it did, Capcom recognises that this game could have good sales on the PS2.  

The original Viewtiful Joe has sold about 200,000 copies in North America so far.  A decent figure.  I'm not sure how Capcom was expecting the game to sell, however.

I think there is an outstanding possiblity that the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe 2 will NOT outsell the Gamecube version.  Quite frankly, I don't think the series is a very good demographic fit for the PS2.  We have a similiar situation with Sonic Heroes.  Despite the PS2's massive userbase, the Gamecube version of the game has outsold the PS2 version in North America.  Why?  Probably because the Gamecube already had a a ready market for the game, thanks to the earlier Sonic ports.  The three week exclusivity period helped as well.

I'm very interested to see how the original Viewtiful Joe does on the PS2.  Gamecube games ported at a later date to other systems have had an absolutely abysmal track record so far.  It seems that the XBox and PS2 userbases dislike late ports as much as we do.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Did any long-time NP subscribers get the Zelda disc?

« on: January 25, 2004, 05:54:38 PM »

Why is that ridiculous?  The Zelda Bonus Disk was a special offer, just like the FF:TA offer that you took advantage of, or the free Player's Guide that normally gets sent out when you renew.  It was not part of the January edition.  Nobody received the disk simply for being a subscriber, everyone else had to renew (or buy a Gamecube, or buy two of the four special offer games, etc.)  I've been a subscriber since the 39th issue, and I haven't gotten any special rewards yet either, unfortunately.  

18

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Overall Sales

« on: January 12, 2004, 02:43:44 PM »

Joeamis:  Nope, that's not exactly correct, although you couldn't help but draw that conclusion from the information presented.  The North American sales are the total installed base since the introduction of the systems.  The Japanese sales are only for 2003.  I can't give exact figures, but each system has sold at least these many systems since their introductions in Japan:

Playstation 2 -- 12 million
Nintendo Gamecube -- 2.5 million
Microsoft XBox -- 300,000

Those numbers are the absolute minimum, as they leave out sales for the second half of 2002.  

Sources:

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game051802.htm
http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2003b.shtml

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:GCN out of the Race?

« on: December 08, 2003, 01:04:03 PM »

For those of you wondering who John Davison is, he actually was the Editor-in-Chief for Electronic Gaming Monthly a while back.  He left and became the Editor-in-Chief of the Official Playstation Magazine, I believe, although he may no longer be in that role.  I'm rather shocked to see him write something so idiotic, but oh well.  What can you do (besides not read the guys articles )?  

I've never been to 1up.com before, but it's a surprisingly interesting website.  I liked their Secret of Mana retrospective.  Actually learned a thing or two and remembered a couple things that I had forgotten.

While I'm as glad as anyone to see the Cube succeeding, I think some of you may need to temper your enthusiasm somewhat.  Before the price cut to $99, the Cube was trailing the XBox by about 1.3 million units in the United States.  That's chump change when compared to the gap between the PS2 and the other systems, but still a pretty hefty amount to consider.  October sales managed to slash the gap to 1.1 million units.  November sales will surely bring that total down below one million, the only question will be by how much?  Anyway, the point is that while the Gamecube is killing the XBox now, it's still behind overall in North America.  I wouldn't start celebrating until Nintendo overtakes the XBox.  I don't think that's possible in 2003 even with a strong holiday season, although I'll happily be proven wrong.  Nintendo will still be in a good position to overtake Microsoft in 2004 if the sales trend holds up.

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Podcast Discussion / RE:Radio Trivia Results for 11/14/2003

« on: November 14, 2003, 07:10:43 PM »

Congratulations to TKn!  And I have to say . . . another night with recognizable games from TYP . . . and I'll be quite sure that I've been sucked into the Twilight Zone.

[mouse_clicker]

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TalkBack / RE:Surprises from Nintendo in the Future

« on: November 09, 2003, 02:57:19 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mouse_clicker
Completely different market my foot- there's only one market for handheld videogames and any entry INTO that market should be seen as a direct attack and handled as such.

Yes, and that's why Nintendo's handheld market collapsed after Sega released the Game Gear, Atari released the Lynx, SNK released the Neo Geo, and Nokia released the N-Gage.  Oh wait, it didn't.  I think that time and again Nintendo has proven that more advanced technology is not necessarily better in the handheld segment.  

22

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Market share for gamecube 18 points up

« on: November 04, 2003, 02:48:50 PM »

Your estimates are pretty impressive.  The one question I have about them is how you allocated the market share reduction of the PS2 and XBox?  You took 10% of the PS2 marketshare and 3% off the XBox.  Do you have a source for this?  That 3% figure for the XBox that GameStop mentions is a yearly figure, not for the month.  So, the XBox may be hurting even worse than your figures would indicate.  I'll be interested to see how these increased hardware sales have affected the Gamecube's software sales.

I seem to be having flashbacks to 2002.  XBox, using the strength of its two free games campaign, absolutely whipped the Gamecube during the Christmas period.  This time around, it looks like Nintendo is going to smash Microsoft by lowering the price point to $99.  It's too bad that Metal Gear and Final Fantasy got delayed, or else Nintendo would have really had a strong holiday season.  

23

Nintendo Gaming / RE:New EGM scores are in...

« on: October 18, 2003, 09:10:55 AM »

IanSane:  As stated above, the Wind Waker received the same scores as Double Dash.  Also, Metroid Prime got straight tens.  I forget what Super Smash Bros. got, although I would assume that it was pretty much in that range as well.

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Podcast Discussion / RE:Radio Trivia Results for 10/17/2003

« on: October 18, 2003, 09:02:21 AM »

Eh, I used to post much more frequently, but unfortunately there are only so any hours of the day.    Add another twelve hours in to the 24-hour day and I'd post a lot more.

Glad you enjoyed trivia PIAC.  Hope you join again.

25

Nintendo Gaming / RE:square enix's next gamecube game

« on: September 28, 2003, 11:19:43 PM »

Heh . . . very nice topic.  A lot of things to discuss here.

First, to get straight to the topic at hand.  I'm pretty sure we'll see at least on more Gamecube game from Game Designers Studio.  Remember, Yamauchi was the one who brokered the Square-Nintendo deal and his comments prior to the deal seem to indicate that he thought Square should develop 2-3 games for the Gamecube in return for GBA priveleges.  I would be severely surprised if Yamauchi was the one who caved into Square's demands, rather than Square acquiescing to Yamacuhi's.  Of course the Square - Enix merger may make that original deal moot, but still I think we'll see at least one more product.  What will we see?  If I could answer that, I would be taking over Louie the Cat's job.  My best guess:  A Secret of Mana Gamecube collaboration between Square and Brownie Brown.  I think the GBA game is just setting the stage.  Brownie Brown has expressed a desire to create a Gamecube game, but they may not have enough resources.  Couple a Square supporting staff with Brownie Brown's talent, I can definitely see it happening.

On to Enix!  The thing that people should note about Enix is that it really didn't/doesn't develop most of its games.  Soul Blazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terrangima & Robotrek & ActRaiser were made by Quintet.  As was noted earlier, Tri-Ace makes Star Ocean.  Chun Soft makes Mysterious Dungeon.  Heck, Level 5 is helping Enix with Dragon Warrior 8.  To my knowledge, the Dragon Warrior series and The 7th Saga series are the only games that Enix directly developed.  There may be a couple lesser known series that Enix did itself, but most of the Enix games you know and love were made by other developers.  The point is, I'm not even sure if Enix can legally make sequels to some of the games you guys want to see sequels for.  Most of the time the producer does hold the rights, but that's not always the case.  Still, they definitely seem to be more interested in properties that they have had a greater hand in developing.  That is the great thing that is touted about the Square-Enix merger:  Enix's great production resources would be married with Square's vast development resources.

As for Terrangima, the reason it never came to the U.S. was because Enix shut down its North American office in the United States shortly before its scheduled arrival.  They simply weren't gaining traction in the North American market.  I think it was only two or three years ago that Enix finally reopened its North American branch. I remember that 1995 decision well and was extremely unhappy.  Enix had a whole slew of games that I was interested in scheduled to come out in North America at the time:  Dragon Warrior 6, 7th Saga II, Terrangima, Genesis, and I think there maybe was even one more.  Anyway, I'm still baffled why Nintendo didn't pick up Terrangima when Enix dropped the ball, Nintendo had after all published Illusion of Gaia in the United States.  Perhaps Gaia didn't do as well as anticipated.

As Mouse_Clicker pointed out, the man who had a hand in founding Quest and creating the Ogre Battle series, Yasumi Matsuno, does indeed have a negative attitude towards Nintendo.  The reason that Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre were made for the Super Nintedo is obvious, it was the RPG powerhouse in Japan at the time.  But as Yuji Miyamoto asks, what about Ogre Battle 64?  Matsuno was also in charge when Quest developed Final Fantasy Tactics.  Well, funny thing, Matsuno left Quest and joined up with Square during the time period of Ogre Battle 64 and Tactics Ogre Advance's development.  There's a lot of speculation that Matsuno was the one who had a hand in Square's decision to buy and absorb Quest.  Matsuno is quite busy with Final Fantasy XII at the moment (he's the director), but it will be interesting to watch what happens with Ogre Battle in the future.  

By the way, Yuji is right about unhappy Square directors, they've been bleeding talent for quite a while (see Monolith, Brownie Brown, Skip, and others).  Square's deal with Nintendo was primarily about the GBA market, but a secondary objective was to stop some of that brain drain that had been going on at that company.

Well, I'm done with my treatise. ;-)  If Bill would only reveal what he thinks he knows, I would be a happy man.  Come on, we won't throw rotten vegetables at you if you happen to be wrong.  ;-)  Actually, I just caught that veiled hint at Super Mario RPG being the project.  If that's what Nintendo and Square have up their sleeve, I would quite frankly bawl.  SMRPG is quite possibly my least favorite Square game of all time.  A well designed game, yes; enjoyable, somewhat, and coming from Square, that's just not good enough for me.  I'll take Intelligent System's Paper Mario over Super Mario RPG any day.