Messages

7076

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Nintendogs: Whatcha gonna name your pup?

« on: July 26, 2005, 03:04:42 PM »

My friend will be naming his chihuahua "Carlos".

If you're a Carlos Mencia fan, you'll probably get the reference...

-SB

7077

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Mailbag Lives!

« on: July 26, 2005, 02:59:01 PM »

Quote
Smash brother if you played the game properly and didn't pretend it to be Streetfighter and inventing your own imaginary restrictions, the game is very balanced. Anyone can beat anyone with any character ona  good day.

This is probably one of the hardest points to argue because evidence of this is tough to come by.

Regardless...

The "official" tier list: http://forums.g4tv.com/messageview.cfm?catid=18&threadid=170581

Second, the "Game Over" videos are hard to come by, but can be found on DC++ at http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net on the server ssbdc.no-ip.com

I watched them all before it went to DC++ only, (as they previously had them for download here http://www.angelfire.com/games5/ssbm/).

It's one thing to claim that there are no tiers in existence, but what evidence do you offer? If you want to tell me that there are no tiers, explain why all of the Game Over final matches came down to 5 characters and ONLY 5 characters (FYI, Game Over is one of the largest SSBM tournaments in the US, if not THE largest). If tiers truly did not exist, this would not have happened, as any character would have a chance of beating any other character and the every round of the tournament would be just as random as the last.

Unless you're trying to say that everyone chooses Fox, Falco, Marth, Shiek, Samus and Peach for a reason which has nothing to do with gameplay, then please explain why these are the characters which prevail in the Game Over tourney and many others.

Until you can show me a list of large tournaments in which players won with lower to bottom tier characters, I'm inclined to believe that tiers do indeed exist.

-SB

[Mario]

7078

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Mailbag Lives!

« on: July 25, 2005, 09:39:22 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
I can kick Marth's ass with Mario or Samus, on any setting. You fail.

You cannot judge the ability of a character based on their CPU-controlled AI. Characters have moves that the AI won't even use, like JP's rollout and sleep moves, just more evidence that the game was rushed.

As for Roy, he's on one of the higher tiers, but not the top like Marth. Marth is top because of his speed, which is why Fox and Shiek share the top tier with him.

Marth is on the top tier because a guy named Ken (don't know his last name) has won the SSBM Game Over tournament two or three years in a row with him. From what I understand, he's the sole reason Marth is in the top tier.

-SB

7079

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Mailbag Lives!

« on: July 24, 2005, 10:22:41 PM »

The word you're looking for is "Pokemon".

-SB

7080

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Mailbag Lives!

« on: July 24, 2005, 01:37:42 PM »

They tend to be able to work out MMORPGs if the company actually has a representative who PLAYS each class. WoW is notoriously bad because you can immediately tell which classes have a rep and which don't.

As for SSBM, Marth is ridiculously overpowered, which wouldn't irritate me as much if he wasn't a character which never even appeared outside of the Japanese market. In duels, he's absolutely sick. In group play, a Marth player mashing the C-Stick will pick up a lot of kills (especially on small levels) because that smash covers so much goddamn area and happens in an instant.

I like to play as heavy characters as I think they never really get much of a chance, but there's that sobering realization you'll one day reach when you finally understand that speed means much more than strength in pretty much all fighting games, SSBM included.

Quote
except Kirby, they dropped the ball on that one (odd, as he was top tier in the first).

I'm pretty sure HAL was shamed into making him suck for fear that they'd be accused of playing favorites.

-SB  

7081

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Mailbag Lives!

« on: July 23, 2005, 09:35:27 PM »

I thought this was amusing...

Quote
For one thing, you're underestimating the amount of effort that goes into a game as finely tuned as SSB Melee. Every character, move, and level has to be balanced with all the others, and the excellent job HAL did with that balancing act is the reason so many people still play Melee to this day.

Considering that SSBM has notoriously bad tiers, I think this comment missed its mark by more than a bit...

I understand it's not the focus of the question at all, but when all major tournaments are always won by either Marth, Shiek or Fox, I think the term "balance" goes out the window rather quickly.

-SB  

7082

TalkBack / RE: Ubisoft Announces PoP for DS

« on: July 22, 2005, 11:01:05 AM »

Smells like a blatant rip off of the Advance Wars series, but hey, if they can pull it off and make it fun, who am I to complain?

-SB

7083

TalkBack / RE: Geist Goes Gold

« on: July 16, 2005, 08:07:40 AM »

I've heard nothing but good things from folks who played the game at the E3s (heh), so I don't expect a total crapfest.

There's so little coming out for the cube right now that I think most will buy it just to have something to play...

-SB

7084

TalkBack / RE: Developers, Journalists Discuss Handheld Industry

« on: July 16, 2005, 08:03:11 AM »

Heh, I was actually willing to bet money that, had Killer7 been GC exclusive, IGN would have crapped all over it, saying that Nintendo needs to drop its need for innovation and try to produce Halo clones instead, despite the fact that the game was not even published by Nintendo.

Its presence on the PS2 assures that they cannot do that.

-SB

[KDR_11k]

7085

TalkBack / RE:Developers, Journalists Discuss Handheld Industry

« on: July 15, 2005, 10:04:17 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Heh, I love how the IGN guys go "No! There is no bias! It's all lies spread by fanboys! Hate the fanboys!" when every semi-reasonable semi-hairless primate can tell you that IGN is probably the most biased "publication" outside of astroturfers and propaganda outlets.

IGN coined the phrase "Shotgun Journalism": report everything. SOMETHING is bound to be right.

And yeah, it seems like, every other day, IGN is publishing another unneeded pile of hogwash they call an "editorial" about how Nintendo is doomed and they should sell out to microsoft.

Seriously, if they're not getting paid to bash Nintendo, they should be.

-SB

7086

TalkBack / RE: Geist Goes Gold

« on: July 15, 2005, 09:57:25 PM »

After all this time, it had best not be crap...

-SB

7087

TalkBack / RE: Developers, Journalists Discuss Handheld Industry

« on: July 15, 2005, 11:45:34 AM »

The quality of Wendy's food dropped across the board after his death. There's a very discernible difference between decent meat and cheap meat, one which will not be masked by even the most copious amounts of sauce.

The same thing happened to Boston Market after McDonalds bought them out. They used to have excellent food before they were McDonaldized.

-SB

7088

TalkBack / RE:Developers, Journalists Discuss Handheld Industry

« on: July 15, 2005, 07:53:54 AM »

Quote
That would contribute to the bias.  The PSP made a pretty good first impression.  It had Lumines and console quality games on a portable.  Keep in mind that the high price that was the biggest turnoff didn't apply to jounalists.  They get their PSP for FREE.  The DS on the other hand had a port as the flagship title (and one that any gaming journalist with even the slightest amount of credibility has played a million times already) and a bunch of gimmick games and EA junk.  The DS left a pretty bad first impression, especially compared to the PSP.  So that initial impression affects the opinion of the journalist.

Can't argue there.

I'm just saying that the DS had what it had not because of some attempt to appeal to the mass market, but because developers still had no idea what to do with the touch screen.

-SB

7089

TalkBack / RE:Developers, Journalists Discuss Handheld Industry

« on: July 14, 2005, 02:16:42 PM »

Quote
Nintendo has said that the DS is supposed to attract non-gamers.  There are several games for it that are not designed primarily for the traditional gaming crowd.  Therefore a journalist who is a traditional gamer might show more interest in the PSP where literally every game is designed with traditional gamers in mind.

I see where you're coming from with this, but I think you're confusing the term "mainstream" with "innovative".

Most of the games released on the DS have stressed innovation, almost as though gaming companies are being smacked with a sort of "peer pressure" to make use of the DS's features as though they'll be blasted by critics for not making use of them, often ending up with frivolous aspects to the game play.

Bomberman DS is an excellent example of how a company can do both right and wrong. First of all, the game is probably one of the DS's best multiplayer titles, I'd say tied for first with Puyo Pop. 8 players on a single cartridge is value you just can't beat. The game makes uses of both of the DS's screens by having dual arenas and pathways to walk between them. Also, on death, the "revenge", a concept which has been seen in nearly every Bomberman to date, relies upon you sliding a stylus or finger upwards on the touch screen to determine the distance you'll launch your revenge bomb. Make a quicker stroke and the bomb will launch further whereas tapping the screen will result in dropping the bomb immediately in front of you. This turns the revenge feature into a fine science which rewards skill and patience and ultimately results in better game play. The system is not shallow by any stretch as it rewards time put in to learning the system with improved performance at the game (if you kill someone with a revenge bomb, you will be brought back to into the game in their place).

However, the game also has the "gimmicks" which plague the first batch of DS games. There are modes where you can detonate your bombs or activate items by shouting into the microphone. On a game play level, this makes no sense. It's simply using the microphone for the sake of using the microphone, and I think THAT is the mentality which has made the current lineup of DS games what they are.

Most of the first round of games were basically tech demos, but once games like Kirby DS started rolling around, they crossed the line from "tech demo" into valid entertainment mediums. Developers were taking baby steps into the DS because it's a non-traditional system, hence why you'll wind up with non-traditional games until someone figures out how to use the DS's features to create a game which is entertaining and is just so because of the fact that it wouldn't have been entertaining without said features.

I think Kirby is the best example of this, as it was the first game which left the realm of tech demo and truly showed us how the stylus can be used to control the entirety of a character's movement.

In summary, I don't think the first round of games were "mainstream" so much as they were "tech demos". The games coming out now are providing genuine entertainment value by taking advantage of the touch screen (Kirby, Meteos, Nintendogs, Lost in Blue, Trauma Center, etc.). I think that the alleged mainstream games are just the natural adjustment period which you can expect when developers are handed a new system.

They're always going to test the water before they learn how to swim.

-SB

PS. Again, no pun intended. I swear, I'm doing this by accident...

[Aussie Ben PGC]

7090

TalkBack / RE:Nintendogs Non-Review

« on: July 13, 2005, 06:16:53 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Aussie Ben PGC
No, feeding and watering (like a flower! except not) your dog is only done to make them feel better - you can't overfeed them, starve them or anything like that.

Ah, damn.

"Kiba" and "Hige" are both references to "Wolf's Rain", a popular anime and quite an excellent one to boot.

-SB

7091

TalkBack / RE: Special Edition Gyakuten Saiban in Japan

« on: July 13, 2005, 01:56:53 PM »

They should have saved time on character creation and just licensed the "Harvey Birdman" franchise...

-SB

7092

TalkBack / RE: Electronic Arts Buys John Madden

« on: July 13, 2005, 01:52:14 PM »

Sounds like a poor investment.

The bastard can't possibly have too many years left in him...

-SB

7093

TalkBack / RE: Nintendogs Non-Review

« on: July 13, 2005, 10:51:20 AM »

The question is, will your brown terrier named "Hige" gain weight from all the food you'll feed him?

-SB

7094

TalkBack / RE: Nintendogs Non-Review

« on: July 13, 2005, 07:26:31 AM »

That finally explains the exorbitantly long amount of time it's taking to release the game in English.

-SB

7095

TalkBack / RE: Play-Yan Firmware Update Now Available

« on: July 12, 2005, 08:08:40 AM »

I remember hearing that it would be a function built into the DS, but they scrapped it at the last minute for reasons unknown to me.

I could be wrong, but that's just what I remember hearing.

-SB

7096

TalkBack / RE: Play-Yan Firmware Update Now Available

« on: July 12, 2005, 07:18:51 AM »

Good to know that firmware updates aren't an alien concept to Nintendo.

I'm still hoping for that update which will allow my DS to alert me whenever I come in range of another active DS...

-SB

[TVman]

7097

TalkBack / RE:Report Says DS Outplays PSP

« on: July 11, 2005, 05:42:25 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: TVman
So wait, SB, what you're saying is that you're excited that games ARE comming, but you aren't excited about Nintendo's franchises going online? Are you just happy for Nintendo and not yourself?

Personally, I'm hoping for a rev oniline custom robo. It could work on DS, if they allow you to change items via the touch screen (like how you can use items during play in Bomberman).

I mean that I'm damn excited about Nintendo's online titles because I can finally pwn my friends at fishing.

But, in the past, I was frustrated to see games released by Nintendo which would have been so insanely improved by online play: Animal Crossing, SSB, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Battalion Wars, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, etc. etc.

A lot of Nintendo's franchises are original in their design and offer something which I cannot get from Sony or MS's online offerings. The fact that Nintendo is finally taking their systems online is a huge relief as well as a welcome change.

And CR would absolutely rule online. The main problem I found with the game was that everyone needs to understand the game in order to truly do well in multiplayer combat, including the various robos, weapons, bombs, etc. This was difficult to come by, as getting everyone up to speed just didn't work unless you each had the game or had one copy and passed it around to everyone.

Online play would remove that problem in a heartbeat for CR and any other Nintendo franchise. I quiver at the thought of ALWAYS having a competent opponent to fight at the press of a few buttons. I can only imagine that the replay value of these games will increase exponentially for this reason alone.

-SB

7098

TalkBack / RE: Report Says DS Outplays PSP

« on: July 11, 2005, 10:04:53 AM »

I've heard nothing about the PSP's online lineup. I haven't been listening, but I would expect my resident PSP fanboy to be oozing over upcoming online PSP titles, if there were any.

Also, it's my firm belief that Nintendo's games being online brings something to the table which no other company has yet done. Nintendo is best known for its multiplayer mayhem, but a number of its titles are so obvious as potential online games that it's both frustrating and exciting at the same time. When games like Pokemon and Fire Emblem, games which could run over a 2880 baud modem because they're turn based, are passed up because Nintendo believes gamers don't want online play, it's frustrating. However, Reggie admitting that it was a mistake to ignore online play the last time around is a relief, as well as the knowledge that the online Nintendo games ARE coming.

I know there's almost a stigma around the notion of it, but I've always seen Nintendo's online offerings as being so much more than what Sony or MS could ever hope to accomplish. I can play FPSs and racing games online on my PC and I don't have to pay to do so. Games like these have been done and done to death. However, I cannot enjoy a community-themed game with friends (AC), a strategy RP (Fire Emblem), or a MMORPG in which I raise a team of creatures and combat other players and NPCs for the glory of victory (Pokemon).

Maybe I'm over-enthusiastic about it, but I just see Nintendo's franchises going online as something which will provide vastly more entertainment value than previous online console offerings.

-SB

7099

TalkBack / RE: Report Says DS Outplays PSP

« on: July 11, 2005, 07:11:12 AM »

I didn't think of it that way: if Nintendo will be aiming for the non-traditional gamer with 'Dogs, they'll likely pull a whole different audience. However, I stand behind the need for a HUGE ad campaign to accompany the launch of the game. In order to hit new gamers, they're going to need to get the product in their faces, showing people of all ages having fun playing with their pups and the plethora of activities they can do with them. Advertising could easily make the difference between 'Dogs being a "hit" or a "sleeper hit".

I think MK and AC online will hit a different gamer, mostly the gamer who was once a fan of Nintendo but fell away from the company when they became disappointed with its performance. It could have been a GC drought period or even way back in the day when Shiggy showed the cel-shaded Zelda trailer. I remember IGN reported that they saw the highest number of people go from the GC forums to the Xbox forums on that same day.

I believe these two games would bring some of those players back, with Nintendo finally offering them a real online experience and games which have already been established as solid franchises. There will still be plenty of nay-saying by the aforementioned types who would dismiss Nintendogs as nothing more than another frivolous virtual pet (I've already seen it on forums I visit), but online Mario Kart? How do you dismiss THAT?

Like I said, though, it'd be great if Nintendogs were to fly off the shelves in the US the same way it did in Japan. I'd rub that in the faces of the PSP fanbois...

-SB  

7100

TalkBack / RE:Report Says DS Outplays PSP

« on: July 10, 2005, 07:21:19 PM »

Quote
So where does that leave the "Tamagotchi" phase in the U.S.?

Not to marginalize it by any stretch, but in comparison, the Japanese market eats up the genre in ways the US doesn't. That's purely by comparison, though, and maybe I should check the sales of the game in Japan before I say things like that, but I still don't think 'Dogs will be the truly "killer app" that AC or MK would be in the US and Europe.

I don't expect 90% of DS users to be online. I think that's a heinously unrealistic number, but I credit Nintendo for shooting for it and I believe they've done so because of how much they intend to streamline the process of getting online. I've read a list of the AC features and one of them is to simply enter the town and name of your friend and you can access their town if they've given you specific permission. In other words, no screwing with IP addresses, no setup beyond talking to the Copper at the main gate of the town and saving your friends to your buddy list so they can enter the town again later.

Again, 90% is unrealistic, but they're going to make it as easy as possible.

I think of MK and AC as killer apps because they'll be the first games which will allow Nintendo gamers to either compete or congregate over the internet in a game setting. The online element of the games could easily determine their success. Players who have been hesitant to pick up a DS would probably be brought in by one of the two, be it the die-hard competition of MK or the community-based nature of AC which just became literally hundreds of times larger and more detailed.

In fact, I dare say it's the brand recognition which will sell these games so well. AC was a hit on the cube and Mario Kart is Mario Kart and has been popular since its inception.

I'm not going to shed a single tear if 'Dogs sends DSs flying off the shelf in the US (with all the dog lovers out there, it could be a coiled spring waiting to be unleashed (again, no pun intended)), but I think the game which I'll be able to place in front of any modern gamer which will sell them a DS would either be MK or AC.

Again, I'd love to be wrong, but that's my current prediction.

-SB