Messages

76

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 575: Henry Hatsworth in the Trip to the Shadow Realm

« on: June 21, 2018, 09:01:15 AM »

I know, I know, a bit late to comment on this one, but like... I got unreasonably frustrated at trying to play Henry Hatsworth, and my posts in the thread when lead aloud sound like Trump-level eclectic rambling.

I've had time to gather my thoughts a little bit better than I did when I was shutting my 3DS off in anger and flying to the forum to let the raw salt flow. Really, that's the key ingredient that I feel Hatsworth is missing.

Flow.

Henry's jump arch is protracted and floaty. his movement speed is plodding. most of his melee attacks and even some of his ranged attacks seem to lock him into animations. he doesn't feel agile, and that becomes exacerbated by tea time, a mech that makes the jumping even floatier and makes Henry Hatsworth an invincible but unwieldly mess to control. If the game was better designed around this lack of pace, it could still flow well together. Mutant Mudds is a laboriously paced game where most of the enemies are more agile than your character and still, that game has a rhythm to it that was deliberate and methodical.

Henry Hatsworth's design does not support any sort of real flow to it. There are large section of level that are just "here's a bunch of small platforms with no height difference between them but they start falling when you get on them so just hold right and hit jump a bunch to win" and leaps of faith with no real mitigating factors like in games that have similar problems like Shantae on the Gameboy. That game I'm willing to forgive because there was at least an effort to properly signpost lower platforms to jump down to individually along with the float muffin item that made leaps of faith ones you could take in comfort knowing that Shantae could bounce up out of a bottomless pit a few times. Also, in that game, you'd get checkpoints every time you went through a screen transition. There's also at least one instance in Henry Hatsworth of a moving platform not coming back if you accidentally trigger it and fail to get on.


bosses are wait and dodge affairs that in addition to their difficulty, feel as if they drag on and on, especially since they posess kill room elements to give you enemies to fuel the puzzle with. It's tedious, especially considering that the enemies are at best distracting juggle fodder and at worst hyper-durable menaces wo stand at a distance hucking projectiles from behind the safety of a projectile blocking shield. sometimes this is set up so that these bullet sponge enemies camp ledges where melee attacks are ineffectual and often times you are playing the waiting game to shoot them. Even at it's most assholish, I cannot think of a single Megaman game that has ever perched a Sniper joe on your only platform forward  without any room for Megaman to platform around him without facing instant death from a pit. Further, the frequency of enemy spawns in the kill rooms in The Puzzling Adventure tends to make the fights hard to handle because Hatsworth lacks the proper swiftness or effective crowd control without seriously leveraging the puzzle.

Which is the worst part of the pace-breaking thing in this game; the puzzle. I can't help but mess around with it to top off energy or clear blocks in an OCD sort of manner. Even still, as a Tetris Attack clone, it fails to keep the Panel De Pon frenetic feeling thanks to the fact that when you pause the game, the puzzle doesn't go invisible. This lets you do any of what normally would be mental gymnastics to figure out what active chains I can and cannot perform given the current state of the board.hiding power ups in there is nice and all, but overall, it's pace breaking over... y'know, picking up a power up and just getting instant use right then and there as you find it.


Mix all of this with the steep money grind to improve so many small little bits of the character in any hope that the melee or bullet damage up stuff will expedite the exploration of a normal stage, and... no. Henry Hatsworth is a disjointed mess with bad checkpointing to boot.

77

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 576: E3 2018 - Daisy Deviants

« on: June 13, 2018, 01:24:14 PM »

The changes made to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are too subtle for James' trolly brain who thrives on playing Super Smash Bros. like he's the fucking Joker.


Things like Wave Dashing are (Kinda) back! speed has been increased and defensive options have been changes and limited. Damage and UI have been amplified to make the 1 vs. 1 game far more dynamic. Stages having a Battlefield form is something that was specifically requested by the community. This game has Street Fighter 3 style throw-techs. they spent a portion of the stream highlighting that they put in a button combination specifically to make short hopped aerials easier to throw out without accidentally getting normal jump instead of short hop in the heat of the moment!


No, James. I posit that the way YOU play Super Smash Bros hasn't been catered to, and that is why you leave this demo deflated, unable to see the difference like you're an adult in a Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercial. Even the new stages shown in detail at the show (Moray Tower, Great plateau Tower)are the sorts of stable, stage-hazard and major transformation free environments that tend to be legal stages to play in Tournament.
in today's (Wednesday) treenhouse stream, the treehouse people actively talked about Directional Influence in detail and used Directional Influence to refer to it, which is a community term to describe the mechanic!


That being said, there are things that lend lots of credence to your theory. yeah, characters have gotten a lot of changes (some they didn't even talk about, like Donkey Kong's Up+B is now Super armored?!?), but it was clear from yesterday's tournament that characters like Bayonetta still have combos to carry foes to the top Blast zone from 0%. Even after the invitational, the 2-time invitational and 56 major Smash 4 tournament winner ZeRo said if he could make any one change, it's that Bayo still needs more nerfs, which paralells what the Smash 4 community has said about that game.

I do think it speaks volumes that ZeRo and MkLeo were able to play Smash Ultimate on stage with such comfort and ease, that most of Mario's Smash 4 combos still seem to work, etc.

78

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 247: E3 Day 1 - Nintendo Booth Impressions

« on: June 12, 2018, 11:49:17 PM »

I don't know if you guys will have the time to read this talkback, but I'll leave comments regardless.

A lot of what I'm interested with this game is the granulars. Changes to defensive options are rampant between the dodge frame decay, perfect shielding occuring when you let go of shield rather than on the frame you activate, and that... really weird directual influenced air dodge. if you can do that at the ground, that brings back the specter of the Wave Dash, although I saw no such tech being used at the invitational, even in the AMAZING Sets that ZeRo and MkLeo.

Unfortunately, it does seem that Bayonetta still has her incredible recovery and blast-zone carries that 'kiss of death' sort of style to her as demonstrated.

the biggest change though, is SELECTING STAGE BEFORE CHARACTERS!

it is now possible to factor stage into your matchup pick before anything else. you might pick characters who have easier times KOing off the top in stages with a lower blast zone or one that requires less platform movement for their combos if you ended up getting Final Destination as your stage. it's the little granuals that i think make this game have what i would call "Super Smash Fighter 2 Turbo" feel. To the outsider, it may be "oh, there's a little bit of balance tweaking and like... 4 characters that weren't there but it's largely the same game!" when little things like being able to tech out of a throw for partial damage or "the game runs a little faster and your opponents get punished for too much defensive play!" are HUGE deals!

Also they're adding a shitload of items. I've seen so many new assist trophies and having Bomber (kirby enemy that gives Kirby the Crash Ability) as yet another explosive with an alternative explosion type is ridiculous.




Also, The combat on Pokemon Let's Go! Is NOTHING like the combat in Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go's Combat, for the record, consists of your pokemon knowing one move, and you swiping awkwardly left and right on the screen to make your pokemon awkwardly dodge attacks, and then thrusting forward to make them perform their one attack until one of the pokemon fall dead. you then, if you captured the gym point, get to essentially plop an AI controlled version of your pokemon to hold that point until someone beats it in the shitty pokemon punch-out!! garbage.

The Combat in Pokemon Let's Go! consists of your pokemon having 4 attacks, that all employ the standard weakness and resistance charts. systems are still in place like the way stat buffing and debuffing, as well as status afflictions work.

Now, if you were to say... tell the people that "Capturing Mechanics are lifted straight from Pokemon Go", then you would be factually correct. I get that you are in a highly stressful situation and you got a microphone shoved in your face in a locker room, but... if you want to use a wrestling metaphor, this is about as about as bit of a factual flub that misrepresents the game you are covering as Sid Vicious telling Kevin Nash that he has half the brains that Big Sexy does on Nitro as an insult.



Also, I kinda marked out that they got Ember Moon on stage for the Smash Invitational, speaking of NXT.

79

TalkBack / Re: Defoliation (Switch) Review

« on: June 08, 2018, 12:26:53 AM »

This was fun to watch you stream if only because I had to pout out the way unto which the game's translation borked a puzzle.

80

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 08, 2018, 12:22:58 AM »

Pokemon Black and White for Retroactive. Let's go people.

YES!!!

Someone has never played the second set of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.

I have not, but like... I really don't like Roguelites. I do like the premise of PMD though. it's a weird little push and pull.





Also, Odeo, I suppose you do have N who comes to his own conclusions, come to think about it.

81

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: June 08, 2018, 12:19:24 AM »

They most certainly are, Ejamer. They also made Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion on 3DS.

82

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 07, 2018, 03:37:58 PM »

I have yet to meet this person that plays Pokemon games for a narrative

Hello. Nice to meet you.

I... hm!

Mop, I'm curious... is Lysander every bit the poorly motivated, ill researched moron I think he is? because I was taken aback at how dumb his heel turn AND his grand scheme was. At the same time, we have Thanos from Infinity War doing something somewhat similar but on a much bigger scale and he comes off so much better for it because he sees himself more as a great equalizer rather than seeing himself directly more... philanthropic the way Lysander and his club of pretty bois and girls think they are?


I feel like BW1 was really the only place a Pokemon game's narrative got remotely interesting because of the questions it raises about the core conceits of the franchise (that it then promptly dumps without any proper resolution because the villain just is using this question of morality as a power grab.) MAYBE Colosseum with trying to do something for .5 seconds with it's protagonist and being in a region that's a madmax dystopian shithole before just dropping everything altogether?

I always thought it was silly that people try to like... make up fan theories to explain hardware limitations of Gen 1 and come up with some dumb fan theory about some sort of war or something and that pokemon trainers are war orphans or some sort of MGS Bullshit.

I also am a little offput by the surprising volume of NPCs in these games who are like... crocodile hunter levels of obsessed with animals. I get that they tie into like... mythology and the general workings of many of society's workings in this world, but like... business people walking down the street, football players, electricians, the barber, every damned TV Show on TV, Rocket Scientists, professional burglars, Shinto Shrine Maidens, the president of a multi-million technology firm, people lounging at the beach, and Ryu from street fighter ALL want to tell me about how much they love their pet animals or how they effect our everyday lives! Like... listen, bud. I like my doge. she's a very cute doge. I don't talk about my doge with every tom, dick, or larry I meat up with on a nature hike or that busts into my house to look for items or in-game trades.

83

TalkBack / Re: Freedom Planet Switching Platforms, Has New Publisher

« on: June 07, 2018, 01:37:17 PM »

This was, of course, before Sonic Mania came out, and like... as this game's resident superfan on this site, I'd like to say that Sonic Comparisons might not be so favorable any mroe when held sid by side. Freedom Planet is it's own game, and I'm happy to see XSeed pick it up!

I'd say folks should still give this a shot. it's it's own thing. a high-speed action game with a focus a bit more on tough but fair boss fights and being able to have platforming action that feels a little bit more on-point than when Sonic has to slow down for that sort of thing. it's got elements from all over, and... if you couldn't tell, I'm still over the moon with Freedom Planet and it's very rough indie charm.

I do wonder if Stevie and the folks at Galaxytrail with this publishing deal are going to get some help releasing the content that they were supposed to release for the kickstarter but realized they made some clerical errors that lead to the stretch goal stuff having to be left in a beta state?

84

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 06, 2018, 10:59:57 AM »

I understand completely Jon's issues with fighters seeming too onerous if he hasn't been keeping up with the genre.  That said, some fighting games have done good to offer simplified ways to play or to lower the barrier to entry so you can at least have fun from the start.  Dragonball fighter Z has auto-combos (hitting the same attack several times yields an automatic 3-4 hit combo) and most moves seem to be a hadouken-style circle turn + button input to execute.  The technicality then becomes learning your timing and counters when playing against others. 


I think the game inputs are less impenetrable than the fighting game player base online itself.  When I played Street Fighter or Smash Bros with my local friends, I was typically the better player.  When I went to college, I got exposed to people who were worlds better, and I regularly got bodied before I got better.  But when you get matched-up online with people, you're gonna get paired with people who make the game their job and will capitalize one mistake to take off half your life bar.

Preach it from the mountaintops, brother!

I've been playing a pretty fun lil' 4 button indie darling called Them's Fightin' Herds. A lot of folks liken the game to Melty Blood, but it's running on LabZ engine and it's great because it has a VERY robust training mode and as long as you're going from lights to heavies in your strings, they'll probably pick up most of the time. while this seems like it'd lead to infinites, they smartly put in a very easy to understand Juggle Decay system where what looks like it'd be a stun bar is actually filling up to putting the opponent in a juggle decay state. they also start giving out red hitsparks that get bigger and bigger as they get heavier through JD.

85

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 04, 2018, 08:43:51 PM »

or you're playing for the story, which as I said, I found boring.

I have yet to meet this person that plays Pokemon games for a narrative unless you're talking detective Pikachu or other spinoff games. Most Pokemon fans I know are interested in telling stories in the universe of Pokemon or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but whatever world building and story bits we get are but condiments to... yes, what amounts to a grind. Some people chose the put limits on this grind (the nuzlocke) and some chose to take it to the next level (Shiny Hunting, competitive), but it is a video gaming comfort food.

I agree with the abolishment of random encounters and instead having Pokemon visible on the map at all times, but I also believe that the whole point of traveling with Pokemon is effectively rendered moot by this change. It was established almost immediately that the only way to keep kids from getting mauled by rabid birds and rodents the moment they so much as think about walking out of town was keeping domesticated Pokemon by your side, and there was an element of 'breaking' Pokemon for their capture in Pokeballs.

Without Pokemon showing active aggression towards humans that wander into their turf, either via Pokemon actually trying to chase you down on the world map nor them actually taking any action to defend themselves when you approach them for capture, you have effectively disarmed any sense of danger, resource management, or really any REASON to acquire Pokemon. The only threat left is other humans now to keep this from being Kanto Walkabout. (which, by the way, is what Pokemon Go is. walking for the sake of walking. I say this as an individual who is disabled and has trouble walking.)


that being said, I'm not against the idea of Pokemon Let's Go! It gets rid of a lot of the built-up technicalities of the franchise (IGN interviewed Junichi Masuda, who pretty much answered a question about EVs and IVs and said he wanted to make the games simpler) and boil it down to it's core elements. this approach to game design can produce the likes of Mega Man 9 in an era where Mega Man games had more in common with Pokemon or Super Metroid then they did with Mega Man... or it can produce the likes of Final Fantasy 13, an anorexic skeleton of a video game covered up by very pretty and shiny wallpaper. I imagine Pokemon Let's Go! falls somewhere in the middle.


______________________________________


Finally getting back to listening, Listen to Jon talk about fighting games is funny to me. Street Fighter 1 is an awful dumpster fire and makes me yearn for Yie-Ar Kung Fu with how busted the AI opponents are and how nigh impossible it is to get your basic attacks to come out when you want them to, let alone getting a single Hadoken to come out.

I find Street Fighter 2 to be constraining, like a pair of briefs that are two sizes too small. there's a lot of broken and dumb stuff in SF2 as well, like Kill combos and the meta of sitting in the corner with Sagat throwing Fireballs all damned day waiting for your opponent to jump in so you can uppercut or tiger knee them.

It's not like Frame Data just magically appeared out of the aether to make fighting games more complicated. it's in SF1 and SF2. Just because combos were a happy accident doesn't mean there isn't an insane execution barrier for the likes of Hyper Fighting or Super Turbo. I'd actually say that it's even more prohibitive than modern day fighters, where they make sure they're not putting 1 frame links into the game and putting in little things that let you flub inputs a bit or such.

Of the bunch of games that are in the 30th anniversary collection, I'm probably 'best' at Street Fighter 3: Third Strike... and even then, I'm garbage at what people would consider the 'gentleman's fighting game'. it sounds though that Jon might actually like Street fighter 3: The New Generation. 10 characters, each have a few special moves and they're easier to get to come out then some of SF2's, and you get 1 super attack that the game tells you how to do when you choose your character. No EX Specials. the only thing that's there that wasn't really in Super Turbo is the parry mechanic, where you hit the control stick in the direction you're going to be struck at the same time the opponent's hit lands on you. forward for parrying a standing attack or jump in, down to parry a low attack.

86

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 574: Game Freak Used Money Stone on Eevee

« on: June 03, 2018, 07:36:38 PM »

Jon talking about Dark Souls vindicates comments I made during the 2016 Telethon wherein we were talking about unsuccessful jumps to 3D and I had explained that Dark Souls did a better 3D Castlevania game than Castlevania.

87

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: May 25, 2018, 09:16:35 PM »

Well, CDavis7M, Wario's Woods jumps out at me a bit in that it's a puzzle game that rather than control the pieces directly, you control them via running around as Toad while Birdo and Wario try to shower you in new pieces, which always made it feel like this puzzle game with a slight platforming emphasis.

Sonic Mania has a part where the game momentarily stops for a bout of Puyo Puyo because Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was a thing that happened.

I'd probably say something in the vein of the Puzzle Fighter stuff would be what you're looking for, but that's more a VS. Puzzle game with some fighting game flavoring more than any actual fighting game type mechanics.

sadly, I think your best bet is probably looking into the indie space or the mobile space. Puzzle Quest came before Puzzle & Dragon, which... yeah. not a lot of 'innovation between those, heh.




As for me, I think I might be done with Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure. I do not find it fun, simple as that. The platforming is rudimentary and plodding, there's a godawful focus on combat where enemies take way too much damage and are placed to be as frustrating as possible to remove. maybe this would be more acceptable with better checkpointing or if the game had a better sense of flow to it, but it has neither of those. If I were making this game, I probably would have removed the cash shop stuff and put the onus of damage upgrades entirely on building up combos and chains in the puzzle, and not just to fill a dumb meter.

88

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 572: Nintendo Franchise Executioner

« on: May 22, 2018, 04:10:24 AM »

you know, the problem is that at the same time I tried to play Xenoblade 2 I was playing a game with much better game feel on the overall in the form of Final Fantasy 14. there's so many little things, like... jumping. Jumping feels better in FF14. the combat feels snappier and isn't convoluted. The maps don't confuse me. the UI is far cleaner and customizable if you don't find it clean enough, The Quests are presented in a far cleaner manner with a far more robust quest log that will open the map for you around where your objective is if you check it. The Fast Travel options make far more logical sense, and the main story is presented in far more of a compelling manner in spite of the fact that FF14 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 employ very similar tricks to how their main Story progression happens. Yes, it's a game with a monthly sub, but it's so much more polished.

I legit was having more fun grinding Tiger! Tiger! during my time with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 then I was playing the rest of the game.



EDIT: HOLY JESUS **** THE POKEMON DISCUSSION.


I was actually going to take a nap and then that rolled around and like... I'm thankful for James being on this show to understand and fathom just how self-destructive some of the ideas posited here are!

Pokemon is a game that when played multiplayer, should give the sort of buzz a 1 on 1 fighting game does, but in the accessibility of a TURN BASED MEDIUM. Some people have the minds and competitive spirits, but maybe not the dexterity to play such a game, and that is why the chess-like pacing of competitive pokemon is a compelling thing for some fans. You alienate a lot of folks if you attempt to make a live game with the level of mechanical deepness that pokemon has absorbed via osmosis over the years.


The reason that Black/White are my favorite games in that franchise are because there was a certain delight in having all new pokemon with ZERO repeats, even if some of the stuff it introduced fit familiar archetypes that previous pokemon might have. I feel that James is absolutely CORRECT in the idea that just regurgitating the original 150 nostalgia raw is a horrible decision, especially given how much they have done so ad nauseum over the years. the original 150 were heavily favored when it came time to decide which pokemon would recieve Mega Evolution. the original 150 were EXCLUSIVELY chosen to receive Alolan Forms. Heck, even during Diamond and Pearl, many Gen 1 pokemon were favored to receive evolutions or Pre-evolutions! of the 79 evolutionary lines (retroactively 78 thanks to Tyrouge tying Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan to the same family of Pokemon), 43 of those lines have recieved a typing update, a new Evolution, a Mega Evolution, or an Alolan form. some multiple times. some in the same game. one of those is going to headline one of those two games and has had a merch line introduced based on it's various evolutions, old AND new.


I posit that an original 151 only reboot would serve to piss people off, be INCREDIBLY regressive, and yes, make for a game that'd get incredibly boring, given that I already thought that X, Y, Sun, and Moon were milquetoast in presentation and clearly lost a lot of it's presentational flair with the move away from beautiful 2D Sprite based art to these models ran through an ugly pixel filter. This of course, after they made models that were so heavy in tris in their meshes that they would regularly tank the framerate of the poor 3DS.


A Pokemon Yellow Sequel-Reboot nonsense that looks like it's being run through the 3DS Emulator Citra to get 1080p visuals and Pokemon Go style touch-to throw ball style controls will not impress me. I'm not saying a revisit to Kanto can't be interesting. heck, from the way the leaks made this sound, it's more of a sequel with Red and Green/Blue as tentpoles to the narrative. Kanto 20 years on sounds like it could be interesting, if anything!

but at the same time, the series has been dabbling in the lazy writing rut of "infinite alternate universes!" and even introduced the Ultra Beasts, pokemon that are from alternate dimensions. this is a perfect way to introduce invasive species into the wilds of Kanto, or mess with the encounter tables some! there's tons of potential here, and to just outright ignore so much progress to placate to jaded 90's kids that started talking about pokemon again for 0.05 seconds because it was on their smart phones is bone-headed and I want to know if it's Junichi Masuda, Satoshi Tajiri, or some sort of shareholder fuckhead who I have to talk about long and hard with to see that this game goes to the "Or Later" part of the "2018 or later" forecast to steer this project away from being boring trash.

89

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: May 21, 2018, 09:41:08 AM »

La Mulana feels like it has a lot more purpose in it's level design and actually gives you a farming outlet if you get far enough in the game. Henry Hatsworth's level design often goes for "Put shielded enemy up on ledge so you have to awkwardly wall jump up and shoot them when they throw their spear." or "SURPRISE MONSTER CLOSET SECTION WHERE THE SCREEN LOCKS!" or "here's a blind jump downwards where death puts you back several minutes in the level because the checkpointing is of Super Mario Sunshine quality!"

Why does Henry take a lunge forward with his crouching attack? Everyting about crouching in this game feels bad. maybe I'd use the gun more if it didn't have an ammo meter that you lose the ammo for when you take too much damage?

This game actually fills me with salt every time I pick it up. I don't know if I'm insane because I KNOW Poeple liked this game, but like... there's SO much better you can do for a 2D Platformer on the DS! Heck, there's so much better if you want Panel De Pon gameplay on the DS!

90

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: May 18, 2018, 08:12:23 AM »

I do not like this game's level design or combat. I do not like that they put enemies that camp ledges shooting projectiles that give you knockback over bottomless pits and go "Eh, they have a wall jump! they can figure it out!"

I do not like that the game encourages you to juggle enemies but not give you the ability to move forward while juggling enemies. it makes what already is a game with pacing issues between it's long levels and constant stop n' go gameplay between jumping down and playing super easy mode Panel de Pon and trudging along at Henry's slow pace. I wish he had attacks while running or that the big charge shots didn't require you to fire off rounds, then clear blocks in order to make them happen.

I wish this game didn't make me want to grind money to buy the 20million character upgrades for Henry, but I guess they gotta give you SOME reason for standing there juggling enemies like a tool.

91

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 571: Mandatory Hooligans

« on: May 17, 2018, 09:00:23 AM »

woah, this talkback thread got fun!


There's a surprising number of N64 games I can think of that I wouldn't mind revisiting that are niether Nintendo nor Rare games, actually. sadly, a fair few of them are Konami stuff (Bomberman 64, hero, second attack, the Goemon games) or made by western devs who are now defunct. actually, a lot of what keeps me from ccollecting for the console again is the fact that my hands just DO NOT FIT with 1st party N64 controllers any more. they're too fat to fit between the prongs. :C

I will say that the only Rare game for N64 that I fee  like is something I'd play again is Diddy Kong Racing or MAYBE blast corps. maybe.


as for the pessimism around Switch online service, it's... it's really hard to be optimistic. maybe somewhere down the road it finds a way to innovate and bring us the chunky online salsa we never knew the masses craved so much, but at the moment it feels super weird and awkward.

Honestly? I have a cool idea. in addition to the online play, Nintendo does Retro achievements and maybe even some online Vs. achievements for first party stuff. These achievements though, give out Gold Coins when unlocked for your MyNintendo account.

now, you have this service that people are paying into, and can essentially mitigate the cost of it if they're playing enough games to earn enough gold coins for profit. people are more energized to continue to get games that will use the online functionality because there's likely to be gold earned, and thus you have folks playing and potentially regularly engaging with these games to justify their Nintendo online service sub.

92

TalkBack / Re: Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (Switch) Review

« on: May 16, 2018, 10:14:13 AM »

that's unfortunate. I was hoping this was going to be a Wander Over Yonder game.

93

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: May 15, 2018, 03:29:53 AM »

It took me playing exactly one level to remember why I didn't play that far into Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure.

This game stylistically is grating. It honestly feels like a Gameloft game.  something about it SCREAMS that it's a super generic game trying to inject itself with personality it almost feels like a parody of a video game, like Wayforward's Catgirl Without Salad.

I love panel de pon as a standalone game, and that's.. honestly what I'd rather be playing the tiles look more satisfying, the effects when you clear tiles, and the fanfare you get for clearing tiles is so satisfying in the puzzle game this is clearly aping, but... it just feels so weird, especially since you can PAUSE THE GAME TO LOOK AT THE PUZZLE, THUS ELIMINATING ALL TENSION AND NEED TO THINK ON YOUR FEET.

I remember that Henry gets upgrades that maybe improve things? but otherwise it's a floaty platformer with button mash-y combat where you have to juggle enemies to get them to drop money to buy upgrades later. this is a weird sort of juggle-grind to have in a platformer.

the thing that really vexes me is that the game is mechanically sound and competently laid out level design wise. if you got rid of the impenetrable blandness of the British caricature characters done wrong and the GODAWFUL grating sound design in spots, you MIGHT have a game that's all right? but like, this game actively annoys me to play for any period of time beyond a few minutes. I think I was playing games at the time that were Henry Hatsworth's contemporary in the indie space that left more of an impression and didn't make me want to throw up any time the audio was on and dialogue was on screen.

94

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 42: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

« on: May 13, 2018, 10:22:23 PM »

Real talk; I picked this one up at a half-price books about 2 or 3 years back. Iremember trying to like it and on paper it sounds wonderful. I like Panel de Pon, and I like Megaman, so... really, what was my hold up?

Well, for starters, I remember wanting to stuff cotton in my ears every time I heard the Grunt-a-logue (that's a word I'm making up for that thing that Rare games would do where they'd play a little grunt-clip of some sort on every syllable of dialogue that would get printed on the screen as text). I remember thinking the levels were stretched out way too long, and I seem to remember some sort of platforming mechanic I didn't like... I think it was a fiddly wall jump or  something of the sort? I dunno, my memories are hazy on Henry Hatsworth, in all honesty.

Sadly, I did not get my 3DS modded for capture, and I'm not about to try and play Henry hatsworth through a view-finder. unless I play it through dubious methods, I will not be able to stream gameplay sessions or capture footage this time, folks.

95

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 571: Mandatory Hooligans

« on: May 13, 2018, 04:14:47 PM »

aw, yeah. my choice to pick up Henry hatsworth for $4 at half-price books is paying Dividends! my distinct memory is that it's one of the few DS games I've played that made me want to shut off the audio because it was so grating, and I usually can't stand turning the audio to a game off.


My costume Shantae mode reviews are still pending. I have it downloaded on my Wii U, I just have to hook it back up.

see, Greg... the dancing felt less cumbersome in the GBC game in particular because that game especially was less about having action-y platforming segments and being more about being this explorative Metroidvania title with a proper, interconnected world. it felt very inspired by Majora's Mask's mask switching or playing songs on the ocarina back then, whereas now it's constant pauses to this more action oriented platformer.

it KILLS me to be harsh on Half-genie hero too. this is one of my favorite franchises, and it's.. in the end, Half-genie hero is an all right game. I probably only rank it higher than Risky's Revenge because RR is such a content-lite game that it feels like it ends before it ever really gets going. I also feel like Shovel Knight kinda spoiled me as far as these games with DLC character expansions, though... as they're willing to get Jake kauffman to do new music, and shake things up in far more significant ways for the other campaigns, where this is literally the same level design, but with grapple points for bolo to swing on or switch blocks for Shantae's Patricia Wagon cosplay to Switch-force it up with!

"The Gadget bloke" is NOT how I'd describe Bolo. he's more of a moron that doesn't get enough air to his brain, but somehow still gets trusted with doing things.

He's kinda the Jon Lindemann of Shantae's world, if Jon had a full head of hair and threw spiked balls at things.




The complete Sonic 3 and Knuckles experience is something that people covet and cherish as incredible and profound games. Sonic and Knuckles is pretty much what would be a DLC Expansion for a game nowdays, because they couldn't fit all the content they wanted to put in Sonic 3 onto one cartridge.

if you're just playing the solo Sonic and Knuckles experience, you start at mushroom hill,w hich in the complete experience is the half-way mark through the game. obviously they had to rebalance some of the Sonic 3 levels when you have the carts locked together so that the jump from Launch Base to Mushroom Hill isn't as jarring.

Some of S&K's music is a classic. Flying Battery (even if I don't like the zone myself), Lava Reef, Sky Sanctuary, Death egg zone are all incredible musical pieces. yeah, Mushroom hill seems a little offputting when you compare it to Sonic 3's Angel Island as an opening zone, but Gui is seriously throwing the baby out with the bathwater on this one by just basing the soundtrack on that one song.

Knuckles is actually really elegant in his design. sure he can glide and climb up walls, but the things that actually define his character are some of his weaknesses. he actually has a lower jump height than Sonic or Tails, and there are basically bits of level design that were woven into the Sonic 3 Stages (which you could not play as knuckles without S&K) that are behind breakable walls only Knuckles could get behind, or that you'd have to use the debug tool in Sonic 3 to get to with sonic or tails. We talked about Wayforward literally just adding some context sensitive intractable objects to levels to make them completable by the other characters, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles seamlessly weaves completely new level design into the base level design and it is friggin' masterful in it's execution.

the funny thing though? the thing of "Flying through space trying to catch up to the final boss" thing you're describing? that's "The Doomsday Zone" which... is a stage in Sonic and Knuckles, NOT Sonic 3. Sonic 3 ends with you fighting this robot called the big arms as Dr. Eggman is trying to launch the Death Egg off of Angel Island.

Really, though. Sega literally employs people that made their name on the internet by pirating and reverse engineering their games from the 90's and purposefully doesn't go after people for legal wrongdoing. If you wanted to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles, you should just get Sonic 3 Complete.

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_3_Complete < So much care has been taken to make this the definative version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, from being able to toggle music settings, cutscene fixes to fix continuity that got broken in Sonic and Knuckles, alternative sprites, the option to use soundtrack based on the weird PC Version of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, what version of the debug code you'd prefer to use, The Easy Mode from Sonic Jam on the Saturn, numerous bug fixes...

I know that before Sonic Mania, Christian 'Taxman' Whitehead and Simon 'Steath' Thomley did pitch a Sonic 3 and Knuckles port in their retro engine with 16:9 and various revamped things and Sega turned them down. they actually reused the tech they used to make the Blue Spheres Mini-game in their Proof of Concept to add it into Sonic Mania.

I also would like to pint out that I have actually played a SegaSonic the Hedgehog arcade machine. Even with a track ball, it controls like ass because it is an isometric platformer controlled with a damned Trackball. @___@;; Still excited for Mighty and Ray, though. sounds like they may do some work with the level design because Ray's flight might actually be cheesier than Tails' flight, but I'm getting off track.



I call bullshit on 5th gen console  stuff not holding up, because some of it really does! maybe not visually, but gameplay wise, yes. the best stuff from the era is probably games that mixed polygonal environments with 2D characters (Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy Tactics, Paper Mario, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, Xenogears, the Suikoden stuff, etc.), but there's still stuff like Brave Fencer Musashi, the Crash and Spyro stuff, the Final Fantasy 9, Legend of Dragoon, and even the Megaman Legends stuff hold up pretty nicely visually. I still prefer the first generation of Armored Core titles over the later games too.

On N64? there's PLENTY of stuff that gets overlooked that's appealing visually. the Bomberman stuff, the Goemon stuff... heck, I'd even put Chameleon Twist on the 'visually appealing 3D platformer' list to an extent!

It's stuff that tried to pull off realism and din't stylize enough where the Jaggies and such are the most painful to look at. and yeah, maybe there was some growing pain, but to just throw an entire generation of gaming under the bus is such a reductionist excercise that it makes my head spin.

it's not really even the online NES stuff that I'm all that upset about with the pricing structure, it's the cloud save stuff. I still have to listen in to the rest to really get into that, but i've run out of time, as i have to show my parenntal unit some form of reverence on this holiday that your podcast has gone up on. I will listen to the rest later.

96

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - May 10, 2018

« on: May 12, 2018, 03:38:15 PM »

I really do need to play costume Shantae, but I just have not had the time with turmoil in the family and too many JRPGs.

97

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 570: The Super Ponzi Bros.

« on: May 07, 2018, 10:50:32 AM »

Looking forward to Smash Royale, the gacha based Clash Royale clone with Smash Bros styling.


BTW, when killing FZero or Star Fox remember their impact on the SNES. Star Fox was Argonaut's big hit that resulted in the design of the Super FX chip that affected loads of later SNES games including Yoshi's Island. Dunno if erasing FZero would impact Mario Kart.

Okay, so... I think we'd still have Pilotwings as a showcase of mode7.

but the Starfox argument is interesting. not because it gets rid of Yoshi's Island. I think that game exists with maybe some levels changed to not have 3D Graphics. Stunt Race FX gets obliterated, and... actually the knock-on effect of that is kinda devestating.

first and foremost, Argonaut never gets close enough to Nintendo to then pitch their prototype of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. their 3D platformer Yoshi prototype. this never gets turned down, and never ends up inspiring Super Mario 64.

The Rumble Pak now has to ship with some other game. maybe this is something like goldeneye, but there's no excellent use case for it, and maybe rumble/force feedback controllers don't catch on in the same way they do in our current timeline.

Argonaut never gets the rub from ever working with nintendo. yes, they made some compitent stuff for the Amiga, but without Starfox and Croc under their belt, who's to say they never make it out of the Amiga space and onto the Playstation, even? This means they may have never gotten the Alien: Ressurection license, to which they made a game that by all intents and purposes, invented the default control scheme for MANY games that would come out in the future on consoles. left stick for move and strafe, right stick for free look, and R2 for firing.

98

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 570: The Super Ponzi Bros.

« on: May 06, 2018, 10:41:58 PM »

You guys have been on a roll of horribleness. I love it. and I love listening to Gui have an existential crisis over the fact that he has literally lost the ability to get it up for Single player games that aren't made in the style of a Lucasarts point n' click adventure. He attempts Auto-erotic high score chasing, but he just cannot get it up.

Play FF5 or something. you can play that game 2 player. or FF14. that's a 10,000,000 player game, and the idea of you and Karen with side-by-side gaming PCs, TVs set up next to each other running Sigmascape V4 with empty poutine containers strewn about the room at 4 AM is kinda cute.


Also, yeah, I didn't bother watching Greatest Royal Rumble myself, but yeah, it made me smile that people started making Shockmaster memes about Tidas O'Niel for that trip he made there.


I grinned with sadistic glee that removing Undertale and it's ilk from the timeline was looked upon as a pro.

That's right, Screw you, fans of LISA and Super Lesbian Horse RPG!

Also, I kinda have a feeling that the Ape Inc/Creatures are not very talented on the coding end and we might have gotten far more stable/bug free Pokemon games.

99

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 244 - The Thirsty Mage: Chrono Trigger

« on: May 02, 2018, 03:37:16 AM »

The Way ATB works is that if you've chosen "Wait" mode, the ATB of you and your enemies still ticks on until you go into a sub-menu like the "Tech" or "Item" menus. it's basically a pause so you can look at what commands do or give yourself a breather once you get into the item menu to dig through your bag for the consumable you need.


speaking of the battle system though... if you set aside the likes of I am Setsuna and such, FF11 actually has a VERY Chrono Triger-Esque combat system with it's Skill Chain and Magic Burst system. the idea was that the melee fighters would have this meter that filled up with their auto-attacks, and when it was full, you could do a special attack called a Weapon Skill. these were based on a few things (what weapon type you were using, the Skill cap for the weapon, etc), and all weapon skills had an elemental affinity. if multiple party members in a short period of time did their weapon skills in the correct order, it'd cause extra damage through an effect called a skill chain! in addition, skill chains gave enemies a debuff that made it so the next spell cast on them, if it were the appropriate element matching the elements of the Skill Chain effect, would do massive damage. of course, if you had the right weapon skills, you could actually keep the skill chain going through your party, and the Magic Burst was meant to be the ender.

This... of course, required a LOT of coordination between your fellow players, but it was SUPER satisfying.



Also, my usual Chrono Trigger party will be Robo, Ayla, and Chrono, although sometimes I like using the DarkEternal party with Magus, Lucca, and Marle because HOLY WOW Dark Eternal does NUTS damage.

100

TalkBack / Re: FIFA 18 Adding World Cup In May 29 Update

« on: April 30, 2018, 11:37:51 AM »

inb4 update is free, but then they make you assemble new Ultimate Team cards JUST to participate in World Cup mode.