Messages

201

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round G: Wii VC)

« on: March 22, 2021, 04:28:09 PM »

Didn't play too many of these, but the ones I did and wanna highlight:

- Donkey Kong Country Returns is a very good, and very difficult towards the end 2D platformer. In some ways I think it has been made wholly obsolete by its sequel, Tropical Freeze, but there are people who prefer the Wii entry. I played this on Wii, so including waggle, not sure if you can remap those controls here. Cool game, hate the final boss.

- Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is the best game on Wii in my opinion. A stupid fast railshooter with excellent pointer controls, a bonkers story, and a barrage of creative and difficult bossfights. This is peak Treasure. Cut-scenes are very ugly, and the art style (while a big improvement over the first one on N64) doesn't really live up to their clean work on Ikaruga. But who has time to stare at textures when there's ten bajillion bullets coming at you?
Multiply HIT!

- Pandora's Tower gets a tentative recommendation, BUT be aware that the American eShop sells the XSeed version, rather than Nintendo's own. The XSeed version contains a game-breaking bug just ~2 hours before the ending which can irreversibly wreck your save game. Besides importing, there is a work-around to avoid the glitch which I wrote about here.
My admiration for this game has grown a lot over the years, but it has a lot of problems besides the technical ones. Fans like me tend to compare it to a mix of Castlevania, Shadow of the Colossus, and Twilight Princess, but all of those game are far more polished than this ever gets. It's a rough game with opaque systems, constant time pressure, and a degree of unpredictable RNG.

May still get Punch-Out and WarioLand Shake It one day, they seem beloved. Playing Resident Evil Revelations right now is also making me think I should check out Resi 4 this way, but that game seems longer than I expected.

202

NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 7!

« on: March 22, 2021, 02:31:09 PM »

Will Insanolord go all the way this time?!

203

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 49: Resident Evil: Revelaitons

« on: March 22, 2021, 01:54:13 PM »

Finished a few more episodes, think I'm about halfway done now (6 chapters in).

Some things I liked:
- The Comms Officer bossfight is well telegraphed, between finding his notes, hearing the voice, and having to open the door yourself. Creepy lead-up.
- I didn't realise the ship was an old-timey cruise liner, so areas like the opera decks and the casino were nice surprises. I thought it was a cargo ship based on all the exterior decks and the metal hallways.
- The twist in chapter 6 where Chris and Jessica arrive on the ship... But it's a different ship entirely, feels like a classic shlocky horror stinger.
- A lot of areas get reused, but at least enemies tend to stay dead so you're not wasting ammo while backtracking.

New things I'm disliking:
- The actual Comms Officer bossfight itself felt like a big difficulty spike. I tried leading him around the path a few times, and hit him with the gas canisters, but kept getting mobbed by zombies. In the end I cheesed it by shooting the lock from outside the window, and hopping in and out of the room while pelting him with the shotgun.
- Like TOPHATANT says, Jessica's new outfit is just ridiculous. It's like half a jeans over a swimsuit with heels. They're not even pretending these are tactical outfits anymore. Why not just use the Jill outfit for her too but use purple accents instead?
- Quint and Keith (?) are literally less interesting than the Queen Zenobia, an inanimate object. I wouldn't recognize a single of their punchlines as jokes even if told by a stand-up comic. One of them just outright follows Jessica home in his spare time apparently, and I think the game is trying to convince us that's a funny crush?? Since he also lowers his voice when she talks to him on comms??!??! Screw that, don't follow people home ya creep, ffs. And then he abandons you while wolves show up too. Absolutely useless.

204

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Run the Series 10: Ace Attorney (Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Investigations)

« on: March 20, 2021, 01:07:13 PM »

Another honorless non-prouder here. 
Did play the Dual Destinies demo, which was honestly pretty fun! Writing was fairly comedic and quippy. But never pulled the trigger on actually buying one, same with Layton by the way.

Are any of these games absolute classics? They seem like fun, upbeat visual novels/adventure games, but not really essential pillars of the industry or whatever.

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 6!

« on: March 19, 2021, 01:48:05 PM »

Can't believe I missed the partyline! 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round F: DS VC)

« on: March 18, 2021, 06:10:53 PM »

I played almost none of these.
The Metroid Prime Hunters multiplayer seemed very impressive to me at the time, I recall it being fast-paced not unlike a Quake II, but no idea if that's really true?
Kirby Canvas and Yoshi Touch & Go are both similar ideas executed slightly differently. Kirby is a much more complete experience, and probably the best execution of this formula. Wonder if they could get away with marketing Yoshi as a rogue-like nowadays...

Honestly the one I played most was Brain Age, which is an okay game but also very much part of the then-current brand of pseudoscience. Don't see a point in getting that on Wii U either because it's a much less convenient system to do quick daily math problems on.

Only ones I'm sorta interested in and would like to hear opinions on:
- Animal Crossing Wild World has a great soundtrack, and I guess this is the only proper entry on the console? Or was City Folk on the eShop too?
Suffers from the same daily use problem I suppose, but I do really like the dinky style. Is there any point in playing this in a post-New Horizons world?
- Star Fox Command I feel like this probably ranks pretty low in the already spotty Starfox catalogue huh?

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 5!

« on: March 18, 2021, 04:37:39 PM »

What's happening, did all the ladies leave early because we're playing boring slow jamz? How we gonna Pump Up The Jam with just us dudes?
Looks like we'll be having a Boy Dance Party, maybe talk about fitness & 'toids?

Only one option for gym talk: Technotronic! 

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General Gaming / Re: The Winter of 2cold4gamez! (community event)

« on: March 16, 2021, 07:24:23 PM »

Yes, of course! Between this and The Swapper it's nice to really get a feel for what exactly we could've had for a dual-screen sidescrolling Metroid on the platform. 

(In all seriousness, I was slightly underwhelmed by the Gamepad support in Axiom Verge. You're shown a map and your weapons inventory on it, which are handy at a glance, but it retains the two-notes-per-area limit of the other versions. Would've been cool to write your own notes on it per room, or zoom in/out, see the entire map at once, etc.
But that would be a lot of extra work for an outsourced port of a one-man project, so I get it.)

There's a sequel to it slated for this year which I'm more interested in now, if only for more music and sound effects. Looks quite different too, with short-range attacks and perhaos less beam weapons, but increased mobility. If you can climb anywhere this might be the Metroid 2 of this series.

209

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive 49: Resident Evil: Revelaitons

« on: March 16, 2021, 01:30:40 PM »

Just started on the Wii U, for that truly portable (within 3 feet) experience. Finished the first two episodes. If the episodes continue being these short chunks, I'm all for that. Makes you feel like you're making progress quickly. The recap is a little ridiculous though.

Haven't played many third person shooters like this before, so my closest point of reference there is... Mass Effect 3? It's kind of annoying how your character obscures a good third of the screen. Ammo seems well-distributed so far, you don't get too much, but also not too little.

So far I don't like any of the characters, besides maybe Jill thanks to a decent voice actor. Parker and Jessica seem rather one-note so far, and if O'Brian doesn't turn out to be a bad guy I'll be very surprised. Chris hurting his foot so you're pinned down while wolves attack, but then immediately healing the moment they're gone is some really uninspired scenario writing.

It's interesting how male gazey this game feels too: Jill's design seems like a mix of cleavage catsuit and Tomb Raider straps, there's a monster POV shot leering at her butt in a cut-scene, and when she wakes up on the bed you get that typical legs-pan-up-to-face shot. You also see a woman killed early on, but her corpse still has to show strategic cleavage. And while Chris is being mauled by wolves Jessica reassures him by promising she'll, quote: "bring her sweet ass down there."
Horror as a genre regularly peddles a sleazy camera, and maybe I'm primed to notice it because Adrock was talking earlier about how the Resident Evil games that weren't directed by Mikami tend to sexualize Jill more, but yeah it's noticeable.
Not tryna be prudish or say they're badly written, so far the ladies seem just as competent as their male counterparts, just an observation.

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General Gaming / Re: The Winter of 2cold4gamez! (community event)

« on: March 16, 2021, 12:36:10 PM »

Punched the clock on Axiom Verge, was surprised to see Dr. Metts' name in the credits. Good game, maybe not great, but it's very impressive for a solo developer. Terrific music especially.
Also started Resi Revelaitons for the RetroActive.
+2 for now, hoping to add one more by month's end.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round D: GBA VC - Part 1)

« on: March 15, 2021, 08:03:49 PM »

Something odd happened though that I wasn't expecting.  At one point the sound started messing up.  I was getting loud crackling sounds in a pulse type of pattern.  The TV I was playing on is an old CRT so I thought maybe it was giving up the ghost.  I have a couple of consoles connected to it on a switch so I paused F-Zero and turned on the Genesis and it was fine with no sound issues.  So it must have been the N64.  I was on the final track of the Joker Cup and my brother suggested I go into the settings to try to the turn the sound off and continue the race.  But when I did so the game just died and the screen went black.  Resetting initially wouldn't turn it back on until I took out the cart and put it back in a few times.  The console itself wasn't warm or anything.  Odd.  Never seen an N64 game crash like that before.

Huh, I've also had crackling sound occur in F-Zero a year or two ago, though not very loud at all. I chalked it up to a loose audio cable or the bad budget PC speakers I was using at the time. Also didn't crash (well, I probably crashed out a few races), so maybe these are unrelated. Did you try replicating the problem?

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

« on: March 15, 2021, 03:44:20 PM »

Assault Android Cactus(PC)

Finally took out the final boss after a year or so of trial, error, & procrastination. Easily one of my fav twin-shooters. Not sure if I'll commit myself to getting an S+ Rank on every single stage or even bother with the new campaign+, but I may chase a few achievements between making sure I stay on top of my friends leaderboard.

Now if only I can get Steam's Remote Play Together working so I can try co-op...

Nice! The last boss is so difficult without the Shotgun character. Really cool game, I was best with Starch (laser + homing missiles) most of the game, but couldn't do the last boss with Starch. Wanna say Coral was the slow Shotgun class right?

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 3!

« on: March 14, 2021, 07:22:17 PM »

Bummer Mop. 
I was gonna pick Chime twice in a row cos it's a real banger, glad I stuck to the partyline instead.

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

« on: March 14, 2021, 12:42:02 PM »

Bummer about Outer Wilds, I've generally only seen positive things about it so this is a useful new perspective. Will still probably get it if the Switch port is okay, to see for myself. Like you say, I'm all-in on the concept, but yeah first person gameplay in a low-G environment does sound like a recipe for nausea.

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 3!

« on: March 12, 2021, 11:41:43 AM »

Don't Miss the Partyline!

216

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round E: N64 VC)

« on: March 10, 2021, 08:13:33 AM »

Honestly, most of these are at least decent games. Maybe not a lot of enduring classics, and many of them have had improved sequels since, but I'd wager most hold up okay. If you went to a friend's house and they dug any of these cartridges out of their shoebox, you'd probably have a good time.

There's some differences between the N64 Virtual Console games on Wii and Wii U by the way. Wii had Smash Bros. 64, Bomberman Hero (the second Bomberman on N64), Pokémon Puzzle League, and Cruis'n USA, none of which made the generational leap. Meanwhile Wii U has Bomberman 64 (the first one), DK64, Excitebike, and Harvest Moon. Don't really understand the logic there, as Nintendo owns three of the missing ones, and Hudson-Konami have plenty of VC releases on Wii U. 

Anyway, first a note on F-Zero X: There was some kerfuffle about the controls being borked on Wii U. Nintendo issued a patch which I assume fixed it. Easily the best racer on N64 imo, and that system had plenty competition in the genre. F-Zero X plays really well to this day, and has the X Cup which infinitely generates new tracks, which it sequel could not replicate. Leans more towards comic books and rock music than its sequel too, if that's your preferred prism through which to relive late nineties nostalgia.

The more unique ones:
- Sin & Punishment is a really rough railshooter, not nearly as accessible as Star Fox 64, and way harder. The sequel on Wii (S&P:Star Successor) is a million times better, and controls like a dream. Meanwhile to get this one playable you'll want to re-map every button to get to something resembling twin-stick controls. That said, it's a twitchy, intense game with some creative bosses.
The story is absolutely bonkers too: a sort of prescient precursor race amongst the stars has created at least one fake Earth to replace the real one, while on Earth there's famine they're trying to address by raising...  genetically engineered people as food... Obviously a terrible idea which goes wrong and they turn into a kaiju instead of hamburgers. It's fully voiced in English, and I believe the menus were English too.

- Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber Never played this, but Square likes to pretend the franchise is dead, and I think this might be the only entry still available for purchase... Unless the Tactics Ogre remake is still on the PSP/Vita stores. Ogre Battle 64 seems closer to real-time strategy games in some regard, and you have less control over units in battle than in most RPGs. Always been interested in this one, and the VC is by far the cheapest route.

I wish listed Ogre Battle 64 but never committed to trying it again. Though between the difficulty spikes & how easy it was to have your fav soldiers turn into zombies, the VC saving might be a plus when it comes to fixing screw-ups.

Same, have had it wishlisted for years, but it's a daunting prospect to start. RPGs tend to marinate in my unplayed pile of shame for years, so I've also held off buying it.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round D: GBA VC - Part 1)

« on: March 09, 2021, 03:02:26 PM »

While F-Zero GX is the high water mark for the series, I think F-Zero X is still a brilliant game.  They compromised the graphics to hit 60 FPS so as a result the game doesn't feel old, it just looks it.

Yeah I didn't mean to pass over X so quickly, like you say it holds up really well thanks to the framerate and sense of speed it can achieve. I also always like how many cylinders they use on those tracks, so you can overtake people from above or figure out a spiral pattern to cut down every corner where possible. F-Zero X also has a very distinct art style in the menus, leaning very heavy into comic books, and the soundtrack was more rock influenced than GX, which covers a wide array of genres.

Looking back, F-Zero X might be my fave N64 game. Maybe it's Smash Bros. or Mario Kart, but both of those lots more, better entries. X has just the single sequel.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round D: GBA VC - Part 1)

« on: March 08, 2021, 04:52:46 PM »

so I highly recommend anyone interested in another GX to pick up FAST Racing RMX.

I am not sure if they changed the name but it is currently called Fast RMX. Of course it is easy to conflate it with Fast Racing Neo, the Wii U version.

Sorry, my bad. There are differences: FAST RMX contains all the tracks from FAST NEO, and its DLC, plus an additional 6 courses (some of which are remade tracks from the WiiWare game FAST Racing League). So RMX is the most complete, and has rebalanced difficulty to be less punishing.
It's $20 compared to NEO's $15, but the DLC for NEO was another $5, so even pricewise RMX is not a bad deal. Also goes on sale often, whereas Wii U sales are drying up. NEO is a good game, but it's somewhat obsolete to anyone who owns a Switch.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round D: GBA VC - Part 1)

« on: March 08, 2021, 11:37:57 AM »

F-Zero Maximum Velocity - Let's establish something off the bat. Do I consider myself an F-Zero fan? Yes. Have I played all the F-Zero games? No. Do I like all the F-Zero games? No. Why am I fan? Because of F-Zero GX. It's basically because of one game in the series and I think that is the case for the majority of people asking for a new F-Zero game. GX got me into the series. After loving it and playing a lot of it, I got a copy of the first game for SNES because it was so cheap. There's a reason for that. I'm sure F-Zero for SNES was kind of good for its time at the launch of the SNES but playing it now is probably like going from Mario Tennis Aces to Mario Tennis Wii U. (Zing!) It's missing so much of what made GX a standout game.

Gotta co-sign this post. I'm another staunch F-Zero defender, but honestly only GX is a truly transcendent entry in the franchise, with everything else I've played hovering (heh) in the decent/good range.
I'm maybe a bit kinder to SNES F-Zero, because it still plays very smoothly. Put this next to the janky controls of SNES Mario Kart, or the eyebleeding framerates in OutRun, Super Hang-On, and Victory Run... and it's clear F-Zero aged much better than the rest. The music was also all there too.

But the franchise benefited so much from going into 3D: finally there's a real benefit for there to be hovercars, the jumps work better, removing traffic for competitors and adding combat elements makes every overtake a risk-reward wager between safely overtaking or removing a competitor from the race and tanking their championship points.
F-Zero X does a lot of cool things, particularly the X Cup which endlessly generates new tracks, but it's not until GX before the tracks graduate into having actual turns rather than smooth, slow bends.

I've definitely considered picking the GBA entries up on the VC, but it'd be more out of franchise loyalty than actual interest. The reality is just I'd much prefer an F-Zero NX in 3D, or even a GX remaster.
Not holding my breath for Nintendo to make that happen though, so I highly recommend anyone interested in another GX to pick up FAST Racing RMX. Yeah, it lacks some of the personality, the cars look too bulky, and I'm not convinced the polarity switching adds all that much other than testing your reflexes. But it comes pretty close at times, and looks really sharp. Sadly it can't hold a candle to the soundtracks of F-Zero or WipEout, but it's got a few decent tunes to get you in the zone. This is the new edge of your seat racing franchise on Nintendo systems, and they come closer to GX than I thought. Recommended.

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 2!

« on: March 08, 2021, 11:02:43 AM »

Nooooo Stratos you were the chosen one! Even had a family themed song. This is messed up Khush. I'm reporting this thread for multiple breaches of the Geneva convention. 

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 1!

« on: March 06, 2021, 09:33:09 PM »

Us here at Discord Records are a youthful bunch, hip with the kids, and ace with the raves. We've already got our own drug Nitro (ask your local distributor), so now all we'll need to really pump up this jam in the licensed Discordtheque (ask for terms & conditions), is for the DJ to Chime in with a beat that'll send us into Orbital!

I am dealing with a newborn now so would appreciate the pm reminder when it is my turn if it isn't too much to ask for. Been difficult to keep track of much of anything presently. Either an NWR pm or message on discord should get the message to me to check in if I've fallen into the quantum realm of parenting.

Congrats Stratos, hope all goes well!!!

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NWR Forums Discord / Re: Safe Words 17: Now That's What I Call... Round 1!

« on: March 04, 2021, 11:28:23 PM »

49ers - Don't You Love Me
Bizz Nizz - Don't Miss The Partyline
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
Jimmy Somerville - Read My Lips (Enough is Enough)
JT and the Big Family - Moments in Soul
Mantronix - Got To Have Your Love
Orbital - Chime
Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract
Technotronic - This Beat is Technotronic

Now that's what I call a mixtape!
As representative of Discord Diss reCords I'd like to place a Disc Order for dis record!

223

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Best of the Wii U eShop (Bonus Round D: GBA VC - Part 3)

« on: March 04, 2021, 07:40:41 PM »

The lowest reviewed game on Metacritic is Pock & Rocky with Becky. I guess the high price tag on carts is based on rarity. From NWR, there is a tie for last with NAMCO museum and Onimusha tactics getting 5.5 each.

Has anyone here played Onimusha Tactics? Reading the NWR it sounds pretty boring, easy, and short. But honestly I wish more RPGs could be completed in under 10 hours. Also don't really mind linearity. Visually it looks quite similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but with a different license attached.

It is interesting to see the gaps in review scores here as well with several titles not getting reviewed by NWR and Polarium Advance not even having a Metacritic score  .

Polarium Advance was released way later than its DS sequel. Atlus published it in November 2006 (just days before Wii launched), which was two full years after the DS had already released. Meanwhile Polarium DS was already available since that system's launch window. I wonder if Nintendo passed on publishing the GBA version because they were trying to move everyone onto the DS asap?
Either way, not surprising it was absolutely buried.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Mario Golf: Super Rush

« on: March 02, 2021, 07:33:57 PM »

Are y'all worried the running from course to course will get tiresome? Feels like a gimmick which might grow old fast... Golf karts were invented for a reason. 

Hope they'll add ChainChomp in this too, like with Tennis Aces. Wonder how he'd carry his golf bag.

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TalkBack / Re: Wii U System Update Released; Yes, in 2021

« on: March 02, 2021, 07:28:55 PM »

A new firmware update was quietly released today, bringing the system up to version 5.5.5 (skipping 5.5.4 for unknown reasons).

Checked today to make sure, but it looks like firmware version 5.5.4 was only in Europe/PAL regions, since Wii U's eShop is no longer compliant with creditcard regulations there. Might be why it's unlisted for the rest of the world.