Messages

[Tantalus CEO Tom Crago]

151

TalkBack / RE:Top Gear: Downforce Coming to Nintendo DS

« on: April 11, 2006, 10:12:37 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Tantalus CEO Tom Crago
"We loved the original Top Gear on N64..."

I read the headline, and thought to myself, "I hope this game is good, because I haven't really enjoyed any of the Top Gear games since the SNES."

152

TalkBack / RE: Revolution May Have Twenty Launch Titles

« on: April 09, 2006, 03:13:23 AM »

20 games, what a rush.

153

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Tomb Raider on a Nintendo Console??

« on: April 08, 2006, 04:02:50 PM »

Adult Skuld is not sexist.

154

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Tomb Raider on a Nintendo Console??

« on: April 07, 2006, 11:07:29 PM »

I remember way back around the time when Tomb Raider 1 was coming out, I read an interview with the series creator and he said that he was extremely interested in the N64, and that he believed Tomb Raider could've been even better had he been allowed to make it for the N64, but Sony was terrified of Mario 64, and once they got the idea that Tomb Raider had the potential to be a "Mario 64 killer" they offered Eidos an absurd amount of money to keep Tomb Raider off the N64. The Saturn and PC were fine, but the N64 was a looming juggernaut, and Sony took it very seriously (Nintendo said "LOL Sony! Go spend your money on exclusive games! See what good that'll do you!"). He said that he'd try to get around the blockade by calling the game "Lara Croft" or something, or just inventing an entirely new franchise.

But then after Tomb Raider was finished, Eidos told him that they expected a yearly cash-in of Tomb Raider proportions, so he was ordered to use the existing PSX game engine and slap together a sequel for the PSX, or if he really wanted to, he could make a new series for the N64, as long as he could build it from scratch in under 12 months.

He didn't want to slap together a Tomb Raider sequel, and making the N64 game in just one year seemed impossible, and after seeing how Eidos was endlessly whoring out Tomb Raider, he decided to quit. The yearly PSX games which beat the series into the ground were made without him.

Angel of Darkness was supposed to be Tomb Raider's big "revival" game, but it sucked and flopped, supposedly because Eidos insisted that the game had to ship at the same time that the second movie was hitting the theaters, even though the developers said it wasn't ready, but it shipped and it sucked and the devs got blamed.

Now Eidos supposedly has new management, a new developer, and they even got the original creator back, and apparently he has a lot of creative freedom. Here's hoping the game turns out great, and that the GameCube port doesn't suffer.

155

General Chat / RE: Official Avatar Discussion

« on: April 07, 2006, 10:31:30 PM »

Jonnyboy needs to bump up our avatar limit to 100x120, so we can claim superiority over GAF.

[TMW]

156

TalkBack / RE:Ubisoft Announces New Rayman

« on: April 05, 2006, 07:55:14 PM »

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Originally posted by: TMW
This is not the game I wanna hear about when someone mentions Michel Ancel.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie?

157

Nintendo Gaming / RE: "Parasite Eve: Rebirth" announced for the DS!

« on: March 31, 2006, 10:08:46 PM »

April fools bump.

158

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Itagaki unveils "Dead or Alive: Intense Fishing Expedition"

« on: March 31, 2006, 10:05:13 PM »

LOLZ. Crusty old April Fools bump.

[Iwata]

159

Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN Leaks Some Rev Specs Again! 3/29/06

« on: March 29, 2006, 07:43:00 PM »

http://www.planetgamecube.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=15409

Quote
Originally posted by: Iwata
Hay guys. We blew our entire hardware budget on the controller. LOLZ. Sorry. GameCube 1.5 FTW.

 

[Spak-Spang]

160

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Metroid Dread

« on: March 29, 2006, 07:30:09 PM »

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Originally posted by: Spak-Spang
The story I would use is that the parasites fused with the suit began to eat and destroy Samus's control of the suit and she loses control and is forced to destory the suit. With sexy results!

Fixed.

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Add in the new bounty hunters trying to hunt down her spare suit parts as well, and trying to kill her... with sexy results!

 

161

TalkBack / RE:Iwata Promises Cheap Games

« on: March 29, 2006, 07:19:40 PM »

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"I cannot imagine any first party title could be priced for more than $50."

First party Nintendo titles are typically $5-10 cheaper than third party titles, because Nintendo is somehow able to get their games printed without paying a royalty.

So this obviously confirms that Rev games will be $60.  

162

TalkBack / RE: GBA Player's Choice Lineup Introduced

« on: March 29, 2006, 07:12:01 PM »

I just saw them for $20 Canadian, which is $17 American. Insert USA-themed joke here.

[bustin98]

163

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No original Rare games on the Virtual Console?

« on: March 28, 2006, 09:44:27 PM »

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Originally posted by: bustin98
Right on the box of both Perfect Dark  AND Conker's Bad Fur Day it says 'Published By Rareware'. Perfect Dark says 'Distributed By Nintendo'. You have to pull out the instructions for Conker to see that Nintendo is the 'Exclusive' distributor of it.

Strangely, both Goldeneye and Banjo Tooie lack any indication of who published or distributed the games. Perhaps its just to be assumed its Nintendo. Both games claim Copyright by both Nintendo and Rare, so it would seem Nintendo had some rights to Banjo, more so than to Conker. But I'm sure the payment for Rare took care of those copyright claims. And someone is borrowing Banjo Kazooie so I can't compare what that box has.

Here's a snippet from Nintendo's 2001 financial report.


The ones on the right are the so-called second parties. The ones on the left are fully-owned first party companies.

Before they updated with the new Microsoft info, the US Patent Office website used to say that "Rare Limited" (the one on the left, owned 100% by Nintendo) was the company that owned all of the games which claimed to be published by Rareware. All the others were apparently owned by Nintendo.

It seems likely that Rare wanted more recognition for their work, so Nintendo (the one with all the money and power in the relationship) juggled some paperwork to make it look like Rare was actually publishing their own games.

Before Rare left, Nintendo transferred ownership of the typical "Rare" properties (and not things like Donkey Kong Country or Starfox Adventures) over from themselves and "Rare Limited" over to the real Rare, which was then absorbed by Microsoft. The details of the exchange don't appear to be public knowledge, but some things are obvious.


Sooo.... what's worth more? Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark on the Virtual Console, or entirely new games from Rare on the DS?

164

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Amazing Deals!

« on: March 26, 2006, 11:16:45 PM »

The other day I saw Tales of Phantasia (GBA) for $30 Canadian at Toys'R'Us.

165

TalkBack / RE: Zelda DS Revealed

« on: March 24, 2006, 01:36:07 AM »

Demon Sand would be better than Phantom Hourglass, but as we all know "phantom" is a more acceptable term than "demon" in Nintendoland, so it ain't gonna happen.

Also, polygons suck. 2D is better. Especially on the DS.

But I'm happy anyways.

166

TalkBack / RE: Iwata's 2006 GDC Keynote Address

« on: March 24, 2006, 01:17:56 AM »

*Iwata cracks open a Pepsi*

Ahhhh... That's refreshing! Catch the wave of a blue ocean.

What? I was not paid to say that. By the way, have you seen my new Reeboks? They're so comfortable, and stylish too.

167

TalkBack / RE: Official GDC Keynote Summary

« on: March 23, 2006, 07:46:25 PM »

If Nintendo's building legitimate Genesis and Turbografx emulators into the Rev to play downloaded cart/card games, they need to spend the extra five minutes to make the system able to play actual Sega CD and TGCD discs. The Rev's CD/DVD drive can already read the discs without any effort.

168

TalkBack / RE: Miyamoto Confirms Revolution Control for Zelda

« on: March 17, 2006, 04:03:18 AM »

I think LTTP had all those things, but in smaller doses (which were big for their day). And the first playtimes of LTTP when the game was brand new on the SNES were probably more than a couple hours. But I think the gist of it is true. I think LTTP was a bigger game than Wind Waker, while at the same time being shorter.

If Twilight Princess were to merely fix the "insufficent" level of "pure game" presented by WW, pushing it back up to LTTP and OoT standards, and double the "padding" in the game (which would still probably be less than the beautifully deep padding found in Majora's Mask), then I think it could meet that "100 hour" mark without doing anything unusually remarkable. Which is why I just don't trust the "100 hour" claim. If Twilight Princess is like three Wind Wakers combined, well, I'd still love it (but I'm biased). But if Twilight Princess is like thirty Link to the Pasts, all rolled into one? Well, realistically that'd never happen. But it's why I was hoping Nintendo was spending this entire year-long delay pouring quality into those hundred hours (whatever form they end up taking).

[100 hours]

169

TalkBack / RE: Miyamoto Confirms Revolution Control for Zelda

« on: March 16, 2006, 11:11:50 PM »

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Sources including Chinese gaming site Level Up have confirmed the game’s length to be 100 hours. This is in excess of several other infamous game lengths, including the 2-disc, 80-hour RPGs Tales of Symphonia (GCN) and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2).

Here's something that PGC's Desmond Gaban said about the GBA port of Link to the Past. It beats anything I could come up with.

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The game is a fairly tight package. Unlike its sequels, which are built in a way that the experience lasts 30-40 hours, Zelda: Link to the Past is constructed in a manner that is almost pure game. The Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time are long games because of story cut-scenes, mini-games, town exploration, side quests, and other miscellaneous items. While these elements make those games closer to “Action/RPGs” than Action/Adventure, Link to the Past contains none of them, and instead it focuses on only delivering solid dungeons and exploration. Thus, the game can be beaten in a single sitting of only a few hours.

And a good chunk of that 30-40 hours in Wind Waker is something that most people seem to think was a detrement to the game (mainly the ocean travel, and the fetch quest that made you hate the ocean).  

170

TalkBack / RE: Miyamoto Confirms Revolution Control for Zelda

« on: March 15, 2006, 08:39:52 PM »

BTW, there's another complaint that GameCube owners might have that I don't think has been addressed yet.

Twilight Princess was in development for three years, with an existing game engine no less. And a couple months before it was set to come out, indications are that they hadn't even written the plot yet. Which is typical for Nintendo, and is exactly the sort of thing that was wrong with Wind Waker.

Then they delayed the game for a year, and we were led to believe that they were actually going to spend this entire time building content, which is so refreshing unlike Nintendo, and would apparently make Twilight Princess an unprecedently grand experience, not just within Nintendo, but the entire videogame world.

So, how much time does it take to implement Revmote control, break an entire videogame design, and then fix it again?

171

TalkBack / RE: Miyamoto Confirms Revolution Control for Zelda

« on: March 15, 2006, 08:03:21 PM »

Link's Awakening DX was a case of double-dipping by putting out recycled content with an optional revolutionary feature.

The Advance store in the Oracle games was a case of deliberately withholding content in order to reward those who buy certain hardware. (This was also just about the only thing that "connectivity" ever offered.)

Twilight Princess is a case of the GameCube being brain-dead with a respirator and a feeding tube, and Nintendo saying "Hold on! It still has some life in it. There are still some things that only it can do. Amazing things! Wait for it. Wait for it. A little longer. Oh by the way, other devices can do this task. Do it better even. Wait for it. Wait for it. Hey, wait a minute, where are you going?"

And the last one is made even more amusing by the fact that everyone saw it coming, and most people even seemed to think it made sense, and were warming up to the idea, but Nintendo swore up and down that this wasn't the case, and made fools of the people who claimed to have inside information. And now the joke's on Nintendo.


BTW, just in case I need to say it, I don't really have a problem with the three tactics mentioned above.

172

NWR Feedback / RE: Updating recent news posts...It's

« on: March 15, 2006, 06:14:31 PM »

I think the better solution is not to modify the news post, but to put in a line break and then write in a new sentence (with it's own date/time) clarifying/correcting what was written earlier. Otherise it looks like you're trying to cover up and hide things.

[Developers don't want deep storylines.]

173

TalkBack / RE: Miyamoto Confirms Revolution Control for Zelda

« on: March 15, 2006, 06:03:52 PM »

Sooo... Twilight Princess has shifted from being the GameCube's swan song, to the final nail in it's coffin. Or maybe it's both. Good to know. I was wondering what was going claim that second honor.

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Were people bent out of shape when Zelda DX could be played on a regular GB, but got the extras if you played on the GBC?

People complained about paying good money to buy Link's Awakening, only to have it become obsolete and be replaced by Link's Awakening DX, a game whose "most important feature" was that it was enhanced for a just-released system which most people didn't have yet.

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“I told [the development staff] that we really don’t need any story behind this new Super Mario Bros. at all. I have narrowed down the whole story to about half of what my team originally came up with. Peach is kidnapped, Mario has to go and rescue her from Bowser and the Koopa Kids. That’s about all you need to know for the story!" he laughs.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Developers don't want deep storylines.

Takashi Tezuka: *writes two sentences of plot*

Shigeru Miyamoto: I said... Developers don't want deep storylines. *grabs an eraser*

[KDR_11k]

174

General Chat / RE:Official Avatar Discussion

« on: March 13, 2006, 09:44:12 PM »

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Originally posted by: KDR_11k
TYP: Is that Lina Inverse's sister?

Judging by the filename, it's Pixy Misa dressed up as Captain Harlock.  

175

TalkBack / RE: RUMORS: Phoenix Wright Gets Appeal?

« on: March 13, 2006, 04:40:37 PM »

BTW, NCSX says that they have new copies of the game in their hands, and they're shipping them out as of today. So I'm not sure how this can be considered a false rumor. Unless you're saying all the people who were having an impossible time finding the game were just a rumor, in which case you've been Jedi-mind-tricked by Capcom. Or maybe you just wanted an excuse to post a link to NCSX, and yell "Objection!" and "Guilty!" in a PGC news post.

Edit: Nevermind.


Ian: Releasing niche games in small quantities and letting word of mouth take over isn't a new concept. And yelling "shortage" and "out of print" does tend to work in spurring sales, but not always, and it tends to leave the userbase feeling burned and manipulated. There's no reason for anyone to do it on purpose when it happens by itself sometimes anyways. The problem with pushing your luck is that some bad luck might push you overboard.