Messages

251

TalkBack / RE: Dragon Quest Creator Praises Revolution

« on: January 14, 2006, 12:55:02 PM »

The difference between the Cube and the Rev (in this regard) is that companies like Enix took a wait-and-see attitude, and the Cube didn't offer anything worth waiting for. The Rev is offering something that Enix clearly wants (sword control), and nobody else is even suggesting that they'll offer it.

If "Kenshin Dragon Quest" isn't a Revolution launch title (or at least well into high-priority development since before launch) then I'm going to be very surprised and disappointed. The only question is how much "substance" Enix is going to put into the game, and if it can compete with their typical RPG efforts.

If Enix puts their heart into Kenshin Dragon Quest, and it doesn't replace the regular Dragon Quest series, then the Revolution is going to be somewhat pointless. If it does replace the regular series, then Nintendo will be justified, and their victory (particularly in Japan) will be almost assured.

[removed]

252

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Has anyone else played the Mega Man X collection yet?

« on: January 14, 2006, 12:40:58 AM »

Capcom had previously said that they were going to remix the music in X1 & 2, that they were going to clean up the translations in the entire series (they've always been pretty bad), and that they were going to entirely re-dub X4, 5 & 6 (which were initially "kiddie", "mature", and "Japanese", respectively).

None of these things ended up in the final product, which people just chalked up to Capcom being lazy/rushed.

But as it turns out, Capcom did every single one of the things they promised. But then Keiji Inafune ordered that all of these improvements be removed from MMXC, and that the low-quality stuff be crammed back into it, so that the "Irregular Hunter X" remakes on the PSP would look better by comparison. Which is why the music in X1&2 isn't emulated properly, and the "damn" part in X1 was part of the retranslation that slipped through.

Oh and, rather than re-inserting the Japanese voice acting in X6, they just decided to delete the voice acting altogether.

http://megaman.retrofaction.com/index.php?main=articles/editorials/editorial019

253

General Chat / RE: Battlestar Galactica - Or Why You Should Watch

« on: January 13, 2006, 05:07:53 PM »

The new show is entirely unworthy of the Battlestar Galactica name.

[Kairon]

254

TalkBack / RE:Merrick Leaves Nintendo

« on: January 11, 2006, 08:49:13 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
What was so great about this guy other than that he was a pair of loose lips?

http://www.n-sider.com/personnelview.php?personnelid=793

More recently, Mark Rein (the Vice President of the company that makes Unreal) was blasting the Revolution, saying that the controller will result in nothing but more kiddie gimmicky crap on Nintendo systems, and while Nintendo was pulling their usual "tee hee, we won't confirm or deny that" thing, Jim Merrick personally called out Mark Rein and told him to make an appointment to see the Revolution firsthand, at which point Mark Rein apparently became a Revolution convert. This was before we learned that the Rev might not even be powerful enough to run Unreal 1.

Mostly I think this is just bad news because it's yet another Nintendo personalty to have walked out the door in the last five years, without much of any attempt being made to replace them.

Who the heck does Nintendo have left now? Shiggy. Iwata. Perrin Kaplan. That's about it. They've lost more than 50% of their personality and tried to replace it with one guy, Reggie.

255

Nintendo Gaming / RE: First Scan Megaman X DS

« on: January 11, 2006, 03:44:37 PM »

It's "Rockman ZX" (or Megaman ZX, if you prefer). It says so on the lower left corner of the concept art.

It apparently stars either a boy named "Van" or a girl named "Elle". Both are human (or some sort of civillian Reploid), and they discover some sort of living liquid metal at an excavation site, which transforms to become their clothing, can transform into armor and grant them Megaman-style weaponry, and can absorb abilities from enemies. Needs more naked henshin scenes, but Nintendo would never allow it.

Here's more of the concept art.


Van


Elle


X-Van


X-Elle


X-something-or-the-other


ZX-something-or-the-other

[Mario]

256

NWR Forums Discord / RE:Random Thoughts

« on: January 10, 2006, 11:48:22 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
how the hell does stevey keep breaking outside the limits of the forums, it's impressive though!

It's easy.

257

TalkBack / RE: Jim Merrick to Return to Nintendo of America

« on: January 10, 2006, 10:03:27 PM »

http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/53FFAD0D-C2AF-4449-AB96-DE1CDB6C4499.htm

According to teh Billeh, Jim Merrick isn't moving to NOA. He's leaving Nintendo altogether.

258

Nintendo Gaming / RE: No more Phoenix Wright?

« on: January 08, 2006, 02:01:14 PM »

As I understand it, there was Gyakuten Saiban 1 to 3 on the GBA. Then Gyakuten Saiban on the DS was an enhanced remake of GS1, and Capcom decided to make it a more sophisticated "international" kind of game, so they gave it a full English language option.

Since it was already English, Capcom USA decided to bring it over, deleted/locked the Japanese mode (apparently the average American finds exposure to other languages "offensive", not "sophisticated"), changed it's name to "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney", and made a number of other minor tweaks and adjustments to the game.

Gyakuten Saiban 4 is supposedly coming out next on the DS in Japan.

[Infernal Monkey]

259

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No more Phoenix Wright?

« on: January 07, 2006, 02:02:19 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Infernal Monkey
Atlus sounds like a pretty excellent publisher. Extremely limited US distribution, no PAL releases at all. Best!

I should probably try and explain.

Atlus of Japan is I guess a medium-sized developer/publisher, most well known for "Shin Megami Tensei", an RPG series that was called "the biggest RPG series you've never heard of" back in the SNES days. It's sales keep up with Square and Enix RPGs in Japan, but since it deals with demons and modern-day Japan, nobody thought it would ever be seen outside of Japan.

Then in the PSX/N64 days, a startup American translation/publishing company wanted to give SMT a chance, so they talked to Atlus and became "partners" with them, becoming "Atlus USA". They're actually independant from Atlus of Japan, and they don't bring over everything Atlus makes, just the stuff they like (which is most of it). And they pick up games made by other developers.

They brought over Quest's Ogre Battle games (up until SquareEnix bought them up), and the first Nippon Ichi strategy RPGs. After Disgaea made it big, they even helped Nippon Ichi set up NIS America, so they could bring over their games for themselves. Atlus USA apparently did half the work on NIS America's first game.

Atlus USA is really just a small company though, so since they're taking huge risks with the weird kind of games no other publishers want to touch, they minimize their risks by never sitting on a lot of unsold product. When bigger publishers look at a game, they'll say "there might be 500 people in America who want that game". So they either bet that it'll somehow sell 5000, or they just skip it, saying it's not worth their time. Atlus USA thinks 500 sales is better than zero, as long as they like the game, so that's how they do it.

260

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 2

« on: January 06, 2006, 11:01:05 PM »

The most recent NPD info suggested that Dragon Quest 8 was on track to sell even worse in America than Dragon Warrior 7 did (which is what Enix considered bad enough to fire an entire regional division), despite their heavy desire to see the game do well.

Since DQ8 wasn't a "Final Fantasy" level success like Enix wanted, the PS2 remake of DQ5 has most likely already been canned in America. But the PS2 and DS are entirely different markets, so it remains to be seen if Dragon Quest can do well on the DS.

Enix might (and by all accounts should) release a game on the American DS in order to test the waters, but I don't know if they'd want to try something as "unusual" as Slime MoriMori, or if they'd prefer something more traditional. Unfortunately, there aren't any traditional Enix RPGs on the DS in Japan for them to choose from yet (that I know of). But if Enix never goes "traditional" on the DS in Japan, and would rather play around and have fun with things, then Slime MoriMori would be the best choice. I think we just need to wait a while to see more of what Enix's plan for the Japanese DS is. And with the DS dominating in Japan, you can be sure that Enix does have a plan for the Japanese DS.

261

Nintendo Gaming / RE: No more Phoenix Wright?

« on: January 06, 2006, 10:37:58 PM »

Quote
Fair warning - when I purchased my copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney this afternoon, I was told that Trauma Center: Under The Knife has just gone out-of-print as well. That's a game I've been planning on buying, as I'm sure many other here are too. Act fast before it's too late! I'll probably pick it up this weekend.

Trauma Center is made by Atlus. Atlus games go out of print after they make their first run, which is usually around 500 copies.

You're probably just lucky in that your local store still had some kicking around until now, and they were running low, and they only just now tried to order some more and noticed that they couldn't.

[Ian Sane]

262

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No more Phoenix Wright?

« on: January 05, 2006, 06:12:25 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Speaking of games we can't find, I havent seen Castlevania anywhere!"

Same here.  I got it for my brother for Christmas.  Every store I checked was out except Toys R Us.  I quickly snagged a copy and a few weeks later they too didn't have it.  It seems to be following the tradition of the last two portable Castlevania games of having a limited print run.  I can understand that sort of thing for something like Phoenix Wright.  That's a new unproven franchise and if it doesn't sell as well as expected it's risky to manufacture more copies.  But Castlevania is a major franchise in gaming.  If Circle of the Moon is still worth manufacturing years after release why not the other games?

Dawn of Sorrow seems to have just been reprinted. If you're looking for a copy to keep for yourself, Toys 'R' Us has it for $45 Canadian, while Electronics Boutique has it for $50.

The nearly impossible to find "Lost in Blue" (also from Konami, with the exact same cart size) seems to have been reprinted at the same time, and is at both TRU and EB for $40.

Also, EB just had a new copy of Riviera for the GBA. Had.

263

Nintendo Gaming / RE: S-Video confusion

« on: January 03, 2006, 01:43:26 PM »

It's the "component" cables that you can only get from nintendo.com, because Nintendo was the only company that made them for the GameCube, and they didn't think people wanted them. They're "higher end" than S-video.

You can get the official "Nintendo" brand S-video cable from nintendo.com. It's right here. But at $16 it seems a little pricey.

You can get third party cables from a lot of different places. As an example, here's one from lik-sang.com that's only $4.

If you look at the picture on Lik-Sang (click it to make it bigger), the big square plug on the left goes into your GameCube, the red and white plugs go into the "audio input" on your TV, and the round black plug on the right is the "S-video" part. It plugs into your new TV's S-video port. It has a bunch of metal "pins" inside it, and looks a lot like the port that your computer's keyboard might be plugged in with, but it's not the same.

Now that you know what it looks like, you might want to see if you can find one locally, in a videogame store or something, so you won't have to pay shipping costs.

Quote
And does anyone know if I need a new cable for my PS2 'slim'? Or was it included with the system?

The head that connects to a Sony console is different from one that connects to a Nintendo console. Or a Microsoft console. So they all need their own cables. You can swap them between a PSone and a PS2 (any version) though. Or an N64/GameCube. As long as it's the same "family", it's usually okay. And no, they're almost never included.

BTW, does your TV have multiple S-video input ports? If it doesn't, you might want to look for an S-video switcher box, unless you want to manually connect and disconnect cables back and forth a lot, or just leave one console with the S-video, and the other with ordinary A/V cables.


EDIT: IT TOOK ME FOUR HOURS TO WRITE THIS, AND TWO HOURS TO READ Pro666's RESPONSE... dur hur hurr.

264

TalkBack / RE: FEATURES: The Planet GameCube Louie Awards 2005

« on: December 31, 2005, 02:31:44 PM »

"Lunar: Dragon Song" was made by GameArts, not UbiSoft. UbiSoft signed up to publish it before development on the game even started. The fact that GameArts fell short, and Lunar DS wasn't as good as Lunar 1&2, was probably just as much of a dissapointment to UbiSoft as it was to everyone else.

Sprung also sucked, but I think the fact that UbiSoft is taking chances on oddball games that nobody in America would touch with a ten-foot-pole, which happen to be the entirety of the DS's intended lineup, makes UbiSoft extremely valuable as a DS publisher.

[odifiend]

265

General Chat / RE:Pokemon no longer causes cancer.

« on: December 21, 2005, 03:34:59 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: odifiend
um... nitsu, POK Erythroid Myeloid ONtogenic gene.  Same reason scientists don't care that AIDS is a verb synonymous with help.

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is an accurate acronym.

The gene in question here (POK Erythroid Myeloid Ontogenic) should be "POKEMO" or maybe "POK EMO" and doesn't have any weird accents, so it shouldn't be pronounced anything near "Pokémon".

And yeah, maybe the people who discover things are allowed to name them, and they don't have to strictly use acronyms of their descriptions. But Pokemon is a very specific noun, and Nintendo has a right to protect their trademark.

I don't doubt that the scientists felt they were paying Pokemon a compliment when they named that gene, but naming a disease after someone/something isn't a very good compliment, and sometimes it can do more harm than good.

The scientists should've just called it "Pokemo" and let everyone else casually refer to it as Pokemon. If they really wanted to call it Pokemon, then the only people they can blame are the people in the media who ran the stories saying "Pokemon causes cancer" purely because of the shock value attached to the name, and not for a real interest in their work.

[translation notes]

266

General Gaming / RE: Working Designs is gone.

« on: December 16, 2005, 02:22:18 AM »

Quote
That may be fine for you because you probably know everything about japanese pop culture but in Japan anyone can understand those references and that level should be kept in the US version.

Working Designs was also the first company in US videogame history to regularly include translation notes and Japanese song lyrics in their instruction books.

The Clinton/Lewinsky jokes went too far, and even Victor Ireland knew it. As were the fart jokes, although WD always seemed to like them.

Quote
Vi Ireland is just as responsible for killing WD as Sony was.

He admits as much in a Gamespot interview.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141225.html

Quote
GS: As Working Designs showed that there was an American audience for many of its games, others began to take note and jump in the game. Currently, Mastiff, Atlus, NIS America, Agetec, Hot-B America all seem to specialize in somewhat niche, localized fare. Did the niche outgrow Working Designs? What kept the company from competing with these new players?

VI: Me, really. We were tied up, and I was obsessed with getting the three Gs approved. It made no sense to me that they were denied because they were so right for our market, and were exactly the kind of game we did that our fans liked. Until that was cleared, nothing else could be licensed. My hands were tied to get any more product by our majority shareholders. If I had cut and run, we could have been doing our usual two games a year in that time. Think of it, we could have done six games in the three years I wasted! But there's no guarantee any of those would have been approved either, since they would have been games that emphasized story and gameplay over graphics.

Some other interesting quotes...

Quote
GS: With the company's focus on role-playing games and 2D-friendly approach to graphics, why was the decision never made to publish for systems like the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS?

VI: GBA was too crowded a market, and DS came into the picture too late. The software for the DS is only now really starting to come on strong. It does have Goemon, too! That game alone made me rebuy a DS so I could play it. Now I'm glad I did because there's a bunch of great stuff.

Quote
GS: Any thoughts on the next generation of platforms?

VI: I want to know more about the Revolution. I also want everyone to write Microsoft and demand their JRPGs!

[Djunknown]

267

General Gaming / RE:Working Designs is gone.

« on: December 14, 2005, 08:01:51 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Djunknown
Its shame really.  Does this mean that their stuff just appraised in value since they don't exist anymore? I should try and score a copy of Lunar 1 and 2...

Those games went out of print a long time ago, so the company publishing them going out of business wouldn't really have an effect on that. But don't let that stop you from getting them.

I don't think Working Designs entirely "stopped existing". I don't think they ended up going into debt and declaring bankruptcy or anything like that, but without money they'll never get off the ground again.

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
This could be a golden opportunity for Nintendo though they'll probably not realize it. There is a whole company worth of laid off people who hate Sony. Nintendo always has problems with RPGs. Working Designs most famous projects are localizing RPGs. Now they don't actually make the original game but I believe they have ported existing titles to over consoles, like from the Saturn in Japan to the Playstation in North America. So they could probably port a PS3 game to the Rev.

I think Working Designs was made up of about 9 people at the height of their operation. I don't think they ever ported a game from one console to another (they just picked whichever already-existing version they wanted), but they've offended a lot of purists by reworking some games to try and reduce loading times, improve graphics, and adjust difficulty levels. I think they said once that porting a game would be a snap for them.

One of their top programmers quit a couple of years ago, and now he works on Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank series (Insomniac and Working Designs are both California-based).

[Victor Ireland]

268

General Gaming / Working Desings is gone.

« on: December 13, 2005, 02:10:07 PM »

http://www.workingdesigns.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118916

Quote
Originally posted by: Victor Ireland
There's no easy way to say it, so I just will. Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time. Yes, the website is still here, and I am going to do my best to keep it tucked away somewhere on the 'net so it doesn't become an illicit domain. (Of course, some of the haters may be of the mind that it's been illicit all along, heh!).

When Working Designs shifted their translation/publishing business to the PSX from the Sega Saturn, Lunar 1&2 provided the biggest success in WD's history.

But when they tried to take on the Arc the Lad series, SCEA said they'd only be allowed to do it if they did all three games all at once, and charged the price of 1.5 games, because (even though the games were made by Sony) they weren't up to Sony's high standards. WD took a major hit financially because of it.

Sony did the same thing to them again on the PS2 with Growlanser Generations.

Of late, WD has been working on the PS2 version of Goemon, an early-PS2 game somewhat known for bad graphics, but despite WD's attempts to polish the game up, Sony refused to allow it on the PS2, cancelling it, and ending WD's run in the videogame industry in the process.


There's probably something to be said for WD's formerly-small niche of anime-style and strategy RPGs becoming crowded, forcing WD to make-do with the "less shiny" gems, but in the end it was Sony holding the knife, and Victor Ireland seems a little bit resentful. If you read between the lines, he's basically telling people to choose the Xbox360 over the PS3.

[does not exist]

269

TalkBack / RE: Castlevania Double Pack Announced

« on: December 09, 2005, 10:53:25 PM »

Quote
There are THREE GBA Castlevania games, not two.

According to Koji Igarashi, the current head of the Castlevania series, "Castlevania: Circle of the Moon" does not exist.

He didn't like it, and even though it was made under his watch, the story conflicts with the latest version of the Castlevania timeline as he has imagined it. So he officially struck it from the Castlevania history books, and it will never be seen again (or at least, not as long as Iga is in power). It rests alongside the two N64 Castlevanias, "Castlevania Legends" from the original GameBoy, and the unreleased Dreamcast game, which he cancelled for attempting to be a sequel to Castlevania Legends.

[joeposh]

270

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Official DS Sales Thread

« on: December 09, 2005, 10:16:59 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: joeposh
Alright guys, NPD just put out a notice saying the numbers are over inflated and that they are NOT CORRECT. Not sure if this is across the board or just specific platforms. Hopefully they'll have the right numbers soon.

Apparently the "mistake" numbers were a trap. They gave everyone a different set of "faulty" numbers, and then waited to see which ones showed up on the internet. The responsible parties have been shot, the leak is plugged, and there will be no more NPD numbers on the internet. For now.

271

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Official DS Sales Thread

« on: December 08, 2005, 02:13:52 PM »

The PSP has more life in it than I expected.

On a related note, in it's one week of October sales, GTA sold 158,400 units, and it sold 246,081 units in November, which means it's total is now at 404,481, and it's the biggest game on the PSP (which isn't really saying a lot).

272

Nintendo Gaming / RE: 2-3 Times as powerful as GC true, sez IGN

« on: December 07, 2005, 03:45:12 PM »

Quote
What does fisher price mean?

Assuming you're serious (you can never tell on PGC anymore), they're a toy company. They make brightly-colored plastic toys for young children to smack around and throw at things. The white plate on the front of the Cube in contrast to the rest of the system drew a few nasty comparisons to Fisher Price early in the Cube's life.

Quote
Fisher Price toy? I'm wondering if you've even seen the Rev system at all...

Yeah. The Rev looks cooler than the Cube did.

Radica maybe? Or How about Tiger Electronics?

Quote
I'm just sitting here shaking my head, wondering just where the hell you've been for the past year, with Ninty trying to expand the industry...

By going back to being a toymaker. Toys have always been popular with non-gamers. Not exactly an unexpected move, but it's bound to annoy the multi-billion dollar industry that Nintendo practically gave birth to.

Quote
They aren't trying to win back Sony and MS fans, who are pretty much implanted in their systems...

I'd settle for them trying to win back the Megaman fans, the Castlevania fans, the Final Fantasy fans, the Dragon Warrior fans, the Metal Gear fans... you probably get the idea.

273

Nintendo Gaming / RE: 2-3 Times as powerful as GC true, sez IGN

« on: December 07, 2005, 03:15:11 PM »

Quote
Sony also spent a fortune designing their chip, will be selling at a price that might cause you to mortgage your house, and is banking on people playing more of the same with new coat of paint...

Which is pretty much the exact same thing Sony did with the PS2.

With the N64, Nintendo delivered a $200 supercomputer with a revolutionary new control method, leaving everyone scratching their heads wondering how it was possible. (And then they tripped up big time.)

With the GameCube, Nintendo delivered a $200 supercomputer which tried to fix a blunder that should never have happened, but didn't do much else. Nobody was left scratching their heads about the "$200 supercomputer" part, because Nintendo had them all convinced it was an overpriced $100 Fisher Price toy, and because MS had a more reasonable looking $300 supercomputer on the market.

With the Revolution, Nintendo will apparently deliver a $100 Fisher Price toy with a Revolutionary new control method.


I don't believe that Nintendo can't compete on a level playing field with Sony. Actually, I think if Nintendo really tried, Sony honestly wouldn't stand a chance. Seriously. I would like the Rev to be a $200 supercomputer with a revolutionary new control method, that leaves people scratching their heads wondering how a thing of such greatness is even possible. And without the collosal blunder this time, since I know the two don't automatically go hand-in-hand.

But... I guess I'll just have to wait and see what we're offered.

[that]

274

Nintendo Gaming / RE: 2-3 Times as powerful as GC true, sez IGN

« on: December 07, 2005, 01:48:37 PM »

Quote
Well how is bumping up the framerate bumping up the number of polygons per second?

Framerate consumes polygons-per-second.

Like, you know how the Cube is supposed to do 6-12 million polygons-per-second? Well, if you take 12 million polys-per-second, divide it by 30 frames-per-second, you can guess that things onscreen can be made up of 400,000 polys, before things start to bog down. If you make the game 60 frames-per-second, then you can only use 200,000 polys. Do you see how that works?

If the Rev is 24 million polygons-per-second, then it can do that 400,000 polygon game with the silky smoothness of 60fps. If they're willing to go with 30fps, then they can have 800,000 polygon games, the kind which would barely run on this generation (at a clunky 15fps).

Yes, two times the polygons-per-second is a nice thing, and nobody would turn it down.

But last generation Sony said the PS2 could do 66 million polygons-per-second (which was a lie, of course). This time, (IIRC) they're saying the PS3 can do 1.5 billion. Hideo Kojima is daring people to regognize even a single visible polygon anywhere in his MGS4 trailer. Even if that's jumping from lie-to-lie, that is what you call a "generation leap". Two times is not.

275

Nintendo Gaming / RE: 2-3 Times as powerful as GC true, sez IGN

« on: December 07, 2005, 01:18:24 PM »

Quote
Also, I don't get this whole debate over the 2-3 times more powerful comment (ghz, megs, and all that other stuff included). To get upset over this, first of all you need to know what 2-3 times more powerful means graphically.

The GamesIndustry.biz report says "2x the clock speed, 2-3x the performance". I would expect that "polygons per second" is a good indicator of performance.

Sooo... Take pretty much any game from this generation of consoles... if it's running at 30fps, bump it up to 60fps... add a Revolutionary Control method... and... you're done. There's the Revolution.

The next generation, as Nintendo apparently sees it.

Unless/until Nintendo gives us some reason to believe otherwise.