Messages

6351

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 17, 2009, 08:08:08 AM »

Sony should either pull out of the video gaming market or revert into a 3rd party developer like Sega.

6352

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 16, 2009, 05:40:52 PM »

Or to add insult to injury, a Panasonic Wii-ray, Blu-ray player with Wii built in for $399. heads up sales to the PS3 and see who sells more at the price point. I think they outcome would be quite embarrassing for Sony.

It would be even more embarrassing for Sony if Nintendo created a Wii/HD-DVD hybrid which is such a success that it single-handedly reignites the format wars and convinces Toshiba to resurrect the format.

6353

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 16, 2009, 10:55:54 AM »

We shouldn't laugh at Sony with the slim, it is one of the few things that that they innovated, as seen with the PS2 Slim. Oh wait, slimmer consoles are nothing new! Nevermind.

I think Nintendo started the concept with the Gameboy Pocket, and with that short-lived NES revision.

6354

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 16, 2009, 10:52:31 AM »

With the worldwide economy the way it is, convincing anyone to do major HD games exclusively for PS3 is almost a pipe dream. Few are going to want to jump on a sinking ship which PS3 is.

Well, I don't know about that.  The 360's days are numbered now, with nothing really of interest left that's exclusive to it.  Meanwhile, the PS3's powerful enough to have legs for quite a few more years yet, so it has longeavity.  Besides, if the Wii could sell the way it has with the library it has, I'll believe anything's possible.

The PS3 isn't noticeably more powerful than the 360. The Cell processor certainly is, but its power is bottlenecked because of the limitations of the other components, so it can't really make the most of it. The Cell processor has, however, succeeded in making developing for the system more difficult and expensive due to it being a very complicated architecture to work with. The 360 on the other hand isn't far removed from a PC, so you're likely to see a lot of PC --> 360 ports that Sony's console just isn't going to get.

In terms of easiness to develop for, I think it would go like this:

Wii --> 360 --> PS3

The Wii is by far the easiest to develop for. Nintendo has done an excellent job of that, and the lack of HD also helps a lot too. The 360 is harder because of it being HD and stuff, but still a lot easier than the rat's nest that is PS3.

6355

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 15, 2009, 04:13:49 PM »

Pack-ins are unnecessary when everyone's working 3 jobs.

I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but that is a very good point. With the economy being the way it is, $60 games and $30 bru-ray movies are practically the last thing on anyone's mind. A lot of Nintendo's success may be due not just to the price of their console, but to the price of their games as well. If you're struggling, can you afford to spend $59 on games? Maybe not. Can you afford $49? That's a little more likely.

And thus the Wii is the market leader. The lesson is consumers want lower priced games.

6356

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 15, 2009, 04:00:55 PM »

Now, Nintendo needs to follow suit and come up with a Wii Slim.

6357

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 15, 2009, 03:42:45 PM »

I don't know why they don't pack more games in, from a materials perspective it is cheap but adds value.

I would say because then people would be less likely to buy games. Sony loses money on the hardware, so they want to make sure people buy software, so that means they can't give it away for free.

6358

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 15, 2009, 02:16:45 PM »

In April  DSlite: 215k     DSi : 827K

The funny thing is that I recall Reggie or someone at NOA saying how the American market may not be ready for it yet.

He was kinda right, because DS sales haven't slowed in the U.S. yet. In Japan the revision really was needed and it came at the best time, because the PSP was starting to kick ass and it needed to be stopped.

6359

General Gaming / Re: Microsoft Swings at Wii With Videocam

« on: May 15, 2009, 07:05:54 AM »

This peripheral will look great sitting next to the HD-DVD addon.

6360

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 15, 2009, 07:03:27 AM »

Okay, so its a smaller system but with the same great price as the original? *pffft* At least it might save some money off your electric bill, and save you some space for your Bru-ray collection. This will be great especially for Japan, where everyone lives in tiny cubicles.

6361

Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2009 to reveal big software, from the man himself, Iwata. PS2 in his sights.

« on: May 15, 2009, 05:38:24 AM »

Proper sequel? Both the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario series are far and away better than that Square ****. I want to see another Paper Mario RPG, instead of the quasi-RPG that Super Paper Mario was.

You've had your sequels.  Let us Super Mario RPG fans have ours.

I actually liked it better when it appeared that each Mario RPG would be vastly different than the last with even a different dev each time.  When they revealed the second Paper Mario I found the news kind of disappointing.  Turns out the unique way the series had gone was a complete fluke and Nintendo considered Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi to be seperate franchises to be milked.  But if they're going to do that then they might as well give us Super Mario RPG 2.

Nintendo franchises are a lot like worms. If one of them gets damaged in any way, the pieces of it live on and turn into new franchises. Remember, it all started with the original Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, which split into the separate Mario and Donkey Kong, and then those in turn split into countless others, and so on and so forth. Nintendo franchises reproduce asexually.

6362

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 15, 2009, 05:32:28 AM »

Attention Sony: Drop your freaking $400 system's price and maybe it won't be outsold by an 8 year old system that no longer gets any major releases, and maybe you won't be in third place in most of the world.

Shh! Don't give the competition any suggestions. If Reggie is here watching, then odds are some Sony exec is too. Let's just stay quiet as Sony fades into oblivion.

6363

General Gaming / Microsoft Swings at Wii With Videocam

« on: May 14, 2009, 08:41:51 AM »

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124215416209111679.html

Microsoft Corp. is developing a new videocamera for the Xbox 360 console that will allow players to control games with the movement of their bodies, people familiar with the matter said, an effort to attract the casual players who have fueled Nintendo Co.'s recent success.

The Microsoft device is a twist on Nintendo's blockbuster Wii game console, which allows users to swing a tennis racket or other equipment in games by holding a plastic wand in their hands.

Unlike the Wii, the Microsoft camera won't require users to hold any hardware to control on-screen action, the people familiar with the matter said. The camera would sit near the television and capture when players move their hands, legs or head.

A spokesman for the Redmond, Wash., company declined to comment.

Uh oh. Does this mean Nintendo is done for? 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2009 to reveal big software, from the man himself, Iwata. PS2 in his sights.

« on: May 14, 2009, 07:41:12 AM »

Why is everyone assuming that if Square Enix incorporates Nintendo characters into a game it has to be Kingdom Hearts?  Why can't they just make a Super Mario RPG kind of project but expand it to cover the entire Nintendo universe?  Why not make a completely NEW game for a Nintendo crossover and thus not have to deal with Disney or adhere to the gameplay model of an established series?  There's no reason to have to shoehorn this concept into Kingdom Hearts.

I want to see a proper sequel to Super Mario RPG, but this time it involves Luigi instead of Mario and while old character may make cameo appearances, there should be a new set of allies Luigi teams up with along the way.

6365

Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2009 to reveal big software, from the man himself, Iwata. PS2 in his sights.

« on: May 12, 2009, 04:23:10 PM »

Nintendo does need to announce more games that make use of the balance board. If they don't, it will just be another "one hit" peripheral in the same way that R.O.B. and the Zapper were. When you consider the price of the balance board you can see why someone would be reluctant to invest in that if there is only a total of two games that make any use of it.

6366

Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2009 to reveal big software, from the man himself, Iwata. PS2 in his sights.

« on: May 09, 2009, 06:49:25 AM »

Nintendo has been quiet for a VEEEEERRRRRRYYYY long time. It's absolutely certain that they've been up to a lot of stuff, but just haven't got around to announcing anything. Mark my words, E3 will be the day where it all comes to light and we will finally find out what Nintendo's been quietly toiling away on.

This is not to say we might not be disappointed, though. While there are definitely big projects in the works, its still up in the air whether these projects are games that will interest hardcore Nintendo fans like me and Ian, or if they will be more of the Wii Sports crap that is responsible for most of Nintendo's financial success of late. Major stuff will be announced, of this there can be no doubt, but I just hope its major stuff that I'm actually interested in.

That said, I'm crossing my fingers for a new Wii Zelda game and a 2D Metroid.

6367

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 09, 2009, 06:42:48 AM »

It's seriously crazy how fast things can shift. First Sony comes out of nowhere and takes the crown, and now Nintendo have blasted back from their downward spiral and are breaking records left and right. They've gone from their least-successful console to what's looking like their most-successful console. I really have to give them props for making such a quick turn-around, it truly is amazing.

Where have you been? This shift happened 2 years ago in 2007.

6368

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 09, 2009, 06:32:21 AM »

Maybe the teen gamers of the PSX era have grown-up and have to deal with the real world now, pulling them away from game consumption.

The problem is the Japanese don't reproduce. Seriously, their population is declining...

6369

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 26, 2009, 02:31:36 AM »

8 million and struggling... I'm wondering if the Wii can crawl its way to 15 million in that market.

Not until Nintendo gets off its collective ass and releases something new besides the same combination of Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Wii Sports that have been haunting the charts for the last 3 years. At this point these games are beyond old, and its ridiculous (and a bit sickening) that nothing new has come out. What the hell is going on at Nintendo? They're sitting on their hands while Sony makes inroads.

6370

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 21, 2009, 03:24:43 AM »

I'm surprised Godfather II isn't number 1 in Italy.

6371

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 19, 2009, 11:30:17 PM »

Yeah, Mario64 makes a better poster child for the analog stick (which is unfortunately absent from the DS) than it does for the touchscreen. Interestingly, it was the launch title for both of those new ways of doing things, but it was very ill suited for the later...

If I'm not mistaken the DS's architecture is very similar to that of the N64 and that probably made it easy to port this game over. The DS is sorta like a portable N64, but without the analog stick.

6372

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 19, 2009, 10:16:30 PM »

Yeah, that's true. In the DS version you can play as Yoshi, Luigi, Wario (probably one or two others) and each of these have different capabilities. In the original you could only play as Mario, and that was it.

But again, I didn't really enjoy it as well as I would have if it had a control stick. Oh well... here's hoping one day the DS version finds its way onto the Wii with nunchuck controls. 

6373

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 19, 2009, 09:20:23 PM »

It's similar enough to call it the same game.

Yes and No. It is largely the same game, but the fact its now in portable form and with the addition of all the mini games and whatever else Nintendo tacked on it is distinct enough to stand on its own. I've owned both 64 and 64 DS and I can see the differences. To be honest, I strongly do prefer the original though, because the DS controls for it are useless.

6374

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 19, 2009, 09:18:08 PM »

9. SUPER MARIO 64 DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

Wow... that game has some legs!

No kidding! 14 years later and it is still selling!

Actually it's the DS version, which is still impressive at 4 and a half years.

Yeah, it was actually a launch title for the DS back when it came out way back in November 2004, so its the same exact age as the DS system itself. For a game THAT OLD to be in the top 10 lists now is absolutely amazing... I assumed Nintendo had long ceased manufacturing it.

6375

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: April 19, 2009, 01:08:48 PM »

9. SUPER MARIO 64 DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

Wow... that game has some legs!