Your Nintendo Specialties

[Nester the Lark]

Obviously, all of us on this forum are into Nintendo games to some degree, but some of us seem to "specialize" in certain games or franchises. For example, YL is the Fire Emblem expert around here, and I think he's also into Kirby.

I thought it might be interesting if we each talked about some of the games that we're into that maybe others aren't as familiar with. They don't necessarily have to be super obscure, but they'll probably lean on that side. You can even talk about games that other people here are also into, but maybe the series just means something special to you. Just mention how you got into them and why you like them, and maybe it'll open up more people to giving them a try.

For me, I don't consider myself an "expert" at any particular series, but I suppose I'm kind of the Sin & Punishment guy since I'm such a huge fan of the second game. Like many people, my first experience with the series was with the original game on Wii Virtual Console, although I had heard about it long before that. To be honest, though, I find the original game to be frustrating to play due to the hand-cramp-inducing controls. The mushy shoulder buttons on the Classic Controller are a real problem for me.

But the second game plays beautifully with the Remote+Nunchuck. Star Successor can be finished in a brief 2-3 hours, but it's a score-based game. There's a definite satisfaction to improving your skills, and making it all the way through stages without getting killed. And as you learn new strategies and your score improves, you can really see yourself getting better. (Shame the online score boards are gone.)

Sin & Punishment is like the antithesis of Super Smash Bros. It doesn't have a lot of variety, characters or game modes, but rather it does one thing, and does it exquisitely. It's an "easy to learn, difficult to master" kind of game with more depth than there initially seems.

Aside from Sin & Punishment, I think I'm also the StarTropics guy, but I'll save that for another post.

What are your Nintendo specialties?

[Evie ❤✿]

Mine are Pokémon and The Legendary Starfy (but I don't know the whole of the story for the Japanese games).

I have fully beat all the Legendary Starfy games, but since all but one of the Legendary Starfy games are in Japanese, I can't consider myself too much of an 'expert' as I don't know much Japanese.

I have also looked through the Legendary Starfy manga (except non-tankōbon ones) and I tried to make summaries of what happens. I did this by transcribing the text, checking vocabulary with a Japanese dictionary and checking the syntax with Google Translate, but now that I think about this, I'm afraid that although some of what I wrote may be right, some of it may be completely wrong.

I like to find out and look up a lot of obscure Legendary Starfy facts and I've tried to make Starfy Wiki very broad. It has articles on every character and enemy for example. It covers some of the plot details for the Japanese games, but the one thing I think is in need of improvement is detail on Japanese version characters in all the games. There is some detail, but the detail is not complete. Legendary Starfy is 'unusual' in a way for being a very text heavy 'platformer' (though it's officially called a Marine Action series in Japan, not all of it is platforming) and I think that some of the characters are pretty interesting.

This is related to why I like the series. Other than not many non-Japanese speaking people specializing in it, it is both light-hearted and brings up serious topics at the same time. Like Ogura, he's not really a bad guy, he was forced to try to conquer Pufftop from expectations from his leader, and he (text hidden in case anyone here cares about end of game spoilers): literally sacrifices himself to save Starfy and Starly at the end of Legendary Starfy 3.

Moe has an interesting relationship, because his father and mother separated when he was young and Moe lived with his mother, but eventually his mother got ill and is thought to have died. Moe was forced to be the parent to his younger siblings, and is good hearted, even though he is rude and greedy for treasure sometimes.

Another two interesting characters are Echigyoya, who in Legendary Starfy 3 says he will borrow money and give it back (but he never does) and Enbiraru, a 'hitman' and ex-boxer who was hired by Echigyoya after Echigyoya said he gets to keep half of some treasure, that is not actually his.

I am also a Starfy specialist in 'unusual' things, as I specialize in glitches and unused content in the games, and I have found a lot of things that I couldn't find any previous documentation of. I have a curiosity where I like to uncover new things. I think it's fascinating how Tose stored assets for other games etc., like Namco Museum Battle Collection(?) sprites within Legendary Starfy 4's code, or how an almost completely unseen feature never made it into the final version of The Legendary Starfy.

I like the Pokémon series, but the story doesn't appeal to me really, it's the same "badge quest" a lot of the time.

I am not really a general Pokémon expert, but I specialize in Pokémon glitches and obscure mechanics, and know a lot of glitches few people seem to know/made advancements in them.

Pokémon glitches completely change the games for me (but to a lesser extent in Gen V and Gen VI) and add so much replay value. In the first two generations, you can execute arbitrary code relatively very easily without tools, beat the game in under 5 minutes, use the youngster that brings you to Brock's gym to walk through walls by talking to him from the wrong side if you meet specific requirements (without cheats), etc, do an awful lot of stuff with the select glitch in Japanese Red,Green,Blue... There are whole subcultures of Pokémon glitchers and Pokémon glitched speedrunners who do amazing things like this, and a lot of it isn't documented as well as it should on larger sites (some of these exploits aren't even mentioned at all).

[Manspeed]

Mario and Donkey Kong. And Wario, if you consider that separate.

Though I've been trying to familiarize myself with the rest of Nintendo's vast library to some degree. I was even going to make a thread about that.

[Evie ❤✿]

Jan 10, 2015 14:55:07 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

Mario and Donkey Kong. And Wario, if you consider that separate.

Though I've been trying to familiarize myself with the rest of Nintendo's vast library to some degree. I was even going to make a thread about that.

Ah. This reminds me that I wanted to get into The Legend of Zelda, but I've never ended up even finishing any of the main games, lol. I don't know exactly why, but I may find the first half of the game or so fun enough to motivate me to continue playing it, but then at around the second half of the game I may stop playing. I think it's sometimes how there may be a tricky part of a dungeon or something you have to do to advance the plot I can't solve. I could use a walkthrough, but that makes the game less fun, and if I save and reset in a dungeon I may lose track of what was puzzling me and then I might not want to continue playing because it was getting 'boring' for me. This happened to me in Ocarina of Time in the Water Temple.

In the case of Wind Waker HD, I thought that one of the things you had to do to advance the game was a little hard to find out without help (it never occurred to me that you could attack Cyclos and that you had to beat him for the Ballad of Gales), and then when I found out I had to get every Triforce Shard (or maybe you don't. I don't know :s) I stopped playing.

Interestingly, I did beat Starfox Adventures even though it plays like The Legend of Zelda and enjoyed it. But I don't know why. Maybe I found it more straight forward than The Legend of Zelda, or maybe I found the story less deep (because I like things that are easier to learn), or maybe I continued playing it because it was like Zelda but wasn't Zelda that motivated me to beat it in a weird way.

I think I prefer series that are like Mario or Kirby. They often don't require much thought to advance, yet they are still fun. Plus you don't really need to be into the series as much as Zelda to get the plot. You can "pick up and play" them as was said in an Iwata Asks. I like Donkey Kong too, but I haven't actually explored that series much.

I also like JRPGs (other than Pokémon) with a battling interface like in Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. I beat EarthBound after it came out on Wii U Virtual Console and liked it, so I may play Mother 3. I enjoyed Tomato Adventure and beat it too.

Embarrassingly I haven't played any of the well-known RPGs like Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. I don't play a game from a completely different series very often now though. I end up coming back to Pokémon generations I-III a lot to experiment and video 'new' glitches (and I'm considering playing with Generation IV and V). My long-term love for replaying Red, Blue, Yellow, etc. may be linked to the fact that I got really addicted at Runescape years ago and got lots of skills at 99s.

As for genres other than platformer, adventure and RPG, I like Nintendo puzzle games but I'm not very good at a lot of them at all, so I'm afraid to get into some Nintendo games. I loved Pokémon Link (Trozei) though. I also enjoy Nonono Puzzle Chalien, but the Chalien series (consisting of two games as well as Spin Six) had a weird charm to me anyway because you collect creatures like Pokémon called Chaliens and it's from the company Creatures. I beat Chee-Chai Alien (not sure if this is a Nintendo game, it definitely wasn't published by them, but here are the credits); a GBC only game where you collect aliens from artificial light sources thanks to the Game Boy Color's infrared feature, but the game seemed a little mediocre.

I like racing games, Mario Kart is really fun to me. I should maybe get into F-Zero even though it's more skill based.

[nocturnal YL]

Oh, so I'm famous in NinDB now? Well, Fire Emblem and Kirby are two things I'm into, and there are a few more too.

I often think of us NinDB members being more of fans of specific Nintendo-published series, reaching out to the others due to them sharing genre or style, or due to advertising (thanks, NinDB). There are fans who seem to be "generally" into multiple Nintendo-published games though -- Leon's wide reach into multiple series comes to mind, though I think he's more specifically into Metroid, Zelda, Fire Emblem and some of the more recent titles.

Series and games that I'm into, huh... If it's Nintendo-published, chances are I have talked about it more or less here. I don't discuss small details here, seeing that it's not particularly easy to find audience here (maybe you guys just like to read without replying), but I'd have at least said one thing or two.

Before diving into specific stuff about the series I like, here's how my contact with games went (mostly right before the DS came out). Beware, long truncated story time: Timeline.txt (2.33 KB) (in attachment form because it's still too long)

For a list of games I obtained since GameCube, see this: Game list new.txt (5.26 KB)
It's not really a lot of games, but that's what I do: rather than generally playing everything, I take a small subset and dig deep within those.


My interest in Fire Emblem came rather late. After having access to SNES emulation, I nabbed the latest games of each series. Unfortunately for me, this means that I ended up with the difficult Thracia 776. I got stuck in Chapter 2 Gaiden (I still have that save file) and... just left. A few years later, I gave the series another good look: when I was looking for Drill Dozer but and couldn't find it (as it was too new), I decided that I had to grab something anyway. That something ended up to be The Sacred Stones, and, oh my. All games I had back then was storyless stuff like Mairo and Smash Bros., and exposing a fantasy story filled with all sorts of emotion to a 14-year-old... well, I was touched. I've never actually read a story before, let alone feeling along with one (although it's still fiction, and will never impact me emotionally more than events around me). For the first time, I found myself to be pursuing a game's story. At the same time, I was also surprised to see something like that getting published by Nintendo.

I loved The Sacred Stones, but it was also an exception in the series -- the rest being known for its difficulty. But that wasn't too much of an obstacle, as I had an online contact who's also into various games (mostly Luigi stuff, though lately he's into Metal Gear Solid too). He guided me through Genealogy and Blazing Sword, and soon I found myself to be playing without needing help. I'm still not particularly good at the series to date, though. And I certainly didn't play any of the game for more than 4 playthroughs or collect all support conversations (except Awakening) or do anything too dramatic (except maxing every single stat in Awakening).

Overall, to me, it's the good mix between gameplay (though definitely not game balance), music, story, and above all, characters that made me staying loyal to the series. This doesn't extend to Advance Wars, though -- actually, Advance Wars ended up being the only IS series that I didn't like, because I never liked strategy games to begin with.


And then there's Kirby. That one started rather simple: I've tried Kirby games after I started playing games on emulators, but it was Amazing Mirror that finally got my attention. It wasn't for any particular reason though, other than having more abilities than the previous games. Air Ride was the one that truly got me hooked, and it was its music, art and rather surprising replayability (thanks, challenges) that got me. There's Kirby 64 too, which I finished twice (once in emulator, another as part of my Dream Collection playthrough). I liked mostly the characters in that one, and, having experienced Fire Emblem, started to love mildly dark stuff like the ones seen in non-Sakurai Kirby.

Golden Sun (well, the first two) could be summarised as this: came for the graphics, stayed for the story. Unfortunately, CAMELOT's games had a very specific window of games that would catch my attention: From Mario Tennis on N64 to right before Mario Power Tennis on GameCube. Mario Golf 64/GB felt too limited to me, while Mario Tennis GC was the first to fail to show thorough, fitting utilization of hardware power. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn made excellent use of the DS hardware, but its story fell through.

And I guess you can say in a way that I like 3D Mario (in particular, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D) too, but I'm not a big fan in particular. I'm more into the excellent graphics they provide (except 3D Land) and the general immersion into the environment.

There's also one that applies across an entire genre, but it has nothing to do with Nintendo in particular: action puzzle games (think Tetris). It's simple, but at the same time, it requires quite a bit of thinking. I'll never get good at it for the same reason I'll never get good at Smash (Tetris feels more action than puzzle, really), but I like those little challenges that don't require button pressing as crazily precise as Mario Kart or Smash (unless you play online; in that case, good luck).


In the end, I just wrote an unnecessarily long post, did I?

Jan 10, 2015 17:25:12 GMT -5 Evie ❤✿ said:

I beat Chee-Chai Alien (not sure if this is a Nintendo game, it definitely wasn't published by them, but here are the credits)

Creatures published the GBC version themselves.

[TV Eye]

Jan 10, 2015 20:17:15 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Golden Sun (well, the first two) could be summarised as this: came for the graphics, stayed for the story. Unfortunately, CAMELOT's games had a very specific window of games that would catch my attention: From Mario Tennis on N64 to right before Mario Power Tennis on GameCube. Mario Golf 64/GB felt too limited to me, while Mario Tennis GC was the first to fail to show thorough, fitting utilization of hardware power. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn made excellent use of the DS hardware, but its story fell through.

Camelot's made a ton of good games. I was obsessed with Shining Force as a kid, even though I never got very far. I loved all the characters. I'd also say I'm a Golden Sun guy. I was drawn to the game because it seemed like a combo of Zelda and Final Fantasy. Plus, reading minds was cool.

I share interests, though. I love Sony as much as I love Nintendo (classic Sony. Modern Sony has too much grit for me. I miss all the platformers ) Oh! And Pokemon. I spent ages breeding in Y to get a perfect team, then I managed to complete a living Pokedex which I transferred to Omega Ruby. Then there's my Pokemon webcomic...

[Leon]

I consider myself a jack of all trades type of fan. I do have some series I like more than others, but I at least want to keep an open mind and try everything I can. I was there day one for Wonderful 101, Glory of Heracles, and Xenoblade; I plan to do the same for Devil's Third, Splatoon, and Code Name STEAM.

Now for the obligatory pimping of one of my favourite games.

A few years ago I discovered the little bundle of joy on the GBA known as Napoleon, or The Eagle of War in France. I always saw this game on NinDB and I was curious to play it, so I finally downloaded it in 2012. I enjoyed the game so much I then imported a copy from Japan for about $10 with shipping afterwards! Any way, this game is a real time strategy game, with an extremely fictionalized telling of the Napoleonic Wars. How fictionalized? Let me just say that you fight against armies being led by Alexander the Great and Nostradamus. 

 

One of my favourite features about this game is that Napoleon himself if built into the UI. Unlike most games where you have a normal looking cursor, Napoleon himself is that cursor. Napoleon himself cannot fight, but he can run around the battlefield and give orders to his officers and their subordinates. The design really does take advantage of the limitations of the GBA, especially it's lack of buttons. The game itself is rather simple, with only a handful of unit types available at Napoleon's disposal, definitely a game made for newcomers to the genre.  

[Evie ❤✿]

Jan 10, 2015 20:17:15 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Oh, so I'm famous in NinDB now? Well, Fire

Jan 10, 2015 17:25:12 GMT -5 Evie ❤✿ said:

I beat Chee-Chai Alien (not sure if this is a Nintendo game, it definitely wasn't published by them, but here are the credits)

Creatures published the GBC version themselves.

Yeah. I'm aware Creatures published it themselves. It was just that the game has Chaliens based on the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo GameCube and the Love Tester, so I wondered if there was any special connection to Nintendo. It has a Pokémon reference as well at the beginning of the game "ポ... ポケモン ちゃうよ", and that "!" mark appears in one of the minigames, but of course Creatures own part of the copyright to Pokémon.

The other game (for GBA), Nonono Puzzle Chailien (or Chalien if you use Spin Six's spelling) I do consider "Nintendo". As you probably know Nintendo own part of the copyright to it and they published it, and Satoru Iwata is listed as executive producer. It received its own Nintendo mini-site and own Nintendo Online Magazine page. Additionally, Nintendo staff were involved in the coordination of it including Nakano Takao and Azusa Tajima. Hitoshi Yamagami (and Masato Ishii but I don't know if they're Nintendo) was a product manager.


I'll have a go at translating the Chee-Chai Alien credits because I'm curious and I think others here may find it interesting too:

Chee-Chai Alien staff

Original Plan and Direction: Hirokazu Tanaka
Game Design: Katsuyoshi Irie, Toshinobu Matsumiya
Programmers: Takahiro Nagai, Noriaki Teramoto, Nobuhiro Saya, Satoshi Hosaka
Graphic Designers: Hiroyuki Gotou, Takemi Ichikawa, Hiroshi Igarashi, Toshinobu Matsumiya, Sachi Matoba, Kazu Ozawa, Akiko Shibata
Sound: Hirokazu Tanaka, Noriyuki Kitsuta
Voice Cooperation: Marie Kusumi [or Mariwe Kusumi] - this tested me because it appears to use ゑ
Chalien Shutsu [I'm not sure how to translate Shutsu]: Hiroshi Igarashi, Toshinobu Matsumiya
Game Navigator: Aochan (From Space) [Aochan is called Li'l Blue in Spin Six]
Capture Aid Device Development: Kenichi Sugino (Nintendo)
Production Cooperation: Super Mario Club, Jupiter Co. Ltd.
Sarugakuchō [Is this a place?]: Tooru Hashimoto, Noboru Matsumoto
Package Design: Hideki Kazama, Hiromi Itou
Manual Writer: Motoharu Sakata
Official Illustrator: Toshinao Aoki
Various thanks to: Kunimi Kawamura, Ashura Benimaru Itoh, Akihito Toda, Kouichi Ooyama, Gakuji Nomoto, Ai Mashima, Hajime Kuroyanagi
Nintendo: Satoru Iwata, Takehiro Izushi, Masao Yamamoto, Kentarou Nishimura, Fujiko Nomura, Sachiko Nakamichi,
Producer: Hiroyuki Jinnai
Executive Producer: Tsunekazu Ishihara
Let's Play Later: Saraba [saraba means farewell doesn't it? But it's also the name of one of the introduction Chalien(?) and guide that you can find on the box art]

So, Nintendo helped in developing the the capture aid device (if I translated that right), which is probably the infrared amplifier that comes packaged with the game and it looks like Super Mario Club may have play-tested/debugged the game. Nintendo staff are listed in the credits under their own heading, however, it's not clear whether they are part of the special thanks or if any of those Nintendo staff helped in developing the game in some way.

[nocturnal YL]

Jan 11, 2015 10:44:25 GMT -5 Evie ❤✿ said:

(Stuff regarding Chalien's staff credits)

Time for a new topic.