|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 31, 2023 10:35:42 GMT -5
So, I'm even more excited about this game now. Impressions: - 12 playable characters, but four of them are straight-up alt colors. Characters seem to be divided between two main classes, as the Yoshi's and Nabbit have a different play style.
Characters can still ride on a Yoshi, including Yoshi, which is awesome.
- Online play, kind of. This seems to be a compromise to get around possible connection issues, but I think it'll be fun. There's a heavy emphasis on helping each other, and I think it'll add a nice feeling of community in the game.
I was expecting there to be a functionality similar to SpotPass in New Super Mario Bros U and Super Mario Maker on Wii U where you could leave messages for other players, but I think this will be better.
- The rumored special edition red Switch OLED is confirmed.
- No amiibo support so far.
- There was no mention of it in the Direct, but the eShop page mentioned in-game purchases, so there could still be DLC on the way.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 29, 2023 9:16:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 21, 2023 17:26:05 GMT -5
Kit & Krysta have posted a video discussing their own take on the situation.
In short, they think Nintendo is planning to take Mario, as a character, in a new direction, perhaps influenced by the Mario movie, and they want a new actor that will accommodate that vision. Having Martinet be a Mario Ambassador is sort of a consolation prize so that it doesn't come across like they're outright firing him.
Not sure if I believe all this (is Martinet really that limited as an actor?), but what do I know?
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 21, 2023 13:36:29 GMT -5
It's been confirmed that Mario's voice in Super Mario Bros Wonder is a new actor, but it hasn't been revealed who it is yet. Obviously, Martinet is still on good terms with Nintendo if he's continuing as "Mario Ambassador," but I do wonder why this change is happening now. For some reason, I'm reminded of when Roger Craig Smith suddenly announced that he was no longer voicing Sonic the Hedgehog, and then about two months later, he announced that he was back voicing Sonic again.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 21, 2023 10:19:13 GMT -5
End of an era.
There was speculation about this when the trailer for Super Mario Bros Wonder was released. I wonder who the new actor is. (I doubt it's Chris Pratt. I think Nintendo will keep the games and movies separate.)
I've been familiar with Martinet's voice for Mario since I first heard it in Super Mario 64 in 1996, although he's been voicing it for longer than that, starting with a "virtual Mario" at the Consumer Electronics Show in the early '90s. It'll be interesting to see what this new role of "Mario Ambassador" will encompass.
Here's his own brief comment on the matter:
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 18, 2023 17:21:14 GMT -5
Yeah, I was thinking of "lore" in a different way than what you meant.
There's been debate over whether Tears of the Kingdom is really a new game, or just expensive, standalone DLC. I think there is a case to be made for the latter, especially when I've seen so many people say that TotK made BotW obsolete for them.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 8, 2023 13:42:23 GMT -5
To update my previous list, it now looks like this: Baten Kaitos I & II HD RemasterDue out September 14. I’m a little conflicted about whether I want to get this at launch or not. I’m still thinking of putting this off until later, perhaps when it’s on sale, or after it gets any patches if it ends up being buggy at launch. I definitely want to get it at some point, but in September, it would overlap with the next release... The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless TrailsThis is scheduled for September 19, which is good because I’ve been in the mood for a Falcom ARPG, even if it isn’t Ys. Super Mario Bros. WonderDue out October 20. You’d think Nintendo would be promoting it more by now, but maybe they’re pulling another Tears of the Kingdom. (Can’t wait for Koizumi’s last-minute gameplay demo.) Freedom Planet 2Planned for console release in December. The devs said it could actually be ready by October, but they didn’t want to release it against other high-profile games and risk it being overlooked. A smart choice, in my opinion. Rift of the NecroDancerThis is planned for release sometime this year, but it does not yet have a specific date. R-Type Tactics I-II CosmosIn not-surprising-at-all news, Granzella has delayed this until 2024. Kazuma Kujo promises it won’t be the later part of 2024, but knowing Granzella… Little Kitty, Big CityThis was a game that caught my attention in the last Indie World Showcase. You play as a cat, and you get into mischief. That already sounds like a ton of fun. Scheduled for early 2024. (Seems like it might end up being a bit of a sleeper hit. I don’t see it talked about much, but its trailer on the Nintendo YouTube channel has over two million views.) And in a follow-up to my previous post: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar EclipseI still haven’t gotten this, even though it’s been on sale twice since it came out. I came close to getting it just recently, but I’ve been wimping out for the same reason I hesitated to get Maiden of Black Water: I’m concerned about it aggravating mental health issues. That ended up not being a problem at all with MoBW, but I still worry that it might not be the same case with MotLE. I definitely still want to play this, though.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 6, 2023 18:05:46 GMT -5
Well, you're right that King of Fighters is SNK's flagship series. (Ironically, I rarely ever saw KoF games in the wild.) Fatal Fury was just the first, and it led to everything after. Even the full title of the first game is "Fatal Fury: King of Fighters."
As a series, though, it maybe didn't stand out as much as some other games. KoF had team battles. Samurai Shodown was a weapons-based fighter set in 18th-century Japan. Even Art of Fighting had a unique mechanic for special moves. Fatal Fury's only real gimmick was the multiplane stages where characters could sidestep between two, sometimes three, planes. However, even the series, itself, never knew quite what to do with it, as the mechanics changed a lot from game to game. Eventually, it just did away with it altogether for Mark of the Wolves.
Fatal Fury also followed the Street Fighter series' beats. Fatal Fury 2/Special very blatantly takes its cues from the SF2 games. Real Bout could be seen as the counterpart of the Street Fighter Alpha series. Mark of the Wolves directly takes its inspiration from Street Fighter III.
But like I said, the series still had its own charm. Its got SNK's unique personality and character designs, and I like that most of the games take place in and around the same area: South Town.
It'll be interesting to see what the modern SNK does with it to make it stand out.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 6, 2023 10:34:33 GMT -5
Last year during EVO, SNK announced that they were developing a new game in the Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu series. Just yesterday during this year's EVO, they revealed the first teaser trailer (though, it does not contain actual gameplay footage). The game appears to be a direct follow-up to the previous game, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, released in 2000 for the Neo Geo. Based on the voice samples heard in the trailer, it seems that most of the characters are from Mark of the Wolves, with a few legacy characters from the older games, and possibly even Alice Nakata from KoF14. Personally, I think it's pretty cool that a new Fatal Fury game is in development. Despite being the Neo Geo's premier fighting game series, it always seemed to take a backseat to more popular series' like The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown, and is often dismissed as a Street Fighter clone. (Fun fact: both the original Street Fighter and the Fatal Fury series were created by the same person: Takashi Nishiyama.) But I think it has its own charm, and I have some nostalgia from seeing the original Fatal Fury so often in Neo Geo cabinets back then. No platforms have been announced, but it's almost a given not to be coming to Switch. What is coming to Switch, however, is The King of Fighters XIII: Global Match. A new trailer has been released for it, as well, and it confirms the release for November 16, 2023. Of course, I don't play fighting games anymore, but I'm glad to see SNK still supporting the Switch in some capacity.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 4, 2023 11:31:11 GMT -5
In an interview with VGC, Hideki Kamiya gave his opinion on the term "JRPG." Unlike Naoki Yoshida, Kamiya believes that Japan should be proud of the term JRPG. He thinks the term highlights the unique sensibilities that Japanese creators put into their work, and it denotes a style that can't be made anywhere else. He uses a couple of examples of how certain manga were localized outside of Japan, and it changed the tone of the original material (either positively or negatively). You know how I feel about Kamiya at this point, but I do like his perspective on this. It reminds me of how Japanese publishers in the early HD era tried really hard to imitate Western game styles in order to have an international appeal, but often failed. Ironically, Japanese games seem to do better overseas when they embrace their own strengths.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jul 26, 2023 14:11:36 GMT -5
Hello all! What with social media in meltdown, I'm gradually looking for a new home. And Nester kindly reminded me that I already have a home here that I made myself years ago and have neglected badly! This place has been my rock. I've been coming here since before Twitter even existed, and it's still here even as Twitter is fading away. Anyway, in the thoughts I previously posted, I felt like maybe I was being a little nitpickey, but ultimately, I enjoyed the game overall. If BotW was a 10/10, I'd still say TotK is a 9/10. It sounds like your impressions were even harsher than mine. After all the hours and years I spent on BotW, I learned that even though it's open-world and you can do things in whatever order you want, there is still a certain order in which you're encouraged to do things. (For example, you're expected to visit Kakariko early on, go to the Hateno tech lab to get your Sheikah Slate upgraded, visit certain shrines with tutorials, etc.) With that knowledge, I went into TotK with the intent that I would follow the prompts the game gave me, knowing that it would likely unfold in the most ideal manner. But I also took the time to do side activities and experience whatever the game had to offer as I went along. In short, I aimed for a "balanced" experience. As a result, opening up the full overworld map and finding all the tears was spread out more organically over several dozen hours, so that probably influenced my overall impression. TotK is definitely superfluous in a lot of ways. But even then, as with BotW, I expected (and even wanted) a bit of busy work just because I enjoyed being the world. I've long since entered the phase of "piddling around while listening to music or a podcast." On the other hand, I admit I was a little disappointed when TotK was originally announced as a sequel to BotW, because after having spent so much time on the previous game, I was ready to move on to something entirely new. The sky islands and underworld just don't quite cut it in that regard. When I'm up really high in the sky and able to look out to the north or west beyond Hyrule's borders, I really wish I could explore what's over there, or perhaps even go across (or under) the ocean. In fact, I felt this way in BotW as well. I do find it a little funny that you went into a Zelda game expecting a lot of consistent lore. That's not exactly Zelda's strong point. (For lore you can really sink your teeth into, you'd want to look at something like Xenoblade, Falcom's Trails series, or even the Ys series.) TotK almost seems like it's retconning every Zelda game except for BotW, and even its connection to that feels a little thin. I've seen theories that the flashbacks happen during the "Era of Prosperity," which is after Skyward Sword, but before everything else. I've also seen some suggestion that Hidemaro Fujibayashi is basically ignoring every Zelda game he didn't personally work on. (That is, everything except Skyward Sword, the Oracle games, The Minish Cap, and BotW.) Either way, BotW/TotK generally feel like they're trying to build something entirely new.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jul 20, 2023 9:48:21 GMT -5
This was a challenging list to make because I prefer to focus on the positive side of gaming. Also, I tend to avoid playing games I don’t think I’ll enjoy, so I don’t have very many “bad” games in my collection. Even then, I still hesitate to call any of these games outright “bad.” Either they’re simply weaker than other games, have specific issues, are in a genre I don’t personally care for, or had good ideas but weren’t able to fully realize them. I tried to stick to games that I feel like I have a firm opinion of. Also, these are all consoles I own, plus two extra “bonus” platforms at the end. NES – Metal GearDisregarding the popular opinion that this is considered a poor version of Metal Gear, I’m just not a fan of stealth games in general. Game Boy – BattleshipI don’t remember why I even own this game. I did finish it, though (which, iirc, required beating 40 stages), but it’s pretty boring. Sega Genesis – Sonic 3D BlastI wish I liked this game more than I did. It has some interesting things going for it, but it’s a little tedious, and the camera movement makes me a little motion sick after a while. SNES – Jurassic ParkI think this was a birthday present. I can’t help but think there’s a good game in here somewhere, but it has some major issues holding it back. It combines an overhead view when outdoors with first-person shooter-style interiors. It’s technically impressive that it does it without the Super FX chip, but it’s also choppy and slow. (Also, you know how I feel about first-person shooters.) The main problem, though, is that it’s a rather long game without any kind of save function. (Interestingly, it’s being re-released as part of a Jurassic Park collection from Limited Run Games. According to the product page, it includes save states and other QoL features, so that version has potential to be pretty decent!) Nintendo 64 – Mario Party 2I got this game on the Wii Virtual Console, and it was only because I had some Club Nintendo points expiring. It’s obviously meant to be a multiplayer experience, but playing it by myself wasn’t much fun. I think I only played it twice. Dreamcast – Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1A compilation of 10 Sega Genesis games sounds appealing, but the emulation is horrible. There’s constant screen-tearing, and the audio is just plain awful. I prefer to think of this as the Dreamcast version of Virtua Cop 2, because it also includes a pretty good port of that (likely based on the Windows version), and that alone made it worth the $5 I probably paid for it. Game Boy Advance – Advance WarsGot this on Wii U Virtual Console when Club Nintendo was ending. I really like the presentation, but I always had a hard time getting into the gameplay. It seems so much more complicated than Fire Emblem. GameCube – Metal Gear Solid: The Twin SnakesAgain, stealth games are not my thing, and this may have been the game that really made me realize that. I don’t regret playing it, though, as it was still an interesting experience. Nintendo DS – New Super Mario Bros.This is a tricky choice. It’s certainly not a bad game by any stretch, but it’s just generally forgettable. Wii – Deadly CreaturesThis game is such a cool concept, but it’s extremely unfinished. Perhaps another year of development could’ve made it something special, but such a niche idea was never going to receive that kind of budget. As it is, it was released half-baked. Wii U – Rodea: The Sky SoldierThis is specifically for the Wii U version. The original Wii version, which was included as a bonus, is actually pretty decent. The Wii U version, on the other hand, is just a port of the 3DS version, that in turn was mucked up by Kadokawa Games. Switch – Blaster Master Zero 2I really enjoyed the first Blaster Master Zero, but BMZ2 just missed the mark for me. Not terrible, but it ruined the things I liked about the original. As a result, I never tried the third. Bonus Consoles:I’m including these platforms simply because I feel like I’ve played a fair amount of games on them via re-releases on other consoles. TurboGrafx-16/CD/Duo – NeutopiaThis is definitely not a bad game, but it is a product of its time, and as such, is a little bland. Basically, the game is a Zelda clone, and by that, I mean a clone of the original Legend of Zelda. While it could be argued that it’s a more refined game, it also falls far short of where A Link to the Past would take the series. It was worth one playthrough, though. Neo Geo – Super Sidekicks 3: The Next GloryThis was included in the SNK Arcade Classics collection on the Wii. It’s an arcade-style soccer/football game. While I do enjoy arcadey sports games, this didn’t hold my interest. Maybe it’s because I’m just an American that doesn’t understand real football.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jul 8, 2023 21:39:18 GMT -5
I didn't mean to imply that Western artist can't do good anime-style art. In this case, though, it looks like anime-style is what they were going for, but they didn't quite get it right. (Actually, I see examples of this fairly often with some indie games on the NA eShop.)
Come to think of it, there was an old feature on HG101 showing Japanese box art for Western games that I remember being really interesting. (Not sure if it's still online.) Some were completely redrawn with an anime art style. Other times, there were minor adjustments for cultural differences. (A character with a big teethy grin would be altered to have their mouth closed, for example.) Also, I remember the box art for the SSX games would feature the Japanese character Kaori Nishidake on the cover.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jul 8, 2023 13:54:04 GMT -5
Hardcore Gaming 101 recently posted an article on game I had forgotten about called Sudeki. It's an early example of a Western RPG deliberately trying to imitate the look and feel of a Japanese RPG. It was developed by Climax Studios, a British developer, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for, of all things, the original Xbox in 2004. (Also Windows.) This was back when Microsoft still thought Xbox had a chance to gain traction in Japan. I have not played it, but it strikes me as the inverse of when a Japanese publisher tries to appeal specifically to the Western market by imitating a Western style, but it doesn't quite feel authentic. I'm especially amused by the difference between the Western and Japanese box art. You can tell the Western box art is trying to use an anime style, but it just looks awkward, whereas the Japanese box art was probably actually done in Japan and looks far better.
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jul 4, 2023 18:26:43 GMT -5
I wanted to share a couple of fan comics I found on Tumblr. They're both from the same artist. Comic 1: Worst search party everI actually didn't find this as much of an issue in Tears of the Kingdom as the comic implies. Most of the important characters recognize Link. This happened more in Breath of the Wild, but it made more sense there considering everybody thought all of the original Champions were killed 100 years prior. Comic 2: Link keeps a little too much to himselfEven with this, I'd say Link is more "talkative" than in previous Zelda games, but I like that by simply giving him dialog, it exposes a lot of absurdity.
|
|