"I am all for Nintendo's push for innovation, but flying a plane with the stylus DOES NOT WORK!!!"
Strictly anecdotal, but I've finished seven of the game's nine endings, and flying with a stylus works great for me. Braking is slightly problematic at times, but otherwise I haven't had any complaints.
"30-60 seconds of fun combat, 2 minutes of story and psuedo-tactical actions."
If you want more combat, force yourself to take out all the enemies in an encounter -- you don't have to, but nobody's making you rush through the fights in 30 seconds, either. I usually take out everyone to prolong my flying time and to get more time for later fights; it's not unusual for me to finish a mission with 250+ seconds accumulated and 20 minutes of dogfighting. Starfox Command is as long as you want it to be, which is a good thing.
"People think the controller is going to be some wonderful gaming device, but it is strictly for casual and brief gaming. Any more than that and you will get wrist strain."
Excuse me for being skeptical until you actually get some factual evidence to support this. I mean, maybe I'm crazy, but I have a suspicion that Nintendo's engineers and playtesters would have noted such a problem -- if it exists -- long before the system was shown to the public.
"What's the first thing Clinton did when he got in office? While pretending to deal with gays in the military (Lots of discussion), he quietly used all his might to push NAFTA through."
"Bill Clinton was the best Republican President we ever had." --Michael Moore
The idea that the Clintons were these wild-eyed radical lefties never ceases to amuse me.
"And what about the Dance Dance Revolution pads that are available for current gen consoles? Or the workout program-on-DVD for Xbox? (Yourself Fitness.) Did those chip away at anything?"
No, because those were optional controllers; people have been historically reluctant to buy optional add-ons for their game systems, and developers have been reluctant to create games that use those add-ons as a result.
The wiimote and the Nintendo DS touchscreen are standard. That removes the biggest obstacle for owners and developers to try the new schemes, which increases their impact.
"Now, when they get compared to a PS3 running at 1080i, and people see the difference between 480i and 1080i(1080P later), they will spend the extra cash for the PS3."
For an extra $350? I'm putting my money on "Not bleepin' likely."
"The 11-17 year old male demographic all think "Microsoft is cool" primarily because of Xbox. These are the masses of tomorrow."
At least until they grow up, move out of their parents' home, get a job, get some responsibilities, get a wife and kids of their own. Then we'll see how much time they have left for Microsoft's hard-core gaming vs. Nintendo's pick-up-and-play casual nature...
"It has been 12 years since we had an original Mario platformer on handheld and now all we get is a retro-game?"
If you think NSMB is nothing more than the original Mario Bros. games with prettier graphics, then the only conclusion I can draw is that you didn't play it for more than five minutes. The basic action might be old-school Mario run-and-jump, but the level designs, new powerups, and depth of gameplay (try getting all the star coins if you really want to prove your platformer chops) makes it great for both casual players and "hardcore" gamers.
There are perfectly good reasons why NSMB is a record-breaking blockbuster.
"Yeah... $60 for the full second controller hurts. Probably still won't stop me from getting one since it is necessary to play the Boxing game in Wii-Sports."
Nah. The videos of Wii Sports Boxing show that you can play it with one wiimote and a nunchuk. You can also play it two players simultaneously and beat up your buds virtually.;-)
"I just bought Starfox for the Nintendo DS (I waited for the reviews and decided 80% from most gaming rags was enough). The game controls almost entirely with the stylus. You would think that would grant you slightly better control, but it doesn't -- everyone I've seen playing the game is constantly crashing into things."
You need to hang out with better pilots. After adjusting for the fact that the radar was a critical part of the game, I had no problems flying around in SFC.
"It was an interesting design decision -- does playing with the stylus actually improve the gameplay? Not really."
While I also wished there was an option to play with traditional joypad controls, I don't think the stylus-flying scheme is a loss, as you can do subtle controls equivalent to using an analog stick. And using the touchpad has the added bonus of letting you fire bombs anywhere on the battlefield, not just immediately in front of you.
That said, I still yearn for an SNES-style on-rails StarFox shooter...
Fire your Mac engineers and replace them with a README.TXT for Mac users directing them to run their app with BootCamp,Parallels, or Codeweavers.
And kiss your Mac-loyalist customers goodbye.
Speaking for myself, of course, but given a choice between a Mac-native application and a Windows-native-application-running-in-CrossOver/Bo otCamp/Parallels, I'll go with the Mac-native version every time.
I also seem to recall the InfoCom H2G2 game, where at the very end of the game Floyd would ask you for a specific item to open the hatch so you could leave the Heart of Gold. The item was randomized each time you started the game, and could include a number of items from early areas to which you could not return.
To be fair, IIRC you could also use the Thing Your Aunt Gave You That You Don't Know What It Is to hold everything you ever found, so there was no real reason not to pick up everything you encountered and schlep it along with you.
The Infocom H2G2 game did have one puzzle which made the game unsolvable if you didn't do it early, though -- if you failed to buy a sandwich at the pub and feed the dog outside, you couldn't (later) complete the microscopic space fleet puzzle, which prevented you from finishing the game. The only recourse was to start all over and feed the damn dog...
In the US at least, the prevalent theory is that voters who are afraid are more likely to vote Republican (hey, it worked in 2002 and 2004). Since the Republicans are currently afraid of losing their stranglehold on the government, the media is more than willing to play up more fear-inducing speculative news in hopes of keeping you in line. What's a few extra hours at the airport when we're talking about keeping political power?
Slashdot Mirror
Half of the time, I end up buying new NDS games at Target. Decent selection and good prices compared to EB/GameStop/whatever.
--R.J.
"Um, I'm not sure that was a fair test for the Wii. I mean how many games do you only play for 2 hours?"
Maybe I'm getting old, but the idea of playing any video game nonstop for two hours (or more!) strikes me as ridiculously uncomfortable.
Yeah, it's only a pity that Gord's no longer regaling us with his tales. That's some fine readin' there.
"I am all for Nintendo's push for innovation, but flying a plane with the stylus DOES NOT WORK!!!"
Strictly anecdotal, but I've finished seven of the game's nine endings, and flying with a stylus works great for me. Braking is slightly problematic at times, but otherwise I haven't had any complaints.
"30-60 seconds of fun combat, 2 minutes of story and psuedo-tactical actions."
If you want more combat, force yourself to take out all the enemies in an encounter -- you don't have to, but nobody's making you rush through the fights in 30 seconds, either. I usually take out everyone to prolong my flying time and to get more time for later fights; it's not unusual for me to finish a mission with 250+ seconds accumulated and 20 minutes of dogfighting. Starfox Command is as long as you want it to be, which is a good thing.
Slippy's got a (female) fiancee, who factors heavily in some of the endings. Make of that as you will.
"People think the controller is going to be some wonderful gaming device, but it is strictly for casual and brief gaming. Any more than that and you will get wrist strain."
Excuse me for being skeptical until you actually get some factual evidence to support this. I mean, maybe I'm crazy, but I have a suspicion that Nintendo's engineers and playtesters would have noted such a problem -- if it exists -- long before the system was shown to the public.
So that's why Al Gore lost in 2000!
Works fine on my Mac. Maybe the problem is with your OS... ;-)
"What's the first thing Clinton did when he got in office? While pretending to deal with gays in the military (Lots of discussion), he quietly used all his might to push NAFTA through."
"Bill Clinton was the best Republican President we ever had."
--Michael Moore
The idea that the Clintons were these wild-eyed radical lefties never ceases to amuse me.
"And what about the Dance Dance Revolution pads that are available for current gen consoles? Or the workout program-on-DVD for Xbox? (Yourself Fitness.) Did those chip away at anything?"
No, because those were optional controllers; people have been historically reluctant to buy optional add-ons for their game systems, and developers have been reluctant to create games that use those add-ons as a result.
The wiimote and the Nintendo DS touchscreen are standard. That removes the biggest obstacle for owners and developers to try the new schemes, which increases their impact.
"Now, when they get compared to a PS3 running at 1080i, and people see the difference between 480i and 1080i(1080P later), they will spend the extra cash for the PS3."
For an extra $350? I'm putting my money on "Not bleepin' likely."
"The 11-17 year old male demographic all think "Microsoft is cool" primarily because of Xbox. These are the masses of tomorrow."
At least until they grow up, move out of their parents' home, get a job, get some responsibilities, get a wife and kids of their own. Then we'll see how much time they have left for Microsoft's hard-core gaming vs. Nintendo's pick-up-and-play casual nature...
"It has been 12 years since we had an original Mario platformer on handheld and now all we get is a retro-game?"
If you think NSMB is nothing more than the original Mario Bros. games with prettier graphics, then the only conclusion I can draw is that you didn't play it for more than five minutes. The basic action might be old-school Mario run-and-jump, but the level designs, new powerups, and depth of gameplay (try getting all the star coins if you really want to prove your platformer chops) makes it great for both casual players and "hardcore" gamers.
There are perfectly good reasons why NSMB is a record-breaking blockbuster.
"I agree that the polarization is getting worse, but I don't think the Internet is to blame."
Here's the cause (IMO): Tentacles of Rage: The Republican propaganda mill, Harpers, September 2004
"Yeah... $60 for the full second controller hurts. Probably still won't stop me from getting one since it is necessary to play the Boxing game in Wii-Sports."
;-)
Nah. The videos of Wii Sports Boxing show that you can play it with one wiimote and a nunchuk. You can also play it two players simultaneously and beat up your buds virtually.
--R.J.
"I just bought Starfox for the Nintendo DS (I waited for the reviews and decided 80% from most gaming rags was enough). The game controls almost entirely with the stylus. You would think that would grant you slightly better control, but it doesn't -- everyone I've seen playing the game is constantly crashing into things."
You need to hang out with better pilots. After adjusting for the fact that the radar was a critical part of the game, I had no problems flying around in SFC.
"It was an interesting design decision -- does playing with the stylus actually improve the gameplay? Not really."
While I also wished there was an option to play with traditional joypad controls, I don't think the stylus-flying scheme is a loss, as you can do subtle controls equivalent to using an analog stick. And using the touchpad has the added bonus of letting you fire bombs anywhere on the battlefield, not just immediately in front of you.
That said, I still yearn for an SNES-style on-rails StarFox shooter...
"What demographic are they aiming for?"
People With More Money Than Brains.
Hey, it works for the GOP...
Do in-car DVD players even play DVD-R discs? 'coz mine doesn't.
Fire your Mac engineers and replace them with a README.TXT for Mac users directing them to run their app with BootCamp,Parallels, or Codeweavers.
o otCamp/Parallels, I'll go with the Mac-native version every time.
And kiss your Mac-loyalist customers goodbye.
Speaking for myself, of course, but given a choice between a Mac-native application and a Windows-native-application-running-in-CrossOver/B
I also seem to recall the InfoCom H2G2 game, where at the very end of the game Floyd would ask you for a specific item to open the hatch so you could leave the Heart of Gold. The item was randomized each time you started the game, and could include a number of items from early areas to which you could not return.
To be fair, IIRC you could also use the Thing Your Aunt Gave You That You Don't Know What It Is to hold everything you ever found, so there was no real reason not to pick up everything you encountered and schlep it along with you.
The Infocom H2G2 game did have one puzzle which made the game unsolvable if you didn't do it early, though -- if you failed to buy a sandwich at the pub and feed the dog outside, you couldn't (later) complete the microscopic space fleet puzzle, which prevented you from finishing the game. The only recourse was to start all over and feed the damn dog...
In the US at least, the prevalent theory is that voters who are afraid are more likely to vote Republican (hey, it worked in 2002 and 2004). Since the Republicans are currently afraid of losing their stranglehold on the government, the media is more than willing to play up more fear-inducing speculative news in hopes of keeping you in line. What's a few extra hours at the airport when we're talking about keeping political power?
However, how long will it take before Judge Taylor becomes just another of then "activist" judges?
The right-wing feces-flinging over this ruling has already begun.
"Mario kart provides no method of communication at all."
I thought Mario Kart DS lets you do voice chat, but only if you're playing with known friends/rivals (friend codes).
If you're playing a random stranger in a NintendoWifi-generated matchup, though, there's no voice...?
People buy Dells because they are cheap, and they work.
Sure, for a very lax definition of "work".