Okay, let's count the number of successful Microsoft-developed games versus the number of successful Nintendo-developed games. While I don't doubt that Microsoft could eventually do it, Nintendo's been not only making first party games for 20 years now, they've gotten really good with it. Plus, it takes time for game franchises to become beloved - Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Metroid, Final Fantasy - those franchises really only cemented their place in history by having consistently good sequels. Face it, if the only Zelda title we ever got was the first NES incarnation, how many would think of the series in such high light?
And not to knock Microsoft's attempt at doing this (I'd love to see them succeed - I'm always down with good new games), I'll wait to pass judgement until I actually see a good MS developed game. I just hope their new efforts are better than some of the past Xbox overhypes, like 'Blinx the Time Sweeper'. Because we all wondered what would happen when you cross Luigi's Mansion, a Cat, and a TiVo and made a game out of it.
Word is, Sega only sold one copy of that game...and it was to me.
Oh no, I've got it too. The problem was, I got my cube only recently, so I really had to hunt for that damned game - but it's so worth it. The Gamecube versions of NHL2K3 and NCAA Basketball 2K3 are near goddamned impossible to find, let alone find for cheap. Glad I've got both, I suppose.
Personally, I would've loved two more buttons on the face as opposed to the shoulder buttons. The shoulders on the normal GBA are fine, but the shoulders on the SP are not really comfortable (at least for me) to reach.
Not that I'm knocking the SP's design though. I wish I had one, and whenever I get around to needing one [read: FF:CC on GC], my old GBA will be gladly traded in for one. Though I agree, if only they'd made it six buttons [like the Sega Nomad], it would've been great. I doubt the next GB console will have fewer than 6 buttons.
Yeah, I've got that magazine, but it's a little suspect in the sales figures department. For example, there have been times where a GBA or PS2 game was higher in the overall rankings than another GBA or PS2 game, but under the "Top Selling GBA/PS2" sections, ranked lower.
Example: GMR Issue 09 [F-Zero GX cover], pg 20
"Top 10 All Formats":
1. NCAA Football 2004 [PS2]
2. Star Wars: KOTOR [PC (do they mean XBOX?)]
3. Warcraft 3: TFN [PC]
4. NCAA Football 2004 [XB]
5. DBZ: Legacy 2 [GBA]
6. Star Wars Galaxies [PC]
7. Advance Wars 2 [GBA]
8. Pirates of the Caribbean [XB]
9. Donkey Kong Country [GBA]
10. Tomb Raider: AOD [PS2]
But when you look down at the "GBA Top 10" you get this:
1. DBZ: Legacy 2
2. Donkey Kong Country
3. Advance Wars 2
[et al.]
So how is AW2 the 3rd best selling GBA game if it's the 7th best selling overall game, and DKC is the 9th? Another example, the "PS2 Top 10":
1. NCAA Football 2004
2. NBA Street Vol 2
3. Big Mutha Truckers
4. Tomb Raider: AOD
Okay, now what the hell? Where did #2 and #3 come from in the PS2 list? It's these inconsistencies, along with the fact that the data provided is only from EB stores, that doesn't satisfy what I'm looking for. I guess I just want hard figures (ex: 10 million SC2 for PS2, etc).
No, it's the impressive juggernaut that is the Sony Hype Machine. The same Hype Machine which mind you, squelched the Dreamcast. People didn't want to buy a DC because the PS2 was coming out soon, and would graphically blow the DC out of the water, something I'm still waiting for. If Sony let it be known that they're planning a handheld, I would bet it would be to curtail further spending towards Nintendo's product, and get people talking about how much ass their brand-new handheld will kick. 2005 is a ways away, and it'll be interesting to see the handheld market then.
You obviously never used the Sega Genesis' 6-button pad, because to this day, I have yet to find a better d-pad. Don't confuse this with the initial 3-button pad, that thing sucked ass.
I know that Japanese monthly sales are put out in magazines, but does anybody know of a place to go and see US monthly game sales figures? I wanted to see how Soul Calibur 2 sold between the various platforms, and look at a few other things. I know NPD Funworld releases them, and the VSDA release weekly rental charts, but anybody know of a good place to find monthly sales figures?
Have you tried Sega's NHL offerings? NHL2K3 was a ton better than NHL 2003, and ESPN NHL Hockey (aka NHL2K4) looks to trump last year's effort. Also worth looking at is NHL Hitz Pro from Midway, which apparently has gone away from being a pure-arcade scorefest to an actual decent hockey game.
The biggest problem I have with EA's hockey games is that they've always been too easy to get really good at, and as such, you score way too many goals. Sure, it's fun to score, but putting up 17 goals against the Red Wings? When will that ever happen? Sega's last two hockey offerings had far more realism, better game mechanics, better graphics (GC at least), and deeper play for my taste. Granted, NHL2K was a piece of crap, but with 2K2 and 2K3, Sega hit a winner.
The commercial for DJV was perfect for its target audience - loud hip-hop, in game shots, shots of the special Def Jam rapper/wrestlers. I guess that's one of the reasons why EA has sold so damned many copies of the game.
What a stinker. Anybody else played this game? It blows my mind how you can go from such a good, simple puzzle game, and muck it up so horribly. Tetrisphere on the N64 wasn't great either, but at least it was somewhat fun. Why can't a remake of The New Tetris (N64) be remade? Now
that
was a fun multiplayer Tetris game.
Tetris Worlds? Sorry American Xbox fans - that's such a weak pack-in. I imagine the 2 free months of XBL will bring more people in than either one of these crap titles. As much as some people hate Nintendo here, you've got to at least admit that they do both give you some choice with their bundle deals and that the best selling titles are available. And by the way, Canada's Xbox Adrenaline pack wins out as far as best bundle - but price converted to USD, the deal's not that stellar for us Stateside.
I certainly hope that if this is true, that Nintendo would have the sense to also release this Zelda-packed bonus disc for sale commercially for all their loyal customers who already have made the jump and purchased a Gamecube. I applaud them for adding more titles to the Player's Choice lineup (looking forward to Star Fox Adventures for $19.99 finally), but if they screw all the current Gamecube owners over by making this Zelda anthology a holiday bundle exclusive, then I for one will not be happy. Besides, the games listed are four of my favorite games ever, and to have them in one tight package would be great. And for those wondering where Link to the Past is on that list, I suspect that's because of impending release of Zelda: Four Swords on Gamecube coupled with the already released GBA port of LttP.
But will this help move more Gamecube units? I would imagine so. Everybody likes getting good, free stuff - especially when they're ponying up the cash required for a system nowadays. I for one took advantage of the Sunshine Bundle coupled with the free Metroid Prime offer - and I felt great about it. Not only did I get two great games with my system, but I didn't have to pay extra. Last time I checked, Xbox and PS2 didn't have a lot of appealing bundles (GT3 was nice, and the GTA3/VC bundles will be nice too). Oh, and I'm sure the free Zelda:OoT bonus disc helped make Wind Waker preorder numbers soar through the roof.
While I agree most RPGs on the N64 weren't just bad but awful, there was one diamond in the rough: Paper Mario. If you're a fan of turn-based RPGs, give PM a shot. You should be able to get a copy of it cheap somewhere. Oh, and Harvest Moon wasn't bad.
You can't be serious. While yes, Wipeout Fusion was a decent game, it comes nowhere near F-Zero GX in terms of track design, depth, racing challenge, replay value, unlockables, and overall fun factor. I was a bit skeptical about F-Zero GX at first, but after a week of it, I couldn't put it down. Hell, it was so good, it made my brand new copy of Soul Calibur 2 sit idly on the shelf. F-Zero X, on the N64, was mediocre. In those days, Wipeout and the Extreme-G series of games got better than F-Zero, but with this latest outing, the Sega-Nintendo co-production blows them away. The real PS2 challenge to F-Zero GX will be the upcoming XGRA - we'll see how it fares.
ABC owns ESPN. ABC also employs John Madden for it's Monday Night Football broadcast, Madden being the namesake of the video game juggernaut. For years, before the Sega/ESPN deal, and hell, before ABC hired Madden, during games occasionally EA Madden footage was shown in games to show replays, strategies, etc.
Before Sega's partnership, the ESPN name was branded on other titles - but none of those were featured in ESPN broadcasts. If I were Sega, I wouldn't fret too much about this deal. EA's ponying up the money to slap their logo all around the pre-game show, and I'm sure ESPN would've gladly taken Sega's money if they would've offered as much/more. Capitalism? Sure. But do you still see tons of those Warren Sapp/Tracey Morgan commercials for ESPN NFL Football during ESPN broadcasts? I know I sure see a lot of them - almost as many as for their show Playmakers.
Oh, and Sega's offerings have been better in my eyes than Madden the past few years, but you have to give EA credit for their stranglehold on the market.
I bought Super Mario Sunshine and looked at the intro, played a few minutes and stopped.
It's been sitting on its case for over a year. I'm pretty sure it's a good game, but it really hasn't done it for me for a year. We'll see what happens in the future.
I did the same thing, except in reverse, when I got my Gamecube. I only played Mario Sunshine, and left Metroid Prime sitting in its box. One day, I gave Prime a shot, and all I remember about the next week was using every free minute I had to romp through Tallon, killing everything that stood in my way.
Mario Sunshine is good, but it just didn't have the fun factor that Mario 64 had for me. Even collecting 120 stars on M64 is a whole hell of a lot more fun than getting 120 shines in Sunshine.
My biggest problem with Sunshine is the blatant patterns that every single level seems to follow. There's a cross the whole level to fight a big boss stage, a obstacle course/maze, a Shadow Mario chase, red coin hunt, some sort of race/action sequence - and every single time those repeated, I just found myself saying "Oh great. Another damned obstacle course. Original."
Mario 64 was at least original in its levels. Though yes, there were the typical red coin hunt and the oh-too-familiar "venture to the top of the mountain/level" stars, Nintendo at least made it fun. Sunshine is a decent game, but the bar set by previous Mario titles make it look like somewhat of a failure. I guess that's how Miyamoto felt too, as he's said before that the next Mario game will be the one he really wanted to make, getting back to the M64 roots.
Of course it's because the GC version had Link as a bonus character. It's a great example of Nintendo trying to increase their market share by lending out a treasured icon to a 3rd party developer. Good business, eh?
Hasn't Halo sold enough copies to be a platinum title? Or is Microsoft just refusing to deem it such because they still sell too many copies at $49.99 and dont want to lose $30 in potential revenues?
$299 is just too much to drop on a handheld console, period. Some speculate Sony's PSP might debut for that price, but I for one doubt it.
For $299 now, you can pick up any of the three major consoles and a couple games, or a damned nice GBA SP and say, 7-8 games. $299 for the unit, monthly fees of $30/month or so for cell service, plus $20-30 per game - that is a bit too pricey for my blood for any game system.
I haven't purchased a game this year for that reason, I would rather rent what will probably be blah for 6.50 than buy for $50+.
As a GC owner since February, I don't really understand this. This year alone, Zelda:TWW (and the OOT bonus disc), Mario Golf, F-Zero GX, and Soul Calibur 2 are all rediculously fun games. (I imported the latter two) - 2003 has been quite a good year for us GameCube owners.
While I will agree with you that by far and away, most games are bland and boring or pure shit, there are definitely some worthwhile titles out for the GC this year. The only two games I really wanted to play but ended up renting were Wario World (extremely fun, really short though) and Enter The Matrix (movie themed horseshit in a dvd-case), good rents in both cases (spent $13 instead of $100).
If Donkey Kong Racing was something you were really looking forward to, then the combo of Kirby's Air Ride and Mario Kart:Double Dash, both of which are set to hit American shores later this year, should hit the spot for your racing needs. That, or the Midway title 'Freaky Flyers', which is supposedly a good deal like Diddy Kong Racing, but without the odd (yet fun) Kong licensed characters.
First off, Grandia II was made by UbiSoft. So who you meant by "they" is a bit confusing, since UbiSoft has absolutely nothing to do with this Sega Ages production.
That being said, I for one am looking forward to this collection, because of the first two titles. Virtua Racing was phenomenal at the time (who would've thought to apply the polygonal structure of Virtua Fighter to a racing game? Yu Suzuki, that's who!) and Last Bronx was a very underrated, but very good game. While I would rather see Fighting Vipers (or Fighter's Megamix) along with Virtua Fighter 2 (best in the series) updated and re-released, the four games Sega's packed in look good to go. If you haven't tried the first pack, give it a shot. Space Harrier is still rediculously fun all these years later.
While Gunstar Heroes wasn't ever marketed to be a "Contra Killer", it is still one of the best games ever made, for one of the most successful consoles in history. I don't know a single person who has played Gunstar Heroes and not liked it. If you want proof of that, look at eBay and see the outrageous prices it goes for, because nobody wants to part with their copy.
Wario Ware was great on GBA because of it's ability to have short, but fun sessions. I could sit down and play for 5 minutes if I wanted, and then quickly jet to somewhere else. With most home console games, you sit around and play for what, a couple of hours? I at least hope that if Wario Ware gets ported to the Cube, that it a) has a whole lot more minigames/unlockables/more old NES themed ones (my favorites) b) can command and hold your attention for more than half an hour or so and c) has good multiplayer support. The GBA version was a suprise to most of us, but damn, it was great.
Oh, and if Donkey Kong Racing is the game on the horizon by Namco, I'm all for it. If they can duplicate the fun that was Diddy Kong Racing on the N64, I'd be a happy person. The Cube currently is lacking in racing titles (XG3 the only good one), but with F-Zero, Mario Kart, XGRA, and possibly DKR, the cube could have an amazingl lineup in the genre.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn thing's slashdotted before a comment's posted. Fortunately, Google's cache is on the case.
And not to knock Microsoft's attempt at doing this (I'd love to see them succeed - I'm always down with good new games), I'll wait to pass judgement until I actually see a good MS developed game. I just hope their new efforts are better than some of the past Xbox overhypes, like 'Blinx the Time Sweeper'. Because we all wondered what would happen when you cross Luigi's Mansion, a Cat, and a TiVo and made a game out of it.
Oh no, I've got it too. The problem was, I got my cube only recently, so I really had to hunt for that damned game - but it's so worth it. The Gamecube versions of NHL2K3 and NCAA Basketball 2K3 are near goddamned impossible to find, let alone find for cheap. Glad I've got both, I suppose.
Not that I'm knocking the SP's design though. I wish I had one, and whenever I get around to needing one [read: FF:CC on GC], my old GBA will be gladly traded in for one. Though I agree, if only they'd made it six buttons [like the Sega Nomad], it would've been great. I doubt the next GB console will have fewer than 6 buttons.
Example: GMR Issue 09 [F-Zero GX cover], pg 20
"Top 10 All Formats":
1. NCAA Football 2004 [PS2]
2. Star Wars: KOTOR [PC (do they mean XBOX?)]
3. Warcraft 3: TFN [PC]
4. NCAA Football 2004 [XB]
5. DBZ: Legacy 2 [GBA]
6. Star Wars Galaxies [PC]
7. Advance Wars 2 [GBA]
8. Pirates of the Caribbean [XB]
9. Donkey Kong Country [GBA]
10. Tomb Raider: AOD [PS2]
But when you look down at the "GBA Top 10" you get this:
1. DBZ: Legacy 2
2. Donkey Kong Country
3. Advance Wars 2
[et al.]
So how is AW2 the 3rd best selling GBA game if it's the 7th best selling overall game, and DKC is the 9th? Another example, the "PS2 Top 10":
1. NCAA Football 2004
2. NBA Street Vol 2
3. Big Mutha Truckers
4. Tomb Raider: AOD
Okay, now what the hell? Where did #2 and #3 come from in the PS2 list? It's these inconsistencies, along with the fact that the data provided is only from EB stores, that doesn't satisfy what I'm looking for. I guess I just want hard figures (ex: 10 million SC2 for PS2, etc).
No, it's the impressive juggernaut that is the Sony Hype Machine. The same Hype Machine which mind you, squelched the Dreamcast. People didn't want to buy a DC because the PS2 was coming out soon, and would graphically blow the DC out of the water, something I'm still waiting for. If Sony let it be known that they're planning a handheld, I would bet it would be to curtail further spending towards Nintendo's product, and get people talking about how much ass their brand-new handheld will kick. 2005 is a ways away, and it'll be interesting to see the handheld market then.
You obviously never used the Sega Genesis' 6-button pad, because to this day, I have yet to find a better d-pad. Don't confuse this with the initial 3-button pad, that thing sucked ass.
I know that Japanese monthly sales are put out in magazines, but does anybody know of a place to go and see US monthly game sales figures? I wanted to see how Soul Calibur 2 sold between the various platforms, and look at a few other things. I know NPD Funworld releases them, and the VSDA release weekly rental charts, but anybody know of a good place to find monthly sales figures?
Have you tried Sega's NHL offerings? NHL2K3 was a ton better than NHL 2003, and ESPN NHL Hockey (aka NHL2K4) looks to trump last year's effort. Also worth looking at is NHL Hitz Pro from Midway, which apparently has gone away from being a pure-arcade scorefest to an actual decent hockey game. The biggest problem I have with EA's hockey games is that they've always been too easy to get really good at, and as such, you score way too many goals. Sure, it's fun to score, but putting up 17 goals against the Red Wings? When will that ever happen? Sega's last two hockey offerings had far more realism, better game mechanics, better graphics (GC at least), and deeper play for my taste. Granted, NHL2K was a piece of crap, but with 2K2 and 2K3, Sega hit a winner.
The commercial for DJV was perfect for its target audience - loud hip-hop, in game shots, shots of the special Def Jam rapper/wrestlers. I guess that's one of the reasons why EA has sold so damned many copies of the game.
- that
was a fun multiplayer Tetris game.Tetris Worlds? Sorry American Xbox fans - that's such a weak pack-in. I imagine the 2 free months of XBL will bring more people in than either one of these crap titles. As much as some people hate Nintendo here, you've got to at least admit that they do both give you some choice with their bundle deals and that the best selling titles are available. And by the way, Canada's Xbox Adrenaline pack wins out as far as best bundle - but price converted to USD, the deal's not that stellar for us Stateside.
But will this help move more Gamecube units? I would imagine so. Everybody likes getting good, free stuff - especially when they're ponying up the cash required for a system nowadays. I for one took advantage of the Sunshine Bundle coupled with the free Metroid Prime offer - and I felt great about it. Not only did I get two great games with my system, but I didn't have to pay extra. Last time I checked, Xbox and PS2 didn't have a lot of appealing bundles (GT3 was nice, and the GTA3/VC bundles will be nice too). Oh, and I'm sure the free Zelda:OoT bonus disc helped make Wind Waker preorder numbers soar through the roof.
While I agree most RPGs on the N64 weren't just bad but awful, there was one diamond in the rough: Paper Mario. If you're a fan of turn-based RPGs, give PM a shot. You should be able to get a copy of it cheap somewhere. Oh, and Harvest Moon wasn't bad.
You can't be serious. While yes, Wipeout Fusion was a decent game, it comes nowhere near F-Zero GX in terms of track design, depth, racing challenge, replay value, unlockables, and overall fun factor. I was a bit skeptical about F-Zero GX at first, but after a week of it, I couldn't put it down. Hell, it was so good, it made my brand new copy of Soul Calibur 2 sit idly on the shelf. F-Zero X, on the N64, was mediocre. In those days, Wipeout and the Extreme-G series of games got better than F-Zero, but with this latest outing, the Sega-Nintendo co-production blows them away. The real PS2 challenge to F-Zero GX will be the upcoming XGRA - we'll see how it fares.
we don't approve!
Before Sega's partnership, the ESPN name was branded on other titles - but none of those were featured in ESPN broadcasts. If I were Sega, I wouldn't fret too much about this deal. EA's ponying up the money to slap their logo all around the pre-game show, and I'm sure ESPN would've gladly taken Sega's money if they would've offered as much/more. Capitalism? Sure. But do you still see tons of those Warren Sapp/Tracey Morgan commercials for ESPN NFL Football during ESPN broadcasts? I know I sure see a lot of them - almost as many as for their show Playmakers.
Oh, and Sega's offerings have been better in my eyes than Madden the past few years, but you have to give EA credit for their stranglehold on the market.
I did the same thing, except in reverse, when I got my Gamecube. I only played Mario Sunshine, and left Metroid Prime sitting in its box. One day, I gave Prime a shot, and all I remember about the next week was using every free minute I had to romp through Tallon, killing everything that stood in my way.
Mario Sunshine is good, but it just didn't have the fun factor that Mario 64 had for me. Even collecting 120 stars on M64 is a whole hell of a lot more fun than getting 120 shines in Sunshine.
My biggest problem with Sunshine is the blatant patterns that every single level seems to follow. There's a cross the whole level to fight a big boss stage, a obstacle course/maze, a Shadow Mario chase, red coin hunt, some sort of race/action sequence - and every single time those repeated, I just found myself saying "Oh great. Another damned obstacle course. Original."
Mario 64 was at least original in its levels. Though yes, there were the typical red coin hunt and the oh-too-familiar "venture to the top of the mountain/level" stars, Nintendo at least made it fun. Sunshine is a decent game, but the bar set by previous Mario titles make it look like somewhat of a failure. I guess that's how Miyamoto felt too, as he's said before that the next Mario game will be the one he really wanted to make, getting back to the M64 roots.
Of course it's because the GC version had Link as a bonus character. It's a great example of Nintendo trying to increase their market share by lending out a treasured icon to a 3rd party developer. Good business, eh?
Hasn't Halo sold enough copies to be a platinum title? Or is Microsoft just refusing to deem it such because they still sell too many copies at $49.99 and dont want to lose $30 in potential revenues?
For a syntax nazi, you should at least know the difference between:
your: a word used for showing posession
you're: a contraction of the words "you are"
Tsk.
For $299 now, you can pick up any of the three major consoles and a couple games, or a damned nice GBA SP and say, 7-8 games. $299 for the unit, monthly fees of $30/month or so for cell service, plus $20-30 per game - that is a bit too pricey for my blood for any game system.
As a GC owner since February, I don't really understand this. This year alone, Zelda:TWW (and the OOT bonus disc), Mario Golf, F-Zero GX, and Soul Calibur 2 are all rediculously fun games. (I imported the latter two) - 2003 has been quite a good year for us GameCube owners.
While I will agree with you that by far and away, most games are bland and boring or pure shit, there are definitely some worthwhile titles out for the GC this year. The only two games I really wanted to play but ended up renting were Wario World (extremely fun, really short though) and Enter The Matrix (movie themed horseshit in a dvd-case), good rents in both cases (spent $13 instead of $100).
If Donkey Kong Racing was something you were really looking forward to, then the combo of Kirby's Air Ride and Mario Kart:Double Dash, both of which are set to hit American shores later this year, should hit the spot for your racing needs. That, or the Midway title 'Freaky Flyers', which is supposedly a good deal like Diddy Kong Racing, but without the odd (yet fun) Kong licensed characters.
That being said, I for one am looking forward to this collection, because of the first two titles. Virtua Racing was phenomenal at the time (who would've thought to apply the polygonal structure of Virtua Fighter to a racing game? Yu Suzuki, that's who!) and Last Bronx was a very underrated, but very good game. While I would rather see Fighting Vipers (or Fighter's Megamix) along with Virtua Fighter 2 (best in the series) updated and re-released, the four games Sega's packed in look good to go. If you haven't tried the first pack, give it a shot. Space Harrier is still rediculously fun all these years later.
While Gunstar Heroes wasn't ever marketed to be a "Contra Killer", it is still one of the best games ever made, for one of the most successful consoles in history. I don't know a single person who has played Gunstar Heroes and not liked it. If you want proof of that, look at eBay and see the outrageous prices it goes for, because nobody wants to part with their copy.
Oh, and if Donkey Kong Racing is the game on the horizon by Namco, I'm all for it. If they can duplicate the fun that was Diddy Kong Racing on the N64, I'd be a happy person. The Cube currently is lacking in racing titles (XG3 the only good one), but with F-Zero, Mario Kart, XGRA, and possibly DKR, the cube could have an amazingl lineup in the genre.