What was that guy's name again? Adam? Samus did say he was the one person she was ever forced to take orders from.
At any rate, the Metroids on the GBA are proof that you can incorporate plot into Metroid games. Cheezy action-movie Aliens-style plot, but were you were expecting Sense and Sensibility?
I...seriously doubt that. I can't remember the interview itself, but the setting for Metroid was based entirely off of Aliens, and it's really hard to miss the similarities. How would you make a Metroid movie "kiddie" anyway? Give Metroids giant cartoon eyes or something?
The movie will center on the origins of the game's female protagonist, sexy bounty hunter Samus Aran
You know, I had a fair bit of respect for Samus when I was young. She managed to be a female character without being a slut to the viewers (a la Lara Croft) or being some kind of animal/blob thingey (a la Ms. Pac Man, Dixie Kong). I mean sure, a few people played just to see the best ending at under 3 hours, but realistically she wasn't sold on her sex appeal (heck, you wouldn't *believe* how many people I've met who think Samus is male).
Sure, there's Kings Quest 4 and a few RPGs pulled off decent female characters at the time, but nothing nearly as mainstream. Am I the only one who's worried that Hollywood will ruin the feel of Samus by putting too much emphasis the "sexy" aspect?
That was the rumor yes. All we knew for several months was that a game called "Paper Mario" had shown up on the GCN sales release lists in Europe. (Though why Europe is another question). All rumors were based on that one piece of news. For all that time we really didn't know if it was a straight remake or a sequel.
Though, Paper Mario is fairly cheap on EBay, so that's a solution.
Nintendo really hasn't shown anything truly new for a while now in terms of story or gameplay.
OH MY GOD! HOLLYWOOD RERELEASED CASSABLANCA ON DVD!! THEREFORE THEY'LL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER INNOVATIVE MOVIE EVER!!
Seriously though, Nintendo hasn't been making innovative story/gameplay? Umm what are you smoking? Warioware Mega Microgames is the best new gameplay I've seen in several years. Nintendo made Pikmin fairly recently. Nintendo made Animal Crossing. There's plenty of more examples but I grow tired of relisting to this kind of thing over and over. The point stands, they can and do do BOTH things at once. Don't they own more development studios than anybody else? Multitasking is NOT a hard thing for them to do.
Am I the only one that doesn't want to see another Paper Mario? One of them was fine, but this series (Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi) has showed up in a different form each time until now. Why copy off the N64 version? Why not make it different?
First, just because it's paper-style doesn't mean it can't be vastly different from the original. Second, Paper Mario had massively untapped potential. There was a claymation-type thing I saw with paper once--flat world I think it was? You had Goldfish Bowls hanging as picture frames on walls; people slipping underneath doorways; people getting crumpled up and rolling down the street (and Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes did rolling in another way, as well as turning sideways to be invisible); you had people being folded up and put into other people's purses.
Paper Mario 2 seems to be trying out some of the potential it never used, like Mario folding himself into a Paper Airplane. Hopefully that's not all Nintendo throws in.
Ah, I shouldn't be surprised. Most of the first-party sequels Nintendo has made for the GC have been sadly lacking, mostly appearing as incremental updates instead of real sequels.
Mario Kart Double Dash adds a new dimension to things, and from what I've seen is the first Mario Kart game I actually respect. Metroid Prime...that gameplay really impressed me personally and it is new. I've heard that Wind Waker has a swordfighting system that doesn't suck (and frankly OoT was downright limited; Majora's Mask is a reasonable step up with the masks but still meh). Pikmin...no comment needed. Animal Crossing was never released in the US until now.
So...where's these lacking sequels? If you're referring to Mario Party 23419 those are no longer programmed by Nintendo; Capcom is doing them IIRC.
Paper Mario was the most replayable of the three, provided you're willing to restrict some of the overpowered stuff to get past the low challenge level. It has a system where it was obvious what caused the exact damage numbers, so you could plan out full strategies over six or seven turns. That I haven't seen in any other RPG...or not to the same extent. Also adding to the strategy is the relatively small number of random factors: generally no dodging; it's not random who gets targeted; damage is almost all non-random; turn order is completely fixed. In addition, the vast number of binary choices with drawbacks made things interesting. Mario/Partner can act in either order; the badge setups had a lot of strategy to them; either mario or partner can use their turn to switch partners; sometimes you want to fail an action command to get into a certain HP range. The balance between moves was also spectacular in general (with a few jokes thrown in).
...In short, battles seem excessively simple and easy to understand, while still having one of the the deepest layer of strategy I've seen in any RPG (its competition is Final Fantasy Tactics for me; which has the added advantage of being an SRPG probably putting it over the top).
Mario & Luigi is almost the exact opposite. The story is bizarre beyond bizarre but oddly engrosing. The action and dodging is something you really have to see to believe. The puzzles are better than any other RPG I've played. I...quite possibly had the most fun on the first playthrough of this than any other game let alone RPG, yet I have no real interest in playing it a second time because I know what's comming plot-wise, and once you're good enough at dodging the fights become a joke. Seriously, If you haven't played this, rent it now (you'll probably finish it before returning it too--I've known people to beat all 20 hours in a single sitting their first time through).
SMRPG is a cheap Squaresoft RPG copying mainly off of the FF6/Chrono Trigger mold, but putting in some CG Mario Characters. Now, I understand this particular era of Squaresoft has rabid fans, but I never really saw the point of playing SMRPG when I could be playing Chrono Trigger or FF6. If you want a totally "tradidtional" "epic" RPG then sure, this fits the mold better than the other two, but I personally don't have all that much respect for the game.
Even in a fairly residential area, you can set things up to be in fairly reasonable walking distance from a School, High School, grocery store, drug store, community park, and small movie theatre (heck, my parents pulled it off quite easily). Sure, you have to drive a ways for special things (sport competitions, big malls, special restaurants, and University in my case).
The problem is suburbs which don't make allowances for urban planning, and just lay down as many identical-looking houses as will reasonably fit so that you have to drive to get just about anywhere.
Sure, more compact appartments help (it makes public transportation more economically feasible) but fundamentally even if people insist on their residential neighbourhood and yards it's just a matter of careful city planning.
And my sister's experience in Princeton grad school is that most international students have bikes, while most American students have cars.
It's the cheaper, healthier, better-for-the-environment solution; it's bound to catch on in America...eventually. Just like Metric. Aaaaany time now...honest....
Microsoft may have bought a number of second parties, but their in-house development is something different (having had a friend who worked there). Can't say any of their in-house stuff has ever really interested me.
Some of my favourite pieces of music are from NES games. Don't get me wrong, more tracks and more musical instruments offers higher potential, but the NES music that was good really hammered down a tune which I often couldn't get out of my head. And I will say outright (as I am playing both presently) that Final Fantasy 6 (III) has much better music than Metroid Prime (despite the fact that I do like Prime's music too...).
A coworker of mine in a largely undergrad programming group, student at the University of British Columbia, was from China and fully convinced that her government was downright awesome, way better than the Canadian government, and that the reports on human rights violations I talked about were just western propaganda. Come to think of it, I've never been to Tibet, I suppose she could be right...theoretically....
That's not really the point, however. The point is, everyone claiming that information = insta-revolution well...I seriously doubt it. A lot of people left Hong Kong before PRC took it over...and then moved back when they saw that PRC didn't really change the system at all, and things were peaceful.
Seriously, they didn't really keep out outside information before; that fully explains the Tiananmen Square protests, as people knew that Communist leaderships everywere were falling appart so they wanted to try in China too. If people wanted a protest/revolution it would happen; I honestly don't think they do, and I don't think the internet will change that, blocked or unblocked.
What I meant was that Nintendo needs to get past all the people who think that it markets only to children, not that it only makes kids games. I know they have gone beyond that with games, but they're stuck with this stigma about them.
Totally agree there.
And I want to play Kirby's Air Ride actually. I'm a 23 year old male who loves the Kirby games.
Similar situation here, though then I read some reviews of it and...seems like they droped the ball on the gameplay of that one. I certainly want Double Dash mind, and I've heard rave reviews about that both from friends online and from reviewers....
They've been selling their console for $100 to $50 less than the competition and last I heard they're still in third place.
They've always been second worldwide, not third. While they have sometimes been behind the XBox in North America (due in some degree to American desire to buy home-grown products) demand has been massively spiking recently, and they just got an exclusive Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid titles so....
Buying Nintendo over Microsoft will ultimately hurt MS far more than it would to buy an Xbox at a loss.
Maybe; the thing is XBox 2 won't be backward compatible, and that comes out in 2005 so it's not like a higher install base for the XBox 1 will help much in the long run. Though, I'm basing this off of speculative information, of course; it'll hurt them more to buy closer to the XB2 launch anyway (especially since price will probably drop to $99 by then, and the Europe lawsuit may be tightening screws) so might as well wait and collect more information, at the very least, before doing anything.
I don't want to see Nintendo pull a Sega because of some silly numbers being inflated.
Nintendo's making profits and Sega was not. Nintendo isn't folding any time soon.
Nintendo needs to get over the gaming is for kids only thing,
They did that years ago with Conker's Bad Fur Day, and it's not like they stopped at all with the Cube; Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes were both developed (in part) by Nintendo. In short, they have! Why does everyone still say they need to get over it? Because they also released Kirby's Air Ride? Heaven forbid that your system can play Kirby's Air Ride. I mean it's not like with Sony you're stuck with a system that can also play teletubbies or with Microsoft you're stuck with a system that can also play Spongebob Squarepants....
Seriously, do you throw out your DVD player because it can also play cartoons?
Well *I* liked Xenogears graphics.;) It's a valid point, but I submit that those games were probably rated by fans (by fans, I mean the kind of fans who played Final Fantasy 1-6 *BEFORE* FF7 came out... the "niche" fans) since I've never really seen them hyped into the mainstream
In general, yes this is a reasonably "hardcore" group, though nobody was restricted from rating so there was a mixture (I'm a latecommer to the genre myself).
Nope, none in FF6, and it's an awesome game, isn't it?;)
Indeed!
I liked the character depth in them. I tend to play RPGs more like an interactive story than a game (which so many people complain about), but, to steal your quote "that's just me.";).
Well...thing is it's not like Lunar is the only game with character depth, or with entertaining characters (though Mystere is downright awesome). Still, I can think of a number of games where I liked the characters more (Koudelka, Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, Wild ARMs 2 (okay, so those last two are more quirks of mine...)).
BtB was a simple little game in the old DW style (lots of level grinding, big mazes, etc...) but was still fun.
The sad thing about internet culture is that somehow BtB got associated with "worst RPG". From my research of it...it looks kind of interesting, but certainly not an easy game...which is probably what turns people off (people like their easy stuff).
It never had a real advantage until it moved to the PSX, added pretty graphics, lots of minigames, and a main character whose backstory had holes you could drive Setzer's Blackjack through.
You're not quite right here. Sales-wise, FF6 outsold previous RPGs; Chrono Trigger outsold FF6; Super Mario RPG outsold CT (for a while anyway). There was plenty of buildup to FF7. Granted, it got more attention for being an early PSX title (early titles getting extra attention in general; look at Super Monkey Ball and Halo; two games that would not have gotten much attention at the end of a console's life). It also advertized using FMVs, and people didn't figure that out. In addition, I certainly knew vaguely about the previous FFs on the SNES, but knew them as FF II and FF III, so this seemed like a half-decade jump into the future.
...Not that I actually bought FF7 at the time (still haven't finished, actually, which...I feel I should for historical value) but RPGs, and Squaresoft in particular, had been building in popularity for about four years. The mass-marketing campaing boosted by ridiculous amounts of misinformation helped, of course....
Uh huh... So the majority of people rated Final Fantasy X trash above DW/DQ. The majority also uses windows on their PCs. No one says the Majority has to be right.
Actually the first set of people who played FFX called it trash, and the rest avoided it for a while; when they finally did play it they were mostly impressed; FFX's sphere grid is something that hasn't been done before, the characters have strong personalities, and the music is quite good. Overall the remaining group of haters still pulls it down a few notches but it has strong redeeming qualities.
What kind of "innovations" do these people want? Pretty eye candy?
Not according to this list because Brigandine and Koudelka are two of the highest-rated here, and Xenogears isn't far off. Tell me those games have good graphics.
Mind-numbing teen-drama storylines?
The games that get praised for their storylines (at least in this group) are more along the lines of Xenogears, Koudelka, FFT, Suikoden 2....
Vapid characters?
You should see how badly people bash Justin (Grandia) and Rinoa (FF8).
Oh, I know... hours and hours of inane mini-games that have nothing to do with the game in general, but they tend to distract the current crop of ADD-infected gamers.
FFT has none (removed when ported from Japan, thank goodness). I didn't see any in the parts of Brigandine I played. None in FF6 from what I've played so far.
Not to mention other GOOD rpgs, like Lunar, Vay, Beyond the Beyond, Xenogears... etc..
I personally regard Lunar as an uninnovative rehash and not really worthwhie, but that's just me. Can't really comment on BtB or Vay having not played them, though.
People love to comment about the "Lack of innovation" in the DQ line, especially compared to FF. I always found that amusing since FF was a knockoff.
Your point? Should we only buy fighting games from Capcom? (Was Capcom even the first?) Should we only buy platform games from...was Activision's Pitfall the first one? *three* Dragon Warriors and even Phantasy Star came out in North America before a single Final Fantasy; you can't claim FF was the first series to be ported giving it some sort of "unfair advantage".
Say what you will, but collecting from 26 raters on the RPGDL forums who had played an average of 53 (mostly console-style) RPGs each, Dragon Warrior RPGs are regarded as fairly average at best (with the exception of the DW4 remake on the PSX which very few had played). I've certainly heard suggested that Dragon Warriors are just generally mediocre games (yet inexplicably popular in Japan; like how Pokemon Snap sold well for some odd reason). It's also may just fit Japanese culture better. I'll repost an old version of the list now (most easily accessible to me on this computer). There's a few mistakes, as this older document was never recompiled, but close enough....
A few things to note about this list:
1. it is in no way cannon; a few people admitted that they have odd taste. This was what one group of people enjoyed more on average.
2. Games that a lot of people have played will end up closer to average in general. I've tossed all games with less than two raters, because those just end up fairly random.
3. Games that are on here are things which people decided to rate. Nobody considered Zelda a Console-style RPG; sorry to disappoint those who insist otherwise. Star Control 2 was briefly here and kicking butt, but the raters decided not to include it in their revised lists.
Rank. Game Name: standard deviations (Number of people who rated) (systems on which it has appeared)
1. Disgaea: 1.28 (5)(PS2)
2. Brigandine: 1.26 (7)(Playstation)
3. Final Fantasy Tactics: 1.17 (25)(Playstation)
4. Suikoden 2: 1.07 (21)(Playstation)
5. Paper Mario: 0.97 (7)(N64)
6. Suikoden 3: 1.02 (18)(PS2)
7. Rhapsody: 0.96 (3)(Playstation)
8. Final Fantasy 6: 0.93 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
9. Tales of Phantasia: 0.88 (10)(SNES(JP), GB/C(JP), Playstation(JP), GBA(JP))
10. Final Fantasy X: 0.84 (19)(PS2)
11. Phantasy Star 4: 0.7 (16)(Genesis)
12. Koudelka: 0.68 (8)(Playstation)
13. Xenosaga: 0.64 (16)(PS2)
14. Seiken Densetsu 3: 0.58 (12)(SNES(JP))
15. Chrono Trigger: 0.56 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
16. Skies of Arcadia: 0.58 (6)(DC, GCN)
17. Shadow Hearts: 0.56 (17)(PS2)
18. Breath of Fire 5: 0.69 (7)(PS2)
19. Xenogears: 0.55 (23)(Playstation)
20. Valkyrie Profile: 0.53 (23)(Playstation)
21. Final Fantasy 3: 0.53 (11)(NES(JP))
22. Threads of Fate: 0.5 (5)(Playstation)
23. Seiken Densetsu 1 (=FFA): 0.49 (4)(GB/C)
24. Final Fantasy Legend 2: 0.2 (3)(GB/C)
25. Ogre Battle 64: 0.48 (5)(N64)
26. Final Fantasy 4: 0.41 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
27. Tactics Ogre: 0.42 (7)(SNES(JP), Playstation, Sat(JP))
28. Tales of Eternia: 0.4 (11)(Playstation)
29. Grandia2: 0.36 (14)(DC, PS2, PC)
30. Breath of Fire 4: 0.39 (16)(Playstation, PC)
31. SaGa Frontier: 0.32 (12)(Playstation)
32. Live a Live: 0.33 (6)(SNES)
33. Final Fantasy 7: 0.33 (25)(Playstation)
34. Persona 2: 0.31 (5)(Playstation)
35. Lunar 2: Eeternal Blue Complete: 0.31 (18)(Playstation, Sat(JP), SCD)
36. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete: 0.29 (17)(Playstation, Sat(JP), GBA, SCD)
37. Pokemon R/B/Y: 0.17 (13)(GB/C)
38. Ogre Battle: 0.27 (10)(SNES, Playstation, Sat(JP))
39. Wild ARMs 3: 0.27 (13)(PS2)
40. Sailor Moon: Another Story: 0.24 (6)(SNES(JP))
41. Earthbound: 0.24 (11)(SNES)
42. Suikoden: 0.21 (22)(Playstation)
43. Shadowrun: 0.2 (3)(SNES)
44. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits: 0.19 (7)(PS2)
45. Lufia2: 0.21 (19)(SNES)
46. Vanguard Bandits: 0.17 (3)(Playstation)
47. Legend of Legaia 2: 0.16 (6)(PS2)
48. Azure Dreams: 0.13 (3)(Playstation)
49. Alundra: 0.11 (3)(Playstation)
50. Bahamut Lagoon: 0.16 (6)(SNES)
51. Shining Force 2: 0.06 (14)(Genesis)
52. Persona: 0.06 (6)(Playstation)
53. Pokemon G/S/C: -0.2 (5)(GB/C)
54. Front Mission 3: 0.02 (6)(Playstation)
55. Dragon Warrior 4: 0.02 (11)(NES, Playstation(JP)) 56. Tales of Destiny: 0.06 (11)(Playstation)
57. Wild ARMs 1: 0.01 (16)(Playstation)
58. Vandal
Look to a different system perhaps? I've noticed that RPGs comming out for the GBA are suddenly going up, whereas PS2 RPGs were never really released at the same rate as PSX RPGs. As far as those go, I can personally reccomend Mario and Luigi, have heard good things about Fire Emblem 7 and mediocre things about FFTA. Golden Sun...is made by the same people as Beyond the Beyond, though a fair bit better polished at least....
Though, even on the PS2, La Pucelle is comming out in...3 days actually; and that's a quite significant release (sequel to Disgaea).
Slashdot Mirror
At any rate, the Metroids on the GBA are proof that you can incorporate plot into Metroid games. Cheezy action-movie Aliens-style plot, but were you were expecting Sense and Sensibility?
I...seriously doubt that. I can't remember the interview itself, but the setting for Metroid was based entirely off of Aliens, and it's really hard to miss the similarities. How would you make a Metroid movie "kiddie" anyway? Give Metroids giant cartoon eyes or something?
I presume you have heard of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon, yes?
You know, I had a fair bit of respect for Samus when I was young. She managed to be a female character without being a slut to the viewers (a la Lara Croft) or being some kind of animal/blob thingey (a la Ms. Pac Man, Dixie Kong). I mean sure, a few people played just to see the best ending at under 3 hours, but realistically she wasn't sold on her sex appeal (heck, you wouldn't *believe* how many people I've met who think Samus is male).
Sure, there's Kings Quest 4 and a few RPGs pulled off decent female characters at the time, but nothing nearly as mainstream. Am I the only one who's worried that Hollywood will ruin the feel of Samus by putting too much emphasis the "sexy" aspect?
Though, Paper Mario is fairly cheap on EBay, so that's a solution.
OH MY GOD! HOLLYWOOD RERELEASED CASSABLANCA ON DVD!! THEREFORE THEY'LL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER INNOVATIVE MOVIE EVER!!
Seriously though, Nintendo hasn't been making innovative story/gameplay? Umm what are you smoking? Warioware Mega Microgames is the best new gameplay I've seen in several years. Nintendo made Pikmin fairly recently. Nintendo made Animal Crossing. There's plenty of more examples but I grow tired of relisting to this kind of thing over and over. The point stands, they can and do do BOTH things at once. Don't they own more development studios than anybody else? Multitasking is NOT a hard thing for them to do.
First, just because it's paper-style doesn't mean it can't be vastly different from the original. Second, Paper Mario had massively untapped potential. There was a claymation-type thing I saw with paper once--flat world I think it was? You had Goldfish Bowls hanging as picture frames on walls; people slipping underneath doorways; people getting crumpled up and rolling down the street (and Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes did rolling in another way, as well as turning sideways to be invisible); you had people being folded up and put into other people's purses.
Paper Mario 2 seems to be trying out some of the potential it never used, like Mario folding himself into a Paper Airplane. Hopefully that's not all Nintendo throws in.
Ah, I shouldn't be surprised. Most of the first-party sequels Nintendo has made for the GC have been sadly lacking, mostly appearing as incremental updates instead of real sequels.
Mario Kart Double Dash adds a new dimension to things, and from what I've seen is the first Mario Kart game I actually respect. Metroid Prime...that gameplay really impressed me personally and it is new. I've heard that Wind Waker has a swordfighting system that doesn't suck (and frankly OoT was downright limited; Majora's Mask is a reasonable step up with the masks but still meh). Pikmin...no comment needed. Animal Crossing was never released in the US until now.
So...where's these lacking sequels? If you're referring to Mario Party 23419 those are no longer programmed by Nintendo; Capcom is doing them IIRC.
Mario & Luigi is almost the exact opposite. The story is bizarre beyond bizarre but oddly engrosing. The action and dodging is something you really have to see to believe. The puzzles are better than any other RPG I've played. I...quite possibly had the most fun on the first playthrough of this than any other game let alone RPG, yet I have no real interest in playing it a second time because I know what's comming plot-wise, and once you're good enough at dodging the fights become a joke. Seriously, If you haven't played this, rent it now (you'll probably finish it before returning it too--I've known people to beat all 20 hours in a single sitting their first time through).
SMRPG is a cheap Squaresoft RPG copying mainly off of the FF6/Chrono Trigger mold, but putting in some CG Mario Characters. Now, I understand this particular era of Squaresoft has rabid fans, but I never really saw the point of playing SMRPG when I could be playing Chrono Trigger or FF6. If you want a totally "tradidtional" "epic" RPG then sure, this fits the mold better than the other two, but I personally don't have all that much respect for the game.
Name your kid
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Oh, this is what it's replacing on the bathroom wall: http://www.jkador.com/letter.htm. We'll see how the rest of the res takes it, heh
The problem is suburbs which don't make allowances for urban planning, and just lay down as many identical-looking houses as will reasonably fit so that you have to drive to get just about anywhere. Sure, more compact appartments help (it makes public transportation more economically feasible) but fundamentally even if people insist on their residential neighbourhood and yards it's just a matter of careful city planning.
but they are trying
It's the cheaper, healthier, better-for-the-environment solution; it's bound to catch on in America...eventually. Just like Metric. Aaaaany time now...honest....
And in other news, SCO raises the price of SCO Unix to $10,699.
Microsoft may have bought a number of second parties, but their in-house development is something different (having had a friend who worked there). Can't say any of their in-house stuff has ever really interested me.
Some of my favourite pieces of music are from NES games. Don't get me wrong, more tracks and more musical instruments offers higher potential, but the NES music that was good really hammered down a tune which I often couldn't get out of my head. And I will say outright (as I am playing both presently) that Final Fantasy 6 (III) has much better music than Metroid Prime (despite the fact that I do like Prime's music too...).
That's not really the point, however. The point is, everyone claiming that information = insta-revolution well...I seriously doubt it. A lot of people left Hong Kong before PRC took it over...and then moved back when they saw that PRC didn't really change the system at all, and things were peaceful.
Seriously, they didn't really keep out outside information before; that fully explains the Tiananmen Square protests, as people knew that Communist leaderships everywere were falling appart so they wanted to try in China too. If people wanted a protest/revolution it would happen; I honestly don't think they do, and I don't think the internet will change that, blocked or unblocked.
Totally agree there.
And I want to play Kirby's Air Ride actually. I'm a 23 year old male who loves the Kirby games.
Similar situation here, though then I read some reviews of it and...seems like they droped the ball on the gameplay of that one. I certainly want Double Dash mind, and I've heard rave reviews about that both from friends online and from reviewers....
They've been selling their console for $100 to $50 less than the competition and last I heard they're still in third place.
They've always been second worldwide, not third. While they have sometimes been behind the XBox in North America (due in some degree to American desire to buy home-grown products) demand has been massively spiking recently, and they just got an exclusive Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid titles so....
Buying Nintendo over Microsoft will ultimately hurt MS far more than it would to buy an Xbox at a loss.
Maybe; the thing is XBox 2 won't be backward compatible, and that comes out in 2005 so it's not like a higher install base for the XBox 1 will help much in the long run. Though, I'm basing this off of speculative information, of course; it'll hurt them more to buy closer to the XB2 launch anyway (especially since price will probably drop to $99 by then, and the Europe lawsuit may be tightening screws) so might as well wait and collect more information, at the very least, before doing anything.
Nintendo's making profits and Sega was not. Nintendo isn't folding any time soon.
Nintendo needs to get over the gaming is for kids only thing,
They did that years ago with Conker's Bad Fur Day, and it's not like they stopped at all with the Cube; Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes were both developed (in part) by Nintendo. In short, they have! Why does everyone still say they need to get over it? Because they also released Kirby's Air Ride? Heaven forbid that your system can play Kirby's Air Ride. I mean it's not like with Sony you're stuck with a system that can also play teletubbies or with Microsoft you're stuck with a system that can also play Spongebob Squarepants....
Seriously, do you throw out your DVD player because it can also play cartoons?
Absolutely!. Mmm: cheap webservers....
as previously reported on Slashdot. No specific details, though.
In general, yes this is a reasonably "hardcore" group, though nobody was restricted from rating so there was a mixture (I'm a latecommer to the genre myself).
Nope, none in FF6, and it's an awesome game, isn't it? ;)
Indeed!
I liked the character depth in them. I tend to play RPGs more like an interactive story than a game (which so many people complain about), but, to steal your quote "that's just me." ;).
Well...thing is it's not like Lunar is the only game with character depth, or with entertaining characters (though Mystere is downright awesome). Still, I can think of a number of games where I liked the characters more (Koudelka, Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, Wild ARMs 2 (okay, so those last two are more quirks of mine...)).
BtB was a simple little game in the old DW style (lots of level grinding, big mazes, etc...) but was still fun.
The sad thing about internet culture is that somehow BtB got associated with "worst RPG". From my research of it...it looks kind of interesting, but certainly not an easy game...which is probably what turns people off (people like their easy stuff).
It never had a real advantage until it moved to the PSX, added pretty graphics, lots of minigames, and a main character whose backstory had holes you could drive Setzer's Blackjack through.
You're not quite right here. Sales-wise, FF6 outsold previous RPGs; Chrono Trigger outsold FF6; Super Mario RPG outsold CT (for a while anyway). There was plenty of buildup to FF7. Granted, it got more attention for being an early PSX title (early titles getting extra attention in general; look at Super Monkey Ball and Halo; two games that would not have gotten much attention at the end of a console's life). It also advertized using FMVs, and people didn't figure that out. In addition, I certainly knew vaguely about the previous FFs on the SNES, but knew them as FF II and FF III, so this seemed like a half-decade jump into the future.
Actually the first set of people who played FFX called it trash, and the rest avoided it for a while; when they finally did play it they were mostly impressed; FFX's sphere grid is something that hasn't been done before, the characters have strong personalities, and the music is quite good. Overall the remaining group of haters still pulls it down a few notches but it has strong redeeming qualities.
What kind of "innovations" do these people want? Pretty eye candy?
Not according to this list because Brigandine and Koudelka are two of the highest-rated here, and Xenogears isn't far off. Tell me those games have good graphics.
Mind-numbing teen-drama storylines?
The games that get praised for their storylines (at least in this group) are more along the lines of Xenogears, Koudelka, FFT, Suikoden 2....
Vapid characters?
You should see how badly people bash Justin (Grandia) and Rinoa (FF8).
Oh, I know... hours and hours of inane mini-games that have nothing to do with the game in general, but they tend to distract the current crop of ADD-infected gamers.
FFT has none (removed when ported from Japan, thank goodness). I didn't see any in the parts of Brigandine I played. None in FF6 from what I've played so far.
Not to mention other GOOD rpgs, like Lunar, Vay, Beyond the Beyond, Xenogears... etc..
I personally regard Lunar as an uninnovative rehash and not really worthwhie, but that's just me. Can't really comment on BtB or Vay having not played them, though.
People love to comment about the "Lack of innovation" in the DQ line, especially compared to FF. I always found that amusing since FF was a knockoff.
Your point? Should we only buy fighting games from Capcom? (Was Capcom even the first?) Should we only buy platform games from...was Activision's Pitfall the first one? *three* Dragon Warriors and even Phantasy Star came out in North America before a single Final Fantasy; you can't claim FF was the first series to be ported giving it some sort of "unfair advantage".
A few things to note about this list:
1. it is in no way cannon; a few people admitted that they have odd taste. This was what one group of people enjoyed more on average.
2. Games that a lot of people have played will end up closer to average in general. I've tossed all games with less than two raters, because those just end up fairly random.
3. Games that are on here are things which people decided to rate. Nobody considered Zelda a Console-style RPG; sorry to disappoint those who insist otherwise. Star Control 2 was briefly here and kicking butt, but the raters decided not to include it in their revised lists.
Rank. Game Name: standard deviations (Number of people who rated) (systems on which it has appeared)
1. Disgaea: 1.28 (5)(PS2)
2. Brigandine: 1.26 (7)(Playstation)
3. Final Fantasy Tactics: 1.17 (25)(Playstation)
4. Suikoden 2: 1.07 (21)(Playstation)
5. Paper Mario: 0.97 (7)(N64)
6. Suikoden 3: 1.02 (18)(PS2)
7. Rhapsody: 0.96 (3)(Playstation)
8. Final Fantasy 6: 0.93 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
9. Tales of Phantasia: 0.88 (10)(SNES(JP), GB/C(JP), Playstation(JP), GBA(JP))
10. Final Fantasy X: 0.84 (19)(PS2)
11. Phantasy Star 4: 0.7 (16)(Genesis)
12. Koudelka: 0.68 (8)(Playstation)
13. Xenosaga: 0.64 (16)(PS2)
14. Seiken Densetsu 3: 0.58 (12)(SNES(JP))
15. Chrono Trigger: 0.56 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
16. Skies of Arcadia: 0.58 (6)(DC, GCN)
17. Shadow Hearts: 0.56 (17)(PS2)
18. Breath of Fire 5: 0.69 (7)(PS2)
19. Xenogears: 0.55 (23)(Playstation)
20. Valkyrie Profile: 0.53 (23)(Playstation)
21. Final Fantasy 3: 0.53 (11)(NES(JP))
22. Threads of Fate: 0.5 (5)(Playstation)
23. Seiken Densetsu 1 (=FFA): 0.49 (4)(GB/C)
24. Final Fantasy Legend 2: 0.2 (3)(GB/C)
25. Ogre Battle 64: 0.48 (5)(N64)
26. Final Fantasy 4: 0.41 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
27. Tactics Ogre: 0.42 (7)(SNES(JP), Playstation, Sat(JP))
28. Tales of Eternia: 0.4 (11)(Playstation)
29. Grandia2: 0.36 (14)(DC, PS2, PC)
30. Breath of Fire 4: 0.39 (16)(Playstation, PC)
31. SaGa Frontier: 0.32 (12)(Playstation)
32. Live a Live: 0.33 (6)(SNES)
33. Final Fantasy 7: 0.33 (25)(Playstation)
34. Persona 2: 0.31 (5)(Playstation)
35. Lunar 2: Eeternal Blue Complete: 0.31 (18)(Playstation, Sat(JP), SCD)
36. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete: 0.29 (17)(Playstation, Sat(JP), GBA, SCD)
37. Pokemon R/B/Y: 0.17 (13)(GB/C)
38. Ogre Battle: 0.27 (10)(SNES, Playstation, Sat(JP))
39. Wild ARMs 3: 0.27 (13)(PS2)
40. Sailor Moon: Another Story: 0.24 (6)(SNES(JP))
41. Earthbound: 0.24 (11)(SNES)
42. Suikoden: 0.21 (22)(Playstation)
43. Shadowrun: 0.2 (3)(SNES)
44. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits: 0.19 (7)(PS2)
45. Lufia2: 0.21 (19)(SNES)
46. Vanguard Bandits: 0.17 (3)(Playstation)
47. Legend of Legaia 2: 0.16 (6)(PS2)
48. Azure Dreams: 0.13 (3)(Playstation)
49. Alundra: 0.11 (3)(Playstation)
50. Bahamut Lagoon: 0.16 (6)(SNES)
51. Shining Force 2: 0.06 (14)(Genesis)
52. Persona: 0.06 (6)(Playstation)
53. Pokemon G/S/C: -0.2 (5)(GB/C)
54. Front Mission 3: 0.02 (6)(Playstation)
55. Dragon Warrior 4: 0.02 (11)(NES, Playstation(JP))
56. Tales of Destiny: 0.06 (11)(Playstation)
57. Wild ARMs 1: 0.01 (16)(Playstation)
58. Vandal
Though, even on the PS2, La Pucelle is comming out in...3 days actually; and that's a quite significant release (sequel to Disgaea).