You know, the "big previews" will almost never show you a genre-defining game. Something like Sim City or Tetris is something you really have to pick up yourself to understand. Of course Quake 112 will get more attention in the previews; people can picture roughly the experience they're in for. It doesn't mean new genres aren't being made.
On a side note, you missed a few genres (RPGs and Adventure are jumping to mind).
I bought a PS1 well after the PS2 release. Why? I was interested in the (Console-style) RPGs on the system, and to be perfectly honest RPGs don't depend on graphics all that much; it's more the strategy depth/plotline that matter. Sooo...let's compare RPGs for the two systems.
PS2 exclusive
FFX, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Suikoden 3, Breath of Fire 5, Xenosaga, Arc the Lad 4, FFX-2, Grandia 2,.Hack, Legend of Legaia 2, Okage: Shadow King, Shadow Hearts, Unlimited SaGa, Wild ARMs 3.
PS1 games
FF1(r), FF2(r), FF4, FF5, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, FFT, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2, Koudelka, Brigandine, Rhapsody, Xenogears, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Wild ARMs, Wild ARMs 2, Suikoden, Suikoden 2, Lunar SSSC, Lunar EBC, Grandia, Legend of Dragoon, Breath of Fire 3, Breath of Fire 4, SaGa Frontier, SaGa Frontier 2, Legend of Legaia, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Persona, Persona 2, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Alundra, Vandal Hearts, Vandal Hearts 2, Arc the Lad 1, Arc the Lad 2, Arc the Lad 3, Azure Dreams, Beyond the Beyond, Brave Fencer Mushashi, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2, Dragon Warrior 7, Front Mission 3, Granstream SaGa, Guardian's Crusade, Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, Jade Cocoon, Kartia, Parasite Eve, Shadow Madness, Thousand Arms, Vagrant Story
Now, by no means do I want to play every game on that list as many of them are trash, though I'm not exactly interested in a few of the PS2 games either. Frankly, though, there's just more PS1 RPGs that I'm interested in, even after playing a good number of them. I mean I'm sure I'll get a PS2 eventually (though no guarantee it'll be before the PS3 comes out) but for the moment I'm enjoying FF6.
As far as non-RPGs, though...well there's a reason I went out and bought a Gamecube (cheap, for one thing...).
The original gameboy supposedly "died" back in 1996 or so, and still sells games today. Once again backward compatibility is helping here. NES lasted for a good long while too (with games released up to 1995) probably because the SNES was just a higher colour/pixel count (much like the PS2 is just more polygons and better load times over the PS1--doesn't even have four controller ports).
This is interesting because it has always been the most graphically impressive system that catches the Japanese gamer's eyes.
Uhmmm.... When the Genesis came out before the SNES it certainly didn't sell like hotcakes, and the Japanese public was thoroughly opposed to upgrading from the Famicom (NES) to the Super Famicom. The Dreamcast bombed in Japan. The N64 certainly had better in-game graphics than the PS1 (no FMVs though) and bombed. The GameCube, which my understanding is close graphically to the XBox and outperforms on some 3rd party titles, is doing significantly worse than the PS2. The Gameboy outsold Sega's various attempts at colour devices. Heck, when the Wonderswan Colour came out at a similar time as the GBA, they tried to compete using worse graphics, not better. And don't forget that cell-phone games are a big part of what's drawing away the market from consoles in Japan.
But damn sure they'll buy stupid generic Mario based game number 10...and 11...and 12...
Pardon me, but which Mario has been generic, exactly?
Super Mario Bros.: no questions asked here, I assume.
SMB2: An entirely different game remade from Doki Doki Panic.
SMB3: Far more polished than any NES game I've played, and introduced what a lot of people mistake for "classic" mario gameplay, such as chain jumping off of enemies (which you couldn't do in SMB1).
SMW: Alright, so the gameplay here was rather close to SMB3, and stuff like Yoshi is nothing that hasn't been seen in, say, Adventure Island. I'll concede this one.
SM64: In a lot of ways I feel this pioneered 3D games. Sure, there's DOOM and Star Fox and all that before it, but the level of freedom and ways you could interact in SM64 was unprecedented; well...fine so Sega did similar stuff with NiGHTS at about the same time, but nobody really noticed.
SMS: From all I've heard, adding the Fludd allows for a lot of interesting tricks that just add a new dimension to the gameplay.
Really, the Mario series stands out in terms of innovation. Now, maybe if you were to say "But dang, PC gamers will buy generic FPS 111, 112, and 239" or "XBox Gamers will buy Footbal 2002, 2003, 2004" or "PS Gamers will buy Final Fantasy 9, 10, 12" (Well...okay so some FF games are quite innovative as well, so that's more of a mixture of the two situations).
But I've also heard that they'll push forward the release to match the PS2 release date, so...2006.
Frankly, I can't say I'm interested in any of the new systems myself; I'd much rather just have all three companies stick with their current system (well...okay fine the PS2 could use an upgrade still having poor load times and missing a few rendering features). Really; what are they going to do, render the arm-hair better? I don't look that closely in the heat of the action.
and thus risking redundancy in true Slashdot fashion, I just switched to Open Office.calc from Gnumeric, and what I'm finding is that while a few features are better, the version of OO.calc that comes with Red Hat 9 just plain crashes often when I use the middle mouse button, and doesn't even autosave a crashed copy the way that the version of AbiWord that comes with RH 7.5 does (that version of AbiWord hardly impressing me either).
I certainly hope OO 1.1 is significantly better than OO 1.0.2 (which I think is the version that comes with RH 9).
I fully agree with the article. As a Graduate Student in Math, I have to say that gaming is one of the most intellectual things I do.
Recording stats and Calculating damage are really only the beginning. The real strategy comes in the positioning and equipment/move choices.
I will now try to reconstruct one of the most interesting battles I had a couple years ago in Paper Mario (That's right Paper Mario; I was restricting a few things so it was actually kind of hard, and due to low randomness levels strategy is the way out).
Jr. Troopa 3 (end of Chapter 3)(HP: 40, Def 1, Atk. 5, flying)
Mario (Base HP: 10, Base FP: 5, Base BP: 9)
To explain the battle system:
-Mario's party goes first, then they alternate -Mario has one partner out at a time -Mario and his partner can take turns in any order -Either Mario or partner can use their turn to swap to a different partner -They both use the same HP and FP reserves. When Mario's HP is zero it's game over.
Relevant Partners: Goombario: Headbonk (deals 2 damage to JR (1 damage twice)) Charge 1FP(Power plus 2. Means next use of Headbonk does more damage (a total bonus of 4) after which power goes back to normal. Multiple charges stack). Parakarry: Sky Dive (deals 2 damage) Shell Shot 3FP (deals 5 damage) Bow: Outta Sight 2FP(makes Mario take 0 damage this turn, but partner is unusable next turn (otherwise you could be cheap and just chain these)).
Mario Jump (deals 2 damage (1 damage twice)) Power Jump 1BP; 2FP (deals 5 damage)
Action commands let him reduce JR's attacks by 1 (so 4 damage instead of 5).
Badges (like FF9 system) HP Plus 3BP (HP+5) (There's two of these) FP Plus 3BP (FP+5) (There's two of these) Power Jump 1BP (lets mario Power Jump) Damage Dodge 3BP (lets him block an additional 1 damage, so 3 damage if he blocks and 5 if he doesn't) Mega Rush 1BP (When Mario is at 1HP, his attack power goes up by 4 (boosting his regular attack by 8 and his Power Jump by 4))
---
Now, just to build up the suspense a bit, and to give you an idea of how these combine together, I'll post a couple of the strategies I tried first that failed...
HP Plus, HP Plus, Damage Dodge Partner: Goombario
Assuming you block each time (and JR is easy to block) you take 3 damage per round and have 20 HP, thus you get 7 attacks (since you go first). Goombario spends the first 5 rounds charging, running the party out of FP, then does 22 damage with his attack on round 6, and 2 damage on round 7. Mario, attacks every round doing 7*2=14 damage. Total=38
HP Plus, HP Plus, Mega Rush, Power Jump Partner: Goombario
20 HP, 4 damage per round if you block. As long as you block at least once that's 5 rounds. In fact, you want to deliberately fail all blocks but one so that you end at 1 HP (for Mega Rush). Goombario Charges for the first 3 turns, then does 14 damage with his attack, then attacks again for 2 (total: 16). Mario attacks on the first 3 turns doing 2 damage each time, then Power Jumps for 5, then on the last round he attacks with the Mega Rush bonus for 10 damage (total: 21). Total: 37
HP Plus, FP Plus, Mega Rush, Power Jump Partner: Parakarry
15 HP, you can survive 4 turns, and once again deliberately fail some blocks to end up at 1HP. Parakarry Shell Shots twice (10, using 6FP) and sky dives twice (4). Mario Power Jumps twice (10, using 4FP), jumps once at regular damage (2), and jumps once at 1HP for Mega Rush (10). Total: 36
---
Now, there's actually a strategy to deal 41 damage, but for the fun of it I'll drive the mathematically inclined insane by not explaining it. In the mean time, here's a couple strategies that just barely win at 40 damage:
Gay couples have often been hinted at in games, if not explicitly stated. While no characters in Suikoden are officially gay, it's obvious Konami was playing into the Yaoi fanfiction. Indeed, Google tells us this
Searched the web for suikoden yaoi. Results 1 - 10 of about 3,070. Search took 0.17 seconds.
Plenty of other Japanese games do this as well. Luigi and Peasley were a very obvious couple in Mario&Luigi:SSS (they flirted with each other more than Peach and Mario) just...the game ended before they got past first base (being a Nintendo game and all).
However, DOA:X is a good illustration of how the gaming market is becoming more sexually oriented. Mmmm....decline of society...
I thought DOA:X bombed in sales, though. I certainly remember Conker's Bad Fur Day bombing as well. There's been a lot of coverage of "more adult" games, but fundamentally what sells is good gameplay/design/graphics/marketing et c. regardless of the market you're targeting.
Perfect Dark, which is basically an upgraded Goldeneye, does have multiplayer on campaign mode (both working together and working against each other). It also has bots in the multiplayer, and a number of challenges against bots in multiplayer (expanding the one-player and co-op options).
You know, there's the top 10 list linked by this article which GameSpy made and is linked by the article; that'll probably be more "accurate" than the popularity poll they're doing as feedback.
Simply put, top Xs of all time are meaningless...that's why we can't let there be just one.
One person's oppinions can easily get carried too far if there's only one list, which is why it's better to flood people with conflicting top 10s forcing them to decide for themselves, than to leave it at just a few.
Are these new FPS games (and I use these example because these are what I play) not well done? Are they bilge? Do they suck? Some do, but many are very well made games. They just don't dazzle me anymore because I've been there and seen that. Now there are just more colors and rounder asses on the women.
First Person shooters haven't really done anything new since oh...around the time of Goldeneye or Half-Life (so a good six years). Frankly I haven't bought one in ages (unless you count Metroid Prime, but frankly the gameplay mechanics for that were mostly lifted from N64 Zeldas, with jumping adding a new dimension. The first person perspective doesn't really change that).
Try another genre.
Fighting games have finally broken away from the street-fighter combo-driven gameplay (as seen in Soul Calibur and Super Smash Bros).
Console-style RPGs are still tossing out new gameplay from time to time. FFX had the sphere grid system which came out of left field; Mario and Luigi had a brilliant dodging system and an interesting way of navigating dungeons.
And if those aren't interesting enough for you, go for one of the games pioneering a new genre like Wario Ware or Animal Crossing.
Nintendo used to be the leader in video games and consoles, but now they've seriously lagged behind everyone else (Sony and MS primarily).
They are lagging behind Sony, though only on the home console front, not portable. The GameCube is leading the XBox worldwide; in fact it was never in third. Furthermore, Microsoft has lost money on its games division every quarter, wheras Nintendo has primarily gained money. To say Nintendo is lagging Microsoft just sounds ridiculous.
In terms of using dirty legal tactics, they're no worse than anybody else. Micosoft is the one who's done the most ridiculous thing I've seen so far in trying to stop XBox Linux (even though it's a legitimate use for the product). As far as I know, neither Sony nor Nintendo has voiced similar complaints about Linux on their respective systems. As for piracy, all three use any edge they can to crack down on it.
So how, exactly is the parent Insightful? Am I missing something in this post?
ROMs have been a real problem with the GBA. A number of games have had ROMs released before the game itself (both Metroid games, for instance, and I think Pokemon as well).
Emmulating games which are out of print is fine, but games which are still shipping in mass quantities?
I've heard a statistic somewhere that add ons tend to sell 10% the amount of the system itself. Stuff that's not built-in generally isn't worth it for a company to support because not enough customers will buy the game (not having the hardware).
Project Dolphin (equivalent to Nitro I guess) Nintendo Dolphin (equivalent to Gameboy DS I guess) StarCube (no equivalent yet, and eeeeeeewwwwww!) Gamecube (no equivalent yet)
Every trend I've seen in the marketplace suggests otherwise.
The XBox is, if release dates are kept, a 4-year system; generally the sign of a system that has failed. There's evidence of no hard drive or backward compatibility in XBox2, and they can't target the same audience because being a year old when the PS3 comes out they won't be the newest, most powerful thing on the block (a big selling point for the XBox) so they'll have to break into the console market all over again. Well they've done it once, they can do it again; they won't get a big piece of the pie that way, of course.
The general XBox owner, near as I can tell, is disatisfied. Among problems, Sony offers a free online plan whereas you have to pay for XBox Live (and a few/.ers have complained about MS billing them after they opted out). The games have been unremarkable; almost entirely ports from other systems, and the few that arent usually get ported to other systems quickly enough. I've known people who've used the XBox for emmulating or Linux, but the "inferior PC" stigma really seems to hang over the "legitimate" uses of the console.
The Playstation 2 has been doing well enough, in all honesty. Fine online plan. Solid selection in all categories due to strongest third party support. Even on the heavily PS2-oriented GameFAQs, however, they were denied GotY twoyears in a row just recently. However, many claim that games earlier to lauch, such as FFX, remain the driving force of the system.
GameCube I find hard to judge. Nintendo had nearly as much ice to break as Microsoft coming into this; recovering from a failed system is something that simply has not happened before. On the other hand, popularity seems to be spiking recently, not just for Christmas, but sales were up dramatically in the month of January as well. It's possible that the surge in popularity is due to the presence of a Final Fantasy title. The problem I have in calling the GC, is that I'd really need to gauge public opinion of the console at the end of its life, and I have no idea where it will end up; by many accounts we're only half way through the life of the console (2001-2007 expected) and this is the year, now that the three big franchises are out, when Nintendo is supposed to put out new, innovative titles (which could either bomb or take off) instead of rehashed franchises. I seriously question anyone who tries to call Nintendo at all this early.
I mean, say a game is developed in the United States. Is there really an "American feel" to it? What would an "American feel" be?
Not Japanese-feel is what I'd associate with it.
RPGs - more based off of D&D and role playing than a prescripted story
More realistic instead of anime feel
Far more likely to be a first person shooter or racing game
Far less likely to be a dance game, dating sim, or 2D Fighter
Real-time strategy is, as far as I know, almost exclusively American/European. The Japanese games tend to be turn-based.
World War 2 sims
Anything with WWE in the title
Now, telling appart Brittish games, American games, and European games is something I've never been good at; it doesn't help, mind you, that my repretoire of British/American games is fairly thin (the majority of games coming from Rare, Maxis, Blizzard, and Sierra) and that I can't remember any game I've played from Continental Europe.
There's a minority of people in the world called Neal. They should clearly become our new slave class!!!1
Seriously, this reminds me of when the BC government settled a native land claim (Nisga was it?) giving them their own government (not too unlike a municipal government). As far as I can tell, they were asking less money after the the settlement, yet the opposition protested, complaining that this was a third level of government and unconstitutional. One party made it a campaign policy to have a referrendum over the treaty if they were elected (and they sadly did; though fortunately most people rejected the ballots).
In short, it was none of the business of the rest of the population; it only affected one square of land where not many people lived, and the vast majority of the population didn't have the information needed to decide on the case. This is why we get representatives to vote in parliament, as opposed to putting every question to a popular vote.
(does anyone remember how FEW 8mm hollywood movies were released (meant to compete with VHS late in the game)).
Strange, I don't even remember 8mm. A few things are different this time, though; the big thing being that install base is widely expected to be at least decent (whereas why would people change their 20-year-old VCRs? Consoles are one of the few formats which seem to get people to update hardware) and it's portable without being pirated, which is something the movie industry has a stake in pushing these days.
Really, the games that have me most interested released in the past five months or so are Metroid Zero Mission, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and Mario and Luigi (the only one I've played of the three). Of those, two out of three were released in 2004.
Yes, there is a traditional competition for Christmas games, but it honestly never affected me that much; it's not as bad as people make it out to be, and the majority of games I get used, or greatest hits (whoo: just got FFAnthology).
So what if Mandrake is supposed to be based off of some magician? The first thing I thought of when I heard the name was this root with a purple glow (cmon: you know that would be cool) and didn't understand the yellow star at all until I read about the lawsuit over the name (9.2 being the first Mandrake for me). Besides, root has other fun meanings that make it ideal for a Linux name....
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On a side note, you missed a few genres (RPGs and Adventure are jumping to mind).
PS2 exclusive .Hack, Legend of Legaia 2, Okage: Shadow King, Shadow Hearts, Unlimited SaGa, Wild ARMs 3.
FFX, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Suikoden 3, Breath of Fire 5, Xenosaga, Arc the Lad 4, FFX-2, Grandia 2,
PS1 games
FF1(r), FF2(r), FF4, FF5, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, FFT, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2, Koudelka, Brigandine, Rhapsody, Xenogears, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Wild ARMs, Wild ARMs 2, Suikoden, Suikoden 2, Lunar SSSC, Lunar EBC, Grandia, Legend of Dragoon, Breath of Fire 3, Breath of Fire 4, SaGa Frontier, SaGa Frontier 2, Legend of Legaia, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Persona, Persona 2, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Alundra, Vandal Hearts, Vandal Hearts 2, Arc the Lad 1, Arc the Lad 2, Arc the Lad 3, Azure Dreams, Beyond the Beyond, Brave Fencer Mushashi, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2, Dragon Warrior 7, Front Mission 3, Granstream SaGa, Guardian's Crusade, Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, Jade Cocoon, Kartia, Parasite Eve, Shadow Madness, Thousand Arms, Vagrant Story
Now, by no means do I want to play every game on that list as many of them are trash, though I'm not exactly interested in a few of the PS2 games either. Frankly, though, there's just more PS1 RPGs that I'm interested in, even after playing a good number of them. I mean I'm sure I'll get a PS2 eventually (though no guarantee it'll be before the PS3 comes out) but for the moment I'm enjoying FF6.
As far as non-RPGs, though...well there's a reason I went out and bought a Gamecube (cheap, for one thing...).
The original gameboy supposedly "died" back in 1996 or so, and still sells games today. Once again backward compatibility is helping here. NES lasted for a good long while too (with games released up to 1995) probably because the SNES was just a higher colour/pixel count (much like the PS2 is just more polygons and better load times over the PS1--doesn't even have four controller ports).
Uhmmm.... When the Genesis came out before the SNES it certainly didn't sell like hotcakes, and the Japanese public was thoroughly opposed to upgrading from the Famicom (NES) to the Super Famicom. The Dreamcast bombed in Japan. The N64 certainly had better in-game graphics than the PS1 (no FMVs though) and bombed. The GameCube, which my understanding is close graphically to the XBox and outperforms on some 3rd party titles, is doing significantly worse than the PS2. The Gameboy outsold Sega's various attempts at colour devices. Heck, when the Wonderswan Colour came out at a similar time as the GBA, they tried to compete using worse graphics, not better. And don't forget that cell-phone games are a big part of what's drawing away the market from consoles in Japan.
In short, I disagree.
Pardon me, but which Mario has been generic, exactly?
Super Mario Bros.: no questions asked here, I assume.
SMB2: An entirely different game remade from Doki Doki Panic.
SMB3: Far more polished than any NES game I've played, and introduced what a lot of people mistake for "classic" mario gameplay, such as chain jumping off of enemies (which you couldn't do in SMB1).
SMW: Alright, so the gameplay here was rather close to SMB3, and stuff like Yoshi is nothing that hasn't been seen in, say, Adventure Island. I'll concede this one.
SM64: In a lot of ways I feel this pioneered 3D games. Sure, there's DOOM and Star Fox and all that before it, but the level of freedom and ways you could interact in SM64 was unprecedented; well...fine so Sega did similar stuff with NiGHTS at about the same time, but nobody really noticed.
SMS: From all I've heard, adding the Fludd allows for a lot of interesting tricks that just add a new dimension to the gameplay.
Really, the Mario series stands out in terms of innovation. Now, maybe if you were to say "But dang, PC gamers will buy generic FPS 111, 112, and 239" or "XBox Gamers will buy Footbal 2002, 2003, 2004" or "PS Gamers will buy Final Fantasy 9, 10, 12" (Well...okay so some FF games are quite innovative as well, so that's more of a mixture of the two situations).
Frankly, I can't say I'm interested in any of the new systems myself; I'd much rather just have all three companies stick with their current system (well...okay fine the PS2 could use an upgrade still having poor load times and missing a few rendering features). Really; what are they going to do, render the arm-hair better? I don't look that closely in the heat of the action.
I certainly hope OO 1.1 is significantly better than OO 1.0.2 (which I think is the version that comes with RH 9).
I fully agree with the article. As a Graduate Student in Math, I have to say that gaming is one of the most intellectual things I do.
Recording stats and Calculating damage are really only the beginning. The real strategy comes in the positioning and equipment/move choices.
I will now try to reconstruct one of the most interesting battles I had a couple years ago in Paper Mario (That's right Paper Mario; I was restricting a few things so it was actually kind of hard, and due to low randomness levels strategy is the way out).
Jr. Troopa 3 (end of Chapter 3)(HP: 40, Def 1, Atk. 5, flying)
Mario (Base HP: 10, Base FP: 5, Base BP: 9)
To explain the battle system:
-Mario's party goes first, then they alternate
-Mario has one partner out at a time
-Mario and his partner can take turns in any order
-Either Mario or partner can use their turn to swap to a different partner
-They both use the same HP and FP reserves. When Mario's HP is zero it's game over.
Relevant Partners:
Goombario:
Headbonk (deals 2 damage to JR (1 damage twice))
Charge 1FP(Power plus 2. Means next use of Headbonk does more damage (a total bonus of 4) after which power goes back to normal. Multiple charges stack).
Parakarry:
Sky Dive (deals 2 damage)
Shell Shot 3FP (deals 5 damage)
Bow:
Outta Sight 2FP(makes Mario take 0 damage this turn, but partner is unusable next turn (otherwise you could be cheap and just chain these)).
Mario
Jump (deals 2 damage (1 damage twice))
Power Jump 1BP; 2FP (deals 5 damage)
Action commands let him reduce JR's attacks by 1 (so 4 damage instead of 5).
Badges (like FF9 system)
HP Plus 3BP (HP+5) (There's two of these)
FP Plus 3BP (FP+5) (There's two of these)
Power Jump 1BP (lets mario Power Jump)
Damage Dodge 3BP (lets him block an additional 1 damage, so 3 damage if he blocks and 5 if he doesn't)
Mega Rush 1BP (When Mario is at 1HP, his attack power goes up by 4 (boosting his regular attack by 8 and his Power Jump by 4))
---
Now, just to build up the suspense a bit, and to give you an idea of how these combine together, I'll post a couple of the strategies I tried first that failed...
HP Plus, HP Plus, Damage Dodge
Partner: Goombario
Assuming you block each time (and JR is easy to block) you take 3 damage per round and have 20 HP, thus you get 7 attacks (since you go first). Goombario spends the first 5 rounds charging, running the party out of FP, then does 22 damage with his attack on round 6, and 2 damage on round 7. Mario, attacks every round doing 7*2=14 damage.
Total=38
HP Plus, HP Plus, Mega Rush, Power Jump
Partner: Goombario
20 HP, 4 damage per round if you block. As long as you block at least once that's 5 rounds. In fact, you want to deliberately fail all blocks but one so that you end at 1 HP (for Mega Rush). Goombario Charges for the first 3 turns, then does 14 damage with his attack, then attacks again for 2 (total: 16). Mario attacks on the first 3 turns doing 2 damage each time, then Power Jumps for 5, then on the last round he attacks with the Mega Rush bonus for 10 damage (total: 21).
Total: 37
HP Plus, FP Plus, Mega Rush, Power Jump
Partner: Parakarry
15 HP, you can survive 4 turns, and once again deliberately fail some blocks to end up at 1HP. Parakarry Shell Shots twice (10, using 6FP) and sky dives twice (4). Mario Power Jumps twice (10, using 4FP), jumps once at regular damage (2), and jumps once at 1HP for Mega Rush (10).
Total: 36
---
Now, there's actually a strategy to deal 41 damage, but for the fun of it I'll drive the mathematically inclined insane by not explaining it. In the mean time, here's a couple strategies that just barely win at 40 damage:
HP Plus
HP Plus
Searched the web for suikoden yaoi. Results 1 - 10 of about 3,070. Search took 0.17 seconds.
Plenty of other Japanese games do this as well. Luigi and Peasley were a very obvious couple in Mario&Luigi:SSS (they flirted with each other more than Peach and Mario) just...the game ended before they got past first base (being a Nintendo game and all).
I thought DOA:X bombed in sales, though. I certainly remember Conker's Bad Fur Day bombing as well. There's been a lot of coverage of "more adult" games, but fundamentally what sells is good gameplay/design/graphics/marketing et c. regardless of the market you're targeting.
Perfect Dark, which is basically an upgraded Goldeneye, does have multiplayer on campaign mode (both working together and working against each other). It also has bots in the multiplayer, and a number of challenges against bots in multiplayer (expanding the one-player and co-op options).
You know, there's the top 10 list linked by this article which GameSpy made and is linked by the article; that'll probably be more "accurate" than the popularity poll they're doing as feedback.
One person's oppinions can easily get carried too far if there's only one list, which is why it's better to flood people with conflicting top 10s forcing them to decide for themselves, than to leave it at just a few.
First Person shooters haven't really done anything new since oh...around the time of Goldeneye or Half-Life (so a good six years). Frankly I haven't bought one in ages (unless you count Metroid Prime, but frankly the gameplay mechanics for that were mostly lifted from N64 Zeldas, with jumping adding a new dimension. The first person perspective doesn't really change that).
Try another genre.
Fighting games have finally broken away from the street-fighter combo-driven gameplay (as seen in Soul Calibur and Super Smash Bros).
Console-style RPGs are still tossing out new gameplay from time to time. FFX had the sphere grid system which came out of left field; Mario and Luigi had a brilliant dodging system and an interesting way of navigating dungeons.
And if those aren't interesting enough for you, go for one of the games pioneering a new genre like Wario Ware or Animal Crossing.
They are lagging behind Sony, though only on the home console front, not portable. The GameCube is leading the XBox worldwide; in fact it was never in third. Furthermore, Microsoft has lost money on its games division every quarter, wheras Nintendo has primarily gained money. To say Nintendo is lagging Microsoft just sounds ridiculous.
In terms of using dirty legal tactics, they're no worse than anybody else. Micosoft is the one who's done the most ridiculous thing I've seen so far in trying to stop XBox Linux (even though it's a legitimate use for the product). As far as I know, neither Sony nor Nintendo has voiced similar complaints about Linux on their respective systems. As for piracy, all three use any edge they can to crack down on it.
So how, exactly is the parent Insightful? Am I missing something in this post?
Emmulating games which are out of print is fine, but games which are still shipping in mass quantities?
I've heard a statistic somewhere that add ons tend to sell 10% the amount of the system itself. Stuff that's not built-in generally isn't worth it for a company to support because not enough customers will buy the game (not having the hardware).
GameCube was called several things.
Project Dolphin (equivalent to Nitro I guess)
Nintendo Dolphin (equivalent to Gameboy DS I guess)
StarCube (no equivalent yet, and eeeeeeewwwwww!)
Gamecube (no equivalent yet)
The XBox is, if release dates are kept, a 4-year system; generally the sign of a system that has failed. There's evidence of no hard drive or backward compatibility in XBox2, and they can't target the same audience because being a year old when the PS3 comes out they won't be the newest, most powerful thing on the block (a big selling point for the XBox) so they'll have to break into the console market all over again. Well they've done it once, they can do it again; they won't get a big piece of the pie that way, of course.
The general XBox owner, near as I can tell, is disatisfied. Among problems, Sony offers a free online plan whereas you have to pay for XBox Live (and a few /.ers have complained about MS billing them after they opted out). The games have been unremarkable; almost entirely ports from other systems, and the few that arent usually get ported to other systems quickly enough. I've known people who've used the XBox for emmulating or Linux, but the "inferior PC" stigma really seems to hang over the "legitimate" uses of the console.
The Playstation 2 has been doing well enough, in all honesty. Fine online plan. Solid selection in all categories due to strongest third party support. Even on the heavily PS2-oriented GameFAQs, however, they were denied GotY two years in a row just recently. However, many claim that games earlier to lauch, such as FFX, remain the driving force of the system.
GameCube I find hard to judge. Nintendo had nearly as much ice to break as Microsoft coming into this; recovering from a failed system is something that simply has not happened before. On the other hand, popularity seems to be spiking recently, not just for Christmas, but sales were up dramatically in the month of January as well. It's possible that the surge in popularity is due to the presence of a Final Fantasy title. The problem I have in calling the GC, is that I'd really need to gauge public opinion of the console at the end of its life, and I have no idea where it will end up; by many accounts we're only half way through the life of the console (2001-2007 expected) and this is the year, now that the three big franchises are out, when Nintendo is supposed to put out new, innovative titles (which could either bomb or take off) instead of rehashed franchises. I seriously question anyone who tries to call Nintendo at all this early.
Not Japanese-feel is what I'd associate with it.
RPGs - more based off of D&D and role playing than a prescripted story
More realistic instead of anime feel
Far more likely to be a first person shooter or racing game
Far less likely to be a dance game, dating sim, or 2D Fighter
Real-time strategy is, as far as I know, almost exclusively American/European. The Japanese games tend to be turn-based.
World War 2 sims
Anything with WWE in the title
Now, telling appart Brittish games, American games, and European games is something I've never been good at; it doesn't help, mind you, that my repretoire of British/American games is fairly thin (the majority of games coming from Rare, Maxis, Blizzard, and Sierra) and that I can't remember any game I've played from Continental Europe.
There's a minority of people in the world called Neal. They should clearly become our new slave class!!!1
Seriously, this reminds me of when the BC government settled a native land claim (Nisga was it?) giving them their own government (not too unlike a municipal government). As far as I can tell, they were asking less money after the the settlement, yet the opposition protested, complaining that this was a third level of government and unconstitutional. One party made it a campaign policy to have a referrendum over the treaty if they were elected (and they sadly did; though fortunately most people rejected the ballots).
In short, it was none of the business of the rest of the population; it only affected one square of land where not many people lived, and the vast majority of the population didn't have the information needed to decide on the case. This is why we get representatives to vote in parliament, as opposed to putting every question to a popular vote.
Strange, I don't even remember 8mm. A few things are different this time, though; the big thing being that install base is widely expected to be at least decent (whereas why would people change their 20-year-old VCRs? Consoles are one of the few formats which seem to get people to update hardware) and it's portable without being pirated, which is something the movie industry has a stake in pushing these days.
All that said, yeah you're probably right.
Yes, there is a traditional competition for Christmas games, but it honestly never affected me that much; it's not as bad as people make it out to be, and the majority of games I get used, or greatest hits (whoo: just got FFAnthology).
So what if Mandrake is supposed to be based off of some magician? The first thing I thought of when I heard the name was this root with a purple glow (cmon: you know that would be cool) and didn't understand the yellow star at all until I read about the lawsuit over the name (9.2 being the first Mandrake for me). Besides, root has other fun meanings that make it ideal for a Linux name....
Could SCO be this comically stupid? Nah, I must be dreaming. I'm going to wake up.... Any minute now....