I feel there's a strong pressure on Nintendo. But, when the GC was released, I didn't really care about it because the original lineup was really, really, shitty. This time, I'm pretty excited to try out wii sports and a zelda that doesn't involve setting a direction on the boat, go cook dinner, and wait another twenty minutes until you arrive at your destination.
But!
You (and I as well) might have been disappointed by these latest titles, but I can tell you every casual gamer really didn't care. It's mario, he jumps on things, and if you've never played "the lost levels" and haven't spent your life in front of videogames, there is no difference between now and fuzzy childhood memories.
Plus, I don't think icons like mario can die that easily. Maybe in a few decades, when the first-timers are all gone? Yeah, right, it also happened to bugs bunny and mickey mouse, remember?;)
It also means we're gonna be stuck with halo or gta, but it is good news to gamers who appreciate these kinds of games, and more money generated for the industry, so it's good news to everyone.
So with the weather channel, news channel, internet browser and picture viewer/editor, Nintendo's goal is to rope totally-non-geeky people to buy something that does what a PC does better, but that's easy to use and affordable. Then, if mom of grampa wants to try out a game, it's just a click away.
Can't say how it will turn out as my crystal ball is at the dry cleaner's, but I think this could work. I mean, I don't live in a very tech-literate country (france), but I know more than a few people who'd want to give the "digital lifestyle" a try. And yeah, I know peter moore coined that term first.
As a casual gamer, I can't say I care about those addons. Hey, it's free, and it could be good, but it also means some people were out coding this instead of a mario game. But it's an interesting strategy nonetheless.
After him doing "Transmetropolitan", "Authority", and various other great things, I'm inclined to check it out, even though I hate the amateur connotation most webcomics bear. Good show for helping out indie artists! I love this guy ^^
You could also have remembered the DS and Zookeeper, since that game is an utter rip-off. Only it has a multiplayer mode, maybe the most fun out of the damn game I ever had.
TV consoles will sell if or when they manage to get the next Dance Dance Revolution. That game appealed heavily to girls or workout nuts in addition to gamers (not to mention it really works, I lost weight thanks to videogames, whohoo!)
Ever wonder why sony released a buzzer with some quiz game? Yeah, it's kitshy, but it's the kind of bland game that will appeal to the unwashed masses of people who don't care about ripping the wings off of a siren and killing zeus, or shooting hookers, or anything that looks anymore videogame-y than what they're already used to. To them, videogames = mario is cute and grand theft auto is a game for criminals and perverts. So you gotta sell them jeopardy and pictionary and other "oh, this doesn't look too complicated" stuff to even interest them. The hardest part will be making them buy it. Or making videogames harmless enough to use as gifts from a gamer to a non-gamer, perhaps? I know I once bought a DDR mat for a non-gamer cousin of mine who wanted to try it out.
By making the controls more accessible and the controller less frightening, AND flexible as all hell, Nintendo just might manage to get my mom to play Wii Tennis with me. That is, if it doesn't suck, but I trust them on this one.
Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles had a gba hook-up mode IIRC, although I've never played it. Rogue Squadron 3 : Rebel Strike also allows for such connectivity, although it was limited; in versus battle, you could use your GBA to issue orders to your squad without your opponent seeing them on the TV. Oooooh.... And those are the only two examples that spring to mind. Hmm.
So, yeah, we may call it a failed attempt, or we can call it a stepping stone for the next generation to truly try and give it a huge push. After all, Nintendo has everything to gain by saying "...and if you're one of the TWENTY MILLION people who own a DS, you'll have even more fun with the Wii, the console made by the people who made the DS and brain training! No need to buy a stupid cable anymore, too!" At this point, they rely on their handheld to be an advertisement for their home console - it failed with the GBA because of next to no support and frankly milking customers dry, but things are a lot less complicated when you don't need to buy one cable per friend you wanna play Zelda four swords with.
Do I have any other proof? Sure. One of the biggest believers of this kind of connectivity is Sony. Sure, their whole "299$ retroview mirror in a racing game" idea is a bullshit tech demo. But it reveals the fact that they also think about handheld-home console connectivity. Because they're afraid it's a weapon Nintendo alone could use to their advantage!
Definitely SONY PSP ads. "Cheese you can listen to", "I'd hit it", and so on. They try so hard and so badly to imitate the internet counter-culture-which-became-mainstream-like-five- years-ago that instead of making me laugh, those commercials make me cringe and I immediately think of everyone working at sony to be seventy year old people who want to communicate to the "young crowd" that they "is down with them".
Also, most TV videogame ads that show FMV, FMV, FMV and nothing else. That's how Nintendo got fucked when Zelda 64's ingame and gameplay-only commercial looked like ass compared to FF7's OMG WE'RE NOT LYING TO YOU IT'S REALTIME GRAFIX!!!-FMV-based ad.
Come to think of it, I don't like ads from anyone at all, anyway. Why are we glorifying what is essentially legal corruption? Never thought of that?
Game publisher : If you give our game a bad rating, we'll cancel this 3-million dollar page ad. Game magazine : zOMG Tonic Trouble is teh WIN! Six stars outta five!
DVD format : born in 1995. The matrix : made in 1999!
Four years later != "early in the life of DVD", dude. Are you sure you're not talking about another movie or format?
Anyway, I'm pretty much like you - I'll adopt whatever format will succeed, so no hard thoughts. But jesus christ, I couldn't stand VHS back when it was the ONLY thing available, just as I hated floppies of *any* kind. These things broke/deteriorated so damn fast and sometimes by their own damn selves that I was happy to embrace anything that resembled a CD.
For this format war - it's not going to be about the movies. It's going to be about marketing. And walk into any electronics or hi-fi store, and the same dumb "know-it-all", "you need at least two gigarams of speed to run microsoft word" clerk is always eager to sell... Sony products.
Of course, I hope my prediction is false! The biggest winner would be the hybrid/combo player that everyione can agree on. Meanwhile, I'll be perfectly happy with my divx player.
I've been replaying mario sunshine and zelda windwaker on my lowly GC for the last few weeks, and these games look AMAZING. Wii is supposed to be twice as powerful. Just because the other two contenders are number-crunching-powerhouses DOES NOT MEAN THAT WII GRAPHICS WILL LOOK LIKE PONG.
You start by downloading project64k, which has an online play thingy included.
Then, you look for people who are waiting to play Super Smash Brothers. You'll need a rom, of course.
Sadly, I have a high ping and as such, the online play kinda sucks - but it's still great to be able to play this classic with some stranger over the internets. You won't have the trash talking with buddies like you can get in halo, that's for sure, but I believe this game is enough by its own damn self ^^
Is there any advertising on about.com ? I'm using adblock plus, flashblock and Firefox; so I can't tell if so-and-so dot com has a lot of ads or not - can't see ANY of them ^^
+1. Although I would like to argue your calling japanese RPG's too complex for an audience that knows Baldur's Gate and the Elder Scrolls. Now, I know you were playing devil's advocate by explaining the japanese mindframe! I'm just pointing out that they still have those conceptions about us westerners that we should all do our best to bring down.
Oh, and remember the "hard" version of Final fantasy 4(jp)/2(us) ? It was just more fucking GRINDING... No new and harder puzzles, or anything of the sort... Just more HP for the enemies. I can live with that kind of racism.
Look, my SSID's name is "use_me". I have never ever had anyone try to download kiddie porn or buying nuclear bombs for terrorists while using my connection, and my computer's got its own unix-branded protection, so there's no damage done to my own stuff.
Why the fuss about WPA/WEP/actually dropping the paranoia? I mean, it's your home network, not sensible information you'd need to protect like at work...
Other than that, you can always use the nintendo branded usb wifi-AP stick. plug it whenever you want to play, unplug it when you're done playing.
Or maybe you have an ulterior motive in bringing up a strawman?
That's a well-known joke in the linux community. Example, don't know how to get the driver for your geforce card running under ubuntu? "Ubuntu sucks, it can't even yadda yadda!" And you'll get more helpful answers than RTFM's if you'd asked politely;)
You should google around for the dreamcast homebrew scene, as it is easily one of the most dedicated and talented scenes out there. Games, apps, linux, divx & MP3 player, you name it.
I bought a used DC for about 40 bucks back then, just for Jet Set Radio and Soul Calibur, and boy were those two games worth it. I do fail to understand the hype surrounding Shenmue, though.
I *did* buy two games in april, though, Tetris DS and Phoenix Wright! Sorry Nintendo, stop making games that have excellent replay value! Please don't hurt me ^^
I own two GBA's and one DS, along with several homebrew-enabling devices (flashcart, passme), that allow me to play pirated games AND homebrew software (MSN on the DS, DSLinux, VNC, DS2KEY to turn your DS into a wireless gamepad for your PC...).
Nintendo are in the right direction. If they themselves released a flashcart the would only play legally-downloaded roms, *of course* it would be cracked in less than a week. But I would have bought it from Nintendo, not from some chinese guy who needs to write specific software to patch most of the roms to be able to run them. A flashcart can fetch about 60 bucks on ebay, and a passme device about 20.
Nintendo knows they can recoup a lot of money they are currently losing right now. Heck, even Sony sells MP3 players, they know they're used for playing pirated music in many cases, but at least, they make money on *something*.
I think (not sure) you can run it on most SNES emulators, along with all of the superFX and other "special" games (starfox, yoshi's island, etc). If a homebrewer found his way around it with elegant and focused code, I don't see why the Nintendo sages couldn't!;)
I still wonder, if Nintendo lets homebrewers release their public domain roms to run on the virtual console, then a LOT of people could even make a living with this. They seem more open towards homebrewers, just look at the stuff demomakers are capable to do with the GBA and DS, so maybe this is part of the "let's court the indie devs" strategy. A strategy I am very happy with, since it will mean more games.
+1. I dream of a time when Video Games are treated like books, movies, music, or even PC software, and instead of being thrown on the racks in alphabetical order, you'd get a "FPS" shelf, another one labeled "brainfood", "this is the kind your grandson would really really hate if he's older than 8", "survival horror", "Party games", and so on. THAT would help confused non-gamers know how to buy a gift for gamer their acquaintances, plus we'd be treated like every other fucking media!
If you look at the NES game packaging, there were such categories. "Action", "Adventure", "Lightgun", and such. So, it's not really innovation, but it's nice of them to wake up from their long, boring, slumber.
Disclaimer : Maybe some store actually does that, but I have never seen that happen.
Who the HELL are you talking to when you're playing? I have ample time to finish whatever is needed, or just turn the damn console off whenever I leave my train/bus/whatever. I rarely use the sleep mode, but pausing/closing the DS doesn't "kill your groove". If you think it does, you take your toys way too seriously, dude:(
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I feel there's a strong pressure on Nintendo. But, when the GC was released, I didn't really care about it because the original lineup was really, really, shitty. This time, I'm pretty excited to try out wii sports and a zelda that doesn't involve setting a direction on the boat, go cook dinner, and wait another twenty minutes until you arrive at your destination.
;)
But!
You (and I as well) might have been disappointed by these latest titles, but I can tell you every casual gamer really didn't care. It's mario, he jumps on things, and if you've never played "the lost levels" and haven't spent your life in front of videogames, there is no difference between now and fuzzy childhood memories.
Plus, I don't think icons like mario can die that easily. Maybe in a few decades, when the first-timers are all gone? Yeah, right, it also happened to bugs bunny and mickey mouse, remember?
It also means we're gonna be stuck with halo or gta, but it is good news to gamers who appreciate these kinds of games, and more money generated for the industry, so it's good news to everyone.
So with the weather channel, news channel, internet browser and picture viewer/editor, Nintendo's goal is to rope totally-non-geeky people to buy something that does what a PC does better, but that's easy to use and affordable. Then, if mom of grampa wants to try out a game, it's just a click away.
Can't say how it will turn out as my crystal ball is at the dry cleaner's, but I think this could work. I mean, I don't live in a very tech-literate country (france), but I know more than a few people who'd want to give the "digital lifestyle" a try. And yeah, I know peter moore coined that term first.
As a casual gamer, I can't say I care about those addons. Hey, it's free, and it could be good, but it also means some people were out coding this instead of a mario game. But it's an interesting strategy nonetheless.
I wish I could do it myself, but anyway. +1.
I don't know who you work for, but if I don't see the gaming GOD, Shiggy, complain about space on a disc, then there is no problem.
After him doing "Transmetropolitan", "Authority", and various other great things, I'm inclined to check it out, even though I hate the amateur connotation most webcomics bear.
Good show for helping out indie artists! I love this guy ^^
You could also have remembered the DS and Zookeeper, since that game is an utter rip-off. Only it has a multiplayer mode, maybe the most fun out of the damn game I ever had.
TV consoles will sell if or when they manage to get the next Dance Dance Revolution. That game appealed heavily to girls or workout nuts in addition to gamers (not to mention it really works, I lost weight thanks to videogames, whohoo!)
Ever wonder why sony released a buzzer with some quiz game? Yeah, it's kitshy, but it's the kind of bland game that will appeal to the unwashed masses of people who don't care about ripping the wings off of a siren and killing zeus, or shooting hookers, or anything that looks anymore videogame-y than what they're already used to. To them, videogames = mario is cute and grand theft auto is a game for criminals and perverts. So you gotta sell them jeopardy and pictionary and other "oh, this doesn't look too complicated" stuff to even interest them. The hardest part will be making them buy it. Or making videogames harmless enough to use as gifts from a gamer to a non-gamer, perhaps? I know I once bought a DDR mat for a non-gamer cousin of mine who wanted to try it out.
By making the controls more accessible and the controller less frightening, AND flexible as all hell, Nintendo just might manage to get my mom to play Wii Tennis with me. That is, if it doesn't suck, but I trust them on this one.
OBJECTION!
... And those are the only two examples that spring to mind. Hmm.
Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles had a gba hook-up mode IIRC, although I've never played it.
Rogue Squadron 3 : Rebel Strike also allows for such connectivity, although it was limited; in versus battle, you could use your GBA to issue orders to your squad without your opponent seeing them on the TV. Oooooh.
So, yeah, we may call it a failed attempt, or we can call it a stepping stone for the next generation to truly try and give it a huge push. After all, Nintendo has everything to gain by saying "...and if you're one of the TWENTY MILLION people who own a DS, you'll have even more fun with the Wii, the console made by the people who made the DS and brain training! No need to buy a stupid cable anymore, too!" At this point, they rely on their handheld to be an advertisement for their home console - it failed with the GBA because of next to no support and frankly milking customers dry, but things are a lot less complicated when you don't need to buy one cable per friend you wanna play Zelda four swords with.
Do I have any other proof? Sure. One of the biggest believers of this kind of connectivity is Sony. Sure, their whole "299$ retroview mirror in a racing game" idea is a bullshit tech demo. But it reveals the fact that they also think about handheld-home console connectivity. Because they're afraid it's a weapon Nintendo alone could use to their advantage!
Definitely SONY PSP ads. "Cheese you can listen to", "I'd hit it", and so on. They try so hard and so badly to imitate the internet counter-culture-which-became-mainstream-like-five- years-ago that instead of making me laugh, those commercials make me cringe and I immediately think of everyone working at sony to be seventy year old people who want to communicate to the "young crowd" that they "is down with them".
Also, most TV videogame ads that show FMV, FMV, FMV and nothing else. That's how Nintendo got fucked when Zelda 64's ingame and gameplay-only commercial looked like ass compared to FF7's OMG WE'RE NOT LYING TO YOU IT'S REALTIME GRAFIX!!!-FMV-based ad.
Come to think of it, I don't like ads from anyone at all, anyway. Why are we glorifying what is essentially legal corruption? Never thought of that?
Game publisher : If you give our game a bad rating, we'll cancel this 3-million dollar page ad.
Game magazine : zOMG Tonic Trouble is teh WIN! Six stars outta five!
DVD format : born in 1995.
The matrix : made in 1999!
Four years later != "early in the life of DVD", dude. Are you sure you're not talking about another movie or format?
Anyway, I'm pretty much like you - I'll adopt whatever format will succeed, so no hard thoughts. But jesus christ, I couldn't stand VHS back when it was the ONLY thing available, just as I hated floppies of *any* kind. These things broke/deteriorated so damn fast and sometimes by their own damn selves that I was happy to embrace anything that resembled a CD.
For this format war - it's not going to be about the movies. It's going to be about marketing. And walk into any electronics or hi-fi store, and the same dumb "know-it-all", "you need at least two gigarams of speed to run microsoft word" clerk is always eager to sell... Sony products.
Of course, I hope my prediction is false! The biggest winner would be the hybrid/combo player that everyione can agree on. Meanwhile, I'll be perfectly happy with my divx player.
I've been replaying mario sunshine and zelda windwaker on my lowly GC for the last few weeks, and these games look AMAZING. Wii is supposed to be twice as powerful. Just because the other two contenders are number-crunching-powerhouses DOES NOT MEAN THAT WII GRAPHICS WILL LOOK LIKE PONG.
I call corporate shill.
You start by downloading project64k, which has an online play thingy included.
Then, you look for people who are waiting to play Super Smash Brothers. You'll need a rom, of course.
Sadly, I have a high ping and as such, the online play kinda sucks - but it's still great to be able to play this classic with some stranger over the internets. You won't have the trash talking with buddies like you can get in halo, that's for sure, but I believe this game is enough by its own damn self ^^
Is there any advertising on about.com ?
I'm using adblock plus, flashblock and Firefox; so I can't tell if so-and-so dot com has a lot of ads or not - can't see ANY of them ^^
+1.
Although I would like to argue your calling japanese RPG's too complex for an audience that knows Baldur's Gate and the Elder Scrolls. Now, I know you were playing devil's advocate by explaining the japanese mindframe! I'm just pointing out that they still have those conceptions about us westerners that we should all do our best to bring down.
Oh, and remember the "hard" version of Final fantasy 4(jp)/2(us) ? It was just more fucking GRINDING... No new and harder puzzles, or anything of the sort... Just more HP for the enemies. I can live with that kind of racism.
Look, my SSID's name is "use_me". I have never ever had anyone try to download kiddie porn or buying nuclear bombs for terrorists while using my connection, and my computer's got its own unix-branded protection, so there's no damage done to my own stuff.
Why the fuss about WPA/WEP/actually dropping the paranoia? I mean, it's your home network, not sensible information you'd need to protect like at work...
Other than that, you can always use the nintendo branded usb wifi-AP stick. plug it whenever you want to play, unplug it when you're done playing.
Or maybe you have an ulterior motive in bringing up a strawman?
That's a well-known joke in the linux community. Example, don't know how to get the driver for your geforce card running under ubuntu? "Ubuntu sucks, it can't even yadda yadda!" And you'll get more helpful answers than RTFM's if you'd asked politely ;)
You should google around for the dreamcast homebrew scene, as it is easily one of the most dedicated and talented scenes out there. Games, apps, linux, divx & MP3 player, you name it.
I bought a used DC for about 40 bucks back then, just for Jet Set Radio and Soul Calibur, and boy were those two games worth it. I do fail to understand the hype surrounding Shenmue, though.
And on that day, you won many internets, for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
PIN Number
ATM Machine
Sorry, it's kind of a muscle reflex.
I *did* buy two games in april, though, Tetris DS and Phoenix Wright! Sorry Nintendo, stop making games that have excellent replay value! Please don't hurt me ^^
I own two GBA's and one DS, along with several homebrew-enabling devices (flashcart, passme), that allow me to play pirated games AND homebrew software (MSN on the DS, DSLinux, VNC, DS2KEY to turn your DS into a wireless gamepad for your PC...).
Nintendo are in the right direction. If they themselves released a flashcart the would only play legally-downloaded roms, *of course* it would be cracked in less than a week. But I would have bought it from Nintendo, not from some chinese guy who needs to write specific software to patch most of the roms to be able to run them. A flashcart can fetch about 60 bucks on ebay, and a passme device about 20.
Nintendo knows they can recoup a lot of money they are currently losing right now. Heck, even Sony sells MP3 players, they know they're used for playing pirated music in many cases, but at least, they make money on *something*.
I think (not sure) you can run it on most SNES emulators, along with all of the superFX and other "special" games (starfox, yoshi's island, etc). ;)
If a homebrewer found his way around it with elegant and focused code, I don't see why the Nintendo sages couldn't!
I still wonder, if Nintendo lets homebrewers release their public domain roms to run on the virtual console, then a LOT of people could even make a living with this. They seem more open towards homebrewers, just look at the stuff demomakers are capable to do with the GBA and DS, so maybe this is part of the "let's court the indie devs" strategy. A strategy I am very happy with, since it will mean more games.
+1.
I dream of a time when Video Games are treated like books, movies, music, or even PC software, and instead of being thrown on the racks in alphabetical order, you'd get a "FPS" shelf, another one labeled "brainfood", "this is the kind your grandson would really really hate if he's older than 8", "survival horror", "Party games", and so on. THAT would help confused non-gamers know how to buy a gift for gamer their acquaintances, plus we'd be treated like every other fucking media!
If you look at the NES game packaging, there were such categories. "Action", "Adventure", "Lightgun", and such. So, it's not really innovation, but it's nice of them to wake up from their long, boring, slumber.
Disclaimer : Maybe some store actually does that, but I have never seen that happen.
Who the HELL are you talking to when you're playing? :(
I have ample time to finish whatever is needed, or just turn the damn console off whenever I leave my train/bus/whatever. I rarely use the sleep mode, but pausing/closing the DS doesn't "kill your groove". If you think it does, you take your toys way too seriously, dude
I think they announced a Desperate Housewives and a Sopranos game.
STOP GIVING THEM IDEAS PLEASE! ^^;
You mean they answered the PS3 will cost cowboyneal's monthly salary?