113 replies to this topic

[TheAvengerLever]

Technically you can still run DK64 in widescreen. It involves changing it to the widescreen option and changing some settings on your television. It is a very out of the way method to get it to work, but it works.

 

BTW, when it comes to the States I am definitely getting DK64, because I love everything about the DK series and I have yet to complete the game all the way through.

[Raien]

Technically you can still run DK64 in widescreen. It involves changing it to the widescreen option and changing some settings on your television. It is a very out of the way method to get it to work, but it works.

 

From what I can see, you would have to manually stretch the picture on your TV in order for that to work. I think that's a little too much hassle just for one game, but whatever floats your boat.

 

While I'm here, one thing I forgot to mention before is that the Wii U versions of N64 games have a higher resolution than the Wii versions. It's getting to the point where I can see Mario's body going funky at a distance, something that was originally nearly impossible to see due to smaller screens and lower resolutions.

Edited by Raien, 03 April 2015 - 07:04 AM.

[DarkJuno]

-blows dust off thread-

 

Been awhile. Glad they did acknowledge Iwata's passing but didn't dwell on it uncomfortably long.

 

Still a typical late in the year Direct - mostly highlighting stuff we've known about and just giving release dates for stuff in the Spring and a couple minor reveals that weren't huge but we didn't know about either so it's not like it let us down.

 

Mostly ambivalent about the Twilight Princess HD re-release, and I'm not into the Amiibo game, but once they mentioned the Midna w/Wolf Link Amiibo it clicked why they'd even bother making this game. Not excited for it, but I'm not against grabbing it for the hell of it, and if that soundtrack is an actual soundtrack and not just a sampler, I might be suckered into it since that WOULD be the first time the game got a full soundtrack release.The thing about the Amiibo data being useful in the new Wii U Zelda piqued my interest, but I'm sure it'll end up being tiny and pointless, but nice to see them holding fast to it coming out next year.

 

The Splatoon updates are nice and I'm glad Nintendo is continuing to support the game. 

 

REALLY glad to see we're getting the Dragon Quest VII (and VIII, I guess) 3DS ports on this side of the Pacific - VII I think is the only one I never played, and I never got too far into VIII so I'm in. Curious about Final Fantasy Explorers, though I doubt it'll be my taste, but I'll give it a shot. 

 

Glad to finally get release dates on the new Mario & Luigi and Fire Emblem. Not too pleased with the way they're selling the latter, but whatever, the double pack isn't a terrible deal since it's no more expensive then grabbing one game, then buying the second campaign digitally and doing the third DLC one later.

 

Vague release date for Bravely Second, so cool. 

 

 

 

...and hey, look, Cloud Strife in Smash Bros. I'm going to lean back and watch everyone lose their heads trying to figure out what it all means. The popular mass hysteria opinion seems to be we'll get VII on the Virtual Console, but I don't think we should read into this any deeper then Nintendo asked and Square Enix said "Eh, sure, why not." since they've had a good relationship for a long time now.

[SteveT]

Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition is up for pre-order on Best Buy.  If you don't have Gamer's Club Unlocked, you should.  It's an automatic 20% off on all new games.

[Raien]

"Weird" is the word I'd use to describe this Direct. In terms of game announcements, there's nothing particularly surprising. But at the same time, some of the decisions had me shaking my head and saying "Why?". For example, is it just me or is Nintendo underselling Xenoblade Chronicles X for no good reason? I'm not expecting it to be a massive super-seller or anything but three weeks before release, you'd think Nintendo would give us a little more than a crappy gag trailer. If it did well enough to earn a Smash Bros fighter, you'd think it would have earned a decent promotion as well.

 

And then there was the strange Wolf Link amiibo. Nothing wrong with the pose, I guess, but the way the rocks hang over the ends of the base looks awful. This amiibo isn't part of a series like Smash Bros. so why couldn't they have just widened the base to accommodate the larger model, like they did with the 8-bit Mario amiibo? It would have looked a lot nicer.

 

And then there's Nintendo of Europe's weird collector's edition for Hyrule Warriors Legends. I can't find any trailers to show the Americans right now but it comes with a gold Zelda-themed... compass? I don't what the item is called. It's a seafarer's instrument, looks like a compass except it has two hands and no markers. I don't know what it is or why it's bundled with an arcade hack-and-slash game... but it's there. EDIT: Looking online, it's apparently a clock that's designed like a compass... or a marine chronometer. It's honestly hard to tell.

 

And finally after five years, Nintendo releases the first Pokemon games on the 3DS virtual console. Given that Pokemon has always been the biggest Nintendo handheld seller, it's weird that it took Nintendo so long to build 3DS wi-fi functionality into the games. Was it really so hard that it took five years or did Nintendo just not bother until now? The company's so lazy when it comes to the virtual console that I find it impossible to tell.

 

But the biggest shame for me was that Nintendo didn't surprise reveal the Wii U version of Minecraft that was rated by PEGI only yesterday. From what I'd read, the game had a listed release date for today, and I therefore assumed Nintendo was going to do the whole, "We're releasing this game and SURPRISE!, you can buy it right now from the eshop!" thing they usually do in Nintendo Directs these days. Even though Minecraft is well established on other platforms, it would still be a big catch for the Wii U. Certainly a bigger catch than any of the other games they spotlighted.

 

There's only one upcoming game I plan to get and that's Pokemon Picross... mainly because it's free. Otherwise, I kind of like the look of Pokken Tournament although it's still sitting in the "perhaps, maybe" category. But yeah, this Direct was a dud for me. Oh well, at least Mario Maker is one step closer to being a properly great game on top of being a great level editor. Now we just need more/better customisation options for backgrounds and stage objects.

Edited by Raien, 12 November 2015 - 07:58 PM.

[Fin]

ADORABLE GREEN HOODED GIRL LINK I'M SO HAPPY

Edited by Fin, 12 November 2015 - 10:40 PM.

[Hana-Nezumi]

I'm happy to have a release date for the second wave Animal Crossing Amiibo, because Kicks is so cute! The Trailer for Star Fox Zero was also really cool. Linkle in Hyrule Warriors Legends is adorable and so cool! I hope she becomes available as DLC in the Wii U version. The new Splatoon maps look totally rad. Also good to have new gear because I had bought almost every single clothing item. I only have one question: WHY would an inkling resort have a POOL? Inklings dissolve in water!

 

"Weird" is the word I'd use to describe this Direct. In terms of game announcements, there's nothing particularly surprising. But at the same time, some of the decisions had me shaking my head and saying "Why?". For example, is it just me or is Nintendo underselling Xenoblade Chronicles X for no good reason? I'm not expecting it to be a massive super-seller or anything but three weeks before release, you'd think Nintendo would give us a little more than a crappy gag trailer. If it did well enough to earn a Smash Bros fighter, you'd think it would have earned a decent promotion as well.

The US direct focused on Xenoblade a bit more. Also, we already have been told a lot about it, and you can see much more details of what the game has to offer from Nintendo's special YouTube series about it. (The US direct was also a bit more hype than the other ones in pretty much all aspects.)

Edited by Hana-Nezumi, 13 November 2015 - 02:24 AM.

[Sir Turtlelot]

The Direct featured a number of games I didn't particularly care about, but I was still pretty satisfied with what was there. I'm still very much looking forward to Star Fox Zero, Pokken Tournament, and Zelda U next year, and I'll bite on TP HD, as it's been awhile since I last played it, and it will probably be easier than tracking down a GCN version of the game. Still waiting on the inevitable confirmation of Toon Link, Tetra, King Harkinian, Skull Kid, and Linkle as DLC for the Wii U version of the game, as it's about damn time Skull Kid made his playable debut.

 

Cloud as Smash Bros DLC certainly caught me off guard, as I regarded him as likely as characters like Master Chief. Although I'm certainly not complaining about his entry to the series, it really does make me wonder who the last two character slots will go to. Personally, I'm still holding out hope for King K. Rool, Banjo, Simon Belmont, or Shantae, although it could be anyone at this point.

 

 

Edit: Oh yeah, and the classic Pokemon games are finally coming to Virtual Console, with updated trade/battle features. I honestly was beginning to wonder if this would ever happen, but it's still cool nonetheless. I wonder if MissingNo. will just wreck your whole 3DS now...

Edited by Sir Turtlelot, 13 November 2015 - 02:55 AM.

[Sir Turtlelot]

*walks around thread with vacuum cleaner*

 

Ohay, don't mind me, just cleaning up the heaps of dust.

 

 

 

ANYWAYS, we just had a new Nintendo Direct this morning, this time focused for upcoming 3DS games.

 

First up we have the staple of portable Nintendo gaming, Pokemon, with only a few new details about the upcoming Sun and Moon titles. Nothing really noteworthy outside of a new form for Ratatta really.

 

The next big announcement is a port of Super Mario Maker for the 3DS. The focus this time seems to be local play/sharing, as opposed to the Wii U's focus on online play/sharing. Also no Mystery Mushroom for the 3DS version. Wii U version is good enough for me.

 

Let's see, what's up next. Oh yeah, new Mario Party, probably not great, don't really care, moving on.

 

There's going to be a future update for Animal Crossing New Leaf, allowing for Amiibo usage and a few new added villagers.

 

Another update for StreetPass with a steamlined new set up and four new bitesized games, Stock Market game for the win!

 

New downloadable game for 3DS called Tank Troopers. Basically looks like Nintendo meets World of Tanks, looks moderately fun.

 

Axiom Verge, along with other indies, are coming to the eshop this September. I'm REALLY looking forward to trying out Axiom Verge.

 

Plug for the NES Mini along with new Zelda amiibos were announced. The 8bit Link amiibo actually looks pretty cool, I'll probably pick that one up to go with my 8bit Mario, and maybe OoT Link as well. Skyward Sword is also being released on the eshop. Plus there's a new Zelda artbook coming out on Amazon.

 

In addition to the above mentioned Zelda stuff, we also got a look at Toon Link's new weapon, as well as the newest DLC fighter for Hyrule Warriors (Legends). The Sand Rod looks pretty fun, if only for the fact it can summon a fucking train to run over enemies. Toon Zelda has a nice twist in the fact that it is Zelda's spirit and the suit of armor from Spirit Tracks. I'm looking forward to trying both out for sure.

 

There was a quick mention of the newest Ace Attorney game, before they went on to talk about the 3DS ports of Dragon Quest VII & VIII. Depending on how my play-through of the original Dragon Warrior goes, I might pick one or both of these up.

 

Pokemon Yokai Watch Fleshy Souls and Bony Spirits were both shown off. I don't really know what else to say out side of [insert Pokemon joke here].

 

Disney Magical Kingdom stuff, don't care.

 

Sonic Boom stuff, also don't care.

 

Shin Megami Tensei IV, or however it's spelled, was also shown off. I have no idea what it is, but it doesn't look like something I would play though.

 

Yoshi Wooly World port for 3DS doesn't look bad, but again, I'm going to stick with my Wii U version.

 

Ever Oasis was shown off again, looks like an interesting not-Final Fastasy game. I'm sure there will be more to it than that, but that's the impression I get from it.

 

Mario Sports Superstars. I mean, it's Mario sports? I kinda like Sluggers and Strikers for the few times I did play them, but I can only wonder if having four sports games in one will results in each sport playing considerable more poorly than in their own individual games. Also Mario Horse Racing, that's new.

 

And finally, a new Pikmin game! But as a sidescroller, ala Chibi-Robo Ziplash. I actually still really want to play the newest Chibi-Robo, and this new Pikmin game also has my interest piqued. They're definitely both on my "To Get" list.

 

 

Overall an okay direct, nothing too exciting, though I was pleasantly surprised with the new Pikmin game. Most of the big announcements were ports of Wii U games I already own, so it doesn't really do much for me. Pokemon Sun/Moon, Pikmin 3DS, Axiom Verge for Wii U, new characters for Hyrule Warriors + new Link amiibos, the NES Mini, and maybe the two Dragon Quest games were the only things that I really cared about this time around.

Edited by Sir Turtlelot, 01 September 2016 - 10:14 AM.

[JRPomazon]

Huh, I really need to make an effort to watch these things when they come out. Sounds like there are quite a few things on the horizon to look forward to, especially the animal crossing update.

[Crimson Lego]

Skyward Sword is also being released on the eshop. Plus there's a new Zelda artbook coming out on Amazon.

 

Wow. This is even more incentive for me to get a Wii U next year when Breath of the Wild comes out - it's impossible to find any new or used copies of Skyward Sword nowadays.

[SteveT]

That's because of all the people who burned their copies rather than run the risk of someone else having to play it.

[SL the Pyro]

Nothing in this Nintendo Direct was amazing to me, honestly. Call me jaded, but all I could do was stare and shake my head at every lost opportunity for online multiplayer other than the Mario Sports compilation thing, and I've never even liked the Mario Sports games. Except for Strikers, which Nintendo seems to have completely forgotten about, perhaps even intentionally for "HOLY SHIT NO VIOLENCE ALLOWED" reasons.

 

For all of Nintendo's assurance during Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS's development that they learned how to build better netcode, they sure aren't doing very much with it. A lot of the games in this Direct could've been great with netplay, which Nintendo seems to be shunning in the place of local play, which carries the same problem on a console that it does on a handheld: it's completely worthless if none of your game-friends live near you.

[JRPomazon]

 

Skyward Sword is also being released on the eshop. Plus there's a new Zelda artbook coming out on Amazon.

 

Wow. This is even more incentive for me to get a Wii U next year when Breath of the Wild comes out - it's impossible to find any new or used copies of Skyward Sword nowadays.

 

 

That's strange to me, considering how most people I know didn't much care for that game in retrospect.

[Masamune]

It's the Zelda cycle. Skyward Sword is in that awkward transition of going from well liked (new!), universally despised (newer game is out), to Zelda's last redeeming title (old enough to get rereleased). It's a pretty common pattern.

Though it's still a pretty subpar Zelda game. 

[Sir Turtlelot]

I feel that every Zelda game released after the N64 has been divisive among fans to some extent. I personally really liked Skyward Sword, despite its flaws, but I know a lot of others did not. Twilight Princess also receives a fair share of criticism, but again, I loved it, it's probably my favorite of the post-N64 games. Wind Waker, despite also being a great game, is in my opinion the weakest of the three, though it seems to be the favorite among many online. To each their own I suppose.

[JRPomazon]

I feel Skyward Sword had too much hand-holding, much like many Nintendo games at the time (looking at you, Pokémon Gen 5). There was so much crap I wanted to interact with and do that the game wouldn't let me do because I hadn't gotten to that point in the story. Of course, this only one grievance I have with the title. Twilight Princess, although a favorite mine, is only a passing title until maybe the Lakebed Temple, which is at least 3-4 hours into the game. Again, the story set up gives you a major "yeah, I get it" feeling for the first hour alone.

[SteveT]

Yeah, I don't see time being kind to Skyward Sword.  Motion controls are already out of fashion, the hand-holding is coming up more and more often in discussions, and the exploration betrayed everything about the system.  Even Aunoma seemed to think it was a mis-step for the franchise, based on some interviews regarding Link Between Worlds. Plus, the hype for Breath of the Wild is much higher than it ever was for Skyward Sword.  
 
Really, the only reason we have the concept of the Zelda cycle is that people were ridiculous about the anti-hype for Wind Waker.  The game came out and people said, "Shit, we were wrong about it."  Then Twilight Princess came out and the people still ripping on Wind Waker said, "Ok, we got our preferred graphical style but everything is worse."  You can argue all day whether OoT or MM or WW is the best 3D Zelda, Twilight Princess was worse than any of those and Skyward Sword was worse that Twilight Princess.  People see Zelda N come along and say, "Well, I guess Zelda N-1 wasn't so bad after all."  So here's hoping we AREN'T in the cycle because I don't want to regret purchasing an NX for BotW.


That said, the Sandship and Ancient Cisterne were pretty baller dungeons.

Edited by SteveT, 18 October 2016 - 04:12 PM.

[Masamune]

I really do wonder how they'll handle Skyward Sword when it inevitably comes to the point where they want to give it an HD remake. I wonder if traditional controls and a mute button for Fi would do enough to make it more tolerable. It'll still have a lot of glaring faults... but at least I wouldn't dread replaying it.

[Sir Turtlelot]

So while we're on the topic, I am curious, why such animosity towards Skyward Sword? Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with the fact the game is flawed, but I've just never understood the magnitude of hate it gets from the fans. The biggest complaint I always see is Fi, which was definitely the worst part of the game, but I didn't think it was bad enough to ruin the entire experience. Personally, whenever Fi popped up, I just kept hitting A until she went away and then continued on with my business, since I found just ignoring her was the best option.

 

I also see motion controls being brought up a lot, but I can only really recall two instances where I found myself literally yelling at the game over the motion controls, during the first harp segment, granted the harp in general was just poorly implemented, and during the giant scorpion boss fight, since despite my best efforts, Link would not do a fucking forward stab. Aside from those two instances though, I personally thought that some of the ideas implemented were really interesting and pretty cool, such as certain enemies requiring you to attack from certain angles. It was leaps and bounds more advanced than TP's motion controls, though it still wasn't perfect and had the occasional hiccup.

 

Outside of those two issue, the only other thing I can really think of is that the Dragons' quests in the last third of the game kind of sucked, but they were nowhere near as bad as Wind Waker's Triforce Charts segment.

 

Personally, I felt that Skyward Sword had masterfully crafted dungeons, beautiful visuals and music, fun and memorable bosses/enemies, an upgrade system that was new to the series, awesome flying segments, and a hell of a good story by Zelda standards. Plus as I said before, when the motion control was working, it did add a bit more depth to the game's combat.

 

 

 

Also Groose >>>>>> Tingle

Edited by Sir Turtlelot, 19 October 2016 - 12:45 AM.

[Masamune]

I think I can break it down to this:

 

Lots of hand holding. Even without Fi, it's really just a game that goes a little too out of its way to show you how to do everything. I think stuff like this really hammers home how much Nintendo needs to just have a Normal and Casual mode in their games. Given that Hero mode is becoming a common option in the Zelda series, this doesn't seem too unreasonable. 

 

The sky was an empty wasteland that was completely pointless. Egoraptor does a pretty good summing it up on GrumpOut. It was a hub, but not even a remotely good one. There are a lot of other ways they could've made it so much more interesting, but Nintendo failed entirely in this regard. Immediately the game's premise is flawed because Link has this flying bird that's central to his identity but doesn't actually serve any real purpose in the game. Why would they do that? It's like they started to develop another game and then changed their mind, but didn't want to give up that 10% of the work they'd already started. 

 

The overworld is a mixed bag for me. Because the sky is so empty, it feels a bit disappointing that the overworlds are basically giant dungeons you have to solve in order to progress through them. I sort of enjoyed them for what they were, since it was a pretty unique step for the series. But at the same time, I wanted to be able to explore. The sky gave me nothing to do and neither did the overworld. To add insult to injury, it expanded on one of Wind Waker's problems by having two-step treasure hunting. Only instead of charts, it was finding these monolith-block things on the surface and then having to find the counterpart in the sky. If they'd been content to just let those discoveries be discoveries, it would've been far more satisfying. I didn't enjoy having to go back into the sky and look for a boring little rock island with a single chest on it. 

The motion controls I was okay with. They were functional and that was fine, but it only detracts from me wanting to replay it. That which is novel and interesting the first time isn't something with the longevity to draw me back into it again. It's the same reason I have zero interest in tackling Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. I'm a long time fan of the Zelda series for a reason and I like being able to immediately pick up and play without having to relearn what I should already instinctively know. I do know that I had enough frustrating moments with some of the angular cuts to sour me on the experience. It wasn't as one to one as it could've been. 

 

I didn't hate the Silence Realm sequences as much as I did the twilight bug hunts in Twilight Princess. They were a bit more interesting to me, though I can fully understand why people would hate them. They were certainly a pretty cynical way of recycling assets to extend the game's playability in a game already guilty of doing that a lot.

I will say that on the whole, I liked Skyward Sword's stories. I loved the upgrades, the various tools, and thought the dungeons were all solid experiences. I didn't even mind that I had to fight the Imprisoned three times, though those battles on the whole was pretty disappointing for what is basically meant to be evil incarnate and yet your entire battle consists of whack-the-toe. I think there's a good game underneath it, but there's just enough disappointment and annoyances to keep me from ever wanting to tackle it again. I think those things are what will keep it from aging as well as even Twilight Princess, just because there's a few too many barriers to make it truly lovable. 

[SteveT]

A note about the motion controls.  It's not that I don't like motion controls.  It's that they had a bad effect on the game design and weren't implemented all that well.

 

1.  The wind up for a swing often registered as a swing in the wrong direction.

2.  It made the combat so, so tedious.  Most of the fights consisted of watching how the enemy was blocking, then very carefully swing at the correct angle.  Why give so much freedom of movement only to make the combat so restrictive and lacking in variety?  The most satisfying part was at the very end where Link was mowing down waves of Bokoblins however he deemed fit, and then Hyrule Warriors* went and made that concept infinitely better than any fight in Skyward Sword.  

3.  When it came to ranged weapons, you constantly have to re-center the cursor to make anything work.

 

In general, I hated how slow the pacing of the game was.  It took way too long before you had control of link, and then you were on rails for a while, then more cutscene, then more rails.  And that was just the first hour.  Whenever Fi showed up to tell me something I already knew, or an NPC gave way too specific instructions, or a menu screen appeared unprompted, or a map appeared and decided to show me three different levels of zoom, I got a little more angry with the game.  Just let me play, already.  In that sense, Skyward Sword was the culmination of the worst vices of the 3D Zelda games.

*In fact, I would argue that Hyrule Warriors is a better Zelda game than Skyward Sword with the way it handled boss fights, lore and characters.  Hell, even music.  And I know exactly how crazy that sounds, but there it is.

[SL the Pyro]

I don't understand the recent trend of Zelda games. They used to be "Okay we showed you how to play, here's a map pointing you in the right direction and a bunch of dungeons to test your skill. Let's do this, bitch." They used to prioritize the gameplay over the story (and even then the story was still there if you wanted to look) and you weren't necessarily forced to do anything and were free to explore until you absolutely needed the next dungeon item/plot trinket. Nowadays they're more about guiding you on a linear path and shoving the story down your throat, which ruins the sense of exploration that made the series great; you don't get to do anything with it until post-game, and having to wait until after clearing the game to see the vast game world the creators wanted you to see rather defeats the purpose.

 

That's why I have my fingers crossed for Breath of the Wild. It feels like a return to form: it only holds you hand until you understand how something new works, then leaves you alone to go about your business. I just hope it isn't the "NES Zelda" style lack of handholding that barely tells you anything.

[SteveT]

Link Between Worlds gave me a lot of hope that the series is back on the right track.
 
Also, see Dark Souls for a game that still does all the things you complained that Zelda doesn't do anymore.  Minus having a map at all. It's the depressed mutant bastard lovechild of old school Zelda and mid-school Castlevania.

Edited by SteveT, 19 October 2016 - 01:51 PM.