Marcamillian

RIGHT ON! Phendrana Drifts was teh first thing that springs to my mind when I consider what was lacking form corrupotion with respect to Prime. I've banged on about this for so long with friends. With metriod all being about exploration and samus being a bounty hunter.... why not make a game where she hunts bounty? In the early days linear gameplay was almost a necessity due to hardware (or atleast a gameplay trope inherent in the early days of games). No that we are able to create huge sandbox worlds.... could it be the perfect fit for metriod? Freeform missions that can be taken in any order that lead you gently, dropping hints toward story relevent areas to visit. Though attempts have been made to populate the game with other characters the development of those characters is WOEFULLY lacking, in large part limited to campy exchanges in cutscenes. Let auxilary characters be but rumours to begin with.. hear their reputation.. have them steal a bounty just before you get there leaving witha snyde remark, hell even have some friendly hunters that help you on some missions. The prime series brought mertiod into 3D but i think the ultimate metroid game should create a universe in which you can loose yourself in and explore with complete freedom. P.S. assuming a better multiplayer system than echoes can be created...this universe could include a seamless multiplayer. If you and a friend are on at the same time a note could come through from the bounty office announcing a new mission to co-op or hunt your friend on a particular planet

Amen brother. As long as creative games have sales whatever "group" buy them I see THOSE people as a positive force in gaming. Personally im looking for new experiences and videogames are able to provide me with a range of experiences that I couldn't get elsewhere...or atleast without signficant cost. Champion creativity people!

One thing that stikes me about the elitism caused by the "hardcore" seeing themselves to be able to pick the good games is that there is a resistance to trying new things. The bias in favour of established ideas in games journalism (highlighted by their dismissal of WiiMusic) highlights the subjectivity and the fact that researching games by means of reviews can be a flawed system. You are relying on the fact that the reviewer has the same taste as you and limiting yourself to the games that they like. I think a real problem with peoples precentions of "innovative" games on the Wii is that inevitably figuring out new mechanics can mean that the development looses time to put the polish and finishing touches on that we've become used to from games with more established play mechanics. I dont expect a new idea to be fully developed right off the bat. Though one thing that helps is the price range of games availible on the Wii and DS now... games actaully go down in price?! Plus, the nintendo channel DS demos are a welcome addition...Locks Quest has secured its place in my christmas schedule from it and im considering Soul Bubbles as well.

Part of me knows this thread isn't going to get anywhere, but I can't help being intrigued in other peoples oppinion on the matter. Just made me giggle... the first half of this is my view of a core gamer, though IMO it's the oppostie of what is generally regarded as core. Oh and the car analogy mentioned by darkjak breaks down when you consider casuals play games for the same reason core do... entertainment. A thought that just crossed my mind is that the tone of this thread is that core gamers have "moved on" to other consoles leaving nintendo behind, but could it be that nintendo have outgrown previous estabilshed concepts of game design and the "hardcore" are so scared of the unfamiliarity that they can't bring themselves to come with? Much as been said about the Wii needing games that cater to everyone including the harcore, like needing "AAA" racers or FPS's with huge production values. But to be honest, the Wii probably has a larger range of software...its just that the other consoles narrower range consists of more that "the hardcore" recognise as games they are familiar with and have enjoyed in the past and they arn't prepared to waste their precious time on a new experience they *might* not enjoy. [edit] Interesting point esmasher... could hardcore just be someone who chooses gaming as their favoured entertainment medium?

Just to clarify my position, though I am a sole Nintendo system owner this generation (and an admirer of Nintendo in general), I am still first and formost a gamer and to that ends I try to be well informed of whats going on in the entire market even if I lack the ability to splash the cash on every system known to man. There are some wonderful things going on other platforms. I accepted on ownership of the Wii that I would be missing out on advances in physics and AI and I believe that is where the Wii will begin to show its age rather than in terms of graphics. In addition to this nintendo's arcade roots and design philosophy still seem to lack the compelling storytelling of some other developers. Why then am I a happy Wii/DS owner?! To my eyes the Wii and DS (with the exception of the shovelware that comes with a large install base) have games that stray further from the established paths of design in gaming. The driving force that allows this...the so called "casual" audience! Unlike the "hardcore" they don't care whether a first person shooter doesn't play like halo or the differing control schemes between FIFA and ProEvo. Xenophobic gamers make it hard for creativity to exist outside of small itterations to existing ideas because they need to be reassured that the game is something familiar before they'll buy. This is part of the reason for the limited shelf life of games on other consoles... old games are seen as redundant as soon as a new irreration arrives. Wii and DS software has shown unprecidented shelf life in the industry. The titles that achieve this typically don't fall into an existing genre (or come with pack in hardware... im looking at you WiiPlay :p) so havn't been made obsolete and sell consistently. Another good incentive for creative design decisions! So where does this leave us? Galaxy and Twilight Princess... while nice, didn't excite me... itterations on a theme. The popularity of the Wii and DS does mean alot of shovelware but I'm informed enough to pick through it. The silver lining is that there is now a wide range of price points for games encompassing some hidden gems making bold design choices. This makes me a happy man. [edit] p.s I know my excitement for AC:CF flys in the face of this but it's an irrational love

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I'm in Hellfires camp here. Its clear that the writer has set out with a message he wants to put across and sought to find information to support this rather than weighing up the research to see if his oppinion is correct. The whole thing seems a little incoherant to me. Its an old worn out point but to me "hardcore" means gaming hobbyist, someone who has a real interest in games and games design in gerneral (or that could be me being elitist). From my point of view the PS2's lead last gen was entirely due to the casual crowd (that is not hobbiyst) I would wager that a great deal of GTA buyers wern't interested in the design or narrative so much as being able to break taboo's they can't in real life. Yet these are considered "hardcore" gamers? Aside from the GTA audience of 12-30 year old males, last gen when you said games to the general populus they thought of playstation, it was the casuals choice. The Wii seems to have attracted these casual gamers and not the GTA crowd, leaving them more visible. I feel the authors pain in that I can see so much potential for Nintendo and it dissapoints me that its not being fulfilled. But I am aware that they are one publisher, yet they seem to be criticised more harshly because they also produce consoles in house. At the end of the day if you'd really didn't like what Nintendo are doing... why waste time moaning? Get going to greener pastures.

I could just be behind the times here, but, playing WW the other week Nooky boy was all depressed. When I asked he said that cause the mable sisters wouldn't join in on his new venture... in the big city... Coincidence, widley known fact already or precurser... I don't know.

I can see the advantages of living in the same town/being able to visit someones town when they're not there. You could com in, turn on your console and someone coulda done something nice for you like pulled your weeds, or you could just check to see waht your friends have been up to...but on balence i think you would always be annoyed that someone had messed with your town. Your town should stilll be your space and having your effort destroyed by someone else (or red turnip stolen) would be all too likely. I'm just buzzed that you can send letters to your friends at any time. (p.s. Rummy is weakening... i've been chatting to him and he has flashes of interest...lets make him one of us!)

Since I've goty back to Uni I got in touch with the games society here, they've come on massivly since I started. As part of it they run a games creators club, basically teaching some java programming and discussing games design. Through this I've learnt of the weekly GameCareerGuide.com design challenge (visit and click on the features tab). On a wednesday a topic will be proposed and open for submissions till the following wednesday. Thought this might appeal to some people hanging around these parts. (i still can't post links.. darned low post count!)

Darn. Though the cirtain "tim burton" art style got a little less novel as the first series went on the dialogue was unparalleled. Though the first season lagged a little towards the end I was looking forward to another. All I can say is that though the show is being cancelled, I hope the creative team get picked up for something else and still try to bring something as different as this to the world rather than being knocked back and conforming to make standard TV.

Its nice to see some lesser known franchises still get the go ahead. Back in the day tenchu 1 was enjoyable, and tenchu 2 was fantastic. Endless hours were spent in the level editor setting devious mazes and traps for my brother and sister to negate. As long as they get the camera and movement right (which I have more faith in as its the original devs who did a reasonable job on the first two) this should do well... shame about the crappy legacy of the DS game and the shocking box art though.

Houdy people, I've finally decided to get active on here. Its nice to see people going through the same process as me with this. A month ago I was ademant I wasn't going to buy the same game 3 times... but that was a month ago. I love the series (enough to get up at 6 in the morning 3 times to to the exercising in the GC game) but it seemed that not alot has been done with the Wii game. I tried satisfying myself by revisiting WW and got sucked in again (go a healthy crop of hybrid flowers going). After reading Iwatta asks I'm even more sure I'm getting this. Whilst the DS game was good, the communication seemed a little unwieldy. Not being able to send letters between towns and deserted towns when friends visited meant that the online mode wasn't really animal crossing. Now that these things have been corrected and with expanded dialogue trees my irrational compulsion to buy is slighly more justfied. I still have high hopes for the series. Dreams of a soap opera in animalese, story arcs added via connect24 over the life of the game... beign able to be an apprentice to NPC's (mail sorting for Pelly a la windwaker, identifying fossils or feeding fish for blathers, keeping lookout for Redd while he does "business" or playing backing band for K.K.) still live on in my head, it might just take a while to get there.

Hoody! I know exactly how you feel Wesley, its ok reproducing a picture but its so much harder to get an idea out of your head cause you've got nothing to compare it with to check its right. The most important thing to do is to imagine the object in 3D space rather than just an outline. Building up from simple shapes helps alot to get something that looks right and helps you think about the anatomy. The first place that introduced me to all this was the tutorials at polykarbon.com (darn, havn't posted enough to post links) There are probably better sources but I just put it forward cause it was the place that got me started. As people have said, practice is the key and having a good set of people to give you constructive criticism and to keep you motivated to draw helps with that. People such as these exist at sketchtavern.com (again, my crippling lack of posts proves an inconvenience) I really can't reccomend this place enough for people wanting to improve their drawing, i've not posted anything myself in a long long time due to my continued lacking of a scanner. Don't be intimidated by the quality of the drawing there, they are all cool people who take pride in helping people to improve.

WHOA! i really cant read 46 pages of posts so im just gnna apologise if i say what has already been said before. SSBM is the game ive played the more on gamecube and it rocks. Not too happy about 3rd party chars, should just make teh clones in meele have their own movesets. Dont lik ethe news that ice climbers aint in there they were cool, even if they were useless. And definitely a good decision to use GCcontrollers on it... ahh let teh battle commence

It's probably going to be another stadium game... just look at the name "battle revolution" (i know this may not be final bt still).And i suppose using built in Wi-fi more people would use thier diamond/pearl teams. Maybe there would even be secret items/pokemon in battle revolution! What COULD be awesom though is the use of the Wiimote. Hand gestures to command your pokemon... teaching them Nintendogs stylee, more fluid/quick the movement the greater the damage. Reggie has made a statement showing interest in an MMPORG, could it mean another "propper" Wii Pokemon game later in the Wii's life? We shall see

I was thinking.. when rev control was discussed for twilight princess.... they talked about using the sword and shield at teh same time... could this possibly be how to conrtol sed shield??