Sméagol

I've mentioned it before, but there are plenty games I still want, I have some catching up to do. So I'm not packing up my Cube right after Zelda. About Baten though.. I really hope it's still being released here eventually. If localization is a problem, just skip that and give us the English version (which is the version we Dutch need anyway (well, I'd prefer the Japanese version with English subs, but that's too much to ask :rolleyes)). What's really strange is that the best games show on our national television did a preview of it.. I assume they're not up-to-date on all things GameCube related, but they're usually reliable, that's why it's strange. They were pretty positive by the way. If it's not coming out, I'm doing the hardcore thing, and import a US Cube and the game. I don't like freeloaders and stuff, hence the drastic measures. It would be ironic though.. If I'd do that. I'll end up with a Cube who can play games with progressive scan, but which can't support it, and a Cube which does support progressive scan, but can't play the games who have it.. <sigh>

Not that I'm not getting the Wii version eventually, but this is the one I'm most looking forward to (even though it comes more than a week later, and yes I'm still expecting a December 15th release). In fact, yesterday I pre-ordered this game. I just don't think I can afford a Wii at launch (to be specific, a Wii, 3 remotes, 3 nunchucks, 2 classic controllers, Zelda, Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball & probably Rayman, and probably a Wii point card). Damn, I have to wait another month!! . Oh well, it's worth it! It's been a while I think that I was looking forward this much to a game, those were Zelda OoT & Zelda MM . Anyway, this won't be my last Cube game, I still have some catching up to do, there are plenty games I still want (RE 4, Batallion wars & Fire Emblem to name a few).

Why? It's (theoratically) better. I hope HD-DVD flops. I'll definitely buy a blu-ray player at some point, but certainly not before 2008. I still have plenty of DVD titles to catch up! Oh and, I'm willing to bet neither blu-ray or HD-DVD will be common by the end of 2007, especially not in Europe. Anyway, about the news: This is about that announced Japanese-only DVD playing Wii, isn't it? I don't need DVD playback, but if this has a special design, like the Panasonic Qube had (that one really looked cool), it might be a fun excuse to play import titles. It would be very disappointing though, if this will be the black Wii I was waiting for..

Not exactly true. They had a function back then, or more accurately, they were supposed to have a function. You were supposed to connect Banjo Tooie & Kazooie together, so you could access those items, and you would get extra things in Banjo Tooie. This is known as the infamous stop 'n swop. I believe you actually had to swap cassettes with the power on, so you could use the memory of the other game (to exchange data). But they didn't go through with this feature. It was a major disappointment for many fans . (when you've completed Kazooie 100 %, you know exactly what I mean). Anyway, Kazooie en Tooie remain my favourite platformers of all time I think, allthough, like I've already said in the Banjo 360 thread, I haven't played many pure platformers recently (I should buy Sonic Rush or something). I remember exactly when I decided to buy it.. Before my vacation, I couldn't decide between Goemon and Banjo, I needed something epic at least! . Than during my vacation, I actually played some Banjo in a toystore there. When I got back, a friend bought Goemon, and returned it after just 1 day, because he had finished it. That's when I made my decision !. I obviously don't regret it. Click Clock Woods is my favourite platform level of all time! That level is just magical, it has such an enchanting forest atmosphere.. I really loved that level. Seeing all the changes thoughout the seasons.. And Rusty Bucket Bay is definitely the hardest. The placement of some of the items.. That's just sadistic . Also note where the ship is based, it says "Twycross" at the back.

I liked the game. I think loved is giving it too much credit, but I definitely liked it. I didn't mind the collecting at all. The levels were gorgeous, I love the water level, with the lighttower, even thought it also had the most frustrating banana for me to collect. It really took me a long time to finish it, I was missing 2 bananas, one was the one you get from the big metallic fish (when you have to shoot the 3 propellors). The other one was a race with a.. Bunny? That one was easy, but I never was in the mood for it after the frustrating fish. It's very anoying to have to retry, you have to swim all the way back. Than suddenly, I found out there was a trick.. Argh. :| Oh well, I got all the 201 bananas that day, and got to see the special ending (which is great! But too bad it doesn't show up in the menu). Ooh and K.Rool.. He's a very typical Rare boss.. That fight's fantastic!. Oh, and another thing I hated, allthough it didn't have to do with the game itself, was the extra expansion pack that came with it.. You couldn't get it seperately. I of course already had one, I bought one immediately with Turok 2. <sigh>

I've watched the trailer, it was a pleasant surprise. The trailer is funny, but I really hate the looks of both Banjo & Kazooie. Knowing Rare fans though (just read Scribes), they'll send plenty complaint mails, demanding they improve the models. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen such mails last Scribes, but I guess it was too early. But yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it, 1 & 2 were my favourite platformers of all time (allthough I can't recall playing a recent pure platformer). I don't have an X-Box 360, I actually hoped to get one with Perfect Dark & Kameo (I'm still interested in those games, even after all the generally negative response), but now I'll have a new chance with Banjo Threeie (you know there's not going to be another name, they have to please the fans ). So, I reckon I have 2 years to get a Wii, a PS3, and then a X-Box 360 with Banjo, Joanna & Kameo .

No, you're not the only one. I hate it as well. But I don't know which one from the prime series I prefer though. I think the first one was closest to the original designs, but I think I like the second better. It was rounder I think, but I can't recall. En it had 3 engines at the bottom. Maybe someone can dig up some pics? About the suits, obviously the zero suit is the best . But as for power suits.. I think I may be boring, but I prefer the original standard yellow / orange (upgraded) power suit. I don't know what they're all called, but the pic somewhere above, the second suit from Echoes, I really, really hated that suit. And it got even worse when you get the jetpack! Jeez that looked horrible. Thankfully, not long after, you get the light suit, which is sexy indeed, but I still prefer the original power suit like I said. That said, I do like most other suits and colour variations, I do like the fusion suit generally, I also like the black suit, and personnaly I though dark Samus was awesome.. If they ever do a new Hunters (which I wouldn't mind, as long as it's completely seperate from the single player experience), they should include her (..It?) as a playable character.

It is too bad, allthough it's somewhat logical, I believe the ehm.. Rumble motors are different. The N64 rumble pack is actually better I think, it supports more levels of vibration, that's why you can't use the Cube or wiimote controller's rumble. But yeah, people who'll play OoT for the first time on VC, will completely miss all the rumble secrets, unless they find out by chance. I thought the rumble was great with Starfox 64, I really loved destroying bosses! Oh well, luckily I have a N64 and a rumble pack, I'll buy some new batteries at one point.

I think you will break your Wii when it tries to load that "song". Anyway, very cool feature in general. I'm not that interested in Excite Trucks though. And the same way I don't download ROMs, I don't download MP3s, so I don't have any. That said, I hope I one day have a nice vinyl collection and the hardware to convert them to MP3s, and a good sequel to Extreme G, where I can play my own techno and electro tracks. If there won't be a new Extreme G, I guess F-Zero will have to do.

Hmm, I haven't even unlocked Mewtoo.. I barely touched SSBM. I don't like it as much as I liked SSB. But I should get back to it again, but it have to wait untill after Skies of Arcadia (at least ). Anyway.. I like some clones, and I like them to return, but they shouldn't be treated as clones but as different clours / suits / variations. Dr. Mario is barely a different character, but it's fun to occasionally throw pills around (what do you know, Mario the drug dealer). The same for Pichu and young Link. They could be available as different variations. Some other characters who are clones but simply too cool to be just that, need some different moves. Luigi was improved and in SSBM, but it was still very similar to Mario. He should keep the (straight) fireball though! It belongs to Luigi as much as Mario. Same thing for Falco & Ganondorf. Ganondorf has plenty of moves from the Zelda games they could use. Hmm, I still need to download the new trailer.

Received the game a few days ago, and had some gametime (and I'll go play immediately after this post again). The game looks great, allthough I think I still prefer Tales of Symphonia when I'm done with it (I think I've seen people here who think this is the best Cube RPG out there, not?). So I'll just begin with the flaws: obviously the graphics are a bit dated, but that's nothing I can't live with. What does annoy me, is the ehm slowness of the game, it doesn't move fluid enough, I mean concerning gameplay, not story. Battles take too long to load, and too long to finish. Not does this take away my pleasure in grinding, it makes the easy battles in previous areas (when you're backtracking) really annoying, since there's no quick way to get them over with. While in other RPG's, you can just tap A very fast and reap the rewards in a few seconds. Anyway, that said, the story looks epic, which is just what I was looking for. The whole idea of sailing is fun (unlike in Zelda WW :P), and ship battles are very cool and a nice variation in gameplay. Last things I did in the game, was defeating belleza, after attempting the Recumen battle a few times . I crossed the South Sea, and I'm now in Ixa ..Ehh, the forest. I love the shipguild thingy by the way, just another great aspect, hunting down those discoveries and bounties! Anyway, I'm off to see the king of Ixa.. The forest. No. The king of all the (purple) monkeys! I'm hoping I can be his friend.

I wear glasses. I didn't like them when I was young, but I didn't have a sense of fashion back then . If you have some money to spend, I suggest you go to a specialized store for glasses, not a chain like SpecSavers and Pearle (which has a different name in the UK I think). The selection of brands in those chains is very limited. Go for some cool designer glasses from Italy. Anyway, also check with your insurance if they can help you out, I don't know what options you have in the UK. About the special options: take them all, they're for the best. Obviously you want them to be as scratch resistant as possible, but you can also get things like reflection reduction; this makes sure your eyes are visible.

- The "blue" light is actually customizable, you can get any colour you want. - Very cheap but limited dev kits for hobbyists are planned. - GB, GBC, GBA, Virtual Boy, 64DD, Game & Watch, Vec-Trex, CD-i, DOS, and many more, they'll all end up on VC. - They'll reissue every official Nintendo controller ever made, and an adapter so you can hook 'm up to your Wii. .. Not really big things huh? Ok I'll try harder: The Wii is actually a Transformer. In "Console" mode it will just play games, but in "robot" mode it will transform into R.O.B.128, follow you around the house, and do your chores for you (like Chibi Robo).

Please, leave us out of this, we don't need subs. :P Seriously though, most of us really don't need subs, but I agree it's allways a nice option to have. I usually don't use them, but there are sometimes situations where they can be usefull: dialogue where accents and slang are involved (Irish for example), or dialogue with a lot of technical terms. Or in Star Trek, when they speak Klingon (allways fun to see! ), or in music shows, to read the lyrics. Anyway, I can do without them most of the time, but still, captions for the hearing impaired would be a nice gesture to the ehh, hearing impared. Personnally I don't care much though.. I haven't played RE 4 yet, but I doubt there's some complex dialogue (or am I mistaking?).

I recently realized I want Master Quest on that list.. I don't have the bonus disc, but I now think it's worth hunting down a double copy of WW just for the Master Quest. But a VC release would be perfectly convenient!

First of all, I'm confident they'll release black sooner or later, around march would be a good time. I want a black one (and I'm no goth either by the way), and I'll get a black one. I probably don't have the money at launch to buy a white one anyway. However, if I do have the money, I was thinking of maybe buying a white one (at launch) for the whole family, and put that one in the living room. Maybe I can get my parents to join in on the action, allthough I doubt it, they both only touched my consoles once, my mom tried some Super Mario Bros 2 back in the days, my dad some Starfox 64, I don't think they'll be up for any swinging and waving, but you never know! The white one will never see the inside of my room though, but if I do get a white one, and buy the black one later, I'm all set up for LAN action.

I just ordered this game friday night, it was 1 of the (many) games on my wishlist, and I'm pretty sure it won't disappoint. I'll post more after I get the game and had some gametime, hopefully next week . Now I just need Baten Kaitos Origins (somehow) and Fire Emblem, then I'll have all the must-buy (tactical) RPG's, won't I?

I usually don't check this forum, but I wish I'd read this earlier.. I wouldn't have missed the rerun on BBC 2. I was really looking forward to this (well I was very curious at least), and the lesbians from the teasers certainly got my attention. But I forgot about it, as I can't receive BBC 3 (well, now I actually can and do, but it's decoded). I don't think the reruns were advertised much, otherwise I would have seen something.. I've only missed one ep right? Is it a 2 parter, or can I just jump in the 2nd ep?

To be honest, I'd actually like to play a train sim . I guess I'm a bit weird (well, I know I'm weird). I'd really like a European localized train sim. I really love travelling by train, that's why I'm interested. The fact here are videos of train travels (viewed from the ehh "cockpit"), shows there's even a market for it here, how niche it may be. Those aren't even interactive.

I think it's been the best controler so far. I really hate the Cube controller. Overall I really like the design of the N64 controller, even though de left handle is rare used, and not used at all in the games I have. I do agree the analogue stick on the Cube controller is much better.. It's more fluid, and I reckon far more resilient.. I recently played OoT and PD again, and the stick was all worn out. After a bit of cleaning, it was somewhat ok.. Also the Dpad is better (but that doesn't make it great), but that one's rarely used on both controllers, at least as an active navigation button. But the Z, the L & R, are far better on the N64 controller. Those are triggers, they're faster and much more responsive. I'm glad the analogue function is gone, it really messed up controls in the games where it's used.. Starfox 64 and Starfox Assault is a good comparison. Personally I prefer the C-buttons over the C-stick. For navigation in FPS games, but also as buttons. The C-stick can't really be used effectively as extra buttons, it's good for some quick selection, like the visors in Metroid. I guess it's better when it's used for actual camera control, but personnaly I don't care much about more camera control, I never had many issues with that in N64 games. This is all in relation to 3D games by the way.. When it comes to 2D games, I like the NES and GBA Micro Dpads the best. The NES controller may not be the most ergonomical controller, I really like the response.. Anyway, the Wiimote is on its way, and I'm looking forward to it! And on a final sidenote, I'm also very curious how the retro controller compares to the Cube controller, but I have a feeling I'll like it.

I've just read it. Sounds cool! I wonder if it's random, or if they'll consider certain things.. It's fun to get picked for such an event, I was lucky to get picked for the GameCube pre-launch party, back in the days :rolleyes. I'm sure back then it had to do with me being a member of the official Dutch Nintendo club untill it was cancelled. I can't rely on that though . Anyway, I got the invitation through old-fashioned mail, so make sure not only your e-mail address is correct, but also your actual address!

It depends, the mini-boss is actually different for each alignment. Although the general strategy remains the same. But I found Ulyoth to be the easiest. Maybe because it was the last one I defeated, but his spells don't actually hurt you (but deplete your magic meter). In the 3rd phase, each one of them tries to stomp you, but if I remember correctly some are more frantic than others (well, maybe I just got used to the rhythm). One level 7 spell will kill the greater guardian (the mini-boss) immediately, and if you time it right, you do have the time to power up to this level. This is the case for all three of them. Just circle around it the first round and take note how many times they attack before the pause. Than just count, and immediately start your spell after the last one. Don't pay much attention to the zombies, kill them with the same attack, and avoid them the rest of the time.

Again with the water temple? I really don't understand why people here complain so much about it. I love the temple, eventhough it's not my favourite (but that's because all the temples are great). I thought I didn't complete it 100 %, like I don't complete many games, but I happened to play this again recently, and I did have everything (unlike MM, where I'm missing some heartpieces, and I'm not even bothered with WW's statues). I booted this one up, because I wanted a Goron reference (I was drawing a Goron face for Blanca in Animal Crossing ). Like said above, finding all Skulltulas will earn you unlimited rupees, but by that time, you really don't need those anymore. In fact you have to work hard to spend your money.. I remember being very disappointed with this "reward" . Also, like said above, the spirit temple (which may be my favourite by the way, allthough I like the forest temple a lot too) theoretically comes before the shadow temple, but the first time I also did the latter first because of the Kakariko fire.. In later playthroughs, I consciously avoided Kakariko during that time . One of the reasons I love this temple (there are many), is that you fight 3 Iron Knuckles. They are my favourite Zelda enemy, and I really missed them in WW and The Minish Cap. I hope they'll return in TP! Even though I did collect everything, there are sure to be details I've missed. Little secrets like the Mario & co pictures, and the scarecrow song during the credits, or the stupid butterfly fairy trick whick I rarely get to work . But even more trivial things like all the objects you can shoot for rupees, like the overhanging sign in front of the Gerudo's hideout, or the torches at Hyrule castle (if I remember correctly). I don't think I'll play throught it again in anticipation of TP though.. Like I said, there's still some stuff for me to do in MM.

I finally got this from the stars catalogue few days ago (how long has it been? :P), and I've completed the main quest today. First my though about not so much the game itself, but FPS controll on the Cube: I've always thought this controller wasn't suited for this, but after playing this game, which is my first real experience with FPS controls on the Cube, I can conclude it wasn't that bad. I still prefer the N64 controller though. After the configuration, set up to resemble the N64 / Turok style as much as possible, the game was certainly playable. I still rather have 4 C buttons as opposed to a C stick (I mean, a keyboard has just 4 arrow keys doesn't it?) but the main problem is the stupid analogue trigger. The Z trigger was perfect, the R (& L) triggers are just too slow and akward. The Z trigger really could have helped me out with the final boss. But I managed. About the game: Now I've played this game I can tell what its flaws are. In general its pretty ok, I liked it in general, but certain aspects.. Most people have a problem with the FPS portions of this game, not? I really didn't after playing for a while.. GoldenEye, it is not. But after playing this game, you realize this isn't really a FPS game (with some possession action), like Metroid, it's more an (possession) adventure, with some shooting elements. The game reminded me also of Mission Impossible sometimes. Some nice puzzles, but very simple action / shooting sequences. It's ok for this game. What are the problems? Well, it becomes apparent that this game is rushed, it isn't really finished, there are glitches and and things that are just sloppy. Several examples: - Things that react to hosts but not to ghosts. In the subway, some creatures (they're called imps I believe) spawn at some spots. Even if you fly by as a ghost. They don't react to you as a ghost, so the just stand idle, while several creatures spawn at the same spot. The result is a column of imps. - Something similar, a soldier who is levitating when he spawns. He still be levitating when you fly by as a ghost.. - Something I used to great advantage in battles.. The spec ops. They don't seem to realize that they can't go through obstacles when possessing a host (= me). - Framerate issues in the old mansion areas. Too bad, those are really nice areas, But the light effects are a little bit too much it seems. - You can't set the sensitivity in single player. I thought that may be intentional, and forgot about it, but then I noticed you could change the sensitivity in multi player.. - The story.. It's lacking. There's so much backstory that I'd like to know, but the game tells you very little. Too bad, because I really liked the concept of the story.. It's really too bad of these stupid things, the game could have been great. What's left is pure gameplay, and I did really enjoy the possesion stuff. Flying by as a ghost is really cool, with the time slowing down. Scouting ahead, and blowing crates up to save you some trouble as a host, and seeing those guys fly in slowmotion.. That's fun. Scaring people is fun. Even the simple action sequences have some nice variations on them. I love when possesion gets involved in the shooting sequences. The Bryson escape sequence (on the motorcycle) looks like a simple action sequence, but it has some nice touches with the possesion ability. also too bad the game is too short. It could have done with more levels for some more puzzles and more story. Anyway, I got this for free, so I'm not disappointed . I hope it gets a sequel one day, which hopefully gets more attention and won't be rushed.

I didn't know there was a SNES version, but we're talking about CD-i here. The SNES game looks like a platformer. The CD-i game, wasn't really a game though, more an interactive cartoon. "gameplay" was very limited. And not really the thing you'd see on the SNES (certainly not with those graphics). So if you're expecting a game, then yeah, you'll be very disappointed. You could enjoy it for the animation I guess. Hotel Mario.. I really don't know what the objective was anymore. The levels were 1 screen, you had to open doors, I believe you collected coins, but don't know any more than that. It was more a puzzle game I think.. There's no platform action.