Grazza

A very respectable list, Mr Metroid.

Hey, I bought the first issue of NMS! Lethal Weapon 3 on the cover, free Game Boy keyring... The people who made the list do seem to have a bias towards multiplayer Mario Kart action (surely the only explanation for thinking Mario Kart: Double Dash is better than Metroid: Zero Mission?!)

Can't resist doing this myself... 1. Zelda: The Wind Waker 2. Zelda: Majora's Mask 3. Zelda: Ocarina of Time 4. Zelda: Twilight Princess 5. Super Mario Sunshine 6. Super Mario World 7. Super Mario 64 8. Metroid: Zero Mission 9. Metroid Fusion 10. F-Zero GX I can't really choose an order, so I've just grouped the series together. F-Zero on the SNES just misses out.

OK, I'm really getting into FFIV now. The presentation and voice-acting are great and I really care about the story. As much as I liked FFIII, I couldn't actually tell you what the story was. I feel really annoyed at the King and I don't like or trust Kain either after what he suggested doing! I'm just at the village where I've found Rydia. Regarding the Maths game (where you have to make 10 out of four numbers), I can only score 750. Is that poor?

I must admit, I don't mind a bit of grinding as long as you get a decent amount of EXP. It gives you a chance to familiarise yourself with the locations and enemies.

That's odd, my last two posts have disappeared. Anyway, there is a potion to turn you back - it's called the Maiden's Kiss. I remembered just before the site's downtime, sorry.

I've got a good feeling about this. I suspect it's a Wii game, and the team will be put onto "Smash Bros HD" afterwards.

Yep. It was the very first "Revolution" game ever shown (apart from E3 2005's "Samus" Metroid Prime 3 tease).

Chin up, King V. Opposites attract, and it sounds like you are attracted to the same type as me. It's all experience and it sounds like you have judged it correctly and learnt a lot. I can relate to virtually everything you've typed, and I fully believe that she gave you mixed signals and you weren't imagining it or anything. I think that happens quite a lot. Sorry, but for her to say "I don't normally wait..." after one month says an awful lot about her. Not to be rude, but she sounds like a "party girl", to put it politely. But hey, that's probably a lot of why you were attracted to her. King V, you are the most honest person I've encountered and you have my 100% respect. Lets' hope you meet someone who is just enough of the type you like, but who also treats you properly.

This bit strikes a chord with me, because I'd like to see more asset sharing - engines, modelling resources etc. As games head closer towards realism, it seems unnecessary that every developer has to model, say, a blade of grass, when everyone's trying to model the same thing - a realistic blade of grass. After all, we do want games to get better, don't we? I certainly do. OK, Microsoft and even Sony may have been a bit too early with the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively, but I would say the games on those machines now look exactly like games "should" in the year 2009. I remember very similar concerns about business models when the PS2 was new, and companies still worked out how to afford the development of games on that machine. Another thing, and this is just my personal taste, but I find the HD games market - Xbox, PlayStation etc - a tad adolescent. This is a big reason I haven't got an HD console yet - because there isn't really a "must have" game if you don't particularly like crime, guns, violence etc. I'm not being a moral guardian here, I just find them boring. Nintendo, of course, have largely gone too far the other way - the other type of mainstream. Athough credit where credit's due, they have still provided traditional games, and they've certainly been proven right about hardware efficiency, business models etc. That's the thing, this is the first generation where every single machine is purely aimed at one type of mainstream or the other, not the "keen" gamer. You'd think they'd all be succesful... Personally, I just want to play the next Zelda or Shadow of the Colossus, but improved a generation, that's all.

And I think EDTV means progressive scan, which is nice, as we didn't have that on our European 'Cubes.

That's great. A lot of the time, I genuinely didn't know where to go or what to do in DQIV. It was really helpful in DQVIII. I assume it was left out of IV because of the translation work. There must be a huge amount of different phrases for each character depending on how far you are in the game. Great news that they've included it this time.

OK, I started Final Fantasy IV a couple of weeks ago. I was bowled over by the presentation at the start, further confirming that I am a technical whore! I mean, FMV with speech on the DS! It's like the old days when you'd get excited just because a SNES/Megadrive cartridge had one or two lines of speech in it! "You're a good man, Cecil!" Love it. The general atmosphere is very nice and consistent with the other Final Fantasy games I've played (III and XII), although the overworld music isn't as nice as III. The thing is, I've hardly been playing it and I'm still only at the very first cave. I'm not keen on the way the view switches to isometric when you enter certain houses. The other thing I have reservations about is the timed battle system. Do you get used to it? And is it cheating to use "auto battle"? My main problem is curing status effects. It just seems a bit fiddly to find the right potion while the fight's going on. I thought I had it set to "Wait", but it doesn't seem to do so (I'll have a look at it again). Maybe I've just played too many RPGs recently.

To be quite honest, I haven't played Super Paper Mario, but I'd certainly like the series to return to the RPG style. Super Paper Mario was just a spin-off and was actually a last-minute GameCube game (just released on the Wii instead). I'd love a Paper Mario 3, with loads of fantastic origami bosses like in Thousand Year Door. Like a lot of games (F-Zero etc), I'm not sure the Wii could improve it that much, but when it appears it'll be very welcome, whether on Wii or on Wii 2.

It took me ages to even find that room! It's a tad odd putting doors on the backs of buildings in a top-down game!

Braggart! I think it was Jessica Alba. Gargh, it's insult after insult with you! I did know, I just forgot.

Pikmin 2 is great, King V. I won't be buying either, as I had them both on GameCube and they're sort of "exhausting" games to play again, but I do recommend the 2nd one. Yeah, I agree with that. Sports games shouldn't be classics. They should be completely superceded each generation. Still, it's harmless for those who want them. Personally, I will probably buy Chibi Robo and Metroid Prime 1+2. I would also buy Wind Waker, but I'm not sure that or Super Mario Sunshine would be possible without the GameCube controller.

Truly amazing! I think those shots prove that you can stick to 2D gameplay and still be absolutely cutting edge. I can't think of a single game that actually looks as good as those, and yet presumably they'd be possible. Ah, OK, thanks. I don't feel bad about missing it now, although I think you could get an extra sculpture. Incidentally, I had a GBA original and Four Swords with the cable, but not at the same time! I also still love my GB Micro.

Hmm, I forgot to call my wagon before the final boss, but luckily I was OK. I think I was around Level 38, which is not much of a grind (the EXP is reasonably generous in the castle). Some tips: Castle: [spoiler=]Yes, it's quite a simple castle, but don't miss the hole in the back wall, hidden by a statue. Final Boss: [spoiler=]My line-up was: Hero - used for attacking (with the Zenithian Sword) and healing. Ragnar - attacking with the Miracle Sword. Alena - I decided to use a physical attacker instead of the Dragon Quest VIII method of having No.3 as magic attack. It worked out fine, but in hindsight, I might have chosen someone who could cast Insulate, which I suspect is more important than Kabuff in this fight. I also suspect Borya's ice spells are more effective than Maya's fire spells, but I can't remember what else he can cast. If you pick someone whose only real use is to cast Insulate, you might want to give them the Sage's Stone to use every turn (apart from when they cast Insulate, obviously). Kiryl - No.4 is your healer. I chose Kiryl for Kabuff and Kazing. I also had him use the Sage's Stone most turns, but Psaro's fire attacks forced me to use Hero's Omniheal. If one of your healers can cast Insulate as well, you're onto a winner.

Yes, I enjoyed drawing on the map in Phantom Hourglass (and aiming the bow/cannon). I regret that I didn't have a GBA when I bought Wind Waker (a game I completely loved), so didn't use the link-up features. I guess so many more people have a DS than had a GBA. Argh, he's my favourite character!

I've never heard anything about another DS one. I think Emasher said some of the main Zelda team were being utilised on Phantom Hourglass until its release, so the full Zelda team has only been available since late 2007.

You're an awesome gamer then! I completed Fusion (doesn't have difficulty levels) and Zero Mission on "Hard" mode. I hope that gets me some kind of mettle! Mind you, what are you doing completing games you don't enjoy? (Looks at personal copy of Dragon Quest IV...) Yes, I completely agree. Whilst, to me, Wind Waker is perfect, if you were setting out to make a cartoony game now, the 360/PS3 would allow you have more polygons, a more complex overworld and generally more going on at once.

LOL, yeah, it's like a muscle. You're more intelligent after you've been playing Metroid than before (as long as you've done a fair bit in the game). I must stick up for my RPG pal darksnowman though!

That's exactly how I feel about the Prime series. I think they're one of the toughest mental agility tests you can take and I'm sure you're more intelligent (and have much faster reactions) when you've completed one than you were before! Part of it is remembering where you are in the vast, 3D world. And then, WHAM, you meet a boss that requires you to keep switching visors and different types of laser beam. When you fail (which I do), you think about finding more health and missile expansions...if you can remember where you actually are, that is! Zero Mission and Fusion, on the other hand, are a joy to play. No, it's a very good analogy! I've always hoped games designers do actually want to make the best game they can. I know it's a business, but they must have got into it for a reason.

One reservation I have about cities is that it would overcomplicate the streamlined gameplay Metroid has. If you could buy weapon and armour upgrades, then this would detract from the way Samus powers up by just finding them. I love the way the Metroid games (at least the 2D ones) feel like meditation. They're subtle and implicit. I also love the idea that you can travel anywhere through all the interconnected passageways if you find the correct route. I think adding towns with characters you can talk to could actually add too much "story" and take away from the "meditation" feel. It's a nice idea and I could see why it would be enjoyable in some sort of Metroid RPG, but I don't see it as a way to develop the core series, personally. Now, as for playing as a Space Pirate (I take it he'd rebel in some way), yeah, I'd be up for that, although it might not have the "armour upgrading" aspect of the gameplay. I agree with others that it's interesting how you've got the ferocious, amoral Metroids, the scheming, manipulative Space Pirates and, of course, Samus and the various bounty hunters. Technically, I think they've got some way to go before the 3D Metroids are as good as the 2D ones. Stacked beams are a good start. I like Metroid Prime 3, although I do still have to think about the controls more than the 2D games, and thus still can't concentrate on the core "attack and evasion" gameplay as much as the 2D ones. Perhaps Nintendo should take a cue from other popular games like Gears of War and Resident Evil 4/5 and make it 3rd-person/over-the-shoulder? Like I say, I think you need to be able to see Samus in order to have dodging and evasion an important part of the gameplay. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to switch back into 1st-person whenever you like. So, I hope this is a 2D game or, if it's a 3D Wii game, some sort of technical test before they give Samus the full HD treatment in a few years!