Dcubed

They seem to use the official CD album releases where applicable, so that was expected. If they do release the other music, it would be done separately.

Unfortunately that’s only for Individual subs and not Family subs… otherwise would’ve jumped on that immediately.

I don’t have the slightest interest in Geoff’s Doritos Awards, but the fact that 1000xResist didn't even get a single nomination (let alone be a complete shoe-in for Best Narrative) perfectly highlights how much of a complete failure the event is at what it purports to be. The damn thing is nothing more than a big advertisement for Geoff’s cronies. Truly an insult to the industry as a whole, it deserves better.

Trust Nintendo to screw up a sure thing with a ridiculous drip feed schedule. They have a great app with a fantastic library of music and they end up strangling the life out of it with a pathetic one album a week schedule. It’s so frustrating to see them shoot themselves in the foot over and over again!

Sony really are going for that anime monopoly huh? This really shouldn’t be allowed when they already control so much of the anime industry as it is. Never mind the ramifications on the game industry (most notably From Software and Spike Chunsoft), Kadokawa are a huge Japanese media conglomerate in their own right.

AKI struck gold with their N64 wrestling engine and the genre benefitted from the additional horsepower and 4x controller ports built into the system as standard.

Seems a bit weird to me that the park is entirely focused around DKCR alone... except for one small cameo by Dixie. You'd think that they'd at least have a couple of Snowmads around.

So now that I’ve finally gone back and finished The Great Ace Attorney Adventures (after previously stopping mid-way through back in 2021), I finally have the chance to play 1000x Resist in the interim between GAA 1 & 2. This game kicks all sort of arse so far! Loving it! Such a wild and experimental game, love this sort of abstract storytelling and puzzle/adventure/visual novel kind of gameplay. I’m not all that far into it yet, but I’m already loving it. It’s so bold and brave! The kind of creative experience that sticks with you and gets you really thinking. It slots in very nicely with the likes of the Zero Escape games, and especially AI: The Somnium Files (another one that I need to go back and finish). If you want to experience a game like no other? And you love intentionally abstract and mysterious sci-fi storytelling? I really strongly recommend you give this one a look. It deserves to be in the running for GOTY, it’s certainly amongst the most creative and interesting games out there Grace to the ALLMOTHER!

You are correct. They remain permanantly unlocked once found, regardless of save file; as their save status is saved seperately from the save file itself. Naturally, the same thing would apply for the NSO release too. You'd have to wipe the entire cartridge save if you want to collect them again.

Interesting fact... Mind's Eye Productions are the developers behind Sky Digital's early 2000s line up of dodgy Digital Broadcast TV games... About as British as it gets. So you have a British institution of a terrible board game, made by a British-as-hell developer, with an option to specifically play the British version of Monopoly... only released in America There's an untold story here I'm sure.

Ooh! Didn’t know that Sammy ever got a sequel made for Viewpoint on the NeoGeo! I wonder if this game was ever in development for the failed Hyper NeoGeo 64, before getting ported over to the N64 instead…

Speaking of the 64DD… did you know that Mario Party 2 was originally going to be a 64DD expansion pack disk for the original Mario Party? It’s true! The necessary hooks for the 64DD are even still there in the final retail version of Mario Party 1! The fact that such a large chunk of its minigames are also just modified versions of minigames previously seen in Mario Party 1 (something that no other mainline Mario Party has done since), is another big telltale sign of this game originally being an expansion pack. Ultimately though, I think that Mario Party 2 benefitted from being released as a standalone cartridge; because it meant that the game had more freedom to develop its own identity. I doubt that we would’ve gotten the Item mechanic if it had remained a mere content expansion disk… … and really, you can’t talk about Mario Party 2 without mentioning the Item mechanic, because it was one of the most important gameplay additions the series has ever seen. It’s a simple concept, spread across the board are various shops and spaces that can potentially yield powerful items that allow you to strategise and either help yourself or screw over your frenemies. Ranging from the venerable Mushroom (allowing you to roll two dice in one turn), to the all powerful Magic Lamp (which takes you straight to the Star Space), to the devilish Boo Bell (which summons Boo and allows you to steal coins or even stars from other players!). It can’t be overstated how important an addition this was, as it completely changed the dynamic of the core board gameplay. Unfortunately, Mario Party 2 hadn’t quite dialled in the Item mechanic fully quite yet, as you only get but a single item slot to work with… and no way of throwing away unwanted items. This has the unfortunate side effect of making Skeleton Keys borderline completely useless, while the Plunder Chest becomes overwhelmingly stupid broken powerful; capable of shutting down the Item game entirely. It wouldn’t be until its sequel, Mario Party 3, for the Item mechanic to reach its final form; granting a generous three slots for each player and a much vaster array of items at your disposal (some being amongst the best that the series ever saw; but that’s a discussion for another game later on). The board selection is smaller this time than in the original Mario Party, but the designs are arguably stronger; with more branching paths and events that can shuffle coins and space placements around strategically. The likes of Western Land and Horror Land remain fan favourites to this day (both being remade in Super Mario Party Jamboree and Mario Party Superstars respectively for a good reason), but the first game’s mean streak has been reduced somewhat. No longer do 1 v 3 minigames result in the losing team having their coins stolen from them, while board events are typically less disastrous than before; and Single Player minigames have been exorcised entirely (probably for the best; as they did slow down the pace somewhat). However, Mario Party 2 also introduced another staple mechanic that the rest of the series would adopt… Battle Minigames, a new subset of minigames that pools a set amount of coins from each player into a pot that gets divvied out depending on placement. Naturally, the results of such a minigame can be utterly game changing for the winners and losers respectively; potentially ruining one person’s plans, while opening up many doors for another to run away with the game. Single player options remain thin on the ground, but the Mini Game Coaster is a surprisingly enjoyable little endurance marathon of the full selection of 60 minigames played back to back. It’s naturally very similar to the Mini Game Island mode from Mario Party 1, but the removal of the branching paths now requires mastery of every single one of those 60 minigames… even the ones you hate (I’m looking at YOU Mecha Marathon!). Quite why future games after this ditched this endurance mode (with the sole exception of Mario Party: The Top 100) is beyond me. But ultimately, that’s Mario Party 2 in a nutshell. It’s expansion pack (not Pak!) origins belie some truly game changing additions to the series, making it a pretty important entry in the series canon. But it does lose some of the more ornery elements of its progenitor; not necessarily a bad thing; but it does give this game a bit of a different flavour to the first Mario Party. I’d argue that it’s a bit overrated amongst the mainline Mario Party titles (I blame the fact that it was the only Mario Party game that kept getting re-released on the various Virtual Console services, for whatever bizarre reason), but the importance of its additions can’t be denied; and its boards are all solidly designed. It remains one of the better entries in the series to this day, and a must play for anyone looking for an endlessly replayable social nightmare of a multiplayer video game.

Guess that means they’re doing a new collection soon then.

Ahh… you’re one of THOSE guys I see…

Could’ve just announced this months ago instead of letting speculation run rampant, but there ya go!

If they reach their revised forecast (which seems pretty reasonable), they'll be at approx 153m units by the end of March... Beating that bloody woman's record the PS2's record is all but assured at this point.

Oh yeah, of course the games would've been very different if they were designed for the 64DD instead of a cartridge (or even CD for that matter). I don't think anyone can deny that the 64DD as it was released was a massive wild goose chase though. The sheer amount of dev years lost to that device is astonishing. Still, if it were the default storage medium instead of carts, history could've played out very differently in Nintendo's favour. Yes, their games would've had to have been redesigned in some areas (don't forget that the 64DD would've also required the Expansion Pak as standard though), but so too would many other possiblities have opened up (particularily involving the huge rewritable storage that the disks offered). 64MB instead of 8-16MB being the standard would've made a big difference; and the drastically reduced cost of production would've made a world of difference for 3rd party developers. It would still be at a large disadvantage against CDs in terms of storage, but the drop in production costs would've put the N64 in a much better position to compete against the PS1. Ultimately, the right answer was always to go with the CD, but I reckon that the 64DD Disk could've been that nice middle ground that would've enabled them to keep most of what made the N64 unique, while allowing them to compete more directly against their competition (If only it were the standard medium instead of a failed add-on). If sticking with cartridges was Nintendo's biggest blunder with the N64, then wasting all that time and money on releasing the 64DD was their second.

Considering the sheer amount of stars and coins I actually did earn legit? I actually did deserve that win, thank you very much! That’s what you get for continuing to dip into the Boo well on me a bit too much

One can’t help but sit and wonder at all the possibilities and wasted potential of the 64DD… Just imagine if it were the default medium to begin with? The landscape of today could’ve been vastly different… Of course, the correct answer would still have been to go with CDs, but perhaps the 64DD disk could’ve been the middle-ground that Nintendo wanted oh so badly… So many games could’ve turned out so differently, the amount of cut content and changes that the likes of Pokemon Stadium and Ocarina of Time had to go through was insane; and the development issues and subsequent abandonment of the 64DD was something that cost Nintendo years of lost development time with over a dozen releases. The sheer number of cancelled N64 games was just ridiculous, dwarfing basically every other system Nintendo put out (including the Wii U!), and the 64DD was a big reason why that list is so huge. Nintendo bet big on the project and they came up craps. The whole debacle was one of their biggest blunders with the N64 hardware as a whole. The fact that it actually got released (albeit in a very limited manner) is still incredible to me; it’s the kind of concept project that you would think would’ve forever stayed on the cutting room floor.

https://bsky.app/profile/oatmealdome.bsky.social/post/3l7uftkqwgv2h Looks like we're getting one new soundtrack per week. Great

Worth noting, the Scarlet/Violet soundtrack doesn't include Celestial (The Ed Sheeran song used in the game's credits)... So I guess some soundtracks will just be left incomplete when it comes to specific songs with difficult music rights (like Fly Me To The Moon for Bayonetta 1). That's disappointing, but not unexpected.

So, I'd imagine that new upcoming games will probably all get their soundtracks released on Nintendo Music going forward (probably written into the contract for their composers), but I can also imagine music rights holding back much of their back catalogue... Smash Bros is the obvious nightmare example, but what about games like Bayonetta 1-3/Origins? Do Nintendo have the rights, or do they have to negotiate with SEGA? What about the licensed song covers? Like Moon River? Would they dare open the can of worms that is Earthbound? What about the Rhythm Paradise series? (Whose soundtrack is co-owned by Tsunku). It's a brilliant little app, but ultimately content is king, and if they want people to use it and pay for those subs, they're gonna have to get their back catalogue on there proper... because that's the stuff that their fanbase really wants on here... Also, another little thing, but it'd be really nice to see them also put the music from their various arrangement albums they've done over the years; like the Kirby Cafe series (have both physical CDs of them, they're really good!), or the various Zelda Symphonies they've done over the last decade. They could also include the music done for their mobile apps and games (Pokemon Masters EX has some incredible arrangements that are stuck on that POS app!), as well as the other various "lost" pieces of music, such as the menu music seen on the 3DS and Wii U, the Satellaview/64DD music; or even the special songs used in places like Super Nintendo World and the Nintendo Museum! There is SO much potential here! I'm just worried that they'll never end up capitalising on it...

Doesn't look like it unfortunately... Seems to only list the game's original developer and that's it. That's my one major gripe with the app so far. Edit: Ok, I have a second gripe. There's no specific iPad version of the app either; it just runs as a standard iPhone app when run on an iPad. Not a huge deal, doesn't impact the functionality in any way, but a tablet-specific version of the app later on would be nice.

Can only speak for the iOS version, but Airplay casting is supported. The interface looks very similar to Youtube Music, so I'd imagine that most of its features will also be found in the Android version of the app.

What the hell took them so long!? People have been begging for something like this for over a decade at this point! Seems like a very well thought out app, and a great subscription incentive for NSO; can imagine quite a few people subbing for Nintendo Music alone Granted, I have pretty much all of the music from all of Nintendo's published games anyway, but I could still easily see myself using this app. The spoiler and looping features are very much appreciated Edit: The music selection isn't huge so far, but I noticed that they do specifically have the FDS version of the Metroid soundtrack (which is notable for being different from the NES version); that's pretty cool. Can see this becoming a pretty sick app over time as the library gets filled out! Edit 2: Wow! Even individual tracks get their own unique screenshot images! They've put a TON of effort into this app! Edit 3: Oh nice! They have the original DS Tomodachi Collection soundtrack as well, so they're not shy about putting on soundtracks from Japanese exclusive games it seems! I'm very impressed with the app itself so far. Can easily see it becoming a daily driver. Only thing that kind of irks me though is that it doesn't list the individual composers who actually worked on each soundtrack/song; which is a bit of a shame. But overall? Very slick! Well done Nintendo! Now, let's get that library filled out!