Dcubed

Likewise! Am much enjoying this debate! The mechanics of a game do not merely cover a player's moveset, but rather the entierty of a game's interactivity. From the environment, to the enemies, to the myriad of puzzles you encounter, to the different forms of level design, to... well, literally everything you interact with and use for interaction! Plenty of games, even linear ones, give you access to the full playable moveset from the beginning. Take Super Mario Bros for example, all of Mario's powerups that he'll ever get are right there in world 1-1. But world 1-1 absolutely does not contain everything that the game has to offer from the outset; it steadily introduces new enemy types, new types of platforms, new obstacles and more challenging level design as the game progresses. If you could select any level from the outset, you wouldn't be able to have that progression; you'd have to design every level to have a flat difficulty curve, or else you'd just end up frustrating the player by having them accidentally select what would be World 8-3 as their first level and repeatedly die immediately. And a flat difficulty curve, is uninteresting (so too is a perfectly progressive difficulty curve BTW; Retro Studios purposely designed the Metroid Prime games with unpredictable difficulty spikes in order to make certain parts of their games more memorable and interesting for that very reason). Game mechanics with no context make for a great toy, but a lowsy game. Games are made fun by having solid rules and structure that make use of those deep mechanics in interesting and meaningful ways; without that structure? There's nothing to really drive the player to make use of them in any meaningful way. Great! You can create a floating boat that allows you to fly over mountains; that's fab. Why would I bother to do that? How is it rewarding in any way apart from a neat video that you get to make and promote yourself/the game on Youtube? Chess, BTW, is a disingenuous example because it is a VS multiplayer game. Its complexity lies in its player interaction and is different every time you play, even if the mechanics never change. Again, who cares about realism and immersion? What matters is if a game is fun! And I don't think that anyone would say that RE4 was less fun for not being able to jump over any fence or for not being able to climb over every wall/mountain (indeed, the latter example would completely break the game's design and actually strip away its fun factor). Great! I want to be able to sequence break in Metroid Prime 4 too; just like how you can in Metroid Zero Mission, Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 1. NOT like how it works in BOTW though; it would mean sacrificing everything that makes Metroid enjoyable to make that happen. The same could be said of literally any (non walking simulator/non interactive movie) game. Same is true of Metroid games too. Not sure where you're going with this line of argument to be honest... Great games should be infinitely replayable and just as enjoyable on a replay as the first time around. I can still play SMB or Metroid Zero Mission and enjoy it just as much the 20th time as I did the first. Comparing the Korok seeds to classic Zelda puzzles is an insult to classic Zelda puzzles. They're literal throwaway spot-the-difference tasks that (fittingly) reward you with a literal pile of poo. They are the equivilent of the token Collect 100 Hidden Packages/200 Hidden Pigeons from your average GTA/GTA knockoff game and are there to waste your time; to the point where even the developers make a meta commentary on this typical kind of unsatisfying open-world mechanic in-game when you collect the final seed and are rewarded with a pile of Korok Shite and a fitting message. Even the game's designers never wanted you to actually collect them all! As you said, Metroid already has a fine structure for rewarding exploration in the form of expansion items. They already have a great solution, but they require levels to be hand crafted and designed to encourage and reward experimentation with Samus' ever expanding moveset. They would not work with a fully open world, they would feel empty and meaningless; like finding a stray single coin in a badly made Super Mario Maker level. Single player game /= VS multiplayer game. Two entierly different branches of game design.

Yup it's true; I tried it out. It does indeed have Hard Drop, as well as up to date copyright disclaimers and an altered rotation system. Apparantly this version was actually rebuilt from scratch by porting over the System 16 arcade original and then making changes from there. It is NOT the unreleased MD version. Darius MD is also not quite the same as the homebrew release (though it was clearly built on top of it - since it still includes an in-game copyright note for the SGDK 1.34 homebrew dev kit); as it includes updated copyright notices and a new mode that lets you fight against all 26 bosses! (I don't think this was in the original homebrew release?)

So having played the Mega Drive Mini for a little bit, there's a couple of other little bits I've noticed that some might be interested in hearing... Firstly, all PAL region versions of games run at 60hz! They seem to have accomplished this by speeding up the games by 12.5% (Probotector/Contra Hard Corps' intro runs too fast - but thankfully the gameplay itself looks like it was never PAL optimised originally, so it runs at the correct NTSC speed). Sonic 1 has music playing at the correct NTSC speed for instance! You can access the PAL versions of games by selecting any European language (Selecting English defaults to the US "Genesis" games, complete with matching menu design - so I'm not quite sure what's gonna happen with the EU version itself in that regard, if they'll have a seperate English (UK) and English (US) option here?) Speaking of which, you do indeed get a European "Mega Drive" menu that is seperate from the Japanese "Mega Drive" design! Next, something quite interesting, turns out that the different game versions all share the same four save state slots. So if you're playing, say Castlevania Bloodlines, make a save state and then swap to Castlevania: The New Generation; you can then load up that save state from Bloodlines from the EU menu and it'll load up the US ROM with that same save state you made before! Handy if you want to swap between game versions without having to swap languages each time! Another thing that's interesting... they're using the default versions of games from their original regions without any of the bug fixes that M2 introduced in their Wii VC/3DS/Switch releases. So you still have the spike bug in Sonic 1 and the level 99 bug from Phantasy Star 4 unpatched for instance. Finally, the CRT filter is, sadly, a big pile of rubbish. It looks absolutely terrible; don't bother using it. It's blurry, doesn't integer scale the image properly and the scanlines look pants. Thankfully the normal 4x3 mode looks fantastic! Sharp, crispy goodness Any questions? Feel free to ask!

My issues with BOTW have nothing to do with its difficulty. My issues fundamentally lie with its overall structure and the complete lack of interesting gameplay mechanics introduced throughout the game (the Great Plateau literally contains the entire game's mechanics and there is more or less nothing else introduced throughout its entierty). Breath of the Wild is a fundamentally boring game, where the player has to make up their own fun within a sandbox. It's basically Minecraft and Assassin's Creed smashed together and its structure is poison for a game like Metroid. Then you best consider almost every classic game to be stupid. This happens in game development all the time; and the best game mechanics are often borne out of unintended exploits and "bugs" that get found and are then left in (where do you think the quote "It's not a bug, it's a feature" comes from?). Sequence breaking is fundamentally immersion shattering by its very nature. Players go out of their way to purposely ignore the intended sequence of events to explore what you can do in a game, because that's fundamentally a fun thing to do. Ultimately immersion and realism mean not a spit; the only thing that matters is if a game is fun. And it doesn't even need to be done through outright clipping out of bounds and breaking a game; Metroid Zero Mission manages it without utterly shattering itself in the process! That's one of the reasons why its a great example to follow! (Even Metroid Prime isn't a bad one to look at either, as its a super popular game amongst speedrunners for how exploitable it is!) Fundamentally, breaking and exploiting a game is fun! If it is done by breaking immersion, who cares? Speedrunning is hugely popular because people love seeing how far they can push and break their favourite games! And Metroid Zero Mission is a masterclass in how to design a game with an intended pathway that is also exploitable by design. The same enjoyment one gets from re-watching any classic movie, or re-reading their favourite book, or re-playing their favourite game? Not every game has to be an open sandbox with a million and one ways of approaching something. SMB1 on the NES is a straightforward romp to the end of each level, but it's just as fun every time you play it. You don't have to be a hardcore glitch hunter to enjoy replaying a game like that! Because designing a game with total freedom is actually a subtractive process that takes away from the game/level design of any given game. The most open game possible would be a flat field of nothing, but then there's nothing worthwhile to see and do in that space... Freedom and structure are fundamentally two opposing concepts. Games are fundamentally toys with specific rules, boundaries, tasks and goals; the more you take away from that, the more you take away from what makes a game uniquely fun. That's not to say that games shouldn't strive to offer selective freedom, but rather the best games are the ones that aim to strike a balance between structure and freedom; and the best experiences usually lean much further towards structure than the latter. The best example of an open world game done right is The Wind Waker, because it manages to strike that balance and keep introducing progressively new and interesting ideas and mechanics throughout the game. BOTW pales in comparison because it has virtually no structure whatsoever and shows its entire hand almost immediately.

Well then, BOTW is the wrong place to look for inspiration in that case. Metroid Prime 4 should instead be turning to Metroid Zero Mission for ideas on how to broach that lateral thinking within the player. You do that not by abandoning the lock n' key structure though, but rather by designing your game's challenges to be beaten in multiple ways, leaving in convinient "bugs" when they end up making the game more fun to break (see the Minus World & Warp Zone "glitches" that were purposely left in Super Mario Bros and the combos in Street Fighter 2 that were originally "bugs") and by introducing alternative paths that allow you to bypass parts of the game that you're supposed to go through the first time around (ALA Metroid Zero Mission). Ultimately, you still need to design your game with the intention of beating it in one specific way, but you can achieve that feeling of "freedom" by slyly introducing ways to bypass parts of it and to break the intended sequence of events (most importantly, you must not acknowledge it explicitly within the game either. Metroid Fusion does this with the one intended sequence break and it ends up taking that feeling away completely; for however fun the message is). Well, Coloured Doors are a very "video gamey" way of guiding the player and controlling game progression that isn't very realistic, but I probably wouldn't have been smart enough to think of to be honest! It probably was partially born out of limitations, but they kept it around because it turned out to be a great mechanic that worked very well (the addage "limitation breeds creativity" is very true for a reason!). It's pretty silly when you think about the context, but then again, Metroid is full of silly "video gamey" logic... I still bloody love this comic Sadly, modern AAA games are more focused on being realistic than being fun, so we can't have nice things like Coloured Doors anymore...

That was the very first thing I did. Only after that did I do another playthrough and then go on to try exploring the entire map. It's absolutely perfectly doable with no upgrades whatsoever (it's also the only real fun I managed to gleam out of that pile of total boredom). In a Metroid game? There's no point to it if there is no overarching lock n' key structure. The entire point of the game is the process of exploration and finding upgrades to progressively unlock the map; hell, you could even have that without any bosses or puzzles whatsoever, but not without that structure. This philosophy already exists in Metroid games to some extent with the ability to sequence break events. Hell, some of the later titles are even explictely designed with this in mind (Metroid Zero Mission being the most obvious example). You still need that structure there though, because the game is designed to take advantage of the knowledge and skills already aqquired from earlier parts in the game to allow for map design and gameplay that increases in complexity and interest... ... a door by any other name is still a door. Metroid itself has long used obstacles other than doors to impede progress and funnel players; be they ledges that are too high to reach, grapple markers, long gaps, language barriers, partially invisible platforms/walls, interactive switches/objects, bombable walls, or even walls with specific materials that can only be broken with select weapons (hi Metroid Prime 1 & 2!). That's nothing new; but doors serve a purpose as a clear and easily readable way of communicating the path of where to go. It's not just a technical decision to include them (Metroid Prime 1-3, Other M and Metroid Samus Returns all already use open-world esc data streaming engines anyway), it's a great tool to communicate the map structure to the player that works and works very well. If you take away a progressive structure, then you can't design a game with increasing complexity. You have to have a flat difficulty curve, and you have to keep your game mechanics reletively simple and straight forward throughout the entire game (which gets boring, really fast). What makes Metroid great is the increasing complexity and the progressively interesting map design and accompanying difficulty curve that comes with it. What Metroid really needs more than anything else though, is a greater focus on allowing for sequence breaking. This is something that Metroid Zero Mission handled extremely well, but something that the Metroid Prime games never really managed (and it is something that Retro Studios actively tried to stamp out with their updated revisions and later sequels). I think that Metroid Prime 4 should look to Metroid Zero Mission for inspiration far more than something like Breath of the Wild if they want to make an "open" Metroid game that allows for the kind of lateral thinking that you are asking for. An "open world" Metroid game is something that will satisfy nobody other than people that need yet another Minecraft/GTA clone; Metroid IS its structure! That's why the entire genre is named after it!

The whole point of Metroid is the lock n' key structure. If you take that away and give the player every ability at the start, why wouldn't you just go straight to the end and ignore the entierty of the rest of the game? If you take away Metroid's basic structure, there's nothing left there anymore. Metroid IS its lock n' key structure; it's the glue that brings everything together. There's plenty you can do with that structure. You can have an open and unguided experience (like Super Metroid and Prime 1), you can have a more guided and linear experience (Like Metroid Fusion and Other M), or you can do an entierly different kind of game within the genre, like the Castlevania series after SOTN. But if you take that glue away, the whole thing falls apart into a mess of pieces that do nothing on their own. This also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Metroidvania structure... Metroid's doors are not a puzzle in of themselves (hell the Metroid Prime games, and Other M, outright tell you what weapons work on each door!), but rather they act as macro-level guidance markers to tell you what areas of the game you can currently explore. They are used to funnel the player down certain paths and to allow for a logical difficulty curve, which in turn allows the developers to introduce new and interesting mechanics that build on top of what the player has learnt, consistently throughout the game's entire running time. You take those doors away and then your difficulty curve has to be flat; and you can't build mechanics that assume existing knowledge from the player. It's the same problem that A Link Between Worlds suffered from (although it'd be much worse in this case).

That looks like a pretty neat solution for those looking for a low-end way of hooking up your consoles to a modern display; the lag test is particularily impressive. Shame that it doesn't support S-video for N64 though (only Composite and RGB), but it looks like the best solution for your average joe who doesn't want to break the bank to get your games working and looking at least decent on modern displays.

No lies detected here. The ESA are an organisation that are at best ineffective, and at worst despicable. The sooner that governmental regulation puts them in their place, the better.

Wow! They ripped it off fast! That's record time for Google! Unfortunately they missed the whole point of Apple's service; since Google's version is just filled with the same mobile F2P junk that litters their storefront anyway. Best bit is that Google are also using that scammy pay-per-hours-played model as well that is designed to destroy indie game developers and developers of single player games... ... yeah, don't support this trash.

The range is crap; and range is hugely important in this game. Killing Firebrand/Red Arremer with it is a nightmare! Good job on beating it though! It's a legit hard game

Indeed I did. I was told that it wasn’t due to arrive until Wednesday, so it was a VERY pleasant surprise to see it arrive today!

My Asian region Mega Drive Mini arrived today! It’s pretty slick! Loving it so far! Just in case anyone is wondering, the Asian region system defaults to English, includes 6 button pads and yes, you do get English region US NTSC versions of all the English language releases; including Alien Soldier and MUSHA! (Easily making it the best of the three different versions!) I’m not really feeling any input lag or any noticeable sound delay with this thing. So far? I’m a very happy chappy! Currently playing through Castlevania Bloodlines for the first time... whose bright idea was it to have limited continues!? I’ll save my thoughts on the game until my inevitable entry in the Your Gaming Diary thread, but I’m greatly enjoying it so far! With this? I now own every single 2D Castlevania game (except for Castlevania MSX and Castlevania Legends on the original Game Boy).

Ooh! The dream sequences actually resemble Ghost Trick! Very trippy and different, but the time mechanics are pretty reminiscent of it! Super cool! I love them! Ghost Trick fans are gonna get a hell of a kick out of it! Aaanndd, NOW it’s reminding me of Zero Escape...

Oh don’t worry, we did We’ve played the Zero Escape games, we know what to do when it comes to perverted dialogue...

Yeah, I wasn’t expecting this to be so similar to Ace Attorney. I’m not too far into it but I’m really enjoying it so far! Imagine Ace Attorney with the courtroom scenes swapped out for Zero escape style Escape Room sequences and you’re on the right lines. Though unlike the escape rooms in the ZE games, these are dream sequences and so, do not subscribe to real world logic... And yes... there is a flowchart like in the ZE games.

I think we have a new WR for review writing. GG Glen-i! BTW, you're bloody welcome for that pull quote

Highlights!!!

Rayman Mini is probably worth checking out if it's anything like Rayman Jungle Run (which is probably the best auto runner ever made; surprisingly good game! Would've happily have bought it if it came out on Switch!)

You can't set Cuccos and dogs on fire anymore what's even the point of this remake now!?

So... this early release is being done in two parts? Shouldn't be too long before the full game comes out then I suppose!

It's finally happening!! http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/09/final_fantasy_vii_and_viii_remastered_are_coming_to_switch_in_one_physical_pack FF7 (and FF8.. ugh) on a cartridge! The irony has now been fulfilled!

Well at least we got there in the end I've got plenty of video proof for how bad it got for us as well, don't you worry!

That went a LOT smoother after @martinist became host! It was a lot of fun when lag wasn't getting in the way anyway!

@martinist; maybe you should try hosting a room instead? (Edit: Oh bugger, I forgot that I have the suspend point... never mind... Try reconnecting again!)