Dcubed

Woah! Had no idea that the rumoured game was actually based on Sony’s HZD; “Horizon” is such a generic title that I thought it was just gonna be an unlicensed Lego title (ALA Lego City Undercover). Pretty wild that it’s coming to Switch in that case! Hey! That means that Aloy is now eligible for inclusion in the next Smash Bros too, since she’s now been in a game released for a Nintendo console

Well that’s a new one… Had no idea that the first Pokemon Stadium features no sort of tiebreaker, I know the second one does (featuring a Quiz-Off); so that really threw me for a loop! Always nice when you’re still learning something new about a 25 year old game!

Another thing that factors into these games coming to NSO instead of being a seperate collection is that the GB MM games aren't really that great... would be a tough sell as a standalone collection, when they could much more easily just make some free money by letting Nintendo do the legwork for them. They've also previously been re-released via the 3DS' VC service before, so there's already some prescedent there.

No way… … the OG is back! Will be a 70 minute feature film broadcast on BBC and on Netflix.

I was left terribly disappointed by the original YL, but Impossible Lair was super solid, so I’m willing to give Playtonic the benefit of the doubt here. The original version of YL felt like a very unfinished prototype, but the potential is there for a remake to really bring out something special. It would need a LOT of work to flesh out the meat on its bones to make it into the true BK/BT successor we all want though, and I’m not sure if it can even really be done without a AAA budget and team size, but I commend Playtonic for giving it a proper try here after the middling reception YL received originally. Really hope they nail it this time; and if they do? I’ll be well haps. I really want this to be good, YL desperately needs a good remake!

I both hate and love that name in equal measure

Worth pointing out that the SEGA Saturn version of Puzzle Bobble 3 is available on Switch. Also fucking hell, that box art is ultra ugly! Did the artists draw Bub and Bob with their left hand or something!? How did they screw up their proportions so much!?

Just found out that this year’s SGDQ is gonna feature a Balatro run! (3 decks, random seed, skipless). https://gamesdonequick.com/marathons/clut3zj5r0002xc01yi4t61gf This’ gonna be sick yo

Well that’s random as hell, but much appreciated!

Another FPGA GBC clone is on the way... from Trump Campaigner Palmer Luckey of all people... https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/06/chromatic-is-a-fpga-based-game-boy-from-palmer-luckey That being said though, what's interesting here is not the hardware itself, but that his company seems to be comissioning brand new GBC releases, including an all new, officially licensed version of Tetris! Looks like we may be seeing a surgence of new GBC games released for Nintendo's old workhorse coming in the next couple of years

Nice freudian slip there, Team Cherry have messed you up good Speaking of which... MINA THE HOLLOWER RELEASE DATE FFS PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's definitely a selling point, I immediately take notice of any game he works on

Crazy that it took two Canios to make it happen, but congrats!

@Jonnas, losing all of your lives in Sin & Punishment ends your run completely; forcing you to start the game over from Stage 0. You’re probably not gonna be seeing a true Game Over in Easy mode? But in Hard & Turbo? You definitely won’t be beating it your first time! S&P isn’t a particularly long game, but beating Hard mode is proper nails! Feels awesome when you finally manage it

Yeah… Black Deck is rough. Still haven’t managed to beat Green Stake with it yet…

Awesome! Let’s hope it doesn’t end up slipping again now

There’s a reason why the Roguelike genre has exploded in popularity in the past 6 odd years…

There’s no such thing as an “outdated” gameplay mechanic. Lives have their use and their place. At the end of the day, they are a system that gives the player a limited number of chances to make a certain amount of progress through either a portion of, or the entirety of, a game. Their ultimate purpose is to provide an element of tension and risk, and they are ultimately tied to a stake of progress. The higher the stake (i.e, the amount of progress a player stands to lose if they run out of chances), the higher the sense of tension & risk, but also the higher the sense of payoff and satisfaction that comes with completing a challenge. They are a means of adding difficulty to a game, and often are even directly tied to the difficulty setting chosen (Higher difficulty setting = less lives available to the player). An issue arises however when the stake that’s being wagered is so low, that their impact is rendered almost meaningless. In Super Mario 64 for example, its use of lives is almost pointless because you don’t really lose any progress for a Game Over (You get sent back to the castle courtyard, whoopdie do!). This also has the side effect of making 1up mushrooms a meaningless and unsatisfying reward for finding them. In this case, it’s not the mechanic itself that’s the issue, it’s the application. Lives with no stake at risk are pointless. Now. Let’s look at an example of the complete opposite application, and how the loss of their stake completely ruins their effect… Super Monkey Ball. In the original arcade game (and it’s GCN port), lives are the most precious thing you can possibly earn, because you lose all progress in your run when you run out of lives/continues; and in such a difficult game, the pressure rises exponentially as you get deeper into the run and come ever so tantalisingly close to reaching the end of each of the different difficulty modes. And on top of that, unlocking the Extra and Master stages require you to complete each difficulty without using a single Continue. As such, collecting as many Bananas as you can is utterly crucial to succeeding in this game, because you need 100 of them to earn an extra life; and of course, those Bananas usually require you to take the riskier paths and pull off those more difficult jumps… risk and reward! Oh! And don’t forget those secret exits too that allow you to jump ahead and skip certain stages… gotta take the risk if you want to get ahead and conserve those lives… It’s an expertly crafted game with a perfect balance of mechanics that serve the game design perfectly… and all of it is completely undone by its HD remake, Banana Mania. In the HD version? You no longer need to complete a run in one go, the game just saves after each stage. Now there is no stake at risk, and so, Lives (and subsequently the Bananas, secret exits, the risky paths, EVERYTHING that strays from the easiest critical path) are rendered completely pointless. This is a catastrophic change that utterly demolishes the original intended game design, an absolute butchering by developers that fundamentally did not understand the appeal of the original game. Lives are a powerful mechanic when applied correctly, but they are just one gameplay mechanic amongst many. There is no such thing as an “outdated” mechanic, but there is certainly such a thing as a pigheaded, dismissive and outdated point of view. And ultimately the most important thing is to consider what your game design is trying to accomplish. If you’re looking for a way to provide meaningful tension, dread and a sense of accomplishment with your game? Lives can be a fantastic way of achieving that.

Astro Bot is the 30th Anniversary Celebration game. It features a cast of characters and settings pulled from past Japan Studio titles, including Parappa, Concrete Genie and SOTC.

It’s really nice to see at least a small part of Playstation actually pay homage to their legacy. Sony does actually have a back catalogue that’s worth celebrating, and it’s criminal how much Modern Sony has shoved aside their legacy; when they should be proud of where they came from. A sight for sore eyes

Like I said in the SOP thread, it looks good! If it comes to PC? I’ll get it

Bit of a tough act to follow there

Astro Bot looks legit. If it comes to PC, I might give it a go

Not much I really need to add here. It's one of the greatest games ever made, and next to Super Mario 64, is the single most influential and important game of its entire generation across all platforms. It would go on to basically write the rulebook on how to make a 3D action title, and literally every single developer who makes 3D games today uses it as a reference when building their own game engine. You simply would not have the likes of Elden Ring or God of War without it. That being said, it's also worth noting that for however influential OoT was, it was itself a clear iteration on the formula that ALTTP had written 7 years prior. It's not really wrong to say that OoT was "A Link To The Past But In 3D", but that does sell it very short for the myriad innovations that it did bring to the table; even ignoring the obvious jump to 3D. And while retrospective looks at the series today are often quick to label OoT's sequels as being mere clones and repeats of the same formula, that's also very much revisionist baloney; it's a very unfair statement that is more a reflection of Nintendo's status within the console market as a whole than true reality. The Zelda series would live under OoT's shadow all the way up until 2017, when BOTW would essentially re-write history and abandon almost every convention laid out by ALTTP and OoT, but even that game owes a huge debt to OoT for its continued use of the Z-Targetting system and its camera system in general. I'd also like to point out that OoT itself also owes a debt to Virtua Fighter, which pioneered the use of 3D humanoid playable characters and the use of motion capture in video games. VF itself is a game that doesn't get anything close to the credit it deserves for how much it changed the entire industry (Indeed, the Playstation would never have existed without it), and it should be considered in the same breath as SM64 and OoT (certainly at least the 3rd most influential game released in that generation).

Ooh! What if we're getting the rumoured Greek God of War Remake/Remaster trilogy announcement here? Certainly has been long enough since Bluepoint's last release in 2021, and... well... you know... they made the original GOW HD remasters on PS3 to begin with... I'd be down for that!