Dcubed

Looks like Private Division are on the chopping block too... ... wonder what that means for Game Freak's Project Bloom?

Well. The next Nintendo Earnings Release/Investors Meeting is due to happen next week

I quite like Balatro’s soundtrack (however small it is), but if you want something more upbeat that fits this type of game? How about the Dicey Dungeons soundtrack?

I’d imagine that’s probably the intention. You’re likely expected to unlock this stuff over a long period of time as you dip in and out of the game casually; but of course, in such a small crunchy review period, you’re gonna need to binge the game and plough through the grind as fast as possible to see as much of the game as possible in order to get your review out in time.

Reading a few of these reviews… a lot of them don’t seem to get the appeal of the series in general… I’d take some of these opinions with a grain of salt if you’ve enjoyed the previous games, because the lack of overarching story/objective is kind of the point here? It’s supposed to be a bit of a meandering “virtual aquarium” and the people asking for more of a guided “action game esc” experience are kind of missing the point here. That being said though, the complaints about the grindy progression system being tied to unlocking new areas and the lack of handcrafted level design making areas feel samey and bereft of interesting landmarks seem like valid enough complaints.

Never heard of Chico before, looks cool. Might need to check it a look while the interminable wait for Mina The Hollower continues

Looks like the next balance update is coming out pretty soon

Fun fact, this is the only other game that Dan Hess ever scored after he did Pilotwings 64's soundtrack. And while the soundtrack isn't as memorable as in Nintendo's title, it still has a few choice cuts that show that the guy had some real talent and range to him... Real shame that he quit composing afterwards. Real waste of some proper music talent.

Ehh... not as good as their usual licensed wears. The only one I reckon is even remotely classy is the Korok pocket one, but even that one feels a bit kitschy. Their Animal Crossing range was so much better.

Self explanatory really

Bravo @RedShell, you truly outdid yourself with that masterpiece. And like any good Miyamoto approved solution, it causes multiple problems all at once. Brilliant

Yo! @RedShell, when @S.C.G joins, choose that amazing stage again! Let him experience the madness!

WHAT THE FUCK!?!? HOW DID YOU DO THAT @RedShell YOU’RE AMAZING!!!

We finally now know the digital sales figures for every first party Sony release! (as of June 2023) https://www.resetera.com/threads/revenue-and-downloads-for-every-sony-first-party-game-ever-released-on-the-psn-580-titles-as-of-june-2023.855270/ Man, those PS1 Classics downloads made mad bank, crazy how Sony has chosen to neglect such an easy money farm...

Yeah… Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls is really good! A proper little multiplayer hidden gem for the N64. First time playing it and I’m real impressed, loads of fun. Wish I played it before. May have to make it a bit of a mainstay for future N-E N64 nights I reckon

I did actually suggest the idea of using magnetic Joycons with Qi charging over the existing rail system a good while back; with the Switch 2 utilising a foldable screen. The big thing being that it would allow the Joycons to be used in any orientation; as you could then have a foldable console that can be used in a horizontal layout, a DS-style vertical layout or a back & front layout with one half of the screen folded towards the front and one towards the back, since the Joycons could just be magnetically attached when you flip and fold the device around. Removing the rail system would enable this to be made possible

Worth noting that every Aleck 64 game has now been converted into standard N64 ROMs that can be played off a flash cart (and presumably emulators too). Same thing was done with the 64DD library too. You can now play them all on a flash cart without a 64DD needed (yes, even the games like F-Zero Expansion Kit that interfaces with a seperate cartridge).

Yeah, I've heard about it. I haven't heard of Nintendo actually banning anyone who has used a physical cart whose contents have been copied yet though... so maybe there's a way they can tell who's using it? Dunno.

The N64 sure did have a lot of racing games, easily the most over-represented genre on the system (helps that Nintendo themselves published no less than 9 of them!) It's not as crazy as the shooter genre on the TG16, or the fighting game genre on the NeoGeo, but it's definitely the console's speciality it's most known for. That and FPS games.

Aha! Now I get to talk about the Aleck 64 arcade board! This was the first game released for this arcade PCB, and the N64 cartridge release is essentially identical in every way to its arcade counterpart... ... that's because the Aleck 64 is essentially an N64 shoved into an arcade cabinet. Not the first of its kind by any means, arcade boards based on consoles were common at the time (indeed, part of the reason why the PS1 was such a huge success was because Sony licensed out the PS1 hardware for use in arcade boards, especially ones made by Namco such as the System 11; which powered some of their biggest arcade hits of the late 90s, including the Tekken series)., but what makes this one a bit unusual is that Nintendo had little to no involvement with the Aleck 64's development. No, this was a Seta joint; yes, the same Seta responsible for the bizzare Morita Shogi 64 and its weird custom cartridge that you saw a couple pages back in this same thread. Seta liked to tinker with odd hardware accessories and the like, and it seems that Nintendo took notice and granted them the keys to the Mushroom Kingdom 64 here. It perhaps came too late to make any real impact in the arcade world. The N64 hardware wasn't particularily impressive compared to contemporary arcade competitors (I mean, it wouldn't have been impressive by 1996, let alone 1998!), and the N64 itself was famously much more difficult to develop for than the PS1, so it didn't really compete well at the low-end either. Kind of caught in a bit of a no-mans land really. Still, the Aleck 64 did end up getting a fair few games made for it, 16 in total, but none of them would end up being notable successes in the arcade business. Either way, 16 games is a decent amount for a standardised arcade PCB, so it's hard to call it a failure; especially for a small developer like Seta. But, to my knowledge, only two games from the Aleck 64 would ever get ported to the regular N64; and Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth just so happens to be the first one.

Well that’s certainly a surprise! Had no idea that Throwback Entertainment got the rights to Extreme G. Neat!

Oh sick! Sonic Superstars on PC just got granted full S3D support for the Spatiallabs View display!! Just gave it a try and it looks awesome! Gives the visuals some much needed (literal!) pop. Well haps! The 3D implementation is actually quite a bit better than what we saw in Sonic Generations, it's very well done and reminds me a lot of the 3D Classics Sonic games for the 3DS! The parts where Sonic goes in and out of the screen in Bridge Island Zone just look phenomenal! Stereoscopy really does just elevate the presentation tremendously with this game, as everything now has a much needed layer of parallax that just brings everything to life, it really does feel like the game was always made to be displayed in S3D originally. Now I just wish that Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins could get the same treatment... Time to go back and finish the post game!

I'd say great minds think alike, but clearly not as alike as I'd like I'll go over this in more detail when I eventually get around to my Wario World writeup, but I think it's a very marmite game where your overall opinion varies a lot on what expectations you have going into the game. It's both a 3D platformer and an old school beat 'em up in equal measure, so it's naturally quite repetitive, but it's also very inventive with its enemy & level design, with some neat puzzle solving & exploration elements that fit in well with the Wario Land series proper, and I think anyone's opinion on the game will be coloured by their perspective on the beat 'em up genre as a whole; as well as your expectations of games released in the early to mid 2000s in general, and even your views on gaming as a whole. Because a lot of the complaints you hear online about this game, and many of the reviews of the time, ended up dinging the game for its short running time and its repetitive nature; all of which are natural elements that come with the genre that it's in. It's very much a game that was perhaps released in a time where people were not kind to both of the genres that this game falls into, but I'll be interested to hear your perspective when you eventually get round to finishing your playthrough and your own writeup

Yo! @S.C.G When did the price of Wario World suddenly skyrocket!? I just checked it on eBay for both PAL & NTSC copies and it now seems to be averaging around £60-70. I remember that being one of the cheapest first party GCN games on the second hand market just a few years back, now it's suddenly worth Wario Cash for some bizzare reason! (Great game BTW, literally just finished a replay yesterday; write-up in the Your Gaming Diary thread is pending!) Meanwhile, the Zelda Collector's Edition disc is basically worthless now. A game that used to sell for £100+ easily can now be gotten for like £15-20 on eBay! It seems like the more expensive games are getting cheaper, while the cheaper games are getting more expensive all of a sudden I've already got basically every GCN game I want (save for Cubivore, which aint happening at any sort of reasonable price), but it's really interesting how things have changed recently with game prices. It's not a bad time to buy some GCN games really if you're in the market for them ... unless that game you're after is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. That price aint budging it seems, unfortunately.

It was pretty late, yeah. November 2005. But it was still well off being the last game released for the system by Nintendo. Pokemon XD, Batallion Wars, Mario Party 7, Super Mario Strikers and Odama all released shortly after Superstar Baseball within a 3 month period and none of them are nearly as hard to find (NOE basically cut off all retail support for the GCN after April 1st 2006 and started liquidating their GCN stock with firesales where the console could be bought for cheaper than its actual games here in the UK, with the only game released after that being the GCN version of Twilight Princess; which was sold as mail-order only here in Europe). I get that baseball isn't really very popular over here, but come on! It can't have had that small of a print-run in Europe surely? It IS still a Mario title after all. I cannot believe that Odama had a bigger print-run than Mario Superstar Baseball over here, there's just no way... Edit: Actually... looking over on eBay's completed listings, PAL copies of Odama are actually pretty rare it seems! There's plenty of US NTSC copies for cheap, but PAL copies seem to be hard to come by (though still cheaper than Mario Superstar Baseball). Perhaps both games did have a comparitively small print run in Europe? Quite surprised about that actually! Guess that explains why Super Sluggers on Wii didn't get a European release at all. NOE just had no faith in it.