Dcubed

Come on Team Asano B/W Remakes!! I WANNA BELIEVE!!!

Yo! Guys! (@S.C.G, @BowserBasher, @Glen-i) If we're gonna be playing MP3 this week, can we make it happen on Thursday or Saturday? I'm working this Friday. If it absolutely has to be Friday though, it'll have to be from around 21:30 onwards.

I'll bet you that many of those who bought the Wii U games went and bought them again on Switch. Many people probably did (I know I did), because the Switch offered a unique USP in the form of portability. These were the first times that you could play these games on the go. And even then, we would still have been the small minority amongst the wider audience that actually did buy these games on Switch. With Switch 2, what USP is it gonna offer over Switch 1 for said re-releases? Pretty much just higher resolution rendering and better performance; nothing nearly as transformative as portability. Good luck trying to get people to pay a full £50-60 for that alone. And unlike Wii U, Switch 1 wasn't a massive failure; so there isn't a big untapped audience just waiting to be catered to here with such hypothetical ports either. It makes no sense to eschew BC for strategic double-dip reasons this time around. They would be cutting off their nose to spite their face if they dared to attempt such a thing.

The only reason why they could get away with selling them at full price is because almost nobody bought a Wii U to begin with, which essentially made them new games for more than 90% of the Switch's audience. Oh, and this is hardly the first time they've re-released games that were already playable on their system... Remember the New Play Control series of GCN ports on Wii? You could also lump in the Wii U eShop re-releases of Wii disc-based releases into this category too, as well as the likes of Twilight Princess HD (which, hilariously enough, is a situation where the Wii U can potentially play three different versions of this game on the same hardware!) They will probably just do what they've done for generations. Offer upgrades for select Switch games at a discounted price.

No reason why they can't still do that. BC didn't stop most publishers (including Sony) from charging for upgrades on PS5. Hell, Nintendo themselves have even done this before with the VC Wii-Wii U upgrade program. Where you could pay a fee to get upgraded versions of the Wii VC games you already transferred to your Wii U. Plenty of DS games also got 3DS remakes too. This is well worn territory by this point.

Even if that were the case, they'd be losing out on a ton of revenue from 3rd party sale royalities. And I'm certain that I wouldn't be alone in cutting out 3rd party purchases completely on their platforms. Because they would no longer have a compelling USP to justify a purchase on their platform, while also offering significantly less value than everyone else.

I can only imagine that this game's release must've been the result of some sort of legal gordian knot contractual obligation, because Nintendo were Namco's sworn enemy by this point. Namco were basically a first-party Sony studio from the moment that Kutaragi approached them in 1993, to the point that they moved most of their arcade division (their main breadwinner of the early-mid 90s) over to PS1 based arcade hardware. They had a very public feud with Nintendo and Yamauchi after Nintendo refused to renew their existing sweetheart Famicom licensing deal; which is why Namco largely chose the PC Engine and Megadrive over the SNES during the 16 bit era. That plus Namco always resented Nintendo for displacing them from their perch as undisputed kings of the video game industry back in the early-mid 80s. Hell, if that's not enough, Tengen (the company that tried to take down Nintendo's monopoly with bootleg unlicensed releases) was actually a joint Atari/Namco venture! Namco were out for blood. This game and Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (another game that Namco do not fully own the rights to) were the only internally developed Namco games ever released for the N64; which again, indicates that these two games only reached the N64 thanks to Namco's hands being tied by some sort of blood pact contract. Even this info is of dubious reliability however, because it's far more likely that both Famista 64 and the N64 port of MPMMM were developed by Tose than by Namco themselves. Both are very minor releases, with the only truly significant Namco property ever hitting the platform (Ridge Racer 64) actually being developed by Nintendo themselves! (Or rather, their newly formed American development division; NST). Funnily enough, not much has changed in the proceeding years. You have had some brief moments of peace and uneasy alliance (most notably during the GCN and Wii U years), but Namco still largely hate Nintendo to this day, and only work with them when they basically have to

Heads up. S-E just put out a patch that changes the game's final line of dialogue... Putting aside the whole George Lucasing of a previously released game for a moment (which I vehemently oppose from a philisophical perspective), perhaps it's indicating that S-E might have the balls to kill her off again after all?

Just seen the credits roll... Yeah, this is real good! I'll save my big, epic Wall of Text review for when I 100% the game (or close enough to it, more on that in a bit), but I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. Now, it's certainly not perfect, in particular there are a couple of flaws I need to address... first of them is the boss fights. Now yes, I have previously said in my last post that I didn't mind the bosses thus far, but that I could tell that Kirby 64 Syndrome was on its way... and I was right. Now, I will say that I do feel that the issue has been blown well out of proportion online and that it's generally nowhere near as bad as its being made out to be; it's certainly not game ruining or anything stupid like that. But the last couple of bosses do really start to take the piss, and the last one in particular is an outright slog. It's literally twice as long as the entire stage that precedes it, and it's just an utter marathon that I desperately wanted to end. Worst of all with these bosses is that there's basically nothing you can do to speed them up, there's no strategies available to skip phases; you're just stuck waiting for the bosses to get out of the background and end their interminable invulnerability phases. That Kirby 64 PTSD is flooding right back here! My second complaint is about the medal system... This game features a similar system as seen in Sonic Mania, where you can earn medals in the bonus stages, only that its taken to a logical extreme, as these medals are now scattered throughout stages too, and also awarded each time you earn 100 rings (the Lives system is gone completely now). In Sonic Mania, the medals were a nice incentive to try and conqure all of the various bonus stage levels, as you had a bunch of cool unlockable modes tied to how many medals you earned. Here in Sonic Superstars however? The medals are tied exclusively to cosmetic unlockables in the game's multiplayer battle mode... and the battle mode is utter pants; a total throwaway mode that you'll probably only try once and never touch again (its online mode is also completely dead already). This not only means that the development team wasted a ton of time and resources that would've been better spent on improving the main game, but it also means that the medals are completely pointless now. There is no reason to collect them, and thus, no reason to go back and play through all of the various bonus stage maps. A lose-lose situation all round, and it's a real shame, because the bonus stages are actually really fun (even if they revisit the wellworn Sonic 1 Special Stage concept yet again). I do have some other nitpicks, but they are just that; nitpicks. Overall, this is a very solid Sonic game. It's still gonna be a while before I fully complete it, as the post-game content seems to be pretty substantial... I think it's safe for me to say that this is my 3rd favourite 2D Sonic game at this point though. Not quite on the same level as Sonic 3&K or Mania, but better than Sonic 2 or Sonic 1; and certainly way better than any of the other 2D entries in the series. Well worth your time

Mission critical. If they don't have full BC on Switch 2, I'm never buying another 3rd party release on their systems ever again. In this age of multiplatform releases being the norm, where all games basically play the same on every system, and with PC games now being made portable thanks to Steam Deck and other similar devices, there is no reason to choose to buy 3rd party games on Nintendo's platforms if they're not going to provide full ongoing BC.

Seta were surprisingly prolific on the N64/Aleck 64 weren’t they? One of the very few Japanese developers to pick the N64 over the competition (though they did put out quite a few early Shogi games on the Saturn as well). They were even responsible for bringing the N64 to the arcades, in the form of the Aleck 64 board (essentially an N64 in an arcade cabinet). While they weren’t responsible for putting out any of the N64’s more beloved titles, they still had quite the presence on the console and had an important impact; especially when it came to the N64’s (admittedly short-lived) presence in the arcades.

At least he’s being honest about not being confident in his source here. At this point, it’s safe to say that Pyoro’s info (however it’s sourced) is typically legit. So I’m inclined to believe what he says, and wouldn’t hold a lack of a B/W remake against him if this second hand info turns out to be bunk.

Yup, it’s so stupid that it never happened officially. Clearly the hardware could do it, and having now tried it myself, the S3D effect works great, and the games run well. What a shame that they missed out on that opportunity, if only for VB Wario Land to be given a wider audience. It’s a great game that is well worth your time, but is otherwise trapped on a piece of hardware that is seemingly designed to give you a neck fracture (No, really. If you have never actually used a Virtual Boy, I cannot overstate how incredibly uncomfortable it is to actually use!). Ahh well. At least I can finally play my copy on the hardware it should’ve always been released on

Hey! 3DS is retro now, it counts

The impossible has finally happened! Just tried it myself and... it works! 3D and all! Seems to run flawlessly from what I can see. No issues with saving, the S3D "just works", it's everything that homebrew devs have been trying to do for the past 13 years to no success. Crazy that it took this long to make it happen, and crazier still that Nintendo never re-released these games officially on the 3DS, but finally! I can finally play VB Wario Land without breaking my neck!

Aww... I actually wanna play that Sumo game now. What a shame there's no way to play it in English.

I thought you had the same Ultra Stylus that I did? Didn’t we get you one some years back?

It’s true, I did say that. And I stand by it. The Zelda CDI games had some genuinely good gameplay ideas, just held back by the shit console they were made for and all the janky controls, broken hit detection and busted programming that comes with making a game designed for a console engineered to run PowerPoint presentations masquerading as interactive software. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into Arzette myself. It looks to take all the good ideas and good concepts from the CDI Zeldas (including their funky fresh music!) and put them into an actual well made game

Heads up for anyone insane enough to pay LRG's price for a physical GBA copy, the pre-order page is up now. And a new mini trailer showing the GBA version... ... no? Just me? Ok then. Can't blame you TBH.

Here's a long overdue Wii U port for you... Surprised it took so long TBH.

Poor Swampert really does get overshadowed by his bretherin this generation... I'd also say the same for the mid evolutions, as Combusken and Marshtomp really are just kind of whatever after you see Grovyle; and I'm not even taking Mystery Dungeon into account here, Grovyle's design is just miles ahead in all respects. So much so that even Sceptile feels like a downgrade (and hilariously enough, Sceptile actually gets a stat decrease when you evolve Grovyle into it in the Mystery Dungeon games ) Grass did really deserve a lucky break though, especially after the way that it got done dirty with the Gen 2 starter line. Good for grass! Shame it would still end up getting beaten competitively by the fire starter line this time around though.

Rare saved Nintendo again with this one. Nintendo had nothing prepared for the 1997 Xmas season in the west as all of their internal titles got delayed (Yoshi's Story just barely squeaked out on Dec 21st 1997 in Japan, but would have to wait until March 1998 in the US and May 1998 over here), and Rare once again swooped in with this surprise release to save Nintendo's hide. And it would go on to be a massive success, selling more than 4.5 million copies (making it the 8th best selling game for the console). I won't bother going into all the development history, because you probably all know it already (started as RC Pro Am 64, morphed into a Timber Racing game, Diddy got shoved in at the last minute etc), but it's an important release not just because it helped save the N64, not just because it was a huge influence on the genre as a whole, but also because it was the start of Rare's Cinematic Universe. Banjo and Conker would get their starts here, and other characters would go on to cameo in other games. In fact, Dinosaur Planet was originally going to be based in the same universe, before being retrofitted into a Starfox title (yes, Tricky in Dinosaur Planet is supposed to be the same dinosaur that you race against here as a boss in Dino Domain!). But alas, the Rare buyout happened, the once great ship began to tear apart at the seams, and the studio's plans for the rest of the DKR cast would eventually be cast asunder... (and the less said about what happened with Bumper, the better...) But yeah, DKR is a masterpiece of a game. It's the best racing game of its generation and one of the best racing games ever made. Bloody tragic that Donkey Kong Racing on the Gamecube would never end up happening... and oh, what happened to you Bumper...

Strange Journey Redux was a remake though, not released for the same console. The mainline SMT series has only ever pulled this stunt once before, with SMT 3 Maniax (and that was also a unique case of an enhanced international version being back ported to Japan; since we never got the vanilla version at all in the west). I can understand not expecting them to do this with SMT 5, especially with DLC now being an option too.

FWIW, the game was originally £29.99 when it first came out on Xbox, so it’ll already be much cheaper than the standard RRP for a PS5 game anyway.

Game is out now, and... yup, apparantly it is indeed 30FPS on Switch; while it's 60-120FPS on everything else. Real shame, but that basically makes the Switch version a non-starter unfortunately. Hopefully it gets an enhanced version when Switch 2 rolls around. Will be getting this on Friday on PC when I get paid