Dcubed

Rare comes to NSO! We’re finally getting their pre-N64 games too!

Epic Mickey HD and Monster Hunter Stories HD are some nice surprises

Perfect example of how much of a difference a publisher can make to the quality of the end product. Paradigm Simulation clearly showed an ability to make a quality flying game with Pilotwings 64. But when you take away their development time & budget and you're working with a publisher more interested in short deadlines and making a quick buck than putting out a quality game? You get Aero Fighters Assault. Nintendo really did (and still do) have a knack for wringing out gold from just about anyone they work with.

Oh I'm not getting the deluxe version, I just want the physical cartridge really. The box art is utter crap, not worth the extra money for the other physical tat (will buy the OST from Bandcamp when it gets officially released; assuming that the music is on par with Jake Kaufman's previous works - have loved all the OSTs save for Seven Sirens, which isn't all that memorable).

Shouldn't this thread be on the Nintendo Gaming side, since it's also available on Switch? But yes, I do plan on getting this game when I get paid on Friday. Looks fun, could do with a new bedtime just-one-more-run game

I've never played the N64 version, but I have played the Xbox version in Midway Arcade Treasures Vol 3 (Which is a port of the Dreamcast version, which is a port of the arcade version); so it's basically a Brother's Uncle's Sister's Former Roommate situation going on here. From what I hear, the N64 port of this game and its sequel are pretty solid, though not as good as the Dreamcast release (duh). I... don't really rate either game TBH. They've always come across as fairly middling arcade racers in a sea of much better arcade racers. Typical Atari Games stuff (who would later be acquired by Midway, who would be later acquired by Warner Bros... which is another Brother's Uncle's Sister's Former Roommate situation; except the uncle has been estranged for his drinking and gambling addiction, while the sister is a crack addict who is scamming children with microtransactions in order to feed their habit while forgetting that the brother even exists).

Pre-orders for the physical GBA release open on the 23rd of February! https://limitedrungames.com/collections/shantae-advance-risky-revolution The price though... OOF! Me thinks that I'm gonna be the only one here buying a physical GBA copy... Not saying no to getting a brand new retail release GBA game in 2024, especially when it's an actual honest-to-goodness long-lost Shantae game. Price be damned. Edit: They have an estimated ship date listed for October 1st-31st. Guess that gives us a rough release date then.

Are we sure that those screenshots weren’t taken from the easy mode? Because I thought the point of having the two different modes was to offer the original levels untouched while also including easier dumbed down versions?

It’s very good, and FE7 (released as “Fire Emblem” on the GBA) is not only specifically designed for newcomers, but it also happens to be one of the best entries in the series to boot. It’s always my recommended starting point if you’re new to the series, so if you have NSO + Expansion Pack (and I know you do), defo give it a go

If they do a B/W remake, I’d imagine that B2/W2 would be included as a DLC expansion. Easily doable since it reuses 95% of the original game’s map.

TBH, I don’t think we’ll be getting a new PKMD announced here, since Chunsoft only just released Shiren The Wanderer 6 around a month ago in Japan; so it’s too early for the mystery dungeon team to pump out another HD game. Pokemon B/W remakes here are quite possible though, as are seeing Gens 1-3 arrive on NSO.

Whelp! Guess that confirms that the rumours about the Nintendo Partner Direct getting pushed back to make room for the Xbox Obituary were true Ain’t no way that they originally planned to have two separate Direct events within a week of each other. Dare I hope for a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? Or is it time for the Black & White remake perhaps?

Yes please! Have been begging for a re-release for donkey’s years! The single most valuable and expensive GBA game on the second hand market being made available for a reasonable price? Don't mind if I do!

Ahh, just as the ancient scrolls predicted… Looking forward to Sea of Thieves, HiFi Rush, Penny’s Big Breakaway, The Plucky Squire and Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! No Silksong though… sorry guys.

Leave me alone, not asking a lot... Just don't wanna be GAAS... That's all I want... That's all I want...

The Sun mechanic in this game is completely unique to this third entry in the Puyo Puyo series (outside of Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary, which allows you to mix & match rules from multiple series entries); as it proved somewhat divisive amongst series fans. The name “Puyo Puyo Sun” is also a stupid Japanese pun, since “san” is the Japanese word for the number “three”. Also there is a modern re-release of this game… kinda… as a cut-down multiplayer only port of this game was included as part of the Mega Drive Mini 2. Finally, this game was originally made for the SEGA Titan Video Arcade board (which is essentially a SEGA Saturn that runs games off of cartridges rather than CDs) and got its first console release for, unsurprisingly, the SEGA Saturn; making this one of the only former SEGA Saturn exclusive games to ever get ported to the N64. BTW @Cube, I'm pretty certain that none of that swearing was in the original game; since you're playing the fan translated version (the cutscenes did not have voice acting originally, not even in Japanese). A fine example of why I tend to avoid unofficial translations, even when they're reportedly well done. They never manage to properly capture the original developer's intent.

Ahh, finally, a real leaker Guess we’ll be seeing Project Bloom here then? (Game Freak’s game they’re making with Private Division)… … or maybe a port of that remake of Pocket Card Jockey that recently got released for Apple Arcade? I’d be well chuffed with that

Surprisingly, the N64 got precious few direct PC ports; despite being the most powerful console of its generation. Duke Nukem 3D is a rare exception here (and it's not a particularily impressive port. Even though it was the best of the console ports from a technical standpoint, the N64 certainly could've done better). Even the likes of Quake 2 were actually entierly original games that only shared the same setting & base mechinics; with wholly original level designs (as @Cube will no doubt get into when he eventually gets round to reviewing Quake 2 N64). It's a bit strange when you think about it. The one console of the 5th generation that was actually equipped to handle accurate PC ports ended up getting the least accurate ports; as the N64 versions tended to be original experiences, while the PS1 & Saturn versions tended to try and replicate the original PC versions. Same goes for Doom 64. Totally original game (despite what the title would have you believe), while PS1 and Saturn got actual ports of Doom. It's an odd situation, but that ironically makes Duke Nukem 3D actually pretty unique within the N64's library as a result.

Also worth keeping in mind that many of the Gen 2 Pokemon designs were originally intended for Gen 1 before being cut. Can't remember if that includes the 9 starter Pokemon listed here or not, but they would've been designed with much the same limitations as Gen 1 (B&W GB game) in mind. Edit: Bu... buh... but Totodile IS cute @RedShell!

They are longer than the original MvsDK. If anything, those games are too long though; they wear out their welcome well before they end, and their stages are just far too long to sustain interest for their full length. I always end up tapping out well before they end. I've never really wanted MvsDK to go on much longer though, always felt like the right length to me. Satisfying

The "post game" is an entire set of 8 extra worlds (6 in the GBA original). Seeing the credits is literally only half the entire running time. This is a puzzle platformer. 8 hours is pretty lengthy for this kind of game. That being said, the loss of the scoring system will pretty heavily impact the game's replay value; especially when compared to the original GBA version.

No way this ends with just the four. This is just the beginning. The only real question now is... will these games all come to the existing Switch? Or will they wait it out until Switch 2 launches?

That was about as clear as mud. Only the four titles? Yeah fucking right, it's only been about an hour and you're already hinting at more to come... I will just go ahead and assume that everything is coming to Nintendo and Sony platforms eventually, nothing is off the table anymore. Xbox owners really needed straight-forward communication here. Instead they're just letting speculation and FUD continue spreading unabated. A disaster of communication. They're even hinting at new hardware, so they clearly have some plans that they could've communicated here, but instead they continue to mince their words. Cowardly behaviour.

Are you gonna cover the Sculptor's Cut version of Clayfighter as well @Cube?

On the eve of the death of Xbox, I played and finished two games that were vaguely fitting for the situation... Sonic Adventure The year is 1998, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time just launched in November of that year in both the US and in Japan. It was lauded as the beginning of a new era for video games in general, and a revolutionary title that would go on to redefine the industry from that point onwards... ... just one week later, the SEGA Dreamcast would launch in Japan. God bless you Hidekazu Yukawa The SEGA Saturn was dead, deader than a can of spam. And so, SEGA cast their final dream out into the world... well, the world of Japan at least. While the rest of the world wouldn't get the Dreamcast for another 10 months, SEGA placed a mandate upon Sonic Team. They absolutely had to get a proper 3D Sonic game out in time for the Dreamcast's launch, come hell or high water. No more pissing about with failed experiments or personal pet projects. They had to tow the company line, and the blue blur HAD to make it out in time... Sonic Team missed their deadline by about a month. Sonic decided to sleep in during the Saturn's lifecycle Released in December 1998, Sonic Adventure was an utterly mindblowing release for the time; but what's even more mindblowing is just how fast this game was made. Reportedly starting development in around April 1997, Sonic Adventure was bashed out in just 18 months. That's 18 months, on hardware that hadn't even been finalised yet. I'm also going to point out here that this would be the first (and last) time that a Sonic game would be developed specifically as a launch title for a console. And if you think that's crazy, consider this. Sonic Adventure wasn't even the only game that Sonic Team put out in 1998, because they also somehow managed to release Burning Rangers for the SEGA Saturn that same year! Insane!! If I could only use one word to describe Sonic Adventure? It would be "Ambition". Sonic Team's greatest strength, and their greatest weakness, has always been their ardor. Their previous Sonic title had been so aspirational that it ended up needing to be split up into two seperate cartridges and locked-on together to be played in its complete form. And Sonic Adventure is probably the single biggest distillation of that spirit that Sonic Team ever put out. A massive 3D Sonic platformer for a next-gen system as a launch title, 6 playable characters with wildly differing gameplay styles and systems, full voice acting, full live-recorded soundtrack, a story with FMV cutscenes to rival Final Fantasy... all within just 18 months, while they were also making another game. Surely something would have to give? Oh yes it did. No, not at all! Sonic Adventure is a beautiful janky mess of a game that collapses under the sheer weight of its own ambition. It's a game that attempts to do just about everything. It's a 3D Platformer! It's an Action Adventure! It's a Kart Racer! It's a 3rd Person Shooter! It's a Downhill Snowboarder! It's a Panzer Dragoon Rail Shooter! It's a fucking Fishing Game! Hell! It's also a Tamagotchi! Why not!? Sonic Team wanted this to be their answer not just to Super Mario 64, but also Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy 7; all at the same time. The problem is that everything here is so incredibly under-baked as a result. Now, I want to focus first on the parts that it actually does pretty well. For starters, the core level design for the action stages is actually pretty solid. The stages are all well paced, with interesting layouts, gameplay gimmicks, some great set pieces and lots of very cool and unique ideas behind them. They're laid out well, read cleanly and are easy to navigate; even the Knuckles stages (which would've been the most difficult to design, given their open-ended nature). There's also a really nice balance of fast-paced action sections and slower, more methodological and exploratory parts; with plenty of opportunities for cheeky shortcuts available to expert players and speedrunners. Sonic Team had some really good level designers back then, even if Yuji Naka had no appreciation for the art. The presentation was also absolutely second to none at the time of its release, even amongst early Dreamcast contemporary releases. It looked and felt a whole generation ahead of literally everything else at the time, and it was a pioneer of many technologies that we take for granted today (in fact, it was the very first game to even attempt lip syncing with in-game real-time graphics... attempt being the keyword here). And the music was just out of this world; it's still great in fact. It was also a pioneer for internet connectivity with it being the very first console game to feature any form of downloadable content; granted, it was all very minor stuff like holiday themed events and in-game posters, but the fact that a game from 1998 was even attempting this is just utter madness. I also want to point out that this game's aesthetic really is Y2K As Fuck. Like... THIS is exactly the game I think of (alongside PSO) when I recall the whole Y2K period. Whites and blues and skies/clouds and water and skeuomorphism and transparancies everywhere! Don't tell anyone that it's actually from 1998 though You can tell that SEGA had some real hangups about the Saturn's difficulty with transparancies, because they abuse the Dreamcast's transparancy effect capabilities to the extreme with this game, to the point where its main villian is a walking pool of transparant water The storytelling is also surprisingly well done, with Tikal's backstory handed out in piecemeal form throughout each character's story in an interesting way that keeps a bit of mystery going. You're never told the full story on any particular character's tale, so it incentivises you to play through all 6 character's campaigns in order to get the full story. I also really like how shared events are told slightly differently, with your chosen character getting the camera angle spotlight and slightly different dialogue; it gives the impression that each character is recalling events with a bias towards themselves, a very nice touch. Finally, I'd also like to lavish a bit of praise on the voice acting. With the sole exception of Tales (who was voiced by an actual child and unfortunately comes across as pretty grating and stilted), everyone puts in a pretty stellar performance, especially for the time. Good quality voice acting was not common in 1999, especially in a game with as much voice acting as this one; but really, I have to give specific props to Deem Bristow for his performance as Dr Robotnik; he steals the show here, and his voice forever lives rent free in my head. Just the perfect maniacal scientist here! However, you can't really talk about Sonic Adventure without discussing how incredibly broken the game is. Walls are just a suggestion in this game Now. I don't need to rag on about the camera. You've probably played this game before, or at least seen someone play it, or read the hundreds of articles out there that demonise this game for its shoddy camera. It's shit. In fact, it's monkey shit. It's fucking awful. But you know what's actually worse than the camera? The collision detection. My GOD! The collision detection is fucking woeful, it is outright BROKEN. There are SO many times where you'll be happily running along when all of a sudden, your character will just get stuck on a wall, or a pebble on the ground, and just come to a complete stop; or just phase right through it. It's bloody infuriating! It makes navigating these environments with precision into an utter nightmare. And it's a damn shame, because the core gameplay mechanics and physics are actually really fun! Sonic and friends actually have genuine momentum implanted into their gameplay physics, in a manner reminiscient of their Mega Drive predecessors, and when the game isn't having a heart attack, it's actually a ton of fun... ... but sadly, much of the game's fun is just sapped away by the wonky collision detection. There's no way to get around it, the game's programming is just fundamentally broken. And you know what's even more wild? The version we got in the west was actually significantly improved over its original Japanese release. Holy fucking shit! How bad was the original Japanese version!?!? The cutscenes as well... they tried. They really did. They were clearly working with some very basic and unfinished technology here, because the animation and camera work in cutscenes is ropey as fuck. This is no Ocarina of Time or Metal Gear Solid, hell even Super Mario 64's few cutscenes utterely blow away the real-time cutscenes on display here. While I admire the ambition on display, the result is honestly pretty laughable. At least the cutscene animation & camera direction is entertainingly bad! For the record, I played the original PAL Dreamcast release from 1999, not the DX version that was later released for the Gamecube (and subsequently PC and 360). The Gamecube version would add some additional content in the form of optional missions, an overhauled Chao Garden and unlockable Game Gear titles, as well as upping the framerate from the original game's unstable 30FPS (there's quite a bit of slowdown here on the DC, so lurches to around 20FPS aren't uncommon), to an unstable 60FPS; which does improve the control response and sense of speed, but this version would also introduce new glitches of its own; and make some questionable changes to the game's art direction. The unlockable Game Gear games and Metal Sonic costume actually do fix a significant issue with the original game though, and that's with the Emblem system. The original game would attempt to incentivise the player to replay stages by offering additional tasks, that reward the player with an Emblem... The problem though is that in the original Dreamcast version, the Emblems do precisely jack and shit, so there's no reason to collect them, and no real reward for completing each additional mission in each stage; so the additions put into the DX version actually do make a meaningful difference here, because you now actually have a reason to collect all the Emblems. Sonic Adventure is a game that tries to do a bit of everything, and doesn't really stick the landing with any of them, owing to a rushed development cycle and an insane level of ambition that could never possibly be executed on. Despite how incredibly broken the game is however, there is a ton to like here, and I can't bring myself to call it a bad game. It's a broken game, but ambition counts for a hell of a lot in the video game world, and this is amongst the most ambitious titles the video game industry has ever seen. I'd say it begs for a full-on remake that does its ideas and concepts justice, but I don't think such a game could ever really be made in the modern era. It's just too ambitious to ever really be made properly. Sonic Adventure 2 Sonic Adventure 2 is the more streamlined sequel to Sonic Adventure. After a small portion of Sonic Team moved over to San Fransisco to work on the international version of the original Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team USA was born. While the Japanese branch of Sonic Team would go on to make Chu Chu Rocket and Phantasy Star Online, the newly christened Sonic Team USA would get to work on a follow-up to Sonic Adventure; much in the same way that Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the ol' Mega Drive was developed in the US by the newly formed Sega Technical Institute before. The parallels also extend to its development schedule, which would go on to take around 18 months again owing to the untimely death of SEGA's dream; but the die was cast and the dream had to be cut short. Of course, this is still a Sonic Team game, and that means that their ambitions would still be wild. But lessons were certainly learnt and feedback was listened to. While there were still 6 playable characters, 3 of them would essentially be clones; meaning that there were now only three main gameplay types this time around (Platforming, Treasure Hunting and Shooting). Gone also were the hub areas and interstitial moments that had you looking around for NPCs and powerups; instead, the powerups would be integrated into the stages themselves, the story followed a linear progression going from stage to stage, and the Chao garden stuff would be hidden around the stages this time. The minigame stages are also gone as well, save for the one Kart Racing section (which goes on forever, and gets used twice with no changes!). The collision detection is also much more solid this time around. While it's certainly not perfect, and you can certainly break this game in half if you try to, it's leaps and bounds ahead of the original Sonic Adventure. In fact, from a technical standpoint, it's a remarkable step up from its predecessor; to the point that it's shocking that they were both made for the same console. We've gone from an unstable 20-30FPS to a more or less rock solid 60 FPS, AND the graphics are significantly better. It's stunning how much progress was made in just those short 18 months... to think about how much more they could've gotten out of the Dreamcast if it had survived a bit longer... The improvements also extend to the cutscenes as well, which are now fully motion captured, and far better directed (thanks in no small part to the development assistance provided by Visual Concepts). Though this can sometimes feel a bit like a double-edged sword, with scenes sometimes feeling like they're being acted out by people in theme park mascot costumes What Sonic learnt from Crazy Taxi All that being said though, I don't think the level design is quite as good as in the previous game. It feels like the stages were made of smaller parts that end up getting copy/pasted a bit too much... and they're often too long for their own good, starting to wear out their welcome a bit before they end... but the biggest offender by far are the Treasure Hunt stages. They're massive, far too massive. The Knuckles stages worked in the first game because they took place in smaller, contained spaces that weren't so difficult to navigate. Here though? The later stages can get to be almost 10x the size, to the point where it just feels obnoxious and frustrating. I'm Knuckles. 3 and a half mins in with no emeralds and I'm not chuckling. What's also worth noting is that in order to achieve that more polished feeling to the gameplay, the developers had to resort more often to scripted sequences that wrestle control away from the player. You might not notice it if you're coming from newer modern Sonic titles (which do this to such a ridiculous extreme that they practically play themselves), but coming from its predecessor? You can feel the difference. The Chao Garden also got a significant overhaul here, now greatly expanded with much more in-depth mechanics. Though the Gamecube release would expand on this even further, adding the Black Market and the Chao Karate minigame, as well as a greatly expanded multiplayer mode; I played the original Dreamcast release this time around, so I didn't dive into the Chao stuff on this playthrough. But the Chao stuff is great, and I remember spending many an hour playing around with the Chao Garden (and the GBA's Tiny Chao Garden) with the Gamecube release back in the day Really I think that about sums up Sonic Adventure 2 quite nicely. The developers took the original game's core gameplay (at least the Platforming, Treasure Hunting and Shooter sections), trimmed out the parts they felt unneccessary and worked to polish what they had. While the reduced scope certainly is to the game's benefit, I would be lying if I didn't miss a lot of what was taken away. While Sonic Adventure 2 is a good sequel, and exactly the kind of sequel that I think they should've made, ambition still counts for an awful lot. It's much more polished and streamlined, but I do still have a soft spot for the sheer aspiration of its predecessor. A fitting end for the Dreamcast then. And with that?