Dcubed

What the actual hell!? HOW DID GLEN END UP WITH 600 COINS!?!?

Lovely stuff, mostly the same arrangements as seen in the Seattle Nintendo Live event last year, but still great. These concerts are always wonderful; always great to see Nintendo pay tribute to the series as a whole

Come on guys! Let’s get some 3DS games in while we still can! Kid Icarus Uprising? Mario Kart 7? Mario Golf World Tour? Monster Hunter 4? Triforce Heroes? There’s plenty to play before the day!

Honestly? We may well get the first announcement during next week’s Nintendo Direct. The timing already matches up so flawlessly that they may well just latch onto Nintendo’s audience; especially if Nintendo and Microsoft have already come to some sort of behind-the-scenes deal (which would be an extension of their already existing relationship). As for Phil Spencer? He has already been pushing this multiplatform future for some time now. I could absolutely see him turning up in a Nintendo Direct. I can’t see him being SO against the idea of a multiplatform future that he would quit in protest; I think he’d have to be forced out.

Rare was already starting to fall apart before the Microsoft buyout. Most of the GE/PD team left right before the end of PD’s development to form Free Radical, you had Martin Hollis leaving to found Zoonami (after working freelance for a few years as a consultant on the GCN hardware’s development), lots of other staff members like Neil Gallagher were leaving to go into education or go freelance or join other companies. And most critically of all? The Stamper Brothers had already announced their intention to retire by 2000-2001; really, this was the biggest reason why Nintendo chose not to buy the remaining 51%. Tim & Chris Stamper were really the lifeblood of the company, and it’s when they left in 2007 that the house of cards truly fell apart.

That's not saying much though

Goldeneye is such an absolute miracle of a game. To think it came from a freshman team at Rare is just even more ludicrous; the Stampers just simply had the Midas Touch when it came to scouting talent and incubating the best games that the industry ever saw. On paper, this game should've been a dismal failure. A long delayed licensed title, original intended for the fucking Virtual Boy, that came out almost two years late, on a platform that was almost dead in the water by this point. Not only did it revive the console, not only did it revolutionise the FPS genre (indeed, this was the inflection point where the FPS genre truly came into being on consoles), it actually managed to supplant the original source material it was based on. Today, when you hear the word "Goldeneye", you instantly think of the 1997 N64 video game, not the 1995 movie; the movie was shit. Martin Hollis, Dave Doak and the rest of the team at Rare not only beat the odds, but they crafted one of the single most important and influential video games of all time. Goldeneye is amongst the single most representitive games of the entire N64 library. Quality over quantity. The droughts were the stuff of legends, but when the big hitters hit? They HIT. Every single subsequent FPS game owes Goldeneye a debt as deep as every 3rd person action game owes both Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. But it's only right and proper that we look at the debts owed by Goldeneye itself. Looking past the obvious foundation laid by Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, as well as the control foundations laid by Turok Dinosaur Hunter (1.2 Solitare is a 1:1 carbon copy of Turok's controller layout), Goldeneye also owes a debt to SEGA's Virtua Cop; and I do mean that literally. Most of you are probably already aware, but just in case you're not, Goldeneye was originally going to be an on-rails light-gun game without the light gun... and we actually have footage of this version of the game! Only a short snippet, but timestamped for your viewing pleasure The "aim mode" seen in the final game (Where you hold down R to make a reticule appear) was directly inspired by both Virtua Cop and this old prototype. Finally, Goldeneye also owes its mission structure directly to Super Mario 64, again, common knowledge for most people here probably; but it just goes to show how everyone stands on the shoulders of giants. Even something completely original and groundbreaking is built on what came before; and sometimes, all it takes is using those existing ideas and elements in new ways to create something completely unforseen before. It's really hard to understate the impact of this game. Without Goldeneye? Nintendo may well have not survived the N64 era. It single handidly saved them in 1997, coming not a moment too soon, despite being 2 years late; and it would revive interest in the console as a whole, putting it back into mainstream conciousness in the west and raising the sales/mindshare tide for all of the console's other software. Goldeneye went on to become the 3rd best selling game of all time for the console (4th best selling throughout the entire generation), ushering in a whole new era of console FPS games that would later flood the market (and indeed, for a time, the N64 itself). We all owe a debt to Bond, and to Rare. Addendum This one's for @Glen-i @S.C.G and @BowserBasher more than anyone else, but we're not the only ones who adore the ridiculously stupid slapping animations in this game...

No, that would be TGM3... Enter the world of Survival Horror God I hope we get TGM 3 on Switch... Come on Arika! You can't just leave me hanging at TGM 1 & 2! Finish the trilogy of re-releases!

https://www.installbaseforum.com/threads/media-create-sales-week-4-2024-jan-22-jan-28.2362/post-228583 https://www.businesstoday.com.tw/article/category/183015/post/202401240002/

... was thinking exactly the same thing. In which case, a Partner Direct would actually be more exciting than a standard February Direct in this one exceptional case

Now that we've more or less reached the 1 year anniversary of the US launch of the N64. I think we can get a decent picture of how dire the post-launch software drought really was. A grand total of four non-sports/non-Mahjong Japanese developed 3rd party games for the console across the span of an entire year. Four. And of those four, the first one took an entire 5 months to come out after the Japanese launch (and remained Japan only). Tetrisphere is a fine enough puzzle game, but it ended up coming across as underwhelming at its release because the console was running on absolute fumes at this point, and people were desperate for a meaty, good quality action or RPG title. Unfair expectations, true, but expectations nonetheless. It's a decent puzzle game, but it was the wrong game at the wrong time for the console.

All the hubub about Xbox being about to pull a SEGA has got me feeling sentimental about the ol' Dreamcast once more... I still stand by what I said in this thread earlier about SEGA's last console. What a machine that machine was! I'll never forget just how much of a gut punch the news of its discontinuation was; it was a console that really should've been a runaway success. But much like the Xbox Series, it had to pay a dear price for the sins of its fathers... Me thinks it's time to fire up the ol' dog over the coming week...

N64 is all caught up now, GBA only has F-Zero Maximum Velocity left to go out of the previously announced games. They seemed to stop following their specified order of releases a good few months back though, so they’re just releasing whatever they feel like at this point really.

@Julius I quite like the idea of having a built-in Intermission. Probably would get frowned upon for being pretentious, but it’s a neat concept that I’m surprised that nobody has done before in a story-driven game like this. Could be effective if the game forced the player to take a break; maybe even lock out the player from playing for at least 24 hours to force them to reflect on what’s happening. I’m sure it’d be viewed with outrage online (HOW DARE THEY TELL ME HOW TO PLAY THE GAME I PAID FOR!!!), but I think a game like TLOU could well benefit from such a move when it comes to pacing

This is why Stereoscopic 3D should be the standard. So many games just inherently benefit from the tech in subtle ways that make games just better to play.

Looks like the February Direct is happening next week… https://www.resetera.com/threads/universo-nintendo-new-nintendo-direct-next-week-between-february-12th-and-15th.813381/ … around the same time as when Xbox are announcing their exit from the console hardware business and their move to becoming a 3rd party publisher…

https://www.resetera.com/threads/universo-nintendo-new-nintendo-direct-next-week-between-february-12th-and-15th.813381/ Aaaaaaannnddd it looks like the February Nintendo Direct will be happening at around the same time as well… … this can’t be a coincidence.

Oh shit, it’s real… It’s Dreamcast all over again! Fucking hell, I can’t believe they’re just straight up giving up on consoles so suddenly! I thought this would be a slow transition over the next decade, not literally overnight! We’re about to witness history here.

Within the traditional console sector? I seriously doubt that… The barrier to entry is way too high now for anyone to really come in and have a realistic chance of mainstream success. AAA games and console hardware is just too big, too complicated and too expensive for anyone new to join now. You could easily spend over $100 Billion and still fail to even get a foot in the door, let alone carve a decent slice of the market. This isn’t the 90s or even early 2000s anymore. The console market is locked off to new competitors now. When even the literal richest company in the world, with almost 25 years of console manufacturing experience can’t hack it? What makes you think that anyone else stands a chance? Now, competition in other fiefdoms? Like low-end streaming/mobile devices? Or handhelds? Not impossible. But a genuine PlayStation competitor? Impossible.

The industry dynamics are really going to change quite dramatically if Xbox gives up being a console manufacturer, because each industry player will essentially be competing in their own distinct bubble. Sony will have the traditional AAA console market on total lockdown. Nintendo will be competing alone in the handheld/hybrid space alongside the burgeoning portable PC market. Valve have a mostly uncontested dominance in the PC space. Apple & Google maintain an oligopoly in the mobile sector. There will be very little crossover between competitors going forward. It’ll be as if the industry is largely siloed off into little fiefdoms.

It would be the single biggest industry shift since the death of the Dreamcast in 2001 (or at least since the introduction of the Apple App Store in 2008). And while I wouldn’t be nearly as sad to see MS go as I was SEGA? I’d be a lot more frightened of the consequences this time around as it leaves Sony with what is essentially an uncontested monopoly in the traditional console space. Oh how ironic that the UK government tried to block the ABK acquisition on grounds of giving Microsoft a monopoly when the exact opposite is about to happen!

Oh wow! Mahjong Drifters Chronicles Classic actually sounds legit cool! I didn't think we'd see a Mahjong game that I'd actually be interested in playing, but I think you've gone and found one! I'd defo play that if it were available in English The "cheaters" mode reminds me of the "Spot The Sneak" mode in Wii Party/Wii Party U; where one player is given an unfair advantage and has to play the games without making it obvious that they're cheating. It's a great mechanic there that I'm surprised hasn't been replicated in many other games, but I guess MDCC came up with a similar idea well over a decade in advance!

Just started my playthrough (playing the PC version on Steam Deck docked onto my TV) and I’ve just finished the 3rd zone. What a lovely little game this is so far! The physics are spot on (obviously copied basically 1:1 from Sonic Mania, which is exactly what I wanted), the level design is great so far (plenty of new mechanics, well hidden secrets, good structure and pacing with faster paths as rewards for good play), the new emerald gimmicks are well implemented; even the much maligned bosses have all been fun and enjoyable, with some cool gimmicks that haven’t outstayed their welcome yet (though I can see future bosses likely suffering from a bit of Kirby 64 syndrome, where they spend too much time invulnerable in the background). The bonus/special stages are also great! And I can definitely see myself going back for all of the medals too. Really, I have nothing to complain about. It’s all great so far! I hear that the multiplayer battle mode is a bit pants, but that’s just a sideshow to the main game anyway. This is brill! Easily Arzest’s best game to date, feels like they’ve truly come home! Edit: Ok, if there is one thing to complain about, it’s that the music is a bit hit & miss. Some of it is really great, while other tracks are just ok.

BTW. We figured out what was going on with my wired GCN controller… turns out that it wasn’t the G-Bros adapter’s fault; it was the c-stick. Turns out that the c-stick on my wired Smash GCN controller was knackered (I blame @Glen-i for being too rough with it ) and was starting to drift like mad; and because I have tilt attacks mapped to the c-stick, it was causing my controls to freak out while we were playing (BTW, I normally play with one of my many Wavebirds, but since I need to play in handheld mode during Smash nights? I have to use the wired controller with a G-Bros adapter as there’s no other way of using a GCN controller in handheld mode). Luckily though, I just so happened to have a spare old busted GCN controller in my box of crap that I could salvage for parts. So, armed with my trust soldering iron and some reckless courage… All fixed! All working perfectly now