Nintendo Direct : 23.09.21 (11pm UK time)

[Ashley]

I think Goldeneye is a definite no because there's Nintendo, Rare, Eon, maybe even Activision given they currently own the license (right?) etc. It's messy and unlikely going to get everyone to agree. 

[Cube]

I would love for those companies to come to an agreement (I'm not sure if Activision would be involved any more, no idea who it publishing iO interactive's Bond game, but there's also Amazon now due to them buying MGM), but it seems extremely unlikely.

I would especially love the remastered version to get finished (I played it and it just needs a few final touches).

Supposedly, the biggest people are the individuals in charge of the franchise, as they have very specific things about the franchise and GoldenEye was blocked from being re-released and re-made due to blood or something ridiculous.

[Glen-i]

Perfect Dark is better anyway.

@RedShell, did you ever try playing SNES games online via NSO? It's uncharacteristically buttery smooth! I think it uses rollback netcode.

It's a fantastic online experience. I managed to play through the entirety of SMB3 (on Mario All-Stars), most of DKC 2 and Kirby Super Star with another N-Europer with virtually no issues!

It's nothing like the NES app in that regard.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Glen-i

[RedShell]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

@RedShell, did you ever try playing SNES games online via NSO? It's uncharacteristically buttery smooth! I think it uses rollback netcode.

It's a fantastic online experience. I managed to play through the entirety of SMB3 (on Mario All-Stars), most of DKC 2 and Kirby Super Star with another N-Europer with virtually no issues!

Let me refresh your memory:

But yeah, I did play quite a lot of SNES games online while I was subscribed, and other than the moments above (and maybe half a dozen or so others) overall those type of issues were pretty rare. It's stable enough in general, it's just not very ambitious is what I was getting at before. I mean they literally just shoehorned the online feature via pre-existing local multiplayer.

[Cube]

When I tried the NES/SNES games, I got the impression that player 1 runs the game and streams it to player 2, so only player 2 will get lag.

[Dcubed]

@RedShell The N64 NSO games will run a LOT better than they originally did on the original hardware.  Like with the Wii & Wii U VC, emulation can remove the slowdown that plagued the original games and allow these games to run at whatever framerate they were originally capped at.

Smash Bros 64 is a great example.  On the original console, it commonly drops to anywhere between 30-40FPS when playing in 4 player mode, but on the Wii VC version? It's a buttery smooth 60FPS at all times.  Likewise, DK64 on Wii U has all of its slowdown removed and it's a rock solid 30FPS now!

That's one of the reasons why I've wanted VC re-releases of Rare's N64 titles so badly for so long! We'll finally get to play the likes of Perfect Dark and Banjo Tooie (in their superior N64 original form!) without all the nasty slowdown!  

Edited September 26, 2021 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

13 minutes ago, Cube said:

When I tried the NES/SNES games, I got the impression that player 1 runs the game and streams it to player 2, so only player 2 will get lag.

No.  The way NSO NES/SNES online works is that it just sends button presses for each player through the internet in real-time; and each player's gameplay instance just accepts the button presses as whatever controller input has been assigned (P1, P2 etc).  It's basically a super long controller cable (but invisible! And you can't trip over it!)

Edited September 26, 2021 by Dcubed

[Cube]

13 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

@RedShell Likewise, DK64 on Wii U has all of its slowdown removed and it's a rock solid 30FPS now!

 

Although DK64 was designed with slowdown in mind, so some parts of DK64 on Wii U are impossible to complete without save buffering or abusing save states. Not to mention the widescreen doesn't work at all (unless you can manually stretch the image on your TV). It's a feeble attempt compared to the amazing versions of Banjo and Perfect Dark on XBLA.

[Jonnas]

11 hours ago, RedShell said:

Possibly, but the fact they didn't put any of the Goemon titles on the SNES app (not even Legend of the Mystical Ninja) isn't a good sign.
Konami clearly don't give a shit about Goemon any more.

Would be fantastic if Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon did make it to the N64 collection though, for the sake of those that have never played it before.

But really, I think the closest thing we're going to get on Switch, is actually the upcoming game by Good Feel:

Serious Goemon vibes! 
And with Etsunobu Ebisu (aka Ebisumaru ) involved, chances are it'll be great.

First of all, thank you very much for letting me know about this game. I imagine its release is far away (since all we have is concept art), but it's excellent to know that one of Goemon's creators is working on something whimsical like this.

Second, most companies didn't give much to the NES/SNES service. All that Capcom gave was games from Ghosts&Goblins and Breath of Fire (two series they barely care about), whereas Konami only gave Gradius and the Twinbee series (pretty much long-dead franchises). Not a single Castlevania, Contra, or Metal Gear. This makes me think that no big franchise was ever making it to that service. The fact that Goemon was absent supports the idea that Konami still has some respect for it.

However, the Mega Drive service does include Castlevania and Contra, which is quite a leap. Also, Banjo Kazooie is certainly a big get. I'm thinking 3rd parties are a smidge more motivated to get some games in the Expansion Pack than they were for NES/SNES (likely a hefty deal), which means that, at least for now, there's hope that Konami might give us something more.

Maybe it's just silly optimism, but I do want to believe.

[Glen-i]

6 hours ago, Cube said:

Although DK64 was designed with slowdown in mind, so some parts of DK64 on Wii U are impossible to complete without save buffering or abusing save states. Not to mention the widescreen doesn't work at all (unless you can manually stretch the image on your TV). It's a feeble attempt compared to the amazing versions of Banjo and Perfect Dark on XBLA.

I have some pretty serious misgivings with both Banjo games on XBLA.

Banjo-Kazooie has a pretty severe game-breaker where if you played Bottle's Challenge and the AI controlled Banjo in the puzzle collected notes, you could no longer complete the game 100% because the tweaked note mechanic meant that note was gone forever and because you didn't collect it, the game doesn't recognise it as collected.

But Banjo-Tooie was even worse, simply because the controls for Breegull Blaster (The First Person Shooter segments) were changed so that Banjo resets his vertical aiming when you let go of the stick. This made any of these segments much harder then intended because you need to aim upwards a lot! It all comes to an infuriating head in the final battle, which I literally couldn't beat because the controls were so awful. I could do that fight in my sleep on the N64. But constantly missing because I couldn't keep the sights steady meant I could never beat Grunty before the Mustard Gas killed me.

And another thing, using any cheats that aren't learned from Cheato disables the ability to get on to the Leaderboards. Which is fine. What isn't fine is that it also disables the ability to save the game, rendering them completely pointless. Banjo-Tooie without "SUPERBANJO" is not a Banjo-Tooie I want to play. That cheat is loads of fun to mess around with!

And this isn't exactly the XBLA's version's fault, but trying to beat Canary Mary was physically painful on a 360 controller.

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I have some pretty serious misgivings with both Banjo games on XBLA.

Banjo-Kazooie has a pretty severe game-breaker where if you played Bottle's Challenge and the AI controlled Banjo in the puzzle collected notes, you could no longer complete the game 100% because the tweaked note mechanic meant that note was gone forever and because you didn't collect it, the game doesn't recognise it as collected.

But Banjo-Tooie was even worse, simply because the controls for Breegull Blaster (The First Person Shooter segments) were changed so that Banjo resets his vertical aiming when you let go of the stick. This made any of these segments much harder then intended because you need to aim upwards a lot! It all comes to an infuriating head in the final battle, which I literally couldn't beat because the controls were so awful. I could do that fight in my sleep on the N64. But constantly missing because I couldn't keep the sights steady meant I could never beat Grunty before the Mustard Gas killed me.

And another thing, using any cheats that aren't learned from Cheato disables the ability to get on to the Leaderboards. Which is fine. What isn't fine is that it also disables the ability to save the game, rendering them completely pointless. Banjo-Tooie without "SUPERBANJO" is not a Banjo-Tooie I want to play. That cheat is loads of fun to mess around with!

And this isn't exactly the XBLA's version's fault, but trying to beat Canary Mary was physically painful on a 360 controller.

There are TONS of issues with the XBLA ports of BK, BT and PD that make me absolutely hate these ports.

Just a few that immediately spring to mind...

All of the new re-drawn HUD elements are ugly as sin and are not accurate to the original at all.

The camera system has been reworked and all for the worse.  4J Studios tried to make it work like a "modern" game, but it actually works significantly worse than the original as it loves getting stuck and never gives you a decent view of the action.

All of the game's cutscenes are broken and none of the timing matches up correctly anymore.

The enhanced draw distance completely breaks the level design with a lot of the hidden items since you can now see them from miles away (the Honeycomb in the ocean in Treasure Trove Cove immediately stands out to me in that regard).

All of the music has been pre-recorded and has been given a massive dose of reverb for some godknowswhat reason; making all the music sound like it was recorded in an underground cave.

The absolutely cack-handed and disrespectful change to the music note collection system by 4J Studios completely breaks the intended gameplay loop and level design; especially in the later stages (Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood are supposed to be gruelling gauntlets and tests of endurance where you have to struggle to stay alive long enough to collect all 100 notes in a single life... now all of that is gone, rendered limp by the fact that notes stay collected on death/exit from the level)... As an added bonus, this stupid change also introduces a nasty bug whereby any notes collected in the Attract Mode & Bottle Bonus Challenge videos remain collected PERMANANTLY; forever locking you out of 100% completion.  Great job!

All of the new re-drawn HUD elements are ugly as sin and are not accurate to the original at all.

While not AS big a problem as in BK, the reworked camera is not as good as the original N64 version.

All of the game's cutscenes are broken and none of the timing matches up correctly anymore (this is especially noticable and egregious in Tooie, which has a lot more cutscenes, which are all a lot more dynamic than the original BK).

Like with BK, the enhanced draw distance completely breaks the level design with a lot of the hidden items since you can now see them from miles away (the Honeycombs in Cloud Cuckoo Land immediatley spring to mind).

Sound in general is pretty glitchy overall in this version; the stereo balance constantly goes haywire whenever music transitions take place (especially underwater).  It also has the same crazy reverb problem as in BK XBLA.

The first-person section controls are, in two words, completely fucked.  For some idiotic reason, 4J Studios thought it'd be a great idea to have the aiming reticle snap back into the centre whenever you let go of the stick.  This makes strafing impossible now and makes these sections an absolute nightmare to play as Banjo now aims like a drunk who can't keep himself from flailing around uncontrollably (the final boss is almost totally impossible now as a result of this!).

For all intents and purposes, the cheats have been removed; as they ALL disable saving now! No more SUPERBANJO  

The Banjo Kazooie carts were all removed in favour of having the BK save file enable the Stop N' Swop features.  While this sounds like a good idea on paper, it actually renders these hidden areas completely pointless now (also the additional unlocks are physically painful to look at... a fucking Gamerpic!? Seriously!? THAT'S the best you can do!?)

The "enhanced" visuals are ugly as fuck; pretty much everyone looks worse than the original.  Technically better, but artistically bankrupt (Elvis is the biggest offender however!).  Amazingly enough, the cutscenes in this version are somehow NOT broken though! So I can at least give 4J credit for that.

All of the weapons have been rebalanced and fucked around with, and NONE of them play like they do in the N64 original.  This is defintely a case of 4J Studios overstepping boundaries here and outright fucking around with the intended game design.  The Laptop Gun is absolutely shit now & barely does any damage or knockback, Poison Knives can no longer cause motion blur to dead bodies (which is most of the bloody point of them!); actually, motion blur is basically crap now as it only lasts for a mere fraction of the time of the N64 original.  Dragons and rocket weapons are all shit now... there's just too many changes to list here.  Quite frankly, the weapon balance is nothing like the original at all, and that's absolutely unacceptable.

NONE of the included control schemes match the original at all and all of them feel unnatural.  Because having the ability to hold down the A button to pull up the weapon menu was just too complex for 4J Studios to figure out, instead, the controls have been tweaked to play like Halo or Call of Duty (The "Spartan" and "Duty Calls" options respectively - of course the "classic" option plays absolutely nothing like the original at all, because of course it fucking doesn't).  Obviously 4J Studios felt that PD had to be "updated" to play more like a "modern" FPS and the game is all the worse for it; all of the control schemes feel awful in this version! Also the aiming sensitivity is all kinds of fucked, the manual aiming mode (holding down R on the N64 original) is basically completely useless now and the auto-aim is complelety fucked beyond recognition of the original game.  Whoopie!

 

Gimme the N64 originals over the XBLA versions any day of the week.  Hell, I'd take them over the XBLA versions even without a resolution or framerate bump!

Edited September 27, 2021 by Dcubed

[Mandalore]

I remember really enjoying replaying Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark on XBLA. Apart from some oddly stretched HUD stuff, I don't remember any issues with Banjo. And the modern controls on Perfect Dark were very welcome, the N64 controls in hindsight were weird even back then (Turok controls made much more sense for an N64 controller). The first thing I did was turned the auto-aim off and it was still a lot easier than the N64 version. Apart from Joanna Dark's face, I liked the graphical overhaul that 4J did. Online multiplayer was also a lot of fun and the badges in the leaderboard stats added more replay value.

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, Mandalore said:

I remember really enjoying replaying Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark on XBLA. Apart from some oddly stretched HUD stuff, I don't remember any issues with Banjo. And the modern controls on Perfect Dark were very welcome, the N64 controls in hindsight were weird even back then (Turok controls made much more sense for an N64 controller). The first thing I did was turned the auto-aim off and it was still a lot easier than the N64 version. Apart from Joanna Dark's face, I liked the graphical overhaul that 4J did. Online multiplayer was also a lot of fun and the badges in the leaderboard stats added more replay value.

Pretty certain the N64 version allows you to use Turok controls though?

[Mandalore]

15 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Pretty certain the N64 version allows you to use Turok controls though?

Maybe it did? I generally don't mess with the default control schemes when I play games.

[Dcubed]

35 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Pretty certain the N64 version allows you to use Turok controls though?

It does.  Both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark both have the same controls as Turok when you select the "1.2" control option (and it is the far superior choice BTW).

Edited September 27, 2021 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Perfect Dark and GoldenEye also have dual analogue options, using two controllers. Hopefully if either get a Switch release, they'll make use of that but adapt it to a single controller. I doubt they would, but they really should.

[S.C.G]

Thoughts on Perfect Dark...

The original game was a technical accomplishment when it was first released, and it is still perfectly playable now, despite the framerate.

When it was remade, the game was expanded to a wider audience, at a cost which has only become more apparent in recent years, and although it's not... perfect it is an improvement in many areas, and remains perhaps the most accessible option for most potential players of it today.

Having a stable framerate and the addition of online multiplayer, do make this an appealing option still, despite the impact on the controls, some of the questionable graphical changes, and the significant alterations to the gameplay, clearly not for the better in some areas.

If there was to be another remake of Perfect Dark in 2021 or beyond, I'd like to think that a developer such as NightDive Studios could bring the game up to date in a way which would prove to be more true to the original source material, especially given when they have achieved with numerous other FPS titles over the past few years. And if their previous remakes of titles are anything to go by, they would be able to make the game work well across multiple platforms, although in this case, clearly the only consoles the game would get a re-release on would be Xbox and Switch... with the possibility of a PC port, but probably no PS4/PS5 release due to the fact that there isn't a precedent set for it, unless some kind of deal could be made?

Either way, a more modern remake of Perfect Dark would be welcome, especially in view of a new game being made by another company for the Xbox, due for release some time in the future. Because no matter how that game turns out, I think having renewed interest in the franchise as a whole, and more people curious to experience the original game is a good thing, so there is a chance to show the game in a more Perfect light, rather than it being left in the Dark as an important N64 game, with a remake which could be better, though for the price... which is next to nothing as part of Rare Replay, it's still a fair offering, though for a full remake in 2021 which takes the best of both incarnations? I could see it selling for £20 on either platform, digitally, or as a full retail title on the Switch.