Messages

1

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 375: Whatcha Been Shipping?

« on: March 27, 2014, 05:20:36 PM »

Regarding Wii U Virtual Console RPGs, by the end of April America will have:

• Breath of Fire II (SNES) Capcom
• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) Konami
• Earthbound (SNES) Nintendo
• Golden Sun (GBA) Nintendo
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA) Nintendo
• Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (SNES) Tecmo Koei
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) Nintendo

Meanwhile Japan has all that plus these releases that are already in english in their original form:

• Final Fantasy (NES) Square Enix
• Final Fantasy II (SNES) Square Enix
• Final Fantasy III (SNES) Square Enix
• Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES) Square Enix
• Secret of Mana (SNES) Square Enix

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

« on: August 26, 2013, 01:21:26 PM »

Secondly, Nintendo needs to port over games like Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 themselves.

If they going to do something along those lines, I think it'd be better to moneyhat exclusives that SE doesn't want to spend resources on themselves.  Nintendo works with multiple studios composed of key former Square and Enix staff (Mistwalker, Alphadream, Grezzo, Genius Sonority, Spike Chunsoft) and even owns a couple more (Monolith Soft, 1-up Studio), imagine if they put all that manpower to work on stuff like Romancing SaGa 4 or Chrono Trigger II or a new FF Tactics or a new Mana game or ...

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TalkBack / Re: Shadow of the Eternals Fails to Reach Funding Goal

« on: August 26, 2013, 01:03:33 PM »

Between Epic, NeoGAF and Too Human, Dyack really dug his own grave.  I can't help but feel a little sorry for him though, he really is a toxic figure within the industry at this point and it's hard to see a way out of that for him.  I feel like Precursor would've had a better shot at funding if he wasn't involved at all.

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TalkBack / Re: Team Ninja Open to More Wii U Games, Has No Existing Ports Planned

« on: August 26, 2013, 12:45:56 PM »

I think "see what exactly those games are" means "see how well this console sells".  IE: does it get proper support or just casual shovelware like the Wii or literally nothing.

While I think this is a totally legitimate position for any company to take regarding Wii U given it's current position, it does feel a bit hypocritical coming from Team Ninja looking at their robust Vita support (3 enhanced ports so far, all of which sold horribly). 

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TalkBack / Re: Level-5's New RPG, Wonder Flick, Coming to Wii U in Japan

« on: August 26, 2013, 12:14:56 PM »

F2P is going to kill gaming as we know it.

Great presentation on this though.  The logo and artstyle remind me a lot of Dragon Quest.

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TalkBack / Re: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara Pushed to September

« on: August 26, 2013, 12:03:28 PM »

The 3 month delay is really terrible, I can't imagine Capcom would've made this such a low priority had it happened to the PS3 or 360 versions.  At this point I think they probably should've just released it as is on time and patched the broken online play later on. 

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TalkBack / Re: Team Ninja Open to More Wii U Games, Has No Existing Ports Planned

« on: August 26, 2013, 11:59:14 AM »

NG3 Razor's Edge must've sold horrifically.  It's a shame, I really would've liked to see DOA5 Ultimate on Wii U (with playable Zero Suit Samus naturally).

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: July 26, 2013, 12:18:58 AM »

Pikmin 3 held up well, it's actually a better second week than Pikmin 1 or 2.  And that's not even counting digital.

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TalkBack / Re: Namco Bandai Registers Three New Tales Series Trademarks

« on: July 23, 2013, 11:56:56 AM »

ARGH!  ****ing no ability to edit posts in Talkback!

Edit: "Except, of course, the Wii tanking in the last few years of its life, and the Wii U tanking before it even started to live.

Namco-Bandai is considering worldwide markets when making their platform decisions. That's why they've gone with a popular platform worldwide like the PS3 instead of the Wii U."

Were that really the case then why does PS Vita keep getting exclusive Tales remakes?

Also, I don't think you're really aware just how badly Tales has sold on PS systems outside Japan.  Graces f for example sold about a third what Vesperia or Symphonia DOTNW did in the US.  In fact no Tales game on PS1, PS2, PS3 or PSP has ever sold over 100,000 in the US.  Even the super late, super buggy GBA port of Phantasia managed to do that.  The fact of the matter is, while PS3 might be a healthy platform worldwide, it's just not a healthy platform for Tales in the west.  Maybe Namco will get the memo once Xillia and Symphonia Chronicles also fail overseas.

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TalkBack / Re: EarthBound Listed to Appear on the Wii U eShop Today

« on: July 23, 2013, 10:39:31 AM »

With all this talk of market value, here's what a loose cart would cost you (VGPC average) for each of the games currently on Wii U VC:

Balloon Fight (NES) $13.00
Donkey Kong (NES) $23.49
Donkey Kong Jr. (NES) $10.00
EarthBound (SNES) $176.41
Excitebike (NES) $3.99
F-Zero (SNES) $5.27
Ghosts 'n Goblins (NES) $9.45
Ice Climber (NES) $12.70
Kid Icarus (NES) $11.44
Kirby Super Star (SNES) $30.33
Kirby's Adventure (NES) $10.28
Kirby's Dream Course (SNES) $10.50
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES) $44.82
Mario Bros. (NES) $15.99
Mega Man (NES) $43.77
Mega Man 2 (NES) $17.86
Mega Man 3 (NES) $16.32
Mega Man 4 (NES) $23.69
Mega Man X (SNES) $28.00
Metroid (NES) $11.56
Pac-Man (NES) $9.00
Pilotwings (SNES) $5.87
Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream (NES) $9.54
Solomon's Key (NES) $5.00
Spelunker (NES) $5.25
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES) $12.15
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) $10.69
Super Mario World (SNES) $10.52
Super Metroid (SNES) $36.84
Vegas Stakes (SNES) $1.56
Wrecking Crew (NES) $9.99
Xevious (NES) $2.56
Yoshi (NES) $4.86

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

« on: July 23, 2013, 10:03:09 AM »

Given that the independence of Atlus is what allows them to put out such a large amount of games with such a large variety, I wouldn't be thrilled with any major company purchasing them.  If I had to pick a large company to do so, I'd side with Sony just because they aren't huge micro-managers, whereas Nintendo is.  I'd still prefer a smaller company like Gung-Ho or XSEED acquire them, though.

Sony has a nasty habit of shuttering studios in recent years (Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool, BigBig, Zipper, Ingocnito, etc) plus they invest next to nothing into the Japanese industry these days.  SCE has actually never bought a Japanese studio, they simply don't appear to value their home development community and seemingly prefer chasing Microsoft westward.

Nintendo's "iron fist" developer policies are also largely overblown, and is traditionally a western phenomenon anyway.  Within Japan Nintendo funds a multitude of studios on a wide variety of projects, many with little oversight.  If you look at the last Japanese studio they acquired (Monolith Soft) they're flourising these days with a lot of backing and a lot of discretion on the projects they want to do.  Nintendo would easily be preferable to Sony for acquiring Atlus imo, and their track record really supports it.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo's B-List Games and the Developers That Should Handle Them

« on: July 21, 2013, 10:46:04 PM »

weren't some of the f-zero guys involved in the sonic transformed series?

Nope, none.  Most of the Monkey Ball/F-Zero staff work on the Yakuza games now.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo's B-List Games and the Developers That Should Handle Them

« on: July 21, 2013, 01:03:42 PM »

Who made Super Monkey Ball? Weren't they the same people at Sega that made F-Zero GX?

Yes, Amusement Vision made both F-Zero GX and the original Super Monkey Ball. The studio shut down in 2004 after Sega and Sammy merged, resulting in many of Sega's studios being consolidated into one.

Sort of, they first merged with Smilebit, then both split again with mixed teams to form what's now Yakuza Studio (Yakuza series, Monkey Ball series, Binary Domain) and Sega Sports Design (Mario & Sonic series, Let's Make a Pro Soccer/Baseball/Derby team franchises).

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TalkBack / Re: Six Game Boy Mega Man Titles Coming to 3DS Virtual Console

« on: July 21, 2013, 12:57:52 PM »

Excited for IV/V and the Xtreme games.

Capcom needs to do a similar roundup for Wii U VC this fall (MM5-7, MMX2-3, & Bass, Soccer).

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TalkBack / Re: Sega 3D Classics Coming to North America, Europe

« on: July 21, 2013, 12:47:12 PM »

Unfortunately it's based on the Genesis version of Altered Beast.   Space Harrier, Super Hang-On and Galaxy Force II are all the arcade versions thankfully.

I hope the series continues, I'd really like to see arcade games like After Burner, Power Drift, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder, Fantasy Zone 2 DX and Puyo Puyo Tsuu yet.  Maybe they'll even get to polygonal stuff like Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter eventually.

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TalkBack / Re: Namco Bandai Registers Three New Tales Series Trademarks

« on: July 21, 2013, 12:37:43 PM »

PS3 exclusive pretty much guaranteed.  Namco really does need to start considering worldwide markets when making platform decisions though, as every PlayStation Tales has bombed hard outside Japan while the Nintendo and Xbox Tales have all done reasonably well.  There's no good reason stuff like Xillia or Graces f shouldn't have been multiplatform.

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TalkBack / Re: Game Freak Teases a New Game, Will Be a Collaboration With Another Studio

« on: July 21, 2013, 11:47:49 AM »

Pokémon x Derby Stallion?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Where's Animal crossing Nintendo?

« on: June 07, 2012, 08:33:10 PM »

It's releasing this fall in Japan.  I haven't any clue why it (or Layton, or Fire Emblem, or anything besides Mario/Pokémon) wasn't at E3.

It just has a generic "TBA 2012" release date, no specific season anywhere. Considering we have seen any info on it (besides the name Animal Crossing: Pop Out) since E3 2011, it won't be surprising if it gets delayed to 2013.

The fall target was given out along with the title by Iwata during the IR meeting. 

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2012 Press Conferences - Days 2-3: Nintendo Main PC & 3DS PC

« on: June 07, 2012, 05:47:37 PM »

Thing is this is a new system launch, past issues like Zelda delays over a decade ago sort of miss the point.  Imagine if Nintendo had done this for previous systems and they'd shown ONLY launch window games at their E3 debuts for Wii (Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Excite Truck, Wario Ware SM) and 3DS (Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Steel Diver, Ocarina of Time 3D)... how do think the press and consumers would've taken that?

Well for the Wii and 3DS several of the games they showed where planned on coming out earlier but got delayed.  Metroid Prime 3 for instance was originally suppose to come out around the Wii's launch window but got delayed because of certain issues with the games quality.  For Mario Galaxy, during interviews at E3 2006, Miyamoto made it sound like they were trying to get that game out not too long after launch but that ended up coming out a full year after launch as well.  There's also Smash Bros Brawl which Sakurai would later admit after the game came out that all the characters except Sonic where finished in 2006 which points to Brawl originally planned on coming out sometime much earlier then its final release date as well.


For the 3DS Kid Icarus: Uprising was originally planned on coming out closer to the 3DS launch as well but ended up getting delayed several times as well.  Mario 3D Kart and Paper Mario were also probably planned for earlier releases since their studio's had several years to work on them after their last game but they still took longer to make.  The fact that Mario 3D Land wasn't shown at E3 2010 but instead at GDC 2011 which was almost a year later but still ended up coming out before Mario 3D Kart and Paper Mario kind of shows development issues probably ended up delaying these two in some way.


I wouldn't be surprised if since HD development is more complicated any of their previous systems, any game that Nintendo can't guarantee will be out within the launch window they don't want to risk showing.  Actually I wouldn't be surprised if because of new more complex HD development Nintendo fears that some of their delays will end up much longer then delays for Wii and 3DS were so if they were to show games they can't guarantee will be ready for early 2013 now, they could end up being delayed until late 2014 which would give them another Twilight Princess PR situation which I'm sure they never want again.

Fact is none of the games you mentioned were planned for launch window except Prime 3, and while all did see delays (except Mario Kart 7, which was actually pushed up ahead of schedule to make the holidays), the delays really didn't hurt any of them critically or commercially, and they really didn't hurt their platforms either.  I'm not sure the take away for Wii U this E3 is really in any way better by comparison, Nintendo's strategic blunder may have very well done real damage to the system's prospects.

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TalkBack / Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening Coming to North America

« on: June 07, 2012, 05:37:33 PM »

I have a hard time believing NOA only has 3 Mario games and 2 eShop Pokémon games for the rest of 2012 on 3DS.  I mean okay, maybe Fire Emblem is 2013 (perhaps the significant DLC lengthening what should be a shorter localization window) but come on.  Where's Animal Crossing?  Where's Layton?  Where's Flipnote?  Where's Dragon Quest?  Where's anything else new really?  Is Mario & Pokémon really it?!

Well, 2012 is half over already... Think about it, how many Nintendo-published usually come out in during a 6-month period? The number of games shown are more than reasonable. The reason it seems like a lot less is because this year they chose to only focus on games would be out this year. At the last two E3s Nintendo revealed plenty of new 3DS games which were mostly all far off leaving the 3DS with a huge software drought in between. So, they clearly decided to focus this E3 on immediate releases.

Don't forget, we already know Nintendo is planning to have another event where they'll being revealing the price for Wii U. It's a pretty fair assumption that they plan to unveil their more far off titles at that time, since it's not far off anyway.

The last time Nintendo had 3 or less retail releases for a system's 2nd half leading up to it's 2nd holiday was Virtual Boy... and that's because they'd already discontinued it. Only 3 games for six months is inexcusable, even Wii last year on it's suppossed death bed had 6 releases in the same span. 

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TalkBack / Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening Coming to North America

« on: June 07, 2012, 05:25:23 PM »

Right after the Fire Emblem confirmation, somebody asked about Animal Crossing, but then the Fire Emblem thing blew up.

Layton is handled by Level-5 now that they have US offices.

Level-5's American branch isn't a full publisher and they've been in place nearly a year now. They still work with American publishers, which is why Nintendo published Layton 4 and Bandai is publishing Ninokuni.

NOE already confirmed they're publishing Layton 5 this year, it makes zero sense for NOA not to be doing the same.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2012 Press Conferences - Days 2-3: Nintendo Main PC & 3DS PC

« on: June 07, 2012, 02:43:33 PM »

Announcing games early tends to bite them in the ass. Ocarina of Time got delayed 73 times. So did Twilight Princess. With the way they delay titles and sometimes scrap entire projects. It's probably better for them to keep their mouths shut until the game is near release. They obviously don't always do this, but they probably should.

Thing is this is a new system launch, past issues like Zelda delays over a decade ago sort of miss the point.  Imagine if Nintendo had done this for previous systems and they'd shown ONLY launch window games at their E3 debuts for Wii (Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Excite Truck, Wario Ware SM) and 3DS (Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Steel Diver, Ocarina of Time 3D)... how do think the press and consumers would've taken that?

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TalkBack / Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening Coming to North America

« on: June 07, 2012, 12:06:39 PM »

They didnt show it because they only showed 2012 games

I have a hard time believing NOA only has 3 Mario games and 2 eShop Pokémon games for the rest of 2012 on 3DS.  I mean okay, maybe Fire Emblem is 2013 (perhaps the significant DLC lengthening what should be a shorter localization window) but come on.  Where's Animal Crossing?  Where's Layton?  Where's Flipnote?  Where's Dragon Quest?  Where's anything else new really?  Is Mario & Pokémon really it?!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Where's Animal crossing Nintendo?

« on: June 07, 2012, 11:46:55 AM »

It's releasing this fall in Japan.  I haven't any clue why it (or Layton, or Fire Emblem, or anything besides Mario/Pokémon) wasn't at E3.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: E3 2012 Press Conferences - Days 2-3: Nintendo Main PC & 3DS PC

« on: June 07, 2012, 11:37:36 AM »

Well, at the end of the day I hope the negative response at least sends Nintendo the message that focusing exclusely on "launch window" Wii U and 2012 3DS stuff was a mistake.  And even then not coming out full force and announcing EVERYTHING even more of a mistake given all the Wii U launch window games that were perplexingly missing that we're slowly finding out about anyway (Black Ops 2, Epic Mickey 2, Madden 13, FIFA 13, Tomb Raider, etc). 

I seriously have no idea what Nintendo was thinking.  Some visually impressive teasers for something like Prime 4, Galaxy 3, Xenoblade 2 or Smash 4 (or whatever equivalents those teams are working on) really would've gone a long way and totally flipped perceptions imo.  One would think after they crapped the bed at last year's E3 they'd do a bit more than just roll out mostly the same stuff for this year.  It really boggles the mind given we know Nintendo is capable of doing an amazing system rollout (Wii @ E3 2006, 3DS @ E3 2010).