MontyMole

Gosh, this escalated quickly. Not much point in trying to shout above the din, but wanted to thank the site for publishing a well researched piece that clearly stirs a lot of emotion, as indeed it should!

II’m glad it was reported here, even if it does rub some people the wrong way. Our purchases very rightly should be a personal choice, without coercion from others. I will always be glad to be given an informed choice though.

Luckily for me, I can’t afford one, even at these prices, so I’m spared having to ride my own cognitive dissonance!

@Dr_Fresh Thanks. Was not at all trying to call you out, though I’m sure you know that. It’s really very disheartening to feel the need to be so vigilant about where we spend our money these days.

@Dr_Fresh “ and also I don't think Plaion Replai manufactures lethal drones, so that's a plus.”

True, but SNK are majority owned by EGDC, the same company who are slowly eating into Capcom (currently 6% owned). EGDC is owned by the “not for profit” MISK foundation and the person not profiting the most from that venture is none other than Mohammed bin Salman.

If anyone isn’t aware at this point of his track record, just give him a google; particularly for his coalition in Yemen, which murdered 1000s of innocent people by bombing schools and hospitals and a blockade that stopped medical supplies entering the country and resulted in famine. The list does go on…

“ the nostalgia of tape loading”

Yeah, I have lots of nostalgia for the Speccy, but that’s definitely not a thing I’m desperate to relive!

It was only a matter of time before he branched out…

That “attract” music is just iconic. If you were ever in an arcade that had a hang on cabinet, you knew about it long before you saw the machine.

@MontyCircus “ I've read people say that Kung Fu Master is the first beat 'em up.
But when I saw Double Dragon for the first time, I didn't say "Cool, it's just like Kung Fu Master". It was its own thing. ”

I don’t think there’s a strong argument against Kung Fu Master being a beat em up game, but Kishimoto also made Renegade before Double Dragon.

If I did play this, I would without hesitation choose to be the guy holding a wooden spoon at the wrong end.

I highly recommend maxutmost https://maxutmost.com/ for its huge (and entertaining) selection of retro reviews. The editor used to write for Destructoid before that website went to the bad place.

@JJtheTexan I highly recommend getting a midi keyboard/controller and attaching to a phone/tablet (or pc). There’s a heap of excellent freeware or very cheap apps that will do all of this (…hmm, maybe not play your NES cartridges)

The synth unit alone in this thing costs 250 rupees!

As a synth nerd, I can tell that even if this were available commercially, I can’t actually afford to even look at the price tag. It looks amazing though and luckily for me, all those lovely 8 bit sounds are available in software form.

@Serpenterror I guess Jason is technically a zombie slasher anyway.

The only part of any of this that bothers me is that those kids’ first play through of those classic games is via a port.

Won’t somebody think of the children?!

I keep getting a feeling that people don’t realise that there’s a huge difference between using AI and relying on it. If your only tool is a hammer…

It’s pretty incredible what the Speccy could do, but I’m not sure 12 years old me could have tolerated just how many tape changes this would have required… and of course it would crash right at the end!

I imagine the “smaller reasons” are likely to be getting out of dodge, before the inevitable suits turn up. But yeah, the rising cost of RAM due to AI is probably the real reason?!

@RootsGenoa “ For me, the biggest problem is the enormous use of energy.”

Plus one for me. Possibly my only issue with AI, aside from how most people use it.

The rest is history repeating itself. I have an illustrator friend who made a multi million fortune, (which he frittered away in the classic manner.) He said he didn’t embrace digital tools when they arrived and stated many of the reasons I hear people complain about AI now. The people who replaced him are now in the same position. Jobs and quality of product threatened by an emerging technology.

@Jellyscare “ The great thing about this article format is that it tells you which are worth playing and which aren’t.”

To an extent, but naturally, it's a subjective article. I can’t find anything to enjoy about Shining in the Darkness, but it’s fairly high on this list. If I played that first (and probably would have originally, if I had actually realised it was the first game), I might have missed out on the next 2, which are classics imho.

@N64-ROX ironically enough, this entire saga has an air of tabloid press sensationalism. I haven’t really followed the story and possibly wouldn’t know about it at all, if not for the exposure here. He could have used that exposure to engage and inform and then more people might be on his side.

From the outset, the story has been drip fed and full of holes and feels more like a conspiracy or attention seeking to my spidey senses at least. I’m not saying it’s a fraud; I simply need more useful information to make an informed decision.

If he’s right, then he deserves the weight of all the gaming communities behind him, but currently (and again, I’m only going from what people say here) he just seems to be throwing insults and stomping his feet.

As for Nintendolife, the clue is in the name. You’re not going to get too much common sense there if it doesn’t fit the Nintendo PR template!

@N64-ROX Had to delete my original reply, as I skimmed your comment and misunderstood. Tabloid basically means condensed news, but in the U.K. at least became synonymous with trashy type magazine style papers aimed at the (ahem) working classes. I guess this site features tabloid type news, but not at all in the sense that The Sun newspaper does!

I’m genuinely surprised how many people are disliking this. I love pixel too, but I think this looks great. Closer to Metroid Dread’s art style and nobody seemed to mind that.

This is the first time I’ve felt excitement for a Castlevania title since the NDS games.

@Razieluigi The 3D was genuinely great at times. The old school Sega and Nes games especially stand out (pun intended).

It’s a shame that developers got lazy with the 3D so quickly. Even Nintendo’s own efforts were basically autoconversion’s eventually.

These days I rarely use the 3D effect, simply because I’m scared of breaking the slider!

Now we just need Anbernic et al to start releasing 20 consoles a month with 3D displays and my 3DS anxiety syndrome will be cured.

A good VR remake/port of Perfect Dark sounds amazing, but then I think of all the running and turning some of those levels require and it makes me feel nauseous just imagining it.

@slider1983 True, that!

So now it can play Doom? I do like the idea of being able to run PS2 isos natively, though it’s kind of ironic that I’d also unlock extra power in order to make it happen.

@Sketcz Thanks, I haven’t read that before. Interesting that he went into the project not having a great understanding of stereo imagery and to be honest, I’m not sure if he does now!

Imagine what a chore it was to develop for, just trying to ensure the image displayed correctly.

Poor David Seaman (or is it supposed to be Banks) left out in the cold, despite having the most made-for-porno moustache on the pitch.

The guitar hero games (on Wii as that’s all I have enough experience to comment) just felt more like playing an instrument. I’m a musician and maybe you are and disagree? That’s fine.

I played this game with the guitar hero peripherals and at the time I was playing a digital drum kit in real life. The experience was so much more realistic in guitar hero as my memory serves. I recently bought a Wii and guitar controller, but have yet to find a well priced drum controller to test my memory…

@mariteaux I realise my comment is almost directly in contrast, but I do agree with the boobs and ads/official licensing being too much! I think it was a time when games seemed to be tunnel focussed on bouncy breasts and the whole internet was shouting “bewbs” as if that wasn’t misogynistic in any whatsoever.

I wish neversoft had got it because the guitar hero games were very natural feeling for a musician, especially the drumming. It felt all wrong in the eventual game, although it looked and sounded amazing on the Wii.

The use of her bosom’s as 3D obstacles is as classy as it is innovative.

@Peteykins I do agree with you absolutely, but in this instance I don’t think there’s really any grey areas. They took someone else’s work and charged people to access it.

@Zeebor15 Calm down Ken Griffey, we’re your friends!

@GodlessPreservation I’ve been a sound engineer for close to 30 years and I hear stuff like this regularly. It’s not the notes you play, it’s the space between them that makes the track, etc. This is just a creative way of thinking and what sets them apart from the rest of us!

Reminded me of when Takemura said his final piece of music would be a single sound, 2 seconds long, or when Brian Wilson wrote Good Vibrations and called his friend into the room to listen and he just played the same note over and over again, haha.

@kirby2000 Thank you! I’ve just been googling for 20 minutes, trying to remember what brand of kempston joystick I used to have as a kid. Gave up and came back to read the comments and there it was!

I broke a lot of those playing Daley Thompson, Hyper Sports etc.

This is amazing. I don’t even own a C64 and still don’t think I can turn this down. The physical is practically the same price it would have been in 1990 and it comes with a free digital copy.

@KingMike Nice try, Nintendo Ninja…

I hope some day Ron does get to make his Zelda RPG, because honestly, on paper that sounds amazing.

4 and a half people? I heard the other half of that person had to clean the toilets. The Japanese are brutal when it comes to business.

@metaphysician I hadn’t heard of this and you’re right, it’s hard to imagine how they will pull it off.

I can see why people working in the industry are getting nervous, but when you see ideas like this, it’s clear that AI has exciting potential in the right hands.

Personally I’m excited to see what people can achieve with AI. I don’t have to purchase the inevitable slop that’s going to be churned out. Companies like EA will find ways to exploit the industry in the name of profits with or without AI.

@NatiaAdamo I’m pretty sure you know what I meant. In case you didn’t, then yes. I meant Dragons Lair.

@flojomojo Good point and well made. I loved that period of FMV games, even if the games were mostly disappointing in terms of gameplay. I don’t think the comparison is perfect though. FMV games were still made by skilled artists with their own ideas. Dragon Slayer still does it for me and largely because it’s Don Bluth’s hand drawn animation that hasn’t aged like graphics do.

If AI is used considerately, rather than simply a cheap manufacturing process, I’m certain it can be a groundbreaking tool in the right hands. The artistry and skill of development needn’t be lost. My fear though is that the reality might be closer to an exec typing “make me a game about a frog” into ChatGPT or whatever AI thingy you can make games with.

Mirror’s Edge for me. Was my first 360 game and still impresses me to this day.

Whoever was playing in the trailer footage would make a pretty good stormtrooper.

@ChromaticDracula “ “Oriental” is a term traditionally used to describe objects”

I’ve not heard that before. Historically it was used to describe East Asian people and culture in my part of the world at least, but yes it’s definitely considered rude nowadays.

Interesting that they changed Joanna Dark’s features for the Japanese release though. I had no idea.

It’s a genuinely great feature for those wanting to use their physical cartridges. Going back to native N64 game is a blurry experience that didnt bother me in the slightest back then, but is jarring now. This clearly is a huge improvement in resolution.

@no_donatello “ Maybe in the same way that Tetris is anti-Mario”

I’d say more like in the way that Mario is great fun to play, with perfect controls and flawless level design, whereas Tail of the Sun is the polar opposite of those things.

I was never a huge fan of the original, despite my love for the point and click genre. If I end up enjoying origins, I’d be willing to give it another crack though.