Comments 120

Re: Following Onimusha, Capcom Is Looking At 'Re-Activating' Dormant Franchises - What Would You Like To See Return?

PowerPandaMods

Capcom has always been good about incorporating its non-fighting game characters into its fighting game rosters. Almost all of the Final Fight characters eventually found their way into Street Fighter Alpha or Saturday Night Slam Masters, and the rest made it into

I'd love to see that kind of thing in reverse. I feel like they could take some of their colorful fighting game characters and make other interesting games with them. For example, what would a Trine-style Darkstalkers game look like? What would happen if you did a Gauntlet Legends style game with Powerstone characters? They've got the name recognition and the designs, but so much of their back catalog is fighting games, and they need more variety.

Re: "I Have To Admit That I'm A Little Bitter" - Epic Mickey's Warren Spector Has A Bone To Pick With Oswald's New TV Show

PowerPandaMods

Oswald pops up rarely, but he does pop up. I really wish he had been utilized in the Paul Rudish shorts, as that would have been the perfect format and project to re-introduce him to the world. He would have been a great recurring character. He's got real "& Knuckles" energy to him... a character that excels and steals the show when he pops up in someone else's series, but might not be the most interesting on his own. Still, I'm excited to see what Favreau did with him.

Re: "Nobody Is Obligated To Download Or Play It" - Mario Kart 64 And Minish Cap Get Native Dual-Screen 3DS Ports

PowerPandaMods

@WesCopeland this is such an important callout. A recent F-Zero X PC Port got heavily criticized for vibe-coding, when the person working on it said straight-up, "I know how to do this, but I used AI to automate repetative processes." I'm currently working on a project where the coder is using Claude + Ghidra to make sense of 20-year-old java code to try to add controller support to a game that's never had it. Especially for fan projects, where nobody is asking for any money, I feel like there's undeserved hate.

Re: Look Familiar? Meet The KONKR Pocket Advance, AYANEO's New Game Boy Advance-Inspired Handheld

PowerPandaMods

Part of it is market oversaturation, but part of it is also just communication. It they did hardware generations with certain formfactor models, it would be easier to understand. Yeah, this is an Ayaneo 4th gen, GBA form factor, vs your Ayaneo 4th gen, Game Gear form factor.

But yeah, a few years ago, I got a Retroid Pocket 4S, and like... that's it. I don't need another one. I can afford to buy 5 more, but why would I?

Re: Poll: Did You Know About The Secret Shop In Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons / Ages?

PowerPandaMods

I bought both of these games shortly before moving to Japan for the first time. I can still remember sitting on my bed (really more of a raised futon) because it was the only furniture in my new apartment, listening to the ocean and the last of the summer cicadas, with the overhead light perfectly positioned so that I could turn off the backlight on my GBA SP and save battery. I had picked up both a GBA SP and Ages at a store closing sale, with my copy of Ages proudly declaring "Not for Resale". I spent the last of my "fun money" to buy Seasons, because I knew it would be months before I could afford to import something else. And yes, I knew about the shop.

Re: "I Overestimated My Ability To Deliver" - Infamous Kickstarter 'Project Phoenix' Is Alive, But It Might Not Be Out Until 2031

PowerPandaMods

Kickstarter in 2026 is VERY different than Kickstarter in 2013. Back then, you could put up a Kickstarter with a few pieces of concept art and a music track. However, too many people got burned. Now, you need to, at minimum, have a good playable demo. These days, most Kickstarters deliver, with the timeframe not usually going beyond double the initial estimate. Some even release on time!

Re: The Quest To Preserve The 'Tales' Series's Mobile Spin-Offs Just Took Another Impressive Step Forward

PowerPandaMods

This team is still doing incredible work, and it's starting to be noticed by larger companies. I fully believe that the i-mode titles being released on Steam are because of the Keitai Preservation community showing that people still care. The Tales franchise is more likely than some to re-release these games for the fans. The structure of these games also makes them much easier to translate than traditional roms.

Re: "No Human Proofreading Pass" - Langrisser V Gets An AI-Driven Translation Patch

PowerPandaMods

Thank you to nE0sIghT for caring about a game that time had mostly forgotten. Thank you for being so transparent about the use of AI. And thank you for making the source files available, removing the technical barrier if a bilingual individual wants to try a proper translation. While I agree that the article should not have referred to nE0sIghT as a "translator", they were indeed a project coordinator, and that's important too.

Re: This New 2.5D Metroidvania Will Look A Little Familiar To Mega Man X Fans, But Don't Call It A "Carbon Copy"

PowerPandaMods

@Prollo If I've learned from anything over the past decade of MegaMan clones, it's that time will tell. The games I was most excited for (Mighty No.9, Protoroid Delta) were abysmal. Many, like the Azure Striker Gunvolt franchise and 20XX, ended up underwhelming me. Meanwhile, I initially had no interest in Gravity Circuit, and it ended up being one of my top games of all time. We'll see where Gemini X lands after it releases.

Re: "I Know Some People Don't Like This" - Final Fight MD's Latest Project Uses GenAI

PowerPandaMods

In the toy and game world, there's a time-honored tradition called "kit-bashing", where you modify a commercially-available product to create prototypes and pitches. You would never actually steal someone else's work, but when you are trying to convince someone that the idea is worth backing, it's understood that you'll have to use a few shortcuts. In my opinion, this is the role of AI within creative industries. Instead of kit-bashing, you're generating something that will look or sound like the final product in order to secure backing, either from a studio/publisher or from crowdfunding. Totally cool. But don't use it in the final product.

There are several musicians who composed in this style for the Toree 3D series, games that sell for literally $1, (when the developer charges at all). Contact them, or reach out to them to figure out if they're part of a community of similar artists. People trying to get their start are often willing to work for a small upfront plus royalties. That is, I'll pay you $200 now, plus X% of profits. That way, they get compensated for their work whether the game sells or not, but have the opportunity to make more if the experiment becomes a hit. You can also do things to sweeten the deal, like allow them to retain rights to publish digital and physical albums. Just make sure to write the contract in a way that re-releasing or porting your game doesn't require their prior written approval.

Re: Learning From The End Of i-mode, The "Life Infrastructure" That Revolutionised Japanese 'Keitai' Gaming

PowerPandaMods

@frei and @QuentinLM, I was living and working in Tokyo when the iPhone was released. It's hard to characterize i-mode's death to a "failure to adapt". There was practically no time to respond. iPhone took over the market in less than a year, and it felt like i-mode disappeared overnight. I went from seeing ads for i-mode games everywhere I went to struggling to find someone using an i-mode phone in public. I was actually pretty mad about it, because iPhone was missing some key quality of life features of Japanese flip phones.

Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead

PowerPandaMods

I am sorry that a fan project lost all motivation. That's never fun. But I agree that the way to handle stuff like this is collaboration. Someone finished up an earlier build? Go back and merge your later work with theirs. I have over 30 romhacks to my name, and I can definitively say that ego is the death of fan projects. Everything I put out, I allow others to make forks and addendums of. It's not like I own the original games!