The_Nintend_Pedant

No mention in the article if this product is licensed, or just blatantly ripping off Sega's trademarks. I think I know the answer, but in my opinion this is one of the first things to mention.

"We'd hazard to guess that anyone who still plays their Dreamcast in 2024 will be dedicated enough to feel that the price tag is more than justified, however"

'There's no denying that the VM2 is must-have device for every self-respecting Dreamcast owner"

Yeah, I don't think every Dreamcast owner even believes the VMU itself is a "must have device," let alone justifies the cost of this thing.

Then again, I've learned from the article that I'm poor and I lack self respect, so what do I know? 👎😮‍💨

tbh, I "hadn't completely understood" that people cared about this game at all, but I love to see it 😊

i have this possibly slightly wrong memory that croc is one of the two games I can remember having dual analog controller compatibility, in that special little sliver of time before ape escape and dual shock. I mustve rented it or something because I have a direct sense memory connecting croc's movement to that particular convex plastic stick. ✌️

"Given that the AYANEO Pocket S does a much better job in terms of high-level emulation, it's a little disappointing that the Pocket Micro can't quite keep up – but not entirely shocking when you consider that it's a smaller, cheaper device with a weaker chipset inside."

I feel like sentences like these are evidence that there are too many handheld devices being reviewed, and you might be running out of ways to mince the same words. ✌️

besides the general proportions and "micro" in the title, I fail to see any connection between this and the GB micro.

You mentioned it in the review, but I think you actually undersold how much larger this device is than the GB Micro.

Doing some quick numbers, the ayaneo is well over twice the size (while being only a mm thicker, no less,) very nearly thrice the weight, and the screen is somewhere close to 4 times the size.

is it documented anywhere that this is indeed a "tribute" to the real Micro, or are we extrapolating all of that from the name?

I agree with others here that I have burned through my share of n64 sticks, but AFAIK never due to storage and transport damage. 🤔

even if i were that worried about this id probably just wrap a scrunchie around there tbh 😂

@Darthmoogle

Now, there's a rare sighting! Good to see you 😊

"The biggest issue with the HANDHELD DEVICE is that SOME MANUFACTURER already has an improved version on the horizon"

pretty much sums it all up for me, over the last handful of years.

and, I STILL havent bought even one 😅

@SillyG

i miss scholastic book club. I cherished my Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode 1 tape I got through them. ✌️

@RoboJ1M

I agree that the console could have been more successful commercially if it had been DVD-rom instead of GD-rom! so in that way, yes, that change would have been preferable!

OTOH, I think DVD playback is feature creep, and I like when game consoles are purpose built for playing games, period. 👍 even playing cds and showing photos is like "why?" though ill admit that i was a privileged kid who already had a DVD player when dreamcast came out. ✌️

EDIT - though, I do have fun thinking about an alternate history, in which n64 used CDs, and DC and Cube played DVDs!

it would have been more competitive and possibly better, but I think it's actually more interesting the way it worked out. in a way, it would have been a quicker route to what we eventually got: homogenization.

@_NetNomad

"i honestly miss when controllers only had one stick. people complain about the cameras in early 3D games but i'd take them over modern games that force you to control the camera manually any day. oh well!"

thank you! i cant stand how every game essentially controls like an fps: it makes them a labor to play, and jarring and ugly to watch passively 👍✌️ I hear this echoed rarely, so I really appreciate it!

@Damo

I agree with your summary, and sometimes people conflate or obscure the "they" when speaking publicly, for a convenient double-answer.

when he says "there was a lot of demand to... change the Dreamcast controller to have just four face buttons," he knows that the readers (us) hear "demand from consumers" (also us,) but I suspect what he really means is a non-gaming shiny executive man in a room somewhere said "less sega, more psx because money" so we got 4 buttons.

in fact, I feel the EXACT same way about Nintendo in the Switch generation. ✌️

i love the dreamcast, and the people who made it, and i wouldnt change A THING. ...

"In fact, after the Saturn, which had six face buttons, there was a lot of demand to have less, and change the Dreamcast controller to have just four face buttons."

But, this is delusional, and I don't believe it even for a second. ✌️

24/25! I got hasty and clicked DS before I saw the 3DS option! 😆

good quiz! 👍

@KitsuneNight

HA! i laughed randomly around ppl at work 😅👍

the official theme song of handhelds in 2024:

https://youtu.be/iUxkFCBPgx4?si=SytV1y_0JX25Yw-N

is this the same thing as the 2600+ but with a different shell and pack in controller?

@Azuris

the difference is, seeing Sony published games in SNES was normal before it was seen as weird. 👍

Sky Blazer is another Sony published game on SNES.

wow this is within "payday impulse" striking range...

#TGIFDGAF

also maybe i just miss it every time, but it would be cool to get some real world comparisons for these products, as they kind of blend together ephemerally.

a simple pic of the product next to just about any established, popular legacy handheld would go a long way 👍

what is this, a stonehenge for ants?

Underrated, perhaps, if you weren't a Nintendo Power subscriber in 199X! 😂 They had me so HYPED for this game, the screenshots just looked bananas to me, and I found the character (who I'd not heard of) extremely endearing... yet to this day I've never gotten around to playing this game! 🙄

I will +1 to all the other comments about a goemon compilation, or even just some goemon games recommissioned for switch. 👍 the one we (usa) got on super was great, and the second N64 one is also fantastic. ✌️

I never once thought that The Olympics would be the best reason to visit Paris 😆

But, I'd really like to, one day! This place looks cool, I'd totally check it out. 👍

PS - "it’s a venue that, for once, isn’t a Barcade."

🥳🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉🎉🔥🔥🔥🎉💯❤️🎉👏👏👏

@Scollurio

Cheers. ✌️

@smoreon

solid facts! I also like thinking about this stuff 👍

as did basically every console from then up to- and including- the PS3!

in the name of historical fullness, did Wii U not come with composite cables?

Ergo, was Wii U the very first purpose built for HD console shipping only with HDMI? 🤔

the difference is that high quality hi fidelity audio was available and fairly common back in the day. I was playing SNES and especially PSX on a 21" CRT, but the audio was going through my AIWA mini system and it was GLORIOUS! ☺️👍 To this day, sound is far more important to me than graphics in movies and videogames.

I understand everyone's nostalgia is different, but to me this is the reason for the relative lack of audio filtering and options.

(ps - crappy 80s/90s PC speakers are available at the thrift store RIGHT NOW and nothing could be more authentic 😂)

@8bitKirby

"Every item should’ve been $50 or less Because anything over $100 should never be given as a gift in less it’s Christmas."

source?

☺️✌️

@smoreon

you hit on something in tech that i think about a lot, which is that alot of the "advancements" seem to be simply pairing the components together in different enclosures. 🙄 i see it in home hifi, and guitar gear as well.

@Damo

"(Unless, of course, it begins to drop in value as all of us old gits pass away and nobody wants to pay that stupid price)"

I do wonder if all but the really big important and most zeitgeisty games will be the "heirloom china" of the next generation. 😬

Either way, what a cool thing to have! Mine was just a loose copy, and in the "wii era" for whatever reason I felt a lot less attached to my physical copies. It was a more optimistic time in gaming, for me, and I thought stuff like Virtual Console was just going to expand and get better and more comprehensive over time 😅

Luckily I did keep many of my favorite valuable childhood games: Metal Storm, Earthbound, Rtype 3 etc. 👍 I'm not really accumulating these kinds of games anymore so I'm glad to have them! cheers damo ✌️

I never should have sold my C'vania II cart 😔 it was worth it just for the music alone. what a great series this was!

Thanks for the article, I'm actually gonna check out this guy's Tubes while I'm building cabinets today 🤘

so you gotta have this thing hanging off the whole time?

My test these days goes something like, "would I rather just sit, maybe stare at some trees?" 👴

for some reason, playing a handheld with a thing hanging off doesn't pass the trees test these days. And, forget carrying it around which I assume is half the point.

Honestly, I was a much younger man in the Wii days, and I didn't like the "procon with the Mote hanging off" configuration, either. And that didn't even leave the house.

all I can think about now is getting screened for cancer.

@Bonggon5

"Stupid billboard considering the popularity of the Game Boy arguably peaked in the late 90s, with Pokemon, with people who are barely 30 years old today."

I think you may need to redo your math 😆

if you were 10 in 1997, then you turned 30 in 2017...

OTOH yeah I'm with you: I'm convinced that all these "cancer awareness" campaigns are causing cancer in the many people who cant afford to get treatment.

BurgerTime for NES is on the Autobiographical Top 20 list for me, dogs.

It's in my console right now, we play it on a 13" crt in the TV room, and the hotseat style 2p makes it SO CHILL for playing while talking, watching a movie on the big TV, etc etc.

I'm trying to hype hotseat these days. underrated. ✌️

EDIT - cool product thanks for sharing 😊 if it has hotseat multiplayer, well there yah go right here. personally I think a cabinet with a ~13" monitor would be the idea size, and juuust wide enough for full size controls with little compromise. 👍

EDIT - I looked again. That's too small! 😆

@_NetNomad

you are right, of course. 👍

I need to learn once and for all that there are grown adults who were born in the n64 and gamecube era 😆

btw I'm no Nintendo fanboy, just a lover of videogames ✌️

@tektite_captain

your last comment was hilarious to me, thank you 😀

@_NetNomad

(Yes, and:) if you are not a child and grew up with videogames at all, Nintendo is likely your introduction to gaming, period.

you guys tricked me into reading and commenting on a years old article again, again. 😂

this game along with a handful of others* in 2004 represents the pinnacle** of gaming for me. I hope one day we have a renaissance in gaming. (but with the state of playstation, xbox, and honestly the "hybrid" switch, along with the internet in gaming, i'm not holding my breath.

*Rtype Final, San Andreas, Snake Eater, Twin Snakes, Viewtiful Joe, Katamari Damacy, Half Life 2...

**besides 1998 of course 😌

@RadioHedgeFund

this sounds like a really solid tip 👍 I've always used android and while perhaps not a gold mone in my case, there's a few obsolete apps that I'd always missed and would enjoy having access to again. Your post has inspired me to look into what this looks like for an android user.. thanks!

PS - Nanoloop is the app in particular. it was a real gem! ✌️

This site has introduced me to so many wonderful and talented people that have touched my life over the years, that otherwise would've remained unknown to me. ❤️thanks!

RIP to another great one. ✌️😔

if they forget Animaniacs on SNES this book is trash.

@HoyeBoye

i have this exact thing going on, but there's also another thing, for me:

I buy "big games" physically, but I'll often blow off even getting them because it's less handy and usually more expensive (i e if I'd just bought them digitally, I'd already be playing them.)

I also occasionally get a physical game as a gift, but since people cant read my mind (and dont think to ask,) these games are usually NOT the ones I'd want physically, either because they are "pick up and play" games I'd rather have digitally, or there is some reason like the games arent on the f@#$ing carts.

so, the categories are

1) big games I bought physically but rarely play because of the friction you mentioned

2) big games I never got around to getting because I wanted it physically, but now the trail has gone cold and I'll probably just never play it (hello, Odyssey, Mario RPG, others)

3) games I got physically but I'll never play because I don't have 60bgb and or 3 hours of my life to spend downloading it even though obv I have the cart. (i e would be better to just have digitally.)

4) digital games that i own and enjoy that are too big to keep on my SD card so they stay "archived" in perpetuity (i e would be better as physical games, theoretically)

5) the same old digital games I play constantly because they fit on my sd card and they are just always there. 👍

i rage quit at #6 ngl

is this the one where you can taser a guy until he catches fire?

if so, i rented this game and that's factually the only thing I remember about it. that, and it's not as good as Metal Gear Solid.

@Mario500

(question: "somewhat-obscure")

FYI thats some light hearted sarcasm on their part ✌️

@Blast16

"it was pack-in success too"

yes and also remember that the NES was a total gamble, in the aftermath of "the collapse."

"that’s even more impressive as this game alone sold millions of consoles"

one could almost see the NES as a pack in success for being bundled with SMB rather than the other way around 😆✌️

@Captain-N

it's also worth noting that SMB was also sold 1:1 physically, and also generally on one platform (at a time, at least, til that 1996 milestone,) and at "full price" as a AAA title.

Also there are 2.X billion more people in the world in 2024 than 96 😆 adjusting just for that puts Terraria way behind again lol

Not to diminish the obvious success of this game (though I personally tried it in 2015 and found it horrible:)

This particular milestone is only impressive when you flatten the 4th dimension and stack the numbers right next to each other, as they've done. There will never be another SMB no matter what the numbers say.✌️

(Thinking historically is like drawing in 3 pt. perspective. Ignoring history to make an easy point is like conversational fingerpainting.)

Historically, the psx sequel was translated to "Chou Aniki: Great Brother"

the new standard is probably more accurate but I think it's interesting to follow along, through the years.

these are good games! I remember how "craaazy!" they were perceived back in the day, and it makes me chuckle. Times change!

EDIT - in case anyone doesn't believe me, or is curious, here's an undated but clearly old blog post about the game:

https://www.geocities.ws/loserv21/chouaniki.html

CONTENT WARNING: homophobia and unseemly language typical of the bad old days ✌️

i remember reading in game players that the virtua racing cart cast 99 USD and to 8 yr old me it might as well have been a million. they also praised the game itself to the moon.

side note it's hilarious to me that this is tagged "news" 😂

Per New York Times:

"By the time Mr. Gates and Mr. Epstein first met, Mr. Epstein had served jail time for soliciting prostitution from a minor and was required to register as a sex offender.

'His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me,' Mr. Gates emailed colleagues in 2011, after his first get-together with Mr. Epstein."

👎