23rd January 2013, 2:46 PM
23rd January 2013, 3:08 PM
Yeah, it looks great... what is it, Xenoblade 2 with online, or something? The gameplay sure looks similar, at least.
Also, they announced Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, for the Wii U. No details yet, but that sure is an interesting cross...
Oh, and there won't be any first party releases at all on the Wii U in January or February. Yeah, those slow Wii U sales aren't going to pick up anytime soon... Nintendo is not doing a great job so far with their one year headstart, and considering that Wii U is a lot less powerful than PS4 and 720 (or whatever they are going to be called) will be... well, we'll see; there's still quite a ways to go. But the Wii U is not an immediate hit like the Wii was, clearly. It's doing okay, but not amazingly like Wii did.
On the other hand, they did promise SSB Wii U, 3d Mario Wii U, and a newly announced Yoshi platformer for Wii U, all of which we'll see more of at E3, so there is good stuff upcoming... but the launch is very slow.
Oh yeah, and of course they also said that they're working on a new Zelda game, but it'll take a while. Of course it will; Zelda games take a while, and the last one released just a year ago. It might have open-world and/or online play, that could be interesting. Coming sooner, Wind Waker HD Remake, coming this year. There are screenshots; it looks like Wind Waker, upscaled to HD.
Also, they announced Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, for the Wii U. No details yet, but that sure is an interesting cross...
Oh, and there won't be any first party releases at all on the Wii U in January or February. Yeah, those slow Wii U sales aren't going to pick up anytime soon... Nintendo is not doing a great job so far with their one year headstart, and considering that Wii U is a lot less powerful than PS4 and 720 (or whatever they are going to be called) will be... well, we'll see; there's still quite a ways to go. But the Wii U is not an immediate hit like the Wii was, clearly. It's doing okay, but not amazingly like Wii did.
On the other hand, they did promise SSB Wii U, 3d Mario Wii U, and a newly announced Yoshi platformer for Wii U, all of which we'll see more of at E3, so there is good stuff upcoming... but the launch is very slow.
Oh yeah, and of course they also said that they're working on a new Zelda game, but it'll take a while. Of course it will; Zelda games take a while, and the last one released just a year ago. It might have open-world and/or online play, that could be interesting. Coming sooner, Wind Waker HD Remake, coming this year. There are screenshots; it looks like Wind Waker, upscaled to HD.
25th January 2013, 6:33 AM
Almost as weird a crossover as Pokemon and Romance of the 3 Kingdoms...
This game looks interesting. I'll need to keep an eye on it.
Anyway, yeah the launch is slow, but I have a hard time recalling a system launch that's been fast. The XBox 360 and PS3 both had very slow buildups before either system saw more than a couple titles I was actually interested. Heck the same goes for the PS2 and original XBox.... The Gamecube also took some time getting itself out the door, but Melee was out the door rather quick so that occupied a lot of my time. The N64 had Super Mario 64, then we were kept waiting for a bit for Star Fox and Goldeneye, then kept waiting for a LONG time for a lot of other stuff. The N64 days were filled with countdown lists.
Oh yeah, the NES and SNES, those had amazingly strong launch titles right out of the gate and kept up that incredibleness throughout their lifetime. I think we all yearn for those days. The Genesis, not as much. It took some time before we got Sonic the Hedgehog and that system really started getting a steady stream of amazing games.
I mentioned this before, but even with all the delays in upcoming titles, the initial launch offerings were a lot stronger than I recall in recent memory. There were fully 5 games that stood out as must haves for me, and they are all really good. That's unlike the Wii launch, where I indeed bought a lot of the launch offerings based on the premise that I "had to try this incredible innovation in gaming", but found a lot of them ranged from "bleh" to "eck". Yay... Elebits... As for you Sonic and the Secret Rings, go away now.
This game looks interesting. I'll need to keep an eye on it.
Anyway, yeah the launch is slow, but I have a hard time recalling a system launch that's been fast. The XBox 360 and PS3 both had very slow buildups before either system saw more than a couple titles I was actually interested. Heck the same goes for the PS2 and original XBox.... The Gamecube also took some time getting itself out the door, but Melee was out the door rather quick so that occupied a lot of my time. The N64 had Super Mario 64, then we were kept waiting for a bit for Star Fox and Goldeneye, then kept waiting for a LONG time for a lot of other stuff. The N64 days were filled with countdown lists.
Oh yeah, the NES and SNES, those had amazingly strong launch titles right out of the gate and kept up that incredibleness throughout their lifetime. I think we all yearn for those days. The Genesis, not as much. It took some time before we got Sonic the Hedgehog and that system really started getting a steady stream of amazing games.
I mentioned this before, but even with all the delays in upcoming titles, the initial launch offerings were a lot stronger than I recall in recent memory. There were fully 5 games that stood out as must haves for me, and they are all really good. That's unlike the Wii launch, where I indeed bought a lot of the launch offerings based on the premise that I "had to try this incredible innovation in gaming", but found a lot of them ranged from "bleh" to "eck". Yay... Elebits... As for you Sonic and the Secret Rings, go away now.
25th January 2013, 6:46 AM
Incidentally,
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/ne...the-wii-u/
In the name of lasagna I want this remake. Look at that! The biggest thing to take issue with is the lack of analog in those triggers, but on memory I don't think they were used to that effect in the original. (Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine could get tricky though.) Also, I'm glad they are working on major updates to the OS, and porting over the Virtual Console games, but charging extra for games some people already bought on their Wii for the privilege of playing it on the U? Not really good form. Better to build some good will and treat them as straight transfers as far as the users are concerned. Apple wouldn't be able to get away with recharging for apps with every new phone.
Anyway, faster start times are always a good thing. Here's hoping for other interface changes like I mentioned with the launch thread.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/ne...the-wii-u/
In the name of lasagna I want this remake. Look at that! The biggest thing to take issue with is the lack of analog in those triggers, but on memory I don't think they were used to that effect in the original. (Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine could get tricky though.) Also, I'm glad they are working on major updates to the OS, and porting over the Virtual Console games, but charging extra for games some people already bought on their Wii for the privilege of playing it on the U? Not really good form. Better to build some good will and treat them as straight transfers as far as the users are concerned. Apple wouldn't be able to get away with recharging for apps with every new phone.
Anyway, faster start times are always a good thing. Here's hoping for other interface changes like I mentioned with the launch thread.
26th January 2013, 1:16 PM
I think most people agree that the thing Wind Waker HD most needs is for them to make the two missing dungeons this time and put them in the game... though I'd add "and make it a little harder too" to that, WW is way too easy (it's far, far easier than any other 3d Zelda...). I don't expect that second one to happen, but at least they could finish the dungeon set the game was supposed to have.
As for the SNES, that had less of a gap, but still it released in the US 8 months after it did in Japan; in Japan the only launch titles were SMW and F-Zero, though of course those are two of the best games ever so that's a pretty awesome launch.
As for the Genesis, that launched here 8-10 months after its Japanese launch, but had a weak initial lineup anyway, and yeah, the system took a few years to get going; it wasn't until Sonic in mid '91 that it really took off. However, even before Sonic, Sega was the #1 4th gen system in the US, thanks to NEC blowing their chances to take an early lead... (remember that the TG16 crushed the Genesis in Japan)
Quote: Oh yeah, the NES and SNES, those had amazingly strong launch titles right out of the gate and kept up that incredibleness throughout their lifetime. I think we all yearn for those days. The Genesis, not as much. It took some time before we got Sonic the Hedgehog and that system really started getting a steady stream of amazing games.I agree with most of your post, for sure, but in this part, I think that it's important to note that in Japan the NES released a full two years before it did in the US, so we were able to benefit significantly from that -- there were only 15+ launch titles available on the NES because that was several years worth of games. In Japan, I think that all Nintendo had at launch in mid '83 were Donkey Kong and DK Jr., or something like that...
As for the SNES, that had less of a gap, but still it released in the US 8 months after it did in Japan; in Japan the only launch titles were SMW and F-Zero, though of course those are two of the best games ever so that's a pretty awesome launch.
As for the Genesis, that launched here 8-10 months after its Japanese launch, but had a weak initial lineup anyway, and yeah, the system took a few years to get going; it wasn't until Sonic in mid '91 that it really took off. However, even before Sonic, Sega was the #1 4th gen system in the US, thanks to NEC blowing their chances to take an early lead... (remember that the TG16 crushed the Genesis in Japan)
26th January 2013, 3:59 PM
All of those things are true (though the SNES eventually overtook the Genesis later on), and history worth pointing out. I was just pointing out how we as consumers saw things back then, with no historical context available to us at the time, and how that affects our views of what launches "should" look like.
Wind Waker HD has a big opportunity to inflate itself into a fuller title. This is true. Aside from adding a couple extra dungeons, acquiring the triforce shards can be made far more interesting. In reality, I think making the game "harder" would be a quicker fix than designing entire dungeons. The problem is you didn't qualify what you meant by "harder". Doubling the attack power, health, and swing speed would make the game harder alone. Adding extra mechanics during boss fights could also do that. Making the puzzles more difficult across the board would ALSO make it harder, but all of these in different ways. The last one of those would be far harder to implement than the first, but at least one small change would be reducing the number of hints being dropped and making the hook shot not solve puzzles for you via its interface.
While we can want a lot of these things, I do believe we're unlikely to see any such major or sweeping changes to the game. OOT 3D had some models updated, but otherwise the gameplay was bit for bit identical to the original N64 version. About all they added was a small change to Master Quest where the world was mirror inverted.
Wind Waker HD has a big opportunity to inflate itself into a fuller title. This is true. Aside from adding a couple extra dungeons, acquiring the triforce shards can be made far more interesting. In reality, I think making the game "harder" would be a quicker fix than designing entire dungeons. The problem is you didn't qualify what you meant by "harder". Doubling the attack power, health, and swing speed would make the game harder alone. Adding extra mechanics during boss fights could also do that. Making the puzzles more difficult across the board would ALSO make it harder, but all of these in different ways. The last one of those would be far harder to implement than the first, but at least one small change would be reducing the number of hints being dropped and making the hook shot not solve puzzles for you via its interface.
While we can want a lot of these things, I do believe we're unlikely to see any such major or sweeping changes to the game. OOT 3D had some models updated, but otherwise the gameplay was bit for bit identical to the original N64 version. About all they added was a small change to Master Quest where the world was mirror inverted.
26th January 2013, 5:48 PM
Well, when I played WW, I died exactly one time before the final boss... in comparison, I died 70+ times my first time through OoT, dozens of times at least in TP, over a hundred times in LA or the Oracles games, etc... and the last time I played OoT again, I did die sometimes again, so it's not just that I first played OoT in '99. And I haven't died a lot in SS, but it certainly has happened sometimes. For me, WW was orders of magnitude easier than the other games -- I simply did not die while exploring, or in the dungeons, or what have you. I only died at that one boss, where I accidentally wasted my fairy right before the boss and then didn't know how to fight it (the sandworm thing, I believe), and then at the final boss, because he was actually challenging. And that was with me refusing to use the "A" button attacks through like 99% of the game, too.
I don't know exactly why WW is so much easier than the other 3d Zeldas, but it is.
I don't know exactly why WW is so much easier than the other 3d Zeldas, but it is.
Quote: All of those things are true (though the SNES eventually overtook the Genesis later on), and history worth pointing out. I was just pointing out how we as consumers saw things back then, with no historical context available to us at the time, and how that affects our views of what launches "should" look like.That's true, but I think the context is important...