It appears they knew that recycling plastic consumes more resources than it saves when they claimed the opposite. "Reduce" is still the most effective means of, well, reducing waste. "Recycling" now appears to be little more than a marketing tool to avoid being more heavily regulated.
It looks like we're entering the petabit era thanks to this. On the one hand, we were finally reaching the point where games couldn't even fit on an Ultra 4K Bluray, but on the other hand, PC game makers never even bothered making the jump from DVD to Bluray, much less 4K Bluray. I found this out in a rather disappointing moment when I opened a physical copy of Doom Eternal and found a circular piece of cardboard stuck to the spindle where a disc should have been. It had my online activation code on it... in the Bethesda launcher... I didn't buy a physical copy of anything. I bought a space-eater. They couldn't even bother to spend the piddling amount of cash it would have taken to just mint a bluray disc. I get it. Very few people have a Bluray (or higher) disc reader on their PC, but I DID buy a physical version, and those people who don't have something to read the disc would still have that activation code to use, so no one's missing out.
So there it is. I'm glad that new tech's coming along, but let's face facts. Both Sony and MS have every intention of releasing "discless" consoles ONLY for their next generation, they won't be adopting this new tech. PC game makers will also be ignoring it. The movie industry never even managed to get 4K Blurays to surpass Bluray sales, nor Bluray to surpass DVD sales, and the physical medium industry has recently had a lot of factories get shut down because physical movies are becoming a "niche interest" product. If no game console just runs these out of the box, that built-in set of devices people already own to play it won't even be there.
I predict this format will exist purely for professional archival purposes, like for long term storage of security recordings or off-shifting server backups. This will be the new tape drive, and nothing more.
Curious little buggers... But you know, they'd have found out EXACTLY what fans wanted in a remake if they hadn't shut that fan remake down several years back.
For my part, at this stage I'm not sure I really need a straight remake but-in-3D. I also don't think I need some kind of meta-narrative where they try to avoid the consequences of the first game (murderers of whole timelines). What I would like to see, if I were asking for a modern remake, was to turn the game into a CRPG with lots of real choices that dramatically affect more than just a bunch of joke endings.
I'll start. I don't get why everyone loves David Bowie. It's weird to me when he pops up as a meme (see: Venture Bros and Zoolander). He just seems like some generic dorky British guy (but I repeat myself). Shouldn't he have charisma or something?
I'm not a music aficionado, so I'm probably not the best judge, but his music doesn't seem that great either. Like I've only heard a few popular songs so idk maybe there's more there, but it just seems like crappy 80s pop. His collab with Trent Reznor was cool, but it was Reznor carrying that.
This is probably sacrilege but if I listen to his spotify hits:
Under Pressure: this is stained because the same sample was used in Ice, Ice Baby. Look, if just about the whitest geekiest piece of shitbait in history finds inspiration from your music, you should probably re-evaluate your artistic choices. Mercury's voice is great in this though. Now I just want to listen to Queen.
Starman: the guitar is good but his voice just sounds tepid, like he's working up the nerve to sing in front of someone in the bathroom mirror. Keep it down, bucko.
Okay, I won't go through all of them one-by-one, but... like none of this is terrible, and I'm playing it up, but it's still sailing over my head as to why this guy is exalted. You probably have to have been a kid and watched Labyrinth with the rest of the middle school drama club to fall in love with him for the rest of your life. Fuck, what's wrong with teenagers? I can't believe I used to be one D:
In closing, Space Oddity just came up, and I'll give him this one. Just one.
[edit] I just remembered Dancing in the Streets. That one's real bad too. Someone edited it to make it bearable though.
I'm just going to keep reviewing this game apparently.
In 2003, about a year after MS's acquisition of Rareware, the company ported Donkey Kong Country to the Gameboy Advance. By this point, many developers at Rare had departed for other companies, and worse still, the company had not kept the old source code. A few years earlier, Rare had ported the game to Gameboy Color and ran into the same issue. In that case, they had modified the Donkey Kong Land engine, but in this case they went through painstaking work to reverse engineer the physics by trial and error. This new version is, then, recoded from scratch with physics that don't match either the original SNES version or the GBC version. How close does it get to the mark then? Well, I should do things in the proper order, so let's start with the visuals.
The game's visuals are pulled directly from the SNES version this time, so right away it looks far better than the GBC port. The presentation adds a new title screen, new menu art, some new artwork for the Kong family member's homes, some new mini-games, and a new opening and ending scene. Further, there are changed effects. In the past, I thought the game was lesser based on how the first level no longer shifts from noon to dusk and stays at the same brightness. But, later levels keep these unique effects, so long as it doesn't affect level brightness. I suspect what's actually going on is an intentional choice to not make the level dimmer on the notoriously dark GBA screen. Further, all the colors are washed out in an attempt to brighten the game, as is often the case with SNES to GBA ports. There is one notable degrading of the graphics, and that's the reduced layers of parallax scrolling in level backgrounds. There are a few additional graphical flares, like little animals flying or crawling here and there that have been added, but overall yes, the SNES version ends up looking better. Oh yes, and it should be added the screen is cropped. This hurts this version of the game more than the GBC version because of just how little vertical there is on the screen's aspect ratio. Many secrets no longer have visible clues like a stray banana to guide you to them, and so I actually had to look up a few secret locations throughout the game even though I'd played through this game multiple times in other versions.
The sound effects are mostly the same, though many new sounds from DK64 have been added to the two main Kongs, as well as a few additional effects here and there to various enemies. The music was recomposed, as it had to be due to the lack of a dedicated sound chip. It mostly gets close, but the original still ends up sounding higher quality. Honestly I think I'd prefer hearing either the SNES or the "chiptune" GBC version over this, but it's not so bad it's unlistenable. Over the GBA speaker, it sounds fine. A few new songs were added for things like the new mini-games, menus, and new opening.
As mentioned, the presentation alters many things. The new artwork puts Cranky inside of his cabin instead of his porch and Funky inside his flights (and now fishing) lodge. After every boss, Cranky arrives to give some quip about how pathetic the boss was before "taking those bananas back for you". The new ending takes place on K. Rool's ship instead of back in DK's home. This is done so that the "aquatic baddie" reel can now take place underwater (scrolling under the ship), and to give K. Rool a few lines ordering the DK crew off his ship and swearing generic revenge. Unfortunately, this also means all the fun monkey shines between Donkey and Diddy, all unique frames of animation, have been cut completely. Further, DK and the gang are just too wordy, and DK commits the sin of actually talking as if this were the cartoon show (or the manual). While I do appreciate the scroll of underwater baddies actually showing them underwater, all in all I'd say the original ending is more entertaining to watch. The new opening and title also cut out the original "old man playing his Victrola" sequence entirely, though of course a new menu was needed to select the additional options. The new opening sequence on starting a new game is basically what's described in the game's manual, with Diddy doing guard duty before being stuffed in a barrel only for DK to swear he'll get back all his bananas and rescue Diddy a few moments later. Of course, that introduction was always pretty silly considering you find Diddy in a barrel ONE SCREEN away from the cave anyway. Lastly, it's notable that all the maps now scroll and are "zoomed in" heavily. In a few cases, the whole map was entirely replaced with a brand new one, which did throw off my sense of spatial awareness in a few cases.
On to the gameplay changes! Alright, the new level added to the Gameboy Color version is gone. It wasn't the best level, but it wasn't the worst either, but either way it's a shame for them to just forget about it. The added bonus levels put in Candy's save shack are also gone, now replaced with just what everyone always wanted, a rhythm dance mini-game. I'd consider this a straight downgrade and prefer the bonus level style mini-games from the GBC version. Fortunately though, you don't need to get a "perfect" more than once to complete the game, and getting a passing grade on every one isn't too difficult. Funky's flights is now built in as a menu option, allowing full backtracking after only reaching one of his locations. He'll still let you jump in a flying barrel, but there's not really a point, so now the fishing game is broken up into a bunch of unique challenges. It's less dull this way, and getting the "high score" outside of the main game is much more easily attainable, but it's still not much of a mini-game. The stickers from before are now gone, replaced with photos that consist of prerendered artwork made back when DKC first came out. They're also hidden in brand new locations, unlocked in creative ways like as a reward for ground slapping a Klump to death or getting a high score in one of the animal bonus levels.
The real star of the new gameplay options is "Hero Mode". The two difficulty options from the GBC version have now been combined, so there are no continue barrels, partner barrels, and in a unique additional challenge, you play as Diddy alone, in a yellow shirt. This one gets especially challenging in later worlds. Unlike the GBC version, this requires it's own save file so you'll need to find all bonus levels on top of that for full completion. Speaking of bonus levels, this version for the first time "saves" how many of those animal statues you've collected. What this basically means is you will now accidentally go into an animal buddy bonus level so often it becomes annoying, especially since they kick you back to the start of the whole level this time around. It's like a longer "death". All things considered, they should have reworked it so you spawn back in at designated spots at or nearby the third animal token you picked up. However, there's one major issue that's hard to overlook in this version. That's the mentioned physics reworking. Unfortunately, a lot of difficult jumps become even trickier now, or whole sections no longer work as they should. For example, there's a sequence where neckies come flying in bit by bit as you bounce from one to the next so you can bypass a jumping section, but now all of them basically spawn at once and rush at you. Donkey Kong no longer dips a little lower when he rolls off things, now behaving more or less just like Diddy. Bounce height doesn't work quite right, so certain bonus levels can only be reached with trickier jumps. This really becomes a major issue at the very last world, where so many perfectly timed jumps now have to be relearned and require even more perfect timing. The most frustrating section comes at the very last level, where before you could simply carry a barrel as you jumped to finish off the Krushas, now if you try that, you'll bounce off them at the same time you end them, killing yourself. The only way to handle this section is perfectly timed barrel throws, so that was a lot of trial and error.
All in all, this version of the game isn't the worst way to go, but the additions simply don't make up for the way the altered physics mess with the game's delicate platforming balance. Playable, but more frustrating than it should be. The difficulty feels outright unfair near the end of a "Hero" run.
This is pretty stunning... MS and Sony for all their efforts are having trouble actually being profitable in their gaming sectors. Nintendo just keeps being Nintendo.
In modern terms, this game would be called a "demake", taking what was considered cutting edge on the Super Nintendo, a game only possible on that generation and simply saying "nope, the NES could do all this too". Donkey Kong Land was a sort of spiritual "demake", but in truth that game wasn't the same, with it's own distinct levels including new themes and enemies. This was the real deal, a true port to a console that, based on advertising for the SNES game, shouldn't have been able to run it. Oh, and by this point the source code for the SNES originals had been lost. So, they modified the Donkey Kong Land engine, with notable physics changes as a result. This would be a recurring trend with ports of the orig trig, but that's for another time, during the Microsoft era of Rare.
It's the visuals that most struck people playing this version. On the one hand, it's technically impressive that they managed to get everything working and recognizable. Credit must also be given for making sure everything is identifiable and that it's easy to tell sprites from background, or landable terrain from mere background art. This can't be said for the Donkey Kong Land series, due to limitations of black and white or even the Super GameBoy mode those games are designed to run in. That splash of color to differentiate is critical, however, because the decision to keep using the CG assets and downgrade them to this level means everything looks rather messy and noisy at this level of resolution. There is, simply, too much detail to work with, so scrunching it down means things tend to blur into each other as opposed to hand-crafted sprites. As a result, the game is not colorblind friendly any more than the Donkey Kong Land games were. Further, the decision to use those assets and try to maintain the same "size" results in a smaller viewing area, meaning some secrets need more telegraphing to avoid being overlooked. Fortunately, clever use of the camera helps to make sure few can be overlooked, but many obstacles still jump out at the last moment.
The audio is notable as well for borrowing heavily from Donkey Kong Land, taking tunes that were already demade into tone generated form from their MIDI style originals. In a few cases, whole tunes were out and out replaced, and one brand new song was made, but not for the brand new level. All in all, they're enjoyable versions, even if half the tunes had already been done in games previous.
The controls are serviceable and familiar to anyone who's played Donkey Kong Land. While reduced, no sacrifices needed to be made due to the first DKC not having things like "animal special moves" or a "team up" mechanic that needed their own button. What's much more notable are the altered physics. Platformers are particularly sensitive to changes in physics, since every single level in a game, all it's jumps, enemy patterns, bounce pads, tricky items meant to be reached at the very extent of risky moves, all of it is specifically calibrated around the game's original physics. This means even a slight change can have pretty drastic repercussions. Giving credit where it's due, the Donkey Kong Land physics did get altered just enough to be pretty close to SNES values, but it's not just those values. Hit boxes are a lot looser, more like pure boxes than the more form fitting boxes in the original. Further, certain behaviors linger on. The "camera death" glitch (wherein if a camera has a fixed high vertical position, it might not scroll in time to prevent the engine from killing off the player interpreting it as a bottomless death pit) has been mostly resolved from the Land series, but still occurs from time to time. Further, the "bounce" behavior has some odd inertia for players to get used to. Oh yes, then there's the timing of the "3 card monty" style mini-game, which is now far harder to see the final barrel the item appears in.
The game's save system was overhauled. The game now auto-saves level completions and secrets found, which necessitated giving Candy Kong another purpose entirely. Further, new difficulty modes were added. The game allows you to disable either all Kong partner barrels or all continue barrels, but not both at the same time. Notably as a boon to completionists, the game will track progress in all three "modes" on the same save file. So, you only need to unlock stickers and find all bonus levels once, saving some time when you're playing through all the levels three times in a row. Further, the game's old "101% completion" now requires completing both of these new harder difficulty modes.
Back to map design, most of the maps are very accurate to the originals with very few changes. Necky's Nightmare was introduced as a new near-final level in the last world of the game. It's appreciated to see some additional content, and this level is pretty well made, if short. It's a test without being nearly as frustrating as the actual final level in the game. Notably this level would be scrapped from the GBA port later on, but the GBA port's failings are again for another time.
Beyond that, there's a few other notable additions. There are "stickers" hidden in many levels. All of them require giving the ground a hard smack which will stir up a fluttery 8 bit sticker to quickly grab. These can all be viewed in a "sticker book" and printed. Notably the GBA port also added a lot of "photos", but these are not just completely different images, they're all hidden in completely different places. There are also three new mini-games. Candy Kong now has a mini-game barrel. These are a series of unique "bonus levels", much like the ones normally found hidden inside levels but with some unique mechanics. This is honestly my favorite new "mini-game" as it uses the existing game's mechanics instead of tacking on something else entirely. It's certainly better than if they'd decided to have Candy do a dance rhythm game or some crazy thing. This is also part of full completion percentage as well as helping to unlock the other two mini-games by winning unique "coins".
The other two bonus modes exist outside the main game. One involves a series of escalating "shooting gallery" stages... on the Gameboy... without a lightgun... It's serviceable, and even the hardest level at the end isn't too difficult. It's much like a similar mini-game in DK64. The second is a "fishing mini-game", because this was an era when EVERY game had to have a fishing game hidden in it. It's a little more complicated than the Link's Awakening fishing game, but also involves a lot of luck. Beating the high score will be a test of patience more than anything, as no matter how good you get, you can get a string of garbage instead of the squid you so desperately need to extend your time. All in all, these mini-games don't enhance the core experience and in the case of the fishing mini-game can really drag out that full completion time way longer than is enjoyable.
All in all, for the most part the new additions were well thought out (certain mini-games aside) and the demake looks and sounds good enough to at least be playable. However, this is one case where it's hard not to recommend the original simply because the whole package with original graphics and sound really complete the experience. Add to that certain frustrations brought on by the smaller viewing area and the altered physics, the original edges this version out.
The little bastard was just working last night. I had an impulse to play an N64 game. You ever get that vibe like old 64 games are like fever dreams? There's a kind of beauty in their imperfection, in the same way that certain weirdos like listening to record players or cassette tapes. I think that's part of the reason the first Silent Hill is the favorite (I know, PS1, but you get the point). The primitive graphics and gravelly sound all lend themselves to a nightmare world.
I rummaged through a bunch and settled on Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Nothing was amiss. I thought I might try to see the game through, as I've never been able to in the past, for one reason or another. Damn it, the game is actually pretty good, albiet the controls and camera are meh. But I like the overall aesthetic it has going for it.
So anyway, every time I turn on the system, it just flashes a black screen. The power is on, but there's no audio or video. It's something that's pretty typical, honestly, but it usually works after a few tries of removing/reinserting the cartridge. I've tried several games, and games that recently worked, but this is the first time that I can't start any of them up. I even tried swapping rubbing alcohol on the cartridge and in the system itself.
Y'all are smart. Any idea what the issue could be?