I just got this in. It's an amazing recreation so far, not afraid to alter area layout where it won't impact anything. I haven't gone too far, but a couple very quick observations.
I love the art style, the "toys in a diorama" style of the game is adorable and perfectly captures the look of the sprites in the original. The music is also top notch, they remade every tune faithfully. Yes, this includes the ZELDA cheat in file select. Also, for the first time in the US, they brought in Totakeke's hidden song. There's already one in richard's villa, but if you name your character Totakeke it'll play a distinct one. This one was in the Japanese version but unfortunately got dummied out in the US version (I think it was just overlooked). The map layout is very much the same, though with one big change. There's no more "scrolling in" the new areas when you reach the border. It always was just one big world, and now the game is rendered that way. You can even see some enemies on the beach while standing next to Ulrira's house. The one complaint I'll give is the odd stylistic choice to blur the very top and bottom of the screen. Since it's a 2D overhead game, rather than give some sense of "camera realism", it's actually a big distraction which also gets in the way of seeing certain details if they're on that part of the screen.
A few things to note. First of all, yes all the game references are there. Mr. Wright of Sim City is still in, Luigi the rooster master is still in, the Peach photo is in there, and all the little enemy references are accounted for.
It also looks like the "bikini top to necklace" localization change from the Gameboy game is officially across all regions now. That kind of humor looks like it's just not in keeping with Nintendo's current standards in Japan either.
There's loads more seashells in the game. This enables someone to get the level 2 sword a lot easier, but on the flip side for the completionists, it adds a whole lot of new seashells to find, so it all evens out.
The DX content is also in the game. The added dungeon hints are still present for better or worse, and they've kept the "owl beak" aesthetic for the hint stones in the dungeons. The color dungeon is also still there, which is very welcome! However, the photo album quest was scrapped entirely. Dampe's dungeon fun house has replaced the photo studio. It's a shame they couldn't just leave the old content in, since the photo moments added to both gameplay and "slice of life" moments in the game.
Then there's the controls. Thanks to all the extra buttons on the Switch, the controls are (for the most part) far superior here. The shield, sword, and dash boots all get buttons assigned to them, leaving X and Y as your extra item buttons. A now functions as a context sensitive button allowing you to examine, talk, and pick things up. It's a lot like LTTP in that regard, only with the map assigned to Select to free up an additional button for all those fun item combos. When combined with the lack of "loading areas" on the side of each screen in favor of one big cohesive exploring experience, the game becomes a lot more "playable". It's going to be hard to go back to the Gameboy version after this, frankly. Sorry ABF, you "press L + R to start" once again. However, there's a bigger annoyance for me personally. I had got the impression that this game allowed all-direction running since, well, it's a 3D game and art assets would easily work with that and also it's what they did in Link Between Worlds. However, it's only got 8 direction running. That would be fine I suppose, except I can't use the d-pad to move in the game! So, it's got 8 way direction awkwardly mapped to the analog stick and only the analog stick. It's not a good fit.
I had no idea businesses like the ESA had this notion that they can "do a good deed" with the expectation of "cashing in" the good will down the line for some horrible thing they intend to do. Heck they don't even have anything specific in mind, they just already know in advance they're going to do something evil and like to do good deeds in advance to cover for it.
That's not why you should do good, business. Just- don't be evil.
So yes, Nintendo had a new Nintendo Direct yesterday afternoon. They showed a lot of games... but they are almost all multiplatform ports, mostly of older games, or first-party titles we already knew about but they showed maybe a few new elements of this time. The first-party software shown includes Luigi's Mansion 3 (sorry, I still don't really care about this series), Pokemon (no interest), Animal Crossing (very little interest), Tetris 99 DLC (that looks cool!), the Link's Awakening remake (looking great), and a couple of new ports/remakes of older games -- Xenoblade 1 and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE are getting Switch ports. It's an okay but, for me, mostly not especially exciting lineup; I know a lot of people are excited for Pokemon and Animal Crossing, but I'm not. The Xenoblade remake looks nice and has better character models, but it's a good looking Wii game, so I doubt I'll be buying, at least not unless the price goes way down eventually; that version's probably fine. And that's about it for first-party software.
The other major component was some new Smash Ultimate DLC announcements -- Terry Bogard from SNK is the next character, they're adding back in the Home Run Contest mode (with a new two player option!), and they have some new paid DLC costumes for the Mii fighter, most interestingly including Goemon. That's pretty neat, the Goemon games are fantastic. (There's also some Undertale character costume, but I don't care about that.)
And finally, SNES games are coming to the Switch, like NES ones, for Nintendo online subscribers. 20 games are going to be there for launch, some expected and some interesting -- Joe & Mac 2, really? Huh. It's cool that there won't be an added fee for this.
Otherwise, the rest of the Direct showed off a lot of ports of older games from other platforms both old and newer-- Overwatch (a good game, and I like that it'll have motion controls, but no way would I start over in progression and unlocking and such, one time is enough!), The Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin II, Doom 64 (the only one of these I'm interested in maybe getting), Jedi Outcast (and Jedi Academy is coming too; it's too bad it's these games I have never liked, and not the first two Dark Forces games, which are some of the best FPSes ever made...), Deadly Premonition, etc, etc. Yes, I get it, the Switch is popular but underpowered versus the other consoles, so it's getting a lot of older games and that's okay, but I at least don't get super excited for ports of old games I probably already own on other systems. Oh, one third party exclusive apparently was announced; Deadly Premonition 2 is Switch only and was announced. A lot of people are excited about this, but as someone who has never played a Swery game and has never wanted to, I don't care one bit, I don't think.
So yeah, this direct showed a lot of things and a few were interesting, but for me specifically it was definitely underwhelming. I wasn't expecting anything from it though, so that's fine; hopefully other people like this lineup more. Mario Maker 2 is already out, after all; the Switch has already won my game of the year!
Robin Williams' uncanny energy really comes through in this song. Casting is everything.
The fact that so many theatre kids (current and recovering) break out in this song is a testament to its greatness. ...aw, hell, they also break out into Rent songs, that doesn't mean anything. But this is a great feminist anthem of a girl becoming a woman, and smashing through her socially inculcated pressure to always be kind and agreeable.
I love the sequence where she's simultaneously creating and running up a frozen staircase. Badass!
Picking just one Lion King song is no easy task. This one is the most popular. I kinda prefer its Book of Mormon spoof, though.
There are more, but I won't suck up all the oxygen in the room.
I've bought a lot of battery holders and Maxell brand replacement batteries for this, and have started to replace all my battery backed games with fresh ones, along with battery holders so the next time around it's far easier.
(I picked Maxell because they have a proven track record. Plenty of my NES games STILL hold their saves. That's good enough for me.)
The first step was taking a multimeter and tracing out, on each type of cart, where a good place to set up a secondary battery would be. I lost a few saves in the process, but their sacrifice is not in vain. I'm pretty adept at spotting the patter now, just following the lighter parts of a PCB to the nearest pin and soldering an extra wire onto that. (I clip off the legs of a resistor for these, since they're nice and still and won't move around on their own.) I actually have just left the legs on. I then stick a spare battery in a spare battery holder and alligator clip the legs of that holder to my "spare" pins. It's important to do this in parallel, not serial. Once that's done, I desolder the existing battery. It's taken a lot of practice but I'm getting pretty good at this part now, and can get the old battery out pretty quick. The new one is a little tricky. The slimmer "negative" pin isn't quite slim enough, so I have to clip it down a little, but then it fits fine. Add a little flux, and the solder flows in and grips it very well. Once the holder's in place, I slip in a fresh battery and finally unclip the emergency battery. Seal it up, and it's ready to test. I lost two big saves at first, but now I know just where I went wrong and am avoiding those errors going forward. I've got battery holders in Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time now along with the same classic saves I've had for years.
Gameboy games are going to be tricky. So so small...
This game is pretty diesel. Pretty sure I never posted about it here. But it has a cool Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe, including an over-the-top dinner scene (even more over-the-top than in the 1970s film). You're back in a mansion, but this one is much cooler than some spooky, opulent museum like we saw in RE2. This one is a trashy plantation that's gone to hell. Floors and walls are littered with trash and various weird kitsch. Bags of trash, cat carriers, weird family photos... the developers did a magnificent job of dropping you into an environment that looks like a trailer home, that has somehow been stretched into multiple floors and buildings.
The game started out with some elements of stealth, where you're hiding from room-to-room while the scary hillbilly man stalks you with a rake. Then at some point, he *smashes through the wall* to come get you. The series continues to inter-splice cinematic thrills in with its game play.
The Old Southern Mansion portion of the game ended, now I'm at a new part where I guess we see the origin of what evil came around and destroyed/mutated the family that lived in the mansion. Now I'm in an abandoned ship. I did not see that coming!
Any y'all play this? I played it on my friend's xbone for about an hour when I stopped in to feed her cat while she was on vacation. I don't have a bone full of ex's, so I couldn't play it at home, and was much bummed to see it was xbone exclusive.
BUT, apparently they're releasing (or have released?) it on Switch. Fuck yeah. I really love the art and aesthetic. You can tell how much love went into recreating those old Fleischer cartoons. Right down to scratches in the "film" and static in the background to mimic imperfect sound recording.
The only disappointing thing is that it's apparently pretty much all boss battles. And it's hard as FUCK. I had some trouble getting past the first few bosses, and apparently it just gets harder from there. Ain't life a bitch. (sorry for all the swearing, DJ )
Alright, sluts. Time to post your guilty pleasures. It can be songs, movies, books, video games, anime (all of it, all the anime), w/e you wouldn't dare tell a person you know in real life but you just might cough a hint of it to a bunch of pasty nerds that you've somehow known for ~20 years, oh fuck what am I doing with my life
I'll go with songs. Back in the day, we used to post our Winamp playlists to share musical tastes, and/or brag about how many mp3s we'd managed to accumulate. Not so here. Join me in shame and humiliation!
God damn if this song isn't some kind of Beckified wypipo anthem. 'Makes me want to get up and jig. It reminds me a little of Shake it Off or that 80s Oh Mickey song.
SHUT THE FUCK UP, IT'S CATCHY *runs and hides*
I was introduced to this song when trying to find fake nudes of Alison Brie. I stumbled upon a look-alike video that played this song in the background, I guess it was significant to that show she was in, Community?? I couldn't watch the thing (the show), couldn't stand Joel McHale. And but so this song somehow hits me in the feels and makes me think of what high school dances would have been like if I weren't in fact a loser who was staying at home playing N64 and crying along to the theme of Banjo-Kazooie.
Love to hate to love to hate this song. This guy is violating all sorts of man codes by wearing eyeliner and expressing FEELINGS. I remember driving once and looking over and there was a car full of teenagers all singing along to this, all swaying their heads with big smiles on their faces, like wtf this is supposed to be a sad song.
TRICK ENTRY, this song and video are in fact cool and good, maybe I'll get into it later
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