17th December 2011, 12:19 PM
For the record, when it comes to SGB support, I couldn't care less about the borders. Emulating the color modes on SGB games can scrap the custom borders completely, as the game code never once paid attention to that except for the occasional signal for the SGB to change the border in some games. Heck, they could "emulate" that without even showing it if some game somewhere actually is coded badly enough to depend on the border being rendered to function. Really, the only game that would have trouble would be Space Invaders, but considering they could simply put the SNES version on the store instead (same thing), it's not really a problem.
Anyway, I just bought Freaky Forms from the online store and it's an addictive little weird game. You draw creatures and it uses procedural code to figure out how the creature should get around in the game world. It's like a 2D version of the first section of Spore.
I can say one thing, Nintendo finally ditched "Wii Points" on this thing. Purchases are done with actual legal tender, such as dollars. Further, while there are still "buy this big chunk of non-refundable cash" buttons for suckers, tucked under those is an "add needed funds for purchase" button, which simply adds the EXACT amount that's needed to buy whatever you are buying. Sony has had this for some time, except for amounts under $5 (as a result on Sony's store I just wait until there's enough things I want to add up to at least $5 so I can avoid anything more than what's needed in a shopping cart purchase). I'll check later if a "shopping cart" combined purchase is possible on the 3DS now.
One other addition is that downloads now take place in the background on the main menu, in a similar way to modern phone OS systems (the icon is in a "downloading" state until it's finished, and there it is, though with the need to "open" it like a present first, which is an odd choice but hardly a huge inconvenience since unlike Sony there's no "install" operation needed). Further, if you want, you can "delay" the downloads until you close the lid if you want to save bandwidth or something.
All in all, a huge step forward from "watch Mario gather coins for the next half hour, then you can do something with your Wii again".
Anyway, I just bought Freaky Forms from the online store and it's an addictive little weird game. You draw creatures and it uses procedural code to figure out how the creature should get around in the game world. It's like a 2D version of the first section of Spore.
I can say one thing, Nintendo finally ditched "Wii Points" on this thing. Purchases are done with actual legal tender, such as dollars. Further, while there are still "buy this big chunk of non-refundable cash" buttons for suckers, tucked under those is an "add needed funds for purchase" button, which simply adds the EXACT amount that's needed to buy whatever you are buying. Sony has had this for some time, except for amounts under $5 (as a result on Sony's store I just wait until there's enough things I want to add up to at least $5 so I can avoid anything more than what's needed in a shopping cart purchase). I'll check later if a "shopping cart" combined purchase is possible on the 3DS now.
One other addition is that downloads now take place in the background on the main menu, in a similar way to modern phone OS systems (the icon is in a "downloading" state until it's finished, and there it is, though with the need to "open" it like a present first, which is an odd choice but hardly a huge inconvenience since unlike Sony there's no "install" operation needed). Further, if you want, you can "delay" the downloads until you close the lid if you want to save bandwidth or something.
All in all, a huge step forward from "watch Mario gather coins for the next half hour, then you can do something with your Wii again".
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)