8th May 2006, 1:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 8th May 2006, 2:08 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
Navi only on Rev. You realize what this means don't you? They are putting "Dongle extras" into the Revolution version! Those bastage! I HATE dongle extras! To be clear on what I mean, since I'm pretty sure I just invented that term, I mean when a game needs new hardware for a feature not by virtue of any new ability the hardware offers, but just because they want you to spend money. Dongle is a term used for computer devices that just plug into a slot (USB these days) on the computer to allow, for example, administrative access to a computer in a corporate environment. For security purposes, they work great. For extorting money out of user's purposes, they are evil.
Nintendo has done this before. The Color Dungeon in LA DX, while it did actually need color, COULD have had a grey scale version of the same puzzles using just the 4 shades the GB offers. I'll forgive that one though, because it's just darned close to crossing the line, not over it.
They did, however, cross it with the two Zelda Oracle games. You remember the special "advance shops" you could only access on a GBA? There is no reason at all why you actually needed a GBA from a hardware perspective. That was using the GBA as a dongle to unlock a special feature, and it was insulting and obvious. Fortunatly the GBA sold plenty well enough on it's own and so I already had one for those games.
Perfect Dark even got in on it, with special cheats only unlocked if you stuck the GBC game into the transfer pack. Fortunatly, you could unlock those anyway, but it was still a cheap thing to do.
They also did it with the Mario Golf game, with special characters you could only get to with transfer pack.
Four Sword Adventures? Eh, that'll slide because in all honesty that game did in fact need the GBAs with the gameplay of not knowing what hidden place your "allies" were in at any time, getting who knows what sort of treasure, and if you played it single player, you could use the controller. Same with Crystal Chronicles, it really did need it, though not as much.
And also, in the case of SMB3Advance, the extra levels were not "dongled in", they were not even on the cart. The cards actually did copy new levels into the game's saved data, so that is easily excusable.
However, if it isn't needed by the new hardware as in the examples I listed above, and it is blatently already in the game code and merely "unlocked" by some piece of hardware that does nothing BUT unlock said feature, it is a DONGLE BONUS and as such is insulting and a blatant rip off.
Nintendo is more reputable than a number of companies, in that their products actually work :D, and their products work well at that. However, they are treading into dangerous exploitation by forcing us to buy hardware for reasons that aren't entirely honest. This idea of "if you buy this, this feature that is already in the game and by all rights would work perfectly on your existing hardware will be activated" can and should be protested by us, the consumers.
Of course, all this said, I'm assuming that the Navi bonus is actually something that doesn't involve using a Revolution exclusive feature. Maybe it is. The name alone really doesn't tell me enough to draw any conclusions. I just wanted to get that rant off my chest I suppose.
At least Nintendo didn't try selling some manipulative snake oil like, I dunno, some "magic coins that can raise your high scores when you put them on your controller".
<IMG SRC="http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/fc/famicoin.jpg">
Nintendo has done this before. The Color Dungeon in LA DX, while it did actually need color, COULD have had a grey scale version of the same puzzles using just the 4 shades the GB offers. I'll forgive that one though, because it's just darned close to crossing the line, not over it.
They did, however, cross it with the two Zelda Oracle games. You remember the special "advance shops" you could only access on a GBA? There is no reason at all why you actually needed a GBA from a hardware perspective. That was using the GBA as a dongle to unlock a special feature, and it was insulting and obvious. Fortunatly the GBA sold plenty well enough on it's own and so I already had one for those games.
Perfect Dark even got in on it, with special cheats only unlocked if you stuck the GBC game into the transfer pack. Fortunatly, you could unlock those anyway, but it was still a cheap thing to do.
They also did it with the Mario Golf game, with special characters you could only get to with transfer pack.
Four Sword Adventures? Eh, that'll slide because in all honesty that game did in fact need the GBAs with the gameplay of not knowing what hidden place your "allies" were in at any time, getting who knows what sort of treasure, and if you played it single player, you could use the controller. Same with Crystal Chronicles, it really did need it, though not as much.
And also, in the case of SMB3Advance, the extra levels were not "dongled in", they were not even on the cart. The cards actually did copy new levels into the game's saved data, so that is easily excusable.
However, if it isn't needed by the new hardware as in the examples I listed above, and it is blatently already in the game code and merely "unlocked" by some piece of hardware that does nothing BUT unlock said feature, it is a DONGLE BONUS and as such is insulting and a blatant rip off.
Nintendo is more reputable than a number of companies, in that their products actually work :D, and their products work well at that. However, they are treading into dangerous exploitation by forcing us to buy hardware for reasons that aren't entirely honest. This idea of "if you buy this, this feature that is already in the game and by all rights would work perfectly on your existing hardware will be activated" can and should be protested by us, the consumers.
Of course, all this said, I'm assuming that the Navi bonus is actually something that doesn't involve using a Revolution exclusive feature. Maybe it is. The name alone really doesn't tell me enough to draw any conclusions. I just wanted to get that rant off my chest I suppose.
At least Nintendo didn't try selling some manipulative snake oil like, I dunno, some "magic coins that can raise your high scores when you put them on your controller".
<IMG SRC="http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/fc/famicoin.jpg">
"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)