FMW

Nintendo is reeealy struggling with keeping this frame rate up to 30. If the most recent rumors are to be believed (and Eurogamer has been pretty spot on lately) then we're still a full six months from this game being released. And I know that frame rate optimization normally comes in at the end of development. Data streaming for draw distance, load times, etc. But man, I don't remember other Nintendo games looking this choppy pre release. And a spotty frame rate is hardly a deal breaker, but it's still kinda weird to see that in a AAA Nintendo trailer. By the time they were showing us Mario Kart 8 or Pikmin 3 or Zelda Skyward Sword they were smooth as butter.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga part 1 is still a fantastic game. Systems/gameplay focused JRPGs tend to age pretty well because a rewarding back and forth interplay between you and the computer in a turn based context is going to be equally rewarding regardless of when it's played. The graphics are only representational and not actually indicative of hitboxes/player control/anything else. Digital Devil Saga is fun to play and the story interferes only enough to provide context for each dungeon you need to conquer. That's just how I like it. Owlboy is a freaking disappointment. Great music, great art, great sprites, and great pacing... but the actual substance of the game fell flat. I don't like the story, it has too many words saying too little and even if it was eloquent it isn't even trying to say anything interesting. The mechanics feel incomplete. Like, I spent the entire game waiting for the second layer to kick in. And it never came. So it really just comes down to floating around a 2D plane. It's a huge bummer that a game all about a boy learning to fly can't depict flight even as well as Mario. "Swoop" is not a verb in this game and you can't accelerate/decelerate either. And it's short! The decade development cycle made me think there would be a lot of random stuff crammed in here, but there wasn't really. It's a very linear experience that doesn't take too long. It's like... what if you made a Kirby game but instead of putting Kirby in dozens of levels built out of 4-5 bite sized ideas each, you make 5 really big levels that explore like 2/3 each. I think there's an inverse relationship between how tight your mechanics are and how inventive your level design has to be. On one end of the spectrum, Devil May Cry has almost zero level design because the entire point of the level is just to chain together perfectly flat arena fights against waves of enemies teleporting in out of nowhere. That combat is the reason to play the game, so it's fine that the levels don't change things up appreciably. On the opposite end of the spectrum there's Kirby where you can basically float and get hit a ton and the game won't ever punish you for it, and to keep you interested the levels are really dense and provide most of the fun. Owlboy is Kirby mechanics in levels better suited for Cave Story.

Get behind me Satan. I already bought three games that haven't even arrived yet.

I'm already there with the mainline Dragon Quest games, but Rocket Slime is on the list still. I could get one of the two DQ Monsters games, but honestly I have pretty limited tolerance for that style of RPG. It's all gameplay with very little story... but the gameplay is always simplistic in a way that's clearly designed with elementary school kids in mind. Same reason I'm not a big Yo Kai Watch or Pokemon guy. Thanks for reminding me that Trauma Center 2 exists though List just got one game longer

Yeah, that's increasingly been one of my thoughts too. If we went a year or two with zero new game releases I would be just fine with that. I would have all the time in the world to catch up on and fully explore all these games I already own. ...but instead of doing that I go on shopping sprees online buying decade old handheld games three at a time. Oh well.

So the thing about the Nintendo DS library is that it's kinda bottomless. I own more DS games than any other console by a mile and I still have a big old "to do" list of DS games that are supposed to be really fun and solid that I haven't bought. So I made a dent in that list on Amazon today. Meteos, Lunar Knights (Kojima Productions Boktai sequel), and Henry Hatsworth will all be shipped to me and added to the collection. Anyone played any of these?

Well it was pretty obvious that Zelda was taking a framerate hit played on Tablet. I suppose if I'd thought about it that should have been expected? Like, unless the console box is literally nothing but a charging case then you're losing some horsepower when you detach and go mobile. And that's fine, but it does bring up the question of a split hardware SKU within the system. Are publishers going to get the choice to make their games not compatible with the tablet version, and then that would allow them to push tech more since they'll be built only for the full console hardware? Or will Nintendo be a butt and say "All games must comply with our new gimmick, and this means all games must have a low tech scale available so they can be played in detached format" I think that having the split could kind of work for the Japanese market though. In Japan there's an awful lot of developers that have never really moved into HD production. The games don't make enough money in that small market to make that development spend profitable. And for this reason there's a lot of companies still releasing games on 3DS over there - Nintendo is the low spec option for developers AND they have a huge install base. Assuming that the Switch ends up consolidating the handheld and console halves of the company, I can totally see a ton of Japanese B tier franchises migrating over and releasing with the intent to be played in mobile mode. So we'll see the low tech stuff from Atlus, IntiCreates, Capcom, etc. There's been this long held belief that Nintendo never has third party support, but that's not true. They just never have Western third party support. They still get stuff from everyone in Japan, and they're rarely iced out of software unless it literally can't run on the hardware (No FF 13 games on Wii, no Metal Gear Solid 5 on Wii U). So what will be interesting when the inevitable Software Direct comes out is seeing if 1. Nintendo can get ports of hi spec Japanese games that they didn't get before because of hardware (FF XV, Persona, MGS) and 2. Nintendo can get anything from the West more current than Skyrim. Last thought: Splatoon as an eSport. Lol.

I am sorely disappointed by Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. These have always been the JRPGs that feel like they're made just for me. They focus on things I like. Tight turn based combat design that's fast. A good mix of goofy and the occult in the tone and settings. Difficulty that actually pushes back enough to force the player to pay attention. And not a lot of anime really. No waifus (that's for the Persona games), usually not a ton of dialogue, just a lot of quality game play time. SMT IV: Apocalypse has some of the best dungeon/combat design in the series. The basic gameplay loop that was already fantastic in SMT 4 has been tuned pretty much to be the best version of itself. It's just fantastic. But holy crap the narrative is just awful. There's no more show don't tell, it's all tell. Everyone's teenagers or they're gods with incredibly adolescent worldviews. You have teenage girls fighting over your affections. One of them calls you "Master". Yeah, gross, I know. And I put up with this is JRPGs a fair bit. You kinda need to have a tolerance for anime tropes to play JRPGs in 2016, the two are inextricably linked. But to have this come from a Shin Megami Tensei game feels like a betrayal. It was supposed to be better than this.

Okay, we're in October now. And the NX is gonna be in... March? So that's 5 months from now? I know Nintendo be crazy, but at some point you need to stop giving them credit for being crazy and assume that if they show nothing they have got nothing. NX is gonna be delayed.

Hensen Production Co. puppets, and specifically with an intent to recreate the aesthetic and tone of Twilight Princess. I'm not even kidding. I think that's a match made in heaven, and I think that the dialogue light storytelling of Legend of Zelda fits a Hensen Productions joint pretty well. I also think that the limitations of puppets would keep the action element grounded, which is how Legend of Zelda ought to be. Do you remember that anime movie they made for the Smash Bros marketing with Pit and Link fighting? That was garbage. That was link as an anime superhero who's every action causes the world to tremble. That's not Legend of Zelda.

Elite Beat Agents - excellent I think the good times of playing and beating a series of retro and short games ends now though. SMT IV Apocalypse and Dragon Quest are coming out now. Each of these promises to be a 100 hour commitment.

Axiom Verge - very good Fire Emblem 7 (GBA) - very good

I think the real story here is the Mario image they use in the Super Mario Run promotion. Look at that. Stitching visible on the overalls. Different shades of brown on the shoes. Probably the NX render they're working with. It's a brave new world ladies and gentlemen.

Trollhunter. The humor is so dry it could absorb an ocean without any visible change in consistency. Appreciated as a comedy it's just lovely. I feel confident that there were people who were expecting something much more fantasy or fairy tale based on the title, I certainly was. But no, I got a grumpy foul smelling old government employee.

Castlevania Circle of the Moon Castlevania IV Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance Castlevania Rondo of Blood I'm on a mission to beat them all. The problem? Castlevania Bloodlines has never been rereleased since the Genesis. I can play a Japan only Turbo GraphX 16 Castlevania game (Rondo of Blood) on virtual console but not Bloodlines. I do not understand this.

I'm trying to keep my cool here, but what we're seeing about Pokemon Sun and Moon seems honestly pretty great. Replacing the 8 gyms and then elite four traditional structure with a regional rite of passage that's unique to these particular islands is cool. Customizing your single player campaign to fit the content of your game, what a radical thought. I'm also a big fan of the new forms of old pokemon. It's basically the same notion as Mega pokemon. The franchise can't support 150+ new creatures every installment, it's already near impossible to know all of them. So both Mega pokemon and Alola form pokemon allow Gamefreak to return to and add to existing designs that are popular. So you're adding new content, but it's built on what's familiar and well loved. I also really REALLY dig the new random battle music. Which is important. These games are grindy as all hell. There are an AWFUL lot of random battles. The music's gotta be there. My wish that hasn't been confirmed yet: Could they bring back the double battle grass from Gen V please? That was such a simple improvement. Along every route there was the normal level grass for the first time through, and then there was slightly higher level grass with double battles for you to use if you wanted to get more XP/train at a higher level. That was great for playing through the zones and leveling up your dudes.

We'll see how long that prioritization lasts one that mobile money starts rolling in. Gotta remember that Kimishima is a business guy, not an ex-developer like Iwata. He'll follow the money.

Unfortunately, I don't think that this is really Nintendo focusing all their software development on a single platform. Console is out, but smartphones are in. And the early leaks have all said that the NX will have smartphone game interaction/compatibility of some sort. Nintendo has been hiring a LOT of new people to work on smartphone development. And existing internal talent is being shifted over there too. The guy who's run Mario Kart for the past decade (one of Nintendo's absolute most successful and consistent franchises) is over in charge of smartphone development now. AND we're now in the era of games as a service where games can't just be finished, shipped, and forgotten. Smartphone games especially but also modern console games require regular updating, bug fixing, etc. So that's going to slow down first party development for sure. Splatoon 2, for example, is probably only in very early stages of development. Because the company was still developing and releasing DLC and updates for the year after release. So in retrospect, thinking that cutting two platforms down to one will equal twice as many Nintendo games for the one platform was wishful thinking. We may still get an uptick, but only a moderate one. Modern games take longer to make, need to be tended after release, and Nintendo's splitting with smartphone development still. So I guess this is business as usual. But hey! Maybe Nintendo can make a multiplayer Zelda game where smartphones are the controllers and for the first time over have a multiplayer Zelda experience that doesn't require hundreds of dollars of Nintendo specific equipment to play!

Star Trek Beyond. I was surprised how affecting the extended destruction of the Enterprise was. That original starship silhouette is just one of those iconic images out of a show that really mattered in our society and culture. I knew the Enterprise was going down in this movie, but I was shocked to see that I cared. It helped that the whole sequence did a good job of highlighting the best of the recast crew. Lots of Sulu and Uhura. After that I thought the rest of the movie was fine. Surprisingly good jokes actually. They almost all landed. Credit to Karl Urban for taking the Spock tracking his girlfriend joke and making it not come across as really creepy.

Well Nintendo consolidating their two concurrent platform strategy into just trying to support one platform is predicted and necessary. Nobody else is trying to support two separate software libraries simultaneously. Even PS Vita is 90% games also playable on PS consoles. So that much of this is good news. I think that if you take the combined development of the first party 3DS and Wii U you would have a kick ass competitive single software lineup. Same for combining GBA with Gamecube or DS with Wii. So that's what we're going to get from Nintendo next generation. All their powers focused in one place. I'm also on board with the consolidated platform being a low tech handheld. Since what we're looking at is the consolidated Nintendo box, I'm not super concerned with not having rockin' technology. Games on this platform are going to be by Nintendo for Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't benefit from advanced tech so much. When they try to push online or open world gaming it's always clumsy. Previous platforms they always had to make a token effort to enable the technology being used by literally every other developer... but it looks like this time they just decided not to even mess with easy third party compatibility or offering comparable specs. As for the detachable controller thing though, I'm not sold. I get that they want to make it possible to play on your TV too, but it's hard to imagine that the comfort as a handheld won't take a hit as a result of trying to also be a transforming gizmo. My strong preference would have been for Nintendo to just make a really good solid handheld and then sell controllers separately for people who want to run games through a TV screen.