Salads

Japan doesn't have a qualified workforce big enough to do what they were doing in gen six in HD. The US was always going to win an arms race when the weapons were one of scale, cuz it big. You'll notice that the Japanese developers that bet the farm on tech = sales were hit hardest and vice versa. A lot of the talent from former Japanese gaming superpowers like Square, Capcom and Sega (not to mention the umpteen smaller companies that don't exist any more) didn't simply vanish or git bahd, but they might as well have if you don't have a Nintendo system because that's who they work for now. I'm not going to bore anyone with an anti-AAA rant but saying they sell more because they're the best is like saying big budget movies sell more because they're the best. Spending lots of money on making entertainment means spending lots of money on persuading people to buy them. Everyone rushes out to purchase Watch Dogs, Man of Steel, Destiny, Jurassic World or whatever and then they discuss whether not they were worth the money. Also notable is that AAA titles strongly court tech fans and movie fans because these demographics are safe to appease if you have cash to spend. Mass Effect, Red Dead, COD etc rely heavily on the appeal of their settings (which are nearly always already established via Hollywood) to sell a fantasy in a way that even Western game-wannabes from Japan like Resident Evil or Vanquish don't even attempt to. GTA uses movies to sell like Madden uses the NFL.

Because in order for those games not to be shat on they now need to cost too much (in time and staff as well as money) to be worthwhile considering what they would make back. If you want a good retail tennis game on your television from an eighth gen console, you'd better get on your knees and pray Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash delivers. If you end up playing it try to be appreciative of the fact it exists despite never having a hope in hell of being profitable despite being the cheap to make kind. Red Dead Redemption is starting to sound like the Deus Ex of the twenty first century - "It's the best game ever! *I really should get round to finishing it one day *Try to ignore that bit everyone agrees it's terrible." I'm not a fan but I will agree that the Western setting was great for the Rockstar sandbox formula in particular. Have never felt the newer GTAs matched up with using the same crime / law enforcement system that worked for the 2D entries. Western World is a big lawless ghetto where the sheriff and his desk aren't going to do shit and it makes sense that a superhuman marksman would work his way wherever he wanted and in whatever manner he choosed to.

I almost posted earlier about how YWW was the first game of the year that managed to lure me into hype mode. Mainly because I think Good Feel are absolutely top notch with these kinds of gigs, but also because I've been waiting a long time for a non-shit Yoshi game after Island.

Street Fighter is Street Fighter, so I wasn't fazed by knowing SFIV wasn't a looker before I went into it. Now that I'm playing it, it's fucking hideous.

I get a big Papo & Yo vibe from it.

That kid's voice is already annoying me more than navi ever did.

"Dusty Rhodes, how come you don't look like Ric Flair and have all them muscles and pretty body?"

I think I'm repeating myself here from when this topic came up before, but 'I beat it without dying' could be applied to any of the post-NES releases. It's not a series that tries to defeat the player and the satisfaction isn't meant to come from overcoming threats, though that direction in itself is something you may dislike. Off the top of my head I can't think of any Zelda games that would be improved by higher failure frequency, but I haven't played Link Between Worlds and am guessing the revert back to action-Zelda would make it more of an issue. One day I'm going to give the Wind Waker HD hero quest a shot and I have no idea whether the changes will improve or completely wreck the game.

Looks like this is related to a clip I keep on coming back to:

Is Cavernario's 2016 March Madness dream dead already?

That works so well for video games now you bring it up. Movies are frequently having the problem of having to resurrect villains or otherwise having to bring previously victorious heroes crashing back into a state of vulnerability for sequels, often stretching credibility when coupled with the need for increased stakes. Games meanwhile don't need to stick to the script to let the consumers come out happy, and if the canon storyline is based off of bad outcomes then it is logical for the next entry to present a bigger threat being the culmination of prior ones. Terminator 2 seems like the kind of plot that would fit as a late entry in a Deus Ex-like game series. Game one is trying to stop an AI (Skynet/Helios) from getting power --canon failure-> Game two is the player character JC (John Conner / Denton) trying to organise and gather a resistance force in the resulting post-robocalyptic world --canon success-> man versus machine war is under way, the tide is starting to turn and mankind makes the push to win --canon failure-> both sides send soldiers types back in time and the player controls Gunther Hermann trying to outwit someone with augmentations that work properly.

Iwata said reassuring people that the next Nintendo device wasn't going to be a phone was literally the only reason they decided to reveal the codename for their next system to the public. 'Nintendo planning to release unspecified game system at unspecified point in future' would be a redundant piece of non-news were it not for the fact it was revealed alongside the DeNA relationship. The message was 'We've been making consoles for thirty years and this new relationship doesn't mean we've stopped.'

I've played three games in the last three months that were a 10 for me. You'd think I'd be pleased to have spent my time so well but after previously averaging about one 10 per year of my gaming life my current response is 'oh great now I'm Edge'. Gotta hipster harder.

Put me on Team '97 for any KOF wars. Don't know what was going on with the soundtrack, but a single player endgame I can actually look forward to is something it can exclusively boast from the KOFs I've played so far. According to my personal review bible I ranked Samshos 2 and 3 as best in the series (again, so far) but yeah the slash/bust stuff wasn't a good direction. I don't want to see configuration in an arcade fighting game. By the time the series reached 6 it seemed to be looking up to TES in the 'before we let you play answer these questions you don't understand the consequences of' stakes and makes it look like the team's final pitch for how the game should play was 'I dunno.'

Quick question about Guacamelee. Had decent hopes for it despite the word metroidvania having a personal definition of 'Remember Super Metroid? Well now you do because we mentioned it in the genre name, and this isn't as good. Sorry.' and was wondering if the Super Turbo edition was worth spending extra pennies for. I'll draw attention to the spelling being Shodown out of respect for the ambition of expecting an American mid-nineties arcade crowd to understand a pun so obscure it took me a while today just to google to make sure my memory wasn't making it up. Was never going to contend with 'SNK game features English typo' as a credible explanation. The SamSho series hasn't clicked with me at all outside of presentation despite earnest 'I paid good money for this' effort. Little such trouble with Last Blade which seemed almost like a reboot. The deflection button in conjunction with those slow startup swings adds the kind of caginess I felt was missing from my SamSho experiences. I too am waiting on Picross 3D 2, and could I push you for a couple of extra words on Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast? I have a PS2 copy on my shelf and my high expectations are one of the reasons I haven't touched it yet..

Disaster: Day of Crisis is one of the most PS2ey games I've played despite not being on the thing. First impressions of The Last Blade: Better than all the Samurai Shodowns.

Sega re-release Outrun on the 3DS and add tracks that live up to the originals: On the topic of themes for meh characters in meh SNK fighting games, here's Franco Bash's from Fatal Fury 3

'He won. He won. In every way imaginable he won.' is one hell of a line.

Or a loving half nelson suplex letting centifugal force do the work. That is my pitch because 'dropping her with a burning hammer so fast the baby is left hanging in the air like WIle E. Coyote' is too silly.

I was sleeping on this line.

Typing '[name of game] longplay' into youtube and then zipping around the progress bar is still one of the most influential things for me when it comes to deciding whether to buy a game or not. Never felt the need for people to add words over the top, but to be fair I've most likely already read words before getting to that stage.

Can't say it made me laugh, but I'm going to draw attention to that cast because it really is extraordinary.

Thanks to Molyneux and Bethesda every time a game is described foremost as having 'ambition' I run a fucking mile.

https://twitter.com/newjapaneng/status/562353109780148226 1) Y'all gotta tell me how this works, because I don't think I've sussed it yet 2) If this actually does work, I think God needs us to spread the word.

I see it as this, but less about NOAH's dojo and more about just getting ring time. We're already seeing Nagata / Suzuki etc get some room to shine instead of working midcard tags between G1s until retirement. What I'm hoping for is something to substitute for the tried and tested 'here's a forearm, a hiptoss and a crab hold now go and job to Hiro Saito fifty times' method of teaching fundamentals that the main shows don't have room for any more. That stuff is still really useful but doesn't lend itself to selling subscription fees.