The Examiner/MMN Revue for Tuesday, February 15th

[lbd_nytetrayn]

From the Canada Nintendo Examiner:

Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition for Wii: One more time - Second, and possibly last, chance to get this classic on Wii.

Hands-on with Nintendo 3DS, part 2: The games - Whew! This took me a while, but it's finally done. And Examiner makes it look a bit longer than it really is.

I consider myself a Nintendo fan, to be sure. Nonetheless, I don't let my fondness get in the way of my feelings for what I've played here. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong... at least, for the most part. But when there were problems-- and there were-- I called them out.

From The Mega Man Network:

1UP Salutes the Nintendo DS with a Look Back at Mega Man ZX Advent - Which do you prefer? ZX Advent, or its predecessor?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Comments

[taichara]

*reads 3DS article*

*reads about setup for Kid Icarus*

*reads about results of trying to use that setup*

...

Damnitdamnitdamnit I am so screwed DDDX

[kyouryuu.livejournal.com]

It sounds a lot like the miserable control scheme in Metroid Prime Hunters. And the DS Lite was marginally lighter than the 3DS, so I can only imagine how cramping this scheme would be after heavy playing.

I hate to say it, but the DS line is just an ergonomic nightmare when you have a game that demands stylus AND buttons. Even in games where they are more mutually exclusive, like in GTA: Chinatown Wars or Harry Hatsworth, the transition is still clumsy at best.

[taichara]

I have arthritis in my wrists and hands; I can't rotate my wrists without bones popping and my fingers aren't much better, and playing the PSP can be agonizing. This sounds worse.

I waited twenty bloody years and this? Ffffff.

[lbd-nytetrayn.livejournal.com]

I hear you. At this point, provided the pain really is more than I can handle for long durations, I just hope that it manages to do well enough for them to make, say, a Wii game that plays differently.

I have no idea what Uprising's save system is like, either; if it were any time, anywhere, then it might be bearable for short periods. But if, say, you can only save after beating a boss? That would be no good.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[taichara]

Yeh, it's definitely looking like I need to dig up a good bit of information before I decide to buy this.

Fffft. Annoying, but I'm not scraping up that much money I don't really have for a game I can't really play. Even if I have wanted it this long.

[lbd-nytetrayn.livejournal.com]

I never really got to even play Metroid Prime: Hunters. When I heard about the scheme, though, it reminded me more of Star Fox Assault.

I hope maybe they will decide to make an alternate two-handed control scheme for this one, though, because it really was fun... before the pain kicked in.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[kyouryuu.livejournal.com]

Oh, ZX definitely. Advent was just... ew. I think I gave up once I hit that windy stage where you had to make really long jumps with no indication of where you were going to land. It wasn't any fun to play as the clunky boss characters, even though that sounded like a good idea on paper. The homing projectiles, also, made it play like X7 did, which is never a good comparison.

Plus, there was a rather violent shift in the storyline that almost tossed out everything in ZX. That was one of the big highlights in the Zero games - the continuing plot. By the time you confronted Dr. Weil on Ragnarok, it all meant something. You were possessed with purpose, given to you over the course of four entire games. So to see ZXA throw out the baby with the bathwater, it was the wrong decision.

Though any sane person would agree, it would be an insult to cartographers everywhere to call the original's map system a "map" at all. It's like if you had to navigate Super Metroid using only the hex-grid view of the world.

[lbd-nytetrayn.livejournal.com]

I really need to check out the endings to Advent on YouTube. Wonder if there are any particularly good uploads for that (i.e. not some guy balancing a camera aimed haphazardly at their DS).

Definitely felt ZX's story more, too. Serpent felt like such a great villain.

I won't question the map being better in Advent, of course, though the map didn't give me trouble my first time through in ZX for some reason; it only felt like it hindered me subsequently.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[kyouryuu.livejournal.com]

It hindered me specifically when I was trying to find the Amusement Park. If I remember correctly, I think the map led me to believe that the areas connected in alphabetical order. A leads to B leads to C and so on. But the Amusement Park, which I think was Area J, was connected to Area A. But I would have never thought to look there for it. I just figured it had to be around H or I somewhere.

[mutant-buster.livejournal.com]

ZX Advent was good, but it weakened ZX’s potential as a stand alone story, and ZX Just felt better. All the same I’m unhappy with the unresolved storyline in that series.