Messages

2576

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 30, 2010, 02:38:59 AM »

The whole Team Rocket disguise antic more than makes up for that, I'd say.

Love the fact that you actually get to fight a Double Battle with Lance, as well (of course, you just have to stay alive and his Dragonite will [twin slasher] everyone, but I tried to do my part anyway).

So anyways, I skipped Mount Mortar initially, so now I'm exploring it and using the time to level up my Extremespeed Dratini.  Training a Lv. 15 'man after 8 badges is quite tedious.  After that, it's off to Whirl Islands.

And I gotta say, I am loving having a starter with Lava Plume.

2577

Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: March 28, 2010, 04:47:39 PM »

http://kotaku.com/5503312/nintendos-new-ds-will-still-force-you-to-re+buy-your-digital-games

I just sent NOA a fairly scathing e-mail.

Thankfully, they can remedy this by doing rights transfers by linking the 3DS shop to My Nintendo accounts.

Of course, now I'm EXTREMELY concerned about the Wii successor having VC transfers or even bloody online play.

That article doesn't discuss the 3DS, it's referring to DSi-to-DSiXL.  Now, honestly, besides your EXTREMELY hardcore collectors, nobody should be buying both a DSi and a DSiXL.  They're the exact same thing in different sizes.

Nevertheless, Nintendo's iron-grip policies aren't always pleasant.  It does suck that should you for any reason need a system replacement (say, broken screen), you're completely F*@#!ed in the DLC department without sending your system into Nintendo's workshop or whatever.  This is why I hated the whole "selling license, not selling the game" crap since the first moment I saw it in the terms of service.  Hopefully, though, they will have enough common sense to allow some manner of transfer to a true successor (the rep did say they were looking into it, so they are aware).  They've got a little under a year to figure something out for 3DS.

2578

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 28, 2010, 04:33:22 PM »

I got a bit distracted with other stuff, so I'm not as far ahead as you'd expect a launch-day nut to be.  Getting there, though.

Reset my game repeatedly in order to get a decent Red Gyarados (nicknamed THUNDRZORD).  Just cleared Team Rocket out of Goldenrod (love that battle theme).  Making straight for Blackthorn in order to get that Extremespeed Dratini as soon as possible.

Current team:

Typhlosion - Lv.36
Kangaskahn - Lv.35
Jirachi - Lv.33
Red Gyarados - Lv.31
Spikey-eared Pichu - Lv.39
Vibrava - Lv.35

EDITS: Retired Pichu at Lv. 40 for my new Dratini.

2579

Gaming / Re: Let's Speculate About Wii 2

« on: March 26, 2010, 06:40:55 PM »

... Brawl sold more than Melee did in its lifespan in one year.

Hell, it very nearly did that in half a year.  I don't know what rock Aldo is living under, but Nintendo announced Brawl as the best-selling game of the Smash Bros. series in September 2008, when it was already nipping at the heels of Melee's lifetime record.  Brawl was also, at its time, the fastest-selling game ever for Nintendo of America.

2580

Gaming / Re: Let's Speculate About Wii 2

« on: March 26, 2010, 12:47:49 AM »

You know, when I see speculation that Nintendo's next console should follow what their competitors are already doing this generation (HD, multi-media, camera tracking), it shows a clear lack of understanding as to why the Wii is successful in the first place, not to mention Nintendo's general philosophy.

Wii2 will do something ass-backwards and off the wall.  God willing it will feature a nice processing/features upgrade, but that'll be icing on the cake, and not beefy enough to be the selling point.

Personally, I'm hoping they rethink their online approach.  It will NEVER be X-Box Live, Big N doesn't want to be a service-based company, but even so there's still a lot they could do to improve things.

2581

Gaming / Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Wii, PS3, 360)

« on: March 25, 2010, 01:58:30 AM »

I'm not sure it's either exactly... I think it's more like they started at the same time, based on the same concepts.

Recall that there were two Sonic TV shows back then: SatAM with the Freedom Fighters, and the more goofy one with Grounder and Scratch.  I remember from early letter columns, that the comic was meant to be a splice of both shows, but tended to lean more towards SatAM.

2582

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 24, 2010, 02:07:11 AM »

Two GC games had Shadow Pokemon.  Colosseum was the first.  Not sure where "battles that took forever" is coming from.

In fact, in terms of pacing, that's one more thing I love about Colosseum: The entire game uses the Double Battle style.

2583

Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: March 24, 2010, 02:04:19 AM »

PB, you really need to stop filling our heads with ideas that are too damn awesome to be true.

2584

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 24, 2010, 01:44:23 AM »

Personally, for best spinoff I'd go with Colosseum.  It uses the core gameplay mechanics, but with additions that emphasize the need to raise your critters rather than simply let them rot in the PC.  Also features pretty much the only hero of the RPGs who can be taken remotely seriously (read: is not a 10-year-old n00b who upstages all the experienced trainers).

A shame Gale of Darkness went the wrong way in attempting to expand it.  They added tons more Shadows, mandating an "automated" method of purification, which rendered the whole idea of bonding with your Pokemon to purify them obsolete.  What they need is to take Colosseum's level of Shadows (40-something, I believe) and attach it to a game that has normal wild encounters.

Snap was a lot of fun, though.

2585

Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: March 24, 2010, 01:38:42 AM »

ANY Star Fox that is actually good would be a dream come true. 

2586

Gaming / Re: VG Villians

« on: March 24, 2010, 01:36:38 AM »

Kinda depends on what you're looking for in a villain...

Most lovable villains to me are tied between Bowser (SMB) and the Bonnes (MegaMan Legends).  The Bonnes used to have that hands down, but the ending to Bowser's Inside Story gets me every time.

Now for a TRULY evil villain, Copy X MK1 (MegaMan Zero).  That guy is dangerous.  Anybody else who corrupts people generally does so by driving them crazy.  Copy X had the heroes of humanity, and hell the better part of humanity, honestly believing his crap.

The villain who best got his "just desserts", would be Sigma in X6.  What's that, you just got killed three weeks ago and you can't even see straight?  Too bad, we are NOT waiting for you to hatch another scheme, and you are damn well getting your ass kicked again right now.

Overall most badass appearance, Bowser gets another honorable mention (the NSMB roar was perfect; a shame Nintendo insists on the distorted voice in Galaxy and NSMBW).  But OoT's beast Ganon is unforgettable.

Most badly misguided would probably be King Dheginsea (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn).  Here you have someone who panicked in the face of controversy and rewrote history in ways that would only draw racial hatred against children of mixed relationships for centuries to come.  Having done that, not to mention lying to the world about his own deity, he sat on his ass hoping the problem would work itself out, and then demands the entire world pay for the resulting sins.  Seriously, you just want to smack the bastard.  But the fact that he's the most ludicrously powerful thing alive doesn't make that easy.

2587

Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: March 24, 2010, 01:15:33 AM »

If anything, I see this as a possible opportunity to remake and "re-envision" those games.

Works for me, I just assumed lazy development.  If it's colorized, higher-res, and includes some badass nostalgic remixes (preferably SMB3), so much the better.

2588

Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: March 24, 2010, 12:57:30 AM »

Make them both the same game, and I would break my Wii-release vow to never again stay up all night for new hardware.

Considering how DSiXL people got screwed I guess I needn't feel too bad that I only bought my DSi a year ago.  Honestly, 3D to me is only a gimmick and not a system-seller, but we all know that it's only a matter of time before any Nintendo hardware gets a game that I want.  A handheld joystick does concern me a bit, but we'll see.  Nintendo has generally kicked Sony's ass in the stick department, so I'm hoping they can top the PSP nipple. *shudder*

BTW, would now be a good time to re-enter pleas for a handheld Virtual Console?  'cuz with a 3D machine coming, I'm thinking Mario Clash for the masses that were turned off by gaming in a View-Master.

And even though I'm sure it will NEVER happen, a new hardware announcement is always a nice time to dream of game-specific Nintendo friend codes being abolished...

Gotta say though, portable 3D? That caught me off guard. I was totally expecting Nintendo to stay away from 3D until it got better integrated, much like they stayed away from HD with the Wii initially.

I think "no glasses" is the key reason they'd even attempt it.  Nintendo, when adopting a new technology, has a tendency to look for the biggest obstacle and a way to tear it down.  With both HD and internet play, that was cost.  They didn't do internet play until they could make it free, and they won't do HD until they can make it cheap (that includes the development end, not just the consumer).  With 3D visuals, it's the glasses.  Nobody likes to have to wear those things for too long.  So getting a more user-friendly version into mainstream hands, sounds like a typical Nintendo move to me.  Whether or not it actually works remains to be seen.

2589

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 23, 2010, 02:19:54 AM »

Well, I doubt Beedrill is going to be useful for much longer.

Ask Shell, he's the one that gave it to me.

I try to minimize my Pokesav cloning due to Rein being a pain in the ass (there are two copies of your save file, current and backup, and they alternate; Rein can only ever find one).  You just caught me at the right time.

2590

Gaming / Re: Nintendo Wi-Fi Friend Codes (under new management)

« on: March 23, 2010, 12:11:10 AM »

I'd say he damn well deserves it after having his Special Defense practically cut in half during the 2nd gen split.  All the rookies who joined after R/B/Y have no idea what it's like to fight the REAL ultimate Pokemon.

2591

Gaming / Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Wii, PS3, 360)

« on: March 22, 2010, 11:54:21 PM »

Darkspine > Dark Super.  Sadly, the World Rings are probably in the same boat as Super Emeralds. 

Anyone remember the old SatAM cartoon? The one the comics were based on? I often wonder why they even included Antoine. He did NOTHING but act like a stereotypical French ponce, get in the way and make a nuisance of himself. At least in the recent comics he took a level in Badass.

It's not really all that recent.  Antoine has been relatively competent in battle ever since hooking up with Bunnie (waaaaay back in #46, IIRC).  I do like how recent issues have him being the oldschool nervous wreck in battle but without being worthless, it's a nice balance.  The shot of him jumping on the Genesis-styled prison switch was just awesome.

2592

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 22, 2010, 11:40:54 PM »

Well...

'mans and levels don't tell you all that much, as I've known the early Gym Leaders to be a lot tougher thanks to powered up TM moves.  Take for example, Bugsy, there is NO COMPARISON between Fury Cutter and U-Turn.

That said, Morty loathed my Pokewalker.  Scrappy Kangaskahn, FTW.

2593

Gaming / Re: New Super Mario Bros. Galaxy 2 Wii Turbo Edition

« on: March 22, 2010, 11:30:00 PM »

The hub-world didn't bug me in the least, in fact the ability to fly through as communist-colored Mario made it a fun way to get wherever you wanted to go.  Now if the red stars WEREN'T there, I'd have probably hated it, 'cuz all the warp-arcs would get tedious and what have you.  But if Galaxy 2 had an open hub with Yoshi Wings, that'd damn well be good enough for me.

So far as the "weakest link" goes, I'm with Aldo.  The strongest point of a first-time Galaxy playthrough is that level progression is reasonably quick.  Then you defeat Bowser and realize you only have half the stars, and once you're done back-tracking, the later 1/3+ of the stages crawls along at Sunshine's pace.  If somebody decided to honestly put only 3 or 4 stars to a world, that could be the best thing to happen to 3D Mario (even better than a proper power-up system, and we all know how much I [sonic slicer] about that).  "Mario sandboxing" was fun when 3D was new, but two console generations later Nintendo needs to ease up a little and offer better variety.  More levels rather than more stars.

2594

Gaming / Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Wii, PS3, 360)

« on: March 21, 2010, 04:23:35 AM »

fans who approve of that sort of thing and eat up the worst part of Shadow's character and that Sonic X cartoon like it's some sort of mana from heaven

To be fair, X beats the [parasitic bomb] out of Underground.  Even if that's not saying...anything at all.

2595

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 21, 2010, 04:17:00 AM »

So they say.  However, to my knowledge, the Azure Flute event was never officially released, and thus the only "regular" Arceus out there are either glitched (from Japan) or hacked.

2596

Gaming / Re: Phoenix Wright, now objecting and pointing on the Wii?

« on: March 21, 2010, 04:10:25 AM »

It's a matter of coding effort, keeping things quick and dirty.  The game is very obviously using DS emulation, given that it pans out to show the "stacked screen" view at certain times, so that pretty much sets the output resolution in stone.  Frankly I'm surprised they bothered to use the IR pointer for luminol/fingerprints, given that they force you to use the D-Pad for examining scenes.

2597

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 21, 2010, 04:00:36 AM »

You know, it occurred to me that if you have the event Arceus, you need only reach the Ruins of Alph to get your legendary dragon.  So, off I go for my Origin Giratina.

Arceus's creation of a legendary "egg" is pretty weird.  A swarm of Unown, a weird circle pattern, funky "ancient tribe" sounding drum beat, and a bunch of IRL pictures showing everything from space to cities to microscopic life.

2598

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 21, 2010, 03:15:25 AM »

This is why I hate the current EV system.

Well, there's always fixed-level battles with my in-game 'mans.  'course, that'll require axing my spikey-eared Pichu...

2599

Gaming / Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Wii, PS3, 360)

« on: March 21, 2010, 03:12:21 AM »

I doubt that to be the case given that the effect they're pasting over is very nearly as large as Sonic himself.

You guys know that in S1-3 Sonic had "blurry feet" if you examined the circle frame-by-frame, right?  Now, yes, his body position while at full speed should be different from the startup run, but having seen only a single in-game frame and a bunch of fan-made mock-ups, I'd withhold judgment on that one.

2600

Gaming / Re: The Official Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Discussion Thread

« on: March 21, 2010, 03:06:06 AM »

Any time.

You know, I was prepared to let you keep those Pokemon.  Besides Mewtwo and Dragonite, my entire party was spares.  Anyways, I'm gonna register you on my Soul Silver game for future reference, if that's okay.  Maybe we can do another trade/battle sometime.