Why Nintendo is horrid! (the list is endless)

[Sumez]

"Maybe also don't artificially lock players out of entire sections"
> I tried multiple times to go back to old locations or explore different routes than what the game had intended for me, and instead got routed into a big loop forcing me into the same series of rooms I'd just passed and end up in the same place, due to the game obviously trapping you so you can't even go backwards. This happens continuously for the entirety of the game, regardless of whatever obscure sequence breaking tricks might exist.

"or leave abilities up to the discretion of an NPC."
> This really is more of a world-building thing. Doesn't matter to me if I pick it up from an alter in a derelict space station, or if a computer terminal tells me I'm allowed to use it. But I seem to remember skills specifically becoming available by talking to the game's version of "Adam" and him saying now you can use it. Might be wrong on this one, I'll admit, I need to double check, but I definitely remember something like it.

"And maybe don't have combat be mindless d-pad rocking and 1 button mashing."
> Probably not the same sort of combat, but it's hard to get any more mindless than the one-solution-beats-everything nature of that dumb deflect/parry thing I'm pretty sure you could just remove it and change nothing else about the enemies, and it would be an immediate improvement.

"Or have complete silence in most areas of the game....and nostalgia bait enemies/bosses over new shit........"
> These are both aspects I don't mind in a Metroid game tbh, I think both serve the setting well. Regardless, Dread has Kraid. I can't think of any Metroid boss being more nostalgia bait than that outside of maybe Ridley. I'm actually surprised Ridley didn't show up, I guess there's that. We got Chozo bosses instead though.

> and boring level design both aesthetically and in play.............................
That's most of the game honestly. Aesthetically, it's baffling to me how much they made every single area look alike, due to the bleak muted look everything has. Show me any screenshot of the game and there's no way I'd be able to tell you what area it's from.

> or weird dumbass detective sequences.
Alright I'll admit I completely overlooked this one. I guess it doesn't have detective sequences You win.

[vol.2]

I had an ignorant mindset and hated the game for ages as a result, but I finally forced myself through it two or three years ago. I was pleasantly surprised when I got into a groove with it.

Sound more like Stockholm Syndrome to me.

[To Far Away Times]

I'd be emulating modern games more if there were any console games worth playing. It's a shame because I do find the console experience sentimental. I like sitting on the couch with a controller playing a video game on my TV. I love my PC more, but sometimes it's nice to just completely focus on the game without setting that up by muting Discord, shutting off my other monitors, closing everything out, etc.

I divide my retro game time in two ways.

I have a Steam Deck with retrodeck/retroarch with a fancy gui and video previews of the games.

And then I have a PC Engine, SNES, and Genesis hooked up to the CRT TV with Everdrives for each console. A couple of the consoles also have wireless controllers (the 8 Bitdo ones).

[Lander]

Other M's detective sequences and arbitrary ability provision were awful, those definitely fall under the remit of mod that shit out.
I don't recall the soundtrack or level design being that dull, though also don't explicitly remember either of them; likely too busy being dazzled by the novelty of 2D metroid in 3D.

That's the game's main contribution, in my eyes - making third-person 3D metroid a thing, and having it play as tightly as the GBA lineage it draws on. Shame it ended up killing the concept...

This really is more of a world-building thing. Doesn't matter to me if I pick it up from an alter in a derelict space station, or if a computer terminal tells me I'm allowed to use it. But I seem to remember skills specifically becoming available by talking to the game's version of "Adam" and him saying now you can use it. Might be wrong on this one, I'll admit, I need to double check, but I definitely remember something like it.

Adam essentially pulls rank on Samus early in the game and forbids her from using any of the cool toys she brought along from the previous adventure, on grounds that they can't have her totaling the station while the space feds are investigating.

On paper it's a nice break from the traditional oh no i tripped over reset conceit, and makes sense for high-yield stuff like power bombs, but having Samus slog through the fire zone without a heat shield because senpai didn't say I could protect myself tips over from from professional respect to stupid personal drama. The player wouldn't appreciate getting the varia suit otherwise, but they evidently didn't think too hard about it.

You know what, the same thing happened to me with Star Fox Zero. I bought it at launch, played it for an hour, had no idea what the devs were thinking and then put it down in disgust. However, I revisited it recently and realized it’s actually a pretty damn good game. I think more people are going to come around to it as they revisit it with more tempered expectations.

Yeah, Zero had its merits, even if the prevailing memory of it these days is the JonTron-esque WAT- Whaddayamean the laser doesn't line up with the reticle!? freakouts of launch week.

I thought it was quite polished and fun; lots of branching routes, good fanservice, appropriately hammy My Emperorrrr! VA.
Probably would have been a better game minus the brain-bending control scheme and associated gimmickry (the Andross encounter in particular - nowhere near as good as 64's!) but it definitely didn't deserve to get so much hate as to effectively re-kill the series.

[XoPachi]

I just thought Zero was boring. The Direct-I/Gyro Wing sequences and anything with the bird were just a bit of a pain in the ass. A lot of bosses took entirely too long to kill despite there being no danger in fights dragging out because it was generally the easiest of the series. The kind of drab art direction and really anemic levels (some were fine) didn't hit for me.
It and Other M were games where I tried to force myself to think they were fun. I tend to have that issue with a lot of Nintendo games today. I'll have a bunch of playtime that's mostly hours of cope.

Oddly both are the first games in either series I didn't like. I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys all of the prior StarFox games, but Zero did nothing for me.

[Steven]

Maybe also don't artificially lock players out of entire sections or leave abilities up to the discretion of an NPC.
And maybe don't have combat be mindless d-pad rocking and 1 button mashing. Or have complete silence in most areas of the game....and nostalgia bait enemies/bosses over new shit........and boring level design both aesthetically and in play.............................or weird dumbass detective sequences.

Other M was so bad. Glad the series is past that. (...)

Metroid Dread does all of those things lol

Super Metroid does about half of them too

[Arino]

If you have 2 Switches under the same account, you have to designate one as the main Switch. The secondary one must phone home to mommy and ask permission XBox One style to play any games downloaded to it that were purchased on the main Switch. Even if you downloaded and are playing it on the account that purchased it. So if you take that second Switch anywhere and you don't have a connection to the Internet, any digital titles you didn't buy directly on that unit cannot be played.

Wait. I have two Switches under the same account (OLED and Lite). And I have no idea which one is the main one. I purchased almost all of my digital games on my OLED as I had that one first. To keep it simple, let's just say I purchased all of them on my OLED (but they are also installed on the Lite via the same account). So what if I ever end up "going somewhere" (God forbid) and let's say there are no internets where I go, then I won't be able to play any of my ACA (and other digital) games on the Lite but only the cartridges I have?

Btw I never understood why people care about what Nintendo do regarding taking down pirated roms and all that. Why do people care? It's a war Nintendo can't win, it makes no difference if there is one site they take down or if they throw a tantrum because of that one Switch emulator.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Wasn't there a Switch web browser made by two Google engineers -- was that ever released?

It'd sure be nice if a Netflix app was released for the Switch.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Marc]

This thread is weird. My only complaint with the grumpy uncle of gaming is their insistence on treating F-Zero like a ginger stepchild.

CRKD Nitro Deck sorts portable controls.

[Arino]

If you have 2 Switches under the same account, you have to designate one as the main Switch. The secondary one must phone home to mommy and ask permission XBox One style to play any games downloaded to it that were purchased on the main Switch. Even if you downloaded and are playing it on the account that purchased it. So if you take that second Switch anywhere and you don't have a connection to the Internet, any digital titles you didn't buy directly on that unit cannot be played.

Wait. I have two Switches under the same account (OLED and Lite). And I have no idea which one is the main one. I purchased almost all of my digital games on my OLED as I had that one first. To keep it simple, let's just say I purchased all of them on my OLED (but they are also installed on the Lite via the same account). So what if I ever end up "going somewhere" (God forbid) and let's say there are no internets where I go, then I won't be able to play any of my ACA (and other digital) games on the Lite but only the cartridges I have?

XoPachi replied to me via PM but in case anybody else needs help with it, here is how to make any of your Switch devices become the one that can play all your digital games without wifi:

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/ ... 20consoles.

[Despatche]

Regardless of how you actually feel about Nintendo games, anti-Nintendo discourse is the most worthless waste of internet space in the world. It is never worth engaging, it is always a waste of your time. Nothing ever gets resolved, because the goal of this discourse is to avoid allowing that to ever happen, which it has been wildly successful at. I tried to collect the only good posts in this thread real quick, but 90% of my post ended up being neorichieb's words of wisdom, so just read his posts instead.

This thread is weird. My only complaint with the grumpy uncle of gaming is their insistence on treating F-Zero like a ginger stepchild.

Sometimes I like to pretend that Nintendo came to the same conclusion I did, that the only really great way forward is something that is so hilariously high-budget that it's not worth doing unless you are certain it'll sell well. Metroid Dread was a pleasant surprise, but there is no guarantee that it would or even can happen again.

What happens in these cases is that nobody at the company is willing to stand up for it as a spokesperson. This is similar to what happened to Mega Man and Metroid for all that time; you had one very specific person standing up for both series, and when that person went too far, darkness fell. Remember, even Tanabe could not save us from Other M. (RIP Federation Force, Metroid deserves a better fanbase)

I'd like to believe that Samus Returns and Dread are some kind of redemption arc for Sakamoto, but because the original Dread (I get the feeling they're wildly different, just like Duke Nukem Forever) was canceled, Other M ended up following Fusion and Zero Mission. "Other M 2" could happen at any time, and we could all be right back in the Shadow Realm where we started.

[Arino]

I just bought the one year online + expansion pack thing to use the cloud save feature. It's ideal for people like me who travel a lot. From the living room to the bedroom and back. So no matter where I want to play my favorite Nintendo games, I can always access their fancy cloud now. At such a low price.

Looking for people I can play Mario Kart 64 online with.

[Daytime Waitress]

I just don't like how Nintendo are so successful despite everything they have messed up over time. They always get away with everything they do.

I just bought the one year online + expansion pack thing to use the cloud save feature. It's ideal for people like me who travel a lot. From the living room to the bedroom and back. So no matter where I want to play my favorite Nintendo games, I can always access their fancy cloud now. At such a low price.

This is the internet forum equivalent of "The Aristocrats", isn't it?

[Steven]

At least Nintendo sued the shit out of that stupid real-life Mario Kart company a few years ago and thankfully won. Those fuckers (the kart guys, not Nintendo) are a nuisance and a danger to road safety, and it's only ever foreigners who likely don't even know Japanese traffic laws that drive those things. Unfortunately, that company still exists and now that tourism is pretty high again I see them almost daily. Fortunately, they started wearing Nintendo character suits again, which means that hopefully Nintendo can sue them again and this time permanently put them out of business, thereby increasing safety and increasing the happiness of everyone. Probably would reduce pollution as well.

Like fuck dude you really want to come to Tokyo and go out in the crazy heat wearing some nasty used costume while also being a public safety hazard and a public nuisance in a stupid little kart thing while looking ridiculous? Really??? Go do something else that's better and safer, like staying in your damn hotel room where there is lower risk of causing a traffic accident or dying from heat stroke. Over 100 people died of heat stroke here last month, which was the hottest month on record. Stay inside and play video games where it's safer!

[m.sniffles.esq]

I just bought the one year online + expansion pack thing to use the cloud save feature. It's ideal for people like me who travel a lot. From the living room to the bedroom and back. So no matter where I want to play my favorite Nintendo games, I can always access their fancy cloud now. At such a low price.

I ended up having to do this, but instead of 'such a low price' I looked at more as 'Nintendo makes me pay extra money to make something not a complete pain in the ass'

I think these are referred to as 'premium QoL enhancements' (or something along those lines) in marketing powerpoints

[Sengoku Strider]

The thing that turned me off Other M was having to flip to pointer controls every time I needed to fire a missile at a boss. It was so unwieldy I just put the game down and never went back to it.

At least Nintendo sued the shit out of that stupid real-life Mario Kart company a few years ago and thankfully won. Those fuckers (the kart guys, not Nintendo) are a nuisance and a danger to road safety, and it's only ever foreigners who likely don't even know Japanese traffic laws that drive those things.

The weird thing is that Tokyo has sweet FA to do with Nintendo or Mario Kart but those people probably think they're getting some kind of authentic experience. The levels are mostly based on tropical or European fairy tale locales...or generic North American biomes. Ain't nobody driving down Kawaramachi in go karts, Kyoto would never let them. I hope.

[Steven]

At least Nintendo sued the shit out of that stupid real-life Mario Kart company a few years ago and thankfully won. Those fuckers (the kart guys, not Nintendo) are a nuisance and a danger to road safety, and it's only ever foreigners who likely don't even know Japanese traffic laws that drive those things.

The weird thing is that Tokyo has sweet FA to do with Nintendo or Mario Kart but those people probably think they're getting some kind of authentic experience. The levels are mostly based on tropical or European fairy tale locales...or generic North American biomes. Ain't nobody driving down Kawaramachi in go karts, Kyoto would never let them. I hope.

Right? Do people come here thinking that this is what people do in Japan, or that it is part of Japanese culture? It certainly is not. It's just what crazy tourists do while the rest of us curse them for driving around in those dumb things yelling and making noise and crashing into taxis, crashing into police boxes, or doing hit and runs on bicyclists. I wish I was making this up, but all of these things and more have happened. It's a miracle that nobody's gotten killed yet.

[BrianC]

I just don't like how Nintendo are so successful despite everything they have messed up over time. They always get away with everything they do.

I just bought the one year online + expansion pack thing to use the cloud save feature. It's ideal for people like me who travel a lot. From the living room to the bedroom and back. So no matter where I want to play my favorite Nintendo games, I can always access their fancy cloud now. At such a low price.

This is the internet forum equivalent of "The Aristocrats", isn't it?

I don't know. Does everyone here want to be a cat?

[KPackratt2k]

One thing that Nintendo did horribly wrong (and doesn't get mentioned enough around the retro gaming scene) was the way they man-handled the video output options for the GameCube.

First, they segregated RGB output to PAL consoles only and S-Video to NTSC consoles only, which is incredibly annoying because the AV Multi-out connector (which was used all the way back to the SNES - which could do BOTH RGB and S-Video from the same connector regardless of region) had enough pins to accommodate both connection methods. There were also cases where PAL regions had access to S-Video but not RGB SCART (for example: Australia) because it wasn't as well known. Imagine being one of those PAL users who were forced to make-do with Composite video on the GameCube because it couldn't do S-Video and you didn't have a TV with RGB SCART.

Second, they made it so the ONLY way to get Component output from the GameCube was to buy the now obscenely expensive Digital AV output cables from their online store. This really hurt the system's ability to output that standard because these cables internally convert the proprietary digital YCbCr output to analog YPbPr, which made these extremely difficult to clone (and even to this day, there are still no good clones of the GameCube Component cables).

Third, the later revisions (DOL-101 models) axed the Digital output connector, meaning you were now stuck with either S-Video (for NTSC) or RGB SCART (for PAL) maximum.

In my honest opinion, Nintendo would've been much better off making analog RGB and YPbPr outputs available from the Analog Multi-Out connector on ALL regions and allow you to choose between the two standards in the system settings menu just like you could on the PlayStation 2. If it weren't for the fact that the number of GameCube games that support 480p (without modifications) outnumbered the number of PS2 games that support 480p, I'd go far enough to say that the GameCube had the WORST video output choices out of the four consoles of the sixth generation.

Thank god Nintendo's follow-up console - the Wii - outputs native Component YPbPr video and is backwards compatible with GameCube software (that is until Nintendo axed the feature in the Family Edition model in 2011). The only downside is you can't use the Game Boy Player on the Wii.

[Sumez]

The GameCube is famous for those issues. Pretty sure it was mentioned extensively when it was still relevant, as I recall it people wouldn't shut up about it.

[Steven]

I don't remember any discussion of that at all. The only reason people only ever acknowledged the Gamecube's existence was to say that it was weaker than the PS2 and a worthless piece of shit. At least, that is what all of the other kids at school said, even though I told them that the Gamecube was way more powerful. It didn't really matter that much in the USA because nobody had anything better than composite and probably like half of the people were still using RF. I was using composite on my PS3 as late as 2009 or so.

[Sumez]

Kids didn't talk about the GameCube's video output in schools lol
Nerds talked about it on internet forums and chats such as this and many other that I would frequent.

And yeah, it was most likely more prevalent in Europe where people are more likely to care about non-shitty video.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

All I remember from the Gamecube era in Germany is that two friends of mine played the shit out of Windwaker. At that time, we were in our early 20s and nobody gave a shit about RGB video.

[vol.2]

I actually had a GameCube before I had a PS2 because I was mostly interested in the Metroid Prime games and the Resident Evil games, which were very popular GC titles. I didn't really think much or talk about the video output at that point. I used s-video because that's the best input my particular 32" Sony had, and it looked fantastic to me. Very few people were geeking out about RGB and whatnot. Component video was not even on most people's radar at the time and even if their TVs supported it, most people didn't bother with buying a cable other than the composite cable that came standard with the console.

It's not a surprise that the PS2 beat the GC of course, because it has a built in DVD player, and most people were just ready to buy a player for the first time.

But if anyone wants to dive into the differences in GC and PS2 architecture, Anandtech's 2001 article on it is a great place to start.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

fukk nintendo

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The thing about the Nintendo Switch with using a micro SDHC memory card, I thought you could swap one already installed & formatted from a different Switch console and put that one in a second Switch console -- the first micro SDHC card must be reformatted and registered through that second Switch console (which I didn't want to do) in order to use it (even if both Switches are registered through the same user's Nintendo account -- "hot swapping" memory cards between two Switches isn't possible/feasible as I learned of that first-hand the hard way). Each memory card is registered to that particular specific Switch console exclusively and no other Switch can use it period -- true story, folks.

With the Sony PSP & Vita handhelds, "hot-swapping" of memory cards is a piece of cake & isn't a problem to begin with.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Sumez]

Well it kind of makes sense to do it that way if they don't want to offer software piracy to people on a silver platter.

It's not practical, but it's pretty standard.

[mycophobia]

i love nintendo

[TransatlanticFoe]

Nintendo: subscribe to our online service and get free gold coin rewards
Nintendo, 2 days later: gold coin rewards are ending next month

Outside of the games themselves, it feels like anything Nintendo does well is entirely by accident. Just waiting for something to totally derail the Switch 2 launch now!

[Austin]

Getting rid of the gold coins seems like a dick move. The company is doing better than they ever have yet can't be bothered to toss their loyal customers a bone. It's all about that profit-profit-profit, not the good feels these days.