Where did they go wrong: Namco edition.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:29 pm

Too many Namco Museums. There does not need to be a new Namco Museum with every single console, though the 50th Anniversary is superb.

RoninBuddha · Post by **RoninBuddha** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:38 pm

"Where did they go wrong"

SCIV

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:39 pm

Super Castlevania IV ? That one isn't Namco.

RoninBuddha · Post by **RoninBuddha** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:42 pm

Turrican wrote:Super Castlevania IV ? That one isn't Namco.

soul calibur IV

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:45 pm

But that's SIV.

Etrian · Post by **Etrian** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:49 pm

I think where Namco went wrong was in deciding not to localise the majority of the Tales series. Some of the games, like Rebirth, look and play wonderfully. I'd love to see an English release, although that isn't going to happen. Why? I don't know, they just refuse to make one.

Considering the Tales series is one of the most highly regarded, highly praised jRPG lines out there, I just don't understand why they wouldn't bother doing this. They're also rather strict when it comes to region compatibilities with 360 games, like their Eternal Sonata. I had to wait until November (although the game was released in September in America) before they released a version in English for NTSC-J consoles. The PAL release also didn't come until around that time, either.

One of the things I've never understood is why they ended up releasing We <3 Katamari in PAL, but not the original Katamari Damacy. I wish they wouldn't portray themselves with these "faithful" region releases (that's what they call it) and just let everyone enjoy their games.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:49 pm

RoninBuddha wrote:
Turrican wrote:Super Castlevania IV ? That one isn't Namco.
soul calibur IV

D'OH

trivial · Post by **trivial** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:53 pm

I'll always associate that scanlined caps typeface from Galaxian with having fun. Don't care much anymore except about arcade driving.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:11 pm

Puckman -> Pac-Man

it290 · Post by **it290** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:47 pm

Releasing the same stupid Anniversary packs over and freaking over again.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Tue May 27, 2008 11:54 pm

Turrican wrote:
RoninBuddha wrote:
Turrican wrote:Super Castlevania IV ? That one isn't Namco.
soul calibur IV
D'OH

You're an obsessed 'vania fan.

Battlesmurf · Post by **Battlesmurf** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:33 am

Puckman -> Pac-Man

Hehe..I still like that story. Can you imagine owning one of the original rumoured Puckman games out there? It probably wouldn't have been 'fucked with' in JPN- but you know damn good and well (US) stateside it'd have been graffitied quickly...

D · Post by D » Wed May 28, 2008 12:38 pm

They went wrong where most arcade companies went wrong.
They should have ported more arcade games to consoles, and not 1 game on every system twice.

Dremark · Post by **Dremark** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:36 pm

RoninBuddha wrote:SCIV

They went wrong with Soul Calibur 3, although SC4 looks like it has a very good chance of bring the series to new depths of failure.

The sad thing about SC3 is that it really had the potential to be a good game. If it had an arcade release and a few revisions for balance along with better quality control/bug fixes it would have been great (Although I didn't care fo any of the new characters).

Ozymandiaz1260 · Post by **Ozymandiaz1260** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:41 pm

Dremark wrote:If it had an arcade release and a few revisions for balance along with better quality control/bug fixes it would have been great

That's exactly what happened

Dremark · Post by **Dremark** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:43 pm

Ozymandiaz1260 wrote:
Dremark wrote:If it had an arcade release and a few revisions for balance along with better quality control/bug fixes it would have been great
That's exactly what happened

Unfortunately that didn't happen until the home version had already been released and was stuck being a buggy, unbalanced piece of crap forever.

Nuke · Post by **Nuke** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:20 pm

When Itagaki took over the Ninja Gaiden franchise without ever playing the originals.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:01 pm

Namco are just one of those companies that squeezes too much out of itself for profit. When you do that you leave a dried out piece of turd.

Dremark · Post by **Dremark** » Wed May 28, 2008 5:44 pm

Nuke wrote:When Itagaki took over the Ninja Gaiden franchise without ever playing the originals.

Ninja Gaiden is Tecmo actually.

From what I read about the new series, Itagaki was working on a Ninja game and the higher ups in the company decided to call it Ninja Gaiden so it would sell better.

I don't think the new games are bad, but I always despised the fact that they called those games Ninja Gaiden when they have nothing to do with the originals other than the name of the main character.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Wed May 28, 2008 5:56 pm

By not giving Pac Land a sequel.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Wed May 28, 2008 6:07 pm

Etrian wrote:One of the things I've never understood is why they ended up releasing We <3 Katamari in PAL, but not the original Katamari Damacy.

Because the original wasn't compatible with the PAL hardware.

Seriously, that was the excuse somebody at Namco came up with. I've still got a link around here somewhere.

The later games were picked up by EA for PAL release, same as things like Ridge Racer 6.

Ozymandiaz1260 · Post by **Ozymandiaz1260** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:00 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:'ve still got a link around here somewhere.

A link to an interview or something? I'd love to read that if you could find it.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:06 pm

I enjoyed Soul calibur up until they started including the various console only port characters. I just choose not to play as them and got over it. The whole starwars thing sucks balls. but then i can choose not to have them in the game if i like. but still. . . .

I love namco! despite the numerous amounts of gambling machines in the UK they still fail to tekken 6 fair distribution in the EU and USA.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:11 pm

Lordstar wrote: gambling

Yeah, that's why I dislike Namco so much

If I became Prime Minister, the very first thing I'd do would be to ban scaffolder's laptops (thanks ffor that euthamism, Spadgy

)

Battlesmurf · Post by **Battlesmurf** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:13 pm

I don't think the new games are bad, but I always despised the fact that they called those games Ninja Gaiden when they have nothing to do with the originals other than the name of the main character.

Pretty much same boat on this part. I love the originals (love to hate 3), love the 'new ones', but I hate the 'gap'. It reminds me of the wierd legend of zelda story issues and shit. If I'm playing a game series for xx years- I kinda want some type of universe to put together with it. Also- tell me it wouldn't be terribly cool to have a 2D hand drawn Ninja Gaiden...

Lol..since we're side tracking this bad- let's go ahead and kill of Legend of Zelda while we're at it.

Back on topic-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill.switch

This is where Namco went wrong. This game was more or less awesome. I loved it! Why in the shit did Gears get the credit- when this game was years prior? I love Gears- but Namco REALLY should have taken this game further.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:21 pm

Battlesmurf wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill.switch

This is where Namco went wrong. This game was more or less awesome. I loved it! Why in the shit did Gears get the credit- when this game was years prior? I love Gears- but Namco REALLY should have taken this game further.

that would be advertisement campaign and the lack of. Not that ive played that game. is it any good?

Gungriffon Geona · Post by **Gungriffon Geona** » Wed May 28, 2008 7:35 pm

Team Ninja raped the Gungriffon franchise with basically a shitty port to XBox of the first game with better graphics. I mean god damn they could have atleast looked at Blaze for the gameplay side of things, that game was great in terms of action.

wait that IS Namco right?

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Wed May 28, 2008 8:23 pm

Dremark wrote:From what I read about the new series, Itagaki was working on a Ninja game and the higher ups in the company decided to call it Ninja Gaiden so it would sell better.

I don't think the new games are bad, but I always despised the fact that they called those games Ninja Gaiden when they have nothing to do with the originals other than the name of the main character.

The NES Gaidens are just Castlevania with the ninja from the arcade game swapped in anyway.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Wed May 28, 2008 9:52 pm

Ozymandiaz1260 wrote:
E. Randy Dupre wrote:'ve still got a link around here somewhere.
A link to an interview or something? I'd love to read that if you could find it.

Actually, I think it might have been a news piece in an old issue of Edge. Which is annoying, because it's going to take a lot more time to dig out, but I'll have a go at finding at some point. Wasn't a massive thing, just a one page Q&A, iirc.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Wed May 28, 2008 10:20 pm

Mortificator wrote:The NES Gaidens are just Castlevania with the ninja from the arcade game swapped in anyway.

There are obvious similarities, particularly with the two series' subweapons. But you can't say Ninja Gaiden II is just Castlevania III with a sprite swap. The pacing is far faster where Castlevania is relatively plodding and calculating, for one. If anything NGI-III took Castlevania's basic action-platfoming structure, dispensed of everything that made it "Castlevania" (stairs, ridigly strict controls, methodical pacing) and added its own unique traits to create a distinct game. It's as much a Castlevania clone as Silent Hill is a Resident Evil one.