That makes no sense to me. Backwards compatibility grows less and less critical as a system matures - assuming the Ambassador Program never existed, it would've been in Nintendo's best interest to roll GBA games (among others) as early into the 3DS's first two years as possible.
Why not GBA, too? Nintendo clearly had the emulator in working order.
While I don't take as extreme of a view as Mr. Thompson, I wholeheartedly agree that not all Zeldas have been mana from heaven. Phantom Hourglass was alright and Spirit Tracks was the epitome of mediocre. I've tried to play Twilight princess on several occasions and for whatever reason can't get into it (though that may change now that I've finally played Ocarina on my 3DS and see where a lot of the series' modern conventions come from).
The series is not above criticism and it certainly hasn't been uniformally great. It's run a gamut from phenomenal to middling - and the original NES classic remains the best in the series, followed closely by A Link to the Past and The Adventure of Link trailing a distant third. (For those curious, I'd place Link's Awakening, Wind Waker, and The Minnish Cap in the fourth, fifth, and sixth places respectively.)
The series has absolutely lost its teeth in terms of difficulty, though. This I feel even the most ardent Zelda fan will concede. I think the biggest problem is that Aonuma & co. simply can't decide which way to take the farnchise - keep the structure and aestehtics akin to what's found in all pre-Ocarina installments are move in a progressively more involved and cinematic direction? Instead, we're left with an unstaisfying middle ground where little to no progress has been made since Ocarina's debut.
It reminds me of how Resident Evil 4 was such a sea change for the series and made important mechanical contributions to later third-person shooters, yet spawned a less than impressive sequel. Ocarina had a greater (but similar) impact, yet it's still spawned a manic collection of sequels that range from good to meh.
So you honestly believe that we wouldn't all have been playing NES and GBA games before Christmas if the Ambassador Program hadn't happened?
To be fair, that comment was in specific reference to the Ambassador Program.
Even so, I'd say no because $249 for everything the Vita boasts is already a fair price - even if it's more than what people are willing to pay. The 3DS was simply too bare bones in what it offered (particularly at launch when key services and features hadn't even been implemented yet) and is still not boasting technology to warrant that sort of price tag.
There's a psychology to pricing - that's why gas is always $3.99 a gallon and not $4. That's also why there are certain barriers that any hardware manufacturer would have a hard time breaking through (like pricing any handheld above $200).
What bugged me about the Ambassador Program wasn't Nintendo themselves, but their fans. I applaud the Big N for being so adaptive - but the Ambassador Program was the equivalent of jangling your keys at an infant and the fans simplay ate it up. If more people had acknowledged it as a way to deflect bad press and gloss over some piss poor decision making I wouldn't have called them "suckers". As it stands, most were simply to dazzled by having shiny things stuck in front of them to realize what was going on. I also found it bothersome for the fact that it's delayed (by months, possibly a year) the full roll out of the portable Virtual Console so these same people aren't reminded (in a way even they can't ignore) that it was all a PR stunt. Hence why I dubbed it "the period of sucker appeasement".
When Sony announced the Vita's price would be $249.99 people went apeshit. No one thought it would be so cheap and it placed the Vita and 3DS on a completely even playing field - with many, many gamers, journalists, and other assorted pundits looking more favorably at the Vita. And at the same price, the 3DS looked positively anemic (and more than a bit of a rip off) by comparison.
Then Nintendo slashed the price to $180 and a good deal of the extreme enthusiasm surrounding the Vita subsided. People generally aren't prepared to pay in excess of $200 for a handheld, but most figured, "hell, if $250 is the way things are gonna be then at least the Vita gives you more fuck for your buck". Sony has more savvy management these days (at least Kaz and Shuhei are really on the ball lately) and I'm sure they're accutely aware of what's caused consumer's cooling attitude towards the Vita. If the Vita does indeed only cost $160 to make, then even at $180 Sony doesn't need to take a hit - and they'll be back in the same spot they were prior to the 3DS's price drop.
I have no choice but to be more conservative with my spending this year, though it has given me a chance to...you know...actually play the games I already own.
That being said, I'm still planning on picking up the following without fail:
Tekken 3D Prime Edition
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil 6
Ninja Gaiden 3
Asura's Wrath
Yakuza: Dead Souls
Final Fantasy 13-2
Lolipop Chainsaw
The Last of Us
Street Fighter X Tekken
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Now many of these won't be on day one mind you. Resident Evil Revelations and Kid Icarus I can wait on - though I don't expect much of a price drop in either case. I'm fairly confident Final Fantasy 13-2, Asura's Wrath, and Lolipop Chainsaw will get their prices knocked down to 29.99 within three to four months of release, so I'm gonna try and wait those few out. The rest I'm gonna try and get as close to launch as possible.
Of course, the list of games I want to purchase is doubly long - but unless I land a better paying job the above list of fourteen are my priorities for the year. I'm slowly socking money away for a Vita, though. Twenty dollars from every paycheck, which means I'll have enough to pick one up by August, just in time to see Sony slash the price to match the 3DS's (I'm certain this will happen)...which means a bigger memory card or more games to purchase with the difference.
You know, I was initially excited at having the option of a more iOS-like interface. Being an illustrator, the idea of being able to quickly swipe between programs, etc. seemed very appealing. And Launchpad, in theory, looked like a perfect interface for a user with my needs.
Unfortunately, none of it works and they've seemingly removed a lot of basic functionality found in previous iterations. You can't even remove applications, folders, or extensions from Launchpad without completely trashing them.
It sucks. And if Apple is already announcing 10.8 it seems clear that they know how much it sucks and are going to scrap it in favor of something (hopefully) better.
I didn't know the Japanese version of the NES game was unreleased, though that would probably explain why the American release always seemed a little on the jittery/buggy side. Still one of my favorites from that era
More importantly, will Mountain Lion address the jittery, half-working pile of mess that is OS X 10.7 Lion?
10.6 worked so well, why go and break everything in 10.7, Apple?
Where did you hear that?
Everything I've seen or read points to the HD collection (at least on PlayStation 3) being essentially flawless while the 3DS version (on builds previewed over the summer) suffer from some very noticable framerate dips.
Mike,
Strider is a Capcom game. Do you mean the Sega Genesis port? (Also done by Capcom.) #corrections
And for those curious, from what I've read it sounds like Snake Eater 3D's demo will be identical to the original PlayStation 2 demo of Metal Gear Solid 3. In other words, the parachute drop, traversing the jungle, and sneaking into the abandoned factory...right up to the point where Naked Snake rescues Sokalov.
But it didn't run perfectly on PC, though. Not from the start. And it was pretty clear from the UI that the game had been designed around the 360 and then ported to both the PC and PlayStation 3.
"Dragon Age 3: It's not as good as a punch in the dick."
Even as someone who's never cared about the Elder Scrolls, has no intention of playing Skyrim, and couldn't care less if the series ever graces a PlayStation console again - I still wonder if Skyrim had run this poorly on the 360 instead of the PlayStation 3, would it still have nabbed so many Game of the Year nods?
That's a valid point. The actions of a few have made things more difficult for the many.
Though it's also fair to say that I don't want to pay $15-$20 for a five-pack of razor blades, either. They're frigging razor blades...why do they cost so damn much?
That's an awful prize. I'll take mine in crotch punching if that's the case.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure Mass Effect 2 isn't a conventionally good game. I was really just referring to WRPGs in general when I said one hadn't really done it for me in years and years. Though considering the two that have managed to garner a second look from me (recently) were both made in Japan, it's gotten me thinking that WRPG and JRPG are really irrelevant terms - and what we should be talking about computer- and console-style RPGs.
Hooray! What do I win?
No reason to be ashamed...pure, unadulterated perviness (and a spoonful of esoteric appeal) is the only reason I keep Hyperdimension Neptunia in my collection.
