@Stephen Totilo: Well to share my experience, the Stick game is pretty much a write-off, because between myself and numerous friends of mine that I showed the game to, all of us found that game extremely hard to progress in, and since the scoring was time-based, it was also frustratingly difficult to get anything but a pathetic score.
The Square and Circle games were better, though I still wasn't blown away by them or anything.
Having the 3 players interact with each other was a neat idea, but I would've appreciated if you had a little more control on being able to interact with your screenmates. Instead, Square was the only one where the player could remotely predict when they might affect another player.
The bit where Mr. MaBoShi pops up and you have to get his score to a certain level was also frustratingly difficult, for reasons outlined in the previous paragraph: you can't really aim your attacks onto other people's screens, and that's the only way you can help him.
I think the game concept has potential, but I'm really not a fan of how it was implemented. I do occasionally get the urge to play Circle again, but it's quite rare. #domo
"If there's a good Nintendo and a bad Nintendo ... represents that latter corporate personality at its worst."
"2) Bank on the fact that Americans will be delighted that these mini-games star a Japanese pop culture icon.
3) Charge two bucks a pop."
"from the company you might forget brought you Super Mario 64, WarioWare and Wii Sports but that you might remember used to churn out the Mario Partys and sold NES games on the Game Boy Advance for $20."
"but the Domo games hurt the credibility Nintendo"
"Domo Games Micro-Review: No Thanks, Nintendo"
Does noone else think it odd that he spent almost half the review humoring the idea that Nintendo is an evil corporation? I mean, I know a lot of people think that and that's fine, whatever. But I read a game review to know the pro's and cons of said game. Not to read the reviewer make half-witted comments about the people who made the game.
@Stephen Totilo:
That isn't the point I was making at all.
If the quality of the games only calls for two negative paragraphs, that's perfectly ok by me. It's just that I don't think a review should be making jabs at the company. #domo
@THEJOHNNYOHM: I include in my reviews the ideas that I think are most interesting about the games I'm reviewing. In the case of these Domo games, what makes them interesting is the cheapness of the games' quality, their high cost, and how they fit into Nintendo's DSiWare offerings. If the experience of a game indicates something interesting about the people who made it or the company that published it, I'm going to include it in the review. The quality of the game is relevant, as its value and price compared to the other games mentioned in the review. One person's "jabs" is another person's "context." #domo
@Crash__Man: The lead idea of this review is that these games exemplify the occasionally cheap strategies of a publisher that gamers have often been able to rely on for innovation and value.
@Stephen Totilo:
I find that understandable to an extent. I noticed you cited Nintendo's "dirty dealings" (if you will) with Mario Party and the Gameboy Advance.
Using a 10 year old example (Mario Party 2 in this case) makes about as much sense to me as pointing to the Microsoft monopoly debacle in the 1990's and using it as "context" in every bad game they publish.
While noting the context is perfectly sensible in a review, I feel your idea of context may be excessive.
Regardless, I appreciate you discussing this with me. I understand more of where you were coming from. #domo
@Stephen Totilo: ha really? then why are the words "review" and "no thanks, Nintendo" in the title?
wouldn't it need to be more like "The Ups and Downs of Nintendo, a DSiWare spotlight" and then name some of those titles with "innovation and value" as well? #domo
@THEJOHNNYOHM: Adding a little humour to the article made it more enjoyable in my opinion, the thing that really makes this Gen unbearable is people that cant read anything negative about their beloved company without ott reactions.
Notice he also said Mario+DK was a top notch game in the same article.
Tbh, if you dont like the way Totilo reviews, stop reading them.
I find his to be the best on kotaku due to his more human approach.
I'm sure there's no shortage of Domo reviews out there to read instead, why dont you try nintendo official magazine, they certainly wouldnt have anything bad to say about the company. #domo
@Blore07:
"...makes this Gen unbearable is people that cant read anything negative about their beloved company..."
Another thing that makes this gen unbearable is that the moment someone DOESN'T HATE on a system, they are automatically assumed a fanboy. Either way, fanboyism didn't manifest this gen, I hate to inform you.
And TBH, I can read whatever reviews I want to. And if I have a problem with said review was handled and a comment board is made available to me, I think I'll use it, thanks. #domo
I appreciate the DSi reviews. I was about to buy pictobits but having spent all my free points on junk really put me off from buying anything from the shop.
@Fabrice: Go back and read my reviews of ArtStyle Pictobits and Boxlife, two of the best games released for any platform this year. Get them. Mario vs DK on DSiWare is good, too. #domo
You know, Mario Party really isn't that bad. Yeah they had a new one all the time but none of them were ever bad if you played them with friends. You just had to make sure that you were not the person who purchased it. #domo
and sold NES games on the Game Boy Advance for $20.
...which nobody bought. I know because I probably picked up half of the set (both Zeldas, Castlevania, Xevious, Dr. Mario, and Ice Climbers) new for $5 or less a game. I think the entire series hit clearance racks, and quickly at that. Even now, they're still dirt cheap.
Nintendo has a long history of repackaging and rereleases, but that's only because they've been around longer than the other companies. Sega did it too (and still does), Sony and Microsoft do it when they can, and so does every company that pumps out retro compilations or has access to WiiWare, PSN, or Xbox Live. It's just part of the industry now, for better or worse.
Not that this justifies defiling the good name of Domo-kun, though.
Rather than develop a single $10 Domo game, they split the profit into fifths and put essentially no effort into each development? What is this, the App Store?
Oh, and where's your Domo Clock, Nintendo? (Sorry if Nintendo reads this and gets any big ideas.)
I'm glad someone remembers the $20 NES/GBA debacle. At the time Nintendo was hoping that retro-gaming could carry a 400% novelty tax (assuming the reasonable current model). What's surprising is how many gamers thought the price was reasonable (at the time). Maybe it was just the "free market uber alles" folks coming out of the woodwork, but that pricing sucked. #domo
I wonder if Nintendo is just trying to capitalize on the fact that Domo's popularity is on the rise in the US? He's the new 'coffee mascot' for 7-11 in America and I see his face on the side of every CTA bus that goes by.
It's a little weird...
also, re: the title of the review--I see what you did there, Totilo!
@excel_excel:
Yeah, what the hell happened to that? Wasn't it supposed to come out this fall? I see it listed at GameSpot for Q4 2009 which just ended... #wiiware
I believe that WiiWare now needs a creationist/intelligent design shooter. It is not fair that our children only will shoot things from one side of the debate.
It appears that Nintendo is pulling minigames out of GBA games and putting them on DSiWare again. These all look like the minigames from Domo-Kun no Fushigi Terebi.
I'll buy (some) of them anyway, but it's a cheap tactic. #wiiware
I still have my DSi's free points, I've looked at a few bits of software and been tempted but what I really want is a simple diary/address book app for it. I know that it's probably not going to be that popular but the dsi would be ideal, a stylus for input an SD card for backup and small enough so that most people carry it around with them all the time.
The maps and dictionary apps that turned up really gave me hope that somebody would be working on this, I mean it can't be that hard to programme surely?
@Weirdwolf Is Restared To Glory!: Shouldn't be too hard to program, but it's unlikely that somebody would do it if it won't be successful. You need a DSi dev kit to make DSiWare, and that's not cheap. #wiiware
It's a shame because while all three companies tout their "mini-games" capability as a way of smaller companies getting stuff that wouldn't normally seen released into the public eye it seems that there are still some significant problems for the people trying to do that.
.... Wow, I'm surprised that in 1986, people thought we'd see apocalypse within the next 15 years? at least Megaman made it 200X .... though we're rapidly approaching that deadline too... #wiiware
@Agent.AealapytsaNotxap(NotASpy): Naw, I like to interpret Mega Man's date as a poorly-thought-out way of saying the year 20010. That way it gives us another 18,001 years before our inevitable robotic apocalypse (or robocalypse for short). #wiiware
@Agent.AealapytsaNotxap(NotASpy): Really, you must have missed all the movies and games which had the world ending and crazy future stuff happening by the year 2000. #wiiware
@Agent.AealapytsaNotxap(NotASpy): Don't forget it's only 92 more years before all our base are belong to Cats. Let us hope we will be prepared to take off every Zig for great justice. #wiiware
11/04/09
Completely terrible WiiWare game that somehow costs 800 points. Frankly, it would still feel like a ripoff at the minimum of 500 points.
I think it's somehow still in the top 30 Wii Metacritic scores, which is just a travesty of gaming criticism. #domo
11/05/09
11/05/09
The Square and Circle games were better, though I still wasn't blown away by them or anything.
Having the 3 players interact with each other was a neat idea, but I would've appreciated if you had a little more control on being able to interact with your screenmates. Instead, Square was the only one where the player could remotely predict when they might affect another player.
The bit where Mr. MaBoShi pops up and you have to get his score to a certain level was also frustratingly difficult, for reasons outlined in the previous paragraph: you can't really aim your attacks onto other people's screens, and that's the only way you can help him.
I think the game concept has potential, but I'm really not a fan of how it was implemented. I do occasionally get the urge to play Circle again, but it's quite rare. #domo
11/04/09
"2) Bank on the fact that Americans will be delighted that these mini-games star a Japanese pop culture icon.
3) Charge two bucks a pop."
"from the company you might forget brought you Super Mario 64, WarioWare and Wii Sports but that you might remember used to churn out the Mario Partys and sold NES games on the Game Boy Advance for $20."
"but the Domo games hurt the credibility Nintendo"
"Domo Games Micro-Review: No Thanks, Nintendo"
Does noone else think it odd that he spent almost half the review humoring the idea that Nintendo is an evil corporation? I mean, I know a lot of people think that and that's fine, whatever. But I read a game review to know the pro's and cons of said game. Not to read the reviewer make half-witted comments about the people who made the game.
11/04/09
11/04/09
That isn't the point I was making at all.
If the quality of the games only calls for two negative paragraphs, that's perfectly ok by me. It's just that I don't think a review should be making jabs at the company. #domo
11/04/09
cute jabs at Nintendo should not be the first sentence of a serious journalist's review.
make sense?
it's by far not just you, by far not just this article and does NOT happen all the time.
but things like this happen too frequently to not question the site's integrity.
PS - I think you are quite correct about the quality of the game. so please keep in mind it's not what's said but how. #domo
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
I find that understandable to an extent. I noticed you cited Nintendo's "dirty dealings" (if you will) with Mario Party and the Gameboy Advance.
Using a 10 year old example (Mario Party 2 in this case) makes about as much sense to me as pointing to the Microsoft monopoly debacle in the 1990's and using it as "context" in every bad game they publish.
While noting the context is perfectly sensible in a review, I feel your idea of context may be excessive.
Regardless, I appreciate you discussing this with me. I understand more of where you were coming from. #domo
11/04/09
wouldn't it need to be more like "The Ups and Downs of Nintendo, a DSiWare spotlight" and then name some of those titles with "innovation and value" as well? #domo
11/05/09
Notice he also said Mario+DK was a top notch game in the same article.
Tbh, if you dont like the way Totilo reviews, stop reading them.
I find his to be the best on kotaku due to his more human approach.
I'm sure there's no shortage of Domo reviews out there to read instead, why dont you try nintendo official magazine, they certainly wouldnt have anything bad to say about the company. #domo
11/12/09
"...makes this Gen unbearable is people that cant read anything negative about their beloved company..."
Another thing that makes this gen unbearable is that the moment someone DOESN'T HATE on a system, they are automatically assumed a fanboy. Either way, fanboyism didn't manifest this gen, I hate to inform you.
And TBH, I can read whatever reviews I want to. And if I have a problem with said review was handled and a comment board is made available to me, I think I'll use it, thanks. #domo
11/04/09
Demos... #domo
11/04/09
11/04/09
The Pictobits review is the only reason this game was even under my radar but thanks for letting me know about Boxlife, I missed that one.
@all:
I give up. Cheers for the heads up. #domo
11/04/09
11/04/09
...which nobody bought. I know because I probably picked up half of the set (both Zeldas, Castlevania, Xevious, Dr. Mario, and Ice Climbers) new for $5 or less a game. I think the entire series hit clearance racks, and quickly at that. Even now, they're still dirt cheap.
Nintendo has a long history of repackaging and rereleases, but that's only because they've been around longer than the other companies. Sega did it too (and still does), Sony and Microsoft do it when they can, and so does every company that pumps out retro compilations or has access to WiiWare, PSN, or Xbox Live. It's just part of the industry now, for better or worse.
Not that this justifies defiling the good name of Domo-kun, though.
11/04/09
Oh, and where's your Domo Clock, Nintendo? (Sorry if Nintendo reads this and gets any big ideas.)
I'm glad someone remembers the $20 NES/GBA debacle. At the time Nintendo was hoping that retro-gaming could carry a 400% novelty tax (assuming the reasonable current model). What's surprising is how many gamers thought the price was reasonable (at the time). Maybe it was just the "free market uber alles" folks coming out of the woodwork, but that pricing sucked. #domo
11/04/09
It's a little weird...
also, re: the title of the review--I see what you did there, Totilo!
11/04/09
11/04/09
10/19/09
It could be so much more! #wiiware
10/19/09
10/19/09
Yeah, what the hell happened to that? Wasn't it supposed to come out this fall? I see it listed at GameSpot for Q4 2009 which just ended... #wiiware
10/19/09
Play the controversy!!! #wiiware
10/19/09
I'll buy (some) of them anyway, but it's a cheap tactic. #wiiware
10/19/09
If I see one more "OMG I'M SO WEIRD" girl wearing that domo hoodie, I'll have to jump kick... Drake style. #wiiware
10/19/09
The maps and dictionary apps that turned up really gave me hope that somebody would be working on this, I mean it can't be that hard to programme surely?
10/19/09
10/19/09
[www.nnooo.com] #wiiware
10/19/09
It's a shame because while all three companies tout their "mini-games" capability as a way of smaller companies getting stuff that wouldn't normally seen released into the public eye it seems that there are still some significant problems for the people trying to do that.
@ChivalRuss:
It's a start but 32 pages to draw on is hardly a calendar, diary or address book. #wiiware
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/19/09