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I enjoyed the street fighter cartoon as a kid and until this point didn't know anyone felt differently! Ignorance is bliss. 🙂

In that spirit, I'll probably just leave this one in the fuzzy, happy past 😊

@nocdaes

for the record, (...) I think they are simply importing them so "just print more" is a non starter for this company ✌️

Unless of course I've misunderstood your comment which is easily half my life so.

Anyway I really like enjoying game OSTs on ZXtune on Android! (fwiw not sure if theres an iphone equivalent.) 👍

115 USD for 3 records?

ah, no. it's not like i learned to love these tunes in vinyl the first time 😂 cool that it happened. id rather have a cd(s) though.

"stick and dpad" are kind of the "burger and fries" of the controller world.

that definitely is my kind of thing, baby

it never even occurred to me that you could "get good" at light gun games, for some reason 😆

I LOVE light gun games but I tend to think of games like HOTD as more like carnival rides/ quarter munchers. illuminating! inspiring! impressive! 👍✌️

@MetaCrystal

I'm being a bit hyperbolic: CE plays GREAT and was in fact the first SF game I ever played. and of course the arcade Hyper Fighting is essentially a perfect game and I've had hours of fun on that machine throughout the years.

OTOH, Turbo sounds BEAUTIFUL in my opinion! far better than any other version! I'm a "music guy" and that really matters to me. Im happy to whoop someone if i can, but I'm really there for the vibes 😎

I'll put it another way: if I could have only one version of II, it's Turbo, no contest ✌️

@MetaCrystal

SNES (ii turbo) is the only way I enjoy playing II, period. definitive, imo.

(but im a lot more into BGM, say, than counting frames ✌️)

many ports by the big players in the golden era were superior to the arcade in at least a couple ways, imo.

DC ports are > arcade, generally. soul calibur, crazy taxi, marvel vs capcom, et al. lots of NES games from "the big 3" were improvements or at least evolutions if the OGs. Contra. strider. Bionic commando comes to mind. capcom did it again with un squadron on snes, as well. 👍

(btw this is an old favorite talking point of mine and ive taken a good deal of abuse in these comments elsewhere for expressing it.)

i had the snes one - yes, it was bad! it was only the second aftermarket pad I ever tried out ( the first being a SNES "Quickshot - for professional players" that was equally bad, almost worse) and like others, I saw an ad (I think on tv!) and my imagination ran wild! i bought in and immediately realized my mistake. 😂

i will say, the dpad had a small raised "dead zone" in the center that you could "park" the tip of your thumb on, so the claim that it was impossible to rest your thumb is not quite true (but just barely haha.)

in all, it was an early encounter with a "solution in search of a problem," and by the end of the 16 bit era i was coming around to the idea that 1st party is top tier and very few 3rd parties (that arent called ascii/agetec) could compete at the time.

@drypaphmrbro

I gave it to a girlfriend's little brother a very long time ago 😂 part of me wishes I hadnt, but he was already 10x the guitarist I ever ended up being, and it felt like the right move at the time 👍✌️

for the record it was a ~late 90s big muff pi NYC, which i believe was designed by the woman who founded Frantone ($$$ these days) shortly after.

@KingMike

now that you mention it, i played rainbow 6 for the first time on psx mini recently and found it maybe the strangest feeling, most inscrutable game ive played in a very long time. I usually like anachronistic, idiosyncratic, and just straight up odd playing games but I just couldnt do it 😆😂

@X68000

"My favourite modern display for retro games has to br the iPad pro 12.9" 4:3 display."

I'll bet that's gorgeous 😻

@X68000

I had the same thought, but upon inspection, I believe this is a 16:10. of all things.

it could be measured but im not too worried. looks too square to be 16:9, too wide to be 4:3. thats what I think 😆

@romanista

a good wonderswan clone would instantly become my top choice for handheld and arcade emulation 👍

@Serpenterror

"poverty customers," ouch 😂

edit - now that you mention it there is a "tigerishness" about this hardware. plasticky. 🤔

@Tryffel

do you genuinely consider yourself a minority?

In my personal experience most people prefer the SP. ✌️

i like em both 😊✌️ the SP is admittedly a bit cramped for my larger than average hands, but what a design! 😍

"when viewed from the front, the only sign that this isn't authentic is the fact that it comes with four face buttons rather than two – and that the Game Boy Advance logo is absent, of course."

and ... the screen is on the front 😆✌️

do y'all really like the stick way up at the top like that?

generally, it looks like they designed this thing from a vague description, having never seen a handheld console. and, bandainamco should use the classic NAMCO logo for applications like this (and everything else frankly but I digress.)

1) "clone" can simply mean a thing that reminds one of a more popular thing that pre existed that thing. sometimes derisive or silly (powerslave was initially called a "doom clone.")

2) for the "reads like an advert" crowd: ads generally use superlative language to - you know - sell the thing in question. they generally are different than product announcements that simply state the existence and features of a thing.

to me, this is more of an announcement than an ad. ✌️

Makes me think of Lego Mindstorms, for whatever reason. What a cool set that was!

@Razieluigi
well said. the "giving artists credit" backlash is one of the stranger trends I've seen in the current era of... let's just call it, "real dumb stuff."

@bluemage1989

do you need to talk? who hurt you?

"It all sounds like a total trainwreck to us, but who knows, maybe this thing will take off and all of us sceptics will look very stupid."

ubiquity would change nothing, we are right to be skeptical 👍

Same as it ever was.

Sega of America can go to hell.

@Blast16

"your testimony makes me want to finally break down and buy one of these pads!"

me too! 😂 but bear in mind, i just held the pad, I didnt play anything. it felt super solid though! and i instantly wanted it.

if they made a gameboy clone type handheld with this exact design language id pre order it yesterday.

@NinChocolate

i cant comment on that because the controller I'm comparing it to is a 2-3 yrs old sn30 pro, that wasnt in the same room, and I didnt actually play test the genki pad. but you know when you just sort of "feel" that a dpad is "right" when you pick it up? I felt that. and, tbh I was never "there" with the pro+, though i did put in a lot of time with that controller. ✌️

this controller is seriously gorgeous to look at IRL.

@Damo

perhaps, but that text is "massive" compared to what they did on my m30† 😆 as i see it, no improvements is an order of magnitude less than even one minor improvement. ✌️

(†seriously, I've spent agonizing minutes trying to troubleshoot my 8BD controllers' connection, opening the batt cover, removing the battery, putting the battery and cover aside to hold my phone/flashlight in my other hand, trying to read the .5pt low contrast text in our dimly lit game room... all while 3 other players watch on, waiting to play, losing interest by the second. sometimes a minor change can be a major QOL improvement. 👍✌️)

"On the plus side, I really like that the three connection modes are printed on the top of the transparent casing, as it makes it easier to switch between them, and the face buttons are a lovely quartet of colours, too.

The Genki PocketPro is certainly a great wireless pad, but don't go expecting any improvements on the existing SN30 Pro."

Slightly odd writing here, as the (admittedly slight) improvements on the design are sandwiched between statements that seem to claim there are no improvements. 🤔

i think the real headline here is that this is the best looking iteration of an already great pad, with the flaw that seemingly afflicts all 8bitdo pads (the "modes" are written IMPOSSIBLY tiny on all my pads, my sn30 pro+ having them printed also BEHIND THE BATTERY for some reason) fixed on this version.

(EDIT - I held this pad but didnt play with it at a friends house the other night, some notes:

it looks even better in person. i want one!

it felt distinctly better in the buttons and dpad than my sn30 pro+. its a bit of an unfair comparison as ive put some miles on mine, but to my memory especially the dpad never felt as crisp and solid as on this new controller. ✌️ fwiw)

(EDIT 2 - "but there's little reason to pick one up if you already own 8BitDo's version."

what, nobody plays 2p anymore? 😆)

@Blast16

"these days I mostly play on a 32” LED and in 4:3 that’s perfect for me a couple feet away 👍"

sounds like youd end up somewhere in the upper mid 20s there, so yeah perfect! 😊

"when I had my CRTs, 13-27” was perfect!! Had 13, 19, and 27s throughout the years. For me 19” was probably the sweet spot, while the 27 was pure luxury 😂"

I have a CRT for each of my favorite generations: 13" JVC for 8 bit, 19" symphonic for 16 bit (truly the sweet spot, in screen size and bits 🤓👍,) 27" RCA with svideo for 32/64 bit, and a nice 27" Sharp Xflat with component for "128-bit" (DC PS2 CUBE)

I think I have a problem 😂 but we have a whole room dedicated to games so its not really that big of a burden to manage. this year, I want to get into link cable games with the 2 x 27"!

@Blast16

i came to say the same thing! playing these games on a "normal" 50+" panel can already be kind of a challenge. im never better at an arcade game than when im 2-3ft from a 13-27" CRT, just as it always was. ✌️

I was hoping for a home port.

xbox seems like the least appropriate place for this, to me. (read: imsofuckinjealous)

"The only thing we can be sure of right now is that you'll need a Netflix subscription to play it."

This is an absolute disqualifier for me.

...and I have a Netflix subscription 😂

JTT is 32 in that photo.

@farrgazer

good catch!

..but the rightmost one will be upside down so im still annoyed with the design 😝

No, we're not gonna be sticking anything. Not gonna stick a thing!

@JackGYarwood

ah, man! no sweat! I didn't really expect you to do that, but i appreciate it. It wasnt that bad before tbh but imo it is more accurate now. I do think your optimism and enthusiasm for the man is endearing and warranted, OTOH. ✌️ thanks!

"it'll be 35 years before anyone realizes that I can't think of my own generic panels for some reason."

@Daniel36

FYI, Koji Kondo is the Mario and Zelda guy, and Hip Tanaka is the Metroid, Mario Paint, and Mother guy. I've always known these, partly because these are essential, primordial games for me, partly because they have relatively distinctive names to my western eyes n ears. I do humbly think they are worth knowing deeply. ✌️👍

I think I could pick out an Uematsu tune by the following: his songs often sound like "classical" music on the top end (violins, cellos, and trumpets) while having a very rock oriented bottom end and rhythm section, i e "kit" drums and electric bass. not always, but when it sounds like that it's probably Uematsu 😄👍 another way to think of it: if it sounds like chippy Deep Purple 😂

I've always loved game music but my familiarity with it and with the composers themselves increased exponentially after I started listening to Legacy Music Hour around 2015. I'm not exaggerating that that podcast changed my life in small but personally very significant ways. ❤️✌️

"optional USB-C cables with LED screens built-in."

except that the way they designed it, you can only read the LED screen on the left most cable plugged in. Swish? 🤔

@Daniel36

he is a great composer, love his work 👍

OTOH, the idea that you'd know him by name simply because you have a "cursory knowledge" of RPGs... I wouldnt even say most people who have played Mario know who Shigeru Miyamoto is, and he is an order of magnitude more famous.

I would reckon that most people who play games couldnt name one vgm composer. take out Tanaka, Kondo, and Wise and I believe that fraction becomes a sliver. ✌️

great article, great man. ✌️👍

i find this part wildly optimistic though:

"The legendary Japanese musician is an individual whose music we've admired for decades now and will probably need no introduction if you have even a cursory knowledge of the role-playing genre."

@smoreon

something like that! if they were prolific, like Hamster, say, theyd get tons of my money, on the regular.

(when i worked at a computer in a past life, gog.com became a regular splurge on my lunch breaks. i cant stand using a computer for any reason, these days.) ✌️

PS "with the guarantee that their servers would still allow for re-downloads, long after the console is discontinued"

I dont know about this part? why would it be any different than any other switch publisher? or is this more towards the "collaborator" part?

if GOG made a console they would likely get my money over steam or nintendo.

(I think courting GOG's collaboration for switch 2 is one of the best things nintendo could do. besides buying Hudson from Konami and getting Namco to port Tekken and Ridgeracer over.)

@Bod2019

i agree that ridge racer was better, and i knew it at the time. 👍

OTOH I'd never had a game at home that had "real cars." it's hard to properly value that with "post Gran Turismo" perspective but it was a big deal to me at the time. And, the FMVs were incredible in a pre streaming, pre youtube, even pre DVD world, where I couldnt just search up whatever "content" my eyeballs desired at any moment.

Specifically, I had a Lamborghini Diablo book in the early/mid 90s, specifically made for kids, and I PORED over that thing, played with Diablo hot wheels, did everything Incould to fantasize what an actual Diablo might be like. NFS was literally the first time I ever saw one in motion 😲 and it was SO satisfying. ❤️✌️

cheers.

@Bod2019

Lucky for NFS, it came out well before Gran Turismo so the comparison is not particularly appropriate. ✌️

i rented the PSX version early into that era, and I was blown away by the real cars, and FMVs of each car. I had never seen anything like it! 👍 never played the other versions but it's always interesting to me to hear about the differences, thanks @KitsuneNight!

the saturn did quads instead of triangles, which is geometrically a much more complex thing to draw. it's a bit "apples and oranges." (ps - I hate this metaphor but its the one we've got)

I think it depends on what your focus is. The genesis was "faster" in terms of processor cycles than the snes, but the snes could do audio sampling at a much higher level, and had many times more colors on screen and an order of magnitude more colors possible. which is more powerful?

PS - for comparisons' sake, I wish Tobal had been ported to Saturn.

@KitsuneNight

"It's true that Mario Allstars is one of the earlier examples but no the first, and that's more of a remake compilation then a straight up compilation."

the only straight up compilation from Nintendo's entire history that I can even think of is 3D All Stars, which is an "exception that proves the rule" if I've ever seen one!

If Nintendo made excellent comps of their old material I they would get my games budget and my lunch money. ✌️😅