The_Nintendo_Expat

@Bod2019

"Poor use of layers I suspect when composing this."

yeah, it seems like he drew these separately on different layers or even as separate pieces, arranged them arbitrarily in one frame, and then strangely cropped random parts off of them using lines from the background as boundaries(?!,) apparently so that almost nothing would overlap. the more I look at it, the worse it gets 🫣

"I’m going to be negative, apologies... omgomgomgomg 🤓🍿
"but Lara kind of looks like One Punch Man with a wig on 🤔"

🥳!

"This bodes well for my own efforts in illustration."

Good luck in all of your endeavors! ✌️♥️

yeah if I hadn't read about it, I'd have no idea this was a SEGA related work.

EDIT - upon further inspection, what is going on with the interaction between the characters and back ground, here? why are Morrigan's wing and feet cut off at the edge of the stone that she is clearly in front of? Rami's dragon appears to be emerging from a crack between the stones. all kinds of stuff like that going on. Sonic looks like he is painted on the wall instead of existing in the space in front of it.

does anyone want that Seibu logo on their shirt? makes it look like corporate retreat swag.

thanks for the write up! I love to see articles that exist to share something the writer personally cares about, as opposed to obligatory news or contemporary game reviews. ✌️

I am similarly passionate about button layouts, but I prefer to play on a tv, so I've collected a number of 8bitdo pads for this.

my main two are an ultimate 2, which for me covers Dreamcast, "modern" games, and in a pinch, Saturn 3d pad games, and a pro 3, which obviously is perfect for SNES and PSX games. these two live on their docks, next to my docked steamdeck, just under the tv. 90% of the time I'm reaching for one of these.

(I'm actually surprised that more people dont talk about owning both of these pads, as it's usually presented as an either/or. I guess many people have a strong preference against one or the other, but to me they are different tools for different uses, and having the option each time i play is fantastic!)

for Saturn, Genesis, and most arcade games, I have an M30, which is brilliant and IMO the ultimate evolution of the 6 button pad, and an analogue 3D pad, which is the two handled N64 pad I always wanted.

anyhoo, for not that much money I am the happiest I've ever been with controllers!

If 8bitdo ever makes a handheld, believe I will be first in line! 😊✌️

@saffeqwe

i think you are correct about the technical modern definition of the word, but I'm quite certain that the home "port" of many arcade games especially before the 32bit era were more like new games built in the spirit of the original, yet we still called them "ports."

e.g. bionic commando on NES is/was considered a port even though it is a completely reworked (and better) game with wholly redrawn graphics, and different levels and everything.

Virtua Fighter 2 on Genesis is/was called a "port" but it was clearly a completely new game. I am sure it shares no code with the original. here is an article written 20 years ago, when the game was 10 years old:

https://www.sega-16.com/2006/03/virtua-fighter-2/

"Sega biggest achievement here was that they showed us how late ports of games much too powerful for the hardware are all too quickly forgotten."

my point in this conversation was not to nail down the definition of "port" in the modern context, but to discuss how we used to use the term as a catch-all for "games adapted to new/different hardware" before all this talk of remakes, demakes, remasters, etc etc. ✌️

@saffeqwe

"pure remakes made on the new engine with the new art and new game logic."

am i confused or is that what we used to call a "port?" 🤔

@Razieluigi

I miss when games would come out wildly different on each console and handheld. i considered Switch to be kind of the final nail in that era's coffin. those games were so interesting to me, back then. still are! ✌️

"remaster" never made sense as a videogame term, because games are not linear media.. I don't see why "port" fell out of favor but that's what they all are, afaik. i guess because "FF pixel port" sounds stupid 😂

good thing there's you-know-what.

just hearing of this, but it made me realize what i really want is mega man dodge ball!

anybody know why they changed the title to busy a move for Western audiences back in the day?

(thanks for the review! I've bought most of these enough for one lifetime 😅✌️)

@no_donatello

I came here to shout out Swampy's Revenge! I only recently finally tried it, and I love it! ✌️

"We have some bad news for people hoping to pick up the Retroid Pocket 6."

I think you meant "planning," as opposed to "hoping," as the implication as written would be that they will not or might not be able to get one at all. ✌️

i remember this game was getting hype in Nintendo power in the early n64 days ♥️ never played it myself.

@GodlessPreservation

these companies will never sell you a DRM free ROM that plays and looks exactly like the original, so the currently available slop is neither preservation nor the same product at all. 👍

I hope you are getting paid well from somewhere, because simply sniffing your own gas doesnt seem economically sustainable in the long view. ✌️

@GodlessPreservation

yeah, but my point is... scissors?

seems weird, don't these organizations have tools to open or cut open things in order to see whats inside?

it looks like they ripped that floppy disk open with the hands and teeth 🤔

"If one does, I will definitely be buying plane tickets instead of relying on any shipping company."

won't customs still do whatever they want with the stuff you bring back, though?

@RadioHedgeFund

oh man, plus shining in the darkness/force 1 + 2 🤤 thats the kind of stuff id want on a little thingy like this. 👍

it would probably have 4 or 5 sonic games and probably no shining games, alas.

just what we need, a way to play banjo with a subpar dpad and no c buttons.

@thaMANSTA

"Firstly, gotta correct this, as it's Real Journalism™: this isn't "faux-retro", it's actual retro: imitative of vintage things. The gaming culture misuses the term retro constantly for vintage things, but things like CupHead, Shredder's Revenge, etc are ACTUAL retro games. What the gaming culture misnames as "retro", what they mean 95% of the time is vintage or antique games and gear."

OMG THANK YOU!!

where have you BEEN?! 🥰 Welcome to the boards, comrade!

I feel like a weight has been lifted, as normally it would be my responsibility to point out such things 😂✌️

btw I like the term "legacy" to describe older games. 👍👍

be aware: the misuse of "retro" is actually defended by many people here. you are sure to get the "it means something different in gaming" or "that's just how language works" lecture from someone eventually, which one wonders if that were true, how we are communicating with any coherence at all at this point in history. 😂

keep on keepin' it real! ✊

@slider1983

I am very fond of "interesting" if not brilliant or groundbreaking games! 👍 i definitely get it.

I was playing San Francisco Rush earlier today, for the first time in a very long time. What a interesting amd different sort of game that is! the gravity is wild, and the whole game feels "untamed" and experimental.

@slider1983

I like this attitude 👍 "interesting" is the most crucial element of any game.

not all interesting games are good, but all good games are interesting.

further, ill generally take a flawed "interesting" game over a polished yet uninteresting or contrived one.

FOLLOWUP i just checked their gameography, to refresh my memory. Sh- wow! 😅 ...

maybe they should've called it New 'Disappointing Rental' Entertainment 😂

(i stand by what I said but damn, I really did rent a lot of those turds before I realized Japanese developers were pretty much my thing 😊✌️)

one of the worst controllers i ever used was a similar one by Nyko (or was it Pelican?) for PSX in the early, pre dual shock days. just awful.

EDIT - found it: Nyko Biogrip 🙂‍↔️ even just seeing it again i can remember every detail of how bad it was.

i will say, i bought it at the software etc. bargain bin along with the PSX port of the 3do game "Starfighter" and had a pretty decent time considering the mediocrity of what was actually happening. childhood was fun 😊

"everybody seemed to play their computer at a desk back in the day"

🤯

(thanks for the review! 👍)

thanks! that was great.

@Fallingshadow

most wireless controllers i have can operate wired via usb as well ✌️

itd be cool if pads like this could charge and do wired off the dongle. i guess im spoiled by the 8bitdo dock/dongle setup 😂

PS - 7 months seems like a long lead time for a controller announcement.

PS2 - very curious if this will end up working as a universal USB pad and if it will be better than my 8bitdo lite 2 as a travel procon.

I'm actually surprised (but not, you know, scandalized) that Nintendo allows untranslated games on the eShop. 🤔

@turboxray

i think maybe you've accidentally come to the wrong website ✌️

the older I get, the more I treasure an idle moment during which my hands, eyes, and brain are not "busy."

those stone walls are probably the single best looking "texture" ive seen the Jaguar produce. 😅✌️

'cause money and time's - just what - we don't - have.

@gojiguy

Galloping Ghost is amazing! My only regret was that their Fzero AX cab was down! 😆

@Digglerdig

i suppose they could have called it "clam"

or "hinge" 😂

@h3s

i feel very much the same. I'm playing through SOTN for the first time in probably 20 years (oh no im actually not exaggerating 💀) and i'm realizing concretely that it's better than every game of type made since. which is kind of melancholy for sure.

OTOH i just got to the flipped castle, and im having such a good time with it! 👍 and I can always replay it again in another 10 or 20. ✌️

i wonder what ever became of this? 🤔

"sticks in my memory, even all these years later."

i have played probably hundreds of hours of super monkey ball since GameCube's launch, and i STILL think of Roll Away* every single time i play it, and I STILL have never played Roll Away.

*no, i do not prefer it

✌️❤️👍

cool article! thanks for cluing us in!

@SlangWon

there was a 2DS so it's not really a stretch tbh. I never even owned a "3"DS personally ✌️👍

@JJtheTexan

thinking more on this, i am almost positive that rage racer was accepted as an expanded home port of rave racer at the time, the name change being Namco's contemporaneous style. like soul edge- blade, not to mention air-ace combat.

i have an apparently false memory of this being ported to PSX at the time 🤔

side note, screenshots of this game looked pretty incredible in its day 👍👍

EDIT - i guess Rage Racer doesn't count as an expanded home port but i always thought it did ✌️

@johndoe89

i appreciate the info! and, i have a few thoughts.

1) when it comes to input latency, I tend to "go by feel" rather than relying on numbers. of course i have noticed that my many different bluetooth controllers have varying amounts of lag and prefer the faster performance generally.

2) some games need very snappy response, others dont. this controller (like most bluetooth controllers in my experience,) is good enough imo for the games that dont.

3) if I really need to play a high performance game, I can and will wire a controller in. I love that feature and I do take advantage of it from time to time.

PS - thanks for the link! that is a useful resource, very handy ✌️

besides the latency, this controller is excellent! really great for just about any action game, the joystick has a great "8 way, short throw" feel if that makes sense. snappy and arcadey.

@WileyDragonfly

highly recommend getting the 8bitdo controller from this package for your setup. it is wonderful if not perfect 👍

@norwichred

im gonna! 😅👍

EDIT - tbh I've never emulated an arcade game or used mame and for some reason I've always been intimidated 😆

i love this game but none of the home versions ive tried give me the feeling of playing the arcade version. which, granted, was a time long ago, when even playing a 3D game at all was pretty much magical (and evanescent, obv, given that i could only really even see them in the arcade.)

as an experiment, id like to try emulating the arcade version and see if the difference wasnt mostly the machine and atmosphere of being in am arcade in the early 90s. 🙂

im wondering if they'll screw this up, and i should get the current version while i can.

UPDATE - i went ahead and bought it on sale, and fook's sake I have to SIGN IN (aka create an account in my case) just to play. 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

i have to have an account to play a nearly 30 year old game. 😐

TLDR they tricked me I tricked myself into buying ffvii again 😅

🚨 SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET! 🚨

@Martin_H

"Is Bob's art less valid, due to the tools he uses?"

does Bob's new tool use other artist's work, uncredited?

i dont want to be cruel to Bob, or take anything away from him. I get where you are coming from, and I love that episode of TNG 👍

we don't have to discuss what this guy says as though it matters.

i really do not like how they put a bandpass filter on the original music, to make it sound wimpy compared to the new music. 🙄

everybody does it though, and i guess most people dont even notice.

IMO when fairly represented, the OG ost kicks ass and punches way harder than the slick new cheese. 👍

the new graphics don't really live up to the old either, but I do appreciate that they at least tried to do something. the more abstract 2d graphics look grander to me than the 3d models, which usually end up looking like miniatures.

If you like sometimes grindy "extreme" music with videogame themes, Gonemage is pretty cool 👍

https://youtu.be/Aitrmr-389g?si=nONc7GCFTvgF0WYQ

if you like heavy music with putrid vocals:

https://youtu.be/dYuHBDnaH14?si=ZcQUUQE_B4MhNwg6

https://youtu.be/HTlIP3fmxyI?si=JraHkBYGONpYr1LK