-wc-

@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. ✌️😅

"the Japanese company was arguably one of the first to see the value of retro gaming in the modern era."

sure I'll argue. Namco, Midway, Williams, Taito, and Activision and surely others all came out qith generous compilations in the early-mid 90s while nintendo had only started drip feeding its own "retro" games in that time (mario all stars and G+W gallery are both remasters, do they even count?)

Virtual Console was incredible but they dropped the ball and pretty much get zero credit for it.

Nintendo is actually terrible in this regard, though I don't doubt that they want money at the end of the day. ✌️

This is lovely, Rest in Peace Jason. ❤️

I have long wished that the great games journalists of my country would be remembered, by seemingly anyone but myself 😂

Bill Donohue, Patrick Baggata, Francesca Reyes, Mike Salmon, Dan Hsu, Sushi X, Scary Larry...

(ok those last two are kind of a joke but those were their actual pen names 😆)

Chris Slate is the only one that I think would get some recognition like this (I guess time will tell...)
It would be great if he "got the gang" back together in the form of a youtube series or podcast, getting in touch with some of these people, my all but forgotten heroes of childhood that I spent so much time "with" while subscribed to EGM, GamePlayers, GamePro, and Nintendo Power.

anyway, this is a great tribute and I thank you all for sharing 😊👍

@slider1983

it's odd to me, too, that these companies act so indifferent to the modern manifestations of their celebrated legacies. like, people still want to make and buy games for your 35 year old console!! which everyone seems to agree is the best thing youve ever done!

GET IN THERE! 👉👉👉

my wavebird is so much more worn and filthy lol. I'm gonna get around to overhauling it one of these days. ❤️

PS - the blue + yellow + green + magenta on light grey scheme is so nice. I really appreciate how much the simple use of magenta in place of red sets the saturn pad apart from the super famicom's and 64's. 👍

@Damo

Thanks for pointing it out... not sure I'm seeing it but I will take your word for it.

To be honest, I'm a decent amateur analog artist myself, and digital art usually looks kinda... bad to me anyway if it isnt "pixel" oriented. Even when it's by a talented human with no AI involved.

this takes nothing from my misgivings towards AI laziness and greed cutting artists out of the commercial digital space. I want real artists to make the bland digital game artwork damnit! 😆

"It's still relatively easy to spot AI art. That isn't always going to be the case, sadly."

this is the sad thing. it will be a shame when all the talented artists making a living today can not do so tomorrow, while the world just keeps on spinning.

"I cannot fathom why anyone who appreciates the talent and hard work that goes into art would be in favour of AI art. It boggles my mind."

this is it, right here. we are making a choice against human artists every day, and many of us will act like it's inevitable, as though human beings have never imposed their will collectively on the course of history.

I appreciate you getting in here and clarifying your positions. 👍✌️ good talk everybody.

@axelhander

given that there is no "there" there in regards to this story, I'm inclined to agree with you: this actually is AI fear mongering.

I'm sorry I got sucked into it, what a BS article.

@axelhander

I meant what i said but not maliciously, and I will take you at face value, here. ✌️ I like our ongoing nintendo conversations as it is, I'm not gonna torch it over something like a difference of opinion. or at least I hope.

Maybe it's more about valuing artists? I mean, we will have fewer of them in games if companies find they can get by just as well on AI junk. Can we agree on that?

Side note, are we sure this is even AI generated? isnt that an important detail to our conversation, here?

✌️❤️👍

@axelhander

"The implication is that artists are a charity."

no one working for a living is a charity.

There's nothing anyone here can say to make you properly value art if you don't already ✌️

@axelhander

"An artist was not shortchanged here. It isn't shortchanging someone who was never involved in your project and that you were never planning TO involve in the first place. "

sorry that's wrong but I'll stop short of saying it's stupid because I'm a gentleman.

your argument that it doesnt shortchange an artist in particular isn't really relevant to people concerned with keeping real artists employed broadly, or people wishing to see and connect with real art made by other humans associated with the media they enjoy.

you dont care, others do. it's legitimate and not stupid. ✌️

@jesse_dylan

"You said you don’t care, so we didn’t elucidate."

yeah, so? lol 😂 you got me there. ✌️

thanks for the detailed answer, those are indeed well regarded games that maybe ill find time eventually to get into. i forgot Corn Lord in was Sega/Atlus, I am interested in that one in particular. 👍

"It’s become the day of no longer making games, just outsourcing, or buying other studios to have them do it for you. Nintendo does this a lot."

I know it's true, but I would easily settle for Sega farming out their classic franchises if the end result was some good new additions or even decent compilations of their mid 90s racing games, fighting games, and others. or even Sega Ages going into model 2 and 3 games would be a dream, for me.

Sonic Mania worked so well! what Is the hangup, do you imagine?

@Carck

I agree that sonic is in a better place than I've seen him in a long time! 👍 good point.

I'm also interested in finally getting into Yakuza/RGG, but I have the procrastinators dilemma of I would first want to get back into Shenmue 1 and 2, but before that, i need to repair my dreamcast ...

thanks for the reply 😊 "This isn't Sega Enterprises anymore," you said it well. 👍

@Carck

I mean, youre not wrong.

but, and maybe im showing my age a bit here, being a SEGA fan to me is a bit like being a fan of a certain band. if there was a time when my favorite band stopped writing the kind of music that I was into, and instead bought another band, and put their name on it, and said "this is us now," and this new band made unrelated music that didnt resemble the old band at all, then I might enjoy the music somewhat, or even more (but thats pretty unlikely,) but I'm not just going to say, "oh, who cares! it's all Pavement!" or whatever band you might've been thinking of.

it's a bit like that maybe.

I care a lot less about acquisitions. this is kind of an aesthetic thing with no right answers in my opinion ✌️ and, good games are good games. 😊

and, I still don't know what games we are actually talking about but i assume these arent Sonic, Virtua Fighter, and Crazy Taxi atlus RPGs we are discussing, here 😆 cheers.

(I'm also a hopelessly biased aging millennial who just prefers the way games were made between 1985-2005, period. so. ✌️)

@jesse_dylan @Carck

Educate me, please. im an old man and out of the loop. ✌️

("they publish some really good stuff that they have little to do with."

see, to me, I super dont care what a publisher wants to take credit for if they didnt make the game or at least the initial games in a franchise. I'm talking about games Sega made.)

@PopetheRev28

"Notice how you don't hear about any drama after the Sammy Merger?"

I barely hear from SEGA at all now, as it pertains to actual videogames. ✌️

@raider266

read the friendly article, maybe. ✌️

@N00BiSH

me too! seems they could do both. 👍

yet another good reason to pretend these movies don't exist. shame on them!

@Andee

spoken like a true "telling other people what comments sections.. of which.. they can or cannot instruct others" noob.

@Azuris

yeah i would take a straight port of tekken U, seems like a no brainer 🤔 especially with how much support Namco has given nintendo in the switch era. WHAT GIVES.

(its almost like they dont want competiton for smash and mariokart, with the obvious lack of fighting and racing games on the platform. yes, i know there are other inferior cart racers, but i get an itch to race now and again and MK has been my only real recourse for years now 😵)

(PS - reason #4567294 that nintendo shouldve bought hudson: Bloody Roar couldve been a 1st party franchise and filled the gap for good.)

@Lanmanna

LOL shut the whole thing down, no one is allowed to speak on videogames unless they make them themselves. 😂

I was OBSESSED with this game and this artwork for a time as a kid. I tried to draw it many times, along with other cars in the game like the lancia delta, and the peugeot. RIP to a great one. ❤️✌️

(ps - I'm not really a "car person" but when i reach for a mental image of a cool looking car, it's that stratos.)