Comments 344

Re: Random: Did You Know About This Not-So-Subtle Nintendo Dig Hidden Inside 'Battle Mania'?

Razieluigi

I mean, that's definitely in keeping with the sense of humor of the game. Hard to be that upset about it, especially when Sega of America was busy ***** all over Nintendo in official commercials.

The first game was completely mis-marketed in the US with that dull sci-fi box art that didn't even hint at the goofball spirit of what was inside. And Battle Mania 2, which never saw release outside of Japan, is among the best shooters on the console.

I'd love to see the pair of them re-released at some point. I'd leap at the chance to buy actual cartridges, but at the very least they need to be added to NSO. They're lost classics and deserve some modern appreciation.

I'll be booting this up tonight to check out that little Easter Egg!

Re: Anniversary: Final Fantasy VI Is 30 Years Old

Razieluigi

Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 represent a remarkable hat-trick. The kind of talent and vision on display across those three titles borders on supernatural, and decades later it still boggles the mind to see what they accomplished on the hardware.

But if I could only play one of them for the rest of my life, it would be Final Fantasy 6. It's a masterpiece and the series would never again know such heights. (FF9 probably comes the closest, though)

I first played it with a friend the summer before college. Since then, I've played through it several times and in several different forms. Most recently, I enjoyed the Pixel Remaster just a few months ago. I expect I'll continue to revisit it every now and then for the rest of my life.

Re: Game Informer Readers Label Ocarina Of Time "The Greatest Game Of All Time"

Razieluigi

It's certainly one of the most important games of all time, and it remains immensely enjoyable today.

But I think efforts to declare the "best game" of all time are silly. There's far too much variety in gaming (or any form of media, really) to funnel it all down like this. How do you even compare a game like OoT to something like Tetris? Or Pac-Man? Or Disco Elysium? Games can be great in such starkly different ways.

It's not just apples and oranges. It's apples, oranges, dragonflies, clarinets, and motorcycles.

Re: Lost Tetris Sequel 'Tetris Reversed' Shown Off For The First Time Ever

Razieluigi

Interesting! I'd argue that Daedalian Opus already made use of a very similar concept on GameBoy. Not exactly the same, of course. It has more discrete tangram-style puzzles each with a definitive win state, and the pieces are pentaminos rather than tetraminos, but it retains the core idea of maximizing coverage of a space with Tetris-style blocks.

Re: Anniversary: Castlevania: Bloodlines Is 30 Years Old

Razieluigi

I feel like Bloodlines and Contra: Hard Corps represent an alternate universe of Konami games where the developers felt a little more free to let down their hair and get weird.

Each of them is one of the best games in their respective franchises, in my opinion. They make fantastic use of Sega's hardware and it's great to see them getting more respect in recent years than they did upon release.

Re: Best Handheld Consoles Of All Time, Ranked By You

Razieluigi

Hard to argue with anything here, but the hair-splitter in me just doesn't see the Switch or the Steam Deck as portables.

I know that they are in the literal sense, but they've been so successful in breaking down the walls between portable and console/PC that I think they've created a new classification entirely.

I guess I just think there's a difference between portable hardware and an inherently portable platform.

Re: Analogue Pocket Firmware Update 2.2 Now Available

Razieluigi

@wiiware Yeah. In fairness, most of my gaming on Pocket is by way of FPGA cores now. But I'm the kind of weirdo that would still prefer to play a game on cartridge if I own it.

It would be great to be able to do things like re-map start and select in the Gameboy Zelda games, for instance. My old-ass thumbs don't like bending down to hit those little buttons anymore

Re: Analogue Pocket Firmware Update 2.2 Now Available

Razieluigi

I was really hoping to see button remapping in one of these updates. Such an obvious thing for any modern console to include.

Still, it's nice to see this thing finally approaching feature-complete status 2 years after launching. Looking forward to the FPGA Lynx cores when they finally arrive.

Re: "Feels Like 2000 Again!" - Father Of Xbox Wades In On Microsoft's Multiplatform Hoo-Ha

Razieluigi

@PKDuckman Whoa, Nelly! You're being extremely defensive and I'm not sure why. I'm not anti-Xbox. I own a Series S and do not own a PS5. GamePass is fantastic. But the situation is what it is. XBox is clearly flailing and throwing all manner of things at the wall in the hopes that some of it sticks.

I don't think that Sony bringing some titles to PC has the same impact on the console industry as MS bringing their games to Playstation. Obviously there's some crossover, but PC is kind of its own animal. If we were seeing a game like Horizon on Xbox, then you'd have a fair point.

We get it. You love XBox and dislike Sony. And that's fine! Game how you want — I certainly do. But nothing you've written even pretends to explain why Sony has been absolutely cleaning XBox's clock this generation. And make no mistake, they are.

If it's not exclusives, what are you suggesting that it is? What is Sony doing that MS isn't? And what can MS do to fix the problem?

Re: Check Out Dreamblade, An Awesome 'Dreamcast Mini' Mod

Razieluigi

Gorgeous. That case is perfection! I kept my OG Dreamcast preserved as-is, but did build a second one with a MODE.

This kind of project would be too big for me, but I'd love to have a mini-DC one day. Although I'd prefer an option that doesn't involve cannibalizing a real one.

Re: "Feels Like 2000 Again!" - Father Of Xbox Wades In On Microsoft's Multiplatform Hoo-Ha

Razieluigi

Blackley's enthusiasm seems misplaced at best and performative at worst.

Microsoft is in an impossible position unless it finally leverages all the talent it has purchased to create some exclusives that give the brand an identity. We've long passed the point of diminishing returns on hardware specs, no matter what kind of "technological leap" XBox supposedly has in store. This is an industry with a long history of big promises that don't deliver — I'd argue the entire current generation is one — and we should expect no different here.

Sony isn't winning because its hardware is measurably better. It's winning because it has high-value exclusives, and Xbox is really foundering in that regard. Starfield launched with a whimper. Indiana Jones could be cool, I suppose? But it's still an unproven entity while Sony is luring players with established brands that they spent the entire last generation building excitement around. It's hard to make up for a full generation of missed opportunity.

The XBox brand has no rudder. And that's a real shame, not because of exhausting console war nonsense but becuase it's important for consumers that Sony has competition in the high-end console space.

I look forward to seeing what might be in store for XBox, but this week's display looked like a company trying to play-act having a plan rather than actually having one.

Re: Intellivision Names Amico Mascot, Still No Sign Of The Console

Razieluigi

This is the most inexplicably long-running scam I've ever seen.

Even if this console actually existed, it's an absurd design with a tragic lineup of amateurish games. I don't understand how it ever generated any excitement at all, much less enough to continue the grift for 4 years.

And it's still going! Who is still throwing money at this?

Re: Poll: What's The Best Handheld Of All Time?

Razieluigi

Nostalgia wants me to give it to something in the GameBoy line, but rationality requires me to give it to the 3DS.

What a treasure trove of amazing experiences, many of which would be very difficult to pull off on any other hardware without significant compromise.

Re: To Make Sense Of Xbox Multiplatform Rumours, We Need Only Look To The Past

Razieluigi

I'm not sure Sega is a great analolgy here. Sega had a rich catalog of first-party arcade and console titles. Sega has a vibe and a brand identity. Even after decades of fits and starts, it's still kind of exciting to see that big blue SEGA logo on a game.

Microsoft just doesn't have that at all. Halo and what else, exactly? And Halo doesn't feel all that relevant in 2024.

I have a Series S because, all told, I think the current generation is a stinker — a marginally prettier version of the last one with few new ideas to bring to the table. I just wanted an entry-level box that would keep me current. But that's all it is. It has no identity or personality — as close to generic as any home console has ever felt.

I have no idea how MS would market such a faceless brand on other platforms.

Re: Best Sega Console - Every Sega System, Ranked By You

Razieluigi

Fun list, and pretty spot-on I think.

I really need to look into getting a Saturn (or at least finding a good way to play its games). I was just heading off to college as the 5th gen got rolling, and was lured away from consoles by PC games. Well... PC games and parties.

The Dreamcast is what eventually sucked me back in a few years later. What an amazing and forward-thinking little box. Sega's hardware division certainly went out in a blaze of glory.

Re: In Memory Of Memory Cards

Razieluigi

Wouldn't say I miss them so much as the era they evoke. But any time I pull out my Dreamcast, PS2, or GCN, I'm pretty happy to see them.

Even if those VMUs do insist on emitting a piercing screech on startup if their batteries haven't been replaced within the last three weeks.

Re: Best Ghostbusters Games Of All Time

Razieluigi

As a kid, I received a Ghostbusters handheld game for my birthday — you know, one of those janky LCD things that were no fun to play and made shrill beeping sounds tuned precisely to annoy any other human being in earshot.

But it was manufactured wrong. Despite the branding on the case, the actual game involved some dude throwing pies.

It was still better than Ghostbusters on the NES.

Re: Going Back In Time - Do You Play Retro Games To Reconnect With Your Past?

Razieluigi

@Uncharted2007 I don't know that I'd take it that far, but I do agree that gaming has stagnated. The generational leaps used to be bigger and more consequential.

The current generation has been the least exciting "upgrade" over the previous one since the Atari 5200, and I don't make that comparison lightly. I'm not sure I've played any current-gen game that would have been outright impossible on prior hardware with anything but some graphical/cosmetic sacrifices.

Re: Wii Fans Are Reviving The Console's eShop With 'RiiShop'

Razieluigi

@LikeWhoa It's not that Nintendo doesn't care about it. It's that there's no valid legal argument against things like ROM hacks and hardware mods.

But software that provides a direct pipeline to some centralized source of pirated games themselves is another story entirely.

There is a reason why sites like Romhacking only provide access to the patches and not the ROMs.

Re: Hyperkin's Portable Genesis / Mega Drive Docks Like A Nintendo Switch

Razieluigi

@Hexapus I get the cart thing and alluded to it above. I have a MegaSG that I love for that exact reason.

It just makes less sense to me for a portable console.

That said, I don't begrudge anybody that finds this thing interesting (especially if they've always wanted a Nomad). But I wonder how the economics work out for Hyperkin, because it seems to me that this would appeal to a very small audience.

Re: Hyperkin's Portable Genesis / Mega Drive Docks Like A Nintendo Switch

Razieluigi

On one hand, this is a really cool tribute to the Nomad. On the other, it's entering such a saturated market for this kind of device that I can't figure out what this brings to the table that isn't covered by a competitor.

I guess the cartridge slot? But is that such a big selling point on a portable device? I love my old Genesis carts, but I have no interest in taking them on the go.

Re: Random: These Adorable Pac-Man Crochet Kits Will Have You Hooked

Razieluigi

I got the whole set a few months back and started with Pinky. The videos were pretty good apart from one or two tricky spots that I think could have been explained better. Just don't go in expecting this to be easy unless you've crocheted before!

For a first-timer I was really happy with the result even if the eyes turned out a little... lumpy.

Re: Analogue Pocket Update 2.0 Now Available

Razieluigi

Glad this thing is finally nearing feature-completeness 2 years after release.

The only big thing remaining on my wish list would be the ability to remap buttons when playing cartridges. That's a bizarre omission to me given how easy it is to implement, and would be a great quality of life feature in games like Link's Awakening that constantly have you reaching for the start button despite having two face buttons and two triggers doing nothing in particular.

Re: Site News: Would You Mind Filling In Our Reader Survey?

Razieluigi

Happy to help.

It was admittedly difficult to fill out the own/interested/not-interested part when it included items like "controller," "hard drive," "keyboard," and "monitor."

Like... those are pretty broad and very common things. But if I think I might be upgrading or buying more soon (can never have too many controllers!), should I have answered "thinking of buying" in the spirit of the question?