BardicKnowledge

The 2nd case has a really sweet set of twists, Atma -- just keep going. My least favorite was case 3, but 4/5 made up for it -- Case 5 is friggin epic.

Coop, it's been a long time -- I'll give Galaxies a replay tonight and see what I make of it now. I think that its easier difficulty is what's putting me off though.

Wait, Maria is playable in SotN? Fuck all of you PSP owners. Also, do you guys get the Underground Garden / Prison, the Alucard Boots / Spear, and the other Saturn extras? If so, I might just have to get one....*swears*

Too bad he probably won't float -- I want him to play like he fights in Kirby's Adventure...but that more than likely won't happen. I'd settle for a massive swallow/throw move. Anyone else a fan of using Kirby to shoot stars at people in Smash?

Agreed -- the Mario games are good enough that there's a thread about which Mario physics engine we all prefer (thanks Darkesword!) How many other series can you do that with? Also, if Animal Crossing becomes an MMO, my fiancee is going to fail out of grad school before we get there next year.

Looks like everyone who went had a very good time -- I wish I could have seen in in LA instead of waiting until this Sunday to go to Columbia...but this lets me get a grad school interview in at the same time.

^^ The blurred button connection seems like a very strong possibility -- maybe the game was delayed to perfect features like the video (and others we aren't aware of...like adding Megaman). Every time I hear Subspace, I want to fight Snifits and Mouser...they'd better be in the game.

Actually, Spacewar was pretty sweet -- much better than Pong, Space Invaders and Breakout IMO. Agreed. That and some Starcraft. I wonder if Bushnell ever played Pong 3-d (the PSX remake). It's surprisingly good.

^ That's the worst of both worlds -- tragic. Are you stationed @ Okinawa, btw?

Fixed to show the emphasis so no one else spends 5 minutes figuring it out (I'm stupid today).

Done, zircon. When can I buy that game, by the way?

Any word on what the new VC titles are? I'm stuck at work for most of the day today, and won't make it home to find out like I usually do.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- YES No discussion needed, like seph said. Final Fantasy Anthology -- NO This is the worst official translation of all time. If this is how you experienced FFV, then I know why you hate it -- please get the GBA version instead. Very bad load times also hurt this one... Diablo II -- YES I played this up until I got into the Mythos beta. This game is so damn good that it's unbelieveable. No further discussion unless it becomes warranted. Super Solvers: Gizmos & Gadgets! -- YES This is probably the best of the Super Solvers! series of games, and every PC gamer should play one of them -- it might as well be this as any, even though I'd vote yes for the whole package. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -- YES My only complaint is that this game was just too dark -- fixed later with the SP / DS. Hooray for a Castlevania on the GBA, a very good beginning to an excellent trilogy. Gradius Galaxies -- NO I'm a huge Gradius fan, as evidenced by the fact that I nominated the import title for PSX. However, I couldn't get into this one. Dunno why, but it lacks some level of intensity for me, and I can't get into the "flow" of a good shmup playing this. ***** Round Twenty-One: ***** Team Fortress Classic -- YES I think this is better than CounterStrike -- there's nothing like running around as a spy destroying other people. Quake II -- YES This game is like giving an average FPS a shot of crack. It's _almost_ too fast. But not quite, and the game is awesome because it's the only game paced like this out there. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos -- YES I still prefer Starcraft (I dislike the unit cap here), but the campaign mode on this one was absolutely incredible. Similarly, the ability to make custom maps is crazy good (has anyone here played Element TD)? Worms Armageddon -- YES Armageddon wins over World Party because of the updates for high resolution etc. Anyway, this game is like Scorched Earth + comedy...what's not to love?

Knives, most of us are talking about the Xbox version of Ninja Gaiden. Thanks for the link though!

****** Round Seventeen: ****** Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards -- NO I really liked Kirby 64, and the combining of powers was extremely cool. However, I can't bring myself to say that everyone must have it -- either you'll love it, or you will despise it (much like Dreamland 3, actually). Command & Conquer Red Alert -- YES This game is awesome -- first of all, Tesla Coils are the coolest thing ever. Second, the cutscenes here are what has grown to become the defining characteristic of C&C. This was the game to play at LAN parties when I was in 6th grade ****** Round Eighteen: ****** Mega Man X5 -- NO This game is basically MMX4 revamped. I realize that that's a cliche statement when talking about Megaman games, but I really mean it for this installment. Being able to switch between Zero and X would have been a sweet feature if the game didn't require you to gimp one or the other at the beginning of the game. Also, if you hate Zero, you can skip all 8 of the original bosses and jump straight to the end....stupid. Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap -- NO This is the only (non CD-i) Zelda game that I don't like. I played through it as far as the final dungeon, but didn't get around to finishing it. In any case, what I really like about most of the Zelda games is a deep rewarding replay experience. I didn't find that here, and as a result the game consistently felt like "thank god I'm done with that." ****** Round Nineteen: ****** Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal -- YES I actually prefer this installment to Ruby / Sapphire. Time-based gameplay (why wasn't that in the GBA generation, anyway?) and 100 new Pokemon in addition to the ability to revisit the original game was an awesome idea. Oh, and in addition, if it hasn't been nominated yet, I really want to add Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast to the PC list.

That track sounds phenomenal -- it really, REALLY makes me look forward to getting Galaxy. It's about time Kondo got a full orchestra at his disposal...yippie!

Play! featured a number of good pieces that were non-Square. I wouldn't even mind a Square show if they would quit playing Aeris' Theme and One Winged Angel all the time. I really liked the Chrono medley that I heard at the Play concert in Chicago.

Hey, this looks great -- whoever notices that it's been released first be sure to say so in a few months. Definitely getting this one if the reviews aren't completely negative. Edit: I said that _before_ watching the video. This will be mine without question on the day it gets released...holy shit. If the whole soundtrack sounds like that I'll buy the album too.

Has anyone here tried Flash Focus? If so, how did you like it?

Any word on being able to play roms on the Wii's emulators? I want to be able to play the hacks of the games I've bought -- even the ability to .ips patch games I've paid for on the VC would be extremely useful.

Dusky, we've got to counter that with the fact that some "first" games lack the refinements that make the sequels must-haves. And it's ultimately personal opinion anyway -- I just didn't enjoy the first MMBN game in the way that I enjoyed 2 and 3.

Playing the MvC games is quite easy: 1) Learn the magic series for the characters you want to play. 2) Learn to do the complete midair combo with normal moves 3) Learn to string massive super moves in the middle of numbers 1 and (preferably) 2. 4) Win! There's a bit more to it than that, but they don't have the depth of, say, SFA3 of SF3:3rd Strike. I still like them though.

Oblivion tried this, and the scaling is the major complaint with the game. This is a better example, but I don't think the boss fights are a challenge at all, with two or three exceptions (Miguel especially comes to mind). In any case, what makes for good difficulty in different genres? Action Ninja Gaiden Black (and Sigma, but I've only played through it once) definitely sets the standard. Start someone out with and easier difficulty that still forces some challenge. Note that on both Ninja Dog and Easy you can sit there and block for the first 4 chapters and nothing will throw you until you've sat there for a good 10 seconds or so. Hard mode and beyond, on the other hand, has the Black Spider Ninjas flipping over your back, slitting your throat, and you taking damage. It's also got additional monsters to fight that are "too powerful" for the easier modes (there's a large white creature with a Buster Sword looking thing that comes to mind). The enemies get much smarter when you hit Very Hard / Master Ninja -- working in teams to anticipate a dodge you make, and having someone sitting there to intercept you. It's brilliant, and one of the reasons that I never was upset at losing in NG -- it was always, every single time my fault...none of this "my controller didn't respond", "that was just cheap", etc. One more thing is that overly complex moves should not be a requirement to finish the game. There's a good reason that Retro doesn't demand double / triple bomb jumping to complete Metroid Prime. RTS There's a reason why a Zergling rush is only good up to a certain caliber of player in Starcraft. As long as the CPU isn't gaining infinite resources (including unit cap outside of a campaign mode situation) or building artifically faster than a human possibly could, an effective strategy is only effective when the loser isn't countering it / learning to counter it. I'm not as good of an RTS player as I am other genres...what other suggestions do people have? FPS UT has good AI, but when I'm getting shock rifle-sniped from all the way across Torlan, that's getting a little ridiculous. With that said, the high-end AI is vicious in an upclose and personal fight -- bouncing off the walls, guessing at what you're going to be doing, etc. AI here shouldn't have instantaneous reaction time (how did it dodge that rocket?) but should instead make logical guesses as to what a player is going to attempt based on the weapon said player is carrying. RPG Impossible bosses = bad. Bosses that are pushovers compared to normal enemies is also bad (see the lategame of FF3 and FF4 for this problem). In JRPGs, the player almost always has the option of overlevelling should they choose. My fiancee, for instance, consistently plays around 5-10 levels above where she _needs_ to, because she 1) hates losing and 2) doesn't react fast enough to win at a minimum level. I think difficulty here should be based on the experience gained from the average number of fights neccessary to get all of the treasure in each dungeon. If someone wants to fly straight through, more power to them -- they should be expecting harder boss battles because of lower experience levels. Also here, side quests and optional items should not be requirements to finish anything in the main game. A good example is that when I play FF7, I fight the Midgar Zolom at the first opportunity, levelling until Barret has 650 hitpoints or so. Then Elemental+Fire in the armor, and he can just barely survive, teaching me Beta _well_ before I "should" have it. Most of the rest of Disc 1 goes by very quickly as a result, and that's what I'm looking for. If that level of effort was a _requirement_ to beat the game, only 20% of the people who have finished it would have made it through.

SFA3 in HD would be amazing -- it's easily my favorite 2d fighter (SNK v. Capcom 2 is a close second, followed by the VS. series). In any case, celebrations! This is great news. Hopefully they bring it onto the Wii so I don't have to buy a 360.

^^ I'd like that, as it would be one clear point of gameplay-related distinction between Brawl and Melee. We could use two or three things like that to change up the gameplay enough that people have to learn new things (does anyone remember migrating from SF2 to Alpha?)