friendlyHunter

In a futile attempt to revive the contest, I've finally removed the outdated "July is Konami" line from my signature, and replaced it with incoherent ramblings. Will you do YOUR part too?! Well, time to start my entry finally =D

lol, that has to be the worst (and fastest) photo-manipulation (or in this case, screenshot-manipulation) I've ever done =P I DO hope we get to change item frequencies something like that though... except with much more than 4 items on the screen at a time.

I'm really hoping that this time, you can turn on/off specific item containers (boxes, barrels, capsules, exploding boxes, exploding barrels, exploding capsules, sliding boxes, exploding sliding boxes, party balls, sexy party balls, exploding sliding party box capsules, barrel party explosion balls, partly explosive box barrels, white sox box rawk hawk rocks socks 5 stock question mark block... ummmm, never mind)

At first I thought you you posting to complain that you didn't get to play it ^^ You mean "by definition"? [/lame math joke] There is no rule that says "Thou shalt smash only while standing", so it's not breaking any "basic rules of the game", and by constipation, it's not cheating. Ha ha! I didn't think I'd be joining the WD discussion, but here I am. Why are so many so passionate about this issue anyway? It's about the biggest ridiculous nerd-war I've ever seen =p I am by no means a fan of wavedashing... I think that it's generally bad design to include moves that are physically difficult to do (for MOST OF US!!!). Who said anything about "design" though - wave dashing is a bug, and bugs are not normally "designed". WD might be an exception though, all that "the developers knew it was there" jazz. However, wave dashing is NOT cheating. Consider the high-jump at the Olympic games. Back in the day, athletes would try to get over the bar however they felt like, usually head-first. Then some guy named Fosbury found out that you could go over backwards, arching your back so that you could get over a much higher bar with a lower/same centre of mass. Now EVERYBODY does it this new way. Was it intended when the sport was invented? Of course not! Is it cheating? Hell no! Cheating means it's not allowed - and if wavedashing is allowed in tournaments, then it's by no means cheating. When you say "cheating", perhaps you actually mean to use a different word? Unless you're talking single player Melee, in which case nobody cares if you cheat =p And blah blah blah speed runs, blah blah exploits etc. Anyway, here's my theory to WHY wavedashing might be such a "hot-button" topic: the people who don't want to do it don't like to play against people who do (and either don't want to learn it, or don't enjoy the style of play it creates), and the people who like it LOVE it - they like the new style of play, and they like any advantage it gives. GENERALLY, I mean; I'm not attempting to label everyone. Also generally: if you're playing against your friend, and he wants to you stop wavedashing, for the love of Fox do what he says, you're taking the fun out of the game! If you set informal "rules" between each other, and you be an ass and break those rules, then yes, maybe that could be considered "cheating". To those who use wavedashing in tournaments: if there aren't any rules against it, go nuts! If anyone complains about other combatants using WD-ing in a tournament, they're in the wrong place. What I mean is: the main goal of the tournament is trying to win by any means nessesary (which many find fun for obvious reasons), as opposed to simply having fun playing a game. I think some confusion there is what started and continued to kindle that lame debate way back in the Great Brawl Information Drought of '07. I'm sorry, my post had practically nothing to do with Brawl. I'm glad WDing is gone... Nintendo's trying to design a new style of play and make it as good as possible, rather than having the community invent their own completely different style based on bugs/exploits. I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks Nintendo wants to base their biggest upcoming title's gameplay on exploits is nuts. Now I'm just waiting for the Olympic "High Jump 2" event where the "Fosbury Flop" is not allowed, and the poll is on fire and continually spinning.

I've always been a fan of difficult games, and, now that I think about it, I've had quite a bit of experience designing games. I've got a lot to say on this topic... A few weeks ago, I decided to download Ninja Gaiden for the NES (on the Virtual Console) - I'd never played it before, but had heard of its legendary difficulty. Playing through it the first time it was pretty hard, and I got stuck at the "snow level" for a long while. Upon picking it up the second time, I breezed through the first part, had a fun (but much easier) time in the snow level, and progressed much further before stopping. The third time through I got stuck on the last Act... REALLY stuck. I was getting frustrated by the cheapness of the enemies (mainly the fact that they keep respawning and knocking you into holes). That's all part of the game though - figuring out those little spawning patterns based on where the screen is, deciding on the fly where to jump and attack so you won't get knocked into the pit - it's like you're a scientist, trying to beat a level designer from hell =] The only thing that got me angry was the fact that upon each game over, you start WAAAAY back the start of the really hard section - basically I was putting in a massive amount of effort to get almost nowhere, and the fun died away. I gave up, but guess what? I'm looking forward to trying it again next time, when I'll have more practice and patience, and the tedium will be replaced by beating challenging accomplishments. Because you see, winning is just as important in difficult games as losing is, if that makes any sense. If you're the type to give up a game because it's too hard and never try it again, I can totally see how that would lead to a dislike of hard games. And yes, when I pick up Ninja Gaiden next time I will go through the first 80% of the game again, because it's still challenging enough to be fun. I mean, if that game wasn't hard... it'd be a bad game, I think. Let's look at the polar opposite: Twilight Princess. That game was not about difficulty - it was more about exploration, atmosphere, story, and some cool items and bosses. The enemies were basically unnecessary; they pretty much did nothing to hinder your progress. Unfortunately, when there's no reason to worry about enemies, all those special sword moves you find are pretty much worthless too - the entire combat system (which wasn't all that great to begin with) comes off as a throwaway part of the game (except during some of the more difficult minibosses and such). What if they had made TP a lot harder though? If you've played the game, you probably know about the Cave or Ordeals - a gruelling battle through a series of rooms, one after another, each filled with enemies and minibosses that you must kill to progress. Beating the Cave, and even nearly beating it (for the times that I died) was admittedly VERY thrilling and fun... for maybe the last 4 out of a jillion rooms. Fighting the final enemy, 1 hit away from death, after all those tries, and after all that effort to get there once more, was incredible. And finally confirming my suspicions that that really hard room actually IS the last room - priceless. What do I win from it? I dunno, some useless item or something, but I won!!! (And yes, I'm actually building towards a point here) Now, will I ever play Twilight Princess's Cave of Ordeals again? Hell no, the first 75% of that cave is boring, easy and repetitive - I have better ways to spend my time. Yes, I'd much rather type this post than play more TP. After I beat Ninja Gaiden for the NES, will I go back and play it again? Most likely, yes - chances are it'll always be a relatively fun and challenging game for me. But who knows, I may get stuck again and never beat it. Does that make it a bad game? No - it was intentionally designed to be that hard, and the ending was MEANT to be seen only after great effort. A lot of games used to have this philosophy. But now, games like TP have endings that ANYONE who plays the game can, and probably will reach. What does it take to reach the ending? No, not effort, not skill, but TIME. Playing the game is time spent being unchallenged, time that could've been better spent challenging your brain (or reflexes). A game with TP's difficulty is the kind of game that I play when I want to relax. Unfortunately I got the Wii version with the damn wrist swinging So, does this mean difficulty automatically makes a game good? Of course not - even after I beat Ninja Gaiden, I might look back and say "that last act was crap! And that ending was crap too!" I think "Cup & Ball" is a hard game, but (go ahead, call me crazy!) I don't enjoy it all that much. A more relevant example: Allstar mode in Smash Bros. Melee. It can be downright impossible, but it doesn't float my boat in the least. And of course, an easy game is not automatically bad. That's just self-explanitory. Super Paper Mario may be incredibly easy, but watching the humourous story that unfolds is actually worth your time. Would I have preferred it to be more difficult? Being able to choose a difficulty level at the start would've made the game SOOO much more enjoyable for me, but that's really a matter of preference. "Would you like challenging gameplay with your funny story and lovable characters?" "Why, yes please! Pile it on!" Now to what I initially intended to say: Back in the day, I made a map for Warcraft 3 that became quite popular, called Pyramid Escape. Basically, with all the players working as a team, you'd try to beat a bunch of minigames. Each time the team loses at a minigame, you "lose a life" - you'd start with about 2 to 4 lives. If you beat all the minigames without running out of lives, the team "escapes the pyramid" and win. Another twist - the order that the minigames are chosen is decided by voting - the minigames with the most votes are played first (so everyones' favourites are not left out ). Oh yes, and the minigames are HARD. Sometimes your team would be just plain bad, and the game would end after 6 or so minigames - after a short game, you could be sure there'd be a rematch to have another shot at it. Actually, this is true for the entire "Escape" genre of Warcraft 3 maps. While most of these Escape maps are incredibly challenging, the best ones are consistently challenging (e.g. not too easy, not too hard), and have variety and spontaneity in their gameplay (e.g. no "patterns" that can be memorized to assure a win). What was my point again? Oh yes: sometimes your team of potential escapees would actually beat the game. The endings for Escape maps generally aren't particularly interesting - in fact, they're usually so bad that they're funny. Since I had put my handle in my map's loading screen, I was a mini-celebrity of sorts on Battle Net - fellow Warcraft 3 players would occasionally recognize my name (but more often than not I'd have to tell them where they recognized it from =p). They'd say different things about Pyramid Escape, but the most common thing must have been "I actually beat it once!" or "I beat it x times!" or "I didn't beat it yet, what's at the end?". While the appeal of difficult games may be that they're more fun, they're also more memorable because winning is so much more of a triumph. And now this all comes back to Twilight Princess. That game (for me at least, even though I refrained from getting a single heart container on my first and only play through) had no challenge. But that's ok, because the game was all about the story and atmosphere, right? No, that's NOT ok! The total easiness made the story and atmosphere SO much worse. You're supposed to be saving Hyrule from untold evil, but it feels like you're strolling around with no real opposing forces - at least none that have a chance against you. I got all excited when I first entered the Water Temple... "The evil monsters in that temple are so powerful, we had to seal the door with massive boulders so they would never be unleashed upon the world!!" What's in there, clams or something, some kind of fish things? I don't even remember, and that was only half a year ago. The boss was even more disappointing. The story and score have no dramatic effect whatsoever when the massive behemoth of boss is taken down in a minute by a couple of auto-aimed shots of the hookshot. So this kid can defeat all these massive evil monsters without even trying?? Oh cool, now we don't have to worry about Hyrule being in trouble, this kid will save the world without breaking a sweat! He would've been able to save the world 8 hours ago if that lineup of people waiting for spring water wasn't blocking the street! I didn't feel an ounce of epicness until I got to the final boss and started dying. "Hey, maybe this Gannon fellow is actually a match for Link after a- oh wait you have to press the A button! Ok now he's no match Link." That rant was WAAAAAY too long. In closing: I still need to get my hands on Shadow of the Collosus, I hear it's got some much-appreciated challenge to go along with its epic-sized bosses... Egad, I forgot to add to the most important part of this discussion! Anyone familiar with the "Defense of the Ancients" (DOTA) Warcraft 3 maps? From what I've experienced, they're pretty much the polar opposite of grueling Escape maps. Basically, the game takes as little effort as possible to play - I used to play this game when I wanted to play Warcraft 3 and EAT at the same time. I mean, you could literally go minutes without clicking, and just watch mindless armies do battle while your hero mindlessly does battle with the other team. The challenge comes in discovering and using the best upgrades and items for your hero (I think...), and it takes a looooong time to play. I haven't played it much, but I honestly don't see what's so great about it (besides the obvious benefit of being able to eat while playing). Now, last time I checked (which is a long time ago) this map was HUUUUUUGE on Battle net! I mean, 80% of the WC3 custom games being played were DOTA. It was really quite sickening; nerds were spinning in their graves (er, chairs), wondering how and WHY a game like DOTA was so popular. DOTA's popularity is VERY strong evidence to suggest that easiness does please the biggest crowd. Strange, maybe even sad, but true nonetheless.

If you're a translator, working on the SSB site must be the best job you could get I’m no maaaaaaaatch... È troppo forte per meeeee... Da komm ich nicht gegen aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan... ¡Hasta luego, Lucaaaaas! Je fais pas le poids !!! I’m no match for hiiiiiiiiiiiim... (UK translation?? )

Exactly. There's a huge difference between making it easier to survive (e.g. easier edge-grapple) and making it easier to get instant kills (e.g. if they were to make Samus's final smash better). I generally believe that it should be reasonably easy to avoid accidentally killing yourself (e.g. by missing with an edge grapple), and that final smashes should be fun and challenging to use, not just to get. By the way, I still have no clue what sweet spotting is =p

Fool, whiny gamers are BEYOND reason! ...I too am not disappointed by the delay. Sonic's final smash looked waaaay too good, but that's probably because the guy's never played the game before and didn't know how to dodge it. And when I saw the video with Samus' final smash, I finally understood how they could possibly make that laser both balanced, and fun. I don't know any specifics about it (such as whether or not players get damaged more or fly back more if they're closer to Samus), but the mechanic of pushing opponents backwards looks like it works wonderfully =) Is the "crystal flash" really confirmed? I'm hoping that will be part of Monday's update Actually, I'm kind of wondering what the updates will be like now... will they be showing us stuff we already know about, like the Advance Wars assist trophy, Norfair, Smart Bomb, and the mechanics of the Smash Ball? Maybe they'll announce these, but also include one update with new info each day... Also, any word on the Final Smashes for Metaknight, Ike, and Peach? And Mario's and DK's sideways-special moves? Damn, I'm obsessed

1) It's better than playing against AI. 2) Umm... I've got nothing, guess that's the only reason. 3) You're conversing with "strangers" right now on this forum... is that creepy and weird? Yeah, maybe. But if you think of your opponent as a simple scarecrow, any psychological barriers may melt away. [Edit] "Hi honey, I sold my hair so I could buy Smash Bros. Brawl for you for valentines day! "Oh, the irony - I also bought Smash Bros. Brawl for you! And I sold my thumbs to buy you combs." ...

I think the only thing it NEEDS is some sort of system to prevent seasoned pros from playing against complete newbies all the time. Even if it relies on honesty (e.g. you get to choose which skill tier to play in), it would be a lot better than nothing. I mean, even the Internet Chess/Reversi/Hearts games that come with Windows has this...

Yes, I can see it already: Every console we've ever seen has games to put in it. But with EA's, you literally put the console in the game. You buy games titled "Madden" and "NHL", each with a big square-shaped hole in it. The box-shaped "EA-Hole" fits inside, allowing you to play games with the motion-sensing "EA-mote controller". Instead of releasing new games every year, all your games are automatically updated when you buy the annually-released "EA-Hole 20XX" console. But don't worry, you can still go back and play the previous year's versions, assuming your year-old console still works. Due to the sheer power and versatility of this console, it tends to contain a lot of bugs. Fortunately for us, EA has already bought 55% of all extermination companies across the world, now operating under the name "EA Bugs" 'There's Bugs In The Game'. Now trained professionals can come to your home and apply patches to your console, so some of the bugs don't crawl out. But even if patches are not applied, there's no need to worry about permanent infestation, as each year's new console contains bugs that prey on the previous year's bugs. No offense to EA by the way

....Half a month left....

http://www.homestarrunner.com/crazycartoon.html

Ha, internet discussion at its finest! I-n-j-i-n, your valiant yet doomed attempt to teach software developers about software development is quite amusing, please continue! Here Mr. Example, have a trophy! =) [Edit] Ah, another gem! I'm genuinely curious: is that sarcasm? Please tell me it's sarcasm...

Yay! And the guy who wrote that first article doesn't know what the word "random" means, yet uses it relentlessly. "There were multiple times within the fight where we got our butts kicked simply because we were captivated by nostalgia; priceless." Haha!

Moogles! A Mario-themed game called "Super [insert word here] Bros." with a playble Pac-man character? That would surely be the be the greatest game ever conceived, if someone ever made a silly Flash game like that I would be sure to play it! >_> SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION! Play this game, it's amazing! And "Twins with Stealth" is even better apparently. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/400449 http://friendlywarlord.newgrounds.com/

After seeing what they've done with Sonic, I have a little more faith that Brawl's suited Samus too will be true to her origins - a fast agile bounty hunter who shoots freaking everything. Even when Sonic is stationary, it seems he's using his amazing speed to kick ass. Let's hope Samus too makes amazing use her main strength (cool ranged weaponry), even when she's not using ranged attacks. Zero Suit Samus' down smash (with the stun gun) also gives me some hope that suited Samus will use her beam in creative ways like that. And the re-arrangement of Mario's moves (keeping the Smash nostalgia of the "Mario Tornado" whist giving him another Special move that's actually from a Mario game), that gives me hope that Samus' moves will too be rearranged for the better. But I don't need any more hope; I need a Samus moves update. Or a video where she actually does some of her moves. Why won't they show us her moves?! Show me your moves!!! SHOW ME YOUR B- ...I mean YOUR MOVES!!!! Remember way back when the best update so far was the fact that Samus' suit was really shiny? Now we've got interesting characters like the Pokemon Trainer and Diddy, assist trophies up the wazoo... the updates can only get better, right? And by "better", I mean "show me your moves". They've been deliberately leaving one move out of every Special Moves update - I know what update I'M eagerly waiting for: "It seems I've been forgetting to tell you about a lot of moves here and there. But here they all are now! Th- there are too many moves to count, how will I ever count them?! But enough about moves - we are showing here, for the first time in video game history, a screenshot of Samus's Shoosh-shoosh-shoosh-shoosh-shoosh! Oh sorry, Snake was using his flying reconnaissance camera, the Cypher, to recover. Where was I? Oh yes, you can see a screenshot of Samus' moves. But you've already seen this move, ha ha! It's the regular areal forwards move from Smash Bros., but the fire is a different color?! Ooooh. It’s so dynamic! But that is all I will ever show you of Samus' moves, you will have to buy the game! By the way, the release date for Canada and all the American states that are bordering Canada is April 24, 2008." Dang it. Well, here's hoping Megaman is in there. I think we all saw Sonic coming a mile away - Megaman (or Simon, or any other thrid-party character for that matter) would be the first REAL shocker, in terms of playable characters. (well, besides Snake...)

EARLY UPDATE ON THE JAPANESE SITE!!! IT'S HIM!!! To be honest, I really didn't see that one coming. I wonder what his final smash will be...?

Never heard of that conference, but good to know nonetheless And what's this, two-player co-op ONLINE? Not that it'll be better than playing with someone next to you, but... convenience and options are always good. Yes, Rayman would be great. As would Mike Jones. MIKE JONES!! [edit] Don't tell anyone.... he's a secret character! We're not supposed to know about him yet! >_> [Edit] Now that he's been revealed, let's hope we get an update with a video... or a Metroid stage!

If you're confused by my post, clearly you goombas/pre-goombas do not know who Less Ashamed of Self is. I haven't listened to the album yet, but I'm pretty sure the track names alone are going to make me go "Whaaaaa..!!??"

I couldn't think of anything to put in this thread. And then I saw this

Updates are at 2:00 am Central (that is, when they're on time). That's about half an hour from now. A holiday (Thanksgiving) AND an update, this will be the best Monday ever!

There are not many things on a discussion board that can make me angry, but this is one of them. SAY WHAT THE THREAD IS ABOUT IN THE FIRST POST! After checking their website, I have no clue what the "Three Month Mod" is, besides the fact that it is a mod of some game (or maybe it isn't?) looks Metroid-themed, and it took three month to... make..... or something??? I'm so clueless, now I'm so curious!! >= [Edit] Their updates do not have dates, and the project isn't on Wikipedia... this is so infuriating!! By the way I'd really appreciate it if someone told me what this is =) I just looked at their modDB page, but I'm still a little confused about the whole concept...

Once they run out of trophies, he'll get someone to follow him around with a camera until they have enough footage to fill the disk. Off topic: what if the credits, instead of shooting them with lasers, appeared in the form of Mii's of the staff that you have to fight!? That would be fun =D And back on the topic of updates: they're not revealing enough until they show us a Metroid stage and Samus special moves!! Of course everyone has their "special thing" that they want to know before the release (Captain Falcon is a popular one), so it seems a bit silly to say they're revealing too much. Although, there are SOME updates I wish they hadn't done, simply because they'd be such fun surprises to discover in the game. Wouldn't it have been a hilarious surprise to, not knowing of their existence beforehand, suddenly stumble upon the Golden Hammer, Squeaky Golden Hammer, Mr. Ressetti's lecture, or Excite Bikes? I'm hoping they don't have many more assist trophy updates, and certainly no more "rare item" updates...

You cannot send chat messages or taunts to random online opponents, so you cannot send them your friend codes. If you're playing with someone who you can display taunts to, then you already have their friend code. At least that's how I understood it... As for the Landmaster... I think it was a good choice, I can't really see how the Arwing would've worked. (Great fox on the other hand could have worked.... if it wasn't two times bigger than most of the stages we've seen so far.) We were talking about shields because they were in the video a couple days ago.... chances are he just posted about shields ALSO because they where in the video a couple days ago. He tends to do stuff like that, don't ask.