JackKieser

Dear god... epic is right. I'm still watching that movie. I'm somewhere around 10-15 views now. Maybe now someone can beat the shit out of Fox, for god's sake. And, Live and Learn? Best possible choice for Sonic music. It's fast, it's energetic, it pumps you up... and it's good. Sure, Green Hill Zone is the obvious one... but it's nowhere near as 'I'm gonna kick your ass' as Live and Learn is. --Jack Kieser

Damnit... now I want the update really bad. They better hurry the fuck up... and it BETTER be Sonic-related. --Jack Kieser

Why not? ZSS looks like she's going to be an interesting character, especially considering she technically has two official recovery moves (both whip attacks can hook a ledge). I think she'll be a definite challenge to fight. Not to mention Snake already wants to jump her... how bad can she be? --Jack Kieser

You know, I'm going to sound like a dick for a second, but hear me out. It is my personal opinion that women are WAY too overplayed in this day and age. Kids too, but that's another topic all together. If you search 'Bill Maher on Feminism', you'll see him explain it better than I ever could. Basically, the way I see it is, gaming is a typically male-run industry. Here at DigiPen, only about 8% of our entire student body is female. About 70-80% of those students aren't even IN the CS department. So you know what? Yeah, games are going to put women in overtly sexual roles (and, for the record, yeah, ZSS is sexualized. Look at all that breast, all that breast inside that shirt.), because we, as men, want to bone women. It's in our nature. But somehow, we're bad people. You know what, if women don't like it so much, they should be making games. (Yes, I DO think this is a good idea, and yes, this is a challenge) You know what, all this moralistic crap is a front for simply not liking what is around; people use morals as an excuse for wanting the world around them to change. MasterSenshi, I have to say, I respect you more than the average because you have already stated that if you don't like it, you simply won't buy it, which ultimately is the point; if you don't like what's on TV, change the channel. Now, that said, yes, as an art and a medium of entertainment, we do have an effect on society. This is something we should exploit, however. You know why we have douchebags like JT? Because society is still full of people who think like they are in the stone age, people who don't have the ability to view another's beliefs as valid yet not adopt the view themselves. I say, bring on the ass. Bring on the tits. Bring on the violence, bring on the destruction, bring on the emotion, bring on the art. I don't believe we are having an 'identity crisis'. I think we are having a free thought crisis; all of these free ideas are coming from every angle, and we don't know how to handle that anymore. And as for glorifying certain behaviors... we are humans. Let's get that out of the way; we are destructive by nature. All society does is try to curb that tendency. Of course our entertainment is going to glorify that behavior: entertainment is the only outlet society HAS for that behavior. In short: women are overrated, and can be used and have their feelings hurt just like guys can; the more radical the ideas shown by media, the better; it is in our nature to be messed up, so we should deal with it correctly instead of trying to suppress it at every turn, cause that is dangerous. --Jack Kieser EDIT: Oh, and fuck yeah to ExciteBike. Way to go, again, Sakurai.

Hahahaha! The Samus video didn't load the first time I saw the site; I'm so glad I watched those videos again... Snake totally wants to bone Samus. More than he wants to bone Yoshi. "Mei Ling! Samus took her clothes off!" Priceless. --Jack Kieser

Oh my god... I just came. A lot. All over my keyboard. For serious, Sakurai is both a saint (for giving us amazing info like this, and for going though the time and effort to get all those voice actors to contribute extra material to the game) and a total bastard (for not having the game out this very moment. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch those videos again. Orgasm time! --Jack Kieser

Ok, it was Tappy, not Williams... Christ. That's not even the point. The point is the songs are nowhere near similar enough to warrant a cry of plagiarism. Like I said, there are some melodic similarities, a few similar chord progressions, but it is plain to hear that those songs are not the same. There simply aren't enough similarities to justify calling this plagiarism. --Jack Kieser

I really don't see how this is that big of a deal. I mean, they sound similar, similar in the sense that the chord progressions have some match-ups, but if you really listen to the songs one after the other, it's pretty obvious that their differences outweigh their similarities. After all, if someone hadn't pointed out the similarities to me, I probably wouldn't have heard them, or at least not on the first few listens. Now, before you start flaming or whatever, I'm not saying that Williams wasn't inspired by the Russian pieces, which is certainly possible by any stretch, but as far as breaking copyright or plagiarizing, I don't see any real argument: the pieces simply aren't close enough to each other. --Jack Kieser

I know that it won't actually do more damage based on 'Super Effective-ness" (although that would totally rock); what I meant is that if that text box wasn't there, it wouldn't be nearly as demoralizing to get hit by that attack. Getting nailed by a Final Smash? That sucks. It always being 'Super Effective' on your scrawny ass? Way worse. --Jack Kieser

Wow, that's so much awesome, I don't even know how to describe it. And, I totally agree, Eulogic, that text box makes it so very much better. The fact that it's Super Effective? That makes it so much more demoralizing. ^ ^ --Jack Kieser

Woo! Go Snake! This update wins every possible update award. What's really surprising is just how much weaponry they loaded Snake up with. I mean, I figured he'd get his rockets, maybe a gun (which is, apparently, a grenade) for his B attacks... but even the Smash attacks use weapons. And that recovery? Priceless. Also, I have to say that the MGS4 song ties the LoZ music for best music update. It sounds SO damn good! This update really shows how much work they put into Snake and his sections of the game. Now I see why they waited to unveil him. Oh, and before I forget... wow. That grab Snake has on Ike is crazy cool. I can't wait to put the sleeper hold on someone in-game. --Jack Kieser

'It's Metaknight's battleship... isn't it?' I don't know, Sakurai, is it? You'd think he'd have information like that. *snicker* --Jack Kieser

Um... I probably just being overly dense... but what was the puzzle with the gear? I don't remember that one. --Jack Kieser

See, I personally don't have a problem with that, but I know lots of other people will be like, "Oh, that's not fair," or "Oh, that's to hard." If they wanted to show that sense of desperation, then there should have been nothing wrong with just killing the player off if he/she is irresponsible. I've never played Baldur's Gate, but I'm sure the mechanic works well, and I'm sure there aren't a whole lot of people who use their magic with abandon (unless they are trying to turn into the demon). No reason it couldn't have worked here. And to reply to Bigfoot: (I agree with the whole Metroid thing. In past Metroid games, you feel a sense of urgency when you see a Metroid; it's like, "Fuck, I gotta kill this thing or get the hell out of here!" But you never feel like that in the Prime games. I can hazard a guess that Retro did it for difficulty reasons, but in three games worth of enemies who aren't really enemies unless the scan says "Space Pirate (Variant)", logic says that one enemy should be a definite threat no matter what, and the title character certainly should take the top spot for that.) --Jack Kieser

Hehe... you should fix that... People can be pretty touchy sometimes. --Jack Kieser

Response to both points: They could have simply made a way to have to juggle your Hyper mode usage; a way to reduce your corruption level, but it's a pain in the ass to do it. Besides, Silent Hill 4 had a mechanic to where it would eventually become impossible to win the game; I'm not saying that's a good thing, but developers have been that ballsy before. I just think that, like I said, for the amount Phazon played into the story, we didn't get a whole lot of focus on Samus' corruption, save for the few times the AU talks to you during the game. Now, for the spoilers: (No, the amount of tanks you have doesn't help or hinder you, or so it seemed to me. I beat the game twice: once without 100% completion and once with. Didn't feel any different to me. And, speaking of the ending, why do you have to overload all the leviathans, but no such tactic is used on Dark Samus? You would think one of the largest sources of Phazon would need the largest surge to be destroyed. It would have made sense, too, considering that Samus loses her corruption during that fight...) --Jack Kieser

Well, I would have either wanted deeper commitment to the PED suit or no PED suit at all. Like I said, the puzzles seemed too tacked on and simplistic. You figured out which Hyper mode weapon to use, then you used it. Plus, there was no correlation to the amount of times you used Hyper mode and the level of corruption in Samus body. I'm not saying Samus' corruption was a bad mechanic, but there were certainly better ways to have handled it. For as much commitment Retro had to the Phazon storyline, you would think Samus' own corruption would play bigger into the story... --Jack Kieser

Aww... no Uncyclopedia links? Too bad... --Jack Kieser

Ah ha! I finally figured out what I didn't like about the PED Suit! It's been at the back of my mind since I finished the game, but I couldn't figure out what exactly I didn't like... It's such a gimmick. Like, I understand why Retro did what it did. But I don't see why every modern game has to somehow mirror every story choice made with the gameplay. It's like they feel they have to legitimize the story somehow, and that if they tie the story directly in with the gameplay, then it will somehow bring more credibility. What's worse is that a large number of Nintendo 1st party titles have been doing that. SMS did it with F.L.U.D.D.; who cares that Mario was on a island? Noone, that's who. But, they added F.L.U.D.D. as if it would somehow make Mario's being on a island make better sense. The PED suit was cool and all, but in retrospect, all of the PED puzzles felt tacked on and clunky. No thought was required past 'what hyper weapon do I use?'. Hypermode had no negative repercussions besides Terminal Corruption, which rarely, if ever, happens to anyone who knows how to use the damn suit. And that bioscan in the ship? Totally unnecessary, especially considering it has no relevance to your hypermode usage. Wow, that's my rant for the day... lol --Jack Kieser EDIT: I agree with Injin on this one. As a design student, I feel I've learned a lot about the hybridization of genres. Especially about how to discern the main and subordinate genres of any given game. Which I thank all the participants for, btw. And about the definition from that textbook... the definitions in there, which were compiled by Christopher Erhardt, if anyone wants to look up the credentials or anything (not being facetious, I swear), are for modern games (not to mention for gamers, who already know a lot about genres; I will readily admit that they are quick and dirty definitions, but they are still vaild ones). We aren't studying retro design (that's a later class). Modern FPS' usually do have a focus on multiplayer; I say usually because thanks to hybridization, games rarely fall into one category (Bioshock, for instance, is a perfect example, because while a FPS it is, it is also very RPG-element heavy). And I don't think we are necessarily arguing whether MP3 has FPS elements, per se, but whether those elements are the primary focus of the game's design.

Um... I haven't. I actually have never played a match against anyone who has. What I think Hobocop is trying to say is that certain songs are put there for a distinct reason, design-wise. Even the choices in songs that we are given are somewhat superficial, because we can't choose any unlocked song for a stage, just unlocked songs that the designers allow. For instance, it looks that I can't have the SMW Castle theme play on Bridge of Eldin. Allowing people to use SD card music basically allows people to completely bypass every song that was carefully crafted for the game; after all, we don't know yet exactly how things will play out, and it is completely possible that certain songs were hand-crafted to elicit a particular response from us as players. Besides, there is a difference between using SD cards for music and muting the game to play stuff from iTunes; it seems superficial, but on some psychological level, it's not. By using SD card music, you are trying to blend content into the game that doesn't belong there, which may or may not work with the design of the game. When you are muting the game, you are making a conscious decision to detract yourself from the game; it's kind of like immersion, but in a slightly different way. --Jack Kieser

OMG... I lol'ed so much when I saw that link. Thank you. Thank you very much. I got a 17:23 time on normal with 100% items. Nowhere near 100% scans. I did take my time, though, and I took a while to find the last few upgrades, even with the map enhancements. Oh, and thanks to the continuation of this whole genre argument, I decided to pull out my GAME100 textbook to see if I can clarify any of this crap and maybe stop the madness. The definition of a shooter is a 'high-action [game] that, in the first-person mode, [relies] on multiplayer activities as the primary thrust. Can be first person or third person.' Shooters use long-range weaponry as their primary combat style, though melee weapons can be included as well. So, no. Metroid Prime games are not FPS'. Prime 2 came closest to this, but even it was not because the multiplayer was NOT the primary aspect of the game. Just for clarity, this comes straight from the GAME100 (Game Software Design and Production) course textbook at DigiPen, a game design and production institute. Now, can we PLEASE stop arguing on whether MP games are FPS' or not? --Jack Kieser

After looking at the pics again, which are now conveniently posted here, there are arrows on both song lists that suggest that the lists are longer than just 4 songs. Which really makes me happy. And, amen to the stroke thing. I think Sakurai is slowly pusing us to the point that in order to even survive these updates, we'll need to be heavily medicated to counteract the SHEER AWESOME. --Jack Kieser

Damn, this is looking to be pretty spiffy. And I like that Sakurai is putting enough thought into the game to know that people have favorite songs, too. Despite what anyone says, I LOVED playing Hyrule Temple with the Fire Emblem music going on. It's nice that I'll be able to switch up the songs as I like. Although the arrangement could have been a little better, what really disappoints me about the Pokemon music is, again, the samples. Better instruments would have made for a WAY better experience, and all we can hope is that these are just temporary 'rough draft' songs. Although, I really liked the evolution reference at the end. Well played, sir. --Jack Kieser

You know what I think is undefined now? The genre of 'Adventure'; I understand where Injin is saying there is a sense of adventure in some FPS games... but does that mean that the game is of the 'Adventure' type? No. That means the level designers have crafted a level that manipulates your emotions, instilling a sense of adventurousness in you while you play. I have never played FarCry, but I have seen enough of it to know that the primary use of environment is cover; you explore the scenery to gain a tactical advantage, not to reach the next area to explore. The difference, for example, is exploration in the traditional Metroid sense; the environment, to the basic player, most likely will work against you to impede your path (I say 'basic player' because anyone who has seen Metroid speed runs knows that these people are mutants who don't follow conventional logic). Unless you hit the edge of a map, traditional FPS games, such as FarCry, don't have environments whose main goal is to impede your progress (and before anyone says it, I mean on a deeper level than you have to get the key to a door or find a bridge across a chasm; this is 'adventuring' in a very shallow sense, and certainly the gameplay is not built around you finding keys, unlike the 'adventure' games in the LoZ series; it could also be argued that beam weapons are likened to 'keys' in Metroid games, because they have the secondary function of opening doors and only certain beams may open certain doors, but I digress). And, I am glad you bring up Oblivion, because it is the perfect example of the genre-blending that the Prime games experience, which seems to be misinterpreted. Oblivion is an RPG. That is its genre. There is no First-Person tacked onto Oblivion's genre title; this, however, may seem contradictory, as the game is played from a first-person perspective, that is. until you take a deeper look. The fact that Oblivion is played in the first person is trivial because the object of the game is to level up your character. There is combat, of course, but the combat is there for the express purpose of bolstering your character's abilities. The first person element is primarily for a sense of immersion, which is not the case with first person shooters; it could easily be argued that the reason first person games are played in the first person is to gain the tactical advantage that comes with precision aiming. The difference between Oblivion and other first person games is that Oblivion's combat is very shallow in the sense that you either attack or cast spells, but you never have to worry about a tactical advantage with respect to the placement of your character and your enemy because unless you have a spell that allows otherwise (or a good bow), confrontations are always very direct, which is not the case with a first person shooter, where tactical advantages are gained based on weapon choice AND character placement. In Oblivion, strategy is in your abilities; in FPS's, strategy is based on out maneuvering your opponent. This is where Metroid Prime begins to enter grey area, but this can be easily rectified by examining, as AarowSwift did, the priorities of the game. You can easily tell that combat is secondary in Prime (or truly any Metroid) game because the bosses are the only enemies that impede your progress; you never are required to fight a single enemy, which is markedly different in FPS games, where the only thing impeding your progress is the group of enemies in front of you. Adventure will always be the focus of a Metroid game because that is what the series was built upon; the method of adventure and exploration may change (such as the move to 3D in Prime), but the spirit will remain the same. This is important because we all know that, for instance, Star Fox Adventures is supposed to be a Star Fox game, but shares nothing with any other Star Fox game, just as it could be argued that Hunters is barely, if at all, at Metroid game. In order for a series to be a series, all of it's component games must have a significant relation to each other; that's WHY they are called series. Yes, Prime games are played in the first person. But any REAL analysis of the Prime games betrays the fact that, as AarowSwift said, this detail is trivial. --Jack Kieser

I got it like 10 minutes after I beat the game. It seemed like an extra feature, added in as a fan service... or maybe just a speed runner service. Cool, though. I now have my time and completion rate for posterity. Woo. --Jack Kieser