Messages

76

Modern Video Games / Mario Kart 8: Wii U versus Switch

« on: January 21, 2019, 02:27:09 pm »

When discussing games we would like to see ported from the Wii U to Switch, a few people brought up they didn't want any and felt that the ones that have been released were just repackaged. I feel that porting these games is a good thing as many people didnt give the Wii U the time of day. So Nintendo is sitting on some truly fantastic games that deserve to be played by a larger audience.

With that in mind, I decided to do comparisons between the original Wii U versions and the Switch versions, starting with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Here are the changes/additions to the Switch version.

New characters:  King Boo, Dry Bones, Bowser Jr., Inkling Boy & Inkling Girl and Gold Mario.

Character Variations:  Link from Breath of the Wild, 8 colors for Yoshi and 8 colors for Shy Guy.

New Karts:  Splat Buggy, Ink Striker, Koopa Clown, Super Glider

New Features:  Dual Items, Super Drift Boost, Quick Turn, Smart Steering, Auto Acceleration, Boo & Fearher Items, 8-player Local Multiplayer, LAN Mode, All tracks & characters unlocked from the start.

Performance Enhancements:  Faster load times, boost to 1080p resolution

DLC:  Includes all previous DLC cups:  Egg Cup, Triforce Cup, Bell Cup and Crossing Cup (16 tracks)

Includes all previous DLC characters:  Link, Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, Villager Boy & Girl, Isabelle and Dry Bowser.

Includes all previous DLC karts:  Streetle, City Tripper, P-Wing, Bone Rattler, Blu Falcon, B-Dasher, Master Cycle and Tanooki Kart.

New Battle Modes:  Bob-Omb Blast, Renegade Roundup, Coin Runners and Shine Thief.

So comparing the retail packaged Wii U and Switch versions they have added:

13 new characters + variations for Link, Yoshi and Shy Guy
12 new karts
4 cups with 4 tracks each for a total of 16 new tracks
4 new battle modes

Those are pretty significant changes & additions. Nintendo did more work on this game than most other develops put in between sequels of their titles.

77

General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 21, 2019, 11:04:22 am »

On one hand it's something that makes it feel like you own a game and can actually show it off in the collection and I would love to do it for Bloodstained. On the other hand though I get pissed at companies when they do this kind of thing (original release of Ducktales remastered, Tomb Raider (forget the whole name off the top of my head)) and it also seems like the most unnecessary braggadocio you can do.

Trust me, it has nothing to do with bragging. Lol. Two main reasons for me.

1:  Its a tangible, physical representation of something I love. I hate download only titles. Again, I understand when it's some tiny 2-man development team. The vast majority of indies are doing it because they love gaming and without a publisher with money, who can afford to make their own physical games?  On the other hand, dirty shit like Capcom, EA & Activision have been pulling where only half of the game is on the disc/cart with a voucher code for the rest is greedy bullshit. It's simply to curb sales of used games and consumers are the ones to get screwed. I would love to have all the Mega Man games on Switch. But I'll be damned if it doesnt piss me off to no end that half of them aren't on the carts. Especially since all 20 (or whatever) Mega Man & X games probably take up 10 megabytes of data total!  Same with the Crash & Spyro games. Making you download the 2nd and 3rd games is simply a way to stop people from buying used. Screw these guys.

2:  I love artwork. I can stare for hours or spend hours pouring through art books. The game case art was something that an artist worked on for many hours. I like to look at it and it deserves to bee seen.

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General / Re: Opinions on Custom Reproduction Game Cases?

« on: January 21, 2019, 09:14:56 am »

These cases are bittersweet for me; I was given an eBay gift card a few years ago, and spent it in a box of 100 of them. My idea was exactly what you did with yours, adding the custom art to make them look snazzy and cool when displayed. These cases are great since they keep the games safe from the elements, but, again, like I keep harping on about, space. They take too much space. I've been mulling the idea of buying cart protectors for my SNES and N64 games and forgo the cases all together.

The best...

Definitely the best.

At this point, my new collection (post-purge & refocusing on Nintendo) isn't that large & unwieldy. I also keep the games, systems I'm not using and swag stuff tucked away in two large closets. Until the kids (or at least the oldest) take off on their own, I have no hope of displaying my stuff. So it sits. Waiting patiently for the day they will be displayed in all their splendor. Lol.

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General / Re: Does it ever bother you how much space your collection takes?

« on: January 20, 2019, 09:50:43 pm »

With three children living at home, I have limited space to display my gaming collection, even with four bedrooms. I used to have a room devoted to my gaming stuff when the girls shared a room. But also, i gave it up for them & sold most of that stuff. That was even before I joined this site.

For display purposes, I dont have everything out. Not even close. My consoles pre-Wii are in their original boxes in my bedroom closet. My collectors edition Zelda books are (mostly) kept put away inside a large gun safe. I rotate out what swag I have out. Currently in my curio, the Skyward Sword Link & Scervo statues are displayed. Once my new Zelda Skyward Sword Link statue arrives, I'll swap the two out for the new one. I have one Zelda scroll hanging while the other four remain rolled. I switch them out every so often.

My collection is small by comparison with many others on this site and I choose to focus on one goal at a time. Nintendo stuff is my broad collecting goal. Narrowing it down, I specifically look for "key" games such as Zelda, Mario, Star Fox & the like. Narrowed down even further, Zelda is my main focus.

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General / Re: PC Gaming Takes More Know How Than Consoles In My Experience To Keep Working

« on: January 20, 2019, 12:05:09 pm »

In general, a console is a closed platform. Suped-up versions like PS4 Pro and Xbox One X complicate things a bit, but it's nowhere near like dealing with a PC that can and does have different amounts of memory, different video & sound cards and different processors by different manufacturers. Add on the fact that it's an open platform, running different programs & different OS versions and things become much more complicated.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 07:24:00 pm »

I wish Limited Games or somebody would do a run of Bloodstained - Curse of the Moon. For those that haven't played it, it's so close to Castlevania III that if the names were Belmont, Alucard, etc you would be playing Castlevania! 

As for sworddude's comment about making art for every NES game that is on the service, somebody made a nice piece of work that pretty much covers the NES Online games. The inner/reverse cover is in my first post with Bowser & Jr. playing. The front is red with the main focus looking like the NES game screen when you start it up.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 05:23:08 pm »

To each their own. It's nice to see what other people think. In an ideal gaming world, digital-only games wouldn't exist.  DLC microtransactions would shrivel & die and game expansions would come on a disc/cartridge.

For me, the cases make the digital games a smidge more bearable. BTW...here is my completed Bloodstained case.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 01:53:36 pm »

I personally wont support digital games. (unless it's free or DLC)
I don't see any point of cases of games you don't own.

It's bad enough buying games that are online only, knowing one day it could be a dead game.

I fully understand your stance on the matter flea, especially given your collection. I too despise digital games and make few exceptions. When I do, it's an expansion, free, dirt-cheap or in very rare instances - something I really, really want to play. A couple examples of something I really wanted to play would be Bloodstained Curse of the Moon and Cuphead, neither of which will have a physical release.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 01:49:48 pm »

I can’t think of anything more stupid.

Thanks for the insightful, tactful reply!   

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 09:25:19 am »

I bet you spent more on the case alone than what you spent on Bouncy Bob on the eshop haha!

All joking aside, I think the idea is pretty cool for certain games, I wouldn't do it for all my downloadable titles but maybe a select few.  I just lack the space right now for such a project.

I think you are right about bouncy bob!  Lol. I have no intention of getting a case for every eshop title. But "bigger" or games that I hold in high regard, it's nice to have a case for.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 19, 2019, 12:07:00 am »

Some of those look really cool, especially the retro Bloodstained one. If you have the space go for it

Personally I wouldn’t be to keen on the idea. First off, space issue, I’m currently running out of room, I thought this day would never come, but alas. Secondly as others mentioned I like my physical collection to be official.

When it comes to retail releases, yes - I like to keep it official. Which is why even though some of the prints are alternate art for retail games that I printed because I like them, I wont replace the original inserts. But for a game with no hope of a retail release?  I'm more than happy with the custom cases using official assets from the developer/publisher.

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General / Re: VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

« on: January 18, 2019, 10:00:48 pm »

Change of topic!  My wife won a Yoplait contest earlier. The game is chosen at random, but we will be getting one of the following:  Super Mario Odyssey,  Super Mario Party, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Mario Tennis Aces, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu or Evee, Captain Toad, Mario Kart 8 or Splatoon 2.

And a $20 eShop gift card. If I get Super Mario Party, Mario Tennis Aces, or either Pokemon I'll be happy. If it's one of the others, guess I'll be trading it in for something else. 

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Modern Video Games / Re: Super Smash Bros Ultimate: Opinions?

« on: January 18, 2019, 08:35:41 pm »

You...dont pay for characters. They all unlock for playing, the way all fighters should work.

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General / Re: Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 18, 2019, 04:35:21 pm »

Here is a chopped down collage of the covers I ordered online.

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General / Game Cases for Digital Titles: Yay or Nay?

« on: January 18, 2019, 04:24:00 pm »

As a collector, I value tangible, real-world items I can hold. I think most collectors do. The very definition of "collector" is A person who collects things of a specified type, professionally or as a hobby.

I've always been bugged by digital-only titles. Enough so that it interferes with my enjoyment of said games. It's like a feeling of regret or sadness to me?  It's hard to explain. What about game expansions?  Adding on an expansion feels like it's not really a part of the game in a way to me. One exception to me was the Witcher III expansions. They came in a box with a set of Gwent cards. It was something tangible. A physical manifestation that even though the actual game data wasnt in the box, gave me something to hold onto.  While playing Bloodstained - Curse of the Moon, I thought it would be awesome to see box art for it. Box art to me is like an old record album cover. Somebody poured a lot of time & love into the illustrations. It's why I love art books and sadly lament the disappearance of game instruction manuals, especially some of the Nintendo color ones full of artwork. So I just Googled "Bloodstained Switch cover art."  And wow!  I was blown away! 

So a little research, I found covers for A LOT of eShop Switch games!  I went to eBay, found empty Switch boxes for about $1.55 each shipped (I ordered a 10-pack for $15.48 shipped).  High-resolution printouts of the covers on glossy photo paper which is about the same weight as the genuine Switch covers is $0.87 each at Office Depot. So for $2.42, I have an authentic-looking box to look at. It may seem silly to some, that's fine. Others with large collections cant spare the shelf space. Understandable. But for me, it strikes the pleasure center in my weird brain.

I'm waiting for the cases to arrive, but here are some of the printouts I have made. Please note that the actual printouts are very clear, crisp, sharp and vibrant.  I also have five more that I ordered online before I decided to take a stab at them myself. Will post them & these in cases once everything arrives.