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Nintendo Direct 11/5/2014 (Also Rant)
11 years ago
General
(NOTE: The latter half of this journal post is a rant involving the "Toys to Life" category of gaming. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)
So after my previous downer bit of a journal, I got a bit of news that brightened my day up quite wonderfully! Nintendo has released the first proper Nintendo Direct (one that focuses on multiple games instead of an overview of just one) since E3, and...
....Well, I'll let you all watch for yourselves.
.
..
...Did you watch it? ...You didn't? Well click the link! Watch it before reading the rest of this Journal.
.
,,
,,,
,,,,
,,,,,Did you watch it now? You did? Okay then, lemme just get into my hype mode real quick...
*clears throat*
*hums the scales real quick*
*takes a deep breath*
....OH DEAR LORD WHY MUST I BE FORCED TO HAVE NO MONEY WHEN AWESOME SHIT LIKE THIS IS COMING OUT?!?!
In any case, I was quite pleased with this direct. I'm not a huge fan of the N64 Zelda games but I'm glad that the Zelda fans are finally getting their Majora's Mask remake. Project S.T.E.A.M. looks interesting, though I'm not much into strategy or RPG games that much.
I'm really hyped up for Captain Toad Treasure Tracker and Splatoon as well. Both games look beautiful and seem like a blast to play (though I have to admit the Splatoon trailer did kinda creep me out a bit with that tentacle dude staring at me with eyes as empty and freaky as Majora's). Kirby and the Rainbow Curse also looks really fun, and I love the style of animation they decided to go with for this spiritual sequel to Canvas Curse. I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to see more of Yoshi's Woolly World, but I'm not too bothered by it.
ALSO DOSE PIKMIN SHORTS LOOK FUN!
As for Xenoblade Chronicles X....... Looks beautiful. Really shows what the Wii U is capable of in the right hands. I'm not interested in it, though. JRPGs never really appealed to me all that much, so I think I'll be skipping out on it until I can at the very least try it for myself.
...OH, and Ultimate NES Remix for the 3DS...... It's a thing...... That's all I got......
As for the DLC and Amiibo announcements... I do not currently own either Mario Kart 8 or Hyrule Warriors (Money is a thing in our household right now), but if I ever DO get those games, I will definitely be getting the DLC packs for them (LINK'S MASTER CYCLE LOOKS LIKE A BLUE, METALLIC EPONA!!!!).
Now for the obvious elephant in the room... Amiibo...
.....Before I get into this, I have a confession I must make: I HATE SKYLANDERS AND DISNEY INFINITY WITH A PASSION. Their gimmick is that you have toys that you place on a pedestal. The pedestal reads a chip in the toy and brings it to life in the game. An interesting concept on paper, but there's one flaw it has in practice: THE GAMES ARE FULLY DEPENDENT ON THE FIGURES THEMSELVES!
Think about it: Skylanders starts you out with one or two series line figures, a "Portal of Power", and the game. You're free to put any figure on the portal at any given time. As such, you can easily play through the game's story in full without interruption, but therein lies the problem. You can ONLY play through the story.
Find a gate with a water symbol on it? Hope you remembered to buy that water Skylander not included in the starter pack!
Big boulder blocking your way to an ultra-awesome item or massive cache of treasure that would really help you out in the long run? Better put your Giant Skylander on the jo-OH! I'm sorry; you don't have a Giant so no treasure for you! And don't even get me started on the Swap Force and Trap Team lines.
And let's be sure you have a place where you can both easily access your Skylander collection & keep them safe. Because if you just so happen to lose ANY of your Skylanders, then all that hard work and dedication you put into leveling up and upgrading that hero is all but for naught as everything that figure possesses is stored ON THE FIGURE'S CHIP AND NOT THE GAME ITSELF. And God forbid you lose all of your skylander figures because then you have to shell out even more cash to replace them because you CANNOT PLAY THE GAME WITHOUT THEM!
Disney Infinity is even worse: the game is just a bare-bones shell of a sandbox without the toys AND adventure packs! At least Skylanders has the decency to include a story mode that you can play through with ANY Skylander you wish. Disney Infinity only lets you play through an adventure pack with the characters it matches; and not all characters HAVE an adventure pack!
These figures and games fall under the "Toys to Life" category, but I think that the category should be re-named to "Pay to Sort-of Play". So, with that rant out of the way, you all probably expect me to hate Amiibo as well, right?
Well, you would be wrong. Nintendo is actually doing the "Toys to Life" gimmick the RIGHT way! What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at the first game to be compatible with Amiibo: "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U".
For starters; what does it do in the game? Placing an Amiibo on the Gamepad will summon a Figure Player into the game to either fight against or team up with in battle. You can train it, level it up and customize it as you see fit to increase it's capabilities and effectively change the tides of battle.
Is it required to play the main game itself? No.
Does it limit what you're allowed to actually DO in-game? No.
Does it add a fun twist to the game if you utilize it? Hell yes!
Now let's look at two other games that were confirmed to be Amiibo compatible. The whole of the first wave of Amiibo figures is compatable with Mario Kart 8, and using the figures will unlock special Mii costumes themed to the character utilized. Just imagine: racing on the F-Zero DLC track in your Blue Falcon kart with that Captain Falcon Mii you made DECKED OUT IN THE PROPER ATTIRE! Genius!
Hyrule Warriors also has Amiibo compatibility. Using Link's figure in the game will unlock the Twilight Princess Spinner item as a new weapon for him to use, and the other figures will give you various materials, items and even rupees to use in game. Quite the boon indeed.
But let's not forget the most important thing here: the figures ONLY UNLOCK SPECIAL EXTRAS. They are NOT required to play the game. They DO NOT limit your experience because you don't have the proper figure. And most importantly of all: they're FUN TO USE.
Skylanders may have done it first, but Nintendo did it RIGHT!
.......Sorry, that got kinda ranty there. But I'm relieved to finally get all of that off of my chest. In any case, what are your opinions on this Direct? Any games in particular you're exited for? Lemme know in the comments.
So after my previous downer bit of a journal, I got a bit of news that brightened my day up quite wonderfully! Nintendo has released the first proper Nintendo Direct (one that focuses on multiple games instead of an overview of just one) since E3, and...
....Well, I'll let you all watch for yourselves.
.
..
...Did you watch it? ...You didn't? Well click the link! Watch it before reading the rest of this Journal.
.
,,
,,,
,,,,
,,,,,Did you watch it now? You did? Okay then, lemme just get into my hype mode real quick...
*clears throat*
*hums the scales real quick*
*takes a deep breath*
....OH DEAR LORD WHY MUST I BE FORCED TO HAVE NO MONEY WHEN AWESOME SHIT LIKE THIS IS COMING OUT?!?!
In any case, I was quite pleased with this direct. I'm not a huge fan of the N64 Zelda games but I'm glad that the Zelda fans are finally getting their Majora's Mask remake. Project S.T.E.A.M. looks interesting, though I'm not much into strategy or RPG games that much.
I'm really hyped up for Captain Toad Treasure Tracker and Splatoon as well. Both games look beautiful and seem like a blast to play (though I have to admit the Splatoon trailer did kinda creep me out a bit with that tentacle dude staring at me with eyes as empty and freaky as Majora's). Kirby and the Rainbow Curse also looks really fun, and I love the style of animation they decided to go with for this spiritual sequel to Canvas Curse. I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to see more of Yoshi's Woolly World, but I'm not too bothered by it.
ALSO DOSE PIKMIN SHORTS LOOK FUN!
As for Xenoblade Chronicles X....... Looks beautiful. Really shows what the Wii U is capable of in the right hands. I'm not interested in it, though. JRPGs never really appealed to me all that much, so I think I'll be skipping out on it until I can at the very least try it for myself.
...OH, and Ultimate NES Remix for the 3DS...... It's a thing...... That's all I got......
As for the DLC and Amiibo announcements... I do not currently own either Mario Kart 8 or Hyrule Warriors (Money is a thing in our household right now), but if I ever DO get those games, I will definitely be getting the DLC packs for them (LINK'S MASTER CYCLE LOOKS LIKE A BLUE, METALLIC EPONA!!!!).
Now for the obvious elephant in the room... Amiibo...
.....Before I get into this, I have a confession I must make: I HATE SKYLANDERS AND DISNEY INFINITY WITH A PASSION. Their gimmick is that you have toys that you place on a pedestal. The pedestal reads a chip in the toy and brings it to life in the game. An interesting concept on paper, but there's one flaw it has in practice: THE GAMES ARE FULLY DEPENDENT ON THE FIGURES THEMSELVES!
Think about it: Skylanders starts you out with one or two series line figures, a "Portal of Power", and the game. You're free to put any figure on the portal at any given time. As such, you can easily play through the game's story in full without interruption, but therein lies the problem. You can ONLY play through the story.
Find a gate with a water symbol on it? Hope you remembered to buy that water Skylander not included in the starter pack!
Big boulder blocking your way to an ultra-awesome item or massive cache of treasure that would really help you out in the long run? Better put your Giant Skylander on the jo-OH! I'm sorry; you don't have a Giant so no treasure for you! And don't even get me started on the Swap Force and Trap Team lines.
And let's be sure you have a place where you can both easily access your Skylander collection & keep them safe. Because if you just so happen to lose ANY of your Skylanders, then all that hard work and dedication you put into leveling up and upgrading that hero is all but for naught as everything that figure possesses is stored ON THE FIGURE'S CHIP AND NOT THE GAME ITSELF. And God forbid you lose all of your skylander figures because then you have to shell out even more cash to replace them because you CANNOT PLAY THE GAME WITHOUT THEM!
Disney Infinity is even worse: the game is just a bare-bones shell of a sandbox without the toys AND adventure packs! At least Skylanders has the decency to include a story mode that you can play through with ANY Skylander you wish. Disney Infinity only lets you play through an adventure pack with the characters it matches; and not all characters HAVE an adventure pack!
These figures and games fall under the "Toys to Life" category, but I think that the category should be re-named to "Pay to Sort-of Play". So, with that rant out of the way, you all probably expect me to hate Amiibo as well, right?
Well, you would be wrong. Nintendo is actually doing the "Toys to Life" gimmick the RIGHT way! What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at the first game to be compatible with Amiibo: "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U".
For starters; what does it do in the game? Placing an Amiibo on the Gamepad will summon a Figure Player into the game to either fight against or team up with in battle. You can train it, level it up and customize it as you see fit to increase it's capabilities and effectively change the tides of battle.
Is it required to play the main game itself? No.
Does it limit what you're allowed to actually DO in-game? No.
Does it add a fun twist to the game if you utilize it? Hell yes!
Now let's look at two other games that were confirmed to be Amiibo compatible. The whole of the first wave of Amiibo figures is compatable with Mario Kart 8, and using the figures will unlock special Mii costumes themed to the character utilized. Just imagine: racing on the F-Zero DLC track in your Blue Falcon kart with that Captain Falcon Mii you made DECKED OUT IN THE PROPER ATTIRE! Genius!
Hyrule Warriors also has Amiibo compatibility. Using Link's figure in the game will unlock the Twilight Princess Spinner item as a new weapon for him to use, and the other figures will give you various materials, items and even rupees to use in game. Quite the boon indeed.
But let's not forget the most important thing here: the figures ONLY UNLOCK SPECIAL EXTRAS. They are NOT required to play the game. They DO NOT limit your experience because you don't have the proper figure. And most importantly of all: they're FUN TO USE.
Skylanders may have done it first, but Nintendo did it RIGHT!
.......Sorry, that got kinda ranty there. But I'm relieved to finally get all of that off of my chest. In any case, what are your opinions on this Direct? Any games in particular you're exited for? Lemme know in the comments.
That being said, I don't like collectible card games on the grounds that they don't really interest me. I USED to play Yu-Gi-Oh way back when, but I grew out of that phase.