Backlog: The Embiggening – February, 2017
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/29/17 at 04:45 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! February is still Winter, and it’s still horribly cold and unpleasant here at the MJ HQ, but that’s okay, because we can sit inside where it’s warm and play videogames… can’t we? Are there any new videogames coming in February that we’ll want to play? Let’s hope so!
Three pieces of licensed shovelware start us out this month. Chris can’t stop salivating over Telltale Games’ take on his favorite TV show, zombie-schlock “The Walking Dead,” which is getting a new installment. Anime fans are also getting yet another ‘Naruto Shippuden’ game as well as a new Musou game based on the ‘Berserk’ manga.
In the realm of ports and remasters, things are relatively sedate compared to how they have been recently. The PS4 is getting a physical release of “Pac-Man Championship Edition 2” (to go with last year’s physical release on XBONE) as well as a port of “Earthlock: Festival of Magic.” The 3DS is …
What are Japanese Gamers Playing?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/22/17 at 05:46 PM CT
Quite some time ago, I wrote an open letter to Japan’s gaming industry as a whole, asking, “WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Naturally, I never got a response, but in working with Chris and Nick on MeltedJoystick in the intervening years I’ve noticed some interesting trends that might actually help explain Japan’s problems.
First of all, the top selling games in Japan and the top selling games in the wider world look much, much different from each other. Handhelds, specifically the 3DS, dominate Japanese charts, as do exclusives, with but a single non-exclusive and Western-developed game among them. Western charts, on the other hand, are, predictably, shooters and sandboxes and sandbox shooters with one sports game (soccer, because Europe) and a number of double-listings for multi-platform titles that artificially make the list even more homogenized.
What’s interesting about the lack of Western games being played by Japanese gamers is the fact that a not-insignificant …
Bait and: Switch Reactions
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/15/17 at 02:57 PM CT
This week, Nintendo finally held their long-awaited Switch reveal event. Lasting just over an hour, Nintendo spent a lot of time painstakingly showing us what the Switch is, seemingly as an overcompensation for their confusing messages regarding the late WiiU around the time of its own launch. Unfortunately, despite all that showing and telling, Nintendo still failed to explain some of the core nuts-and-bolts features of the Switch, such as whether or not the (Western) games shipped on cartridges will download and patch the game ON the cartridge or whether the Switch’s official, meager 32GB of storage space will be used for 20GB patches like every other platform.
Regular readers of MeltedJoystick’s blog column will no doubt remember my list of 5 Ways the Switch Could Sink. After watching the Switch reveal event, I’m very saddened to report that Nintendo has managed to nail 3 of them. The gaming media is surprisingly even-handed regarding the Switch, though there is still …
Online Communities and the Size Thereof
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/08/17 at 02:25 PM CT
As a reformed console-exclusive gamer myself, I’m intimately familiar with all of the old pros and cons of console gaming vs. PC gaming. And as someone who is willing to reassess things as variables change, I no longer cling to any of those obsolete arguments for the sake of tradition.
The current breed of console-exclusive gamer needs to come up with new reasons to avoid the ever-more-difficult-to-deny superiority of PC gaming when compared to the current console situation. The latest fuel for the fire is something that never would have registered with me during my console-exclusive years even if it had been a significant factor at the time (between roughly 2002 and 2013).
Apparently, the online communities for multi-platform games with a heavy online multi-player element are much, much smaller on PC than they are on any given console. Adding the fact that console online communities are segregated from each other due to money grubbing on behalf of the console manufacturers, …
Backlog: The Embiggening – January, 2017
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/01/17 at 02:55 PM CT
Happy 2017, dear MeltedJoystick readers and staff! And welcome back to another look into the near future! The dismal months of 2016 are in the past. Baby New Year has once again aged into Father Time, providing us – and, more importantly, the games industry – a chance for a symbolic fresh start. Will things improve in the coming year? I certainly hope so!
2017 is kicking off with a fresh dose of ‘high-quality’ shovelware. By that, I mean that the games are still based on licensed IPs, but they generally have a stronger reputation than shlock based on Burger King or Doritos. There’s a new ‘Digimon’ RPG (I’m really surprised that IP is still running, but if ‘Pokemon’ can do it…), a new game based on the ‘Fate’ anime/manga series, and an HD port of the last game in the Disney mash-up series, ‘Kingdom Hearts.’
That ‘Kingdom Hearts’ port isn’t alone, however. Square-Enix is starting out 2017 with a compilation of the episodic first season of their …
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