Backlog: The Embiggening – March, 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/24/18 at 04:08 PM CT
Gaius Julius Caesar was warned to beware the Ides of March shortly before his assassination on March 15, 44 B.C.E. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t heed the warnings. For we who comment on videogames in March 2018 of the Common Era, we need not specifically fear the Ides of March... we should fear the Ports of March, as they have come, but they have not gone.
The blatant trash of the shovelware category is fairly light on the ground for March. Sony is the biggest perpetrator, bringing delayed releases of its Wii/3DS-inspired trilogy of “3D Mini Golf,” “3D Billiards,” and “Island Flight Simulator” (not that anyone cared that they didn’t hit shelves last month like they were supposed to). In addition, Sony will also be gracing us with “Frantics” a new Party game. Warner Bros. will provide another unwarranted dose of ‘Scribblenauts’ make-your-own-fun boredom on all three current consoles, while anime fans can look forward to Tecmo-Koei’s “Attack on Titan …
Switch First Impressions + Paleo-Switch Update
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/18/18 at 03:58 PM CT
While the Nintendo Switch officially launched in March 2017, we here at MeltedJoystick were relatively dubious and on-the-fence about Nintendo’s latest platform until late Summer/early Autumn when the library started to flesh out. I received a Switch as a Yule gift in 2017, and spent the better part of two months putting it through its paces with a pair of games I was really excited about – one first-party and one by a “AAA” third-party. Let’s take a look at how the Switch fared via some tabulations of Pros and Cons!
The Hardware
Pros
+The Joycons with Grips are really nice controllers when used as a pair
+Joycon batteries last roughly a week on a single charge
+HD Rumble and Motion Controls work really well
+Impressive performance for smartphone-based hardware
Cons
-The Joycons with Grips are really garbage controllers when used individually for multi-player
-The asymmetrical layout of the Joycons places the right analog stick too low for comfort
-There’s …
Top 10 Worthwhile Remakes
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/11/18 at 03:43 PM CT
Lately I’ve been pounding the drum pretty hard against all the ports, remasters, and thinly-veiled remakes hitting modern consoles. With all this old stuff being sold as new stuff, it makes me question why anyone should bother with the new platforms at all, if the only thing we’re getting out of them is the ability to re-purchase our extant games libraries.
However, throughout the 40+ years of videogame history, there have actually been a number of worthy remakes that did something more than try to fish for a few extra bucks in the fans’ pockets. These incredible ravamps of older, often-beloved titles, went the extra mile to improve the rough edges and iron over the flaws that sullied their original versions, creating truly definitive experiences.
10. “Super Mario Advance” (Game Boy Advance)
“Super Mario Advance” didn’t do a whole lot to mess with the gameplay mechanics of the original NES “Super Mario Bros. 2 USA,” so it’s fairly low on the list. …
Too Expensive/Big to Make/Fail.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/04/18 at 03:09 PM CT
The folks at the Extra Credits Youtube channel are at it again. They’ve already established that they know jack-squat about RPGs or difficult games, but now they’re beating the establishment drum that new retail games shouldn’t cost $60 anymore: They should cost MORE.
According to Extra Credits, “supplementary income systems” – that is, game publishers trying to milk more dollars out of their customers post-purchase – are just a thing we’re going to have to live with. Developers have to eat, after all, and bla bla bla, platitude platitude.
The fact that big corporate “AAA” game publishers are constantly looking for new revenue streams has nothing, in fact, to do with the so-called “fact” that games are “too expensive” to make, and everything to do with the fact that the “AAA” publishers we’re talking about are Western, and primarily American, and are thus trapped within the growth-obsessed, bubble-based flavor of Capitalism that has been …
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