Dookysharpgun

@ihateyouron: We can start with Metroid, that has long since been abandoned when Other M failed to meet anyone's expectations. Mario has started to grind on people to an extent that the promise of a new game in the series isn't enough to guarantee sales. Zelda has devolved into using art styles to try and garner some fan favour, to such an extent that they decided to re-release Wind Waker on the WiiU to try and salvage the console. NSMB was a rush job of reused assets, music and models, to the point that it really felt like Nintendo were insulting their fanbase. They needed a quick fix for the WiiU, and it didn't work. We can't forget that, thanks to Nintendo, Fire Emblem nearly died as a series, with Awakening being put in the limelight because of the 3DS and its pretty terrible library. Imagine if the console had been even mildly successful at launch? Awakening would have been another great game that got shunted to the side because of some archaic thinking (from what I can see) from Nintendo.

My issue with that 'Nintendo hate bandwagon' is that...well it simply puts anyone with any real grievance with Nintendo as a company into a box that people can label and ignore. I was a massive Nintendo fan for most of my life, but I eventually seen that what they were doing was more damaging to their brands than helpful. People want to ignore criticism of Nintendo, I've seen it time and time again, but really, a majority of the dissenting opinions are people looking for the company they loved to grow and adapt. What, exactly, is wrong with that? Hell, an argument on this thread is that mobile games will steal the kids away from Nintendo handhelds...by comparison, what I'm saying is actually logical and not hate-filled at all. Their IPs are scattered and scarce, so much so that they haven't bothered with a new Star Fox game, instead re-releasing a pretty piss-poor remake of an older game that clocked three hours and wasn't worth the asking price for the 3DS. Sure, they're saying that they're coming up with new IPs now, but that's far too late in the game when you see the way they've treated Kirby, Metroid, Star Fox and Zelda. They've used Mario as their go-to mascot, and it's starting to wear thin.

I don't hate Nintendo, I find it sad that they've ended up in the state they're in. I mean, for god's sake, they can't even manage a proper launch schedule for their exclusive games anymore, the HD Zelda isn't on the horizon for a long while yet, and if it's more of the same, it'll just be another nail in the coffin, they've got maybe five or six games to release between now and Christmas, but at that point the console has been out a year...again, it's too late. I've seen this with the Gamecube, the Wii and the DS...they have all of these fantastic ideas and no knowledge of how to utilise them. They forget that on any console, you need games, and even more to the point, you need games to come out at a steady and reliable rate. Plenty of people have jumped ship on Nintendo, the casual market sees the WiiU as another Wii, it's a disaster, and they only have themselves to blame. At some point, the same thing over and over again won't interest people.

However, I feel like this will just descend into the usual shit-slinging that I'm accustomed to on any forum involving Nintendo, judging by a few of the prior comments, it's already started, so I'm going to cut my losses and leave this, I can't stomach yet another debate on this crap. Thank you for at least having the common decency to have a conversation with me though, I won't subject myself to the vitriol that comes with other people missing the point of what I'm saying and simply coming in with bull-headed opinions and no room in their head for other people's ideas. Again, thank you, but this is Giantbomb, and I know when to leave these debates.

@jasonleeson: I think if they stick to handhelds but cut the gimmick BS, given how it's usually shite and pointless, and focus on games, they have a better chance of survival. What they need to do is cut the old guard loose, Iwata and Miyamoto and the like need to retire, because they're not with the times, and in their hubris, they've done more harm than good. Mario and Zelda need to change, Metroid needs love and Fire Emblem needs carefully crafted games for the future to keep the IP fresh.

@jasonleeson: True, I've said that many a time that Nintendo don't really make unique games anymore, because they never made unique games to begin with, the Indie scene is encroaching hard on their territory with cheaper, better games. However, they'll still scrap and fight to survive, it's what Nintendo do, they'll probably be more conservative and need to drop the price of their handheld games, because forty-five plus quid is ridiculous for a handheld game, but they'll survive. Hopefully it'll lead to them learning though, and making better games for it. I'm being highly optimistic given that in a little over thirty years, they've driven most of their games into the ground, or fucked them up royally.

@jasonleeson: This is true, but the recent story about Iwata saying that Nintendo won't go third party leads me to believe that even in a growing a changing handheld market, they'll still have their exclusives to keep them afloat. I mean, look at what the shitty sales of the 3DS did for Fire Emblem: Awakening; that series was dead, they were straight up finished with it, but one console that had no games and bam, millions on units sold. Granted that took a price drop too, but other than being a more powerful version of a DS with 3D (that I can't use) it was necessary. My point being that yes, Nintendo will be in a major conflict in the handheld market, but they have namebrand games and a history of more successful handhelds than home consoles. They'll dominate with Pokemon alone, everything else they release will just be icing on the cake.

@ihateyouron: You get the good end of the deal so, most of the time, especially with that sweet Fire Emblem and SMT deal they have going on at the moment...a deal I can't avail of because Atlus is acting the bollox. I would like Nintendo to take a more hands-on approach with their third party products, even a little extra funding or some translators would be nice to see funneled into third party developers. I think Nintendo will become more Indie friendly with the WiiU, given that it'll then have a larger library of games that will fill the space left by their own lack of first party titles. It's the only way to go, and it would garner interest in the long run.

@ihateyouron: my point was exactly that: Nintendo need a more hands-on approach when dealing with third-party titles that have already garnered great interest. And since the games are only coming to their console, I don't see why they can't put a boot to an arse and actually given Europe some games for a console people actually want. As opposed to the WiiU, which in this territory is floundering and near death. Atlus have a shitty track record, but Nintendo gave the go-ahead, and the blame rests on their shoulders if they can't control what few third party developers are still willing to publish on any of their consoles. They could even work closely with them and give them the support they need so that the 3DS would actually have some interesting titles in this territory, but as it stands, this isn't the case.

Let me put it this way: every day after the US launch that a game hasn't come out in Europe, is another day that interest wains. I find myself not as interested in Shin Megami Tensei or Etrian Odyssey as the unrealistic time between releases gets larger. Hell, SMT doesn't have a freaking set date for release in Europe anymore, it's been taken off most online European game stores for the last two weeks. The point is, Nintendo are allowing developers use of their consoles, but show no interest after that, nor support. The Indie scene had the same problem with WiiWare and the like, and it's up to Nintendo to fix this problem. The 3DS is their best chance at gaining money back from the WiiU losses...they shouldn't squander that when they know who they're in bed with. After all, the list isn't that big to begin with.

It seems like, since you're suffering from depression, she wasn't being any help at all, and added fuel to the fire. You have every right to react that way, everyone and their mother knows that when it comes to depression, it's not about them, it's about the person who feels that way. And if everyone and their mother doesn't know, then they should be told. She was in the wrong, believe it or not, for offering up a suggestion without actually listening to you. Even worse, it was a blanket suggestion that doesn't actually take into account anything that you say. My advice would be to find a good friend who'll listen to you, that's the key.

As for me? Letting all that anger and rage out is the healthiest thing I can do. Bottling it up only leads to more problems and everyone is allowed to be open and honest about how they feel. Even if that involves shouting. Which I have done. Though not much. I prefer the slightly dulled and aggressive tone that really forces someone to listen.

It's funny to read through the first couple of posts on this thread, then come along to today's posts and see how much of the optimism has been pretty heavily rendered null and void. The WiiU has had a horrible run, mostly due to the fact that it doesn't exactly appeal to anyone who a) bought a Wii because it was the most active-body console out there, or b) felt burned by Nintendo after the Wii was devoid of any worthwhile content after the first year and a half after launch.

In five years though? I'd say Nintendo will be dropping home consoles, and focusing on the handheld market. The 3DS is a good, solid handheld system that is accessible and has promise, but they need to learn how to release games in Europe faster, because I've yet to see Shin Megami Tensei IV or Etrian Odyssey be released here...those long delays shouldn't be a thing in this day and age. While people might defer to sales numbers and say 160,000 isn't bad, the issue with that is the same as the main rebuttal against the Wii: how many of those consoles are actually being used. I've heard that many of them just sit there due to a lack of games, and Nintendo's release schedule, as it has been since the DS and the Wii, has been an utter barren disaster. Pikmin 3 won't make people drop 300+ on a console, neither will Bayonetta 2, and the growing pool of third party devs jumping ship on something they had claimed they were 'excited for' is staggering. Iwata recently talked about the 'long-term' plans of Nintendo...Nintendo have no long-term plans. They have hubris, enough self-confidence to fool a room into thinking they aren't freaking out, but given how quickly and completely the home console market will smother the WiiU in a few more months, a slight turnaround isn't going to save them now. They'll survive for sure, claw their way out of the rubble and continue to plug away and make massive bank with the handheld gaming systems, but they'll not recover from the thrashing the WiiU has gotten, not in this market.

I judge the fuck out of them, mostly due to the fact that they're idiots and they're doing irreparable damage to their bodies. Plus, steroids fuck up your hormones, from what I remember, and can make you hyper aggressive or downright crazy...so someone with piles of muscle and piles of testosterone-driven aggression does not make a great combination.

I think it's pointless to want such huge muscles, as eventually you won't be able to do anything with them, given that they'll limit your movement due to their size. I'll stick with normal, human-grown muscles that I develop through hard work, instead of being some muscle-bound creature akin to a talking rock more than a human being.

While I managed to get Flamelurker stuck behind something, then chipped away at him until he died, I understand completely why you gave up. The game is maddeningly inconsistent when it comes to bosses and enemies, having some of the bosses seem like a cakewalk compared to Black Phantoms or even newer enemy types. The level progression is muck, you'd need a guide to get through it since it works in the least linear way possible. Combat is shit. Simple as. Stunning or knockbacks are serious issues in the game, for you, not the enemy. The dodge mechanic is borked. Some Phantoms, like the Meat Cleaver fucker, are annoyingly powerful, and some enemies can hit you even if you evade because they simply lock to your pathing.

Overall, it's a broken game that started out great but couldn't keep the mechanics tight enough to make the rest of the game worth playing. It's not a hard game, the mechanics are just set up to rail against you any chance possible...which isn't difficulty, it's just boring.