RurouniGeo

I'll be waiting for someone more video savvy than I to make a real classic Giant Bomb send off video with this song but since no one else has posted it I will link it here.

Thanks for everything Dan. As Weird Al said sometimes: Dare to be stupid!

Though to be perfectly honest Dan may be secretly the smartest of all... :)

@lyisa:

It is a dating sim though. On it's base level once you take away the whimsy, and jokes, and d'aw moments it is it shallow and objectifying because the purpose of these characters are to either be sought after or rejected by you. They serve no other purpose. They don't help you in combat. They aren't enemies or allies. thats the nature of the genre. I'm pretty sure If I took the time to go through every dating sim ever made on the Visual Novel database I would find many that does every bit of sweet world/neighborhood building, soft hearted humor, and character development and then it could still devolve into an X-rated orgy because it's a dating sim.

The only thing that gives Dream Daddy any separation is the writing and plot elements with your daughter. But that wasn't the argument for Dream Daddy or against Nier. The argument against Nier wasn't that it didn't have heart or a meaningful relationship in it. And it's pretty hard to argue character and story things that when you traded in a game less than 10 hours after starting it. Like Abby spent the majority of the year hearing Alex, Austin and Danica at Waypoint and others go on and on about how amazing the game is and how it's on top 10 lists since February and you only play 8 hours of it over 10 months? I can understand not doing route B or beyond but to have so many assumptions about a game you barely played is just kinda bad.

You talked about power and agency but aside from the more aggressive dream daddy characters what agency does a character in a dating sim have? They get picked or they don't. You don't discover a character makes a sweet mancave in their spare time if you spend the entire game never talking to them.

As for the achievement thing...correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember The Sims 3 having an achievement for when your sims relationship status with another sim gets high enough and you have sex you unlock and achievement. I gotta wonder if that was a big deal for Abby and made her stop playing Sims. Isn't that a gross achievement?

Oh wait we just had a quicklook in November for an expansion! Apparently that wasn't a big deal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ok we all agree Nintendo has made some huge mistakes but there are two things I cannot agree with:

1. Nintendo leaving the console market

2. Iwata being canned.

1. Let's clarify something. Sony did not make BREAK EVEN AND TURN A PROFIT on console sales for the PS3 until roughly 4 years into the systems life. And lets also remember that currently the PS3 has outsold the Xbox 360 and "won" 2nd place behind the Wii last generation. Yes the console that many in this thread have praised for doing everything right and "innovating" finished dead last. Its successor at the moment is also last behind both the PS4 and Wii U and in all likelihood will remain as such for the remaining ~2 months of the fiscal year.

So Nintendo can more than handle a few slow years. Have you all forgotten that the DS, Wii and now 3DS literally printed and print money for Nintendo? Nintendo's R & D Division is amazing and is only limited by what the men at the top want them to make. Remember that Vitality sensor mentioned at E3 2010? It tracks your vitals and heart rate which can be used to program events occurring in games based on your feelings.

What if I told you we could be living in a world where the Wii U is the PREMIER HORROR GAME CONSOLE? We could all be watcing Patrick Klepek crap himself playing the Wii U in spooking with scoops. If nintendo decided to say screw it and include one with every console and released an HD version of Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and with the help of the vit sensor make the most fearful experience in video game history so far? What if EA saw and said hey we have to make Dead Space on this there by leading EA to actually develop for the thing.

Wouldn't that give the Wii U the image of being a serious console for serious gamers and fix the biggest problems with the system: It's public perception with younger gamers and its lack of 3rd party support.

But we don't have that. It's not R &D's fault. They make cool stuff that never even gets to see the light of day. Nintendo is so scared of making another Virtual Boy but yet feel brave enough to release the Wii U like they did and with the tech it has. It just doesn't make sense sometimes.

The point is Nintendo has tricks up its sleeve. They should stay in the console market because what R&D produces is unique and 9 times out of 10 it is something fun. 5 years from now Nintendo could release the Otama Gamesphere and every man woman and child could go insane for it. So don't throw in the towel.

2. Why is everyone calling for Iwata's head when an equally large portion of the blame is on Reggie Fils-Aime. Yeah. That's right. The regginator is the man who's head should come off for this. I invite you to read his favorite book Blue Ocean Strategy. Notice anything? How the entire last decade of what Nintendo has done worldwide is Reggie's strategy and what Reggie believes in? Reggie has been the one to misjudge the American market. Reggie has been the one pushing for certain strategies .

Yes Iwata is the man at the top but I'd be hard pressed not to blame Reggie for how Nintendo has evolved over the last decade. Reggie is the great communicator of Nintendo. He's the one that brushes aside the wants and demands of gamers and refuses to stray from his strategy. Who's outright lied before. He's the one that constantly tells hardcore gamers they aren't important. He's the one who at the end of the day squandered his and Nintendo's good standing with hardcore gamers (and I love Reggie. I really do. I have the Wii launch shirt with Reggie in a bruce lee pose that is of very limited quantity that I wore proudly) and damaged the Nintendo name. Nintendo has strung people along for far too many years with promises. I mean can anyone mention anything good that Nintendo of America has done in a while?

It is time for Reggie to go. I fell for his shtick. I believed in him and that he would take care of the company that brought me so many hours of joy as a kid. I stuck up for him over the years. But I can't do it anymore. Nintendo cannot do this anymore. There are good people who aren't tone deaf that can take his place out there. If Nintendo is going to restructure it must start with Nintendo of America and Reggie.

Anyone else think of Mario Party when they read this article title?

@insanejedi: I'll just leave this here for you. Might blow your mind to know that alot of the people that work for the NRA don't believe what they sell.

"I've got a bad feeling about this Fox." (Nintendo is next.)

gravity cat is not amused.

@boocreepyfootdoctor: well said sir.

Great article Alex. If anything this is the after death incarnation of arcades where they become something different like a chuck e. cheese before they finally disappear. we'll see just how long this thing lasts but i dont think it will last for long.

Also next level in NYC is godlike. They just got 2 new arcade cabinets for street fighter 2 & they're getting the internal boards for all the SNK and Sega games too to give a wide selection of games to play that will be switched out every now & then.

Edit: That no good fighting games thing out said by the new owner is complete BS. Yes Street Fighter X Tekken isnt that good but the scope & depth of different fighting games out there hasnt been this good since the mid 90's. That's very troublesome to hear & shows the new management is out of touch with the scene its trying to get to come back.

I'll believe it when the new smash bros plays like a fighting game and when there's a more obscure franchise like Fire Emblem or Phoenix Wright that starts getting all of its games coming to American Shores. Also how about launch titles that actually interest core gamers. You know what I got at the Wii's launch?

Wii sports. My pre-order location ran out of copies of Twilight Princess & i didn't get it until a few days later. To this day I've never played again or gotten past the first dungeon. I did get games like No More Heroes and after begging Nintendo for a year Xenoblade too and I've enjoyed both but I shouldnt have to beg Nintendo to get popular games in Japan & Europe to come to the US as well.

They don't even really advertise for these essentially blockbuster games for core gamers. Anyone saw any ads for Xenoblade? How many times have you seen that Kid Icarus Uprising commerical these last few months? I invite you to go to Nintendo of America's twitter as well. They push shovelware everyday. Where's the news on real games? Nope let's take a look at the tweets. They are about Wii Fit Plus, eShop, Mii's whateve Mario game is coming out and thats it.

Until they take online play and publishing seriously (for the record there is no excuse for allowing 50 shovelware party games on Nintendo systems a year but being too lazy to localize or bring over from Europe several incredible gaming experiences) then they will always have the "casual" branding on their systems.

I dont need an insanely powerful system from Nintendo. I just need the freedom to buy and play what I want without the restrictions of their aloofness to hardcore games or a subpar online infrastructure & player's online experience. It's nice that the release of the genesis Street Fighter II has online play...but where was that a year or two after launch?