Hip to be Cubed
- August 24, 2000 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. Cube just sounds cool.
Don't say we
didn't warn you.
Today I'm gonna try to write this intro not with words, but with
pictures. First off, before somebody else beats me to the look-alike:
 
And last, but definately not least:
Eat your heart out, Metal Gear Solid 2. There's a new 3D adventure
game in my life.
Onward.
| To dream the impossible
dream |
| Hmmmmmm...
Able to be used as a controller and have PDA qualities for the Game
Cube you say? Silent Hill to have FMV intro and by the looks of things a
true Japanese Castlevania you say? And pretty much having the capabilities
of an SNES plus much more?
....
What's not going to keep me and millions of others from buying this
beautiful Turquoise wonder?!!?!?!!?!?!
Seriously though, by the looks of things Nintendo has finally done a couple
of things right for a change and for once it dosen't involve Pokemon as a
star attraction. And from judging from the preliminary screens of the Game
Cube, Nintendo might have a chance of getting back into this one man, er,
Playstation race. I for one couldn't be happier.
And what do I want to see at SpaceWorld????????????
Square, Square, Square, Square, Square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like that will ever happen. But hey we can always dream can't we????
Lates,
Ervan |
Nintendo really is doing an awful of things right this time around, and
short of bringing in the Big Polygon, I'm not sure what else they could really
be
doing. (Well, there's the truly poor decision regarding the storage media, but
I'll
get into that later.) There's a very strong nostalgia factor at work here, among
other things, with old games we haven't seen in years showing up out of
nowhere - in a way, it reminds me of the glory days for Nintendo, when success
with the NES spilled over to the GameBoy and SNES. The world is different now,
and I doubt anyone will ever so completely dominate the market as Nintendo
did, but I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. Big N may really have a shot
this time around.
| Lies, damned lies, and spin
control |
| this game cube thing looks really nifty, and i can't
wait
until it comes out. looks like nintendo has learned from some of their past
mistakes, yet they still seem to turn every official publication into blatant
propaganda. now, i understand that this isn't uncommon, but i think they're
going a little overboard. look at this quote from nintendo.com (http://www.nintendo.com/sp
aceworld/ngc.html to be specific):
"The Nintendo 64 was a highly advanced piece of hardware. However,
because it had such superior capabilities, developers probably felt as if it was
a
"challenge" for them to produce for it. Because of this, along with complicating
software development, N64 gained a reputation of being a difficult system on
which to develop games.
Additionally, in response to the demand for new types of entertainment
from users in the game trade, the scale of games became larger, and frequently
special adjustments to software had to be made. This came back to haunt the
developers in the form of development costs and it would not be an
exaggeration to say that it made software development more challenging.
This type of problem, if not solved, could have a dramatic effect on the
succeess of the game business. "
yep. the nintendo 64 failed because it was TOO GOOD a system. not
because it had an archaic form of information storage, a poor launch(they had
mario..and..uh...pilotwings?), a kiddy mindset(although i'll admit this began to
change, notably with goldeneye), the cancellation of necessary peripherals(the
64DD could have cancelled out most problems caused by cartride storage and
made it a semi-decent platform for RPGs), or stronge competition. no, the n64
sucked because it was too good. it made square, tri-ace, working designs, and
other "high quality" companies cower with fear at the complex programming
necessary to tame the behemoth. those pansies.
oh, those zelda and metroid screenshots look like fmv. i want a
gamecube. badly. only problem i see with it is that you plug the modem on the
bottom, and as that's smaller than the system itself, it might fall over or
something when you're playing, which'd prolly screw up the disc spinning.
-Masamune
|
That's very impressive - whoever wrote that very skilful piece of
misinformation deserves a raise, I think. The fact is, unless you were paying
close
attention to what actually sunk the N64, you might actually buy that load. I
also
wouldn't be surprised to see actual Nintendo corporate offices start quoting
that
as the party line, especially if the Cube is successful: "We were just too much
for
those simple-minded developers who left us."
As for the physical stability, a lot will depend on how hefty the
system
is. If it's as light as Nintendo's other consoles the higher center of mass
could be
a problem, but if feels as solid as I imagine it will, tipping over won't be a
problem.
| You want FMV with that
ending? |
| Yo Chris,
I'm on the cusp of defeating Chrono Cross, and I've got a question...it's
about the ending, but it's not a spoiler or anything. Do you know if there
are CG sequences for each ending, or is it just the game engine? I know you
haven't beaten it yet (unless you've played it straight since yesterday's
column) but I'm sure someone else there knows....
--The Steve
|
And the answer is... yes. At least some of the main endings do, the new
game+ endings are more questionable.
| Like
Buttah... |
| A new 2D Castlevania. A Zelda game that looks better
than MGS2. The triumphant
return of Samus Aran. Nintendo's got two superb systems on its hands.
--Imad "(e)magius" Hussain |
It's also worth pointing out that this is the first time Nintendo's
released
two systems back-to-back, with the intention of leveraging one off the other.
This is important, because we'll probably see more console/portable hybrid
games than ever before, and anyone who only has one of the systems will have
an incentive to get the other. I'd think games would have to advance past the
"Chocobo World" stage to make this really interesting, but between Miyamoto
and Rare I'm sure we'll see something interesting.
| Enix: laughing all the way
to the bank |
| Hmmm ok so you think the GBA might have a tough time
against other up and
coming PDAs, that DQ7 is going to outsell FF9 in Japan, and that menus in
turn based RPGs suck (or at the very least aren't all that great) AND your a
computer engineer? Something is fishy here...
Now that I've totally insulted your intelligence look at this.
What is up with that? I know DQ is
immensely popular over there but can one game really have so much of an
effect as to save, or at the very least give a big boost to the Japanese
economy?
P.S. The first paragraph was meant more as a poke then anything else so
don't take too much offense ok? :)
P.P.S. It could have been worse, I could have sent you major CC spoilers
:D
P.P.P.S. As of 3.45 AM using IE 5.0 the right menu bar that features among
other things one the links to the letters column along with the current
topic of the column was not there at all. New site design or did someone
screw up?
Pendy, Maintainer of the Dragon Quest Dragon Warrior News Network, who
sort
of realizes this letter was kind of immature but doesn't care at this point
|
Well, whatever you might say about me, I don't get "your" and "you're"
confused. You also mixed up DQ7 and FFXI in your first statement, sport.
If the figures in that article are correct, I'm officially impressed:
50
billion yen, going by a simple "100 yen == 1 dollar" conversion, comes out to
about 500 million bucks. That's more tickets than Titanic sold in the US,
coming from a country about three times smaller. The "save" in the article is
probably just hyperbole, but 500 million is still pretty impressive. Then
there's
the question of what's more important - the economic impact of the game, or
the cultural impact of what the game actually contains? 3 million copies of
anything is bound to do something to a society, one way or another.
It's a rare occurrence, but it's possible you hit the site right as the
index was being updated with new material. The navigation bar on the right is
actually at the bottom of the HTML document, so if you only get part of the
index it doesn't show up. If you've got caching enabled on your browser, it's
possible you'd keep seeing that incomplete index, even though it was likely
complete seconds later on the server. Just hit refresh - it looks fine to me
now.
End of CS lesson.
| Even the insane get their
turn
to talk in DA |
| Chris, you silly bastard.
You HAD to bring Wild Arms into your Chrono Cross rants yesterday, didn't
ya. Don't you know that's a terrible mistake? Wild Arms is my favorite game of
all
time. And you don't be sarcastic when you mention it. And it's CECILIA, not
CELIA. And she doesn't wiggle her butt. She spins and lifts her magical rod in
the
air. =)
Anyway, on to some gaming comments, pertaining to Chrono Cross. What's
the big deal with this game anyway? I beat it months ago (the Japanese version)
and I didn't think it was that great. It was good, but games like Wild Arms and
Tales of Destiny kick its ass. It's like the whole Final Fantasy VII/VIII craze.
We all
know those games blew, yet people loved them because they are Final Fantasy
games, they are popular with the mainstream, and they don't want to get
ridiculed. So there we go. It's the same with Chrono Cross, 'cept Chrono Cross
is
actually good, just not as good as you say it is. (an 11? Please.) Anyway Chris,
please be a good little boy and print this. Thanks!
-Colin "QuickMan" Moriarty |
Pointless piece of game trivia: in the original WA, every 10 or 20
battles
or so Cecilia would do a bizarre little boogie at the end of the fight. If you
pushed through the gold/exp gained messages as fast as possible, you might
not have seen it, but it was there. That's what I was referring to.
I haven't played Chrono Cross yet (tomorrow night, with a little luck)
so what you're saying could be true, although it would effectively mean the end
of the world as I know it. Still, it's probably good to put up a CC rant just
for
completeness' sake.
| You just don't see it, do
you? |
| The Game Boy Advance: how wonderful that they come
out with it
right as I'm about to purchase my first console system. What will it
see? Crappy, crappy ports of Star Cube (Or whatever) and PS2 games,
just like its predecessors suffered.
And as for the specs, I can't get all that excited about a
system with such a crappy display. I mean, that was the SINGLE MOST
IMPORTANT ASPECT of this handheld. The part that makes or breaks it.
I really don't see how I could stand anything with a smaller
resolution than the SNES, handheld or not. The whole coolness was the
idea that maybe we would see some remakes of classic SNES games, but
that's out the window now.
I wouldn't have minded using four AA batteries or something is
they'd doubles the resolution on this bad boy. What good's a 32-bit
handheld if the 2D graphics look like the NES?
|
The NES had poorer resolution than the SNES, as did the original Game
Boy, and both did pretty well, near as I can tell. That said, I tend to agree
with
you that a system's display really should be paramount, although we're probably
in the minority on this one. The little kids who are the GBAs primary audience
likely think nothing of destroying their eyes peering at a tiny, blurry screen
(I
know I didn't, at that age) and as long as that fact holds true, Nintendo's got
no
reason not to cut corners and give us a relatively lousy display.
And don't count the GBA's display out yet - not until you see what
Silent Hill's "FMV" intro looks like, at any rate.
| There's the right format,
the
wrong format, and the Nintendo format... |
| Hey Chris,
Nintendo Game Cube! Seems more like a souped up N64DD to me. Please,
tell me that those were mock-ups, because that has got to be the ugliest
console I`ve ever seen. Come to think of it, the GBA looks pretty dull as well.
Regardless, it`s the games that matter. A console could look like a pregnant
cow, freeze-dried and shrink-wrapped and people would buy it if the games
were good.
What I want to know is what is your opinion of the Big N`s obstinate
reluctance to embrace a non-proprietary storage format? This means that people
won`t be buying it to play DVDs. What`s that you say? It`s a games console.
Tell that to the millions of Japanese -and Americans come October- who bought
a PS2 for it`s DVD capabilities, and will subsequently be media-blitzed into
picking up a couple of games as well. The unscrupulous amongst us are going to
crack whatever format is adopted sooner or later, Nintendo is merely trying
feebly to ensure that it`s later.
Alex
|
...which is like the wrong format, but more expensive.
I don't think the lack of a DVD player is gonna hurt the Cube as much
as you think - DVD players are becoming nearly as cheap and ubiquitous as CD
players these days, to the point where you'd be hard pressed not to pick
one up at your local Best Buy for $99. What is troubling about the Nintendo
storage system is that it's yet again a proprietary format, undoubtedly with the
same horrid licensing and manufacturing fees that sunk the N64. Nintendo needs
to get it through their heads that the NES days are over - developers won't
gladly bend over and pay a large chunk of cash to Nintendo to have their games
stamped out by the big N, when they can pay much less to Sony and have them
put on regular old CDs and DVDs.
There's also the issue of how well a mere 1.5 gigs is gonna play
against the PS2's 5+ gigs, tho I suppose that after the N64 any kind of disc
storage medium is gonna seem like paradise to developers.
| Craptacular |
| Uh, Nintendo? Nice system and all, but your controller
looks like something
Mad Catz left in the litter box.
SonicPanda
|
And thank you so much for that lovely image, SP.
Closing Comments:
Good stuff coming out of Space World today, folks. In fact, it's so good
and so much classic Nintendo that it makes me wonder - how much is it worth
to you to have classic Nintendo franchises updated to the next level? At this
stage, do we really need a Mario game, or will any cunningly designed
platformer do? I know I've got a soft spot for Metroid, but frankly my heart no
longer beats for Zelda the way it once did. Let's hear what you've got to say,
on
that or on the Game Cube in general. See you tomorrow.
-Chris Jones, fond of six-sided shapes |
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