The Nintendo DS & GBA thread

[mikeszekely]

Here's something goofy from Nintendo's official forums:

You are not permitted to share your NWC id or friend code on a post, in your profile, through PM, or in a sig. Please do not discuss other ways of sharing codes either.

This policy was created by Nintendo of America and we have been asked to follow these rules.

345937[/snapback]

"Okay, this is your friend code, so you can play online with your friends. But whatever you do, DON'T SHARE IT WITH ANYBODY."

I guess your friends are supposed to guess your code?

[yellowlightman]

I got a chance to play a little Mario Kart DS last night, as a couple of my friends have it. I was really impressed by how good it looks on the DS, and although I'm not a big Mario Kart fan it seems to be a pretty cool game.

I just hope they improve the online functionality in future DS games, tas I've heard Mario Kart's is rather clunky.

[Radd]

By my understanding, the online functionality was a last minute addition, and a lot had to be sacrificed to get the game out the door in time. Other than that, though, 'clunky' isn't really the term to describe it. It's actually about the most simplistic online system around.

What it's lacking is things like chat rooms to set up games, or the ability to specifically choose opponents in races. If you have people on your friends list, and they have you, if you're both available then you're likely to wind up in a game together, but you can't really set things up more than that.

[Radd]

Did anyone else see this?

http://joystiq.com/entry/1234000563069679/

Apparently Target made a typo in their latest catalogue, stating the price of the Nintendo DS being $99, and they plan to honour that price if you bring in a copy of the catalog. Supposedly they also honoured the price if you brought in a screenshot from the website, however, the DS itself seems to have been removed as I can't find it anywhere on their site.

[mikeszekely]

Okay, I know a lot of you just aren't going to care, but me, I can hardly frickin' contain myself.

Rockman ZX

Rockman (Megaman outside of Japan) has always been my favorite. While not a fan of the Legends series or the Battle Network games, I grew up on classic Megaman (I even went so far as to return a copy of Dragon Warrior IV I got for Christmas to get Megaman 5), I love Megaman X, and the Megaman Zero games could possibly be my favorites. Without giving too much away, Megaman Zero 4 ending with an air of finality, and I'd been wondering what Capcom was going to do next. The answer, apparently, is Rockman ZX. At this point, not a lot is known about this new series. The art style and gameplay appear VERY similar to the Zero series. The story seems to revolve around a boy (Van) and a girl (Eile), who find something called Live Metals from some old ruins. They use the Live Metal Model X to transform into... well, looks like a Zero-series style Megaman X. There's also another unnamed character who uses the Model Z to transform into what would obviously be the Zero of the series.

Rockman ZX is for the Nintendo DS. No release date yet.

[Hikuro]

That's kind of interesting, power ranger like abilities in my opinion, change into X or Zero's style of combat armor.

Personally I'm a large fan of Megaman, specifically the X series as its dark and endless espically dying to see how X will finally end if it ever will and evolve into what the Zero series turns too. I even purchased the X collection the other day, loving it to death. I KNEW that the first game was made in the early 90's, someone told me "No it was 96." I'll spat at him next time I see him.

I really tried to live with the DS, but there just weren't much of any games I really wanted to dive into that I couldn't already do with a GBA....so I got rid of my mint conditioned (cause I hardly ever used it) blue DS and got a silver GBA with the increased brightness screening, loving it.

However, if I do find that catalog from Target I may snatch another one, just incase something comes up.

I think, one of the reasons I never really liked the DS was that I never had anyone I could play with online who had the same games as me....I'm pretty picky.

[David Hingtgen]

I still find it odd that despite liking the X series far more than the "regular" series, and liking Zero 1,000x more than X, I never got into MM Zero at all. (and I play Zero exclusively whenenever possible in the X games) The GBA Zero Just didn't "click" with me, game-play-wise. (Also found it hard and frustrating, and I mean I played Battletoads, so I have a pretty high tolerance for playing 2D over and over and over again to get it right) Planned to get MM X collection today but it seems a lot of distributors had shipping problems (there's lots of GC-only or PS2-only shipments going out it seems)

[Hikuro]

I had zero issues getting it for the PS2 since I dislike the lamecube *cough*.

Course they did give me looks when I mentioned wanting X collection then they kept pestering me if I wanted to see a list of games to preorder. I told them nope, next game I want got pushed back to the end of the month and I'm deciding if I should just get it imported or not if it gets pushed back again. When they asked I told 'em it was X for the PSP......I got looks again.

[Noyhauser]

to be honest, I find gamecube as being one of the most underated systems out there. PS-2 really is a single player or 2 player system in my mind. Its a bit antisocial, most of the games tend to engross you in the game, in exclusion of anything else. Personally, after playing games for 20 years, I'm starting to realize what a waste of time it is essentially living in someone else's fantasy world.

Gamecube (64 before it) was stellar because they weren't great single player platforms, but because they enhanced social situations through good simple fun. The best time I've ever had playing a console is with 4 good friends a flat of beer and goldeneye. I spent this last new years with 8 friends playing super mario strikers, having a great time of it. I can't recall a single spectacular time playing a single player game on ps2, computer ect, but I can remember some of the best times I recall are with playing some multiplayer nintendo game. You can even get girls who would normally never touch a ps2 into a gamecube game no problem, and thats what Nintendo is amazing at, accessable fun gameplay. I think thats been somewhat lacking in other consoles, and competely un-appreciated.

You might disaree with that, but I've got completely different priorities now with how I enjoy games. Nintendo has for quite some time now pushed towards making games more fun without all the complexity and geekdom found in other systems. And I think that should be acknoweldged.

[SpacePirateNeko]

to be honest, I find gamecube as being one of the most underated systems out there. PS-2 really is a single player or 2 player system in my mind.  Its a bit antisocial, most of the games tend to engross you in the game, in exclusion of anything else. Personally, after playing  games for 20 years, I'm starting to realize what a waste of time it is essentially living in someone else's fantasy world.

360053[/snapback]

While i agree that the gamecube is very underated the next statement baffles me. Isnt this what you are doing everytime you go see a movie, read a good book or well... look at someone elses painting in a museaum that wasnt created by you. Its art, and games just do it on a more interactive level.

As for megaman i love the original and x but lately megaman makes no sense to me, it seems theres a new one every week and i dont like the newer 3d megamans or the pokemon gba megamans.

I also dont like how recent megamans including the new zx have taken on the digi/pokemon look in teh artwork.

[Hikuro]

Granted, I think Megaman has entered an odd state......I don't really mind EXE, I think its very creative, but after the first season things got weird, now Net can merge with Megaman.....

In the video games we find out Megaman was once Net's brothers but died due to an illness as a baby. I've only played thru the first game, I'm nearly done with the second, and I still got the third to go before I even consider buying 4 and 5....but yes they also pull the pokemon move, Red or Blue oh no!

I was dissapointed with the Gamecube version as well, it went into some of the old roots of the Megaman game play, but it just didn't come up top like the previous games did for me....I was pretty much let down.

Graphics wise for X now......agreed I haven't been too impressed for the gaming graphics, Cinema graphics aren't bad though....I really liked X7's Cinema graphics, but happy that Irregular Hunter X is going back to Cel Animation cinema BUT dissapointed they're using the same graphics engine as X8.

[mikeszekely]

I still find it odd that despite liking the X series far more than the "regular" series, and liking Zero 1,000x more than X,

See, I agree with you there (I was always wanting to play as someone else... Zero since he chased off Vile at the begining of X1, Protoman when you realize he might not be a villian at the end of Megaman 3..)...

I never got into MM Zero at all.

And that's where you lost me. MMZ is my favorite GBA series (Castlevania being my second). Yes, it was hard... but most of the Megaman games were hard. They only look easy when I play them because I play them CONSTANTLY, and have been ever since I was a child. The patterns are so completely programmed into my brain now, that I sometimes play better when I pay less attention to the game.

I'll tell you what, between the Anniversary Collection and the X Collection, the best moments of my youth are contained in two standard DVD cases...

As for megaman i love the original and x but lately megaman makes no sense to me, it seems theres a new one every week and i dont like the newer 3d megamans or the pokemon gba megamans.

Heh heh heh... SPOILERS

Megaman can be broken down into five (well now six) series.

Classic (mostly NES): The one that started it all, this is the series about Megaman defeating all the other "-man" robots so that he can stop Dr. Wily's insidious plot. Sadly, there hasn't been a true new game in this series since the PSone days.

X (SNES, PSX, and PS2): 100 years after Megaman, an archaelogist finds Megaman X, a new robot Dr. Light had designed with the ability to think and make it's own decisions. Said archaelogist sets about creating a new race of "Reploids" based on X's design. However, the Reploids begin to go "maverick," that is to say, evil and hell-bent on destroying the humans. This series has had some issues, mainly because Megaman creator meant to end it in X5, then again in X6 which should have set up Megaman Zero, but continuity be damned, three more Megaman X games were released anyway. Zero, we learn in this series (in between deaths), was built by Dr. Wily and may have been the source of the virus that makes Reploids go Maverick. At some point, he seals himself away...

Zero (GBA): ...and 100 years later, is reawakened by some resistance fighters. See, it seems that the Maverick wars lead into the Elf wars and the Earth was severely damaged. While Zero was out of the picture, X created a new Utopian society for humans called Neo Arcadia. The problem is, with limited resources, the Neo Arcadian government quickly turned facist, and Reploids that didn't fall in were labeled Maverick and terminated. We learn that the Neo Arcadian X is just a copy, because the real X is using his body to seal a dangerous technology known as the Dark Elf. However, a mysterious scientist, a human who has been kept alive by technology, is manipulating things behind the scenes (they don't say anything overt, but this guy is believed to be Dr. Wily) to get his revenge on everyone, human and Reploid alike. The Zero series seemed to end definitively in Zero 4, when Zero sacrificed himself to kill the scientist and destroy his doomsday weapon.

Legends (PSX): These were the 3D ones from the PSX. Despited the very different style (and the fact that the first one had a remarkably shallow story), Legends is actually part of the main Megaman timeline, set about 2000 years later. Not much to say, except that at some point, humans were wiped out and Reploids buried away... except somehow, humans were re-created, and somehow, they uncovered the remains of a robot race. Let's just call it like it is, they're Reploids!

Battle Network (GBA): A series that was meant to be a refreshing new take on Megaman but quickly wore itself thin trying to duplicate the Pokemon craze, this series has NOTHING to do with the other games. This gist of the series is that technology rules life, everything is connected to the net, and the only way to function is with a PET, a kind of device that plugs into other devices. PETs are run by a program called a Navi, a kind of intelligent avatar program. Characters from mainly the classic series, but with the occasional appearance of an X series character like Zero or Colnel, appear in a remixed form as Navis, and action takes place on the net.

And now we have RZ, which people are guessing takes place between Zero and Legends.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

The one thing I remember alot about X is how when you got the order down on how to kill the bosses in the quickest time possible, it became less replayable because there was no incentive to play the game creatively. Use the toughest weapon against the boss that is weak against that weapon, and like a puzzle you can own at the game without much more thought. Yeah it does require skill to find boss patterns and such but like a lot of 16 bit games once you knew the pattern it was easy. Once you came upon the most optimum way of defeating something and memorised it, there is no sense of danger through repeated play-throughs because the emphasis wasn't so much on mastering the "physics" of your character moves (like say in sonic the hedgehog) and honing skill that way, so much as knowing what to do and when to do it and then memorising.

Now contrast that to the ghouls n ghosts series where there is an element of danger no matter how much a veteren you were back in your prime, and you can see there is a different kind of "hard" to that series that I respect a lot about it.

If somehow they remade the megaman series to play more like a Treasure title, with lots of technique that you apply to normal fighting (not just against bosses) I would like the series more.

Is megaman Zero on gba really hard? I haven't played it but heard it was very challenging. I like that about the old games where you had to ration each man and learn as much as you could in a single play just to get that little bit further than you did in a previous attempt at trying to win. This is something that is missing from today's style of game where you continue how ever many times you want and are not punished for making small mistakes like in the ghouls n ghost games. That is to say: you knew the limits of your character's abilities to an exacting measure and it took skill and practice just to survive. You didn't expect to beat the game on early attempts but merely to get as far as your ability would allow and learn more and more each time until you were so good and had such high consistancy through all the intense training, that you would actually beat it in 1 credit due to so much time replaying the game through repeated attempts. A game with good character "physics" forces you to hone your skill so that when you don't practice for a long time, you're judgment gets worse as time goes on.

If it is a game that rewards your skill as a player reacting to onscreen dangers in real time through mastery of the character's movement physics, as opposed to just memorising what happens and knowing what to do at a certain point (like in X) then I'm into it. A game where even once you know too much about it, and the way a level is structured, that you are still challenged to be good at it by the level of danger in the game when your judgment and reaction time isn't up to snuff. Once I got too good at megaman X I didn't feel a sense of danger anymore and the rest of the game just felt 'flat'. My knowledge of the levels and enemy weakness and merely knowing what to do and where to be on the screen is what saved me more than skill.

This is why I distanced myself from the megaman games over time because I felt arcade games like metal slug offered more thrills. Bosses would become more threatening and quicker as they reached death and speed gradually got faster forcing you to pay attention and react "in concert" to the onscreen danger. It was harder to maintain consistant level of success due to this unpredictable enemy AI with multi-layers of patterns, which was more what I was looking for. Even IF an enemy telegraphed thier movement and you knew what the next move the boss was going to make based on his animation, you STILL needed basic good reaction speed to get out of danger in time, and deadly accurate control of your character because of the delicate spacing between you and the bullets onscreen, giving you sweaty palms and faster heartrate after defeating them, no matter HOW many times you fought them before. It is that unknown factor that keeps me thrilled and wanting to play more because the total victory is still uncertain even after many play-throughs. (I like playing lots of shoot em ups for this reason)

I mentioned that lack of movement physics took out some depth and enemies were dumb, (play alien hominid for an idea of good AI to know what I mean) but when you got to the boss it has a similar weakness to normal enemies. This is the other criticisms I have: some of the games didn't have the player react in concert to the boss they were fighting. The boss would attack you "blindly" as if you weren't there and you had to react to his pattern, but the boss would not have a counter measure to your evasive moves. This is what I mean by flat. It is that unpredictable "factor X" that was missing from some boss encounters that I didn't like. You couldn't trigger the boss to do the wrong move by being in a specific place at a specific time as a feint to make them miss you. It was more like: "wait for him to do this move, then you do that move." "If he does this move, be at this part of the screen when he does this". But the boss would always do that same thing each time so after a time you could predict exactly what he would do and it would get kind of boring if you got too good at reading the boss pattern as opposed to "reacting" on the spot to his attack; which was a specific move he used on you based on what YOU were doing. (similar to the AI in some of the old 80s and 90s walk-along beat-em-ups or fighting games where an enemy would react to you)

Edited January 14, 2006 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[David Hingtgen]

I never memorize patterns in a Megaman game (except X4 Sigma, only way I could win with Zero---easy with X, very tough with Zero). I just went through Megaman 5 two nights ago, and having played it very few times and not remembering weapons at all, I think I took out 6 of the 8 with the megabuster. It was fun---just jumping, dodging, and not simply obliterating the guy by having the right weapon at the right time.

X3 is somewhat like that---weapons are never very effective--it's more like the "right" weapon is the only one that does any damage at all. It will still take many hits and skill to defeat the boss.

[Hikuro]

A friend of mine was telling me that Irregular Hunter X is pretty good for a remake of the first X game, he loved the cinema sequences in the game he just wished he could understand the story since he doesn't know japanese.........that's why I told him to wait for the american release in 3 weeks.

[mikeszekely]

LowViz, I think what you're saying is more like comparing genres. While they have some platform elements, games like Metal Slug, Alien Hominid, and Ghouls N' Ghosts are more closely related to games like R-Type and Gradius, while the Megaman games are more closely related to Mario or Sonic. The shooters try to overwhelm you with a limited ammount of damage and a ridiculous ammount of enemies (and enemy fire) on screen at a time. The platformers are more about learning the layout of the level and the timing and patterns of enemies. Megaman would occasionaly blur the genre barrier by throwing a boss at you that, despite having a very definiate pattern, still required twitch reflexes to beat (the Yellow Devil in the first Megaman is a prime example).

To that end, Megaman Zero can be extremely hard, depending on how much you upgrade. Although they changed the formula a little in Megaman Zero 3 and moreso in 4, there's a grading system in every one. In addition to being graded on how much time and damage you took, how many enemies you killed, and whether or not you completed the mission or just ran through the level and killed the boss, you are also penalized for using Cyber Elves (which replaced Sub Tanks and Heart Containers). Also, despite it's reputation for being difficult, the Megaman Zero games play very similiar to Megaman X. They are both essentially platform games, and there are definate patterns you can learn. So, while you may find some enjoyment in the game, it seems you prefer the more actiony genre.

[mikeszekely]

A friend of mine was telling me that Irregular Hunter X is pretty good for a remake of the first X game

You may be interested to know that a ton of work done for extras in the Megaman X Collection was completed, but Inafune himself nixed it. Why? Because he doesn't the X Collection to steal the thunder from his new Maverick Hunter X games... because apparently, he plans to redo X1-X6 in that style (and Megaman 1-. X2 is already in development, and Powered Up 2 (aka Rockman Rockman 2) is in the preplanning stages.

[Hikuro]

Yeah I heard about that, he took all the reworked music and dubbing and scripting out of the collection and is gonna put it into IHX series as long as nothing big changes from the IHX storyline from the original.

My pal told me the graphics aren't bad at all, the animation was nice, and there are differences in the game compared to the original by a long shot.

he only got two pieces of X's armor, they changed the locations which he was bumed out about lol.

[Black Valkyrie]

Now this is the real Gameboy Advance :

http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/...07/news017.html

[yellowlightman]

Now this is the real Gameboy Advance    : 

http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/...07/news017.html

362373[/snapback]

That controller looks like it sucks balls.

[Zentrandude]

Now this is the real Gameboy Advance    : 

http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/...07/news017.html

362373[/snapback]

Thats pretty cool. Wonder hows the battery life compared to a psp.

[Black Valkyrie]

No problem for that as long as it has a power supply.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Black Valkyrie

[Wes]

From everything I see, it's meant to be more of a car-based unit than portable - a smart idea, if you ask me, seeing as kids like to play these in the car alot.

[Anubis]

Nintendo has finally announced a slimmed redesign of the DS. Now I'm glad I held out.

link

The DS Lite:

Edited January 27, 2006 by Anubis

[JB0]

Smaller: Good to a degree. It's 5.25" wide, which is just a hair narrower than the original GBA. Still comfortably large.

Lighter: Good in everything but lightguns. This isn't a lightgun.

Rearranged features: THEY MOVED THE MOTHERSNIFFING PAUSE KEY! DAMMIT! PUT IT BACK WHERE IT BELONGS!

[Zentrandude]

If only they made one with a larger top screen like a laptop.

edit: oh yah more internal memory for pda stuff.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Zentrandude

[JB0]

If only they made one with a larger top screen like a laptop.

It'd screw up all the games that use the 2 screens as one extra-large playfield.

Speakers are also better in the top than the bottom.

edit: oh yah more internal memory for pda stuff.

And some PDA functionality too?

Acutally, a bit of SRAM and some basic PDA utilities WOULD be nice.

[mikeszekely]

Simply put, I want one.

[David Hingtgen]

Oooooooooooooooh. I was thinking about getting a DS soon, but will definitely wait for this one. (I *so* want that Xenosaga 1+2 remake to come to the US--I would buy a DS for that alone in a second---also, XS1 sold far better in the US than Japan, so I'd expect it to come out here--they would literally be missing their primary market)

I hope the screen is like the new backlit GBA SP---the latest GBA SP screen strikes me as nicer than the current DS.

[Black Valkyrie]

It`s good thing I didn`t buy till now, lets hope it still accepts the GBA games on it.

BTW did you the top 10 game charts in Japan 90% NDS games.

[yellowlightman]

It`s good thing I didn`t buy till now, lets hope it still accepts the GBA games on it. 

364763[/snapback]

It does.

[Radd]

The new DS looks nice. Nothing to run out and upgrade over, but worth holding out for if you don't have a DS already.

[Black Valkyrie]

Lately most of the top 10 games in Japan are NDS only 2-3 games are PS2 or PSP. I remember before this unit was out, that everyone said its going to be a failure hmmm..... yeah right.

[Fort Max]

I brought one after new yaers and almast as soon as I did they announced a slimmer version.

Ho hum.

[KiriK]

yea man... friggin ay!!! i just heard about this news..... saw the pics of the new DS.... i'm a Nintendo fan... but i knew they were gonna re-release a slimmer better version.... just like when i bought my original GBA and a month or 2 later, the SP came out...

argh!! everything looks nice... except i wish they could have done 1 thing.... MAKE IT GAMECUBE COMPATIBLE!!! how hard would it have been to add the link up cable slot from the original GBA's???? i know GameCube is in the backburner for Nintendo.... but it'd still be nice if it was completely backwards compatible like a GBA....

Sigh... if only..... i do like the GBA cartridge plug though...... it was always kinda funny to see some people playing a DS w/out a GBA Game in it and see a big hole in the system.... looks like a way to catch dust to me so nods to the improvements....

but yeesh..... Get it right the 1st time NINTENDO!!!!