Andee

Looks okay — style feels a bit late '00s/early '10s (I guess that's retro now?) like it's trying just a little bit too hard, but it seems like good harmless fun. I would hope it doesn't outstay its welcome; that relentless musou gameplay can get a bit monotonous

Because I've got dozens of games in my backlog as it is — I'll definitely get around to Shinobi sooner or later but I'll likely buy it when it goes on sale

I almost never buy physical games full price on launch — I'd certainly never pay full RRP on a digital AAA game I can't at least trade in when I'm finished with it.

I can tell the difference when Digital Foundry flick the switch on and off, but Ray Tracing is one of those things I would never miss for a nanosecond if it suddenly disappeared from gaming.

I didn't realise until less than a year ago that there was a whole middle section to the theme tune

Didn't we wrap things up narratively with Uncharted 4? Let's let Nathan enjoy a well earned respite

I very much welcome this collection.

To die.

@Atariboy Yeah Sonic 3 is one of the most infamous ones, but off the top of my head, GTA, Tony Hawks, Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes all have had licensed music removed; Golden Axe has audio samples nicked from movies which apparently mean they can't rerelease them intact, X-Men Arcade had to have all the voice samples re-recorded because of some rights issue (although that did sound fantastic, almost indistinguishable from the original)

Same — i've become a bit numb to it now, but I've seen SO many really interesting and lavishly-designed trailers (gameplay and CG) and when it dawns on me that it's online/MP-only my interest instantly evaporates.

I'd be genuinely curious to know what percentage of people would choose to pay the full £70 RRP on a digital AAA game over a physical/resellable copy (which usually go about £5-10 off in yer Currys and Argoses), or just hang around for a sale

@LowDefAl I say "radical"! That's my thing that I say!

@Scottyy Yeah, I fear nostalgia is doing a lot of heavy lifting with these games; they're little more than just Crazy Taxi / GTA reskins

@Veritas7Ax Yeah I picked it up for a fiver on sale — it did feel awfully shallow; after I'd finished every level I felt I'd seen everything I needed to see, but i'll dive back in to see the new content.

Oh Ultimate Destruction? Yeah that game was awesome wasn't it? Very ahead of its time

That's what I'm curious to know as well — I'd imagine everything is owned by Disney now but as you say I'm sure there's way more to it.

I'd really love to see whatever powers that be pull their finger out and make the Simpsons Arcade available for modern consoles again

Spare a thought for the unfortunate mutated monsters Bimmy and Jammy from Double Dragon Neon

They really need to sort out the laws on music licensing for videogames, or at least be brave enough to pay the original composer their dues — so many retro releases seem to have some sort of wrinkle in the audio department

@SodaPop6548 Yeah, same — from the initial announcement trailer it looked right up my alley, a lot of cute/silly/breezy fun.

Versonica Mars

Wait, is it Atari who owns the rights for those two games?

Yeah the Sega Ages line has been pretty solid, I just wish they could sort out all the licensing issues for games like Afterburner, Out Run 2 and Golden Axe and make them available.

But because the leaps in generational fidelity become less and less discernible, It's less of a "horse -> car" difference, more a "horse -> horse with a marginally glossier coat"

@SpringDivorce Yeah, gyro controls are fine for like, a minute tops but your aim starts to drift and has to be reset constantly, it absolutely breaks the immersion

I figured they'd just be ports of the PS3 HD collection

What a terrible state for the industry to be in, this can't keep happening

I was following the dev team on IG for a fair while (I never played LoL but I was a bit fan of Arcane) and I was never 100% clear on how the game tied in to LoL, if at all!

@Ernimus_Prime they'll eventually run out of the limited amount of games that AVGN covered

rayman_yeah.mp3

Yeah, same — it was late in the day and I was half asleep, but it was a very surprising thing to see! And I know the models probably aren't that complex in the grand scheme of things, but they have absolutely nailed that model train look from the original show.

@Oram77 If entertainment exists in some form, chances are high that some CEO is shoehorning it into a longform TV show format, and trying to sell you a subscription service to watch it on.

I've noticed that a lot of the artists I follow are now frequently showing time lapse videos of their art, presumably because they now feel pressure to legitimise their talents. Thanks, AI (and the people who seem hell bent on pushing it), as well from the myriad of trash you've inflicted on the world you've put even more pressure on hard working illustrators to vindicate themselves.

@somnambulance yeah, it's snow joke

Not the worst game ever by a long shot, but certainly a valuable lesson (which will be repeated in the release of innumerable further entries in the FFVII "franchise") in being careful what you wish for.

@cainhurst94 Las Vegas is notoriously rife with shiny hunters

Yeah, same — I dug out my old PS2/3 controllers a year or so ago and some buttons either weren't working or were weirdly spongy/unresponsive. Having freshly-manufactured official controllers (or at least a perfect replica) would be fantastic. Then again, I managed to procure one of those 8-Bit Do DualSense dongles that rendered this all moot anyway

I'd be very curious to know where they're being sold — are they all from the same place, I wonder?

@ShadowRJ Just looking at the comments from another Ecco article on a sister site, the pendulum of opinion seems to have swung dramatically against the squeaky finned fellow. I don't think it was the best game ever made or anything - it was certainly unique, and a lot of effort clearly went into making it, but given the steadfast, unquestionable levels of adoration that seem to get laid upon some sacred gaming cows, Ecco is leagues away from being the most egregious example.

It's been a VERY long time since I've played it, but did the PS1 port of Ridge Racer have any extra console-exclusive content? What would be nice is if they somehow merged the arcade version with that of the PS1 version (although with the former being an Arcade Archives release that probably isn't viable)

Good, get that garbage juice offa the store, it's made browsing through it an exercise in misery.

How high in the sky can you fly?

@shonenjump86 Perhaps the Big Blue will help you.

Super looking forward to People of Note and while I can take or leave the comic it's based on, I'll likely pick up Scott Pilgrim for the Anamanaguchi soundtrack alone

When are they going to get to Inazuma 12? This is like Street Fighter 2 all over again.

@Oram77 @SteveJaye Yeah I think a completely new IP ("from the team that brought you Dragon Age", if you really must go there) might have worked in its favour, and probably would have allowed them more creative freedom. I only finally got around to playing/finishing DAI a few weeks before Veilguard came out and the tonal whiplash was palpable.

@PuppetMaster Yeah, it was a lot of fun just ambling around Metro City in SF6 and hanging out with the various Final Fight characters — they should totally pursue this kind of open world RPG-lite setting for a future game, I'd totally be happy with that

If any FF game was in dire need of a remake it's XIII — not just a port/remaster, but a proper re-think in how it conveyed its story and lore.

@ShadowRJ How to alienate an entire potential new audience

@PuppetMaster I just went down a SF/FF wiki rabbithole looking into the history of the Andore family

@somnambulance Yeah the conversation tree did feel a bit like yer standard point and click adventure, but I still thought, stripped of the time reversal hook of the first game, it was a very well-accomplished romp and it was nice to return to the setting.

@somnambulance I really enjoyed Before the Storm, and to my mind the only logical way to do a follow up to Life is Strange, given the structure of the narrative, would have been a prequel, so it felt like a bit of a victory lap.

Regarding the toxic fanbase, I'm so glad that I neither engage with, nor was really aware of it. The idea of a dev team/publisher sacrificing their integrity to appease a mass group of fans (who all likely have massively contradicting opinions of what they deem to be good) seems like an exercise in futility/insanity

@ThomasHL A million percent — I had so much fun with LiS and BtS, but I felt such real closure after playing both that dragging it out beyond that would fall foul of diminishing returns

@HotGoomba The only thing people love to do more than building up a scrappy, surprise-hit underdog is tearing them down once they've become successful