What has Nintendo done to upset you?

[Minato]

Not implementing crossbuy yet now that we have SNES VC games on N3DS. lol

One day...

 

[TryrushDeppy]

I personally never expected any more Paper Mario games after Super, so I found it a bit hard to care about Sticker Star one way or the other, even though everything I've seen about it indicates that it's pretty awful.

I think Intelligent Systems just used up all their good ideas on TTYD and Super. Of course, Miyamoto needlessly muscling his way into the series afterwards didn't help them any either.

 

[finalark]

I'm still a little sad that we never got GBA games on 3DS virtual console. It seems like such a good fit, I have no idea why they decided to make that a Wii U exclusive feature. The same goes for original DS games.

 

[Nona]

Giving me Pokemon Colosseum and Gale of Darkness, but dropping it completely after the GC era

Funny enough, little me was originally disappointed that Colo wasn't a Pokemon Stadium 3

 

[LancerStaff]

I'm still a little sad that we never got GBA games on 3DS virtual console. It seems like such a good fit, I have no idea why they decided to make that a Wii U exclusive feature. The same goes for original DS games.

Proper GBA VC probably isn't possible on an OG 3DS. The ambassador games didn't support restore points, button mapping, or even the 3DS's sleep mode. If it's possible on a N3DS then I suppose they didn't do it either because the resolution doesn't match up remotely or they didn't want to upset ambassador owners or whatever. DS VC certainly wouldn't work, though we have had a handful of DS games downloadable. Advance Wars Days of Ruin first came out in Japan as a downloadable reward on their Club Nintendo.

 

[finalark]

Proper GBA VC probably isn't possible on an OG 3DS. The ambassador games didn't support restore points, button mapping, or even the 3DS's sleep mode. If it's possible on a N3DS then I suppose they didn't do it either because the resolution doesn't match up remotely or they didn't want to upset ambassador owners or whatever.

Tinfoil hat time!

Maybe they kept GBA games Wii U exclusive to try and generate more reasons to buy a Wii U?

I mean, Christ, we have SNES games on 3DS. I don't imagine GBA games are that much more difficult to emulate.

DS VC certainly wouldn't work, though we have had a handful of DS games downloadable. Advance Wars Days of Ruin first came out in Japan as a downloadable reward on their Club Nintendo.

First you say it wouldn't work, and then you give an example of it working.

Consider.

 

[LancerStaff]

Tinfoil hat time!

Maybe they kept GBA games Wii U exclusive to try and generate more reasons to buy a Wii U?

I mean, Christ, we have SNES games on 3DS. I don't imagine GBA games are that much more difficult to emulate.

First you say it wouldn't work, and then you give an example of it working.

Consider.

I don't think GBA on N3DS is impossible either, but by the time they've put out all the good SNES games the NX may be out.

AWDoR puts the 3DS into DS mode to play the game, much like the Ambassador games put the 3DS into DS mode and then GBA mode. You get no 3DS features whatsoever.

 

[finalark]

AWDoR puts the 3DS into DS mode to play the game, much like the Ambassador games put the 3DS into DS mode and then GBA mode. You get no 3DS features whatsoever.

I really don't think that's a bad thing, nor should it stop Nintendo from releasing digital DS games on 3DS.

 

[LancerStaff]

I really don't think that's a bad thing, nor should it stop Nintendo from releasing digital DS games on 3DS.

It's the same reason they didn't do SNES and GBA VC though. To me it seems like Nintendo doesn't think it's worth their time because there's no additional features.

 

[Ura]

- Wave 6 of Smash Bros DLC (Characters in the pack that pissed the hell out of me and the fact that their was hardly anything else)

- Isaac, K. Rool, and other fan favorite characters that were brushed aside in the Ballot

- Golden Sun 4 still not happening after all this time despite the game not selling badly

- Advance Wars not having a new entry to the series for no reason at all

- Too many damn Mario games. 1 spin-off a year is just fine

 

[finalark]

- Wave 6 of Smash Bros DLC (Characters in the pack that pissed the hell out of me and the fact that their was hardly anything else)

- Isaac, K. Rool, and other fan favorite characters that were brushed aside in the Ballot

To be fair, in hindsight the ballot was a total crapshoot. No matter who the winner was someone was going to feel burned by the outcome.

 

[Ura]

To be fair, in hindsight the ballot was a total crapshoot. No matter who the winner was someone was going to feel burned by the outcome.

Could have been prevented if their were 2 Ballot characters instead of having a blatant advertisement character as DLC. You could have easily had Bayonetta to appeal to the majority of fans that voted for her and then have a character like K. Rool or Isaac appeal to the hardcore fans that really wanted to see him in and you could have satisfied a much bigger audience then they ended up doing with Mr. Shameless Advertisement. The rest of DLC was supposively "fanservice" so I don't see why not.

If you're hell bent on not having more than 1 Ballot character, maybe you should have made it clear all the way back in April that only 1 character was going to be chosen from the Ballot instead of letting everyone think that their might be like 3-5 Ballot characters. The way this Ballot was designed just pisses me off TBH.

 

[LancerStaff]

The moral of the story is to not get your hopes up. Very few people I knew were thinking that there was going to be more then one ballot character...

 

[finalark]

The moral of the story is to not get your hopes up. Very few people I knew were thinking that there was going to be more then one ballot character...

For all we know, choices like Roy and Cloud could have easily been influenced by ballot votes.

Or it would have been decided months in advance, or even while the game was in development. The world may never know.

 

[DPKdebator]

There's a few things Nintendo has done that I don't like, but I'm not really sure how valid they are in comparison to what others think:

• The North American Club Nintendo was awful in comparison to what the rest of the world got- hopefully My Nintendo will be better
• The GC adapter only works with Smash for Wii U- officially, that is
  
• Mario spin-offs (except for Mario Kart) seem to be more about quantity over quality
• Modern Mario spin-offs (again, except for Mario Kart) are also usually more dumbed down than the main series and older spin-offs
• North America gets very few limited editions (consoles, games, promos, etc.), especially compared to Japan (not really too surprising)
• Nintendo hasn't really kept up with the times (until now, hopefully), causing them to miss many opportunities and also taking others later than they should have
• Wii controllers are very expensive, especially considering all the wacky accessories that exist for them

 

[ThatsBullocks]

• Mario spin-offs (except for Mario Kart) seem to be more about quantity over quality
• Modern Mario spin-offs (again, except for Mario Kart) are also usually more dumbed down than the main series and older spin-offs

And even then, Mario Kart 8 seemed to have these problems too. The roster was an obvious example of quantity over quality (seven goddamn slots for Koopalings, furry frenzy, metal mania, original baby character rosalina do not steal™, no spinoff staples like Diddy or Birdo, etc). Also, the gameplay does see some cutbacks with the continuing absence of items like the Fake Item Box and Boo and simplifying the drifting mechanics.

Since people have taken a lot of the major gripes against Nintendo, I'mma take a minor one: the overall decline in non-graphical polish. To keep picking on Mario Kart 8, it has some of the most convoluted and player-unfriendly menu design I've ever seen, particularly for multiplayer, and also it's objectively inexcusable how it downgrades to 30fps with 3/4 human players when Mario Kart Double Dash could keep 60fps (or at least damn close) on the Gamecube in 2003, just because Nintendo can't optimize their ****. Smash Bros. 4 is on the opposite spectrum of MK8, where its menus suffer from some relatively minor poor organization (as opposed to MK8's menu design violently hate-****ing the player's face), and instead of optimizing things they kept 60fps in 8-player mode by axing features from maps (or outright maps themselves).

 

[WaddleKing]

The North American Club Nintendo was awful in comparison to what the rest of the world got- hopefully My Nintendo will be better

At least you have a Club Nintendo. Here in Scandinavia, they got rid of it since around 2007 apparently. They better bring My Nintendo over here.

 

[MarioRayFalconSmash X]

Putting dopey characters, like Olimar, Villager or Corrin in Smash and giving everything good to the Wii U(even though it's not all that good.)

 

[LancerStaff]

And even then, Mario Kart 8 seemed to have these problems too. The roster was an obvious example of quantity over quality (seven goddamn slots for Koopalings, furry frenzy, metal mania, original baby character rosalina do not steal™, no spinoff staples like Diddy or Birdo, etc). Also, the gameplay does see some cutbacks with the continuing absence of items like the Fake Item Box and Boo and simplifying the drifting mechanics.

Since people have taken a lot of the major gripes against Nintendo, I'mma take a minor one: the overall decline in non-graphical polish. To keep picking on Mario Kart 8, it has some of the most convoluted and player-unfriendly menu design I've ever seen, particularly for multiplayer, and also it's objectively inexcusable how it downgrades to 30fps with 3/4 human players when Mario Kart Double Dash could keep 60fps (or at least damn close) on the Gamecube in 2003, just because Nintendo can't optimize their ****. Smash Bros. 4 is on the opposite spectrum of MK8, where its menus suffer from some relatively minor poor organization (as opposed to MK8's menu design violently hate-****ing the player's face), and instead of optimizing things they kept 60fps in 8-player mode by axing features from maps (or outright maps themselves).

The removal of the FIB and Boo were balance changes, not content changes. Imagine how hard it would be to get a good item in first with both coins and FIBs, for example. Unless you're complaining about the removal of snaking I'm not sure how drifting was made worse.

Didn't DD remove all the CPUs when you played with three karts? Even with two karts a ton of background and course elements were removed as well. In this case I'll take the gameplay over the graphics. F-Zero GX removed anything not attached to the course and the backgrounds were ridiculously empty as a result.

I still don't get the hate for the menus in recent games either...

 

[Shiida]

why can't u gift items on miitomo

 

[ThatsBullocks]

The removal of the FIB and Boo were balance changes, not content changes. Imagine how hard it would be to get a good item in first with both coins and FIBs, for example. Unless you're complaining about the removal of snaking I'm not sure how drifting was made worse.

Didn't DD remove all the CPUs when you played with three karts? Even with two karts a ton of background and course elements were removed as well. In this case I'll take the gameplay over the graphics. F-Zero GX removed anything not attached to the course and the backgrounds were ridiculously empty as a result.

I still don't get the hate for the menus in recent games either...

The thing is, I'd find it absolutely forgivable if MK8's FPS drops only happened with COM racers present, but it doesn't. Considering the WiiU is beefier than the GameCube, the concessions they'd have to make for 60fps would probably be more subtle.

Also, hoo boy, I get to go in-depth about MK8's awful menus! Huzzahs are in order.

Spoiler: lotsa text

• First off, why aren't game options for multiplayer the *first* menu (COM racers, engine speed, number of races, etc)?
• Also, how come you can't opt for infinite races? Why limit the players to certain intervals between 2-32? It might sound excessive to some, but when you have a Mario Kart as a party game with lots of people, something it should be designed to accommodate with it being a party game, you'd be surprised how quickly you can go through races.
• Why can't you freely change your characters or karts between races? Having to go back to the main menu, going through more player number confusion (more on that later), reselecting your karts, resetting the rules to your preferences, and then being able to choose a course is frustrating and circuitous, plus it kills the pace, badly. When previous games allow you to cycle players and karts with ease, it's appalling to me how such unnecessarily stand-offish menus could ever be approved.
• Player number being determined by when you join isn't a bad idea on its own, but when the menu is an obstacle as described above, "join-numbering" can cause confusion, especially if you just want to change your character/kart. The controllers are already synched; why not keep them in the same slots after they first join?
• Even aesthetically, the menus suffer. The background for the menus is a bright blue pastel color, but so are the cursors and icons, so visual-wise, elements blend together far more than necessary (even adding a player number to the cursors would do wonders in alleviating these issues); the background for the character icons should be a touch darker and a bit less saturated to allow for cursors to stick out. Things are only made more confusing since it takes forever sometimes for character models to load. It's not like navigating the maze of the minotaur or anything but the character menu suffers visually and can be potentially confusing.

Also, in terms of "dumbed down", I can't believe I forgot to also mention the astonishingly lazy copout for Battle mode (i.e. they repurpose regular race tracks in lieu of providing real battle courses).

 

[finalark]

Also, in terms of "dumbed down", I can't believe I forgot to also mention the astonishingly lazy copout for Battle mode (i.e. they repurpose regular race tracks in lieu of providing real battle courses).

This is MK8's biggest shortcoming of all.

 

[C3CC]

The thing is, I'd find it absolutely forgivable if MK8's FPS drops only happened with COM racers present, but it doesn't. Considering the WiiU is beefier than the GameCube, the concessions they'd have to make for 60fps would probably be more subtle.

Also, hoo boy, I get to go in-depth about MK8's awful menus! Huzzahs are in order.

Spoiler: lotsa text

• First off, why aren't game options for multiplayer the *first* menu (COM racers, engine speed, number of races, etc)?
• Also, how come you can't opt for infinite races? Why limit the players to certain intervals between 2-32? It might sound excessive to some, but when you have a Mario Kart as a party game with lots of people, something it should be designed to accommodate with it being a party game, you'd be surprised how quickly you can go through races.
• Why can't you freely change your characters or karts between races? Having to go back to the main menu, going through more player number confusion (more on that later), reselecting your karts, resetting the rules to your preferences, and then being able to choose a course is frustrating and circuitous, plus it kills the pace, badly. When previous games allow you to cycle players and karts with ease, it's appalling to me how such unnecessarily stand-offish menus could ever be approved.
• Player number being determined by when you join isn't a bad idea on its own, but when the menu is an obstacle as described above, "join-numbering" can cause confusion, especially if you just want to change your character/kart. The controllers are already synched; why not keep them in the same slots after they first join?
• Even aesthetically, the menus suffer. The background for the menus is a bright blue pastel color, but so are the cursors and icons, so visual-wise, elements blend together far more than necessary (even adding a player number to the cursors would do wonders in alleviating these issues); the background for the character icons should be a touch darker and a bit less saturated to allow for cursors to stick out. Things are only made more confusing since it takes forever sometimes for character models to load. It's not like navigating the maze of the minotaur or anything but the character menu suffers visually and can be potentially confusing.

Also, in terms of "dumbed down", I can't believe I forgot to also mention the astonishingly lazy copout for Battle mode (i.e. they repurpose regular race tracks in lieu of providing real battle courses).

Amen to your post. Especially the last part. I think that Mario Kart 8 is the absolute worst game of the series, actually. I even sold my copy only two weeks after I got it because of how disappointed I was by it. First of all, the roster is ridiculous (SEVEN Koopalings but no Bowser Jr?), many classic characters cut (King Boo hurt me the most, I mained him in Double Dash and Wii). Where's Birdo? Diddy Kong? Dry Bones? Bowser Jr? DLC only made it worse. Why the hell did they add Link and Villager, who are not Mario characters? It's MARIO Kart, for God's sake. What about E. Gadd? Toadsworth? Hammer Bro? Lubba? Magikoopa? Plessie? So many characters to choose from, but no. They took the easy route and added ANOTHER Mario, ANOTHER Peach and ANOTHER Bowser. I hated the roster and I think it's the worst of the series. The Battle Mode is also incredibly bad and lazily made for the reasons you stated. It just sucks.

Other than that, Nintendo pissed me off greatly with the existence of Paper Mario: Color Splash. One would think that they learned their lesson and knew about absolutely everyone hating Sticker Star and begging for a proper sequel to the Thousand-Year Door. LOLNOPE, HAVE STICKER STAR 2. For God's sake...

 

[ThatsBullocks]

Amen to your post. Especially the last part. I think that Mario Kart 8 is the absolute worst game of the series, actually. I even sold my copy only two weeks after I got it because of how disappointed I was by it. First of all, the roster is ridiculous (SEVEN Koopalings but no Bowser Jr?), many classic characters cut (King Boo hurt me the most, I mained him in Double Dash and Wii). Where's Birdo? Diddy Kong? Dry Bones? Bowser Jr? DLC only made it worse. Why the hell did they add Link and Villager, who are not Mario characters? It's MARIO Kart, for God's sake. What about E. Gadd? Toadsworth? Hammer Bro? Lubba? Magikoopa? Plessie? So many characters to choose from, but no. They took the easy route and added ANOTHER Mario, ANOTHER Peach and ANOTHER Bowser. I hated the roster and I think it's the worst of the series. The Battle Mode is also incredibly bad and lazily made for the reasons you stated. It just sucks.

Other than that, Nintendo pissed me off greatly with the existence of Paper Mario: Color Splash. One would think that they learned their lesson and knew about absolutely everyone hating Sticker Star and begging for a proper sequel to the Thousand-Year Door. LOLNOPE, HAVE STICKER STAR 2. For God's sake...

The DLC characters wouldn't piss me off as much, if they didn't gloss over the one guest character they absolutely should have added: Captain Falcon. He's got two courses in the game for god's sake. As for the Koopalings, they bother me not just because they waste so many slots, but also since they're now the go-to "muh retro Mario reference" for Nintendo.

The problem with Color Splash stems from an issue present in Sticker Star: Shigeru Miyamoto. The guy has been so dishearteningly regressive in his game design philosophies in the past decade or so, and despite stating years ago that he would step down from the Mario and Zelda reigns he keeps sticking around to George-Lucas-ize more games.

 

[WaddleKing]

Amen to your post. Especially the last part. I think that Mario Kart 8 is the absolute worst game of the series, actually. I even sold my copy only two weeks after I got it because of how disappointed I was by it. First of all, the roster is ridiculous (SEVEN Koopalings but no Bowser Jr?), many classic characters cut (King Boo hurt me the most, I mained him in Double Dash and Wii). Where's Birdo? Diddy Kong? Dry Bones? Bowser Jr? DLC only made it worse. Why the hell did they add Link and Villager, who are not Mario characters? It's MARIO Kart, for God's sake. What about E. Gadd? Toadsworth? Hammer Bro? Lubba? Magikoopa? Plessie? So many characters to choose from, but no. They took the easy route and added ANOTHER Mario, ANOTHER Peach and ANOTHER Bowser. I hated the roster and I think it's the worst of the series. The Battle Mode is also incredibly bad and lazily made for the reasons you stated. It just sucks.

Other than that, Nintendo pissed me off greatly with the existence of Paper Mario: Color Splash. One would think that they learned their lesson and knew about absolutely everyone hating Sticker Star and begging for a proper sequel to the Thousand-Year Door. LOLNOPE, HAVE STICKER STAR 2. For God's sake...

Finally someone who agrees with me that MK8 is not that great. For the first HD Mario Kart the roster was a disaster. Why couldn't they just have taken MKWii's ( AKA the most well liked one ) and added some adjustments to it? Instead we get lazy excuses for characters. Well the Koopalings were a decent concept, Waluigi's return was pretty good to see ( I know you hate him but i just find him pretty lovable ) and Link & Villager were pretty decent concepts but other than that...yeah.
Edit: Also the idea of pallete swaps for Yoshi and Shy Guy was pretty good too.

 

[C3CC]

Finally someone who agrees with me that MK8 is not that great. For the first HD Mario Kart the roster was a disaster. Why couldn't they just have taken MKWii's ( AKA the most well liked one ) and added some adjustments to it? Instead we get lazy excuses for characters. Well the Koopalings were a decent concept, Waluigi's return was pretty good to see ( I know you hate him but i just find him pretty lovable ) and Link & Villager were pretty decent concepts but other than that...yeah.
Edit: Also the idea of pallete swaps for Yoshi and Shy Guy was pretty good too.

Even when I hate Waluigi, he HAS to be present in Mario Kart. I never really got why he was left out in Mario Kart 7.

I am totally and completely against non-Mario characters being present in Mario Kart. I hated that R.O.B. was in Mario Kart DS, and I don't like that Link and Villager are in Mario Kart 8 at all. But I do agree with you on the palette swap thing. Toad and Koopa Troopa should have also gotten that treatment.

 

[WaddleKing]

Even when I hate Waluigi, he HAS to be present in Mario Kart. I never really got why he was left out in Mario Kart 7.

I am totally and completely against non-Mario characters being present in Mario Kart. I hated that R.O.B. was in Mario Kart DS, and I don't like that Link and Villager are in Mario Kart 8 at all. But I do agree with you on the palette swap thing. Toad and Koopa Troopa should have also gotten that treatment.

I am fine with guest characters being present in Mario Kart especially when they bring awesome tracks with them, (side note but i feel like it's worth mentioning Pac-Man was in a few of the arcade Mario Kart games) but when the roster looks like THIS? You need to check your priorities, like seriously, why are Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr. not in MK8? All i've ever gotten were straw grasping replies to this question but i'll just go with the devs not caring enough about them and rushed the game.
I think the idea of the Koopalings was nice but wasn't exactly executed well. What i think they should have done was split the Koopalings per weight, so Roy and Morton would share the same slot but you'd be able to switch between them like alts and so on.

 

[SimonBarSinister]

Amen to your post. Especially the last part. I think that Mario Kart 8 is the absolute worst game of the series, actually. I even sold my copy only two weeks after I got it because of how disappointed I was by it. First of all, the roster is ridiculous (SEVEN Koopalings but no Bowser Jr?), many classic characters cut (King Boo hurt me the most, I mained him in Double Dash and Wii). Where's Birdo? Diddy Kong? Dry Bones? Bowser Jr? DLC only made it worse. Why the hell did they add Link and Villager, who are not Mario characters? It's MARIO Kart, for God's sake. What about E. Gadd? Toadsworth? Hammer Bro? Lubba? Magikoopa? Plessie? So many characters to choose from, but no. They took the easy route and added ANOTHER Mario, ANOTHER Peach and ANOTHER Bowser. I hated the roster and I think it's the worst of the series. The Battle Mode is also incredibly bad and lazily made for the reasons you stated. It just sucks.

Other than that, Nintendo pissed me off greatly with the existence of Paper Mario: Color Splash. One would think that they learned their lesson and knew about absolutely everyone hating Sticker Star and begging for a proper sequel to the Thousand-Year Door. LOLNOPE, HAVE STICKER STAR 2. For God's sake...

Yep, I wholeheartedly agree with these 2 points, though the former doesn't stop me from enjoying MK 8 in whatever way I can. But yes, MK 8's roster is poorly thought out compared to some of the other console entries, with MK Wii having the greatest roster variety in all of Mario Kart. And total King Boo fan here, so losing him (along with Diddy and Jr.) in favor of all the clones feels like a big slap in the face. Though I don't mind the fact that other Nintendo characters are in the game, as it was something I've wanted to see for some time. I just wish we had Kirby instead of AC characters. Hopefully in the future Nintendo learns from these mistakes and brings the variety we once had. But all things said, MK 8 is still a very enjoyable game to me. Nintendo could've made some better decisions is all.

As for Paper Mario, I don't understand why Nintendo went the route they did. I can understand the desire to change things up so things don't seem so stale, but when those changes come at the cost of what made the series so great in the first place, that's when things go downhill. Much like Sonic Team, now that I think about it. Change solely for the sake of change is not the way to handle a popular series. Paper Mario no longer feels like an RPG anymore, which is what it made its name as. It's not that I hate Nintendo for making these decisions, just highly disappointed. But for the sake of fairness, I will reserve my harsher judgments until after I play Color Splash. After all, I played through Sticker Star a few times and to me it's by no means a bad game, it's just not up to the Paper Mario standard.

 

[C3CC]

I am fine with guest characters being present in Mario Kart especially when they bring awesome tracks with them, (side note but i feel like it's worth mentioning Pac-Man was in a few of arcade Mario Kart games) but when the roster looks like THIS? You need to check your priorities, like seriously, why are Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr. not in MK8? All i've ever gotten were straw grasping replies to this question but i'll just go with the devs not caring enough about them and rushed the game.
I think the idea of the Koopalings was nice but wasn't exactly executed well. What i think they should have done was split the Koopalings per weight, so Roy and Morton would share the same slot but you'd be able to switch between them like alts and so on.

I don't like the Koopalings at all, I think they're unoriginal and should stay exclusive to the New Super Mario Bros series. I think it's way too much to add all seven of them, but since it's either all or nothing... I'd rather have none and having the classic characters back. It's like in the new Mario & Sonic game, where only four of them are playable, and that makes no sense.

Overall, I can't stop thinking that they rushed Mario Kart 8 because they were alarmed because of how bad the Wii U was selling, and since they knew that their main selling game (Smash) was still months away, they decided to put it out in the state we all know. Mario Kart 8 isn't the only one that suffered this treatment, I also think Splatoon (which I love) and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash (which I hate) feel also extremely rushed.

Also, I don't know if I'm the only one... But I think the tracks are really dull this time around. Sure, they're beautiful and all, but they're so easy. Rainbow Road is a disappointment, and so is Bowser's Castle.

Yep, I wholeheartedly agree with these 2 points, though the former doesn't stop me from enjoying MK 8 in whatever way I can. But yes, MK 8's roster is poorly thought out compared to some of the other console entries, with MK Wii having the greatest roster variety in all of Mario Kart. And total King Boo fan here, so losing him (along with Diddy and Jr.) in favor of all the clones feels like a big slap in the face. Though I don't mind the fact that other Nintendo characters are in the game, as it was something I've wanted to see for some time. I just wish we had Kirby instead of AC characters. Hopefully in the future Nintendo learns from these mistakes and brings the variety we once had. But all things said, MK 8 is still a very enjoyable game to me. Nintendo could've made some better decisions is all.

As for Paper Mario, I don't understand why Nintendo went the route they did. I can understand the desire to change things up so things don't seem so stale, but when those changes come at the cost of what made the series so great in the first place, that's when things go downhill. Much like Sonic Team, now that I think about it. Change solely for the sake of change is not the way to handle a popular series. Paper Mario no longer feels like an RPG anymore, which is what it made its name as. It's not that I hate Nintendo for making these decisions, just highly disappointed. But for the sake of fairness, I will reserve my harsher judgments until after I play Color Splash. After all, I played through Sticker Star a few times and to me it's by no means a bad game, it's just not up to the Paper Mario standard.

Nintendo doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes. And I hated Sticker Star, that's why I have no hope in Color Splash being good. You could just tell from the reveal that Mario Party 10 was going to suck, and it did. It's the same case with Color Splash.

 

[SimonBarSinister]

Also, I don't know if I'm the only one... But I think the tracks are really dull this time around. Sure, they're beautiful and all, but they're so easy. Rainbow Road is a disappointment, and so is Bowser's Castle.

I don't think the tracks are so dull, I just wish we had more tracks inspired by actual locations from the Mario series, DK, Wario and whatever else is represented in MK. When was the last time we raced in a location from a spinoff series? As far as I can remember, the last one was Dry Dry Ruins, which was almost 8 years ago. Nintendo has much to draw from, yet they don't for some reason. Did they just forget about all those places players have visited throughout their history?

I can't say I care much for the theme of our current Rainbow Road, too technological for my tastes. I much prefer my Rainbow Roads to be made out of stars, not metal. But it's in no way a bad race, at least I don't think so. Although I have to disagree about Bowser's Castle. I think it's one of the best we've had.

One other thing: Sometimes I wish they'd choose better tracks for the Retro Cups. I mean, when you have a boring race like Mario Circuit GBA in the mix it doesn't really show much effort in trying to spice things up.

Nintendo doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes. And I hated Sticker Star, that's why I have no hope in Color Splash being good. You could just tell from the reveal that Mario Party 10 was going to suck, and it did. It's the same case with Color Splash.

If Nintendo really didn't learn from their mistakes (sometimes they don't) then they would be in the same position as Sega, and as far as I can tell, Nintendo hasn't sunk that far....not yet, anyway. Still, Color Splash may have a mark against it being related to Sticker Star and all, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will definitely be a bad game.

If Nintendo finds a way to make it successful, then that's all fine and dandy. ....But I still want my classic Paper Mario. They're going to have to go back to it sometime. Maybe not now, but sometime they will get the message.

 

[C3CC]

I don't think the tracks are so dull, I just wish we had more tracks inspired by actual locations from the Mario series, DK, Wario and whatever else is represented in MK. When was the last time we raced in a location from a spinoff series? As far as I can remember, the last one was Dry Dry Ruins, which was almost 8 years ago. Nintendo has much to draw from, yet they don't for some reason. Did they just forget about all those places players have visited throughout their history?

I can't say I care much for the theme of our current Rainbow Road, too technological for my tastes. I much prefer my Rainbow Roads to be made out of stars, not metal. But it's in no way a bad race, at least I don't think so. Although I have to disagree about Bowser's Castle. I think it's one of the best we've had.

One other thing: Sometimes I wish they'd choose better tracks for the Retro Cups. I mean, when you have a boring race like Mario Circuit GBA in the mix it doesn't really show much effort in trying to spice things up.


If Nintendo really didn't learn from their mistakes (sometimes they don't) then they would be in the same position as Sega, and as far as I can tell, Nintendo hasn't sunk that far....not yet, anyway. Still, Color Splash may have a mark against it being related to Sticker Star and all, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will definitely be a bad game.

If Nintendo finds a way to make it successful, then that's all fine and dandy. ....But I still want my classic Paper Mario. They're going to have to go back to it sometime. Maybe not now, but sometime they will get the message.

Completely agree with you on the Rainbow Road part. It feels too man-made and it doesn't have that mystical feel others had (especially the ones from Double Dash and Wii). I do feel it's bad, because it's not challenging at all (at least to me). Bowser's Castle isn't that bad, but the ones from, again, Double Dash and Wii, were far more challenging as well.

I also agree with visiting places from spin-offs. The tracks feel too generic this time around. What the heck was that snow track included in the DLC pack? Or Water Park? I mean... ?????????????

I hope you're right about that. Someday, eventually, they'll realize how badly they ****ed up Paper Mario and hopefully will make it go back to its roots. I'm not changing my stance towards Color Splash, though. I can already tell it's not what I'm looking for.

 

[SimonBarSinister]

Completely agree with you on the Rainbow Road part. It feels too man-made and it doesn't have that mystical feel others had (especially the ones from Double Dash and Wii). I do feel it's bad, because it's not challenging at all (at least to me). Bowser's Castle isn't that bad, but the ones from, again, Double Dash and Wii, were far more challenging as well.

There is a slight challenge factor in moments when it's chaotic, but other than that, yeah it's not really hard at all, even for a build that doesn't have the greatest handling. My favorite Rainbow Road of all time is the N64 version, but unfortunately, MK 8 only allows one loop of the whole race, which kinda goes against what the race was known for. It was one of the longest races in MK history but MK 8 made it one of the shortest, which is disappointing.

I also agree with visiting places from spin-offs. The tracks feel too generic this time around. What the heck was that snow track included in the DLC pack? Or Water Park? I mean... ?????????????

Yeah, Ice Ice Outpost isn't really spectacular at all. Why couldn't they go with Shiver Mountain from Paper Mario? Or Cool Cool Mountain/Snowman's Land from Mario 64? Water Park isn't a bad race, but Pinna Park would've been much more interesting.

I hope you're right about that. Someday, eventually, they'll realize how badly they ****ed up Paper Mario and hopefully will make it go back to its roots. I'm not changing my stance towards Color Splash, though. I can already tell it's not what I'm looking for.

I'm not getting my hopes up for it, but we'll see what happens. If it turns out pretty well, I'll get it. If not, then I won't bother.

 

[Perikong M.TurtleBits]

Recently Nintendo has done many things that have dissapointed me. The forced amiibo cashgrabs and the gimmicks are some of them but one of the biggest... Yes, I have to go with Color Splash. What can I say that hasn't been said before? Sticker Star was not a good Paper Mario game and many elements of it including its biggest problems are confirmed to be returning in Color Splash. No original characters, just soulless toads, awful battle system without experience, limited exploration by the world map... it's really sad for me to see one of my favorite series die like this. What bothers me the most is that they announced it like it was going to get a good response from the fans when it clearly hasn't. Nintendo wants it to be the new standard for the Paper Mario series (note how they called it action adventure genre as if they completely forgot it used to be a RPG series at one point) because they consider it creative. But innovation is not always good and SS proves it. The fans are satisfied with a good and creative plot and original characters, it doesn't matter if it follows the same formula because it's very beloved, like the Pokémon one. They experimented with Super Paper Mario and it turned out to be an amazing game, maybe the best of the series, while they experimented with Sticker Star and it turned out to be the worst of the series, so they shouldn't follow its footsteps. Some people think this is judging the game too early but I don't want to be dissapointed again. A giant flying bucket is not a good character and there's no sign of any background characters other than toads. The battle system seems even worse than SS's and there's no exp system again. The game looks pretty, and that's about it to me. I wouldn't mind waiting until 2020 or even more if we were actually going to get a proper Paper Mario but sadly I think we won't for now. At least we still have Mario & Luigi.

 

[LancerStaff]

Out of all the problems with PMSS/CS I still don't think having a world map over an interconnected overworld is an issue.

TTYD didn't have many problems, but when they were there they were pretty apparent. Unskippable text/cutscenes, rather meh balance and getting around is just a pain. SS/CS having it's world map seems to be a direct response to the criticism of TTYD, and honestly I prefer it.

 

[C3CC]

Out of all the problems with PMSS/CS I still don't think having a world map over an interconnected overworld is an issue.

TTYD didn't have many problems, but when they were there they were pretty apparent. Unskippable text/cutscenes, rather meh balance and getting around is just a pain. SS/CS having it's world map seems to be a direct response to the criticism of TTYD, and honestly I prefer it.

Did you dislike the way TTYD did it? I loved it, honestly. It made me feel like I was in a huge world, just like in Paper Mario 64. I didn't like the way Sticker Star handled it because it feels like yet another New Super Mario Bros. game.

I'd like to know what you mean exactly by meh balance. I don't fully get it... And I didn't mind the unskippable text and cutscenes (only when I had to retry beating the Shadow Queen like fifteen goddamn times and I had to watch the entire thing over and over again, hardest final boss ever). I love reading and the dialogue in TTYD is pure gold. I laughed so much with it.

 

[LancerStaff]

Did you dislike the way TTYD did it? I loved it, honestly. It made me feel like I was in a huge world, just like in Paper Mario 64. I didn't like the way Sticker Star handled it because it feels like yet another New Super Mario Bros. game.

I'd like to know what you mean exactly by meh balance. I don't fully get it... And I didn't mind the unskippable text and cutscenes (only when I had to retry beating the Shadow Queen like fifteen goddamn times and I had to watch the entire thing over and over again, hardest final boss ever). I love reading and the dialogue in TTYD is pure gold. I laughed so much with it.

Just because you can get around fast doesn't necessarily make the game feel small. Actually, I'd say that once it reaches a certain size having fast travel methods should be a requirement. If I were to remake the game I'd bulldoze the trouble center and replace it with a shop with pipes leading to every major area and offer up SMP's return pipe for good measure. That way if you need to, oh say, go back to Creepy Steeple for a Golden Leaf instead of going though twenty screens to get there and back you just go through two. Especially if you're a completionist you're going to waste a ton of time going through areas you've been fighting useless fights to get one thing and then run all the way back through enemies you've beaten thirty times. Though giving Yoshi his own button (and not switch out the current partner) and making Bump Attack not a pain to get would help loads too. Actually, SPM let you visit any area you wished whenever and I haven't heard a soul complain about that game.

The balance isn't so good mostly because Jumpman exists. It doesn't cost too terribly much and is available as early as Ch. 3. At that point in the game spiked enemies aren't common enough to be a major threat, and then after Ch. 4 you get Spike Shield for free almost right outside the TYD itself. Not only does Jumpman out damage Hammerman (IIRC), if you're fighting an enemy with defense high enough to matter then you have the easily obtained Power Jump which deals it's damage in one attack, making hammering and it's related badges redundant. The trade-off for Jumpman doesn't exist. Oh, and they give you Power Bounce in the first chapter and it gets even more powerful from all of this.

Another smaller issue is Quick Change. Basically it makes defense on partners worthless since you can switch at will, and also removes the mechanic in managing your partners. Honestly there's no reason to not use the badge unless you're speedrunning or something ridiculous. I mean, these two I figured out on my own as a kid... When your average kid can look at a game and tell you something is very wrong with it you can call that poor balance.

Another large one is Danger Mario. Though harder to set up, it completely snaps the game in two. Get to five HP, equip the badges that increase damage done when in danger and anything that makes you lucky. Farm a bunch from the Pianta Parlor, and viola, you do ridiculous damage and the odds of getting hit are worse then winning the lottery.

It's not just the Shadow Queen. Just about any major fight in the game has a minute or two of unskippable cutscenes. Another problem is that while the dialogue is great, it does get boring after a few playthroughs. The gameplay will be just as great the first time as the hundredth, and the cutscenes definitely get in the way of repeat playthroughs.

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a 10/10 game, but it definitely shows it's age. Like I said, SS definitely doesn't have TTYD's backtracking issues.

 

[Bassoonist]

Hm... Lets see.

1. Their insistence on releasing "innovative" consoles that are less powerful and of which the innovations are just annoying gimmicks that get in the way. The Wii Remote was the largest example of this. The Gamepad has a little more function, BUT it is still just annoying because it's a battery hog and dies quickly even when not in use.

The rest would be in terms of individual games, game series.

2.
- The Mario Platforming series:
Since Super Mario Galaxy, the 3D platforming series has turned into something completely different from 64/Sunshine. I'm not saying that the linear world style of the Galaxy series and 3D Land/World has no value whatsoever, what I am saying is that... It shouldn't have come at the expense of the style of 64/Sunshine, which is exactly what has happened.

It seems like since the New Super Mario Bros. series has taken off and has become very much more of the same with every release, the rest of the Mario platforming series has suffered the same fate. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was a first for the 3D Mario platforming series - we had never had a direct sequel before. I should have seen this as a bad sign, but I didn't... I didn't really until Super Mario 3D World became the Wii U's 3D Mario platforming title... Then I really started freaking out. 3D Land and World are very much the equivalent of New Super Mario Bros. for the 3D Mario platforming series. I'm warning every one right now, this is the direction Nintendo is taking with the 3D Mario platformers for good now, and it's sad.

I think Miyamoto or whoever announcing that Super Mario Galaxy 3 is almost inevitable just put the nails in the coffin for me. The Mario platforming series has become all of the same. It's very sad.

- The Paper Mario series:
Do I even need to go into this one? Probably not. Although I think my reasons for disliking Sticker Star differ a little more from everyone else. The main mess-up that really made the game unsalvagable for me was the lack of a level-up system. As in previous Paper Mario titles, you had enemies chasing you around... But this time there absolutely no benefit in fighting them. You'd get stickers for fighting them? Well, you better! I mean you have to use stickers to fight them (another bad design choice), so, in effect, you gain nothing from fighting them, nothing at all.

I got irritated with this, but also just a sloppy feeling game that felt like I was going no where. The whole game also felt bland with very few characters and...even though it was very colorful, the world itself felt very dull and lifeless.

I was skeptical at the rumor of a Paper Mario Wii U, and...sadly, I don't think that the revealed product is going to change my mind.

- Their Zelda Remasters/"Remakes":
I suppose I became too spoiled with Gamefreak's Pokemon remakes. While I didn't like every aspect of what they did, it's clear that you were actually playing a game remade and reimagined, as opposed to just playing something that had updated textures and updated models for some of the characters (some of which still look they came from the N64).

I'll put it bluntly: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask deserved so much better than what they got. The Wind Waker didn't really need a remaster, while the Twilight Princess HD is also a waste of money.

They probably would have been seen in a better light by me if they had been released in bundles, but no, Nintendo won't do that. I felt more enamored by the Kingdom Hearts remasters because they were bundled, cheap, and oh what's this? They remade the OST for KHI and II with live instruments! Yet, Nintendo releases Twilight Princess HD with decade-old MIDIs and acts like it's no big deal. What a joke. And TP costs an arm and a leg. No way should that game have ever been full-price. No way in heck. Get real, Nintendo.

 

[ThatsBullocks]

I am scared if Nintendo is indeed just "NSMB-ing" the whole lot of Mario titles from here on. Miyamoto needs to give up control of Mario and Zelda like he promised long ago.

As for Paper Mario, the battle system could be fixed really easily while maintaining the sticker/card mechanic: offer basic attacks at no cost and be able to find better shoes/hammers (YOU KNOW, LIKE THE ORIGINAL GAMES AND THE MARIO AND LUIGI SERIES). This way, variations on regular attacks and non-hammer/jump attacks would be stickers and thus keep in the idea of them being limited just as they would be if they were badges and items. Heck, if attacks/assists akin to the Star Spirits/Crystal Stars/etc come back, the sticker system could play a part in balancing them, by perhaps having these "Super Moves" require sacrificing stickers to use.

The storywriting for Paper Mario, however, needs a huge overhaul; one thing in particular is that I love the true paper/cardboard aesthetics of the new games but I really wish there'd be much less fourth-wall acknowledgement of the paper world, since the games are supposed to be a storybook tale and it's weird for them to just outright say "hey we're paper". Moments like the curses in Thousand Year Door felt special because they were rare moments that acknowledged a character's paper-ness.

And finally, for the Zelda remakes, I'm more forgiving for the 3DS remakes since they actually greatly upgrade the graphics and framerates, whereas WWHD and TPHD didn't (oh no, please, someone, tell me why the WiiU can't be expected to push 60fps with what are basically Gamecube graphics with bigger textures). TPHD pisses me off the most because it was arguably the most in need of changes yet it got the least significant update; it was just cobbled together to try and shut people up tide fans over until they were ready to show off real gameplay footage for ZeldaU that they've explicitly admitted to just be sitting on. Overall, I feel that the 3DS remakes are a bit more worth full retail price than WWHD and TPHD, but bundles in both cases would be great, especially with the 3DS remakes having been out for a while.

EDIT: oh, and I'm not quite "disappointed" with this, but Nintendo, you rereleased GCN controllers; let's see some special edition controllers again!

 

[LancerStaff]

And finally, for the Zelda remakes, I'm more forgiving for the 3DS remakes since they actually greatly upgrade the graphics and framerates, whereas WWHD and TPHD didn't (oh no, please, someone, tell me why the WiiU can't be expected to push 60fps with what are basically Gamecube graphics with bigger textures).

There's a reason, actually. WW and TP share an engine, and with that engine game time = frame rate. OoT and MM have the game time separate from the frame rate, as in the frame rate can be adjusted separately from game time. If you wanted to separate game time from frame rate in the newer games that'd require a complete engine rewrite, and manually adjusting everything to move half as fast to compensate for the game time being doubled would be a similarly massive undertaking.

You could say that making WW and TP like this was short-sighted, but I believe that was also the industry norm at the time and for games either not coming to PC or smaller games in general this is still used today. Honestly, I doubt even Zelda U will run at 60 fps on the NX since frame rate just isn't a priority with devs.

 

[SimonBarSinister]

And finally, for the Zelda remakes, I'm more forgiving for the 3DS remakes since they actually greatly upgrade the graphics and framerates, whereas WWHD and TPHD didn't (oh no, please, someone, tell me why the WiiU can't be expected to push 60fps with what are basically Gamecube graphics with bigger textures). TPHD pisses me off the most because it was arguably the most in need of changes yet it got the least significant update; it was just cobbled together to try and shut people up tide fans over until they were ready to show off real gameplay footage for ZeldaU that they've explicitly admitted to just be sitting on. Overall, I feel that the 3DS remakes are a bit more worth full retail price than WWHD and TPHD, but bundles in both cases would be great, especially with the 3DS remakes having been out for a while.

Here's my take on the issue: Of all games that could've been remade, why not choose games that could truly benefit from a revision? I don't believe that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are games that fall in this category, and to a lesser extent, the two 3DS games. As far as I'm concerned, all four of those games were just fine in their original forms. The time and resources spent on those games could've gone to something that really needed the upgrade. I would be ecstatic if, say, the Oracle games were brought into the modern era.

I'm fine with remakes, it's just that they should be done for games that DO need it.