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Post by Sarge on Oct 9, 2021 22:58:00 GMT -5
Impressions so far: Yep, this is some Metroid alright. I'm still trying to grok the controls a bit - I'm definitely not nimble with it yet, and I don't like movement on analog sticks - but I figure I'll get there just as I did with Samus Returns. The EMMI sections are fine. I did die to the first "real" boss until I figured out exactly what I needed to do. As I said, I'm still trying to get a handle on these controls. But Samus is fast - way more nimble than almost any of the other games - and it's clear a lot of time was spent on movement tech.
Someone else voiced something I've thought before about Super Metroid - the moment-to-moment action isn't all that impressive. Kind of clunky, really. But it's the sense of exploration and the environments that make the game special. What we have here is definitely brings the series closer to a proper action game.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 9, 2021 23:40:56 GMT -5
Yeah I'll always prefer the precision of a good d-pad for such games. Maybe it's a good thing this game doesn't utilize the d-pad's for movement though, since they're not great on the Joycon/Pro controllers... lol. Super's atmosphere is just forever utterly unmatched. But yeah, I think Dread finally strikes an excellent balance between the action heavy focus while still having all the adventure/exploration in there. You won't catch me saying I love the EMMI sections. But because they're segmented in sections of the map that you can freely enter and leave, I think that's why I far prefer this idea over the stealth sections in Fusion. Those were more scripted and really annoying to me. They just weren't fun or interesting at all. Here the instant deaths from the EMMI (unless you land the tough parry) are thankfully offset by a respawn by those doors too. The controls and combinations of buttons gets pretty crazy man. It makes me laugh because that philosophy is so... not-really-Nintendo, or not-Miyamoto. That said movement-tech in Super Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild can get pretty crazy. But there's just a lot of things about Dread that don't feel like a Nintendo game in some ways to me, lol. Or it just still feels foreign because of how rare Metroid games are! I think Sakimoto must still have a pretty big influence on the design. I can still feel the traces of concepts/combat ideas and such back to Fusion, Other M, Samus Returns, etc. The core DNA is definitely there... and for my tastes, Dread feels like the ultimate payoff between these specific entries.
I don't know if I can put this one above Prime, but it seriously feels crazy to me to be thinking that I'm playing a new Metroid that's on the same level as those.
This game is freaking long too, trust me. I'm 99% sure the timer stops when you view menus, the map, cutscenes, and probably doesn't add up deaths, etc. There is no way in heck I've only played ~8 hours, more like double that at least over the last two days lol. So anyone looking at HLTB, keep that in mind. Probably a huge difference between in-game vs real time. When my Switch playtime clock updates I'll see if I can confirm this. I'm going for a high percentage and this feels like a ~20 hour game to me.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 10, 2021 2:01:41 GMT -5
Definitely caught a groove. This game is excellent so far.
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Post by Ex on Oct 10, 2021 2:05:11 GMT -5
I may check it out next month. Emulation's looking good:
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 10, 2021 9:34:41 GMT -5
If we don't get another 2D Metroid for 20 years... I will destroy you.
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Post by Ex on Oct 10, 2021 10:55:28 GMT -5
If anything stops more Metroids it'll be the fact that this one's actually challenging. I wonder how that's gonna go with all the new-to-Metroid Switch masses.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 10, 2021 11:30:33 GMT -5
Thankfully I think a lot of masses are conditioned to enjoy challenging games again thesedays. Seeing this win over a lot of people and some newbies to Metroid. I'm super envious a lot of people are just discovering one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time. Naturally I've heard some journalists complaining about things and probably thinking it's too hard, lmao. Thesedays if journalists cry, that means it's probably GOOD.
I don't think bosses have ever been too tough in the other 2D entries. So I loved how they were a lot more complex and challenging here. Should be interesting to see what Sarge thinks. The final boss was so damn good and not another Mother Brain or Metroid mother or anything, etc. There were some other bosses that had some crazy moves forcing you to use abilities in creative ways, it was so cool. For a genre and game design ideas that have been around for decades now, it's incredible what MercurySteam accomplished here making something familiar yet totally fresh. I was previously more excited for Prime 4 a bit before this week happened... now I'm almost worried if Retro Studios can hit this bar! Can't wait!
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Post by toei on Nov 22, 2021 15:26:59 GMT -5
So I spent most of the weekend sitting around an office with nothing to do and only my cellphone on me for reasons. After a lot of boredom, I decided to check out some mobile games. I installed something called "Ninja Arashi", an action-platformer with dark-shadows-on-dark-shadows type graphics. Surprisingly, it's actually good. Like in Shinobi, shuriken are you main weapons; you also have a dash attack that kills enemies instantly but needs to recharge after. There are (very easy to perform) double-jumps and wall jumps, and you can turn into a log momentarily to escape notice, but I never use that. Aside from enemies, the levels are filled with traps. Bombs hidden in the crates that usually have goodies, spikes that come of the ground, rolling boulders, gunmen that come out of trap doors in the walls, etc. At first it feels somewhat unfair because they're hard to pick up due to the visual style, but after a while you adapt. I'm not mad at that; ninjas are supposed to move at night, so having to get used to discrete visual tells makes sense. There are tons of levels and only one boss at the very end of the game, and after a while, you've seen every trap and enemy type, so it does get repetitive. But the level design is tight and keeps finding new ways to mix the traps so I'm still into it at this point, probably a little over halfway through. In terms of game design, it's very much a throwback that does nothing new, but you can tell the makers studied the genre well. I've gotten used enough to the touchscreen controls that they rarely bother me anymore. For a free, ad-supported mobile game, it's better than it has any right to be. I'm surprised they didn't put it on Steam for a few bucks. I paid the 99 cents required to remove the ads as soon as I found out I could.
It seems it did pretty well, because when I came back later I downloaded a few ninja games by other developers and one of them was an absolutely shameless rip-off of it down to every aspect. The level design seemed really lazy though, with nothing going on. The Google Play store is such a weird, lawless parallel universe of gaming. They "sell" or offer F2P games that take Mario, draw him a little weird, and rename him "Bob" like it's nothing, and every game that does well gets copied in a much more shameless, thorough and uninteresting manner than "real" games have always taken from each other. I've even come across several reviews accusing certain companies of stealing other mobile games and just changing the title. A lot of it is like corporate-approved romhacks with money involved. It's kind of fascinating.
I ended up deleting every other ninja and samurai game I tried because they were all mediocre or involved too much in-game purchases and "log in every day for benefits" bullshit. By contrast, Ninja Arashi is really a classic type of game that keeps all that to a minimum. There's a sequel, too, which I'll want to check out.
There's this comment under the video: "It looks like a simpler/dumber version of Mark of the Ninja for the mobile market. The enemies here don't seem to do anything other than dying inelegently." It's a stupid comment - Mark of the Ninja is a 2D stealth game, and this is an action game. Action isn't "dumber" than stealth. But I'll probably give Mark of the Ninja a shot at some point.
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Post by Ex on Nov 24, 2021 11:54:03 GMT -5
I paid the 99 cents required to remove the ads as soon as I found out I could. Back when I was playing lots of Android games, for stuff like that I'd just disable the Wi-Fi/cellular data when I played ad supported games. That always made the ads disappear, since they couldn't load. In general it is difficult to find truly good mobile games which operate like a traditional video game would. There were a few years where I was heavy into Android gaming, maybe 1 out of every 100 games I tried was decent. I did indeed play some Android games that were excellent, but they were the exception. The signal to noise ratio was so bad I eventually abandoned mobile gaming entirely. But anyway, the ninja game you linked looked decent enough for a bit of time killing fluff. - With the Thanksgiving holiday, I'm going on a trip where I'll be gone for three days (if you guys don't see me after today until Saturday or Sunday that's why). Staying at a hotel so I figured I'd bring a portable. Decided to bring a portable that I use for emulation, and last night loaded this onto it: www.romhacking.net/hacks/3280/Figure I'll play it in the evenings the next few days. I recall Xeogred enjoying this one.
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Post by Xeogred on Nov 24, 2021 16:44:03 GMT -5
I think it'll really surprise you. Feels like a real sequel in ways.
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