Super Mario Series

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh you're right, I think I was thinking of Activision there. Most of MS's studios are just boring.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I only brought that game up since he was the Xbox mascot until they decided to just go with Master Chief. I never played it, myself; sucks to hear it was boring.

Yeah, EA and Activision are still the kings of destroying quality development houses. Though I honestly can't think of too many examples where MS did that aside from Rare.

I always feel that MS was so stupid when it came to their failure to secure awesome exclusive IPs. Their mishandling of Rare was the dumbest of all, as they literally could have stolen BK from Nintendo and made it their franchise if they let Rare make sequels to it. They could have even had Rare make a brand new IP suited to their strengths in the platforming genre, at the very least.

But my personal annoyance with them is how they were too fucking blinded by Halo's success to snag a deal with Tecmo/Team Ninja (back when they were still an awesome developer) after the huge critical and moderate financial success of Ninja Gaiden. They obviously must have known that the PS2 made lots of sales for the DMC and GoW games, and here was worthy competition for both headed by a guy who loved the XBOX and made the game exclusive to it by choice. With Microsoft's funding, NG could have become one of their staple franchises, and if they handled marketing, it would have certainly sold more, while Team Ninja would ensure that it was always top quality and got great reviews.

Instead they let it slip through their fingers in pursuit of failed JRPGs (except for maybe Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia, though the latter made it to the PS3, anyways), and they never tried to secure exclusivity on any other promising franchises or developers that ever made exclusive games for them, either. They just saw that games like JSRF, Escape From Butcher Bay, Psychonauts, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Stranger's Wrath (among others) didn't sell nearly as well as Halo games did. They didn't consider that with the right push, these already critically acclaimed titles could turn into lucrative money-making franchises for them based on a reputation of innovative gameplay and high quality.

Nope, instead they pushed shitty games like Fable to become mediocre franchises. So fucking stupid.

[Foggle]

Yeah, that sounds like you hit the nail on the head. Instead of hoping for more instant successes like they had with Halo, they should have looked at what was popular with critics and players - even if they didn't sell particularly well - and nurtured those games into best-selling franchises. Quality sells itself if it has competent marketing. Shocking that so few publishers seem to get that.

[gunswordfist]

I liked Blinx and Fable.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I haven't liked anything Peter Molyneux has ever done.

[Foggle]

I'm no fan of Molyneux, but Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 are some of the best games I've ever played.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Peter Molyneux is almost like the English version of Itagaki. Both developers love to hype up their games with big promises. The only difference is that one of them usually actually delivers a great game, whereas the other one, well....not so much.

[Avaitor]

Blinx was... okay, I guess? Pretty blah.

I think I heard the sequel was better, but was hardly a masterpiece itself.

[gunswordfist]

I remember liking the demo.

[Kiddington]

Blinx was.....janky as hell from what I remember. Not a fun game at all.

I don't know what they were going for with that control scheme, but just, ugh. Good on them in trying something unique I guess, but the execution was just all off.

I think I heard the sequel was better, but was hardly a masterpiece itself.

Yeah has anyone actually played this? From what I remember reading, they apparently fixed a lot of the problems from the original. I guess if that is true though, the damage had already been done at that point.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So did anyone else see the footage of Super Mario Maker from the Nintendo World Championships? It was pretty insane.

Skip head to the 3 hour 29 minute mark for some craziness.

Seriously, watch it if you're a Mario fan.

[Kiddington]

Super Mario Maker basically went from "glorified level editor" to "completely off the board party game".

That's good IMO. Making insanity gauntlets to torture your drunk friends? Gives this some very unique staying power.

[talonmalon333]

Just curious, does the Wii U allow online play for DS games (that originally had online multiplayer) that arrive on VC?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Nope.

[talonmalon333]

How does Galaxy play on the Wii U? From what I hear, it doesn't use the same control scheme as the original.