Category: Video Game Musings

So, for those who missed the news, the next generation of Pokemon games, dubbed Sword and Shield, will be hitting the Nintendo Switch this year and this is certainly going to excite the diehard Pokemon fans who are into the franchise and stuck with it for so long.

Naturally, I’m not one of those people. My only experience with Pokemon was the first generation on Game Boy. Red, Blue, and Yellow. I’ve seen some of the anime, saw the First Movie, and even dabbled in that Pokemon Go game that was a hit a year or so ago.

After that first generation, I sort of drifted away from the franchise and when I peek back in, there’s suddenly hundreds of Pokemon in the litter and too much information to digest. Not only are there new generation games, but there are also remakes of the older generation titles on stronger hardware and now Pikachu’s a detective and… what the hell is going here?

For the younger folks and for those with way too much time on their hands who can invest themselves into learning the intricacies of all these various incarnations and whatnots, more power to you. It’s great to see a franchise last for two decades and still go pretty strong. Pokemon in its current form might not be my cup of tea, but for those who enjoy it, I hope this next wave turns out well and becomes as much of a hit as its predecessors.

Cheers.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/14/nintendo-will-not-make-more-nes-snes-classic-consoles/

In fairness to Nintendo, 2018 was a good year if you wanted to hunt for the NES or SNES Classic Edition systems since they were much easier to find in stores. A recent trip to a couple Walmarts around town still had a couple in stock, so they weren’t impossible to find. Regardless, Nintendo not planning on making more beyond the current stock shouldn’t have been a surprise since they’ve said as much for a while now, but people are still going to complain about it because… well, it’s social media.

There used to be a time when I saw someone bitch about the NES Classic being released at all because it meant Nintendo had no plans for the holidays back in the day and the Switch was still months away. Now that Switch is here and has its Online component with classic titles – even if they are the same paltry NES titles that have been re-released more times than Atari 2600 compilations and plug-and-play systems have seen the light of day – there’s no need to be for these systems to be around… at least in Nintendo’s mind.

Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen these last a little while longer. Not everyone is going to want a Switch or 3DS and these would’ve been a nice little side source of income for the company. And while I’m not clamoring for a N64 Classic like most people are, maybe a side line of classic console PnPs wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.

In any event, if you want an NES Classic or SNES Classic, best get them while they’re in stock because once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.

But look on the bright side. At least the Playstation Classic is a thing now. That has to be cool, right?

Right?

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/09/street-fighter-v-ads-december-11th/

So Street Fighter V is an interesting beast. Released back in 2016 in a half-finished state, receiving lukewarm reception, and taking close to two years to implement a goddamn Arcade Mode that had been standard in past Street Fighter games as well as any fighting game worth their weight in gold. And just when we finally got Street Fighter V up to respectable levels, Capcom is now going to introduce ads that you have to sit through if you want to unlock certain bits of tat.

In all honesty, I’ve not played much Street Fighter V even with the Arcade Edition upgrade. My interest waned quickly and really, once the Street Fighter 30th came along, SF5 was just a thing taking up hard drive space before I uninstalled the fucker. But with all that having been said, the fact that Capcom wants to implement ads in a game you paid full price for is yet another means of the bloated games industry trying to ruin the modern gaming scene.

Naturally, the pro players who make money off this shit as well as the diehard fans who will buy any pile of crap with the Street Fighter name on it will defend this practice and even praise Capcom, but for the sensible folks out there, you pay a premium on certain free-to-play mobile games to REMOVE the ads, not add more of the fucking things.

Let’s hope this sort of practice doesn’t leak into other Capcom games. I very much like to run through Mega Man 11 without being interrupted by stupid ads for Amway.

The whole show can join all those dead women in that fridge.

But then again, I don’t watch the stupid thing, so…