Brickman

6 hours ago, AirVillain said:

I would say, in an SNES discussion only, that it is a "great" game....

Well the superior SMB3 is on the SNES as well. So technically it can fall into a SNES discussion 

1 hour ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I would love for someone who is paying these prices to convince me the console is worth the cost of admission.

I couldn’t tell you why someone is paying $300 for a console (they go for way cheaper here so must just be a US thing) but I can see why people are jumping into the console. It has a killer library.

Mario 3D land, Kirby games, remakes of Zelda games and a link between worlds, SMT games, a lot of great FE games, decent Pokemon games, professor Layton, remakes of Mario & Luigi games, MK7, Etrian Odyssey, yokai watch, Luigi’s Mansion 1 & 2, castlevania mirror of fate and I could keep going but that alone would keep someone very busy.

I give it a 9/10. It's a great game but it really is a step down after SMB3. The levels are fun but they don't have anything on SMB3 and SMB1 imo.

I'm replaying Yoshi's Island on the GBA and I'm actually starting to think that Yoshi's Island may even beat out SMW. That game looks amazing, has a better variety of levels, the bosses are fun and all different and if you're trying to collect everything it is pretty challenging.

5 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Okay so I played a bunch of Diddy Kong Racing.... But figured I would "beat the game" and complete the adventure mode. Didn't seem to insane to attempt.... BUT WHY IN THE SWEET JESUS LORD IN FUCKING HELL is the silver coin bullshit so annoyingly hard????

There's 2 levels I can't get.... The town in Frosty Village took me forever, too, fuck. A couple of them too were ridiculous, in Windmill Plains no matter what I did the computer would ALWAYS be too far in front to reach.... but I managed to get them except the last 2 in the Dragon Forest. Greenwood Village.... can't do it. 

And yeah, the racing is cool, probably fun with friends.... but the Adventure mode itself is fucking annoying.

I 100% this game when I was 14. You can do it!

It is actually a pretty hard game though, it starts off so easy then becomes brutal. Wizpig #2 is very difficult. I spent a week learning that race.

The 3DS has always sort of held its value or only dipped if a new model came out. The limited editions have always fetched a high price too. I missed the SNES version and it never came down in price.

It was also released in 2011 and had an amazing library so I can see people now wanting to revisit it and they may have sold their 3DS.

45 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Let's do this

Glad I’m not the only one who is just going to watch them all because they all sounded interesting

Planning to start on Nightmare City tonight.

If a game isn’t available anywhere else and the original creator lost the source code, then I could see an xbla game on a hard drive being desirable. But outside of that, people will just play the games elsewhere.

PT PS4’s sold for a premium because you couldn’t get it anywhere else and Sony removed it.

42 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I hereby submit that I will make a concerted effort to watch the movies put forward in this club. 

You need to join a regular movie club with all the stuff Reed posts in the movie debate threads before you can even think about watching B movies 

Just kidding, hope you can watch a few.

Great idea for a club! I'm ok with watching most things as long as it is a 4 or higher on imdb  

Both of those sound good so I'm fine with either.

35 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Chris Hemsworth was funnier than anything in Afterlife.  Which is ironic considering the woman cast.  My biggest complaint is they wasted Kristen Wiig in the straight (wo)man role.  That's not her groove.

Yes but he isn't the whole movie, it's Ghostbusters not The Kevin movie. The movie overall just wasn't funny to me and it wasn't well written. 

39 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

They shrunk the budget for Afterlife.  Pretty much the only reason since the reviews and box office were about the same.

Afterlife was alright.  Basically carried by Paul Rudd, who I find funny,

Well that would be another plus to Afterlife. Had a smaller budget to work with and still managed to get a sequel and generally favorable reviews on open.

I like Paul Rudd in it and he was funny but I think that the teens actually did a really good job in it and it felt like a better continuation of the series then some bad reboot.

2 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

2016 is legit funny and we watch it almost as frequently as the OG.  And Chris Hemsworth is hysterical as Kevin.  I get it if Melissa McCarthy puts some people out but what about this movie is bad? 

My impression is that people just saw "Girl Ghostbusters" and generally flew off the handle without giving it a real shot.  2016 is mostly played for laughs and it delivers.

I guess comedy is subjective. That movie was definitely not funny imo. I don't think people saw girl Ghostbusters and dismissed it, I think they saw an awful movie and dismissed it. There's a reason why Afterlife got a sequel and 2016 didn't. Afterlife did a better job in trying to capture the Ghostbusters feel.

Geez some brutal takes in this thread. 

I went with a 7 (it’s a 7.5 for me). When I was younger I would have gone with an 8-8.5 but I re watched it about 2-3 years ago during my Bill Murray marathon and it didn’t quite hold up as well as I remember. It does drag on and the story has some pacing issues. However it’s still a fun movie and worth watching every now and then.

16 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Ghostbusters > Ghostbusters 2016 > Ghostbusters 2 ≥

This has to be a troll? 2016 Ghostbusters is just a terrible terrible movie. No way that garbage heap rates higher than 2.

54 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Come on man.  Read the line you just quoted in bold yourself. 

He's saying that you shouldn't try to speedrun the game without knowing where you're going. And somehow you chose to interpret that as that being the only way to play it?
Just chill and enjoy the game, and when you know the game well, you can look cooler playing through it. Just like any good arcade-style video game.

I'd agree with you if that's actually what happened. You're not gonna get killed by that crab if you're spinning. And if you're not spinning, why the hell not? That's clearly your own fault.

These situations in Sonic 2 or 3 are extremely rare, and don't represent the majority of the game. They aren't perfect about it sure, but they also aren't nearly as terrible with it as Sonic Mania. The majority of the game can be enjoyed speeding casually through, and if you're a big fan of the game and play it through a lot, you'll be even faster at it.

Just like other games when you get good at them, you die less, you know? It's not entirely novel.
You wouldn't criticize a racing game for having corners either.

Pretty good summary imo.

I think the whole speed thing is being really overblown. Especially for 2 & 3. There is a spin dash and the enemy placements are mostly predictable or easy to see coming.

Most people here are serious gamers and really shouldn’t be struggling with running or spin dashing in Sonic 2 

LEGO Star Wars (GBA)

The Star Wars logo appears in all its 16bit glory with the Star Wars theme song blasting in the background in beautiful stereo sound. From here, it is only downhill. 

I haven’t played a lot of the LEGO games, but the ones I have were decent and a bit of fun when played with another person. These were of course played on a console and not a handheld. 

This game just should not have been ported to the GBA. It is too big and too much is happening for the GBA to handle a game of this size.  

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. There are no intro story credits, a lot of the time it can be confusing what you are meant to be doing, so much laaaaaaag, some sections enemies don’t attack because there’s too many on screen and the GBA can’t handle it, everything looks the same or feels like you’re just doing the same thing over and over, difficulty is not balanced well, Episode 1 gets a good balance of health and difficulty, Episode 2 you will be struggling to find health and Episode 3 you get so much health that most levels become trivial. 

There isn’t too much going for this game, but it isn’t a complete train wreck. Each scenario usually will have one or two other characters you can switch between, some scenarios will even require it. Each character feels different and has different abilities, I think they did a great job with this. The Sith fights are pretty fun and do require a bit of strategy. There’s also a bit to unlock in this game and you can replay scenarios with unlocked characters. The LEGO models also look great, and they have done a pretty good job with the vehicles looking like a LEGO model. 

It’s not the worst way to spend a spare 2-3 hours but there’s just too many shortcomings to recommend this game to people. 

4.5/10 

I think the debate has been pretty good and civil. Would be a bit boring if we all agreed.

6 hours ago, wongojack said:

Thank you - great advice.

I don't do the phone/wallet thing, but the agency seems to be providing us with something called the Manaca card?  Don't know if it is the same as the Suica card.  I had heard about Suica before but not Manaca.  This is what they say about it (don't know why it references Nagoya): 

We are supplying you with Manaca cards, Nagoya’s version of the IC card. You will be able to use this throughout your time in Japan for travelling on buses, subways, over ground railways and in some places you will even be able to pay for taxis, buy drinks from vending machines and pay for your bento in a convenience store! Your card comes with 2,500 yen of credit and can be topped up in any major city at the automatic ticket machines at any station.

I haven’t heard of that one but some cities have their version of IC card which can be used around Japan so this would be Nagoya’s version.

The physical Suica cards are currently suspended due to not having enough chips for them so maybe the travel agent was able to source Nagoya IC cards. 

19 minutes ago, wongojack said:

We are stopping in 4 places, Tokyo, Kawaguchiko (lake district near Fuji, Osaka, and Kyoto.  12 days total with the longest stops in Tokyo and Kyoto.  We settled on that itinerary after considering some other close by places but ultimately stuck with those 4.  Nagasaki and Hiroshima were just a bit too far away for the pace we want to be on, and while somewhat nearby places like Takayama, Matsumoto, and Kanazawa offered less urban type of options, we probably would have been hopping between them as one-night stays which we just weren't up for this time.  We may take ourselves to a place near Kyoto called Ohara as a daytrip type thing.

I'm from the USA and me and my wife both speak foreign languages (not Japanese) and have both lived outside of our homeland.  We've been all over the place and had fun planning trips for ourselves, but for the first time, we are using a travel agent.  We actually just paid the deposit on the proposed itinerary today.  We went with an agent because we didn't want to be on any sort of guided tour, but we also felt we needed some help planning the day-to-day stuff to make sure we are getting the most from the experience.  We didn't want to be completely on our own planning this trip.  As a result, we've got some walking tours, food tours, a sword fighting lesson (huh?), and even get to stay in a Ryokan where they give you robes and serve you dinner.  It'll be a great trip.

In terms of buying stuff, I'm not really interested in bargain hunting as much as I just am looking for a token souvenir.  Something that I can't get at home etc.  I kind of exited the acquisition phase of my collecting a long time ago, and I've never really been all that into Japanese games and manga.  I will be taking notes on the info you already provided as it kinda sounds like I can get what I'm after from the stuff you've already mentioned.

Anyway, very interested to hear more . . .

 

You'll have an amazing time, 12 days will fly but you'll have fun  Kawaguchiko is nice and has a cable car near there which is nice, I also recommend going to Arakurayama Sengen Park. You take the train and then walk a bit to it. It's a really nice walk and there are some people selling food along the way. I'd also recommend Fuji Q Highland for the insane rollercoasters but you probably won't be in the area for that long.

Load the digital Suica card on your phone if you haven't already. It can be used on all local transport in all cities and is easier than buying tickets every day. For Apple just open the wallet app and you can add it. Not sure for Android.

Knowing Japanese helps but it isn't really required in those cities. Everything is well signed and has the English underneath. Most speak a minimal amount of English or at the worst point to things. They always show the total to you before you buy things. Don't believe the myth about everything being in cash. In those cities you'll barely need it. Google maps was a great tool for public transport. It always had the correct platform and timetable along with every stop. The train system in Tokyo is easy to navigate which is good. Kyoto is a pain though because it mainly uses buses.

In terms of just getting one item like a token souvenir that isn't as common in the US then I think an original game and watch would be pretty cool. The prices can range depending on the game and how complete it is. Expect to pay anywhere between $150-250. A GBA Micro would also be pretty cool if you like Gameboy stuff.

@RH sorry just re read your question. Yes outside of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto there are a lot of shops that still have decent prices. The days of super low priced retro games are gone though.

I actually got sucked into Xbox360 collecting because they were selling stuff for $1-4 and I picked up quite a few of the 360 CAVE shmups for $20-30 in mint condition. PS3, 3DS and 360 are basically the new retro there. Prices are super cheap for most of those platforms.

Just now, RH said:

@Brickman, are there alternatives to Super Potato? I always here that it’s over priced and it sounds like it’s geared to Westerners visiting Japan.

Are there alternative shops, maybe in less touristee areas geared toward local?

Anyway, if I were to visit Japan, I actually would like to see the country side.  Everything you see and about Japan from the outside seems to promote the business of it’s cities, but I’d like to see a rural town, go to Mount Fuji, see how Kobe beef is raised, etc.

All the shops in Akihabara are unfortunately tourist focused now. It’s a cool place but I’d consider it a living museum now vs a place to score deals. The shop Beep was pretty cool because they had old PC and Sharp stuff, it was of course priced accordingly.

In terms of my actual trip, you hit the nail on the head. See the rural stuff, it’s breathtaking and not overcrowded. We went to the Kyushu region and drove around. We hiked around volcanoes and walked through forests. Breath taking stuff really.

Kobe was one of my favourite cities and the beef melted in my mouth. I only did a day there but wish I had done more.

Tokyo is absolutely off the rails bonkers and there’s so much to do there. I loved it and you could really spend a month there and still have more to see.

Osaka I found to be pretty average honestly, universal is great but the US universal is basically the same but better spread out and the fast pass is better.

Kyoto was pretty and I loved the mix of traditional and new but the public transport sucks and it is overcrowded with tourists now because they pushed people there.

Anywhere else you’re going @wongojack?

I just got back from Japan and it was an amazing time. Bad news is that you have to go outside of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto to find anything decently priced. Kobe and Hiroshima were the best places for me.

Sure, Super Potato have interesting stuff, but the retro stuff is all marked up to insane prices. If you’re looking for PS2 stuff it might be ok. Forget Gameboy or Game & Watch, pretty expensive. 

Checkout Book Offs when you’re walking around. A lot have retro stuff and sometimes it’s ok priced.

If you want common Famicom and SFC carts they are still not too badly priced. The rarer Famicom and SFC stuff is mostly priced to eBay in those cities.

The old Sega arcade in Akihabara is pretty good and you can use your Suica card. Tamashii Nations in Akihabara is also good if you’re into action figures.

I couldn’t find any video game museums in Japan which was strange. 

Feel free to ask me any questions about Japan video game or non video game related and I’ll try and help.

Good luck at Osaka station. You’ll need it. I was lost for an hour trying to find the way to my accommodation that was 8mins away. Worst station ever.

59 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

The difference is that Sonic regularly forces you to go fast and doesn't give you enough time to react. This is cheap difficulty and any not-popular game would get flamed hard for this. By contrast, SMB gives you plenty of time to react to the first goomba and almost every other threat in the game. It doesn't feel cheap and you don't have to play the levels over and over again in order to memorize everything and to get by. However, if you do, you can also speed through the game like crazy. It's a game that rewards god playing while still being fun for beginners and intermediate players.

And the argument of "git gud" can be used for pretty much any game to disregard criticism about its flaws. It's not really constructive.

My point with Kid Kool was, that it has similar design elements (or flaws, in my opinion), but it's somehow regarded as one of the worst games on the NES that barely gets played even in the challenges on this site, whereas Sonic is widely regarded as one of the best, if not THE single best game on the entire Genesis/Mega Drive. So I must be missing something. My theory was, that this is because of clever marketing and Sonic's unique place in the history of the console war. But yeah, reading through RH's replies there must be something that I don't quite see or get at the moment.

However, I think it's really nasty of you to ridicule an honest and civilized discussion, twisting the arguments and dragging it all through the mud with passive-aggressive comments.

To me that’s what makes Sonic so good. You learn the game and enemy placements and are rewarded with speed. The reflex reaction to enemies keeps you alert and adds to the challenge. 

I love that one moment you can be speeding through a level and then it makes you slow it down with some platforming.

The style isn’t for everyone, those who like a more traditional platformer probably struggle with it more imo.

The git gud was just me and Reed messing around  

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Maybe Sonic should git a gooder game 

Already are, you just need to improve your abilities 

23 minutes ago, G-type said:

I always viewed the "gotta go fast" as your reward for memorizing the levels and knowing what parts you can blaze through after having thoroughly explored it. Anyone trying to race through the level without knowing where they're going is doing it wrong. It's like trying to speedrun ANY game without having mastered it first.

Yep well said.

It’s like watching a kid play SMB for the first time and dying on the first goomba. They learn the levels and eventually are flying through the game.

Same goes with Sonic. Learn the levels and you’ll be flying through the levels and not losing rings. 

Nice pickups. I’ve been sucked into going for the Japanese 360 set now. The Japanese version of that 50 cent game is really expensive.

I went with an 8. I had this on the MD growing up and really enjoyed it. Never could beat it until I got older. The remake is also a solid game and worth playing.

I haven’t voted in these but I have to come into support Sonic.

I’m a Treasure fan but I have always found gunstar heroes to be just ok.

Sonic 2 on the other hand is amazing, only to be beaten by Sonic 3. Those who keep losing their rings need to get good, it’s not Sonics fault you failed