I saw someone just say it in a tweet earlier. They showed side-by-sides of MK8 tracks and DLC tracks. I mean, they weren't wrong. It's pretty obvious these tracks were made for Tour and are getting ported over (I think this is literally the only reason they're doing this DLC - they already did most of the work), so they were designed with mobile phones in mind, not the Switch. Still, they don't look that bad to me? I dunno, they seem fine. I guess I mostly just don't care as long as they look better than the old tracks (which they all do - Choco Mountain looked sweet). Overall the quality isn't low enough to be noticeably bad (i.e. let's say Wii quality or worse). It's just not as flashy as the MK8 tracks.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Is Earthbound Beginnings worth a play through or is it too painful? I'm well aware how many of the nes rpgs I grew up on haven't aged well... at least I can fire up Earthbound again now, without worrying about late fees.
It's fairly rough to play through these days, you have things like party members joining at level 1 with no equipment so you need to gear and grind them up, the areas are huge with lots of random battles, and especially the final area is very unbalanced: you can be strong enough to take on the final boss and still get utterly wrecked by one or two random encounters there. Also the localization isn't quite as charming as Earthbound's, what's available might not be a final draft, considering the original release was cancelled.
Still, I liked it enough to finish it, and I think I like the music more than Earthbound's.
It's fairly rough to play through these days, you have things like party members joining at level 1 with no equipment so you need gear and grind them up, the areas are huge with lots of random battles, and especially the final area is very unbalanced: you can be strong enough to take on the final boss and still get utterly wrecked by one or two random encounters there. Also the localization isn't quite as charming as Earthbound's, what's available not be a final draft, considering the release was cancelled.
Still, I liked it enough to finish it.
I wish they'd throw a bunch of money at Square and have them remake all 3 games for them in their HD-2D style.
It's fairly rough to play through these days, you have things like party members joining at level 1 with no equipment so you need gear and grind them up, the areas are huge with lots of random battles, and especially the final area is very unbalanced: you can be strong enough to take on the final boss and still get utterly wrecked by one or two random encounters there. Also the localization isn't quite as charming as Earthbound's, what's available not be a final draft, considering the release was cancelled.
Still, I liked it enough to finish it.
I wish they'd throw a bunch of money at Square and have them remake all 3 games for them in their HD-2D style.
I wish they'd make new games that iterate on those engines and mechanics instead of just rehashing them. I kind of get wanting to pretty up classics to introduce them to a modern audience, but it's a weird thing specific almost only to video games (you see it sometimes in literature translation too). Like if someone said they wanted to do Star Wars Remastered, a shot for shot remake but in ultra super high def with much better costumes and Avatar level CGI, or were rewriting Moby Dick but making no changes except inserting modern slang, people would think you're crazy. The low technology and what was done with it is an important part of its identity, and different from fixing dumbass technical limitations like only one save slot or no multiplayer without being in the same room with a special cord.
It's fairly rough to play through these days, you have things like party members joining at level 1 with no equipment so you need gear and grind them up, the areas are huge with lots of random battles, and especially the final area is very unbalanced: you can be strong enough to take on the final boss and still get utterly wrecked by one or two random encounters there. Also the localization isn't quite as charming as Earthbound's, what's available not be a final draft, considering the release was cancelled.
Still, I liked it enough to finish it.
I wish they'd throw a bunch of money at Square and have them remake all 3 games for them in their HD-2D style.
I wish they'd make new games that iterate on those engines and mechanics instead of just rehashing them. I kind of get wanting to pretty up classics to introduce them to a modern audience, but it's a weird thing specific almost only to video games (you see it sometimes in literature translation too). Like if someone said they wanted to do Star Wars Remastered, a shot for shot remake but in ultra super high def with much better costumes and Avatar level CGI, or were rewriting Moby Dick but making no changes except inserting modern slang, people would think you're crazy. The low technology and what was done with it is an important part of its identity, and different from fixing dumbass technical limitations like only one save slot or no multiplayer without being in the same room with a special cord.
While this is true, games are a bit different given A: how new they are, and B: how difficult or inaccessible it can be to play older games.
I wish they'd make new games that iterate on those engines and mechanics instead of just rehashing them. I kind of get wanting to pretty up classics to introduce them to a modern audience, but it's a weird thing specific almost only to video games (you see it sometimes in literature translation too). Like if someone said they wanted to do Star Wars Remastered, a shot for shot remake but in ultra super high def with much better costumes and Avatar level CGI, or were rewriting Moby Dick but making no changes except inserting modern slang, people would think you're crazy. The low technology and what was done with it is an important part of its identity, and different from fixing dumbass technical limitations like only one save slot or no multiplayer without being in the same room with a special cord.
Considering how much video game tech has advanced over the last 4 decades, doing a modernized remake of old NES/SNES games would be more like remaking a silent movie.
Is Earthbound Beginnings worth a play through or is it too painful? I'm well aware how many of the nes rpgs I grew up on haven't aged well... at least I can fire up Earthbound again now, without worrying about late fees.
Earthbound Beginnings feels very old school. It is quite grindy and it's easy to get to a point where you're not quite sure what to do or where to go next without using a guide (it's actually pretty non-linear). Maps are much larger than they need to be and make it hard to orient yourself. It's somebody's first attempt at an RPG and feels like it.
However, I would argue it does some things better than Earthbound, particularly its story. Earthbound is a good localization and full of great quirky things, but the actual plot is kind of random and disjointed and falls a little flat. Beginnings also has a lot of strange things going on in the world that feel unrelated, but all slowly build toward a central set of revelations that are pretty cool. It's not weird for the sake of weird, there's a point to everything, and it has some heart, too. And knowing the story of Beginnings makes references to it in Earthbound a little more impactful.
Also, that same sparse world design I mentioned earlier coupled with the soundtrack lends a bleak/melancholy atmosphere to the game. The music is pretty great. There's a good reason its music was primarily used for Smash Bros rather than Earthbound's.
There's even a well-produced vocal album, made around the time of the game's original release in 1989, that gets across their intent with those simple NES chiptunes.
There's another version of the Live A Live trailer without the commentary and with some extra stuff like world traversal and some voice samples. Looks Hype.
Hmm. This is one of those cases where I feel just saying out loud "spoilers!" is actually more spoiling, because nothing in that video means jack shit to somebody if you don't know. At the same time... I really question putting Orested in the trailer. Again out of context it means nothing at all. It's also going to stand out as to why his chapter is mysteriously missing at the start. Which spoils the initial surprise that the game isn't actually over after the 7th character. I dunno. I don't have any strong feelings on the matter, not enough to get indignint on the internet over it. I just think they really probably shouldn't have put him in the trailer.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Hmm. This is one of those cases where I feel just saying out loud "spoilers!" is actually more spoiling, because nothing in that video means jack shit to somebody if you don't know. At the same time... I really question putting Orested in the trailer. Again out of context it means nothing at all. It's also going to stand out as to why his chapter is mysteriously missing at the start. Which spoils the initial surprise that the game isn't actually over after the 7th character. I dunno. I don't have any strong feelings on the matter, not enough to get indignint on the internet over it. I just think they really probably shouldn't have put him in the trailer.
I'm thinking the trailers are more for people in Japan that already know the game and it's spoilers, and they just straight localized them for other regions while tossing an extra "first time outside Japan" on them.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
Hmm. This is one of those cases where I feel just saying out loud "spoilers!" is actually more spoiling, because nothing in that video means jack shit to somebody if you don't know. At the same time... I really question putting Orested in the trailer. Again out of context it means nothing at all. It's also going to stand out as to why his chapter is mysteriously missing at the start. Which spoils the initial surprise that the game isn't actually over after the 7th character. I dunno. I don't have any strong feelings on the matter, not enough to get indignint on the internet over it. I just think they really probably shouldn't have put him in the trailer.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
0
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Yeah, but what they’re doing is just moving the tracks from the mobile game over to 8. The tracks in 8 looked so much better, so there’s a visual difference between the base game tracks and the DLC.
Strange there's no female playable characters. It came out in 1994, which was a time where female RPG characters were definitely a thing.
MIght have something to do with having to play all of these characters solo. They (for the most part?) don't form a party dynamic like in your average RPG. If you follow the common (but not universal) "MC must be male" logic then you have to apply that to 7+ MCs. Also the movie rule of "all women are defined by a relationship with a man" means they have no purpose without a party.
Basically feminism was probably not the main driving force behind inclusion for a lot of RPG creators of the time.
Really, don’t, unless you’ve already played the game.
Technically, there is an option for a female player character. But that’s dependent on how the Imperial China chapter progresses, and so is not guaranteed.
I think the only other female party member is Bel in the prehistory chapter, and only briefly.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Have they actually said that, or are people just assuming? I'll wait for the first set to drop to find out, but I figured they were doing what they always did: One cup of four retro tracks from old games (I don't like to use the word port when it's a flat track taken from the GBA game and turned into multi-level rollercoaster), and one cup of original tracks.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Have they actually said that, or are people just assuming? I'll wait for the first set to drop to find out, but I figured they were doing what they always did: One cup of four retro tracks from old games (I don't like to use the word port when it's a flat track taken from the GBA game and turned into multi-level rollercoaster), and one cup of original tracks.
First tracks have been announced , you can check them out on the Nintendo website.
I'm not going to go so far as to say they need to add more characters to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (though I'm all for that), but at the very least, give us some of those alternate costumes from Tour...
I take back the part about the characters, after remembering who was missing...
Yes definitely, they really need to add the new Tour characters (and some of the new karts) at some point. I can't imagine they would be that hard to port over.
I'm guessing the models don't match exactly so they probably would be annoying. (if I'm wrong about that and Tour uses MK8 models, nm :P Although there are potential graphic fidelity issues which I've already seen people bring up about the new DLC courses not looking as good as the base courses)
I really wish they would add more characters though. Like, it's still so friggin weird to me they never added Pauline to MK8 DX after Odyssey came out. I've also always been supportive of adding in E. Gadd as a racer :P Hell, put Nabbit in there too.
well it's paid content, not free DLC. They can work on the models.
They're outright remaking most of these tracks from the ground up, it's not like they can just import a track from MK64 and uprez the textures. It might be different for Tour (the only game made recently enough that they may have had this in mind when they did it), but I'm just aware of the fact that these conclusions are being made on a few second of video and some screenshots, and it's feeling like Spider-Man Puddlegate all over again.
Occam's Razor suggests this is a stylistic choice, and I'm fine with that.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Have they actually said that, or are people just assuming? I'll wait for the first set to drop to find out, but I figured they were doing what they always did: One cup of four retro tracks from old games (I don't like to use the word port when it's a flat track taken from the GBA game and turned into multi-level rollercoaster), and one cup of original tracks.
They're outright remaking most of these tracks from the ground up, it's not like they can just import a track from MK64 and uprez the textures. It might be different for Tour (the only game made recently enough that they may have had this in mind when they did it), but I'm just aware of the fact that these conclusions are being made on a few second of video and some screenshots, and it's feeling like Spider-Man Puddlegate all over again.
Occam's Razor suggests this is a stylistic choice, and I'm fine with that.
No, they appear to be directly porting across tracks from Tour which is their most recent/concurrent Mario Kart project, and may have a similar engine and development pipeline for ease of compatibility. You can look at the tracks in question in Tour and see that they have the same extremely simple/cartoony look because they just ported it right across. Here is Toad Circuit for example.
That doesn't mean the physical tracks are bad or won't be fun to race on, but this isn't a stylistic choice. This is what they already had lying around.
The new tracks are definitely in a completely different graphical style. More importantly, nothing in the trailer showed any antigravity sections. Which makes sense if these tracks are direct ports from Mario Kart Tour, but makes them look like a quick cash grab compared to the extensive reworks that retro tracks in the base game got to make them fit the Mario Kart 8 mechanics. Zero-G is literally the titular feature of 8!
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Have they actually said that, or are people just assuming? I'll wait for the first set to drop to find out, but I figured they were doing what they always did: One cup of four retro tracks from old games (I don't like to use the word port when it's a flat track taken from the GBA game and turned into multi-level rollercoaster), and one cup of original tracks.
they said it like 35 times
Yeah they said it's only tracks from old games. What people are assuming is that these are just ports from the mobile game, and not just a different art style.
I must be in the minority but from what I've seen of the tracks they look fine and can't wait to play more Mario Kart 8.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
If it's a stylistic choice, why would they choose to make their new Mario Kart 8 tracks look nothing like Mario Kart 8? They aren't. They are copy/pasting over low fidelity mobile game tracks to make a quick buck.
The retro tracks already included in Mario Kart 8 have fantastic detail. Just look at Rainbow Road 64! It's gorgeous. These "new" DLC tracks are all flat shaded low geometry plastic.
I must be in the minority but from what I've seen of the tracks they look fine and can't wait to play more Mario Kart 8.
What stings more is that the earlier round of MK8 DLC was created with care to fit with the rest of the tracks in the game, in its existing hi-res textured art style. It introduces inconsistency where there wasn't before. And it also likely means that all the new tracks will be in that style so they can be reused across games...otherwise it'd be jarring to alternate between these two levels of fidelity in the same cup.
Reminds me a little of what they pulled back in the day with Wuhu Island as a reused setting.
They're outright remaking most of these tracks from the ground up, it's not like they can just import a track from MK64 and uprez the textures. It might be different for Tour (the only game made recently enough that they may have had this in mind when they did it), but I'm just aware of the fact that these conclusions are being made on a few second of video and some screenshots, and it's feeling like Spider-Man Puddlegate all over again.
Occam's Razor suggests this is a stylistic choice, and I'm fine with that.
No, they appear to be directly porting across tracks from Tour which is their most recent/concurrent Mario Kart project, and may have a similar engine and development pipeline for ease of compatibility. You can look at the tracks in question in Tour and see that they have the same extremely simple/cartoony look because they just ported it right across. Here is Toad Circuit for example.
That doesn't mean the physical tracks are bad or won't be fun to race on, but this isn't a stylistic choice. This is what they already had lying around.
Yeah this (and that tweet posted above was the one I had seen). Like I said before, I still think they look fine but there is definitely a clear difference in visuals. I think if this was just a couple "new" tracks I might be annoyed but for 48, I think the quantity outweighs the quality to some extent. So it doesn't bother me too much. Does bother me to hear there's no anti-grav on these courses but I get that's not a thing Tour does. And obviously they never had anti-grav to begin with, so I'm not sure if this *really* bothers me or not yet (it's obviously another aspect of the cheapness "port and forget" approach, but *shrug*)
Honestly I don't completely begrudge them for doing things this way. I guarantee you we wouldn't be getting any DLC tracks if they hadn't been doing this work for Tour.
well it's paid content, not free DLC. They can work on the models.
They still gotta pay their artists to model all this stuff. I'm assuming with Tour being a dirty gacha this feeds in on itself and the whales basically bankroll all the new models/continuous development. But if they can't directly port the tour models to MK8DX that's as good as having to do them from scratch which is certainly not a cheap process (art is hard :P It feels to me like probably one of the more expensive/bottleneck-y parts of game development since you always need so much of it). So it's like, I understand them wanting to save as much effort as possible here. I'll also add that the artists are probably largely tied up on other projects too (at least Tour, maybe 9? Maybe other stuff).
But yeah, overall I dunno. It's disappointing these aren't gonna be like, MK8 Wii U DLC quality of DLC tracks (those tracks were insane but then there was only a couple of them) but hey, it's 48 new tracks. I'd be curious to see if they ever actually bother to do MK9 (which I guarantee is not coming soon if they're doing DLC for 8 for the next two years) if they take all these tracks they've done as a starting point and actually work on making them higher quality for that game.
Edit: Conspiracy theory - maybe MK9 was being developed for Switch Pro/successor/whatever but it got pushed back due to COVID so they literally can't release it yet and are doing these DLC tracks to keep people busy in the meantime :P (probably not but I just wanna believe that MK9 is actually gonna be a thing at some point this century)
But yeah, overall I dunno. It's disappointing these aren't gonna be like, MK8 Wii U DLC quality of DLC tracks (those tracks were insane but then there was only a couple of them)
Eh, there were 16 of them which is no small feat. And they're some of the best ones in the game.
Also in the transition from Wii U to Switch they created 8 battle mode arenas in this style as well, you might remember that the original release just had balloon battles played on normal tracks which was kind of a disastrous decision. The current battle mode is awesome, my friend's kids were having a blast with it just before the Direct the other day.
But yeah, overall I dunno. It's disappointing these aren't gonna be like, MK8 Wii U DLC quality of DLC tracks (those tracks were insane but then there was only a couple of them)
Eh, there were 16 of them which is no small feat. And they're some of the best ones in the game.
Also in the transition from Wii U to Switch they created 8 battle mode arenas in this style as well, you might remember that the original release just had balloon battles played on normal tracks which was kind of a disastrous decision. The current battle mode is awesome, my friend's kids were having a blast with it just before the Direct the other day.
Oh was it that many? I was thinking it was like 4. I clearly can't remember that far back.. haha
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"Some gamers say MK8 DLC a graphical downgrade."
The fuck? Who is saying that?
I saw someone just say it in a tweet earlier. They showed side-by-sides of MK8 tracks and DLC tracks. I mean, they weren't wrong. It's pretty obvious these tracks were made for Tour and are getting ported over (I think this is literally the only reason they're doing this DLC - they already did most of the work), so they were designed with mobile phones in mind, not the Switch. Still, they don't look that bad to me? I dunno, they seem fine. I guess I mostly just don't care as long as they look better than the old tracks (which they all do - Choco Mountain looked sweet). Overall the quality isn't low enough to be noticeably bad (i.e. let's say Wii quality or worse). It's just not as flashy as the MK8 tracks.
Here are some comparison screenshots from Twitter.
Edit: Also, the quality of the Tour tracks isn’t nearly as good. MK8 tweaked everything with little twists and secrets; I played the game every day for years and was still finding new tricks now and then. The mobile tracks are very straightforward; most of them don’t have any shortcuts.
Still, I liked it enough to finish it, and I think I like the music more than Earthbound's.
I wish they'd throw a bunch of money at Square and have them remake all 3 games for them in their HD-2D style.
I wish they'd make new games that iterate on those engines and mechanics instead of just rehashing them. I kind of get wanting to pretty up classics to introduce them to a modern audience, but it's a weird thing specific almost only to video games (you see it sometimes in literature translation too). Like if someone said they wanted to do Star Wars Remastered, a shot for shot remake but in ultra super high def with much better costumes and Avatar level CGI, or were rewriting Moby Dick but making no changes except inserting modern slang, people would think you're crazy. The low technology and what was done with it is an important part of its identity, and different from fixing dumbass technical limitations like only one save slot or no multiplayer without being in the same room with a special cord.
While this is true, games are a bit different given A: how new they are, and B: how difficult or inaccessible it can be to play older games.
Considering how much video game tech has advanced over the last 4 decades, doing a modernized remake of old NES/SNES games would be more like remaking a silent movie.
Earthbound Beginnings feels very old school. It is quite grindy and it's easy to get to a point where you're not quite sure what to do or where to go next without using a guide (it's actually pretty non-linear). Maps are much larger than they need to be and make it hard to orient yourself. It's somebody's first attempt at an RPG and feels like it.
However, I would argue it does some things better than Earthbound, particularly its story. Earthbound is a good localization and full of great quirky things, but the actual plot is kind of random and disjointed and falls a little flat. Beginnings also has a lot of strange things going on in the world that feel unrelated, but all slowly build toward a central set of revelations that are pretty cool. It's not weird for the sake of weird, there's a point to everything, and it has some heart, too. And knowing the story of Beginnings makes references to it in Earthbound a little more impactful.
Also, that same sparse world design I mentioned earlier coupled with the soundtrack lends a bleak/melancholy atmosphere to the game. The music is pretty great. There's a good reason its music was primarily used for Smash Bros rather than Earthbound's.
There's even a well-produced vocal album, made around the time of the game's original release in 1989, that gets across their intent with those simple NES chiptunes.
From this:
to this:
That was just the one guy, and it was a lizard, not a leaf. In one of his attacks he throws it while his nether region goes (even more) pixelated.
Edit: And it's hard to tell from the brief glimpse of him in that trailer, but it looks like his design hasn't changed.
I'm thinking the trailers are more for people in Japan that already know the game and it's spoilers, and they just straight localized them for other regions while tossing an extra "first time outside Japan" on them.
Hmm. I may pass on this Mario Kart 8 DLC if they are just farting out tracks like they do for the mobile game.
Guess I better hide the freaking box art too.
all the DLC tracks are ported tracks from old games
Yeah, but what they’re doing is just moving the tracks from the mobile game over to 8. The tracks in 8 looked so much better, so there’s a visual difference between the base game tracks and the DLC.
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MIght have something to do with having to play all of these characters solo. They (for the most part?) don't form a party dynamic like in your average RPG. If you follow the common (but not universal) "MC must be male" logic then you have to apply that to 7+ MCs. Also the movie rule of "all women are defined by a relationship with a man" means they have no purpose without a party.
Basically feminism was probably not the main driving force behind inclusion for a lot of RPG creators of the time.
Technically, there is an option for a female player character. But that’s dependent on how the Imperial China chapter progresses, and so is not guaranteed.
I think the only other female party member is Bel in the prehistory chapter, and only briefly.
Have they actually said that, or are people just assuming? I'll wait for the first set to drop to find out, but I figured they were doing what they always did: One cup of four retro tracks from old games (I don't like to use the word port when it's a flat track taken from the GBA game and turned into multi-level rollercoaster), and one cup of original tracks.
First tracks have been announced , you can check them out on the Nintendo website.
I take back the part about the characters, after remembering who was missing...
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well it's paid content, not free DLC. They can work on the models.
Occam's Razor suggests this is a stylistic choice, and I'm fine with that.
they said it like 35 times
No, they appear to be directly porting across tracks from Tour which is their most recent/concurrent Mario Kart project, and may have a similar engine and development pipeline for ease of compatibility. You can look at the tracks in question in Tour and see that they have the same extremely simple/cartoony look because they just ported it right across. Here is Toad Circuit for example.
Mario Kart Tour is in the process of having its latest tracks released which happens to be called the Sky Tour, and will feature the remade Sky Garden from Super Circuit. So it's serendipitous that they were able to make one track for the lowest common denominator platform and release it on both. Here is the MKT subreddit talking about how the DLC is giving them a preview for what's coming soon in Tour.
That doesn't mean the physical tracks are bad or won't be fun to race on, but this isn't a stylistic choice. This is what they already had lying around.
Yeah they said it's only tracks from old games. What people are assuming is that these are just ports from the mobile game, and not just a different art style.
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The retro tracks already included in Mario Kart 8 have fantastic detail. Just look at Rainbow Road 64! It's gorgeous. These "new" DLC tracks are all flat shaded low geometry plastic.
What stings more is that the earlier round of MK8 DLC was created with care to fit with the rest of the tracks in the game, in its existing hi-res textured art style. It introduces inconsistency where there wasn't before. And it also likely means that all the new tracks will be in that style so they can be reused across games...otherwise it'd be jarring to alternate between these two levels of fidelity in the same cup.
Reminds me a little of what they pulled back in the day with Wuhu Island as a reused setting.
Yeah this (and that tweet posted above was the one I had seen). Like I said before, I still think they look fine but there is definitely a clear difference in visuals. I think if this was just a couple "new" tracks I might be annoyed but for 48, I think the quantity outweighs the quality to some extent. So it doesn't bother me too much. Does bother me to hear there's no anti-grav on these courses but I get that's not a thing Tour does. And obviously they never had anti-grav to begin with, so I'm not sure if this *really* bothers me or not yet (it's obviously another aspect of the cheapness "port and forget" approach, but *shrug*)
Honestly I don't completely begrudge them for doing things this way. I guarantee you we wouldn't be getting any DLC tracks if they hadn't been doing this work for Tour.
In terms of stuff like this
They still gotta pay their artists to model all this stuff. I'm assuming with Tour being a dirty gacha this feeds in on itself and the whales basically bankroll all the new models/continuous development. But if they can't directly port the tour models to MK8DX that's as good as having to do them from scratch which is certainly not a cheap process (art is hard :P It feels to me like probably one of the more expensive/bottleneck-y parts of game development since you always need so much of it). So it's like, I understand them wanting to save as much effort as possible here. I'll also add that the artists are probably largely tied up on other projects too (at least Tour, maybe 9? Maybe other stuff).
But yeah, overall I dunno. It's disappointing these aren't gonna be like, MK8 Wii U DLC quality of DLC tracks (those tracks were insane but then there was only a couple of them) but hey, it's 48 new tracks. I'd be curious to see if they ever actually bother to do MK9 (which I guarantee is not coming soon if they're doing DLC for 8 for the next two years) if they take all these tracks they've done as a starting point and actually work on making them higher quality for that game.
Edit: Conspiracy theory - maybe MK9 was being developed for Switch Pro/successor/whatever but it got pushed back due to COVID so they literally can't release it yet and are doing these DLC tracks to keep people busy in the meantime :P (probably not but I just wanna believe that MK9 is actually gonna be a thing at some point this century)
Eh, there were 16 of them which is no small feat. And they're some of the best ones in the game.
Also in the transition from Wii U to Switch they created 8 battle mode arenas in this style as well, you might remember that the original release just had balloon battles played on normal tracks which was kind of a disastrous decision. The current battle mode is awesome, my friend's kids were having a blast with it just before the Direct the other day.
Oh was it that many? I was thinking it was like 4. I clearly can't remember that far back.. haha
I literally always forget Excitebike was a DLC course I swear... Maybe it's cuz they bundled all that with Deluxe now :P