Sweet, thanks Dave. I keep hoping Nintendo will start doing stuff like this. I think the mini consoles are a start on that. Franchise-specific collections of high quality would sell like crazy for them, especially since VC is dead.
I tried the demo for Katamari Damacy ReRoll on the eShop. It’s strange how the game still feels fresh today despite its age. I guess it’s a combination of how a lot of modern console games developed in-house at big publishers aren’t particularly experimental anymore, making it fresh, and Bandai Namco not making this sort of game either, making it feel like a game from the past.
You have to wonder also how faithful the port is because according to the Intellectual Property Notices from the Nintendo Switch’s home screen, it’s built with Unity instead of the PS2 engine being ported over. That may go some way towards explaining the framerate in the trailers since developing games on the engine is notoriously difficult to optimise for.
The new modern visual effects seem out of place. Screen space ambient occlusion has been added to objects in the world - see the soft shadowing in these screenshots - but this sort of realistic shading is at odds with the original game’s chunky and bright art direction. Heck, on PS2 Prince’s shadow was a clearly defined jagged circle.
Still, I think I’ll grab this one when it releases next month. The original never came out in Europe, and We Love Katamari was the only other game Keita Takahashi was involved in. I usually roll my eyes whenever Bandai Namco releases another unnecessary Katamari sequel but at least the first game retains some significance.
Is the demo out on the NA shop?
I played the first two games through on PS2 a year or so ago and yeah they are still very fresh.
I also have a soft spot for the PSP version, as cut down and made from old parts as it is.
Only the Japanese eShop at the moment, which is strange considering it appears to be a universal SKU, with all languages and respective home menu icons on the same game file. I changed my country setting to Japan at accounts.Nintendo.com.
The PSP game is the only one I haven’t played - how were the controls without two sticks? The last good game was Beautiful Katamari, which followed Me and My Katamari. The Vita one was deeply disappointing.
It plays well enough considering. They mapped the sticks to the d-pad and face buttons with a few tweaks.
I really liked playing it years ago and replaying it recently.
This. It wasn’t ideal of course but it was good enough. Overall even with how repetitive it got I would call the psp one a better game then the Vita one, even though the Vita one had proper stick controls.
Also, really hoping they didn’t fuck up the port after reading your post @harborline_765. The look and feels of the games are part of their perfection and you could easily ruin that by just porting it to another engine without making sure it stayed true.
Can’t see myself grabbing the HD version when the original is so perfect as is, but I’m glad it’s finally on a Nintendo system for a new audience.
Awesome! I’m going to add it to my list of handheld games to check out. I’m surprised it’s retained its value, though if it’s anything like We Love Katamari EA might have published the European version…haha.
[quote=“apathetic, post:387, topic:498”]Also, really hoping they didn’t fuck up the port after reading your post @harborline_765. The look and feels of the games are part of their perfection and you could easily ruin that by just porting it to another engine without making sure it stayed true.
[/quote]
Yeah, I am a bit worried really. Luckily they seem to have retained the original art assets as nothing looks upscaled or filtered which is good. But I need to see whether they’ve zoomed things in to make them 16:9 or not as well. The camera has definitely changed. Not sure on physics as the original was never released in Europe…sob.
On a never ending visit to the in laws, lol, so finally putting some time into Final Fantasy V …on my phone so yeah. But, I’m actually liking it a lot. I’ve never put much time into it despite buying it years ago. I’m only 3 hours in so far but what I understand of the job system, I like it. The auto battle helps a lot for grinding. I’m running Butz/Bartz as a knight, Lenna as white mage, Galuf as a monk, and Faris as a thief to start out.
I’ve been playing a lot of Cyberlip on my MVS Neo Geo recently. I like to think of it as Combattribes mixed with Contra 3
I read about this, there’s a core PS2 simulation of the engine, but everything on top of it is Unity. Actually quite a clever way to do such a port to maintain an accurate feel and get upgraded graphics.
I bought the original Katamari on a trip to Japan and then had to buy a chipped PS2 on my return to be able to play the game. Loved it.
I own most of the other Katamari games in the series but I confess I’ve not actually played any of them! No idea why.
I’ve been replaying Lunar - The Silver Star Story Complete, along with Xenogears (about 10 hours in each).
So many great games, so little time though! hahahahaha
Oh that’s good, thanks for letting me know! I think the developers did something similar with the excellent Namco Museum on the Switch. The front-end that plugged in on top of the games (including, presumably, the filters) were Unity, but the games themselves weren’t. So luckily there wasn’t an input lag penalty like many Unity engine games.
If you play another Katamari go for the PS2 sequel and ignore the rest. As you probably know, creator Keita Takahashi was only directly involved with the first two and it shows in terms of how focused they were, with the dialogue in particular not descending into pure random gibberish:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/katamari-was-comment-on-consumerism
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-01-keita-takahashi-why-i-left-namco
Just have to ask - you liked the Namco Museum on Switch? Thinking about getting that for use of the Flip Grip alone.
It’s pretty good. there’s plenty of display options, the HD Rumble support is sublime, online leaderboards and special challenge runs are available.
Despite its name there’s no museum of heritage or development information so to speak that might further embellish the games themselves, but the control information and new manuals are well written and presented. It’s a quality product for sure - if you’re interested in some of the included games go for it.
I picked up a few Switch games with some eShop credit Santa left for me.
- RIME - gorgeous exploration puzzler, 9GB!
- VSR - interesting space racer, crashes
- Whip! Whip! - old school bubble bobble wannabe, need to play it more
- Grim Fandango - maybe I’ll finish it this time
- something else I can’t remember right now
Still rolling through Red Dead Redemption 2. I’m nearing the end of Chapter 5, and things have started getting VERY intense. Great game, and a very strange style for a modern game: it is very slow paced with lots of systems, deliberate actions and animations, and not much hand holding.
I’ve also gotten very close to the end of Hollow Knight. I’ve finished one of the DLCs, and dabbled in the other, along with getting all the collectibles. In a market that is absolutely SATURATED with Metroidvanias, this one has been great, and I’m surprised that I’ve sunk about 35 hours into if.
The past year I’ve been playing Twinkle Star Sprites, Garou Mark of the Wolves, Panic Bomberman, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special 2 and occasionally Street Fighter III: Third Strike on Fightcade.
More recently Rival Megagun, and Graze Counter on Steam.
Finished Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies on my 3DS yesterday. I’ve now started the second case of it’s sequel, Spirit of Justice today.
Really enjoying getting back into the AA series after a seven month break. I left Dual Destinies half finished (played cases 1+2 and the DLC case), and overall enjoyed it despite feeling like it was a weaker entry. I loved the transition to 3D, and I’m already feeling like Spirit of Justice is a surprisingly large improvement on its predecessor.
After finishing SoJ, I’d like to properly play Investigations 2 (I started it, but was burned out after the first title) so that I’m done with the series until the fan translations of Great Ace Attorney 1&2 are released. I love these games and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find anything to replace them once I’m done.
Who knows? I might start playing the original trilogy again haha.