I feel like this is one of the worst days to be a Nintendo fan. :(

[BlackZero]

Frankly, I don't think one can flag a game as "good" or "bad." People ranted and raved about the Halo series. They're well made, practically standardized FPS controls, and were a pioneer of online gaming. They truly had the mark of a great game. I personally can't stand any of them. I have played with good friends while heavily intoxicated and still didn't enjoy it. They're great games, but I don't like them.

On the other hand, Mega Man Legends was barely at the Beta stage when it was released and I love playing that game. Moral of the story? If a game keeps you amused, which is entirely the point of video games, who cares if it wins awards? If someone gets a kick out of a ****ty party game (*cough*MarioParty), then it was worthwhile to someone. Feel betrayed because someone got you a ****ty video game for Christmas? Get your revenge by doing a funny LP of it on Twitch or You Tube and make money off the piece of crap.

 

[Ayasha89]

Ahuh... I sense a conflict of ideals regarding gratitude (as it were) here.

Ayasha's of the belief that the kids should be glad they're getting a game, quality be damned. Everyone else thinks they "deserve" better.

Here's my two cents: if we're talking about amiibo Party, sure. A poor kid's only getting the game and a single amiibo, so his enjoyment of the game will be limited if he can't get another amiibo. Ultra Tennis, though? It's barebones, sure, but unless it's Action 52-levels of awful then I'd see no reason to complain. If he doesn't like it, well, we live in a world where that stuff can be taken back; get the receipt from Grandma, go to Wal-Mart, hand it back, use the money on something else. If he does like it, great! The game has served its purpose.

I'm the type whose hesitant to say that kids "deserve" good games. Is it preferable that they don't suck? Yes, but to me, deserve only applies to things that they should have, but don't (ie, education or a family). Games aren't that high a priority for me, even if I act like they are.

Am I being too posh in my definitions? Absolutely. But again, this ties into what I said earlier, about you guys overreacting to this. Don't think I'm trying to be a *******, though.

(And for the record, if I was homeless & starving I'd gladly take those muffin stumps.)

You hit the nail on the head. First off, we don't know that most or all kids will automatically hate it just because entitled adults do. Which is what they assume. I'm also talking kids that are 5-6 and up. So no, I don't know what you know about kids, but up to a certain age, they're happy to have a game. You have to know how to talk to them about it. Make it fun and exciting, hype them up. Be a kid with them. It seems we were raised differently. I would also be grateful if I was homeless and starving and got any kind of food that I wasn't obligated to be given. Yeah, quality matters but, maybe they had a bare fall lineup and it was either these games or nothing. Which causes more outrage? Have you guys forgotten about the near future? Zelda U, Star Fox? The NX?

It sucks our opinions are in the minority, because we probably DO look like giant ***holes here.

 

[PrinceOfKoopas]

@Flareth : At least grandma won't be buying games for Junior from the eShop where it can't be returned. So I guess that balances out? A little bit? Though in my experience, people giving games as gifts don't give you the receipt to go along with it.

@Ayasha89 : If we're accepting shovelware as acceptable for kids, then why not price it as shovelware? If any game is gonna be considered good, wouldn't grandma pick the one from the bargain bin? So not these two Nintendo shovelware games?

 

[lostleader]

Chibi-Robo Zip Lash was also pretty mediocre. It's weird too because a large amount of each game is ruined by simple design choices. Why does Chibi Robo have a roulette wheel for picking levels when you have to go to each one anyway? Why does amiibo Festival require amiibo to began with? Why does Mario Tennis only have no Tournament mode?

Laziness and greed is something that a lot of people haven't really seen from Nintendo, but each game gives us exactly that. I get they have to hit the holiday season, but these are choices that could have been fixed fairly easily. In some weird way, I think Iwata's death affected the way these games were released.

 

[Heroine of Squids]

Here's how I feel about Ultra Bland & Amiibo Party:

You tried, Nintendo.

Seriously, their later games for next year need to be good or else I'm done buying anything from them. I don't want more cheap cash grabs that were only made in a few months.

 

[Dolphoshi]

i feel that the only bad game is one that isn't complete, or have bad game feel. I do actually like other M, and the legend of link because it is fine to try something new with an ip in fact if you don't your IP will die. mario tennis has been around from what I have heard but if the game plays well then it isn't bad, games like SOnic 06, drake of the 99 dragons, are bad because you can't play them the way the developers wanted you to play and games like yoshi's new island play great but they just don't feel right (this is the only example that even somewhat fits), it all comes down to what you like because I don't like animal crossing period, but there are those that do, but as for nintendo if they really get into danger i'm sure they will make Mother 3, super mario RPG, and some of those games that have a wide demand to boost sells.

 

[Flareth]

@PrinceOfKoopas

Hence why I said they should get the receipt from Grandma. I know for a fact that they don't give it to you (well, the last time I got a game for Christmas it did, but it also wasn't wrapped, so...)

Although I do see how the eShop could complicate things. If Grandma's just as poor, a $10 gift card could be all that you get. Which could work in its own way; you aren't immediately handed a bad game, but if you use the money to get a bad game, well, you're SoL.

Ultra Smash is listed at $49.99, so even Nintendo seems to think it's a budget title. that case, I wonder why they didn't drop it to $30 or ao, but eh.

Amiibo Party, though... I hope to God it's only priced as such because of the bundled amiibo.

 

[Noire]

In the end though, reviews should be taken as a guideline, not as a fact. People should really remember that. There's a lot of games that scored 2-6 out of 10 that I adored, so really just buy the games that interest you after doing your research and just enjoy them. If all you're doing is buying games that score high, then you're just a metacritic sheep at that point.

Mario Tennis and AF don't interest me, so I won't buy them and never will, but I know someone will like them and I won't insult it if they clearly like it enough.

 

[BlackZero]

Honestly, I'm glad they're holding off on their big releases because that suggests the games weren't ready to go. If they went ahead and pushed them out to meet a holiday release, people would have railed against them for being rushed. Now, people are pissed that Nintendo is taking the time they need to make sure they release a finished and polished product.

Seriously guys, make up your mind. Don't rant and rave about how Fallout New Vegas or Sonic Boom was half finished on release, then likewise throw a fit over devs delaying a release so they can actually finish it. If I have to choose between a half-***** major release or a half-***** minor title to get something out over Christmas while they finish the major release, I'll take the latter.

 

[Heroine of Squids]

Honestly, I'm glad they're holding off on their big releases because that suggests the games weren't ready to go. If they went ahead and pushed them out to meet a holiday release, people would have railed against them for being rushed. Now, people are pissed that Nintendo is taking the time they need to make sure they release a finished and polished product.

Seriously guys, make up your mind. Don't rant and rave about how Fallout New Vegas or Sonic Boom was half finished on release, then likewise throw a fit over devs delaying a release so they can actually finish it. If I have to choose between a half-***** major release or a half-***** minor title to get something out over Christmas while they finish the major release, I'll take the latter.

To be fair concerning both Zelda U & Star Fox Zero, they did look like they weren't even close to finished yet. Star Fox Zero definitely looks the most unfinished due to how last-gen it looked, so maybe the delay was for that reason along with others.

I'm fine with them delaying both games. But, I'm still unhappy that Amiibo Party, Ultra Bland, & Xenoblade are the only holiday titles from Nintendo we're getting and so far, both Amiibo Party & Ultra Bland are getting trounced hard thanks to other more anticipated titles this month. They could do so much better than this.

 

[aceofscarabs]

Looking forward to a predicted Splatoon Squidmas event :D

 

[itisRag]

Metroid Other M

is fantastic as long as you play the JP version with JP voices. The main problem with the game, aside from being a little on the short/easy side, is the Western localization. Not that the English voice actors are bad, but that the writing is horrible for the "dudebro" Western audience who enjoy Metroid but at the same time don't necessarily enjoy melodramatic anime. I usually prefer works in their original form anyway if there is a story involved, games, films, and anime included.

In the future if Nintendo wants to make heavily story/character-driven games like Metroid Other M (not including Zelda), then they may be better off keeping those titles exclusive to JP, or get some dudebro localization team in the vein of FUNimation to make the story and characters more palatable to a Western audience (like that American bastardization of DBZ with the same actor voicing half the characters and hard electric rock music replacing the original classical score). Since I'm the guy who watches raw anime anyway, I'll still probably be playing the JP version though.

 

[PrinceOfKoopas]

In the future if Nintendo wants to make heavily story/character-driven games like Metroid Other M (not including Zelda), then they may be better off keeping those titles exclusive to JP,

please no

...or we can just not have them be voice-acted right?
I mean, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was amazing and only partially voice-acted.
...though we'll never get a "real" Fire Emblem on a console like that ever again. :(

 

[Flareth]

I thought Other M's problem was the characterization, not the localization itself?

Having never played it I can't say such with much confidence, but from the way I've seen most people react at the mere mention of it... I mean, I've never heard anyone complain that it was too story-heavy.

 

[Shikinouta]

<rant>This is just my two cents, but Christmas lineups aren't really relevant anymore. I'm 19, if I wanted New Super Mario Amiibo 3D Land Tennis 6 X Goat Simulator; Fun in Nepal 2®, I would just buy it with my workin' man dollars.
I recognize that there are a lot of kids who aren't workin' men who can buy things with their workin' men dollars and have to rely on Mum to buy them the hottest new releases from Gamestop Power to the Players®, so this line-up means a bit more to them. Go find some pre-owened deals on last years games. You'll save plenty and Lil' Billy can just deal with being the scrub on the playground who didn't get to play NSMA3DLT6XGS;FiN2®.

Realistically, I was just going to buy Xenoblade X, maybe Mystery Dungeon from the start. At the end of the day, we all just need to take a step back from the marketing hype and enjoy some games we already own. You don't need Fallout 4 on release. You don't need the special edition of New Super Mario Amiibo 3D Land Tennis 6 X Goat Simulator; Fun in Nepal 2®. You need to slow down and enjoy life for all of it's genres.</rant>

 

[BlackZero]

I thought Other M's problem was the characterization, not the localization itself?

Other M had a lot of problems. The characterization of Samus is only the most commonly voiced, but it's more than that. As a long time fan (since Metroid NES), I was more offended by the fact that it contradicted something from virtually every game released before it. That showed a lack of polish, or plain laziness in doing research on the established canon. If you're going to tie a game in with the rest of the series, you have to be familiar with the canon from other games in that series. If you're making a stand-alone that branches off, make up as much stuff as you want.

As a person, I'm rather annoyed with the fact that this game basically romanticizes abusive relationships. Samus or not, I really don't think abusive relationships should be glorified. The fact that it is a woman who has time and time again revealed that she's physically and mentally tough, and independent makes this even worse. Even if I give the game the benefit of the doubt and say this is Samus' perspective and she idolized him, the game failed to establish a credible reason why. It doesn't explore Samus' vulnerability, Adam's personality, or why she is drawn to him. It simply takes all of these as a given, leaving the characters with no real motivation behind their behavior. Why was Adam so determined to not let Samus use her Varia Suit in a superheated environment where she could have died without it? Can you imagine a US military commander telling his troops they cannot use SAPI plates and helmets in a combat zone? The writers didn't even have the decency to provide some plot-related justification: they just said "that's the way it is." That's poor storytelling and characterization.

As a gamer, I really didn't like the gameplay decisions. First, there were the arbitrary handicaps (no Varia suit just mentioned). Then there were the controls. Metroid Prime Trilogy merged 1st person shooting with motion controls flawlessly. Are you telling they couldn't have done that with Other M? There was no need to bounce between 1st and 3rd person unless they just wanted to. If that was the case, they forgot the age-old saying "don't bite off more than you can chew." Devs need to make sure that they have time to refine any features they implement. They didn't do that, and the game suffered for it.

I can't speak for others, but I wasn't upset with Samus' characterization per se. She's human (well, mostly) and entitled to her moments of vulnerability. I do think her breakdown in front of Ridley was a bit over the top. Can you imagine Mario falling to his knees and weeping in front of Bowser? Can you imagine Link having a breakdown just as he's facing off against Ganon? Why should Samus have one in front of Ridley? After all, Samus is one of the most powerful gender equality icons in gaming. Aside from that, her emotional frailty alone didn't bother me. It was the whole package: poor story-telling, disregard for the rest of the series, and poor gameplay decisions all thrown together in an unrefined package.

 

[chrisblass1]

Can you imagine Mario falling to his knees and weeping in front of Bowser? Can you imagine Link having a breakdown just as he's facing off against Ganon? Why should Samus have one in front of Ridley?

Not trying to defend the devs or other M but to be fair in the timeline thats was samus third time fighting him, plus she thought Ridley was dead at the time so i think her reaction was good enough. But i agree with the rest tho

 

[Heroine of Squids]

Wasn't the main reason why Samus gets abused by Adam along with other sexist things going on the result of Japan being very misogynist? From what I've read about the game, this was meant for them and not for western territories. Japan's a pretty........messed up country if they think seeing an independent woman getting shot in the back is funny.