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Ah, Final Fantasy.
After a long and, frankly, ridiculous series of confusing events, the Pixel Remaster compilation of the first six Final Fantasy games became available physically for Switch and PS4 for under forty bucks total. (This was during the end of 2024, and the price has jumped up again since then.) I will readily admit to some FOMO during the initial sold-out launch before it was later confirmed to be re-released for a cheaper price. By the time it became more widely available I was comfortable waiting until a further sale.
Why did I want the compilation? It is kind of absurd, as we have in our collection possibly every other physical NA release of almost every game in the series. SNES, PSP, PlayStation/2/3, GBA, DS, 360, PS4, PS5, etc. We have the CD soundtracks to at least half of the games, several versions of most of the guides, and the Spirits Within and Advent Children movies. We already have the ready ability to play all six of the first games in several ways. Why on earth would we need another?
The short answer is that I just like the series! The best (IV and VI in my opinion) are some of my favorite games, the middle tier are generally better than average RPGs, and even the least preferable often have some interesting ideas. Some of my favorite characters, music, and story beats come from Final Fantasy games. Having six games (with orchestrated soundtracks!) all on one disc/cartridge with a few extra bonuses and QoL improvements (although missing some added content from other releases) was enough to get me to bite, although as mentioned I definitely waited for a sale.
My history with Final Fantasy goes all the way back to the first game on the NES. (I stil have my second CIB copy, although the poster is hanging up in our basement.) I had already finished Dragon Warrior and a few C64 dungeon crawlers, and when Nintendo Power hyped this new release and even published a guide for it, I was pumped. It didn't disappoint, although my thirteen-year-old brain would have been forever stuck without that Nintendo Power Strategy guide. I grinded for hours and hours after school, determined to 100% the game. I would put it down for other games and then pick it back up, but I often forgot where I was and just kept leveling my characters and wandering around.
And then, the Super Nintendo was announced. I was simultaneously delighted and saddened; it looked amazing in magazines, but I was a poor kid and my parents had scrounged years before to get me the NES. I had traded and hunted garage sales with chore money to build up the meager twenty NES carts I owned, and they would be my only possible method to acquire a new console.
A friend got his SNES and our friend group was amazed. It sealed the deal; I was determined to find a way to get one. In the back of a gaming magazine (Electronic Gaming Monthly, I think) were lists of dollar amounts FuncoLand offered for Nintendo games. After some simple math, I found I could trade my NES and all of my games to get a shiny new SNES. My parents would buy F-Zero so I had more to play than Super Mario World (which I had already completed at a friend's house long before I got my own copy.)
I got $14 for Final Fantasy. I remember because I debated about letting it go, but there was no other way. I tried to finish it but by then I just didn't have the time. I reluctantly mailed off (!) my NES and all fourteen games. The next few weeks felt excruciating, but one day the mail delivered the gaming console I still have to this day, yellow tint and all. And I played Super Mario World and F-Zero for hours every day after school, loving every minute and scrounging to rent every title as it came in to our local store.
About a year later, I overheard a classmate discussing an epic narrative of dark knights and redemption, of chivalry and summoners, of dragoons and magic. I literally thought they were discussing a movie, but I later found they were gushing over the epic story of a game of which I was only vaguely aware; Final Fantasy II for the Super Nintendo (actually IV, but that's a different story.)
I waited and waited until our local rental store got a copy, and then waited more as it was always checked out. When I finally got to play it, I was amazed! I fell in love with the story, I found the combat much more interesting and entertaining than the first Final Fantasy, and even my dad (who never had interest in any video game) commented about how much he enjoyed the music. I had my progress reset a few times in-between rentals, but I never minded too much. When I finally secured my copy and eventually saw the credits roll, it cemented itself as one of my most cherished gaming memories.
By the time Final Fantasy III (actually VI) released on the SNES, my High School friends and I were racing to see who could get a copy and complete it first. We swapped copies of SNES games back and forth to play through, including FFII, but this one we each wanted for ourselves. It did not disappoint. Once again the music, characters, story, and gameplay simply elevated the experience to a sublime epic. To this day I still give both SNES Final Fantasy games equal billing as all-time personal favorites. (Yes, there was also 'Mystic Quest,' but I consider that a spin-off.)
As the years went by and more Final Fantasy games came and went, I played most near the time of release. Some I really liked, some far less so. While personally those two SNES titles remained the height of the series, I've still liked the majority of the games and I think pretty much all of them were worth my time.
There are more Final Fantasy stories to regale, such as when my beloved wife surprised me with a new copy of Final Fantasy VIII on the same day I didn't tell her I went and bought a Dreamcast (we were realistically too broke to have bought either) and sleeping my way through Final Fantasy VII, but this is already getting away from where I wanted to go with this write-up.
I never did go back and finish the original Final Fantasy, even as I bought another copy to complete our NES collection. I also wasn't import savvy and couldn't read Japanese, so I never played through the Famicom Final Fantasy II (which is completely different that the SNES game.) I always intended to correct that, and though the GBA Dawn of Souls release would have been perfect I still hadn't gotten around to it. Then the Pixel Remasters were announced, and I was determined to play through them.
I have to say, at my age and stage of life the Pixel Remasters are the ideal way to play these games. The built in maps, the EXP and money boosters, the quality of life improvements such as retargeting after a monster dies, the absolutely gorgeous music, all work to give a 'seasoned' gamer like me the experience I want while respecting my time. I was able to truly enjoy the original Final Fantasy and I was surprised at how it was simultaneously primitive and revolutionary for the time. The story was simple but had more content than I remembered. The flexibility of the party system made it fun to tinker. I still liked the fantasy tropes lightly mixed with sci-fi. It may have taken 35 years (gulp!) but I am very glad I 'finally' played through it.
Next up was Final Fantasy II, based off the original Famicom version. I had always heard of this as the black sheep of early FF games, primarily due to the complete overhaul and changes to the traditional leveling system. Perhaps due to the Pixel Remasters tweaking this system, I didn't find it more difficult, just different. (I know this is at least in part due to the original penalizing stats while others increased, such as when casting enough spells a character's intelligence would go up but their strength would go down. The Pixel Remaster version does away with such penalties.) To my delight I enjoyed it completely! Once again I was impressed with a much fuller and more detailed story, though still simple by later standards. The music is as good as the rest of the series. The characters, while set, are extremely flexible in their builds and less defined by roles. Some of the puzzles and maps were very obtuse and the encounter rate is way over the top, although once again the Pixel Remaster comes through by allowing encounters to be turned on or off. Overall, I came away quite satisfied by the time I saw the end credits.
I'm taking a break and working through the Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana remake/port, Ys being another series with which I have a long and colorful history. It is serving as a fun palate cleanser before diving into the remake of the Famicom Final Fantasy III, the only other game in this compilation of which I have yet to experience. (I played through the PlayStation port of Final Fantasy V upon the stateside release.)
Maybe you don't have a history with these early Final Fantasy games, and therefore they won't hold the same magic. Maybe you are curious about 'classic' JRPGs and want to see where they came from. Many a gamer these days started with Final Fantasy VII or even later, and these games represent a completely foreign experience. What I can definitely say is, I'm very glad I picked up this compilation and 'finally' got to cross off a few on a backlog that started when I was a whole lot younger and had a lot more time on my hands...
Well, gang, we made it -- 2025. (Again.)
RF Generation is old, make new content for it, site refresh, yadda yadda...
I'll skip the pleasantries. I'm planning on returning to one article per month again, depending on what my time schedule allows. As such, I was wondering and wondering about what my first article for this month would be. Several ideas floated around in my head -- a Nintendo Switch retrospective, an article about ANTONBLAST, another article about Animal Crossing: New Horizons...
What I landed on today, the day before the month's end, was to spend some time talking about one of my favorite little toys to play around with this month: SmileBASIC 4.
So what makes SmileBASIC 4 special? Its story? The captivating gameplay? The music? (Well, I do quite like the music present in the app...)
...SmileBASIC 4 is a programming app for the Nintendo Switch. It is essentially a closed-off simplified BASIC IDE, (with some pre-built limitations that clever souls have found out a workaround for) with the ability to save your projects as a file and upload them to a server full of programs.
In other words, it's programming Super Mario Maker. Back when I was in my young "let's code! I wanna code now! LEMME HAVE AT IT!! AAAAAAA" phase, I quite often checked around certain quarters to try and find any sort of simple coding app. One of these ended up being the Nintendo Switch's eShop. Sure enough, I did find what I was looking for -- two coding apps were present on the eShop: the aforementioned SmileBASIC 4 as well as an app titled FUZE4 Nintendo Switch. (I may get back to FUZE in a later article.) SmileBASIC 4 seemed right up my alley, so I peer-pressured slackur into buying it for me. I tried it out, and I was able to learn some simple commands and have extremely simple projects going on, but after a couple of weeks I abandoned it. I was also interested in the online functionality, but when being hit with the fact that you can only download one program without a Server Ticket (which to me at the time sounded like the Server Tickets were scummy mobile game microtransactions making it into My Nintendo Console), i abandoned it and didn't return to it for several years.
Fast-forward to the Christmas season of 2024. I am in the Christmas spirit, i.e. actively checking the eShop to see what I may buy if I receive a Nintendo eShop gift card (as one does, right? This is normal, right? Right? Right?!) when I decided to look through my list of deleted games. Sure enough, good ol' SmileBASIC shows up there and I decide, "You know what? It's been several years. My own game has gone through several iterations and has received a final released version since then, and I am currently working on a second game. plane I'm going to try and figure out this program."
I went to the coding tutorials section again, viewed one, and decided, "I'll get back to coding later; I want to check out the games, even if I have to download them one at a time." Download them one at a time, I did, for around two weeks. In that time, I was able to pick out several games that I thoroughly enjoy that I shall now list:
Tiny Huge World: Although this may at first sound like that one Super Mario Galaxy level or like a game jam game in which you manipulate object sizes, this is actually a very simple, extremely floaty platformer about a white block. The entire game feels very tech-demo-y, and is very buggy, but is pretty fun. This was also the first time that I saw any sort of 3D in SmileBASIC (it's presented in a 2.5D sort of view), a technique I am very fond of. It has a lot of levels and even a level editor. Go give this one a try using the access code 4PKKE8VHV.
CELESTE Classic: A full port of the original PICO-8 game. I don't think I need to go into more detail about this one to explain how cool it is. Its access code is 45KYV334J.
Finiti - 3D Engine: A simple, efficient 3D basis for making games. Its project file comes with several cool tech demos. You can find it at 4ANXXXX.
RALLY500 PARA4: A simple elimination rally game. The game is split up into several checkpoints wherein you need to have passed enough cars to pass. There are wide turns, and avoiding the cars is fun. I've found it helpful as one of those games that you can just turn your brain off and play. You can find this one at 4N3S33EXY.
MARBLE RUN 3D DEMO: This game reminds me of one I saw in Dreams, named Ball World Adventures. This one has less expansive, yet more creative levels in my opinion. The access code for this one is 4K28XW3KE.
Fairhythm: A very fun, simple rhythm game. This game has the highest production quality overall among all of the SmileBASIC games I've played, the most features, and is one of the most fun ones. I'd highly recommend the app for this game alone. Check it out using its access code4C44EX394.
Neon Driftway: This is the one I was the most impressed with. This is essentially, neon-infused vector graphics Mario Kart, and it plays exactly like it. I'd recommend this one to just about anybody. The whole thing is super polished, and my only issue with it is that there is only one track. Its code is 4TAMVE3QJ.
Overall, I'd very much recommend SmileBASIC 4. It truly shows what creative people can do with even the most simple of items and commands.
(I just got back into this because I ran out of Nintendo Switch Online...)
Hello and welcome to the first RF Generation Dev Log!
For a quick introduction, I'm Misto, one of the volunteers working on bringing RF Generation into the modern era of websites. If you are not aware, dev logs are commonly used to document and bring awareness to the efforts, struggles, plans, etc of all the work that we are doing behind the scenes throughout a project. I'm hoping that this will be a fairly regular type of blog post just so everyone can see that, yes work is being done - whether its visible or not. There has been a lot of discussion and mentions in the recent blogs about the site redesigns but I wanted to use this first post to outline all the steps that need to be done before anything can even move forward. Also this post will be long so get ready.
First and foremost, as many of you know and what's been mentioned in past blogs, RFG is pretty dated. Not that its a bad thing per se but it does limit us from expanding or building on top of what is in place. Right now, much of the site is running on outdated software and we really don't know if any upgrades or updates will break current functionality. Most of the original developers have since moved on as well, so we are stuck with a bunch of hacked together legacy code. What I've been working on currently, is creating a separate server that mimics the current site configuration but running on the latest and greatest (operating system, hardware, PHP/Perl versions, and database version). I did manage to get the OS and database migrated successfully but I'm still working on getting the actual site code moved over. The test server I'm running on is in AWS (Amazon Web Services) which has some free tiers which are perfect for this upgrade test. Unfortunately, we have too many images in the database and they don't fit on this tier (free tier only has 60 GB of hard drive space and we have about 25 GB of games images alone!).
This brings me to my next point - costs. The unfortunate reality is hosting a website outside of a basic blog isn't cheap. A lot of software and hardware needs to come together to make anything run and it all costs money. Just knowing that we can't run the server on a small server with a 60GB hard drive, means we need to pay for more space on the server. I mentioned before that I'm using AWS to host a test server. I ran through multiple configurations to determine costs based on the requirements I think we would need in a worst case. Requirements are the obvious like CPUs and hard drive space, but also the less obvious - how many visitors does the site get per day, will the server be running 24/7 (yes for us), how many requests do we get, are there spikes in traffic (for instance does most traffic come between 10-11PM on a Wednesday), how big are each request size. All of this needs to be taken into account. Most basic and cheap webhosting are going to run into limitations for anything beyond a simple wordpress site.
The good news is with AWS (or similar cloud provider), I think a lot of the costs I calculated so far are around the current server costs. But it gives us a few benefits to move. One is scalability - did your server go down unexpectedly? Just spin up a copy of it. Need to make changes? Just spin up a test server and make changes before pushing them out and hoping for the best. There is also another potential benefit, the possibility we can get away from cPanel. cPanel is great for a lot of things, but as we grow, its hard to use and difficult to manage with a team of programmers and other volunteers. I can't find a good way to give access to other people without giving them full server access. Its also a completely managed service (meaning the software, site, databases, and images) are all stored on one server (remember the 60GB limit above, cPanel takes up about 20 of that alone). It also limits you to specific programming languages and other supporting software you can use. Its also about $30 a month for a license. We have discussed in the Discord a full site rebuild, using a cloud service like AWS, we can utilize services that could allow us to make a more robust site while also potentially coming in a bit cheaper than what we currently pay.
Moving on from server configurations, lets talk data. RFG has a fantastic amount of game and hardware data but it can be organized in a better way. A lot of you have pitched in with ideas and we've come up with a schema (how the DB is organized) that we think will address some of those issues. First is the games - we've built in a sort of hierarchical structure to better organize them all. I'm going to use an example for this of my favorite series - Resident Evil. First you have a "Franchise" or the "Resident Evil" franchise, this will have any shared game info (like creator, first game release, etc). Most of this is more for fun than anything but it could also be used to see how many games in a series you are missing. Then we have the "game", this could be "Resident Evil (2002)" for instance. This will have all the shared info for a specific game (alternate titles, descriptions, etc).
Under that is what we mostly care about - the "variant". The Variant will be things like the original GameCube North American release or the Wii re-release in Japan, etc. These are the games that are all in our collections. Variants will now optionally support a lot more data than we currently have
- Credits
- Multiple developers/publishers/distributors
- Listing for bonus physical goods for collector editions
- Flags for homebrew, digital only, full game on media, online only, cross platform support
- Print run of the game
- Inclusion of download codes
- Required or supported controllers
- Hardware or OS requirements for PC games
- An appears in option - tie games to compilations
- Flag as a pack in games for consoles
- Standardization of genres and game modes
- Multiple images for each "type", as in multiple front box images or cartridge images
I think that about wraps things up for this post. As usual, let us know what features/improvements/bugs/etc that need addressed. It may be a long time before we can get to it but I wanted to show that progress is being made behind the scenes. I'm hoping soon we can have a better idea on what path forward we are taking (some of this is dependent on costs and how much we get in donations) but in the meantime I'm working on getting a git repository of the current code setup to give developers access as well as somewhere we can document and submit issues or requests in a more formal way.
It was the reveal to end all... eh, yeah, really it was just a teaser confirming the Switch 2 is a Switch Pro. Bigger screen, actual stand (although I think the OLED model is a smarter design for such), Joy-Cons that appear upgraded from baby-sized hands to small child-sized hands, magnetic connections to replace the rails that have failed in three of the five models in our household, and a few seconds of Mario Kart, which may be a new game or simply an upgraded version of the current (albeit fantastic) one that released almost two hardware generations ago. All while being backwards compatible for software but not hardware. Sure, there will likely be some great Nintendo games that will look prettier and that couldn't run on the regular Switch, but by all accounts thus far this looks a lot like a 1.5 rather than a 2.
I'm absolutely delighted!
Ours has always been a Nintendo household. We have every Nintendo generation thus far, including oddities like the Virtual Boy and most of the Labo releases. We have a Wii U demo kiosk whose loud fan lulled my sons to sleep in their youth. Every member of our family has their own Switch, and they all get played weekly if not daily. Sure, we play all sorts of other stuff (the PS5 is usually my go-to for my daily exercise bike workout) but if there is one shared gaming love in our family, it's probably... Jackbox party packs. But also Nintendo.
A friend of mine was sharing his disappointment over the Switch 2 reveal, grumbling that it wasn't going to be as powerful as the current PS5 and Xbox Series. However, I'm very satisfied that Nintendo is consistently doing their own thing. Why would I want the big three companies following the same path? The one feature I wanted in a new Nintendo system was highlighted in the announcement; backwards compatibility.
Being a physical collector, this is a huge deal to me. Out of the last several generations of gaming hardware, the PS3 stands out as having an excellent library that is currently locked to one console, a console known for hardware failure. Emulating the notoriously difficult Cell processor is still a work in progress, and I assume there will be more and better options in the future. But thankfully, it seems more hardware generations feature some level of backwards compatibility that do not. It makes sense, from a certain standpoint, as it allows for easier integration into a pre-existing software eco-system and helps consumers on-board to new hardware. I know from a salesperson point of view, explaining to customers that the newest PlayStation and Xbox can also play the previous generation has been a major factor in folks buying into the next generation of hardware.
Of course I want to see new Nintendo games in 4K at 60FPS, and hear all of the neat bells and whistles in 7.2 Dolby Atmos. But perhaps even more, I'd love to see some original Switch titles running on improved specs. There are so many Switch games I haven't gotten to yet, and the idea that they may be boosted up on a newer system by the time I get to them is quite the sales pitch for me.
Another factor in my expectations is that, like the original Switch and unlike the PS5 and XSX, the Switch 2 formfactor is portable. For many including my own family, that portability makes Nintendo's system the go-to just for the convenience of not being tied down to a TV. The Switch, I'd argue, is really is more of an evolution of the DS line than of the Wii or GameCube before it. We know our gaming laptops are generally underpowered, dollar-for-dollar, compared to their desktop equivalents. No one was surprised when the PSP, Vita, or other portables were less powerful than their console siblings. The Switch 2, like most Nintendo hardware, won't be near top-of-the-line tech when it comes out. But if history and rumors are true the price will likely be reasonable, and although I'm not looking forward to re-investing in more controllers and accessories the most important part (the games) will already be there and waiting.
The original Switch was quite groundbreaking despite the lower-than-competition specs, and Nintendo has pulled that trick off quite a few times now (the Wii, DS, and even the original Game Boy.) I'm kinda glad Nintendo hasn't tried to re-invent the wheel every time. The 3DS was a fantastic addition to the DS even without the 3D, and the Game Boy Color was a great upgrade to the OG, as was the Advance to the Color. Our Wii was playing as many GameCube games as it was Wii games.
There is more than enough room in the console video game industry for Nintendo to do their thing while Sony and Microsoft to do theirs. I can understand why the Switch 2 will be disappointing for some folks. As they say, not everything is for everyone.
Meanwhile, I'm having to figure out how to 'responsibly' upgrade five systems in the future...
Hey RfGen-ers! Its been... *checks notes* ...far too long since I’ve made a post, and with the website revitalization project under way, we all need to do our part to keep the content mill flowing!
(note: as imbedded images are currently broken, please use the attached links for images...i'll adjust once things are back to normal)
The past few years have been less than ideal for a number of factors, but for all of the bad, there has been a tremendous amount of good. One of those “good” things is that I finally bought my own home in late 2024, and figured this space would be a good place to catalog one of the coolest projects I have planned – a dedicated video gaming space!
https://imgur.com/NMubhy9
[break]
Here is the view from the door – not much of a looker yet, but when you move in between Thanksgiving and Xmas and have to make a whole bunch of repairs to get things livable, the “fun” places tend to take a back seat.
https://imgur.com/22l5EE5
Off to the left we have:
- A crappy plastic cabinet holding controllers and cartridge games for Genesis/N64/Atari
- Two large bookcases for NES/SNES/PS2/GC/Wii/NDS/3DS
I’m really fond of my RfGeneration Golf Competition medal hung on the side, along with another controller organizer, as well as my power glove in an acrylic case just barely in shot cause I’m bad at photography.
https://imgur.com/qiXYxBL
The centerpiece of the room is currently an IKEA Kallax that holds my Flat Screen and far too many systems. I’m still working on wiring, so I don’t have my cables hidden or even properly organized yet. It’ll look better later on, I promise. Off to the left is a CRT that I rescued from the trash that looks fantastic! Its one of the weird flat glassed ones and has a perfectly clean (no scratches) screen.
https://imgur.com/SvkNwyJ
Next, two IKEA Detolf cases hold (almost) all of our Amiibos. If you ever wanted to know what too many Amiibos look like – this is it. These were awful to move. Switch/PS4/Xbone all sit on a shelf behind a bunch of Kirby and Pokemon toys.
https://imgur.com/RgvJgQv
This section is the rest of the disc games (WiiU/PS3/X360/PSX – over on the bottom right)) as well as a small Vita collection. Two more Detolfs – one for handhelds and another for the minis from the god-awful Dark Souls board game. I’m working on 3D printing some more stands/extras for the handheld case, so it’ll be in better shape when I do a more in-depth look later on. The DS minis are my white whale: they REALLLY need to get painted and I’ve only done a handful. Having all of the gray minis out finally has been giving me the motivation to fix it.
https://imgur.com/gXfwkcT
Last and absolutely not least is my custom-made shelf/cocktail cabinet. This guys needs an in-depth review soon to go over all the cool stuff I had built into it (shout out to https://www.heydorksfurniture.com/ for doing an amazing job!).
That's it for now! Look forward to a bunch of changes as I start to unpack/fix more stuff!
~Neo
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Posted on Jan 5th 2025 at 02:20:13 AM by ( slackur) Posted under Update |
Here we are, gang. 2025.
If you've been here for a few years, you've seen it. The difference especially over the last half-decade. The post-COVID, economically difficult, mostly-digital future we are in now. Like so many other old haunts, the ol' RFG site isn't where she used to be and is in serious need of some time and attention. Many assume her glory days are long gone. Some folks stop by every now and then just to see if she's still around. Some have moved on altogether.
And yet, here we are! If you are an old-timer, welcome! If you are a curious newcomer, welcome! If you have no idea how you got here and your Amish family is out looking for you, go back to the front door and take a left, the hardware store is two buildings down.
When I posted over four months ago with our new plan for RFGeneration, I had not anticipated some of the difficulties we were facing. And new ones will undoubtedly pop up moving forward. But we are finally able to move forward! Here's some new updates:
I'll be opening a new account to cover server costs and related expenses: we are keeping everything free to all, and my plan is to always do so. To that end, we will be moving what we have left in the current account to the new one and begin fundraising to pay the bills. That has a hard date of before February. Once we get things up an running, I intend to put up some items for raffling to give that little extra kick for those kind enough to donate.
Here is where we get introspective. When going to the 'about' tab of RFGeneration, it is all about community. The database is naturally the main draw, but what else do we want for RFGeneration? Perhaps the site will primarily be a utility, but we have endless opportunities to grow and build a great place to visit online. Most if not all of the volunteers forming the new team to run RFG have very limited, get-to-it-when-we-can, time to work on the site. We have some great people stepping up, but we can always use more!
To that end, what 'vision' do we want for RFG? Even if the focus will always be the database, we still need to clarify our purpose. For example, are we building an archive for every 'official' game release with footnotes for homebrews, single event carts, and decades-late rereleases? Or are we an open 'everything goes' opportunity for collectors to build lists however they desire? What about variants, and what should be the limit? Should popular mods have any listing? How should we organize digital releases? Should the database be categorized by system, then region, then lists of game titles, or should each game title be the 'launch' page, and every system/region/variant have a listing under the game title?
So many questions! And that's where you come in. We want feedback; after all, the first focus of this site is community! Since we are having to rebuild on such a low level, now is the time to start planning ahead. Even the type of server and technology we are using to host the site will be informed by answering these questions. We don't want to pay for things we aren't going to need or use, but we also don't want to limit ourselves (and make more work for ourselves) by adopting the wrong approach.
We know we can't stay where we are, as the site can't really be patched up to keep going as-is, so how we rebuild is the first question we are working on moving forward.
Please join in the conversation!
Link: https://www.rfgeneration....20462.msg290824#msg290824
Hey, so RFGeneration, am I right?
This site has been decrepit for... a while now. I'll not waste my time going into the specifics, like how the copyright banner said "2008" for the longest time, how the latest episode of the Press Playcast will be two years old relatively soon, how there are many relics of the just-starting Web2.0 still found here, and the code that just keeps breaking, especially the images... oh wait. I just wasted my time going into specifics.
Let's not get ourselves down about the whole thing, though. slackur and some helpful tech-minded people have been working at giving the site a nice refresh (some of the aspects of which you can already see, such as HTTPS support, some fixed image code, and the removal of the "2008" in the copyright notice, among plenty of things going on under the hood). In the meantime (and hopefully continuing on into the refresh!) we need to breathe new air into the dust to get it living again. This breath happens to be video game flavored, due to how things work around here.
slackur put me on content creation duty when it comes to the refresh, and while I can certainly help with other things necessary (such as graphic design drafts; I am Gen Z), creating content is where I've found my best skillset for this website. This shows, since it's been a while since one of my articles HASN'T been on the Hot Community Entries list.
What better idea to both have new RFGen content and have something to do all year gaming-wise then stepping back in time to a console with a lot of very fun games known as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and trying to beat all of its (North American, officially-licensed) games?
What started as a couple of jokes on the #nes2019 channel in the RFGen Discord has now become a full community challenge that hopefully will have several interested people and a lot of fun to be had.
As previously stated, our goal is to beat all of the officially-licensed North American SNES games on official hardware. A secondary goal is to use the forums as much as possible, because the best way to drum up interest in a site is to use it.
If you don't have official hardware, that's okay! Emulators are fine, as long as you don't use save states or abuse emulator-specific functions.
I really think that this will be a fun event and will help drum up interest in RFGen. Signing up isn't necessary - you only need to be an RFGeneration forum member, and have the ability to play SNES games, and considering that most of us are collectors, we probably have an SNES or two lying around (...or a computer that can emulate it...)
If you want to contribute to the refresh but aren't able to code or anything that Those Tech Wizards can do, then beating them SNES games this year and using the forum while doing it is a great way to contribute. It drums up interest in RFGen, and you're actively doing things for the site on the site, something that hasn't been done in many a year. With this goal, I really think many people would be interested in RFGen, give it a try, enjoy it, become lasting members, and then we can have a bigger community of collectors. Let's get this site out of the grave. Clear out the cobwebs! Refresh the site! having actual content is a great way to contribute. SNES games for the win, baby!
(Maybe I got a bit too excited there...)
...so what are you waiting for? Go out and join us! Play some SNES games! Go conquer the world (of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...)
...oh, uh, claiming games? Yeah. That's fair. Claiming games starts on the the 12th (1/12/2025 if you're from the US, or 12/1/2025 if you're from a reasonable country that doesn't use a different system of measurement from the rest of the world. I'm an American...)
Let's beat some SNES games, RFGen!
Link: https://www.rfgeneration....20462.msg290824#msg290824
Well, it is currently 10:17 am, July 31, 2024 as I am writing this intro. I was called a slacker, and hey slackur's not me, it's my dad! So I need to finish this article that I have been slacking on to prove that I am not slacking. That'll show those internet randos!
...right?
Anyway... here's your monthly selection of words, four months late, this time including the words "Pizza", "Tower", and "metroidvania" more often than usual. Enjoy.
Hey all. As mentioned in my previous article, I have been playing waaay too much Pizza Tower. Like, an astronomical amount. I have beaten the game three times back-to-back, (and am currently considering starting a fourth playthrough!) without it feeling monotonous at all. I absolutely love this game, and I think it is probably my new favorite. There are countless reasons why I just adore this piece of pi media, but for the sake of brevity, I'd like to boil it down to just a couple: the game's controls, gameplay and feel, pacing, humor, and soundtrack.
First of all, let's talk about Pizza Tower's controls, gameplay, and feel.. Pizza Tower feels perfectly suited to its controls (at least on a gamepad). With the decently lengthy tutorial for a 2D game, I came off at first thinking that the controls were a bit clunky, and while they do take some getting used to, after only the first one or two levels I was already praising the game's controls and feel. The decision to map the run button to the right trigger at first feels a bit off, yet if you look at other games, especially first-person shooters, you'll find that a lot of the time, the button you'll press most of the time is the right trigger, which makes sense, as that's the button your pointer finger goes on. Most of the time, we use our pointer fingers the most; when I say that, it might make you question the fact that you're running more than jumping in a platformer game, which as is the case with many other platformers, is the case for Pizza Tower, although in its case you are basically running the entire time unless you are specifically looking for something, which is something I really enjoy about the way the game plays. Speaking of which...
Finally, a paragraph break! I can actually talk about the gameplay! First of all, I'd like to clear up one thing: Pizza Tower is not really a metroidvania, and (in my opinion) isn't really like Wario Land as a lot of people seem to make it out to be. I know this because I don't really enjoy either. Both have some design choices and just generally things about them that I don't really hate, but just don't really like. A common design choice in a lot of metroidvanias would be to have a main attack that stops your movement for a second or so. I bet that if you think about it, you can easily come up with a few examples of what I'm talking about: in the original Castlevania, the attack that slows you down would be the whip that everyone is familiar with. I really dislike the whip in the Castlevania series, mostly for the fact that it just slows down the gameplay and forces you to stop focusing on the platforming just to knock out a few enemies and then just get back to regular platforming, which I feel just kind of slows the game down. I get that the levels are built around it, and I definitely feel the quality of the games; they're just not really my thing. The same thing applies with games I've tried in the vain of the Castlevania series, like Hollow Knight' they just don't really have the type of gameplay I'm looking for in a 2D action game. 3D games with this gameplay though, can be really well made, and I have tried a couple and enjoyed them. I'm not trying to be overly critical of the Castlevania-esque games, but hopefully you can see my reasoning here. There's also a type of game where the main attack doesn't slow down the game, but rather speeds it up, which is also not really a decision I like. I'll go more in-depth about that later.
Metroid, the other half of the term "metroidvania", does this a bit better: instead of stopping or slowing down the gameplay with the whip, now you have a blaster, that allows you to shoot enemies that may be coming at you from any location one of the specifically eight cardinal directions. However, even with Metroid's (and games similar to it, like Gato Roboto's) setup, I still dislike this gameplay style. It makes you have to stop paying attention to platforming and pay more attention to gunning down enemies, shmup style; which yes, I know this is a crime worthy of the unspeakable here, but I don't like shmups, and thus, by proxy, I dislike these Metroid-styled games.
In terms of gameplay, my last compare-and-contrast victim is Wario Land. I have tried a bit of both of the Super Mario Land games and have enjoyed what I have played. I have never stuck to one because at the times I tried them, I had some other game that I wanted to play. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3's claim to be a Super Mario Land game is unreasonable, as the two series do not play like each other at all. Wario Land's gameplay boils down to spamming a button that allows you to do a short sprint, during which you can start ramming into things, running them over, hurting enemies, and other such silly shenanigans.
It is this short boost that is what I hate about most action-based platformers. It completely changes your momentum, and often makes the game feel less focused on the actual moment-moment platforming as opposed to combat. I often find myself falling off of platforms simply because I tried to attack an enemy, upset ant the fact that I can't do any other actions while attacking, and generally just hating the gameplay that many other people will call some of the best in gaming.
I do believe that most of this is just me. A lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of these games, and I respect that, and my thoughts here are not even universally true; a game that does the shoot-and-move problem I find with the Metroid series well is Cuphead. My only issues with that game are skill issues.
So what does Pizza Tower the subject of this article, do differently? What sets it apart?
The gameplay and feel of Pizza Tower are both silky smooth. In Pizza Tower, the levels are primarily speed and skill based, with an emphasis on platforming. If you want to play for all of the P ranks, you will find yourself speeding through the levels, having fun platforming and absolutely knocking all of the enemies out of your way as you race at Mach 4 against the combo timer.
This is similar to how I would usually play Mario games, which is probably where I find my enjoyment out of both games: speeding through the levels and trying to find secrets along the way.
Let's address the context I just spent like 4 paragraphs building up and then immediately seemingly discarded. Why is Pizza Tower's combat system any different from the Wario Land games'? What about Metroid?
Pizza Tower prioritizes platforming first. Above all else, it is a platformer, and a quite fast-paced one at that. It never claims to be a metroidvania or anything similar. The gameplay shows it too: although the game does have the normal speed-changing attack, it also has options like their equivalent of Ground Pounds and the main thing that you see people doing in this game: running.
Pizza Tower's running it what sets it apart from all those other games. It adds to the controls, because the way they were done, it really does feel like you're operating a "fat balding italian" running at Mach 4. it adds to the overall gameplay, because blasting through the levels at 2,964 mph absolutely feels amazing. The levels are perfectly designed against the running speed to the point where each level still feels linear, but also very open with lots of exploration, creating a balance that gets very, very addicting.
ohright this article wasnt just about the controls and gameplay
uh
Pizza Tower's pacing also feels amazing. My first playthrough, I was a bit disappointed at its apparently short length, but if I can't accurately describe how packed full of content and extra challenges this game is, look at the development timeline for a bit and you'll see just how much content is in this game from how long it took to develop, even with... checks notes the help of 2,532 patrons each paying $10 a month.
This game seriously is packed full of content and challenges to go through. Even if at first it seems small, (the game only has five worlds), there are loads of achievements, clothes, and higher and higher ranks and FINAL JUDGMENTs to get. With the pacing of five worlds, and each level only taking about 10 minutes to beat (if you're an explorer like me), you will find yourself replaying through the game multiple times to try and see every bit of content the game has to offer. The game is perfectly set up for this, and even gives you rewards for getting faster times than in your previous save files.
Additionally, the humor in this game is exceptionally executed and several sequences had me laughing my butt off before realizing that I was still in control and then dying. This game's artstyle meshes perfectly with over-the-top drawings, something which it takes full advantage of, and so oftentimes I'll be guffawing at some of the choices of humor in this game. Unfortunately, it uses profanity for humor sometimes, which I am wholeheartedly against. I intend to make a mod to completely remove profanity from the game, considering my familiarity with GameMaker. (I have used it for a commercial game, and am currently building a second with it.)
Lastly, the soundtrack in this game is legitimately the best one that I have ever heard. Pizza Tower gets this a lot, but it's true. I listen to the songs from the soundtrack significantly more than other game's, because they are that much better than other games' songs. I like it even more than Toby Fox's work, which is a sentence I'd never thought I'd say. If you don't want to buy the game, I implore you buy the soundtrack. The composer, Ronan "Mr. Sauceman" de Castel, at first wasn't proud of any of his music, but he decided to submit a demo of the now extremely popular song "It's Pizza Time!" to the developers of the then-recently-started Pizza Tower project, got on the team, and has produced several lovely works of art for us all to enjoy. Do yourself a favor and listen to it, please.
I've been koola, and if I don't post for the next 4-8 months, I'm not dead. I'm just working on something to do with "planes."
(That was a total of 1,768 words. Does that count as not slacking?)
Hey. I'm koola. I already forgot to do my first two articles of the year. So that's fun.
Something I've been thinking about recently is the remaster. What does "remaster" even mean, why are there so many of them, and what is the difference between one and a "remake" or "rerelease"?
First, let's start with remasters, as there are a lot of things claiming to be remasters.
The simple definition of "remaster" in this day and age is simply the rerelease of a game. I argued with myself a lot writing that sentence, because you would assume that for something to be called "Remastered" it would have to have some changes, right? There are many different types of remasters, but I find they can be easily categorized as rereleases, HD rereleases, and full-on remakes.
There are very few games considered to be remasters that are simply rereleases (excluding collections of classic games such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Cowabunga Collection or Mega Man Legacy Collection.
A good example of a game considered a remaster that is simply a rerelease is the video game simply titled moon. Originally released in Japan only on the PlayStation, the game got what most consider to be a remaster in 2019 that would port it to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC and add a full English translation. Ever since I started playing the game, a thought lingered in the back of my mind: "Why do people consider this a "remaster"?".
moon's rerelease in 2019 added a couple of things: a song select that allowed you to pick from a couple of area theme songs from throughout the game (similar to Earthbound's Sound Stone, if you know what that is), and a border, because the game was originally in 4:3 (being a PS1 game) that you could slightly adjust the position of through the settings menu. Upon reading that, you may wonder why the game was even bothered to be call itself a remaster. Plot twist: it didn't. The 2019 rerelease of moon claims to be exactly that. The only additional thing it claims to have is a full English translation, which it does have. (A fact that I am extremely grateful for, as I am a resident of the United States of America and thus only speak English.)
Next, let's talk about HD rereleases. A good recent example of an HD rerelease is Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is an emulated collection of games (specifically Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, contained in a small little package to celebrate the Mario series's 35th anniversary. Although I do like this game, I would not consider HD rereleases "remasters" in the literal definition of the word, as they aren't remaking the game, and most of the time they aren't even running natively.
Lastly, let's talk about full-on remakes. These are what most people meant when "remasters" first came on the scene, and that's because that's what most of them are. These are remakes of the original from the ground-up, remaking every aspect of the game to be in-line with modern standards. Oftentimes, these also come with an easy mode or the removal of lives from the game. These are my favorite, and in my opinion the only ones deserving of the title "remaster".
When it comes to remasters in general, I think they're a good thing, because it helps people who may have never heard of the game before try it out and see if they like it. A game's age doesn't matter as long as the game is fun, after all, and for that I am grateful for remasters.
I've been koola, and "Re-Pac" isn't a word.
(Sorry for the lateness and rushed state of this article. I've been focusing a lot on things going on in real life, and have also been playing waaay too much Pizza Tower...)
The Sega Dreamcast was a short-lived but beloved console that had a surprisingly rich library of horror games. Here are my picks for the top 5 horror games for the Sega Dreamcast, in descending order of awesomeness.
5. Blue Stinger
Blue Stinger is a survival horror game that takes place on a remote island where a meteor has crashed, unleashing a horde of mutated creatures. You play as either Eliot G. Ballade, a former special forces agent, or Dogs Bower, a beefy sailor, as you explore the island and fight off the monsters. The game has a cheesy B-movie vibe, with over-the-top voice acting, ridiculous dialogue, and absurd plot twists. The gameplay is a mix of action, puzzle-solving, and exploration, with a variety of weapons and items to use. Blue Stinger is a fun and campy game that doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's a big part of its charm.
4. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is a reboot of the classic horror series that started on the PC. The game follows Edward Carnby, a paranormal investigator, and Aline Cedrac, a university professor, as they travel to Shadow Island to investigate the death of a friend. The game is divided into two scenarios, one for each character, that offer different perspectives and paths through the island. The game features a dark and atmospheric setting, with creepy sound effects and music, and a dynamic lighting system that uses your flashlight as a key gameplay element. The game also has plenty of clever puzzles, as well as a healthy dose of combat against the island's ghastly inhabitants. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is a solid and spooky game that pays homage to the original series while updating it for a new generation.
3. D2
D2 is a sequel to the obscure D, a horror adventure game that was released on the 3DO, Sega Saturn, and PS1. The game stars Laura, a young woman who survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness, only to find herself in a bizarre and dangerous situation. The game is a mix of genres, with elements of survival horror, RPG, and adventure. It also has some stunning (for their time) cinematic cutscenes, with impressive graphics and voice acting, and some very creepy moments. The game isn't terribly long, clocking in at a little over 10 hours, but it features a complex and surreal story that touches on themes of loss, identity, and drug abuse. D2 was a very unique and ambitious game that offers a surreal and somber experience, somewhat similar to the Silent Hill series.
2. Illbleed
Illbleed is a horror comedy game that parodies the genre and breaks the fourth wall. The game takes place in a twisted amusement park called Illbleed, where the attractions are designed to scare and kill the visitors. You play as Eriko Christy, a fearless girl who is challenged by her friends to enter Illbleed and survive. The game has 6 levels, each based on a different horror trope, such as a haunted house, killer doll, giant worms, and a Toy Story from hell. The game has a lot of humor and satire, with references to horror movies, games, and pop culture. It also has a very unique gameplay mechanic, where you have to use your senses to detect and avoid the traps and dangers in the park. The game also has a lot of secrets and surprises, such as multiple unlockable characters, alternate endings, and a bonus minigame. Illbleed is a hilarious and inventive game that simultaneously mocks and celebrates the horror genre.
1. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Resident Evil: Code Veronica is the fourth installment in the legendary survival horror series, and the first one to be released on the Dreamcast. The game follows Claire Redfield, a survivor of the Raccoon City incident, and Chris Redfield, her brother and a member of the anti-bioterrorism group S.T.A.R.S., as they uncover the secrets of the Umbrella Corporation and their bioweapons. The game is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 2, and features many returning characters and locations, as well as new ones. It also introduces a new 3D engine, with dynamic camera angles and improved graphics. Code Veronica features a long and epic story, with multiple scenarios and locations, and a lot of action and suspense. The game also has some puzzles and exploration, as well as a variety of enemies and bosses, including the iconic Tyrant. Resident Evil: Code Veronica is a masterpiece of the genre, and the best survival horror game on the Dreamcast, in my humble opinion.
While these 5 are my favorites, there are even more horror games on the Dreamcast. If you're a fan of the genre, Sega's final console definitely has a lot to offer!
There is a wide variety of answers to the question "What makes a good video game?". It may be the controls, or the gameplay, or the story, or any number of things.
...This is not the first time I've opened an article like that.
In my article about F.I.S.H. from all the way back in May 2022, I started the article with something along those lines. In that article, I went on to explain how each of those came together to make F.I.S.H. at that time my favorite video game. (I actually also did something similar for my article about This Way Madness Lies.)
I went on to conclude that because F.I.S.H. met all those requirements, it was my new favorite game. In fact, that was even in the title of the article. In retrospect, I think I was a bit overzealous about F.I.S.H. at that time; I had just found a new game that went into my list of "good games" and tried to claim automatically that it was my number one favorite game.
I have, since then, played many a game that has fallen into that spot. They usually only last in there for a few weeks before they get replaced by something different and more noteworthy; this might be due to the fact that sometimes I have a hard time differentiating between "favorite" and "this current thing I'm liking".
Ever since I wrote that article, I've been thinking a lot about this concept of favorites vs. current likings, and I think I finally found a game that has managed to survive the couple-week survival time of "favorite game" and has triumphed as a Good Game: Trombone Champ.
(I am writing this review after beating both the Switch and PC versions and getting every achievement on PC.)
The first thing I wanna clear up is that Trombone Champ is not similar to Wii Music. It feels like everyone makes that comparison when they first see this game. It is indeed a very tempting comparison to make, due to the two game's immediate apparent similarity: both use Mii-looking characters, both involve music, and both are inherently silly games. However, I feel the comparison should end there.
The gameplay of the games are very different; in Wii Music, the gameplay boils down to just wagging your Wii Remote to the "beat" of the music.
In Trombone Champ, the gameplay is wildly different: you are moving your mouse to control a cursor, overlapping a note, clicking to toot the trombone, and thus actually playing your music. That's actually one of the taglines of the game. This leads me into a point; yay, transitions!
In Trombone Champ, you're not following along with the music, you are actually playing the music. This fact defines a core aspect of what I love about Trombone Champ: the game actively gives you reason to play well. In most rhythm games, not playing a song well isn't the end of the world, you just hear less of that instrument. In this game, if you are playing badly, you will feel it, because the entire main lead of most of the songs has just disappeared. Going back to the main point, playing the actual music is fun and enjoyable because you're not penalized for just going hog wild and adding little extra toots in there. You can play the song however you want.
Another area I want to focus on is difficulty. Most rhythm games will up the difficulty to insane amounts just because they can. In Trombone Champ, most of the songs are not difficult once you get used to the controls and find a good sensitivity. There are a good couple difficult ones, however most of the songs are easy, and the amount of easy ones are even increasing with future content updates. Additionally, you can play any song at any time after completing the tutorial. I often find myself in rhythm games unlocking a new level, beating it, and thinking that I could've done it before the harder level before it, so this is a nice change of pace.
Remember about five seconds ago when I mentioned "future content updates"? Yeah, that's yet another thing that this game has got going for it. Additional, free content is something I feel all games should have. The more content that you add, the more that people will want to play and come back. It's the reason why games like Minecraft and Terraria are so popular. I think that rhythm games are one of the best choices for games that could receive more free content later down the road, due to the way that they are often played: people will often play them to see if they can "Perfect" all of the tracks. Trombone Champ has been getting two new free tracks about every three months for about a year now. They did say in their most recent update that they were going to slow down in that regard, so maybe this point should count for less now, but I still think it's good.
Lastly, Trombone Champ is very moddable, and has officially-backed mod support. When I say "officially-backed", I mean not that the developers are making official mods or have an official song editor (although an official song editor is being worked on, along with Steam Workshop support, for which I am very excited!), I mean that the developers are actually working with the mod creators to make sure that the mods work and are not actively trying to take the mods down. I feel like mods are a right of passage for published video games. They will happen, and it's up to the developers to decide if they want to try to stop them or embrace them and have a thriving mod community that people come to often. The way that I said that makes it seem like people should always support mods, which is what I think, but sometimes it can make paid DLC seem less inviting. In any case the developers of Trombone Champ handle modding very well, in my opinion: they embrace it, and have specifically made certain tweaks to the game to ensure mods run and behave the best they can.
All around, Trombone Champ has the perfect mix of community content, official content, and fun gameplay to make it one of my new personal favorite games. I highly recommend it.
I've been koola, and wait, did I just get all my articles in for a year?!!?!?!?
(YES I DID! Unfortunately September's article looks like it came out in October, but that's because I submitted it at like 11:30 EST. See y'all in '24!)
Hello. In the midst of all the talks about a potential Switch 2, I'd like to talk a bit about the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model).
I've had my Switch OLED for about two years now (wow! already?) and here's some of my thoughts on it.
Before I got my Switch OLED, I was watching some videos about it, and the number one most brought-up topic was the screen. At the time, I thought "What's so cool about a screen with individually lit pixels? The blacks are better, and that's it?" After getting my hands on it, however, I can personally say that the Switch OLED's screen looks phenomenally better than the regular Switch's screen. Not only does the screen not have that huge annoying bezel, but it feels like the screen just pops out with color. Blacks, obviously, look really good on it too; especially in games that feature black heavily such as Gato Roboto or UNDERTALE, that feature black heavily, you can really tell the huge difference. Sometimes when a game fades to black for a long time, (such as the case with moon's loading screens) I've thought that I accidentally turned the console off.
Another big selling point of the Switch OLED is the improved kickstand. I always hated the original Switch's kickstand, and I can say that this aspect of the system is also greatly improved upon. Honestly, with my original Switch, I almost never used the kickstand because whenever I would try, I would either knock the stand off or make my Switch fall in the process. Most of the stand's use for me was just something as a fidget. One day, I was fidgeting with the stand while I was really tired, fell asleep, and when I woke up later that day the stand was gone. I later found the stand under my bed a couple hours after I got my Switch OLED, ironically.
The Switch OLED's stand is a big step-up from the original stand. It is almost as wide as the console itself, allowing for extra stability, and is made of metal, not the cheap plastic-y substance that the original Switch's variant uses. I find myself using the stand very often for things, such as playing with the Joy-Cons detached, or with them sideways for games like TowerFall.
Lastly, the storage is doubled from the regular Switch. Whether this means anything to you depends on whether you are a digital collector or a physical collector. Obviously, that is not really a question, considering the website I am writing this review on, but I find (with my sadly mostly digital collection) that no matter what games you're playing, you're still probably going to need a microSD card anyway. If you only play physical games then maybe you could get around with 64GB of storage, but nowadays most physical Switch games have some portion of the game as a download anyway, so you're pretty much required to have a microSD card if you play more than five games on your Switch.
A question that is brought up often is whether the OLED Model is worth the upgrade. I personally think if you already have the regular Switch, then you're fine. The screen, stand, and storage are the big selling points here. If you're just looking for a good console to play games on, then just stick with your regular Switch.
I've been koola, and people say the Switch OLED is trying to copy the PS5.
(Isn't that just the style now, anyways?)
Hypnospace Outlaw is a wonderful, splendid video game.
It is quite possibly the most human-feeling game, in my opinion, that I have ever played. The only game that I have beat that has gotten close is Persona 5 Royal, and that's a huge-budget game made by one of the most respected companies in the video game industry.
As the developers put it, Hypnospace Outlaw is a "90s internet simulator". In my words, Hypnospace Outlaw is a masterfully-crafted story told through the medium of various 90s Internet pages.
The game starts with you signing up to be a rules enforcer for a forum that you can browse while you sleep. Named "Hypnospace", it has several different zones assigned to its "residents", as they are called, who each have their own, very 90s, personal pages. Your goal is to track down and remove all content that violates the rules of Hypnospace.
Each of the residents feel very distinct. I wasn't around in the 90s, but a lot of people I have listened to and watched attest to the accurateness of the pages. Stuff like rudimentary page design, obnoxious music, relentless typos, and more litters the pages: things that people look back on and think of as the golden age of the internet.
The beauty shines in the humanity of these residents. They aren't just meaningless characters who are only there to fill a role; each and every one of them has their own struggles and faults. They respond to actions of you and your company with their own genuine reasons and, like us, will get upset if you as an enforcer do something that they deem unjust. They each have their own likes and dislikes, which some of them make evident and others you have to search for, and just like our internet, there are hidden pages, leaks of companies, and people making joke pages just to show off their programming ability.
A good example of this humanity that I keep coming back to is the first case: you are assigned to take down copyright violations of a fictional old cartoon character, and after doing some digging you find they are just kids' drawings that their teacher posted. The teacher, thinking that she did nothing wrong, starts to lash out about it and eventually gets her whole zone to start a revolt against these "unfair policies". This is something I could genuinely see happening in the real world.
Without diving into spoiler territory as I admittedly often do, the story goes into places you would not expect. I came out of it feeling confused at first, but the more I think about it, the more the ending makes sense for where the character development goes.
Overall, Hypnospace Outlaw has one of my favorite stories of any game, and I highly recommend you check it out.
I've been koola, and I apologize for the long wait time and short article. There's been a lot of games that I've been starting, but the only one that I have finished was this one, and I didn't want to dive into spoiler territory.
(I wanna see a real life Trennis game. That sounds like a fun idea, honestly.)
"Oh hey, just remembered I haven't gotten my article in for this month!"
looks at clock
8:30 PM, September 30
"Oh poop"
Hi. It's koola. You may know me from "wow this game is good" and "wow Toby Fox is amazing" and "something something music".
I made a game called OMNIFATE. Originally, I wanted to document the game's entire development on my blog page, but that did not end up happening, sadly.
I released OMNIFATE on September 9, 2023. If you want, you can pick it up right now from this link: https://store.steampowere...com/app/2521970/OMNIFATE/
I just wanted to spend some time going over its development history. Originally started as a companion project to a cancelled Game Builder Garage game, OMNIFATE's first playable version was a puzzle platformer. At the time, I was very proud of it. Looking back at it now, frankly that prototype sucked: it showed very little signs of polish (even though I had promised polish from it online), lack of originality (the first couple prototypes did not use original music), and you couldn't even die.
I worked on that version of the game for about two months, most of which was spent fine-tuning the physics. Honestly, at some point, I do want to make a platformer game, although I don't think that will happen any time soon.
That version of OMNIFATE was made in Unity. Unity is supposed to be an easy engine for newcomers to the field to learn, however nothing I wrote ever ended up working. I don't think that was the engine's fault; rather, I think it was the raw difficulty of C# for amateurs.
After about two months of development and the release of a demo publicly available prototype, I had felt like I was just growing overly tired of the project. I wanted to call it quits, and was thinking that this sort of thing is just not something a person of my age could come up with.
Fast forward a month. I was deciding what to do with the project. At the time, I had not fully realized what my favorite genre of video game is, but I had known that I had a fun time with many a turn-based RPG, so I decided to go with that. I could not find a single tutorial for RPGs in Unity, so I gave up.
In September 2021, I was considering my options. I could abandon the project directly, or start in a new engine. I looked into several options, but the one I ended up using was GameMaker Studio 2, which later officially changed its name to just GameMaker.
GameMaker seemed like a breath of fresh air. A unique workspace, tabs, no switching windows, and I could kind of understand the code! I followed a tutorial on top-down movement in GameMaker and understood about 81% of what was going on. The way the tutorial's code was structured meant that I had to have a walking animation.
I asked my friend Rain if she could draw a walking animation for the player character, and waited. And waited. And waited. She was procrastinating, but so was I. I could have just made the walking animation, but I wanted it to look nice.
I ended up waiting for seven months. I regret that timespan the most out of anything I regret throughout the development cycle, because at any point I could have just slapped up a prototype walking animation.
On one day in June 2022, I finally snapped out of it and made the dang walking animation. After that, things finally started to look up. Throughout the rest of that summer, every day I worked wholeheartedly on every aspect of the game, with the goal of releasing a demo by the end of it. I succeeded. I released a demo of OMNIFATE on GX.games on August 30, 2022, two days before my deadline. After that, I worked on the rest of the game, and completed it in March 2023.
After that, I released a trailer, and sat my butt down. I relaxed. I playtested the game multiple times, noticed several bugs, but patched only a few. (I caught the mind disease known as "procrastination" again.) I also got several other people to playtest, and promised them the bugs that they found would be fixed. (I didn't fix them.)
In one day in July, I finally saved up money for publishing on Steam. I got everything ready, and asked my parents for playtesting. They proceeded to lovingly and caringly point out every bug they saw, while I wrote them down all while crying and telling them that I couldn't fix the bugs. Looking back on it, I was being a brat to my loving and caring parents who only wanted to see a quality game released.
So I fixed every bug that was written down, and they found more. This process repeated twice before I finally felt that a genuine, final, quality product was ready. I submitted everything, and relaxed again. It was like a burden had been lifted off my shoulders.
That's where we are today. The game has released, and I'm currently working on another project, in a different genre. (*It's not the platformer.)
Thanks for reading this, and hopefully you enjoy the fruit of my (mostly) hard work.
I've been koola, and, why are some letters bolded? Those weren't bolded when I was writing the article...?
(I'm sorry for the lack of a quickly written article this month. I was mostly focusing on school and family.)
As I have noted in previous articles, my personal favorite type of video game is a turn-based role-playing game. I personally prefer the ones that are not strategy-based, but I have had some fun with all of them that I have played.
I prefer ones that change up the gameplay just a tiny bit, but not too much, have good humor, are short, and are genuinely fun. It's hard finding a good balance of all four, but there are a good few games that hit that balance (or at least get really close to it). Some examples are UNDERTALE, DELTARUNE, Helen's Mysterious Castle, and Dicey Dungeons.
There is exactly one video game company that makes games that hit all of these pillars with literally every single game I've played from them, and that company is Zeboyd Digital Entertainment. I could go all day talking about them, but this article is about their newest offering, This Way Madness Lies.
This Way Madness Lies is a turn-based RPG about Shakespeare and magical girl anime, which is funnily enough not even the strangest premise I've heard from Zeboyd. (Cthulhu saving Christmas, anyone?) This strange premise, in my opinion, already helps with the humor a lot, but even if it weren't there, I would still be laughing my butt off because almost every line in this game.
Given the subject material, you see a lot of Old English in this game, which might seem like a drag, but the game actually contains a translator for it. A minor complaint I have is that, as an English nerd, I can actually read a good majority of the Old English, and as such I have found out that some of the dialogue has a much simpler translation than I would have preferred or straight up has a different meaning. This isn't a real issue however, as even if you don't know a lot of Old English, you can mostly grab from context what the words mean.
The combat system in This Way Madness Lies is a masterclass of turn-based video game combat. Returning from other Zeboyd titles is the Unite command, in which multiple team members can combine their powers to make combat more interesting. All of these are super strong, and very fun to use.
There is no MP (or equivalent) in This Way Madness Lies, which at first might seem like a bad choice, but the way they compensate for it is very interesting, unique, and well-made. Every time you use an attack, it weakens. This is something that I think is done very well in this game. I can tell that a lot of work was put into balancing everything. Toof often, in other turn-based RPGs, I find that multiple punishments for using moves often are enforced: MP (or equivalent), and a move limit. I don't think that move limits are a good idea for turn-based RPGs, as they often ruin the fun in them: you are forced to use a different, weaker move, and this often feels very limiting. How this differs from making the move weaker is that making the move weaker punishes the use of it, but you can still feel the power of it, and oftentimes (as in the case of This Way Madness Lies) there is a skill that can refill how strong your move is.
Lastly is the length. I don't have too much to say on this one that hasn't been stated at length by countless others before me, but even ignoring our shortening attention spans, shorter games are a good thing. A lot of us don't have the time for a grand 80-hour RPG, some something that you can finish in 1/8 the time.
I very much enjoyed This Way Madness Lies, and I hope you give it a try. It is one of my favorite games now.
I've been koola, and I was recieved this game for free, so I pretty much had to review it.
(I would have positively reviewed it anyway. I love this game.)
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