PokÃƒÂ©mon. Serious Business. [Nintendo E3 Conference]

Spazz · Post by **Spazz** » Tue May 17, 2005 11:54 am

1.) I watched today's Nintendo E3 conference and Nintendo has revealed a new treasure:
The Game Boy micro.

Basically it's just a GBA that's half the size with a smaller screen. Hopefully it'll be able to play Old GB games, etc.

2.) Apparently, with the Revolution you will be able to download Nintendo games from the past 20 years, including NES, SNES, and N64 games.

3.) Mario DDR, 'nuff said.

As for the topic, George Harrison actually said that talking about the new PokÃƒÂ©mon DS game.

I'll have the audio from the conference uploaded later.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:12 pm

Nintendo's conference was a joke, and they are royally screwed for the upcoming generation. The most exciting thing they showed was the new GameCube Zelda game.

Nintendo thinks playing 20 year old games on your new system is revolutionary? MEGATON!

Spazz · Post by **Spazz** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:19 pm

"It will make us feel young again...for awhile at least."

Double-S- · Post by **Double-S-** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:25 pm

No HDtv support sounds FANTASTIC!

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:26 pm

I don't even think that new Zelda looks like all that and a bag of Fritos, to be honest. It doesn't look bad or anything, but I mean... it's still Ocarina of Time. What's the big deal?

Lizard · Post by **Lizard** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:31 pm

You can turn into a wolf in this one. Furries unite!1!!

Post by **Delphine** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:40 pm

Hey, for this SEGA kid who was only allowed to have one console until she made enough money to buy her own gaming equipment, this isn't so bad.

Gaz · Post by **Gaz** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:46 pm

I thought Nintendo's conference was pretty good if not as impressive as Sony's. Still miles better that Microsoft's though!

Also I think the downloading old games feature on Revolution will be down to pricing. If Nintendo charge rip-off prices like they did for the NES classics series it won't do them any good.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Tue May 17, 2005 12:56 pm

Double-S- wrote:No HDtv support sounds FANTASTIC!

We don't know that as they hardly gave any Revolution specs at all! Shoot, even the controller wasn't shown. God, Sony gave all the specs, the system complete, and some footage and the PS3 is going to be released next year and augurably owned Microsoft in the showing. Nintendo had a chance to steal what momentum Xbox 360 had left, really wow the audience who was packed in the aditorium and they blew it. -_-

The big highlight of this conference were the future Mario games and I don't mean the ones that are coming out on the GCN. -_-;

And why the GB Micro, Nintendo?! Why?!

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:00 pm

An emulator? That's the revolution? Will you at least be able to download games OTHER than the ones I can get for free on any self-respecting rom site?

At least they finally got their online act together. Online Smash Bros. at last. And no montly fee for 1st party titles.

Kishi · Post by **Kishi** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:01 pm

Ngangbius wrote:God, Sony gave all the specs, the system complete...

To be fair, I don't think showing that controller did Sony any good.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:07 pm

Ngangbius wrote:
Double-S- wrote:No HDtv support sounds FANTASTIC!
We don't know that as they hardly gave any Revolution specs at all!

<A HREF=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/business/16game.html>The New York Times</A> wrote:Games created for two next-generation consoles - the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony - will display video in wide-screen high-definition format if the console is connected to a high-definition TV. Only Nintendo's entry, code-named Revolution, will not cater to HDTV's.

Say what?

Lizard · Post by **Lizard** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:14 pm

As I understand it from other sources it's more like Nintendo won't force developers to use HDTV unlike Sony & Microsoft who demands it for their consoles. The Revolution will support HDTV but it's up to the individuell developer to decide if they want to use it.

Dunjohn · Post by **Dunjohn** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:20 pm

Ngangbius wrote:And why the GB Micro, Nintendo?! Why?!

I just recently got a DS. Rats. This is what i get for waiting two months. I'm obsolete already.

They waited how long before touching the specs of the original bulky beige Gameboy? Then they had the GB Pocket. within months there was the GB Color, even over here where we like our words with "u"s in them.

Right now we have three current GB models; the Advance, the SP and the DS (I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY SAY IT'S A GODDAMN GB).

Their refusal to make any new Mario games, as opposed to pumping out remakes and spinoffs, is really starting to grate. Last thing I needed to hear is this download thingy.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:26 pm

The Micro isn't a new system, it's just a rerelease of the GBA. Unless they sell it for $5 at supermarket checkout aisles, it's a moronic idea.

An emulator? That's the revolution? Will you at least be able to download games OTHER than the ones I can get for free on any self-respecting rom site?

Average joe everyman who wanders into GameStop to browse the used shit doesn't know about emulation and wouldn't have the patience to figure it out anyway. He does, however, remember playing Duck Hunt on his "original Nintendo" (as they call it) 20 years ago, and the fact that he can play it again for only $20 plus the cost of a GBA is exciting to him. The download service will appeal to the casual market, the same ones who keep the GBA alive by guzzling Nintendo's steady stream of rereleased semen.

If that's all Nintendo has up its sleeve, it's little more than a life support system for a company that has died, but it's still too early to make that call. Of course that's what's going to end up happening, I've been predicting it for years, but I'll at least wait until I see some conrete specs and games before I tattoo "Nintendo R.I.P." on my forehead.

tornadot · Post by **tornadot** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:29 pm

Gameboy Micro? And the difference between this and the DS is just it's smaller and one less screen? I still find it funny Nintendo says the DS isn't a succesor to the Micro and what kind of upgrade is this?

The ability to download old Nintendo games intrigues me greatly...so is their excuse for not porting Super Mario RPG to the DS/GBA?

Post by **Esrever** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:29 pm

I'm not sure I entirely understand this forcing widescreen HDTV support thing that Sony and MS are doing. I mean, what does that mean for people who have regular televisions? Will my games be running letterboxed, or will they be running with the sides of the visuals chopped off? Or, are the games designed for a regular TV aspect ratio, but will "fill" in the extra widescreen space with extra surrounding visuals if it has the option?

So which is it? Are the visuals going to be horribly castrated on regular televisions, or unnecessarily and artificially bloated on HD televisions?

As for the Revolution, under any normal circumstances Nintendo wouldn't even have shown as much as they did. I mean, did Microsoft reveal the Xbox 360 at last year's e3? The Revolution isn't going to be released until 2006.... possibly not even until the holiday season. It's very unusual to get much info about a system that's as far away as the Revolution or the PS3.

Unfortunately for Nintendo (but fortunately for us), Sony made an extraordinary effort to unveil early and bitchslap Microsoft. Nintendo, meanwhile, looks like it's going to keep the lid on the Revolution for awhile longer. What little they did reveal was probably only done to tide folks over, and to provide them with a little assurance that it won't be a massive screwup like the Cube: this system will be online, and this system will look good. But they haven't given us any real info about the console at all. This wouldn't have looked so bad if they had more to show for their existing consoles, but on the whole, it was a pretty lightweight presentation for anyone who doesn't care about the DS.

I'm not a huge Zelda fan, but I'm pretty excited about Twilight Princess. Sure, the new trailer can't have the same surprise impact that it did last year, but it did get me a lot more interested in the game. The werewolf idea sounds really interesting, as does all the animal interaction. I wonder if Zelda really is the hawk? Weird!

Post by **Segaholic2** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:32 pm

It means nothing to you suckers with regular TVs, but it means <I>everything</I> to those of us with high-def televisions.

Also, GG!, I've been predicting Nintendo's slump/fall for years as well. People never believed me when I said that.

Lizard · Post by **Lizard** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:32 pm

The Micro is just another GBA in some new clothes (and back-lite). It's not a new gameboy! The DS is still more advanced.

Plus the DS gives us our first new 2D Super Mario Bros. since God knows how long.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:34 pm

That looks gay.

tornadot · Post by **tornadot** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:35 pm

Uh...eww..sorry but this doesn't look all this great...

Lizard · Post by **Lizard** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:42 pm

I don't care how it looks or plays. Do you know how long I have been waiting for this? I need my 2D Mario fix dammit!

Oh Lord, it's Sonic Advance all over again.

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:50 pm

Lizard wrote:The Micro is just another GBA in some new clothes (and back-lite). It's not a new gameboy!

That's the best news I've heard all day. When I first heard about 'Gameboy Evolution', I was about to start a massacre.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:51 pm

Dunjohn wrote:I just recently got a DS. Rats. This is what i get for waiting two months. I'm obsolete already.

As far as I'm concerned the smaller screen makes this new version inferior. I don't think it will really benefit from the actual unit being smaller either, you've got to hold onto something.

The downloading old games thing sounds neat - I like the idea of having an extensive Nintendo library available to play on one console. If it offers Super Game Boy enhancement I will be very happy.

I'm looking forward to the new Zelda a lot, nothing beats a good Zelda game and this may very well be one of the best.

Pokemon DS could be good if they bulk up the battle system in the 1 player game (I still think that the only way to do this is to place unique limitations and rules on each battle, like in the Stadium games but more extensive). And I do so terribly miss the time and day feature that Gold and Silver had, it's one of the biggest reasons why I never bought Ruby and Sapphire, removing it seemed like a big step backwards.

Of course a lot of my indifference to Nintendo's conference, or lack thereof, is probably because I'm a cheap bastard when it comes to video games - I refuse to pay more than Ã‚Â£20 for a game unless I'm very excited about them, and there's still a few I'd like to buy that should last me a few months. Furthermore there are a lot of comics urgently demanding me to buy them - namely the Complete Peanuts books and Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man volume 7 (I've been waiting for a full reprint of The Spectacular Spider-Man [1968 magazine] #2 for years), both FLIGHT books, volumes 11+ of GTO and no doubt any of the dozens of other things that will catch my eye.

EDIT: Just looked at the above posted screens of that GBA Mario game. What's with the pretending to be 3D rendered crap? It almost always makes the characters and environments look stiff and plasticfied ( =D ) and in some cases fucks up with the precision (thank God that the landscapes don't appear to be all "2.5D"). It saddens me that out of the few 2D games being produced nowadays barely any of them try to wow us visually and that the developers would rather send the message "don't worrykids, it's kinda 3D". Whatever happened to the likes of Yoshi's Island? Embrace 2D and give us something new and beautiful damnit!

Fucking Donkey Kong Country.

Post by **Esrever** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:57 pm

Segaholic2 wrote:It means nothing to you suckers with regular TVs, but it means <I>everything</I> to those of us with high-def televisions.

But a game has to be designed primarily with either one or the other in mind, because the aspect ratios are different. I mean, the game can support both -- it can give you an option to use one or the other -- but ultimately it has to be designed with one in mind.

If it's designed to work optimaly on a regular TV, it would have to extend the viewable area horizontally to fit on a widescreen. But if the game was designed for a regular TV, everything relevant is packed into the smaller frame. The extra stuff on the left and right is, by definition, unnecessary. It wasn't mean to be there.

But if it's designed to work properly with widescreen, it has to crop the image horizontally to fit on a regular television. In that case, the regular TV version is less functional that the widescreen... it won't work as well because vital visual information is not being displayed. You won't be able to see everything you need to see to play properly.

So what's the deal, then? Will using a regular TV make the game defective, like watching a film in pan and scan? Or, will using an HDTV just artificially bloat up the viewing area for no purpose? Either way, I'm very excited about it!