/v/ - Video Games

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Hey Nintendo (since I know you're reading), just build a new FPS Metroid like Breath of the Wild, but with a lesser roaming world map and instead a bit of a Harvest Moon, Majora's Mask type mission system based on moving in and out of deep dungeons to fulfill an overall plot.

And add F-Zero as one of them.

I would actually prefer not to play as Samus anymore, but a custom character. Hearing the fanboy boners wilt as if thousand blood vessels screamed and were suddenly silenced since Other M has killed my enthusiasm towards the character, who can only ever again be portrayed as Master Chief with boobs or else somebody rages over it for one reason or other. The cultural position of Samus is so pedestalized that it should translate better to a near mythical figure in the game as well.

On the other hand, if the plot attachment to MC is just "wants to be Samus Aran", that could yield a pretty functional trapping for a silent protagonist. A lot of options to railroad the plot without breaking immersion, like NPC's could be read as being presumptious and that would only play into the introvert bounty hunter shtick. Or the whole being a gurrrl shtick.

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 >>/11406/
> add F-Zero 

Since Nintendo sees F-Zero as dead on arrival already, perhaps they could use the franchise as a platform to try improving their game at online services. Make a low-poly, 32 or 64 multiplayer free-to-play F-Zero that runs partially on a remote server, that you can fully enter into either by paying some extra pocket money into the online service or by earning rank in free play. Make it into a tournament just like the in-universe GP, with cost rubberbanded against the other playerbase so if nobody wants it it's just strain off of the bandwidth anyway, and if it's popular people will crop up paying money into keeping the servers up and running well. It would be like an entrance fee to participate in the tourney.

 >>/11407/
> implying THEBABYTHEBABYTHEBABY was anything other than Sakamoto masturbating
fuck that shit, if I want a non-Samus metroid it had better be that anon's idea where you fight Samus clones brainwashed into thinking Other M is canon so they're easier to control

 >>/11413/
The BABBY was bad, but Samus in Prime was a fucking autist.

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Metroid Prime was always an abhorrent clunky mess of a shooter. The worlds for it and it's sequels were also badly designed and forced the player to do a lot of needless backtracking. But even ignoring these aspects, Metroid Prime was always a bad METROID series because they don't play like Metroid at all. The combat is slow as fuck and laden with monotonous circle strafing. The movement is fucking abysmally slow and forces you to go into morphball mode to have any fun.

Honestly the only game I've seen adapt its 2d predecessor to 3d proper while innovating on the formula is Megaman Legends 2, Megaman Legends 1 is a pretty clunky mess to be honest. In fact I'd go as far as to call Megaman Legends 2 a superior game than the overrated Prime series. The backtracking for example is not necessary, almost every single ruin you explore has shortcuts you can unlock. 

The weapons aren't just a shitty "use the red weapon against the red enemy" gimmick like in the shitty Prime series. Each buster type, buster mod package and individual buster mods have their advantages and disadvanteges in terms of firing speed, range and damage potential. Each side weapon has advantages in terms of price, practicallity, and situational uses, with only 1 weapon (the bubble shield) being god fucking awful and useless. Moreover the movement speed isn't abysmally slow and has variety!

You can zip around battlefields using roller skates, you can omnidirectional rolling dodge, you can clamber on to all sorts of surfaces, but even more incredibly with control style D you can play Megaman Legends 2 like Lost Planet/Halo and actually manually aim all of your weapons with the right analog stick. Get fucked Primefags, Megaman Legends 2 is a superior 2d to 3d adaptation and superior shooter with RPG elements.

 >>/11505/
Sorry I was bashing Primes so hard and praising MML2's innovations compared to Primes that I forgot to mention wwhat makes MML2 a decent 2d to 3d adaptation.

So here's a rundown.

Movement in General
Platforming is a thing in MML2, it's not there for show. You actually have multiple situations where you have to platform while you're under attack by enemies. You can either use your platforming or shooting skills to solve this, just like in the 2d classics. This is aided by the game's DOOM1-esque slow porjectile speeds.

Yes the projectile speeds are relatively slow, meaning it's entirely possible to do a no damage run, granted IMHO much harder due to the z axis aspect. This works in benefit to the game though, since while you can turn Megaman/Volnutt into a tank through upgrades, it's perfectly possible to play through the game with no health upgrades and gracefully dodge all sorts of incoming projectiles. This is a level of liberty also allowed to players in the old Megaman 2d games. Moreover this is a design choice that makes Legends 2 and the old games so fun to play, the enemy projectiles are actually fair and reward your dexterity at bobbing and weaving through them.

Talking about enemies, the enemy bosses in this just like the old games are able to zip, whiz, jump and teleport around the battlefield. While every once in a while you'll be against heavy tanks that will punish you if you're not good at dodging their attacks. Just like in the old games there's also invincibility frames when you receive damage, however there's also a new addition, the rolling dodge actually has invincibility frames as well.

Disappointingly so, but faithfully however the standard enemies in the game don't really have interesting movement mechanics. It's just like the classics, there are enemies that will slow down your movement if you're not careful, enemies that will punish you if you spam the jump button too much, enemies that will punish you by overcrowding if you fail at properly engaging in crowd control, and as previously mentioned, enemies that will punish you during platforming segments just like in the original if you underestimate them.

It's not a perfect adaptation though, the dashing and sliding mechanics introduced in MM7/8 and MMX are not present, however it's understandable why. Such mechanics require really large levels which the consoles and arguably even PCs of the time couldn't afford to render without significant sacrifices to graphics. So instead we have the rolling dodge mechanic that has invincibility frames and a compromise of sorts in the form of the sideweapon roller skates which can be used to explore ruins you've cleared, and the hubworlds as well.

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 >>/11506/
Enemy Variety

As mentioned in the Movement part of the rundown the enemies are quite varied. The enemies in this game all punish you in one way or another and serve specific niches as well as roles in combat. This variety was ever so present in the classics and it's present here, however adapted towards a 3d space and perspective.

Let's start with the basic enemies, the "soft bullet sponge" enemies, these guys are spammed in the first 2 ruins so the player can get accustomed to performing crowd control in a 3d space. These guys are deceptively slow and frail however can take quite beating and can crowd you into uncomfortable situations. But for the most part, they're total push overs and a necessary evil to introduce players to playing Megaman in 3d. Amusingly enough once you're upgraded enough these little guys become average joes, giving the player a sense of progression in terms of firepower they wield.

Then there's the status effect enemies, these guys are just as annoying, or even more so than they were in the classics. Not only will these guys drain your health like crazy, but they also shit on your weapons systems. For example if you're lit on fire, not only will your health slowly drain until the flames are extinguished but your buster and sideweapons also overheat more. Or if you're struck by lightning type enemies you will be slowed down for a while. These guys are used sometimes to punish player negligence during platforming, combat or just a straight punishment for poor platforming. So yeah, this is a welcomed and awesome spin to an old and underused mechanic seen in 2d. 

Now on to average Joe enemies who die in just a couple of 2 to 3 hits. These guys are numerous in number at times, or are placed in platforming sections. While the game doesn't punish you with death if you fail platfroming sections it will punish you with rooms filled with these guys or even bruiser type enemies. For the most part they're a non-threat, however when they're combined with the odd/rare bullet sponge, or a status effect inducing enemy you will have a hard time if you're not careful. These little guys yet again adapt a 2d concept of juggling between types of enemies at a time while platforming into a 3d space.

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 >>/11507/
Time for the stereotypical bruiser type enemies, these guys have an obvious weak spot, and are easy to deal with just like in the classics once you know their tricks. From time to time, just like the 2d classics, they are placed on difficult platforming sections, however unlike the classics the game doesn't punish you via insta death, more on that on level design. Additionally just like the classics you'll sometimes deal with more than just one at a time. In general if you see these guys expect lots of dodging and kiting due to the added aspect of 3d. Or sometimes you'll encounter 2 to 3 of these at a time if you fail specific platforming sections.

Now for what I hate in games with platforming, the swarm enemies, these guys aren't really spammed during platforming sections like the original 2d games as much. Instead you will see their presence very much pronounced during boss fights. They either serve as a means of regen health for the boss, or actually distract you during the bossfight. This is something not that commonly seen in the 2d classics, however I honestly prefer to see swarm type enemies in bossfights rather than platforming segments. It just doesn't feel fair when I fail a platforming segment due to a stray enemy spawning out of nowhere, but it does feel fair that I failed a platforming segment due to my negligence of regular enemies, or my inability to properly dodge an enemy projectile. But this may just be player preference on what constitutes as fair, and unfair gameplay mechanics.

As previously mentioned the enemy boss movements are extremely varied and significantly affect the way in which you approach a fight. My only complaint is that unlike the classic Megaman games you can't appropriately prepare for a bossfight or enemy types. To be fair bossfights are foreshadowed heavily, but unless you read into the subtext you won't have a clue into the boss' abilities. This simplicity from the 2d titles where you can make a logical deduction on a boss' weakness before you enter a stage is sorely missing from this 3d adaptation. It's not all gloom and doom however, with enough skill most of the bosses are beatable with even the most suboptimal of builds. 

Now you may be telling yourself; "Can't you just change weapons on the fly just like the classics? Why is this an issue?" For the most part, yes, yes you can, but that's only for your buster unit. The buster unit comes in upgrade packages you can install and uninstall at any time you wont, the same can't be said about your sideweapons. This means that if you decided to take with you a mine spreader or a funnels spammer gun and didn't know you were fighting a really nimble opponent who can fly, that sideweapon is fucking useless. And if you decided not to upgrade the range on your buster and instead went full damage and speed, prepare to cry tears of blood. But yeah, this is a design choice deviation from 2d that I personally feel have proven, detracts from the game a bit, not significantly, but just a bit.

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 >>/11508/
Level Design
As said previously when I shitted on Prime, the backtracking is minimal since all ruins you explore has unlockable shortcuts. However there's more to that, there's also moving platforms, platforms littered with enemies and platforms that disintegrate or break if you stand on them for too long. Things that were again a staple of the Megaman series when it was in 2d.

However there is something that is either a hit or miss depending on your tastes. The game doesn't punish you when you fail platforming segments with outright death. Meaning there's no such thing as an insta deathpit in the game, there are pits full of enemies and traps, but that's as far as it goes to punish you. However in my opinion I honestly prefer that, since the focus of this entry's design is not really the platforming but the shooting and RPG mechanics. Yeah it's a missed opportunity in a way, however and rarely do the punishments feel really severe at all.

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 >>/11509/
Difficulty

It's a mixed bag here, there's an obvious progression to it, but honestly if you pay attention you shouldn't be dying to any of the grunts, or even bruisers in the game. There is one really big peeve I have with the game here, that being that the difficulty settings can't be manually changed. Instead you'll have to pass a Digger License test. IIRC there's 3 ranks, B, A and S, the game starts you off at C. The test for B and A are actually fucking easy, however the test for S is fucking hard, like really hard due to the absurd time limit you have for it.

If you're able to pass the S License test however that means you know of the game's deeper meta tricks so I guess it's kind of rewarding in a sense. Additionally in order to make the game EVEN MORE HARDER you have to pass the game while already possessing an S Class License. So again it sort of is rewarding and it's also a New Game+ incentive for replayability, but I ain't gonna lie, I hate it when games lock away the hardest game mode possible via hoops and loops like this.

So yeah, superior game and 2d to 3d adaptation, get fucked Primefags.

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 >>/11510/

Thank you for these posts. What a good-ass game MML2 is. Trillions of times better than MPrime.

 >>/11505/
 >>/11506/
 >>/11507/
 >>/11508/
 >>/11509/
ty for the assburger posts fren

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