PixlBit

Took a look at Owlboy. Looks great. Too many games!!!

Another LotW type game is one of my dreams.  The NES is unique in that it had a lot of what I call "labyrinth games." And you get virtually none today, not to the level of games like this and Blaster Master. They were pretty complicated and you could get lost rather easily if you didn't focus.  I admit to nostalgia informing my view, but there were reasons I enjoyed those games then and still enjoy them now. These games felt like quests in the truest sense. Unpredictable, dangerous, arduous, mysterious. You get these feelings, kind of, in the Souls games and some of the recent CRPG revivals, although since the latter bank so much on their influences, and since I've played all their influences, those feelings are dampened. It is perhaps the roguelike genre that best captures these feelings in the modern era of games, although I think the fact that the NES games were in real time added another dimension.

If you liked Ys Seven or Diablo-ish games, you'll probably like it.

Yeah, it's Xanadu Next. I misspoke above. Xanadu is the series, not Dragon Slayer which is a different series, but related in some way. I don't know, I can't keep track. Legacy of the Wizard is also part of the Dragon Slayer series, but it's own thing as well. That's Falcom for you.

Saw Bone Tomahawk last week. Even if it's not technically a horror movie, it packed more of a punch with me than any of those other movies (didn't see Southland). While those are basically fantasy movies, BT was just the right side of believability to be disturbing in a way that demons and haunted houses aren't; closer to something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The villains are monstrous in a real world way. There is a kill in there that is one of the roughest seen in any film regardless of genre. You know which one I'm talking about. Wow! And their culture, the brief glimpses we see of it, is no less monstrous. Who knows what kind of beings and cultures have existed on this Earth, unseen and unknown by the vast majority of people. Top notch genre film, great acting. Kurt "The Man" Russel, folks.

Got my woman to watch Evil Dead 2 with me. She's not a fan of horror movies at all, but she was able to tolerate this one. Afterward she said that was as scary as she could probably go. Almost wound up showing her The Thing, but couldn't find it for free on such short notice, so I guess she dodged a bullet.

She said Candyman really scared her back in the day. She hated when I started doing the Candyman voice "It was always you, Helen." lol

You know what I like the most? No where in your Axiom Verge review did you use the term 'metroidvania'. Because there no damn 'vania' in the game at all. It's all Metroid. You should feel proud you're one of the 1% who understand how language works.

I think Metroid could be bigger, but my ideas would probably infuriate some of the purists. Like a lot of games from Japan, the aesthetics are something that are hard for westerners to get past, I think. But not because they are too Japanese, because they aren't. But the colors, the designs. Good because it's different, it's own thing, but bad for sales. But I think a more "realistic" art direction could be interesting. Think Interstellar or even the first two Alien films (already in inspiration for the games, but more familiar to the masses). Personally I think they would do well to continue the Metroid game design philosophy (labyrinthine levels, progresssion based on abiltiies) in another property, with a new aesthethic, new protagonist, new monsters*, new weapons/abilities.

*The Metroid creature was always kind of cartoonish. That's one of those visual things that I think didn't grab the masses.  They want the Giger stuff or something equally monstrous.

Like I said above and elsewhere, there are many things I think Nintendo is stuck on stupid about (will they get their heads out of their asses and make a not-lazy 2D Mario and decent Metroid for the Switch?), but I respect them for their game design chops and philosophy. They're not making movies, they're not failed filmmakers, they're not trying to make PC games that have none of the depth and complexity of actual PC games. They are still making bonafied console games. Remember when PC games and console games were mostly very, very different? Sure you could play Sim City on SNES, but for the most part two completely different experiences.

Damn, shots fired re: PS4/Xbox being shitty PCs. Lol. I wouldn't say shitty, but I definitely respect Nintendo for actually making, you know, console games and not watered down PC type games or wannabe movies. Same goes for Sega, when they're not making mindbogginbly poor decisions.

I know people get their panties in a bunch when you say something is dumbed down, but this is exactly what happened to PC games when the original Xbox came out. Compare Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief 3 (still a good game) to their predecessors....

Do you read Sean Malstrom? His views are similar. He's highly critical of Nintendo, but he recently wrote a rant saying similar things.