No worries, sir, I'm confident in saying that this one is better. I'm almost willing to say that it's the best work this team has done, but I haven't played their stuff that was never localized. I definitely enjoyed it more than Muramasa, Odin Sphere, and GrimGrimoire.
Management has definitely screwed up on it, but I get the feeling that it has a lot to do with resting on their laurels after the smash success of both the DS and the Wii. I think they skated into the 3DS launch, got their asses handed to them and scrambled to get stuff in gear. In that scramble, the Wii U got left in the dust. Now that they've had time to get the 3DS on track and have had some breathing room, I'm hoping their next assault is on the flagging Wii U software library.
As far as first party goes, things look pretty strong going into the holidays and straight into 2014, but they need to get third parties on board if they expect to bank on that momentum. Regardless of what happens, I think that with enough strong first party software they'll be fine and eventually all of the hold outs will grab up a Wii U for the stuff they can't play elsewhere.
At least going into this holiday season, I'm most excited for Wii U software. We'll see what happens beyond that, but I think that they are well-positioned for the holidays, especially if they can throw down with a meaty price cut.
No doubt, those are some terrible numbers, but they also speak to the fact that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has hit the Wii U in recent months. I think this holiday Nintendo will pick up some lost ground. If they're smart, they're gearing up for a large marketing campaign and a potential price cut or bundle to start boosting the system.
There's a lot of good software on the horizon and stuff that should be capable of moving systems. Hopefully they start recruiting more of the Japanese development market and carve out a niche for themselves that Sony and Microsoft aren't really aiming for with their next gen machines. I'm not giving up hope on the system, I'm just crossing my fingers that the management there are seeing the lay of the land and grabbing up the market they can serve best.
Dragon's Crown, and you'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out what I thought of it!
Unity is an incredible engine. I've been toying with it in my free time and I'm just blown away by how easy they've made everything. I'm certain I could program a game from scratch if I needed to, but the fact that they've made all of it visual makes it so much easier for non-programmers to get in there and do their thing. Hell, it makes it easier for me too. It's awesome.
Ha! Don't worry man, we have one - and it's free! In case you haven't heard of it already, I present to you Cheap Ass Gamer!
This sounds incredibly awesome. I'm going to have to download and play this one very soon! Great review, Ryan.
If you want to come here at work (this applies to anyone in the same situation), try visiting http://pixlbit.dyndns.org instead. That's how I browse at work!
Agreed. I'm not really condoning his behavior, I just think I understand why, and as a result I'm giving him more of a pass than others are. I also hate most of the game media and I think they act like a bunch of entitled cocks, so part of the pass I'm giving Phil is due to my general hatred of "game journalists."
