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Nintendo Downloads - October 2014

All the GBA/DS games are metroidvanias, and all but the first one (Circle of the Moon) were directed by Koji Igarashi, the SOTN guy.

Castlevania Chronicles is an enhanced port of a Sharp X68000 game from 1994 and is definitely in the traditional CV mold, so I wouldn't really use it as a point of reference for the metroidvania stuff.

EDIT: if you only get one GBA game, make it Aria of Sorrow.

I guess I am twice wrong on exactly what Circle of the Moon is then. I think I'll just start with Aria of Sorrow or maybe wait for the DS ones when DS VC happens (Right? Nintendo? Please?)
 
I hate that we can only buy 1st party stuff digitally on the Nintendo website. I would have bought everything at lunch, and sent it to my WiiU to download so they'd be ready when I get home.

Maybe if they could just update the eshop to have a cart on the system it would help immensely. Buying shit one thing at a time is ridiculous.

I remember Dan Adleman saying that Nintendo did some research that showed releasing one game at a time on the digital platforms lead to more sales of this games. I call bullshit because it is so damned tedious to buy more than one thing from any of their shops. It's like no one at Nintendo has heard of a shopping cart.

The bolded makes no sense. If releasing one game at a time leads to more sales, then people wouldn't be buying more than one thing at a time.

Also, you're referring to the web eShop that just soft launched this week, right? I imagine 3rd party stuff will be added as the kinks are ironed out. And as an owner of a lot of digital stuff on U, the regular console shop works just fine for me. I'm rarely buying more than one thing at once, but if I am, it will queue and I don't consider it tedious. Of the things to complain about, "hating" this seems a bit overblown IMO.
 
I remember Dan Adleman saying that Nintendo did some research that showed releasing one game at a time on the digital platforms lead to more sales of this games. I call bullshit because it is so damned tedious to buy more than one thing from any of their shops. It's like no one at Nintendo has heard of a shopping cart.

I can honestly believe this and that Nintendo would paln their releases around it, but the problem is this strategy will, in the long term, result in far, far fewer items to buy. IT seems like short-term research applied to long-term strategy. They've drastically limited the selection of titles for the while generation by this limited approach, compounded by not immediately including the whole Wii catalog on Wii U's store.
 
I guess I am twice wrong on exactly what Circle of the Moon is then. I think I'll just start with Aria of Sorrow or maybe wait for the DS ones when DS VC happens (Right? Nintendo? Please?)

Don't wait for the DS ones! Aria's regular mode is my favorite out of all the metroidvanias.
 
The bolded makes no sense. If releasing one game at a time leads to more sales, then people wouldn't be buying more than one thing at a time.

I see the logic in it. If the Virtual Console had EarthBound, Super Mario Kart and Link to the Past dumped on it all in the first month, who knows how they would've sold. By waiting it became a huge deal and people were frothing at the mouth for them.

I'm not saying I like the idea or that it's right, but I do see the logic.
 
Logic makes plenty of sense. Remember when i launched on crowded July 3rd? How many people you think over looked my game cause there were 5 others games there, 2 of which were BIG in terms of hype.
 
Logic makes plenty of sense. Remember when i launched on crowded July 3rd? How many people you think over looked my game cause there were 5 others games there, 2 of which were BIG in terms of hype.

Wait, you mean Ufouria and Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV wouldn't sell well alongside A Link to the Past and Earthbound releasing the same week? :D
 
So why isn't the Master Reboot sale showing up yet? Really want to pick it up. Was going to get Guacamelee but I actually have it from a Humble Bundle.

Will probably get Space Badgers too.
 
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bump for new page. :)
 
There are no fewer than 5 digital games launching in EU on October 30th:

Falling Skies
Jett Tailfin
Stealth Inc
Tetrobot & Co
Cosmophony
Some of these devs aren't going to like the look of their sales. Nintendo should give advice before picking the release date to avoid situations like this. Competition is gearing up on the eShop.
 
Logic makes plenty of sense. Remember when i launched on crowded July 3rd? How many people you think over looked my game cause there were 5 others games there, 2 of which were BIG in terms of hype.

But the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Also, their research is flawed. How can you empirically state that releasing games one or two at a time increases their sales when it is incredibly difficult to buy more than one thing at a time on their shops.

Think about it, on the Wii you bought one thing, paid for it and it downloaded. You were then kicked to the front of the WiiShop. It was a pain in the butt to navigate and make a purchase. So why would you buy more than one thing unless you were very motivated.

The current eshop is better because it is easier to navigate and you can download in the background. However, would you be more apt to make more than one purchase if you paid for everything together in one transaction or in multiple individual transactions?

We don't know if Zacisa's last stand could have sold better that day because not only were you released against bigger games, people couldn't easily buy your game alongside one of those big games. I mean imagine if when someone went to buy Armillo or Shovel Knight they saw a small blurb that said "hey did you see these other games that released today?" Click here to add to your cart.

And right there are all the other new games that came out. That's how you sell things in the real world. You don't make your customers go through the purchasing process every time for each product. Honestly I truly believe that 3 or 4 titles a week is fine if the shop was built like any other good web shop.

My ultimate point is that Nintendo does not seem to know how to run a store front effectively. Even the most basic webstores you build on a site like square space are better than the eshop.
 
I think you are confusing not releasing multiple titles with no cart on eShop. Those are 2 different things. Nintendo was referring to just releasing small amount of games per week, nothing about a cart system. His comment had nothing to do with there being a lack of cart.
 
I think you are confusing not releasing multiple titles with no cart on eShop. Those are 2 different things. Nintendo was referring to just releasing small amount of games per week, nothing about a cart system. His comment had nothing to do with there being a lack of cart.

No they tie together.

You can't state something as empirical evidence when your system is fundamentally flawed.


if they had a traditional web store front with a cart and the data still showed that then I would believe him. However when you make it difficult to buy more than one thing, then the data is going to show you that releasing one or two things is better than 3-4 etc
 
not sure what I should get this week ><
tempted by Squids and maybe SteamWorld DIG (again - which means I'll own it on all the platforms I have)
 
downloaded harmony while I went out and its neat it that it shows up as the first option on the quick start menu when I turned the console back on. Harmony's sprites are hideous though. Maxim looks like a damn atari character.
 
I hate that we can only buy 1st party stuff digitally on the Nintendo website. I would have bought everything at lunch, and sent it to my WiiU to download so they'd be ready when I get home.

Wait, what?
We can buy stuff directly through Nintendo's website?
 
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow &#8211; Oct. 23 (Virtual Console on Wii U)
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land &#8211; Oct. 30 (Virtual Console on Wii U)
Demon&#8217;s Crest &#8211; Oct. 30 (Virtual Console on Wii U)
Gargoyle&#8217;s Quest II: The Demon Darkness &#8211; Oct. 30 (Virtual Console on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS)

Wow! October could end up as one of the best months for the North American Virtual Console. I'm going to buy all of those games! Can't wait to finally try Demon's Crest! I have been hearing good things about it!
 
Were you allowed to pick the date?

you can, but problem is that you don't really know what is releasing on any date (outside of maybe big games). We also choose these dates a month-ish before launch, so it's not like we choose them a week before it launches.

Looking back I should have asked if i could have moved back a week. Oh well, lesson learned
 
So if I were to grab 1 of the GBA Castlevanias, is there a consensus as to which one is best? Really only need one of these types of games at a time as tempting as it is to grab all 3.

Bought Circle of the moon at GBA launch, but ya, didn't play it much because I couldn't see crap...so It'd be like a brand new game to me.
 
So if I were to grab 1 of the GBA Castlevanias, is there a consensus as to which one is best? Really only need one of these types of games at a time as tempting as it is to grab all 3.

Bought Circle of the moon at GBA launch, but ya, didn't play it much because I couldn't see crap...so It'd be like a brand new game to me.

I am buying all three, but I have a feeling Aria of Sorrow will get the most votes. I had Circle of the Moon too and couldn't see shit on it way back when, so I have been enjoying it on the U with smoothing and pixel perfect on.
 
Logic makes plenty of sense. Remember when i launched on crowded July 3rd? How many people you think over looked my game cause there were 5 others games there, 2 of which were BIG in terms of hype.
I feel like it's different with Virtual Console. These games are a well known quantity, easily piratable and completely under Nintendo's whims in terms of release date and price. Any short term gains per title from the drip feed are likely negated in lost overall catalog sales as well as the loss of consumer goodwill and interest in VC in general. The general sentiment outside Nintendo (or ex-Nintendo in Adelman's case) regarding Virtual Console is that it's largely mismanaged and a huge missed opportunity.

Nintendo's given out digital sales before and VC was continually outperforming expectations in the first 2 years. I believe they said around 10 million games were sold Wii's first year. Once they handicapped VC scheduling in mid 2008 to benefit WiiWare their digital business saw zero growth as a result. They were releasing fewer VC titles weekly (from 4-5 to 1-2) but it didn't at all result in higher sales, and WiiWare itself also failed to grow the digital business past what VC was doing already.
 
Legend of Dark Witch is really good. Great controls, interesting shooting/powerup system, fun platforming, insane boss battles. If you're a Mega Man fan looking for something new, it's a steal at $4.
 
I guess I am twice wrong on exactly what Circle of the Moon is then. I think I'll just start with Aria of Sorrow or maybe wait for the DS ones when DS VC happens (Right? Nintendo? Please?)

A lot of people consider Aria of Sorrow to be the best handheld CV game, and it got a direct sequel with Dawn of Sorrow for DS, so feel free to get it as soon as it's available.

COTM is often compared to the classic games for a few reasons--it doesn't have the elaborate sprites/animation of the other metroidvanias, the controls are a lot less fluid, there are fewer rpg/adventure elements, etc--but it's absolutely a metroidvania. The Igarashi games have a reputation for being a little on the easy side, so people have come to appreciate COTM for being a little tougher and less unbalanced, but you'd never confuse it for an old-school 'vania.

Harmony of Dissonance came out after COTM but before Aria; it was the first Igarashi handheld game and it has its own strengths and weaknesses compared to COTM. It looks and plays much closer to SOTN, and at the time it was much, much easier to see on the OG GBA screen, but the techniques they used to improve visibility make the game look pretty ugly once you have a backlight. They also too CPU cycles away from the audio in order to aid the visuals, so the music is really bleepy-bloopy and a big step down in quality from COTM. It's not a bad game by any means but it's easy to see why people argue about whether COTM or Harmony is a better game.

(Aria solved those problems, though--it still looks great and the quality of the music is much higher quality.)
 
I see the logic in it. If the Virtual Console had EarthBound, Super Mario Kart and Link to the Past dumped on it all in the first month, who knows how they would've sold. By waiting it became a huge deal and people were frothing at the mouth for them.

I'm not saying I like the idea or that it's right, but I do see the logic.

I was referring to what I had bolded fully... The follow up sentence (the eShop being tedious) contradicted his argument, at least in the way I was reading it. The actual idea, I understand both sides of the coin and feel that as long as games are continually featured and big enough, stuff like Super Mario Kart and Link to the Past will be evergreen (strong sellers throughout the system's life).

But I don't have specific figures to see how front-loaded VC titles actually are. I'm potentially guilty of not buying certain games because they were no longer fresh (which makes little sense heh for 20 year old games!).
 
Can you marry in Harvest Moon 2 GBC? HM1 was too barebones to me.

I don't recall if this is the one I played but I don't think so. I checked an FAQ and I think I'm correct in saying this. Honestly, just find a way to play FOMT. :)

Legend of Dark Witch is really good. Great controls, interesting shooting/powerup system, fun platforming, insane boss battles. If you're a Mega Man fan looking for something new, it's a steal at $4.

I doubt I have to ask, but--60 fps?
 
Does anyone else think that there will be some sort of sale on the GBA Castlevania games once Aria of Sorrow is out?

Ooh! I know this is too early but do you guys think there will be some sort of end-of-year sale for the VC? I know Sony and Microsoft have them every year. I wonder if Nintendo will too.
 
I am buying all three, but I have a feeling Aria of Sorrow will get the most votes. I had Circle of the Moon too and couldn't see shit on it way back when, so I have been enjoying it on the U with smoothing and pixel perfect on.

Hmm yeah maybe I'll start with Aria, thanks for the response though. I have a feeling I'm gonna end up with all 3 eventually haha, I'm really just waiting for Zero Mission to drop and I don't to go overboard on metroidvanias all at once.
 
Aria of Sorrow is probably the best but it and Circle of the Moon are different beasts.

CotM plays quite uniquely. It also has a greater sense of verticality.
 
Legend of Dark Witch is really good. Great controls, interesting shooting/powerup system, fun platforming, insane boss battles. If you're a Mega Man fan looking for something new, it's a steal at $4.

Man I hate the eshop, I wish there was an easier way to find newly released games. Instantly bought, looks like a lot of fun, thanks for the recommendation!
 
Has anyone played Ballpoint Universe yet? I just watched the trailer, the hand drawn visuals look fantastically detailed and the apparent platform/shmup hybrid gameplay looks very intriguing.
 
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