The Newest Clickbait Nintendo Opinion: Nintendo Directs Need To Die

I am being completely serious folks, this is an opinion someone made and I have to wonder who on Gameindustry(dot)biz thought publishing this thing was a good idea? Oh, wait, a gaming journalism website needs traffic to stay alive. My bad. On the other hand, I now feel 5% less bad about my badly aged opinions on Pietriots, because reading this opinion is downright baffling and caused severe brain rot in me.

For the sake of being fair and wanting to give some historical insight, let’s first explain Nintendo Directs and why they are now the defacto way Nintendo (and others outside of Nintendo) announce games. The very first Nintendo Direct(s), plural because there was one for Japan and North America, was streamed in late October 2011. Instead of having to wait for E3 to happen every year, or do a press release that will later being unfairly scrutinized by the gaming media, Nintendo bypassed them and had either Reggie or Iwata talk directly to the audience against a white backdrop. While not every Direct is going to be a winner, the formula works because what it has to do is done well: advertise and inform. That is the ultimate goal of a Nintendo Direct, and throwing a surprise reveal at the beginning, middle and end of the Direct (and it doesn’t have to always be a Nintendo product) is a great formula.

Continue reading “The Newest Clickbait Nintendo Opinion: Nintendo Directs Need To Die”

PAXAUS 2022. Friday. Something is missing

A Melbourne morning, tram bell ringing, cold bluestone footpaths and the threat of rain. Mobs of gamers, easily distinguished by their plain baggy clothes (except for those in costume) and slouched posture, converge on the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre. It’s easy enough to make it inside but where to then? The speed runs were beginning at 9:00am yet dancing enforcers, dressed in yellow like minions, encouraged us to mill about in the queue hall, a cathedral dedicated to the lines that characterise PAX. So I just wandered in there, instead of further down the hall to the public access areas like I should’ve and found milling about, testing my bladder for another hour and a half to a DJ playing mashups of Blink 182 and the Pokémon theme song.

Continue reading “PAXAUS 2022. Friday. Something is missing”

No, Switch Isn’t “Dead” and Xbox Isn’t Winning

Whenever I hear the term “day one on Game Pass,” it always makes me wonder how much something will actually sell physically and if the company behind said game will even make a profit. While some will sing the praises of Game Pass, and while I have used it to dabble in games a bit (unless Xbox servers are down), I’m afraid I have to be one of those Negative Nancy types that has to take a realistic approach to this recent announcement (and Hollow Knight: Silksong too, gee, we haven’t see that one for a while haven’t we?).

Continue reading “No, Switch Isn’t “Dead” and Xbox Isn’t Winning”

Matto’s takeaways from the 9.23.2021 Nintendo Direct (and Bayonetta 3)

Screenshots were taken from Nintendo’s official website and PlatinumGames official website, and the Bayonetta 3 YouTube trailer.

A Nintendo Direct is always a good time, whether it announces the things you don’t expect or completely makes the “industry insiders” look hilariously wrong (more on that in a bit). But, hey, I got some things to talk about with this Direct, because some things are very interesting. But its also a chance for me to mock things semi-related to the Direct because why the hell not?

Continue reading “Matto’s takeaways from the 9.23.2021 Nintendo Direct (and Bayonetta 3)”

So you’re mad about Bakugan on Switch…

So it was awesome seeing live gameplay of Paper Mario: The Origami King for Switch, but before the stream Nintendo announced Wayforward was going to show something off that was third party related. Speculation, of course, followed, we even had our guesses it came from a third party like Konami. Except, eh, it was Bakugan.

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Funny enough, this meme image is based on a classic Simpson episode and somebody actually made a fan game of the golf game Bart actually got.

So what comes is the obvious “let’s blame Nintendo for this because it is their fault!” when you could, you know, think about the following: Continue reading “So you’re mad about Bakugan on Switch…”

“Nintendo Insiders” Are Idiots and You Need To Stop Paying Attention To Them

Well, something interesting just got revealed from an ex-Retro Studios concept artist. Here is what they are. I’d say the art looks good, but the concept wasn’t good enough for Nintendo to put down money. This of course leads to concern trolling Nintendo insiders being what I call “Cancel Grievers”, meaning they concern troll Nintendo’s operations of it’s developers because of could’ve been projects that we hardly knew anything about. Continue reading ““Nintendo Insiders” Are Idiots and You Need To Stop Paying Attention To Them”

All That Remains

During a decluttering phase in 2018 I found a deal that seemed too good to be true. A New Zealand based online store, Fishpond, would stock, advertise and sell my used games and give me a portion of the revenue. All I had to do would be post a box full of stock to them, they’d even cover postage and just take the costs from my first $15 of revenue. So a found a Hello Fresh box, filled it with almost all my remaining DS games, half my Wii collection, piles of DVDs and posted it to Auckland 5000kms away. The scheme was too good to be true and after 18 months, Fishpond emailed me to say that they were shutting it down and offered to post me back my remaining stock for the cost of postage. The DVDs could stay, but I asked for my games back. And then the world as we know it ended.

Continue reading “All That Remains”

When whining achieves nothing.

First, view this tweet so you have context. Turns out WordPress wouldn’t put the Tweet in a image for three paragraphs worth of me being a smarmy shit. Whoops.

Yes, it has actually been that long since Nintendo introduced the SNES app to Switch Online members. With the announcement came an update; updating wouldn’t be normal again. It is now December, and one has to wonder where the updates went. That’s easy; the updates stopped because Nintendo probably got sick of the whining on YouTube and Twitter. Continue reading “When whining achieves nothing.”

Matto’s YouTube Recommendations

Wait a second, I like shit on YouTube? I sure do! Here are some of my recommendations.

FailArmy

Let’s face facts: you and I love it when stupid people do stupid things on home video and the outcome is painful and hilarious. It is why American’s Funniest Home Videos has still managed to stay on television for almost thirty years, but AFV as people like to call it has faced major competition thanks to the internet, and one of those competitors is FailArmy.

FailArmy is basically AFV on YouTube without a host telling crappy jokes over footage. Need further proof this is basically what it is? Go on YouTube and watch old episodes of AFV when Bob Sagat was still the host. Continue reading “Matto’s YouTube Recommendations”

The golden rule for First/Third Person Shooters on Switch: make Gyro-aiming an option

When Doom 2016 made it’s way to Nintendo Switch curtiosy of the amazing folks at Panic Button, many took notice of it’s quality work. However, there was one major function mission from the base game: no gyro aiming. Gyro-scopic aiming slowly got a base in thanks to the 3DS and WiiU GamePad, and when Nintendo revealed the Switch proper in January 2017 and said, specifically, it contains DNA from all of Nintendo’s past consoles and handhelds, they weren’t kidding. Both left and right Joy-Con, and the Pro Control, have gyro sensors inside them. Continue reading “The golden rule for First/Third Person Shooters on Switch: make Gyro-aiming an option”