BullockDS

That's too dangerous! While covering yourself in lighter fluid, you might accidentally ingest and poison yourself with said lighter fluid before you get a chance to be set aflame. I'm gonna not think about hanging myself.

That's too dangerous! What if you start trying to get aliens to live with you and you end up with Aliens and/or Predators? I'm gonna go build a pillow fort.

Concerning LPs: I don't see why this is so horrible; LPers really shouldn't be making money from playing through a game they didn't create. If they really just wanted to show the game off, they'll be just fine doing so without monetizing their videos. However, I'd be fine if LPers still got a bit of a cut of money for their commentaries (content they DID make), but half/most cash would still go to the company holding the intellectual properties of the game itself, since playthroughs/LPs show off most/all of a game's content, and is the primary driving force of the commentaries. Also, in terms of "greed", this is pretty much nothing in comparison to companies that outright demand video pulls and bans just for showing off any fraction of content (e.g. remember SEGA and their ); THOSE are companies that I find to be detestable. With Nintendo's intent to not actually incite bans/removals, however, I don't see anybody actually getting hurt by this, at least not seriously; most LPers shouldn't live off of their LP revenues (and if there are those who did lean on YT revenue, then honestly, it's kinda stupid to expect to live off of somebody else's work).

I feel bad now; I only got 3-2, Google's favor. Still prefer Google, however.

I'm also of the gameplay/exploration camp, but of the options available, I definitely choose story. However, I also think that to an extent, the graphics can help drive a story: the tone of Wind Waker can only be best matched by its bright cartoonish style, as the psychedelic environments of Majora's Mask drive that tale, and the dark pseudo-realism(?) of Twilight Princess... You get the idea. tl;dr: I find story more important than graphics, but I think graphics often help in the tone of Zelda storylines (at least those after Zelda II).

I'm betting that Nintendo is gonna present most/all of what they've previously shown in Nintendo Directs at E3 2013, albeit in shorthand; also, I can all but guarantee that Ninty's at least saving the big Super Smash Bros 4 reveal for E3, and perhaps a 3D Mario platformer. Plus, I'm sure that they'll make a point to inform the audience at E3 of Nintendo Direct. Some people need to stop acting like Nintendo's going in empty-handed.

Um, what do bronies have to do with this? If you actually paid attention to this project/beta content, the Unicorn Fountain was a feature that was initially planned for OoT, but was ultimately cut (unless there are traces of it in the ROM- feel free to correct me here). Calm down.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I wasn't really defending their presences (in fact, I also think that Queen Bee and Wiggler are very iffy choices, especially in a game with a small-ish roster). I was just stating the fact that they have unique designs to illustrate why I think Metal Mario is by and far the worst newcomer (that is, by virtue of him being the most half-assed design, and thus the biggest waste of a precious character slot in my view). In the end, I would definitely nuke Queen Bee, Wiggler, and Metal Mario right the fuck out of the roster to make room for better characters (Waluigi, Dry Bones, and... Birdo, maybe?) if I drew up the MK7 roster. Oh, and not make Wario a hidden character either (but that's a rant for another time).

I gotta address some elephants in the room concerning the roster that have bugged me: Metal Mario, and lack of Waluigi. Queen Bee and Wiggler may be a bit esoteric of choices, but at the very least they're unique character designs, which is more than can be said for Metal Mario, a lazy single-texture model clone of Mario with a different weight class. As for Waluigi, I find his removal to be particularly silly because he became a staple addition to the Mario Kart series since Double Dash, appearing in every MK since (except 7, obviously). Xdaniel covered everything else fairly well, and I don't feel like I have anything to add in terms of the gameplay (except it's nice to see that MK7's online mode was able to support all the tracks from the game, unlike MKDS). My overall thoughts: MK7 is a good game, but really, it could've been a hell of a lot better.

I've found it amusing how Microsoft tries to be cutting edge in their recent endeavors (that is, about 2005 onwards), yet approach them with archaic mindsets. Alongside levying arbitrary fees (e.g. the releases of the Wii and PS3 made Xbox Live all the more laughable a mere year later), they try to jump the gun way too early (e.g. the 360's constant fuck-ups make it feel like something that should be a pre-release build, not the goddamn retail model), employ disgusting customer service and treatment (e.g. fuck the report function, now and forever), and ultimately end up with something that deserves to crash and burn... but of course, people will still buy their products because "it's sleek and trendy", a mindset that used to be the antithesis to the Microsoft way.

Funny enough, I modded my N64 to have a green light a couple years ago, but I think this looks cooler than my green! Nice job! Also, since others have bragged about discussed their controllers here: Over the past few months, I've bought three controllers for my N64 (all Nintendo OEM); one original gray, one black (or dark gray, if you must), and one gold. All three have perfect control sticks, which goes along with my old Atomic Purple controller, which has a near-perfect control stick. All my other old controllers have pretty awful control sticks, so now they're nothing more than looking-at controllers.

I love how you say this in a matter-of-fact manner in response to my opinion. I simply find that graphics are as important as gameplay and music, and no matter what you respond with, it will neither be fact that gameplay is the most important aspect for everyone, nor will it be true that graphics, gameplay, and music are equally important for all gamers. Sorry.

(WARNING: LONG POST) I believe graphics should be a major factor in development of a game, but no moreso than gameplay and graphics. However, the only time bad graphics bother me is unnecessary reuse of graphics; just because there were good graphics in an older game, doesn't mean they'll automatically fit in well in the newer game. Unnecessary reuse of graphics is a very telling sign of laziness on behalf of the art direction. There ARE instances where graphics are acceptable to reuse (I'll only be talking 2D here; 3D games are obviously much more acceptable examples). Let's take two games from the Castlevania franchise and contrast them: Symphony of the Night (SotN) and Portrait of Ruin (PoR). In Symphony of the Night, there ARE character/enemy graphics lifted from Castlevania X68k and Rondo of Blood. However, this is somewhat minimal, and even then, all the new graphics are specifically designed to compliment those reused visuals (plus, many of the reused characters/enemies received new frames of animation). As a result, the new and old seamlessly mesh together to provide top-notch eye candy for the player even to this day. Portrait of Ruin, on the other hand, doesn't do so well in the graphics department. A great deal of graphic elements are taken from older games, with little/no work to remedy style differences; what's worse, not even the original graphics are consistent in style. These wide chasms in the spriting styles provide a jarring and off-putting effect in the graphics area. Other CVs have reused graphics before and since, but I pick on PoR due to it being the worst offender (Harmony of Despair notwithstanding). To better illustrate my point, let's look at sprites from both games, shall we? (Spoiler'd due to large-ish pic) The top row, from left to right: Alucard, original sprite; cloaked Richter; Winged Skeleton (Castlevania X68k); Corner Gaurd (new); Paranthropus (Rondo of Blood). Notice how the new sprites blend in well with the old sprites; it would be easy to see all of these in the same game. Bottom row: Jonathan Morris (new); Fr. Vincent (new); Zacchino (new); Death (new); Blood Skeleton (CV X68k); Spear Gaurd (Rondo of Blood); Amduscias/Hellfire Beast (SotN); Killer Clown (Dawn of Sorrow). Notice just how drastic the art direction is for all these sprites, even between the original ones. Even after playing the game, I find it fairly hard to believe that these were all in the same game. I'm glad I played Portrait of Ruin, but its presentation was fucking messy, which is very much a bad thing, m'kay? (TL;DR: graphics are only as important as gameplay and music; only time graphics annoy me is lazy reuse)

Same for me, especially since the Nyko Battery's added grip is a godsend for my big, fat hands. Probably gonna skip this one (at least for a while).

Sorry for the crap 3DS photos; my 3DS is my best camera I have on campus ATM. Anywhoos, I am now the proud owner of a Nintendo Virtual Boy, alongside VB Wario Land and Red Alarm! Go, me!

I got this a few days ago, and I've been having good fun with it. Only thing I'd like to complain 'bout, though:

Hello! As my username may suggest, I'm the one and only BullockDS. *chirp* *chirp* Righty, then. I joined The-GCN initially to follow the URA Zelda Project, but upon landing here, I've discovered other neat projects goin' on that have captured my attention as well. A little about myself: I'm not an ardent hacker, but I enjoy seeing hacks in progress; sorry I'm not much use on the hacking front. I enjoy creating sprites and pixel-art; I pretty much breathe spriting. I'm also a gamer, with my favorite franchises being Zelda, Mario, Castlevania and King of Fighters.