Dvader said:

aspro said:

Ninja Cowboy Zombie Pirates

=-=-

Hey Yanks, No More Heroes 2 is $35 at Amazon.com today.

NMH2 is still $30 too expensive.

No it's not. It's still $34 too expensive.

aspro said:

I'll go with that.  But like I said, the core gamers (and most press are), are not going to bring up Yakuza 3's failure because they "know" why it failed, cause to the core they still think that Yakuza is a GTA-clone but in Japan with a lot of weird shit, plus the fact that none of them have actually played it and they don;t want to reveal their deficiencies.

Whereas there is no clear reason why Madworld "failed" in the west -- so it makes it something interesting to talk about (for the first 7 times at least).  I mean it's a real enigma, that thing  should have broken cash registers.

Question, what do you mean deficiencies?

No clear reason for Madworld, how about strange cell shaded ultra violent action game that is pretty good but not crazy awesome. It is a very strange game, more strange than Yakuza 3.

aspro said:

Whereas there is no clear reason why Madworld "failed" in the west -- so it makes it something interesting to talk about (for the first 7 times at least).  I mean it's a real enigma, that thing  should have broken cash registers.

Notsureifserious...

What Dvader said... Except replace pretty good with pretty poor.

Dvader said:

aspro said:

I'll go with that.  But like I said, the core gamers (and most press are), are not going to bring up Yakuza 3's failure because they "know" why it failed, cause to the core they still think that Yakuza is a GTA-clone but in Japan with a lot of weird shit, plus the fact that none of them have actually played it and they don;t want to reveal their deficiencies.

Whereas there is no clear reason why Madworld "failed" in the west -- so it makes it something interesting to talk about (for the first 7 times at least).  I mean it's a real enigma, that thing  should have broken cash registers.

Question, what do you mean deficiencies?

No clear reason for Madworld, how about strange cell shaded ultra violent action game that is pretty good but not crazy awesome. It is a very strange game, more strange than Yakuza 3.

 Yakuza checks all the boxes of what a long-time gamer would want:

+ Brawler like Final Fight, but with combos like Street Fighter

+ SEGA's most expensive game developed

+ Sells like hot cakes in Japan

+ Otaku-pandering life-like recreations of Tokyo 

+ Bad-ass back-tatted characters living the ultra-violent life of the Japanese mafia

But for whatever reason most long-time gamers have not played a Yakuza game.  This would be a slight on their reputation among gamers, just as I don't particularly enjoy revealing my deficiency in not beating a Castlevania.

So I'm saying, the gaming press don't want to reveal their deficiency by even talking about Yakuza commercial failure (because I'm assuming most of them didn't play it).

just finished super paper mario.  took me about 25 hours and by the end i was really willing it to end.  the last 2-3 worlds felt like they really dragged on pointlessly.

i don't know what it is about this game that rubbed me the wrong way.  it's not all bad.  i'm not that much of a masochist so if it was terrible i wouldn't force myself to play it for 25 hours.  i think the game wanted to mix too many elements from different genres (even more so than the previous 2 paper marios and other mario RPGs) and in the end it comes across as trying too hard to do too many things.  it's a platformer/rpg/adventure introducing a host of gameplay mechanics some of which are unnecessary and seldom used which leave the player feeling burdened by them instead of empowered.  the balance of the action is completely off as well.  your character's stats grow in an rpg-like manner (though you have no control over them at all like in previous paper marios) but most enemies fight as they would is a mario platformer (ie they die after one or two stomps).  throughout my playthrough i didn't once see the game over screen.

if i were to give the game a score it would be at most an 8/10 and even that would feel generous.  it's a good game, but as a paper mario game it just doesn't live up to the perfection of the first two.

bugsonglass said:

i can't help thinking less of people fancying themselves hardcore gamers and then shunning the yakuza games (unless they don't have a PS2 or PS3).  all of those elements aspro outlined ... implemented to near perfection, it's a gamer's field day (even more so for anyone with a long standing appreciation of Sega)

But there are hardcore gamers that HATE it, that think the game is complete utter trash. It is not a game for everyone. Nothing in Yakuza is done to perfection, its an awesome mash of different game concept and that is why I love it but it has issues.

Archangel3371 said:

Nice review for 3D Dot Heroes and now that I have a PS3 I'll be able to play it. Yay!

 A more pressing question is, when are you going to play Uncharted 2?

Archangel3371 said:

Nice review for 3D Dot Heroes and now that I have a PS3 I'll be able to play it. Yay!

Yeah. It's basically Zelda without Link!

It's a bargain at $40! That and Super Street Fighter IV are the best deals of the year, IMO!