Nintendo Online Service and SNES Online Jubilation Thread

neil wrote:

Did anyone get the Expansion Pass? I was reading the N64 games aren't great, with weird controls and all kinds of lag and graphical issues.

I think there's a lot of exaggeration going about online right now, this article is the only thing I've seen cover it fairly.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-onlines-n64-emulation-has-been-met-with-criticism/

So, it does have some issues but I don't think most will or should be put off by them.

Well, I haven’t tried it, but the issues I’ve seen like controller pak errors make it seem even more overpriced.

Had a proper online session of the N64 stuff tonight with Jay, Cappa & mas and it was fine once we took five minutes to figure out who the best host was.

As for the controller pak issue the save state function largely fixes that, now I've not looked at every single game yet but the only real problem seems to be no way to directly save time trials in Mario Kart 64, so that should definitely be patched somehow. Overall the service has been really good fun for me but I understand if folk want to wait for a few more games or until some of the small problems are ironed out.

It's good to hear that. I can upgrade my family pass for £38, maybe I'll do it when the Animal Crossing DLC comes out.

So is Winback is a sequel to SCAT then? I get to try out an entire series on the Switch online?! Wow!
Sorry, I'll stop digging into this game I knew literally nothing about until I pressed X on the N64 online menu to read about... Jean-Luc Cougar? He's France's Bobson Dugnutt.

Which is to say, I've purchased it (because I'm a sucker probably but it also counts as a "present" to family members), but haven't got round to trying anything yet.

I thought that that sessions on I had on N64 Online (with Jaster, mas and Jay on Tuesday and with treesmurf and Dusty yesterday) went well overall. Especially the first time my connection caused issues for everybody else, and with Nintendo’s current online set-up the weakest connection is always going to be a multi-person problem. Once we’d sorted that out it mostly played fine. There were several times where the audio distorted though, and I felt there was a little bit of input lag with Mario Tennis. It didn’t ruin things though, these are still quality games.

For me, the performance of the N64 Online app just now is serviceable enough, but it needs some further refinement. That’s not an unachievable goal though, and the app is definitely nowhere near as bad and dysfunctional as daft Americans on Twitter are making out.

I thought I’d have more appetite to play through these N64 games, but with the exception of Operation Winback they’re all really familiar to me. You can’t dispute the overall quality, but already I’m anticipating what they’ll add next. That landing screen as soon as you boot up the app hopefully won’t stay that empty for long.

There barely seems to be any chat anywhere about the Mega Drive app, and that’s a shame. I get that these are games that have already been re-released many times, but the only dud out of the lot of them is Ecco The Dolphin. It’s belter on top of belter on that app.

I fired up the Mega Drive one and just felt annoyed at myself for buying Sonic 2 like a month ago.
(To be fair, it is a LOT better than the first like everyone said).

I had a little run through of Starfox 64, then Ibbsters invited me to Mario Kart 64 only to immediately quit.

Great!

In all fairness, even with my luddite Sega-bashing, I've enjoyed Castlevania Bloodlines so far. Especially the occasional Engrish!

Story of Seasons AKA the proper Harvest Moon experience is the next Game Trial starting on the 10th, this sounds like the perfect fit for a trial as I don't think I'd ever go out of my way to buy it but if after a few hours with it next week I'm still wanting more then I reckon I could see myself buying it one day.

I'd definitely be up for giving that a go. I had a real bad time with the first on 3DS so will be interesting to see how far they've come.

I've been playing bits of Super Mario 64 here and there in a bid to try and finish it for the first time as upon reflection, I realised I'd never properly played through to the later stages in this. I must admit, I'm finding it rough going. I know it's old hat to talk about how it was probably revolutionary for its time but somewhat dated now, but I can't help but reiterate that point. I'll stick with it for a while longer - I've been collecting all the stars in each course as I go and I'm up to Lethal Lava Land, which can royally fuck off.

In happier news, Sin and Punishment is still a classic as is Gunstar Heroes over on the NS Online Mega Drive app. I miss you, Treasure.

I always find that Mario 64 is a game of two halves. The easier early stages are still a delight to play, but when the difficulty ramps up it does so in a very frustrating way.

It’s maybe just me who has no problems getting on with the whole of Super Mario 64. I could boot it up just now and I’ll have just as much fun with it today as I did nearly twenty-five years back. Sure, nostalgia plays it’s role, but I still think it’s a perfectly sculpted game. In that Golden Joystick Awards’ Ultimate Game of All Time poll, Super Mario 64 would get my vote (but I won’t vote, because it’s actually Crazy Taxi that’s the Ultimate Game of All Time, and because the Golden Joysticks is absolute pish).

JayMoyles wrote:

Lethal Lava Land, which can royally fuck off.

Although I still think Mario 64 is excellent, I do agree with this statement. Touch the lava and you get thrown into the air, often into more lava, as you try to wrestle Mario and his burnt bottom back to land. It's often in the Bowser levels too which tend to be tougher, but I think my problem is with the concept of lava and Mario's reaction, rather than Super Mario 64 itself (he does the same in other 3D Mario titles). In Zelda and Metroid you are punished for the length of time you're in the lava, which I much prefer. There's probably a "game design" reason why this is.

I'm with Moyles. SM64 was my Game Of All Time for a looooooong while but it's aged like milk in a sauna. It's a combination of the graphics, the camera, the way Mario moves (great back in the day but like a milk float compared to Odyssey), and yes - some bits of level design that don't quite hold up. You can see where they were coming from at the time, but they're a bit duff now. (Lethal Lava Land isn't one that immediately springs to mind, but the top of Big Boo's Haunt and that stupid wall-kick-for-blue-coins nonsense in Rainbow Ride can get in the bin.)

This post paid for by the UK Dairy Association.

Buskalilly wrote:

I always find that Mario 64 is a game of two halves. The easier early stages are still a delight to play, but when the difficulty ramps up it does so in a very frustrating way.

I felt like the earlier worlds were way more fun in SM64 too. Was never a fan of Hazy Maze Cave and Rainbow Ride and a bunch of the later stages.

gjones wrote:

but I think my problem is with the concept of lava and Mario's reaction, rather than Super Mario 64 itself (he does the same in other 3D Mario titles). In Zelda and Metroid you are punished for the length of time you're in the lava, which I much prefer. There's probably a "game design" reason why this is.

I think it just grates because you're punished with an additional challenge. It's frustrating to come to a difficult section, and then when you make a mistake have the game get more difficult. It's the opposite of being asked if you want to lower the difficulty after a death. Mario basically says "Oh, you think-a that was-a hard? Fuck-a you, watch-a this!"

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

It’s maybe just me who has no problems getting on with the whole of Super Mario 64. I could boot it up just now and I’ll have just as much fun with it today as I did nearly twenty-five years back. Sure, nostalgia plays it’s role, but I still think it’s a perfectly sculpted game. In that Golden Joystick Awards’ Ultimate Game of All Time poll, Super Mario 64 would get my vote (but I won’t vote, because it’s actually Crazy Taxi that’s the Ultimate Game of All Time, and because the Golden Joysticks is absolute pish).

I'm with you on this, I seen all the discourse last year when the All Stars pack released and I was just blissfully playing through and enjoying what is still one of the best games ever made, the whole thing still feels perfectly crafted, aside from Tiny-Huge Island, that can do one.

Anyone who has one of those new N64 controllers, please feel free to disprove this. But it's been brought to my attention that with Mario 64, and the N64 online games, there's a possibility they've not taken into consideration that the N64 analogue stick is a completely different proportion to the joy-cons and pro controllers. I'm wondering if we're struggling with the later Mario 64 stages now, actually because it's a little harder to do subtle movement than it was under different hardware.
But like I said, this is just from brief discussion with others, so correct me if this doesn't seem to be the case?

The first time I beat Mario 64 it was on a DS with a D-Pad so I'm not the guy to ask . . .

I’ve only ever played the 1997 version of Super Mario 64 on the N64 and on the Wii U (about five years back). From what I can remember it felt like a very different and pretty inaccurate experience with the circumference of the GamePad’s stick than with that of the N64 controller’s stick. I can fully believe that it would be the same case with the JoyCon or the Switch Pro Controller.

~

I had a belter of a hangover on Saturday morning, so I made the unwise decision to sit in my pit and play through most of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest on the SNES app. If we’re talking about frustrating games, this has it’s own statue. I absolutely cannot imagine wanting to play this through without a rewind button and without save states – and trust me, I’ve tried on SNES, GBA and 3DS. It’s brutal.

I recently got done with Castlevania Bloodlines and Ristar on the Mega Drive app as well. Both very familiar to me, both still belters, both much better than DKC 2.

Buskalilly wrote:

Mario basically says "Oh, you think-a that was-a hard? Fuck-a you, watch-a this!"

I'm looking forward to Chris Pratt saying this in the film.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I had a belter of a hangover on Saturday morning, so I made the unwise decision to sit in my pit and play through most of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest on the SNES app. If we’re talking about frustrating games, this has it’s own statue. I absolutely cannot imagine wanting to play this through without a rewind button and without save states – and trust me, I’ve tried on SNES, GBA and 3DS. It’s brutal.

I think I did on the Wii, but that was in 2 player mode, where the other player is better at the vidjagames. Haven't tried yet, but it's definitely a lot harder than the first game.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I recently got done with Castlevania Bloodlines and Ristar on the Mega Drive app as well. Both very familiar to me, both still belters, both much better than DKC 2.

Still enjoying Castlevania, but as always there's the assumption that you'll fall backwards off the side of something due to recoil from a baddie you couldn't avoid, as opposed to ever running out of health.

I think you've probably hit the nail on the head as to why I prefer the Metroidvania Castlevania games there Jimbob. The frustration of getting hit by a Medusa Head and falling to your death really lessens my enjoyment of the older Castlevania games.

This was sadly true as I battled through the Nazi Skeleton Munitions Factory level! Did that though.

Oh - did anyone ever try VICE PROJECT DOOM on the NES? I'm almost enjoying it, but feel I'm only getting 50% of the story - possibly a translation thing.