General Nintendo thread

To be honest, the only point I have in NSO’s favor is the convenience.

But even that isn’t much of an advantage for me as I keep my Wii, Wii U, and Classic Editions plugged in so all I’d have to do is plug in the HDM Is I use (yes, I use an AV-to-HDMI converter for my non-HD consoles).

Plus, the libraries of the Virtual Consoles is greater than the current library of NSO.

I didn't really use the VC that much, my interest in playing retro games really only blossomed around the time of the Switch. I did download some things on my Wii and Wii U; mainly the must-play classics like Super Mario Bros., Super Metroid, Sonic 2, and Ocarina of Time, but NSO is when I really got into playing a lot of them due to the convenience of it. And I really like it, especially being able to play them wherever.

Edited by lbssb on May 24th 2022 at 8:56:54 AM

Wii:

• Best selection Damn good emulation PAL roms Works with CRTs
• Worst purchase system Terrible data management No sales

Wii U:

• Occasional sales EarthBound Best storefront
• Not great emulation Worst selection Only NTSC roms Doesn't work on CRTs

Classic Mini

• One-off purchase Best value per game Original controllers Excellent emulation
• Only NTSC roms Not CRT compatible

Switch

• Convenient Puts the spotlight on lesser-known games Mega Drive games Original controllers
• Not great overall selection Spotty emulation Original controllers are really hard to find Not CRT compatible
• All games are NTSC; some, but not all, also come with the PAL rom

Ideally, I'd like NSO to be something like Games With Gold or PlayStation+. Put all the retro games up for individual purchase, and NSO subscribers get a free selection of retro games every couple of months.

I think the emulation quality is why I put the Wii above Wii U and Switch for older games. Only the Classic Editions match the Wii VC IMO.

Not sure why "only NTSC ROMs" is that big of an issue when PAL ones typically run at a lower framerate. Sony's PlayStation Classic actually got a huge amount of flack for using the PAL ROMs for its games, even from European players.

Edited by Karxrida on May 25th 2022 at 9:06:11 AM

I think it’s out of nostalgia for them.

But yeah I see European players favoring NTSC versions as that means that the games won’t run slower. (Like, say, Sonic 1)

The two NSO N64 controllers I ordered last week arrived today.

I still love how absurdly protected Nintendo does their packing.

They came in a box I would have though fit to hold an entire boxed Wii or Wii U console.

With about 3 layers of bubble wrap filling all available space, then another layer of bubble wrap taped around the outer box, a layer of cardboard for cushioning inside that box and then the red NSO box holding the controller.

So what's actually wrong with the Wii U's emulation compared to the Wii's? Games work fine to me, other than DK 64 running at a higher framerate then it was ever meant to which causes a few gameplay quirks. I know loading is a little slower, but I'm not a speedrunner, so that doesn't matter to me.

Edited by diddyknux on May 25th 2022 at 8:43:08 AM

The big issue with N64 emulation on the Wii U is the brightness. All the games were overlayed with a dark filter for some reason. If you didn't know how they're meant to look, then it isn't a big deal. But if you are aware of how these games are supposed to look, it can be a Single-Issue Wonk that takes you out of the experience a bit. Some games had their own minor quirks, but the darkening was universal.

Edited by RacattackForce on May 25th 2022 at 10:17:10 AM

Back when I played Smash 4, I gave a shot to the Lost Levels demo and the palette was also very dark. Are you sure it was only an N64 issue? Because I was thinking NES games were affected as well.

Is that it? Seems kind of... Well, its not NOTHING, its completely fair for people to want the experience to be as close to the original as possible. I just personally wouldn't consider that "bad emulation."

I do know about the Switch's issues. That a lot of graphical effects are either bugged or straight up gone.

I always thought that the excessive darkness going on with VC games was some sort of eyestrain/photosensitivity protection. They did already edit a lot of games to remove Epileptic Flashing Lights that were so unfortunately common within older games, but I think they only bothered to do that with first-party titles, so a brightness reduction across all games might've been the most feasible option.

The main two issues the Wii U had were the dark filter and some games had terrible input lag and were suboptimal versions for more hardcore players.

I wonder if the input lag was due to the signal running over HDMI to an LCD or plasma screen. I personally can't tell the difference, but I've seen plenty of people online reccomend playing Wii games on a CRT instead of a flatscreen because the difference is apparently "night and day". And I know digital signals introduce further lag over analogue.

I don’t notice input lag playing Wii on a flatscreen. I did notice input lag playing Star Fox 64 on Wii U that neither Wii or Switch have.

NSO also introduces bugs. There's a major one in Kirby 64 that can make the game unplayable because it causes a softlock.

Wait, what is the bug?

I know about the Paper Mario bug, but not this.

From what I saw in a video, it seems that if Kirby takes damage in an underwater level and his recoil animation throws him into another hurtbox, then Kirby can get stuck in his flinching pose, unable to move.

From there, your only options are to either wait for something to kill Kirby, or for you to quit the level and try again.

Edited by Tsuzurao on May 26th 2022 at 5:15:39 AM

Kirby actually can't die in that state. He's invincible.

The only way to get out of it is to be forced through a door somehow, which is only possible in like one stage.

Edited by Karxrida on May 26th 2022 at 2:48:39 AM

Starting to antsy about June, ngl. Not knowing for sure how Nintendo is going to do their June Direct (will we get Treehouse demos?), or if they'll even be doing one at all, is torture.

Edited by RacattackForce on May 26th 2022 at 7:20:04 AM

I think a Direct or a summer 2020 esque series of frequent twitter announcements is definitely coming.

I'm personally hoping for the former.

There will absolutely be a Direct of some kind since we don't know what the holidays look like other than Pokémon.

A Pokemon Direct is almost guaranteed.

After that, we might have a regular Direct the next week.

Some insiders are thinking Nintendo might spread out their announcements rather than a full Direct next month.

With the various schedule changes, I think a June Direct would be preferable so we can have a well-defined roadmap of what's to come.

I've been assuming we'll get some kind of direct to replace E3, since that's what they've been doing even before it was cancelled.

Gonna miss E3. I'd always wanted to go to be honest.