Man, no one told me that Mega Man ZX was a friggin’ Metroidvania. How am I supposed to resist this? It purges the retardedly high difficulty level of the Zero series, ups the graphics, adds improved cinematics, then takes the nascent open-ended promise of the first Zero and runs with it. Game of the year! Well, maybe month. Week. Something.
Anyway, it’s been added to the list.
On a tangential note, the new copy of EGM has arrived in the office, featuring what could be the greatest thing I’ve ever done: a retro-Afterthoughts with Koji Igarashi about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. After this and E3 and my interview with him in a few weeks at Comic-Con, the man is going to totally start barfing at the mere sight of me. But at least it makes for good reading.
Equally tangential, but far sadder: my DS Lite is not working very well at the moment. Games that make use of the face buttons — particularly the B button — cause the system to power off abruptly for no clear reason. I’m draining the battery right now and have cleaned the contacts, which will hopefully solve the problem. Has anyone else heard of this particular problem? Any advice? (I’d do the warranty thing but I doubt NoA is going to be interested in servicing a Japanese system….)
31 thoughts on “I surrender”
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I wasn’t aware of it being a Metroidvania game, either, so now it’s gone up beyond the already “cool” rating I gave it.
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Sorry to hear about your DS. Mine is a Japanese model, so now I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps working. So far, so good. Maybe it’s because the navy blue model is rugged!
I haven’t had any problems with it suddenly shutting off, but my Lite’s up button is a little sticky. Of course, that could just be because i spilled something on it, but I doubt it.
and so the Nintendo love comes to a blinding halt.
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I wouldn’t go too far out on a limb with Mega Man ZX. How about declaring it the “Metroidvania of the Month”. That seems like a safe bet.
I don’t know if you’re still looking for entries to that metroidvania list of yours, but Within a Deep Forest fits the bill pretty clearly. It’s a very good game too!
http://www.tigsource.com/articles/2006/05/23/within-a-deep-forest
My own DS Lite is barely a week old now, so I can’t really offer any advice on the matter. What you’re doing now seems like it could work, though. (Boy, I’m glad I got that extended warrenty/insurance thing on mine just in case…)
A Metroidvania? Time to start salivating. Let’s just hope its humanly beatable.
Mega Man and Metriodvania? I think it’s preorder time.
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On the DS Lite, my system is still quite new as well. I havn’t had any problems so far. Hopefully no problems manifest themselves.
So how’s ZX look for someone who’s never even finished a Stinkoman level, much less a Mega Man game of any type? It always appealed to me, but then I would fall off a ladder onto spikes and it would stop appealing to me. Is this the Mega Man game I’ve always wanted, or is it still going to be a pain for a weakling like me, just not as much of an impossible pain as the Zero games?
Kurt Kalata was talking in May about a Castlevania twentieth anniversary retrospective he was writing to go up around early July, and he mentioned having an editor who would be interviewing Igarashi with fan-submitted questions. Is that a 1UP thing, or is he triple-crossing you guys?
Are there any afterthoughts articles floating around with Iga talking about Curse of Darkness? I’d like to see that. “Yeah, I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. My bad.”
God, CoD made me forget why I enjoyed videogames in the first place.
Are there any afterthoughts articles floating around with Iga talking about Curse of Darkness? I’d like to see that. “Yeah, I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. My bad.”
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More or less, yeah: http://gonintendo.com/?p=3128
You’re going to Comic-Con, Jeremy? Cool. If a fan spots you, would hitting you up (read: offering you money) for a NGJ button be too rude?
I’m not sure what you mean. I don’t have fans.
Hmm…regarding the fluky DS, the DS Lite requires a push-and-hold to turn it off. I’m no technomalogical genius, but maybe the internal pressure indicator is too close to the face buttons? That’d make it a basic design error. I guess that means it’s time for the DS Lite SP, or something.
A bunch of people on GameFAQs’s DS Hardware board were complaining that their DS-Lites would shut off when Y and B were pressed at the same time. I’ve had no such problem with mine, so I asked them a bunch of questions about their systems; it turns out that everyone with the problem is using a Japanese DS-Lite, and the American ones haven’t yet had the problem.
So, is your Lite from America or Japan?
OK, it’s from Japan. Just checked your 1up blog.
I’d suggest that you get in contact with Nintendo and politely ask for/demand an American Lite.
OK, nevermind about the Japan thing. Some people are now reporting the same problem in their North American Lites. Apparently, pressing Y+B heavily and consistently will cause those buttons to interrupt the system’s power. Fortunately, Nintendo has been generous about sending replacement systems.
I am once again glad that I’m not an early adopter.
Did you get a copy of Rockman ZX, or are going on hearsay? I heard that the game came out ahead of schedule in Japan. One guy described it as Zero meets Demon’s Crest. Can’t wait.
Another Metroidvania for the NES?
Wizards & Warriors 3.
Seriously.
I did a “tour of duty” at EB a few years ago, and six months to the day the PS2 was released they started coming back defective. They were being returned three or four a day for over a month. Coupled with my experienced with flawed Dreamcast discs I vowed never again to buy a console within six months of release. Except for the DS lite, which I bought right away. I hope this is not an epidemic, or the next five months will be torture.
I just don’t understand why everyone says the Megaman Zero games are so hard… I’ve played through them all, and thought they were the easiest Megamans I’ve ever played, save maybe X4. Such a shame this talk of difficulty turns people away, because the story rocked, too. Not to mention there’s an continuity, with an ending in a megaman series, gasp! There were a couple REALLY HARD levels, though. And they make you work for those final bosses. But the basic bosses were a cakewalk once you get patterns & learn the right ability to stun them.
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It should also be noted that technically, Megaman Zero 1 was a metroidvania.
I also wanted to add, Zero 2 has the coolest opening scene and first level ever in a video game.
About the metroidvania list, isn’t Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 for game boy missing?
I agree with AoF.Squall that Zero 2’s opening level is awesome. I purchased the game while on vacation in Wisconsin, staying at my aunt’s cabin in the woods. We had gone into “the city” about an hour away and I picked the game up. That night I was in awe with how great that opening level was as I sat playing it outside on my GBA SP in the woods under a starry sky. It was a pretty special moment… a nerdy moment, sure, but a special one all the same.
Don’t have fans? Well I ordered the first issue of the toasty frog ‘zine way back when, with full color cover even! Have to dig that out of a box in the garage.. somewhere. Man, should have ordered them all. :(
Just a thought on the DS Lite prob. Does the problem still happen when you’re running on AC? If the battery connection is somehow being shorted when you press on the face, maybe this will be a work around until you find a real solution.
Like someone mentioned on your 1up blog, a good bet would be to just take the whole damn thing apart and put it back together. Something could have just been out of place.
Good luck, an out of commission Lite is a shame.
Hmm. Then I suppose, for a lack of fans, I’d be a stalker?
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Suddenly offering to buy you a drink while you’re in SD sounds a little creepier now.
About the AC power thing, I don’t know how it works on the Lite, but I don’t think the DS works on full ac power, because I’ve tried running them on dead batterys on AC power and it doesn’t work until it’s got a decent bit of charge.
Wow, new consoles are shit. I remember when you could drop your gameboy and not give a rats ass as long as the screen wasn’t too scratched. Don’t worry JP, you can (and WILL) purchase a new one. That’s your warranty.
NoA support can be kind of cool… if all else fails, might be worth sending it in, no matter where it was purchased. Hey; can’t hurt.