IntiCreates and Comcept just announced the most self-referential thing I could ever imagine: A 3DS downloadable game called Mighty Gunvolt, which combines the protagonists of the as-yet-unreleased Mighty No. 9 and the soon-to-be-released Azure Strike Gunvolt in a retro-NES mode that riffs on IntiCreates’ Mega Man 9 and the Mega Man Alpha mode of Mega Man ZX Advent.
What really gets me about this thing is that it does a better job of presenting NES-like graphics than Nintendo’s own 3DS console. In this screenshot….
…the yellow border (which I added; it’s not part of the actual game) perfectly defines the NES’s 256×224 resolution. Then, padding the extra vertical space on the upper 3DS screen (which has a resolution of 400×240), you have a score, a health bar, a score multiplier, and a life count.
Meanwhile, Virtual Console NES games on 3DS stretch the graphics the 6% or so difference between 224 and 240 pixels, destroying the integrity of the graphics with no means of forcing true resolution. I can’t decide if I’m happier that IntiCreates gets it than I am more annoyed that Nintendo doesn’t. For gods sake, just give all your VC emulation duties to M2 already, Nintendo.
Don’t forget “the angel from Gal*Gun”
Meh. Already forgotten.
This game sounds like a blast, but I’m honestly happy inticreates isn’t forgetting about Gal*Gun.
Not sure I am reading you correctly, but are you upset that the VC releases are not reprogrammed with the ui elements on the other screen? Or the fact that they should be running on the higher rez upper screen in the first place? Or that Nintendo are just cheap and are reusing the lower screen so they can reuse the DS’s original emulation methods? ;)
As for IntiCreates, they ought to know how to make things look like NES games, since they are basically the NES Megaman devs (from the Famicom era) and the MM9 and MM10 devs as well. I think it is great that Inafune is able to keep them going with his clout rather than being left for dead by Capcom proper.
Jeremy is upset that every 10th line or so is double height. This means if your character jumps, sometimes his eyes are double height, sometimes his mouth is double height, etc, and it changes every frame. In sprite art, every pixel is put there meticulously by hand, and on the 3DS VC, the art is arbitrarily distorted, and it only gets worse when any vertical movement is involved.
I agree with Jeremy. It keeps me up at night.
The point I forgot to stress is it could be fixed with a very slight letterbox, as shown above. The external score is not necessary for emulation.
Right. I just like that they respected the format being honored while doing something functional with what could have been dead pixel space. A Super Game Boy-esque border would have been OK too…
You have pull in the game industry. Let someone at Nintendo know about the resolution thing. It bothers me too.
That’s very kind of you, but I don’t really have any pull to speak of, and definitely not enough to make Nintendo budge an iota from its determined course.
*mutters* Things might go faster if M2 was in charge, too. */mutters*
Oh, I don’t actually know if things would go any faster with M2, I’m just disgruntled enough with the slow additions to the stores that I’d try any alternative.
Gotcha. I guess I assumed the VC titles were letterboxed. I have only emulated on the 3DS and it can only use the lower screen which is too small a resolution to handle NES. That just sounds like Nintendo not caring. Which is sad, but also why so many retro enthusiasts resort to emulation. Which in turn cuts into the profitability of VC and makes it less attractive for Nintendo to support it in any meaningful way. Unless Nintendo is going to make their product more attractive (lower price and better presentation) then the VC idea will always be presented in a “as good as it needs to be” way. Sorry for the rant…