Orville the Unfathomable Time Walrus

Sold. I'm committed to supporting SNES throwbacks to the best of my ability.

@4

Still bitter that there are people in the world that have different tastes than you?


I have nothing against it being a GBA port; in fact, there are still plenty of GBA games I'd pay for in DS form if they'd only get localized. It doesn't look like all that bad of an adaptation of the license, so count me interested once it reaches $20.

I don't even like Sonic and I feel like I'm going to vomit up my intestines at the site of that.

@2: Augh, why did the link have to be posted? I'm covered in horrible fanboy drool now, eew.

I'll see your quote and raise you WHAT IS A PIG? A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS (and bacon)!

Lifesigns and Professor Layton. Maybe not even Layton since it's been delayed to almost the same time as Brawl.

@4

That was because Microsoft bought the rights to the franchise and screwed it over by removing the sidescrolling element. I quit Munch's Oddysee after two hours because 90% of the game is the extremely unpleasant chore of collecting Spooce--the actual Oddworld-style problem-solving was reduced almost to nothing. If it had been a side-scrolling game like Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, the game would have almost singlehandedly convinced me to buy an Xbox.

Anyway, I'd probably recommend against there being any touchscreen or microphone elements in-game, unless, of course, they were included as minigames entirely separate from the game. Any voice commands can more easily be accomplished through the use of the touch screen, and rhythm, if I assume that this would be related in some way to chanting (I can't think of any other use for it in the game), runs the risk of Castlevania: DoS-style boss sealing problems, where you do everything perfectly only to be screwed over by an arbitrary touch element that doesn’t read what it’s supposed to half the time, except in Oddworld, this is potentially hours of effort wasted.

That said, the touch screen does have potential uses for the game—new commands could be introduced such as “move here/there” that involve touching a point on the screen and the Mudokon obediently responding to the command. Of course, new and more specific commands have the potential to make the game easier than the original, but if the learning curve was an issue, then let the DS fix it in ways that other systems can’t.

Another advantage of the game being on the DS would be the potential to use Quicksave, which was only introduced with Abe’s Exoddus. It helped make the second game a lot less repetitive by being able to temporarily save data at any point in the game so one didn’t have to constantly face the prospect of being suddenly killed after hours of doing everything perfectly, only to have to do everything perfectly again from a predetermined point in the level that Abe is sent to after he dies. To be honest, I like Abe’s Exoddus even more than I liked Abe’s Oddysee, but it would be rather stupid to port the second game in the series, especially when the story is contiguous from the first.

Oh, and sound really wouldn’t be much of a problem, in my opinion. The score was indeed amazing, but, at the same time, rather low-key, and often nothing more than a combination of buzzing and humming rhythms and beats—almost more like rhythmic ambient noise than true music. It’s not complicated enough to suffer too much from compression and small speakers, I’d imagine.

The real danger is for the artistic direction of the game to be altered in some significant way—for instance, a cartoon-styled adaptation of the game, or a watering down of the dark themes in the game, with the chilling results of capitalist industry run amok and the Holocaust-like situation, from the enslavement and torture of the Mudokons down to Abe’s (albeit somewhat stereotypical) Jewish accent. Graphically, if it can’t be a straight port of the original, it almost shouldn’t be a game altogether.

Anyway, couldn’t be happier to see Oddworld among these favorites.

Super Smash Bros. I’d also like to comment on, but I can’t think of much to say because what would be different in a remake is so obvious (i.e. mostly multiplayer changes.) I wouldn’t mind so much if they cut out the singleplayer modes altogether if it meant more stages, more characters, etc—the fights themselves are the meat of the game, so, since it can’t be as complex as Brawl due to the obvious limitations of the DS, Nintendo should just focus on doing one thing and doing it right.

This...erm, decal? (is there a different word when it's permanently affixed to the DS?) is kind of unattractive in my opinion. It could do without the Phantom Hourglass logo, and, in my humble opinion, the cartoonish character designs (those from WW, FSA, MC, and PH) look a bit ugly when translated to black and white.

They still have their infinitely superior boxart to be happy about, though.

Nothing. Everything I ordered from Amazon almost a week ago still hasn't arrived yet =/

@7

Hah, if it was actually named that, I'd have my suspicions that the people behind Kingdom Hearts DS had a hand in the naming.

@@#&*^%&*^%! Professor Layton got moved back to February? Lifesigns isn't even being listed as coming out at all? If anything, this list is bad news for me. Arrrgh.