The Engadget Podcast Ep 5: Applesauce
Editor in Chief Michael Gorman, executive editor Christopher Trout and managing editor Dana Wollman join host Terrence O’Brien for a special all Apple edition of the podcast from San Francisco. On the show they’ll search for the definition of courage, tell you what it’s really like on the floor of a major press event and give a state of the Apple union.
The Flame Wars Leaderboard
Wins
Loses
Winning %
Chris Velazco
3
1
.750
Christopher Trout
2
1
.666
Devindra Hardawar
6
4
.600
Nathan Ingraham
3
4
.429
Cherlynn Low
3
4
.429
Michael Gorman
1
2
.333
Relevant links:
- The new Apple Watch mostly looks like the old one
- The Apple Watch Nike+ is a running watch I might actually use
- Two years later, Apple has figured out what its watch is good for
- Apple announces the water-resistant iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are all about subtle, powerful changes
- Apple’s AirPods are smart wireless earbuds with a new W1 chip
- Apple’s AirPods toe the line between usefulness and gimmickry
- Apple adds real-time collaboration to iWork
- What happened at the iPhone event
- Courage is not how you sell iPhones
- Nintendo loses a little piece of its identity with ‘Super Mario Run’
You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.
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High-profile Kickstarter games see delays, port cancellations
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, was crowdfunded to the tune of $5.5 million last year, with an ETA of March 2017. It promises to be a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, but this week, project lead Koji Igarashi (known colloquially as IGA) personally announced via Kickstarter that the game will now be pushed back to “the first half of 2018.” The delay, IGA says, is because the game is currently at risk of not “meeting [his] quality standards.” To that end, he’s adding additional developers to the team, who will hopefully be able to put the project back on track. He also offered his apologies to anyone affected by the delay.
Separately, Hyper Light Drifter developer Heart Machine updated its Kickstarter, informing backers that the planned Wii U and Vita ports of the game are canceled. Speaking directly to backers, Heart Machine-founder (and director of the game) Alex Preston spoke about a need to prioritize his own health — he has a congenital heart disease which served in part as inspiration for the game — after several years of solid development. Despite his best efforts to complete both ports, the task proved impossible, he said, and after missing many treatments, he’s making the call to cancel development. “I’m sorry,” he told backers, “[but] I have to prioritize my own health right now.”
Explaining why these ports were so problematic, Preston said the Wii U port was down to issues with the game’s engine, GameMaker: Studio. Despite promises made, GameMaker owners YoYo Games and Nintendo couldn’t come to an agreement that would allow a native port on the system. The Vita version, meanwhile, was not performing to an adequate level despite “months” of work attempting to optimize it. The team will continue to push ahead with updates and fulfilling other rewards, with a large update planned in the coming weeks. Backers who requested a Wii U or a Vita copy of the game will be able to choose between other supported platforms or a refund.
Hyper Light Drifter backers’ responses to the news have been varied. There were many delays leading up to the original release earlier this year, with quality issues and Preston’s health largely to blame. The cancellation of the two ports after a three-year wait has provoked anger from some backers, and that’s understandable. But for every angry response, many more encouraging comments can be found.
For Bloodstained, backers have made comparisons to another high-profile not-a-reboot, Mighty No. 9. A spiritual successor to Mega Man, it was plagued by multiple delays. The original “Spring 2015” date was only pushed back in April 2015, then the “September 2015” release date got switched in August 2015. The final insult came when a February 2016 release date was only scrapped on January 25th, 2016. But while Mighty No. 9’s developers were slammed hard for missing their targets, backers of Bloodstained have so far been more understanding. That’s partly down to this being the first delay, but also due to IGA revealing the news six months in advance, and a generally being better at communicating the development process in general.
Bloodstained and Hyper Light Drifter are but two examples of a wider trend: troubled Kickstarters. For every successful project, like Republique, there’s a game that never materialized or failed to deliver on all of its promises. Mighty No. 9 was one such game. The 2D platformer was supposed to be a retro-modern fantasy, bringing the Mega Man series back to life. But the game was near-universally panned, and fans’ disappointment was compounded by the fact it had been delayed so much.
High-profile failures have tarnished Kickstarter’s reputation, and made it harder for games to get funded. But there’s a lesson consumers are beginning to learn. It should be clearer than ever that you’re not buying a game when you’re backing a project like Bloodstained. You’re giving money to a person or a team that wants to try and make something, because you want them to make it. If they’re successful, you’ll get what you asked for. If they’re not, you might get nothing. Head into every Kickstarter with that attitude, and only part with your money if you’re willing to accept the risks.
Shigeru Miyamoto Hopes ‘Super Mario Run’ Will Draw Users to Nintendo’s Hardware for More In-Depth Experiences
One of the first major surprises out of Apple’s September 7 event was the appearance of game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and the announcement of an all-new Mario game for iOS called Super Mario Run. In the game, players will help Mario navigate various worlds by tapping on the screen to help the plumber jump, dodge, and slide past obstacles and enemies until they reach the flag pole at the end of the stage.
During Apple’s event, Miyamoto and senior product marketing manager for Nintendo, Bill Trinen, explained the mechanics of the game and its intent for quick burst, one-handed smartphone gaming. Now, in a recent interview with The Verge, Miyamoto divulged more information on the iPhone game, potentially hinting at what the company’s outlook on mobile gaming could mean for the other two upcoming DeNA iOS games, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.
Image via The Verge
In its time with Super Mario Run, The Verge commented that the game underscores the company’s strategy of introducing addicting, but modest experiences on mobile in order to win more players over with full-fledged console games. Super Mario Run ultimately started as an idea that “was too simple for a home console device,” Miyamoto said, and that the company’s “main focus” is still convincing players to migrate over to its first-party hardware.
Still, Miyamoto said he hopes people are “going to want to play a much more in-depth and a more challenging Mario experience … it’s going to increase the population of people interested in coming to our platforms, which is of course is our main focus.“
It looks to be everything a Super Mario game should be, but also, what it shouldn’t be. Miyamoto’s game has been carefully designed so that it’s simple enough to attract a new audience of iPhone lovers, but not satisfying enough to supplant a console experience.
As suspected, the success of Pokémon Go has helped Nintendo push forward in the smartphone space, and helped dictate the experience of Super Mario Run. In the way that Pokémon Go is inherently tied into the GPS and camera functions of a smartphone, Super Mario Run was built around a similar, play-anywhere universality, leading to its “simple… one-handed gameplay” and “shorter play time.”
Miyamoto cited the success of Pokémon Go as validation of this smartphone-centric approach. “Pokémon Go is obviously a game that uses your GPS and it’s synced into the camera and Google Maps, so it’s a piece of software that’s really geared towards that mobile play experience,” Miyamoto said. “So, similarly with Mario, what we’re looking at is simple game play, one-handed gameplay; shorter play time, playing in shorter bursts; and then really bringing the joy of Mario to that much larger audience.”
With its new iOS Mario game — which will eventually make it to Android — Nintendo is also admitting that most kids’ first interaction with technology is no longer with one of the company’s consoles, but the smartphone or tablet of a parent. This convinced Nintendo to finally put its most famous IPs on mobile devices, and helped them decide to make Super Mario Run a one-time-only paid game, so parents don’t have to worry about their kids spending large amounts of money on in-game ephemera.
Miyamoto noted that there was a point in time when “[Nintendo’s] hardware system was really the first device that kids would interact with, and that’s starting to shift.” The first device kids interact with now, he says? Their parent’s smartphone. This notion of the smartphone “being the first place this kids are encountering games, is what helped us to decide to bring this to smartphones,” Miyamoto said.
The first Nintendo and DeNA partnership game was Miitomo, which launched earlier in the year, but failed to gain much traction due to its social-focused features that lacked much in the way of a main gameplay hook. Coming next, besides Super Mario Run, are Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, but details on the games have been scarce. In the original announcement, Nintendo said that Fire Emblem will be “more accessible” in comparison to the console entries in the popular RPG series, and Animal Crossing “will be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems.”
With the new context of Miyamoto’s interview for Super Mario Run, it’s possible that the two other upcoming mobile games will continue Nintendo’s focus on introducing a pared-down version of each franchise, so that players are encouraged to play the full-fledged titles on Nintendo’s consoles. Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem are also said to support a free-to-play structure, so there still remains a chance that Nintendo will differentiate the two titles from its simplified mobile gaming strategy and present gameplay closer to the console titles.
Super Mario Run will launch in December, and Nintendo has said that Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem would debut sometime in the fall, but the company has yet to give more specific launch details for those games.
Read The Verge’s full interview with Shigeru Miyamoto here.
Tags: Nintendo, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Super Mario Run
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$35 Pokémon Go Plus accessory will go on sale September 16th
Pokémon Go players will have their choice of accessories soon, since the $35 Pokémon Go Plus accessory will be available September 16th “in most countries.” Earlier today the game’s makers reported over 500 million downloads and announced a way to play using the Apple Watch. Now, Niantic says this $35 device will make playing possible “without having to look at your screen all the time.” It links to your phone with Bluetooth Low Energy, letting players collect items from nearby Pokéstops or catch Pokémon with the press of a button.
It’s almost here! Pokémon GO Plus will be available in much of the world on Sept. 16: https://t.co/ZekOacenkl pic.twitter.com/vzeVQH6Ekt
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) September 8, 2016
The companion device was announced nearly a year ago along with the game, however it has been delayed in order to make it work better with the game. The big question is if adding on a $35 device that makes catching monsters (apparently) as easy as just pressing a button when it lights up will ruin the game for both casual and hardcore players. Despite those massive install numbers, the number of active players has clearly dropped since the hype peaked this summer. Now, we wait and see if adding dedicated hardware to the mix will keep players invested or drive them away just as weather in the US gets colder and gyms are harder to get to.
The Niantic Team:
As you pass by a PokéStop, Pokémon GO Plus will vibrate and light up and alert you to the location. You’ll even be able to collect new items just by clicking the Pokémon GO Plus. If there’s nearby Pokémon hiding in your area you’ll be alerted with lights and vibrations; catch the Pokémon with a button on Pokémon GO Plus and then continue on your way (later, you can check your Journal to see which Pokémon you’ve just caught).
Source: Pokémon Go Live, PokémonGo.com
Nintendo loses a little piece of its identity with ‘Super Mario Run’
Today, Nintendo announced Super Mario is going mobile — Super Mario Run will launch on iOS and Android before the end of the year. We knew the company was making more content for smartphones, but for long-time Nintendo fans, this announcement still feels like a shock. For years, Satoru Iwata rallied hard against bringing Nintendo characters to the small screen. “If we did this,” he said in 2011, “Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.” The company’s leader was adamant: putting Mario on mobile would make good short-term profits, but would ultimately devalue the property. Now that it’s here, we have to wonder — is Nintendo still Nintendo?
The answer to that question might lie in Nintendo’s motivation in taking Mario to iOS. At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Iwata described Nintendo as a company that makes “platforms designed to demonstrate the high value of high-quality video game software.” Like the seal on your old NES cartridge says, Nintendo means quality. Can that quality persist on a mobile device? At the time, Iwata didn’t think so. “These platforms have no motivation to maintain the high value of video game software.”
On the other hand, innovation is core to Nintendo’s identity. Last year, Iwata told TIME that company’s philosophy is rooted in being unique and different. “That philosophy has been passed down to us,” he said. “For us to be able to do something unique that is different from others, being able to design the hardware in order to create unique software experiences gives us the best option.”
He was reaffirming the company’s focus on building dedicated console hardware — but in almost the same breath he praised smartphones as a platform for innovation, describing the mobile market as an opportunity to bridge the gap between casual gamers and Nintendo’s dedicated game console. Again, the idea was focused on high-quality, innovative games “We will be able to deliver unique experiences to the users of smart devices,” he concluded.
So, let’s recap: Nintendo is quality. Nintendo is innovation. Will Super Mario Run hold enough value in either to keep Nintendo… Nintendo? Without actually playing the unreleased game it’s hard to tell for sure, but at a glance, it fails on at least one count — innovation. Super Mario Run looks fun. It looks well made. It has good graphics and might have some fun hooks to keep players interested. Buyers even get the whole game at once: Nintendo hasn’t priced it yet, but says there are no in-app purchases to nickle and dime you. Sadly, none of that is innovative. Super Mario Run is essentially an perpetual runner game — a title where the main character always moves forward, no matter what. There are hundreds of those.
This puts Mario in good mobile company, but it makes Nintendo’s biggest property a me-too game. Games like Canabalt, Temple Run, Subway Surfers and Jetpack Joyride have already saturated the mobile market with high quality runner experiences. Even Mario’s long-time rival has one: Sonic Dash. Mario’s running down a road well travelled.
We could give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and assume Super Mario Run will be a high-quality representation of a well tread genre — but it’s hard to tell how innovative it really is. Nintendo says players will be able to change Mario’s direction and perform other movements by hitting special blocks, and i’s levels certainly look more complicated than what you get in your average procedurally generated endless runner title. It’s possible the company could be preparing to launch the magnum opus of running games — the best possible use of the genre. That would be at least a little innovative, if a little less so than we’re used to from Nintendo.
Mario is coming to the iPhone and iPad
Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto showed up on the Apple stage today to reveal Super Mario Run, an iOS game starring everyone’s favorite red-hatted plumber. Super Mario Run is the first Nintendo title to launch as a standalone smartphone game, aside from the social-focused app Miitomo. It’s due to hit iOS in December. The iTunes listing for Super Mario Run says it’s a free game with in-app purchases.
Super Mario Run stars Mario as he leaps across familiar brick-lined landscapes and platforming levels. Tap to make Mario jump; the longer you hold your finger down, the higher he flies. In later levels, players are able to change Mario’s direction as well. The goal is to grab as many coins as possible and reach the flagpole before time runs out. There’s also a battle mode called “Toad Rally” where players attempt to beat other people’s high scores.
Developing …
Dolphin emulator now supports every GameCube game
The open-source Dolphin emulator has been able to run nearly every GameCube title since 2009, but one title has stumped it — Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It turns out that the 14-year-old game used some pretty clever, tricky-to-implement memory tricks. However, the team says it finally cracked the game with a more accurate memory emulator, which had the added benefit of other GameCube titles more stable.
More than any other GameCube title, Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes advantage of the GameCube’s mappable memory to set up its own custom RAM structure. Unfortunately, it can change those on the fly in mid-game, crashing the emulator.
To fix the problem, the Dolphin team had to rewrite a large chunk of the code that deals with so-called “block address translations (BATs).” The result is an emulator that can run every single official GameCube title with fewer crashes, but is a tad slower (8-15 percent) with those that use a different type of memory addressing. So, even though you can run the Dolphin software on a Mac, PC, Linux or Android machine, the team recommends as fast a computer as possible for certain titles.
The Dolphin emulator was created as a software research experiment to do retro gaming, but because it runs Wii games (which Nintendo still sells), it has been exploited for piracy. You can still legally run GameCube titles on a Wii console, but the last one, Madden NFL 08, was released in 2007. Since they’re now moving into a preservation phase, the updated emulator is good news for gaming history geeks, despite the potential for misuse.
Source: Dolphin
Nintendo issues DMCA takedown for hundreds of fan games
Whenever we see a high quality fan-game using a major gaming company’s IP, we always think the same thing: it’s only a matter of time. For hundreds of Nintendo fan projects, that time has come. Today, the Japanese gaming giant issued DMCA takedown requests for over 500 fan-games — including AM2R: a lovingly crafted Metroid II remake that recently launched after 8 years of development.
Most of the effected games were hosted on Game Jolt: a community where indie developers upload and share their projects for free. The library is filled with homages to other games — like Old Man’s Sky, Duck Nukum and, of course, hundreds of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon fan-games. Nintendo’s takedown notice named over 500 titles that violated its copyright, and all of them have been taken down.
Despite not being part of Game Jolt’s library, AM2R was issued a DCMA takedown, too. “There will be no more AM2R updates,” developer Milton Guasti wrote on his blog, “and no more releases under any platform.” This is the second and final blow for Guasti, who had been quietly updating the game despite a takedown request issued earlier this year. Nintendo’s within its right to put a lid on these fan projects, of course — but it’s always a bummer to see passionate fan works snuffed out with all the fanfare of a legal notice.
Via: Polygon
Source: Game Jolt
Nintendo finally increases the 3DS StreetPass limit to 100
The ability to share information via StreetPass with other players has always been a fun reason to carry your 3DS everywhere. But you can only capture up to 10 users’ Miis at a time, and going through them is a time-consuming pain. On this morning’s Nintendo Direct the company announced a new “Quick Plaza” to make the process a lot smoother, as well as a new premium feature that can increase your number of potential encounters to 100.
The Quick Plaza runs a little faster (like the normal plaza does when you hold down the right trigger), but it’s also been streamlined: Each Mii character only gives you their name and location, skipping details like their personal greeting and last game played. It’s also a lot easier to boot up the StreetPass games, with their icons moved to the bottom screen instead of living in a separate menu as they do now.
The increased StreetPass limit definitely seems aimed at people who do most of their StreetPass action at large events. At conventions like San Diego Comic-Con or PAX West (happening this weekend) it’s common for the in-game queue to fill up in minutes or even seconds due to the large number of players, instead of days (or even weeks) it would take in the rest of the US. It’s included as part of StreetPass Premium, which means you’ll have to pay for the service if you haven’t done so already.
Nintendo also announced five new games for StreetPass, promising that they’re all “bite size” so users don’t have to worry about overstuffing their 3DS’ storage. Slot Car Rivals, as the name says, lets players compete in a slot car race against the best times compiled from other players they’ve exchanged info with. Market Crashers is a stock market game where you predict stock prices based on advice from other Miis. Feed Me is a cooking game where you’re tasked with preparing dishes fit for a king. The step counter in your 3DS gets a workout with Mii Trek, an exploration game. And Ninja Launcher involves launching half-naked Miis out of a cannon, just because.
Starting today, you can download any of the five games in the eShop for $3 each. As a special deal, you can grab either Slot Car Rivals or Market Crashers for free, and then snag the rest as part of a discounted bundle for $9.
Play ‘The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’ on Wii U today
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is available to purchase and download on the Wii U via Virtual Console today. This is the original version of Skyward Sword with no remastering or updates, Nintendo announced during its 3DS-focused livestream this morning.
The Zelda franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and Nintendo is bringing the presents: Special Zelda Amiibo hit stores shelves this winter and a new art book about the series from Dark Horse Comics is available for pre-order now. The Amiibo function the same as the Super Smash Bros. Link and Zelda figurines, and they’ll unlock special functions in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which lands on Wii U and Nintendo’s new console, the NX, next year.
During today’s livestream, Nintendo revealed a handful of games heading to the 3DS, including Wii U titles Yoshi’s Woolly World and Super Mario Maker, plus new games like a 3DS-only Pikmin adventure. Nintendo is quietly phasing out the Wii U before it launches the NX, while the 3DS is still going strong. The company recently revealed the New Galaxy Style 3DS XL, a version of the handheld that’s covered in deep purple swirls and cosmic dust.
ICYMI, the New Nintendo #3DS XL now comes in a slick New Galaxy Style design! pic.twitter.com/1bRnxPC5bn
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 1, 2016
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