I don't feel bad for AMD, either. But in this particular case, I think they happen to be right: this is not a good precedent for gamers. Nvidia already has too much power over the graphics card market as it is. Working with designers and developers is a good thing, don't get me wrong, but doing so to implement…

I love the Famicom game. I hated the DS remake. Every change reduced the game, or made it more of a chore to play. The original may be an acquired taste to modern gamers, but it's arguably the best example of NES-era gameplay-oriented RPGs.

I agree with you, but hate you for reminding me of the existence of the 1976 version.

I stand humbly corrected, then. I played the PlayStation version, and I vividly recall the N64 version getting poorer reviews, but I may have been confusing it with something else. I'm surprised the textures looked better, though: that's the sort of thing that the N64 typically had problems with. I don't doubt you,…

All of which was undercut by the lack of storage available on the cartridge format. The N64 could churn out more polygons at a faster speed than any other console on the market... but its cartridges didn't have enough space to store decent textures for them. It was an impressively poor design choice, honestly.

That's also a big part why there are only 296 N64 games. The cartridge format not only meant that there was less storage space, but cartridges were more expensive to produce than CD-ROMs. A lot of publishers weren't exactly in love with the idea of spending more money to produce games that were generally less…

I... I honestly don't know what to say.

Well, CD/DVD stacks are more compact than those bulky cartridges.....

Nintendo has always had an antagonistic relationship with third-party publishers, though. In the NES days, they got a lot of criticism for their title limits and exclusivity requirements. The SNES era saw, in America at least, a good deal of controversy over their content restrictions. The licensing fees to publish…

The two phenomena (the low number of released games and the alienation of publishers) are not unrelated. A big part of the reason why the Nintendo 64 has such a tiny library is because Nintendo made developing for the system expensive, partially through the decision to stick with cartridge media, and partially just…

They weren't for the original, given its release for iOS (which is where I played it). Is the sequel different/harder?

It was added back in version 1.2, I believe. It's a single use item that creates fire when used. It's pretty useless for anything except loading into dispensers, where it can be used to shoot flames without the accompanying explosion. I think it might also be used to craft fireworks, but I haven't done much with them.

Fire charge, if I remember correctly.

"Dud" is almost always a reference to commercial success, unless it's prefixed with something like "critical." And quality aside (I haven't played it), LoS2 was not a commercial success.

Even granting that Metacritic is imperfect, it does speak to the generally critical consensus surrounding a title. Both you and Jason refer to the low aggregates surrounding "polarizing" titles as if this is some horrible flaw with the system, when that is exactly the point. A title is polarizing because it is not…

Realistically, though, that won't happen. Most consumers don't have the time nor the inclination to devote to extended research on a piece of ultimately disposable entertainment. A score system will never provide the nuance nor the detail of an extended review, but, by the same token, an extended review will never…

Amazon's user scores are frequently gamed, actually. It's probably easier to do so that it is with a professional aggregator like Metacritic.

I assume no such thing. "Bad" is a subjective view. Games with low Metacritic scores are, however, unpopular, either critically, or, in the case of the user score (which is also displayed), with players. Hence my use of the phrase "generally considered." Since I, as a consumer, cannot judge for myself whether a game…

That's a shockingly short-sighted view. That said, it's pretty much the exact same short-sighted view I expect from the the gaming industry these days, and I can't say I'm honestly surprised to see such a strong contingent of fandom echoing that sentiment.

That's the gaming industry. At times, it operates more like a cult than a marketplace. That's why you get consumers waging Internet Holy War(tm) over their favorite console, or siding reflexively with content producers even when it's arguably not in their best interests to do so (as with the controversy over used game…