Missy's Game Shelf

I didn’t think I would ever have to make this post, but I feel like a lot of people don’t know what this movement is really about. Most can agree that the things Publishers are trying to get away with are terrible and possibly illegal.

So what is Stop Killing Games? Recently, espicially with the Switch 2 and a situation with Ubisoft awhile back. Developers and publishers can put in a kill switch and make consumers unable to play the games they buy. Further rather than refund the money people spent they can just keep it. This is unsurprisingly illegal in some places, but not everywhere and consumer protection laws aren’t covering this. Stop Killing Games’ main objective is to prevent this and have the backing of consumers who want to buy a game and it is theirs. No one complains when some server gets shutdown, because often the single player content still works. It should be no surprise that I support this simply because when I buy something I expect to be able to use and keep it. I feel like without legal action companies will just keep getting away with this.

This is a legitimate question as there are similarities to both games I’d argue contributed to both games to fail. First both games were made by newer companies made up of veteran developers led by the former Producer of successful games. For Mighty it was Keiji Inafune who was the lead and part of the Megaman series up until he left and started his own company. this all happened shortly after Capcom announced and subsequently cancelled a number of Mega Man games.

I would say Mindseye followed the same path being made by the former producer of GTA and with how long it is taking for GTA 6 as well as the failure of GTA Definitive Version anger at Rockstar would be similar. Similar to Mighty expectations were through the roof for the same reasons. Take Two and Rockstar disappointed people so they tried to find an alternative and it didn’t work out. People instead got a $60 bug filled incomplete mess of a game that really doesn’t help either of their price tags.

Now, Mighty Number 9 took a Kickstarter that when adjusted for Kickstarter fees costed around 2 million dollars (The final Kickstarter was at 4 million dollars). While Minds Eye final numbers are not public though rumors state half a billion that is not something I can confirm.

Now don’t misunderstand, games like these can succeed XSEED Games are former developers of the Harvest Moon series and have gone on to create the excellent Story of Seasons games and while Yooka Laylee had a rough start the Impossible Lair is a lot of fun something expected of former Rare Ware. Do I think people get too hyped for games from former developers? To an extent yes, but do I blame them? Not really. It is fair to say everyone can be excited when a familiar developer creates something new.

Thank you all for your patience sorry for the rather abrupt break last week.

I’m going to take a break from writing for a bit I haven’t been happy with my recent posts and before that had a migraine for about a week. I’m better now, but I still want to take a small break so I can keep giving my best work. Burnout added to writers block is never a good combination so I’m hoping stepping back for a week or two will help a bit. I’m sorry for anyone who was looking for a review or news today, but I hope to be back soon.

There are few Rom Hacks that I question whether they are deserving of their reputation. Pokemon Unbound is one of the best, Gaia is a close second and so on. Light Platinum makes some of these lists too my question is why? It is a terrible Rom Hack of Fire Red first there are so many early gift Pokemon and while this isn’t so bad you can get a Growlithe, Elekid, and Milotic within the first few minutes, next it takes so long to get Running Shoes I tried to use speedup, but after I did it crashed, lastly everything is at a snails pace in this hack pacing both movement wise and story take so long to get going. The game also has a bad habit of stopping the game pretty much to explain things any Pokemon fan could tell you. It stops you just to give you the Headbutt TM and explain how it works then uses it as an excuse to introduce Red. I get that not many would be aware to use Headbutt for hidden items or Pokemon, but every Pokemon Fan knows Red (the hardest and secret boss fight in the Gen 2 games and protagonist of the first games). You also meet Diamond who becomes your rival. While there is no grinding it is so slow to do anything I barely reached the first town before giving up on this game because of its pace. Now, none of what I mentioned is enough to give up on the game and call it the worst there are far worse Rom Hacks. So why did I call it the worst simple I am sure the creator of this hack is aware of its issues yet is still remaking it with the same issues and no changes that is what made me label it as the worst. Not any of its previous issues the fact someone believes so much in this game and still not add quality of life changes to essentially make the same game twice without any improvement.

One of it not the best Pokemon Rom Hack. Pokemon Unbound comes with a new region, updated features including an exp all, multiple difficulties, and a new story. It looks and plays like something Nintendo would make. It has a good story and good difficulty curve. If you do get stuck you can open a mission log at anytime to see where to go and what to do. Gyms usually have additional challenges on top of battles and this is something I really like. The first gym is filled with fog so the player needs to figure out how to deal with it, another gym has Pokemon that aren’t dark type take damage at the end of every turn so you either bring healing items or take the opponent out quickly. For the record I don’t like difficulty hacks or Fakemon roms so Unbound is good as it isn’t trying to make things hard or add unbalanced Pokemon. It feels unique I don’t like hacks that just make things harder there are about 20 emerald hacks that just retell the story, but make things significantly harder and as for fakemon I just don’t like them. You can tell a lot went into this game from custom maps, added side quests and new challenges it is all around an amazing game to play and gets you excited for what Skelli and their team are making or if they continue to make things.

Fantasy Life i The Girl Who Steals Time finally released and it is okay. There are things I like and things I hate. Moves are now unlocked in a skill tree and points are given out by what you are doing as opposed to learning them when you rank up. One thing I liked was when you rank up in the original characters dialogue would change depending on your current rank it was small, but it was charming. The map is confusing the original had simple short maps that focused on the challenges and a more fixed camera here the maps it takes some getting used to. The original also only had one level up for the game, in this game for some reason it splits your level among the Lives. I hate this change because it means that when facing a difficult challenge I can’t just do something else until I’m an appropriate level this introduces a grind that wasn’t there before. While I do think that some of these systems are carried from the mobile game they had it feels clunky for a full release. I plan to play the game a little more and provide a full review, but even with it’s flaws there are things I like and I hope the good can outweigh the bad, but at least for now I still prefer the original game over this.

We are going to do something different today and talk about games that aren’t part of their series. While some developers love these like Scott Cawthan others like Nintendo hate these. Oddly, I’ve only heard of Nintendo attacking straight ports or when people attempt to make money off these. For example, Pokemon Unbound and Mario Kaizo are likely known by Nintendo, but neither make money and are completely free. Whereas games on specific websites making money off advertising or people charging for their properties that gets banned quickly. There is a lot to love and hate about Fan Games for one a lot of the time talented people in these communities tend to be first time programmers and developers experimenting and some even go on to make their own games. Let’s not forget Earthbound Halloween Hack was technically Toby Fox’s first game available to the public and multiple developers of Sonic Fan Games now work for SEGA directly. Also, some of these add more as well as can be exactly what the fans are looking for something familiar yet sometimes completely it’s own. Now the things I hate Fan Games that add nothing but increased difficulty while this isn’t a large problem for Fan Games I think it is a problem depending on the game. While telling the same story is fine, but increased difficulty can break the balance and if I already played through that same story before I will get bored. Fortunately, just as many Roms exist telling their own stories and having their own mechanics. Further Fan games also can be a way of keeping a franchise alive if games get dull or boring and some can even surpass what the original games. It is a double edged sword you don’t know what you’re getting with these sometimes it’s amazing and feels like an actual project other times it just isn’t balanced, a bad game, or just boring grind fest. If you do have legitimate copies of these games I recommend giving a few fan games a chance and who knows you may be playing something that helps them create their own game in the future. I mean no one predicted a Rom Hack of Earthbound would one day help someone create Undertale or that a few fan games for Sonic would lead to the creation of Sonic Mania. So it is clear talented fans can create great things off of their passion and talent alone and I want to encourage more fan game devs to try and make their own products and see what they can really do without fear of being taken down by large companies.