* Forced and unnecessary DS touchscreen/Wiimote use.
* Wiimote waggling as subsitute for button presses.

*A DS game that has made good use of its capabilities will suddenly decide to include blowing into the microphone instead.

Summarizing:
* The unnecessary use of a gimmick, just because it is available.

Would better if people actually took the time to put something that made any sense.

Making sense is for newts.

[General:]

General:

• Gamepad works well during gameplay. There is no button assigned to Pause, though.
• Gamepad's d-pad/analog stick stops working in the options screen, but the buttons continue to work.
• In the keyboard, assigning Evert to a directional key messes up menu navigation, since pressing down both moves the cursor down and selects(I tried to assign Jump and Evert to Up and Down, so I could play using solely the directional keys).
• When hitting the flag at world 8-4, the character starts walking right as usual, but he hits a wall and stays walking against it. You can still use jump, so the character continues right. It may fall on the water, but even under the level it continues going on indefinitely. It's jumps still can be heard if you press jump. Pressing Evert ends the level and kind of solves it, but it is still weird.
• When everting to 8-3 in the 8-4 area, the 8-4 flag is still available. Touching it takes you to the 8-1 ending (eldritch abominations' romance). The same happens if you evert to 8-3 and 8-2 in the second 8-4 area and backtrack to the flag.
• Pressing ESC when you are in the Time Attack menu goes back to the Main Menu, unless you actually enter a time attack level. After entering the Time Attack level, pressing ESC takes you to the Time Attack menu. Pressing it again takes you back to the level and pressing it a third time quits the game, without going through the Main Menu.
• I'm not sure, because it only happened once, but it seems that when you beat a Time Attack level after pressing ESC two times, the game quits automatically once you press Evert.
• Selecting Achievements in the Main Menu redirects you to your Steam profile, not your Eversion achievements.
• Strange shadows appear in my home when I play the game at night.

Laptop 1:
Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB Ram
SiS 671 MX chipset

Ubuntu 9.10 i386 installed in its own partition
Ubuntu restricted extras installed
No proprietary graphics/audio drivers

Wine 1.0.1-ubuntu8

• Glitchy accelerated sound. Occasionally the sound will play almost normally, just a little choppy. In both cases the sound may (apparently) randomly stop completely during gameplay and leave the game mute.
• Steam overlay doesn't work, even with OpenGL activated. Achievements also do not appear for this reason.
• Sometimes the game crashes when alternating between fullscreen and windowed mode. If it doesn't, when reverting to the windowed mode, the display freezes, but the game can still be heard to be working, aside from the graphics.
• Didn't test Time Attack in this plataform.

Wine 1.1.31-0ubuntu3  (listed as wine12 in Synaptic package manager)

• Audio is slightly delayed, but good in quality.
• Steam overlay doesn't work, even with OpenGL activated. Achievements also do not appear for this reason.
• Sometimes the game crashes when alternating between fullscreen and windowed mode. If it doesn't, when reverting to the windowed mode, the display freezes, but the game can still be heard to be working, aside from the graphics.
• Didn't test Time Attack in this plataform.

Laptop 2:
2.0 GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-70
4 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3200

Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 via Wubi (installed inside Win 7)
Ubuntu restricted extras installed
ATI proprietary graphic card driver

• Same results as the Intel Core 2 Duo laptop running ubuntu

Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

• Running nicely. Perfect graphics and sound, no issues with fullscreen/windowed transition and Steam overlay. Has some problems, but I don't think they are plataform specific(they are described in General).
• The only plataform in which I tested Time Attack, so far.

Edit 1: Issue added to General

I have a HP Pavilion dv5 laptop running both Windows 7 and Wubi (Ubuntu Linux installed under Windows). I also have a generic USB controller.

* The character will be unable swim, walk across or even touch any water body deeper than a puddle. It will either work as an invisible wall or instant death trap. In the case it doesn't work as a death trap, the character will be damaged and appear on the same side he was before, even if the character was closer to the opposite side of the water body when touched the it.

Branching was weak and forced in unleashes and most control was just gimmick that only serve "hidden qte like mecanics". And worst there is a clear better path that branch. The game was fun, but we never had as much control or interest in the level like the adventure series. I like this direction too but it's not strong enough in execution yet (especially with bad collision detection, now i do 3D game i can't believe it's so bad).

They used branching in the 3D sections of the game as well. It was well implemented im my opinion. They were usually faster paths, but weren't as easy to follow. They are not perfect, but they are closer from the 2D feeling than adventure or any other I played/seen so far. Also, some recent additions, like drift, sidestep and being able to spin while running, were good additions and improved the control.

I didn't have any collision problems. Maybe it was an issue present just in the Wii version.

Momentum was not an argument against 3D game, but fan are doing it themselves. So far since heroes, i have seen fan outdone sega in all subjects many times. 3D is next:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lAvyJysNfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBZ8NkHjaYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLpjh12u4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFPwaAjRfg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYoUc4XTIZI
this is just engine test

Despite minimal evolution, i can't see another game like sonic at all. It's pretty unique in his genre, even if the basis is platformer.

I watched the videos. Even being impressive for fan games, they seemed awful 3D Sonic games. The only complete level was full of bottomless abysses(without guard rails), narrow paths, sudden turns and tricky plataforming. All of them seemed too hard to control(especially the ones who used ramps), and inclined loops didn't make it much better. Speed was often detrimental to the gameplay(faster you go, easier it is to fall) and momentum had little significance. I don't think they are going in the right direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Creatures ?

Dammit! My evil plan was thwarted. 

I think you should do it. 

It seems the Little Prince.

I somewhat agree. QTEs (and sliding under walls) are not the best way to go and they were merciless with bottomless pits, especially in Eggmanland, but I didn't suffer from button overload. 3D games need more commands, even if just for the amplified navigation. Once I learned the controls, which didn't take much time, I never had a problem knowing which button did what.

The game had branching, at least in the version I played(PS2). They didn't do it as often as the 2D ones, but it was present and somewhat significative(you needed to know the best paths to get a good rank). With the exception of the sidescroller parts, I'm not sure if they should deal with vertical momentum, it would get very confusing in a 3D game. Momentum only played a role in this game when turning, but it wasn't very interesting, nor very Sonic-like(it was kinda like a racing game). I can't think of a better way to do it though. What would be an interesting way to adapt the momentum exploitation mechanics to a 3D world?

[Surgery Sim + RTS]

Surgery Sim + RTS

You can control an army of creatures. Initially, they will be similar to actual animals. As you progress through the game, you will fight and take over armies of different creatures. Once you have these creatures under your control, you will be able to dissect them to get more knowledge, then perform surgeries, replacing organs and entire body parts, creating new chimeric species that you will be able to use in battles.

Sonic drama story: interesting bit about level design analysis

image

Unfortunately, it was just drama, not an actual analysis. The only graph that could be taken somewhat seriously was the first one.

Once again, I take the oportunity to say that Sonic Unleashed was more than just a step in the right direction. I agree that the combat levels were bland and unnecessary, but the speed levels finally adapted old gameplay elements in an adequate way for a 3D environment.

I would be very interested in an actual comparative analysis of Sonic gameplay through time.

If the iPad had a cam, cats would be able to post their own pictures on the internet. But then, we would have no more use for them.

Why anyone would play GBA games on a DS when you can play it on a GBMicro instead is beyond me.

Game looks good, I'll definitely get it

DS Guitar Hero. Nintendo killed it.

I don't get why so many people are opposed to the idea of a world government. Sure, if it was an evil Fascist dictatorship over the whole world, it would be terrible - but no more terrible than having each country run by its own individual dictatorships. And if it was a global democratic government, it would be a huge step forward for humanity.

Also, fearing the Bahai'i for any reason is hilarious.

It's mostly because humans are evil. 

Such a government would probably become corrupted, since power corrupts, and I have yet to see a completely ethical government.

See what happens in a monopoly. Instead of using its privileged condition to offer cheaper and better goods/services, the companies often abuse its customers, since they have no other choice. This would not be too different with a government, and anything the government did would be considered normal. Without anything to even compare with, an orwellian scenario wouldn't be completely unlikely to happen. We could end up some generations away from a possible society stall.

I can never see this without seeing the XD as an emoticon. Not the best way to name a game really.

It seems fun way to name a game, just don't expect to be taken seriously later. Which is fine if your game doesn't not try to be serious. XD

I think it will feel off if you have a plot, it would take out the feeling of freedom, only to enforce a fake sense of direction and tension. The plot is light on pokemon because it's about your journey, not some overarching plot. Pokemon XD was a spin off, but not really something that work with free roaming.

There is no fake sense of tension, but the feeling of freedom is fake as well. The game is almost completely linear, since you can't tackle the Gyms in any order and, as far as I know, each Gym must be defeated in order to be able to explore further, so even if you have pokémon strong enough, you can't explore freely.

Without a meaningful objective, pretty much the only thing pushing you forward is getting new/better pokémon. That might be fine for some, and it is kind of fun, but it seems a waste of potential to me.

For some reason, this brings back awkward memories of:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/BombActZerobox.jpg

Yeah, the other Bomberman game is better. 

On the other side, I've been reading a Pokémon fanfic which tries to make the Pokémon setting darker, successfully, in my opinion. As I said before, there is no way Nintendo would release a game similar to it, but I think it would be very interesting.

Um, so just HOW easy is Game Maker?

Easier than biting your elbow, but harder than biting your knee.

What about WHERE MARIO IS VILLAIN AND DONKEY KONG JR. IS HERO... AND DONKEY KONG IS THE DISTRESSED DAMSEL.  

Actually it's not impossible.

The Legend of Zelda reboots every now and then. Wario and Donkey Kong were villains and became heros... well, at least protagonists. Bowser and Mario fought on the same side more than once. Every now and then Nintendo experiments with their IPs, including with the gameplay. Nintendo isn't that strict with its IPs.

Pokémon isn't very story centric and there are few notable individuals. Even those don't get the spotlight much. Some spin-offs changed the gameplay and were somewhat successful, they even ended up having sequels. I think there is a possibility of a reboot, but I don't think it will be now.  From the screenshots, it seems just a traditional pokémon game.

I disagree completely about the storylines. Mystery Dungeon was the only time a Pokémon storyline interested me. In all the others there is not much into it, you just want to be the greatest trainer, anything else that happens is secondary and not explored much.