SegaCD = Greatest CD add on?

[tomaitheous]

It would have been if not for it suffering from "touch screen syndrome," like some other early DS games (similar to over/missuse of Wii's motion controlls), it forces you to use the touch screen to do just about everyting, every single action button (x,y,a,b,l,r) plus the D-pad all do the same thing, fire the main weapon (bombs are touch-screen as well), that's it!!! There's no option for conventional controlls either (like some Wii games that misuse the controller and don't even offer the GC controller as an alternative)

I'm a fan of flight sims (from relaistic to arcade style) and a fan of the Star Fox seriese, but they simply sucked all the fun out of an otherwise pretty good game by doing this.
There are some other minor annoyances with some of the game structure, but it's all tolerable in comparison:
the character designs are questionable -too chibi-ish-
the voices are annoying -the original used giberish too, but it was good by comparison, these ones just sound too Animal Crossing-esque (which isn't a good thing; though you can optionally add your own voice samples and the games uses that to create the giberish; one of my brothers freinds had them all saying "die die die die die die die"

some of the plot is a bit confusing, and the multiple endings are a bit frustrating, though I like the idea of a branching story line with alternate conclusions, and it's handeled decently, though only a couple are very satisfying, the main one is acceptable so I guess that's what matters, and this system does increase replay value. (I was too frustrated with the controlls, but my little brother was able to put up with them to play through all the endings, though he still disliked the controll arangement)

Ehhh. Yeah, I'm not a fan of over use touch screen action. Despite the negatives, which don't *seem* too major, what about the difficulty and otherwise fun factor? I liked the SNES one and really wished they had polished up the GC one (which I really wanted to like). I don't mind if the controls are a bit iffy if the rest of the game is decent (and can be had for cheap). Would you still recommend it based on that?

[kool kitty89]

Ehhh. Yeah, I'm not a fan of over use touch screen action. Despite the negatives, which don't *seem* too major, what about the difficulty and otherwise fun factor? I liked the SNES one and really wished they had polished up the GC one (which I really wanted to like). I don't mind if the controls are a bit iffy if the rest of the game is decent (and can be had for cheap). Would you still recommend it based on that?

Umm, I never played more than a few levels and a bit of wifi multiplayer, but I did get the hang of it more or less, it was just never really enjoyable with the controll scheme. I think part of what makes it worse for me is (for almost any flight sim) I can only properly controll using a yolk/joystick style up/down inverted layout (which really doesn't work on a touch screen even if they offered it). If you normally use UP=UP/Dn=Dn, then it's probably not that bad, and the overall game is pretty interesting and fairly innovative. (which makes things even more frustrating from my POV)

It's got turned based strategy portions to it (kind of action RPG where you map out your actions tactically on the overworld/map then enter a normal realtime battle stage) It's been compared to Star Fox 2, but it's really not all that similar. (SF2 more closely resembles some very old Space Shooters like Star Raiders in gameplay terms)

[crazyteknohed]

I wouldn't go that far - DS uses little memsticks because their games are tiny compared to the PSP. Most PSP demos dwarf the full release of DS games. That's because DS is for little kids, while the PSP is for gamers.

If the DS is for kids and the PSP is for grown-ups, I find it quite ironic that, at least here in the UK, whenever I use the London underground I frequently see many city workers prodding at some sudoku, chess or brain training game on their way to work. In contrast, whenever I see someone playing with a PSP, it's more often than not some kid on the bus.

You can give lists of games all day long as to which games you deem to be 'kiddie' or 'grown-up', or indeed which storage media but, unless the market is that different in the US, the cold, hard fact here in Europe is that the DS the en vogue toy for adults.

[Da_Shocker]

This thread has went OT ugh. In order to get back in line I always find it funny how Nintendo released add on's in Japan and they always bombed compared to the sales of the NES, SNES, though why they released the 64DD in Japan instead of the US was beyond me.

[j_factor]

I'm pretty sure they didn't release the 64DD in the US because they knew it would bomb badly. It's cheaper to release something in Japan than the US.

[Da_Shocker]

I'm pretty sure they didn't release the 64DD in the US because they knew it would bomb badly. It's cheaper to release something in Japan than the US.

The N64 sold 5.54 million in Japan and 20.63 million in the US. Now correct me if i'm wrong but would'nt it had been better to target the country with the bigger audience?

[kool kitty89]

I'm pretty sure they didn't release the 64DD in the US because they knew it would bomb badly. It's cheaper to release something in Japan than the US.

It was the Famicom Disk System all over again. Even in the sense that the media held no more than the contemporary cartridges. (though with the FDS NES carts later became far larger)

The N64 sold 5.54 million in Japan and 20.63 million in the US. Now correct me if i'm wrong but would'nt it had been better to target the country with the bigger audience?

That's just it though, you wouldn't want to pour resourses into your big market with an untested product. Launching it in Japan was far less risky. This happens with lots of products, there was the FDC I mentioned above, the SNES Satellaview modem, the Famicom Modem, and Sega similarly had their Mega Modem, and that's just off the top of my head.

Plus, even with products that are released, the Japanese companies then to launch them first locally before moving to foreign markets. (even whentheir strongest markets are elsewhere) This wasn't true for the 32x, but that was an odd case with it being a SoA project, but let's not get into a discussion on the preoblems between SoJ and SoA here.

[Da_Shocker]

It would've been interesting to see what kinda success or failure Nintendo would've had if they would've bought out all those add ons oversea's. And how the media would've treated them.

[TheEdge]

Oh, my. The SegaCD is whopping the TGCD's arse.

Go Sega

[mick_aka]

I really wanted to vote up the Jag CD, has some fair titles and makes the console look like a toilet

[j_factor]

The N64 sold 5.54 million in Japan and 20.63 million in the US. Now correct me if i'm wrong but would'nt it had been better to target the country with the bigger audience?

No, it's safer to try a smaller market. Launching a system (or in this case, add-on) in Japan requires far fewer units up-front, is easier to distribute because the country is more urban, and doesn't require as much support because the Japanese are accustomed to shitty launch lineups. Very few 64DD games ended up coming out. Granted, the N64 did launch here with only two games, but they only got away with it due to the massive popularity of Mario 64. The 64DD did not have a Mario 64 calibur game in its lineup.

[oldskool]

I vote Turbo CD. While I realize that the Sega CD has better special effect capabilities I do believe that the Turbo CD had a better selection of good games for it. Especially since you could use Japanese CD's on the console without modding. I love the Sega CD too of course.

[Guntz]

I'm pretty sure they didn't release the 64DD in the US because they knew it would bomb badly. It's cheaper to release something in Japan than the US.

The 64DD went unreleased in the US and Europe/Australia because 2000 would have been far, far too late to launch an add-on. The 64DD was released in December 1999 in Japan. The US and EU/AU versions might have shipped in the spring of 2000. Add to the fact the western markets were much bigger and would have cost more upfront to generate a decent profit turnout, along with the impending release of the Gamecube, AND the fact "Randnet" service would have had to be brought along as well, it would have cost Nintendo a lot of money for little gain to send the 64DD to western shores. Nintendo canceled the cartridge games Dinosaur Planet and Eternal Darkness in all territories so the Gamecube would have a better launch lineup. What kind of sense would it make to bring the 64DD stateside while cartridge cancellations were going on?

I wonder if the reason Nintendo never made an online service for the Gamecube is because of the "failure" of Randnet. If that's the case, all I have to say is, it wouldn't have failed if Nintendo got this crap sorted out and released the 64DD earlier. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the online service of a late console add-on isn't going to sell very well by default. I think Nintendo's fear of Sony's CD-ROM really hurt the N64 more than anything. Nintendo should have just poured all their effort into the cartridge and make it work. That or release the 64DD in 1997 and not squander either format. Nintendo wasted a TON of work by delaying the 64DD constantly.

[Moirai]

What nintendo really should have done, was make N64 CD based from the get go.

[Guntz]

Probably not possible. Nintendo probably couldn't license the compact disc even if they wanted to, not after dropping their contracts with both Sony and Phillips (big names in the CD).