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Ridley Prime

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Everything posted by Ridley Prime

  1. While I don't disagree with any of what's been said on the previous page, what I tire of is people acting like everything was perfect when Iwata was still around. It's revisionism to compensate for people blaming him for the state of Nintendo at the time (Wii U's failure, etc) and saying he should step down. Even with the whole paid online that some older fans still feel betrayed by, Iwata himself said "We cannot promise that Nintendo will always provide you with online services free of charge no matter how deep the experiences are that it may provide". A lot of the things going on with Nintendo now is likely according to how he planned it, although the joycon drift case being as bad as it is he would not have approved of.
  2. Has anyone actually played this? Feel it's an underrated gem on the service as pointed out. After I finished my earlier Goldeneye playthrough, went back to playing Winback on N64 NSO, though didn’t realize how many games it later inspired. Metal Gear Solid 2 with the tactical shooting, Resident Evil 4 with the laser dodging, even the first Gears of War with the cover system... Also forgot how it had lock-on aim, which may explain why I was accustomed to it in the Metroid Prime series. Winback was ahead of its time with the cover shooting mechanics and is surprisingly still fun, although eventually repetitive sometimes. I first experienced the PS2 port, but the N64 original surprisingly plays just as well, despite the lack of voice acting that was present in the other version. Other than that, I finished my Banjo Kazooie playthrough just in time for today's news. Looking forward to whenever Banjo Tooie gets added to the service, along with the Pokemon Stadium's and such as previously mentioned. The Game Boy Advance makes NSO EP more worth the price too now on top of that. Will likely taste test some of the Game Boy stuff before I try out Prime remastered later.
  3. No, that's not me, but a fellow fan account. This is my boy's new render though- ... THAT aside, I would hope for Prime 2 and 3 remaster as well, and even Hunters in an ideal world, but I don't really know what to expect, and will just make due with my favorite of the previous trilogy for now. There was this though which is a fair criticism to point out I guess. https://twitter.com/zoidctf/status/1623477699942686720?s=46&t=ZA3HlTPeTtnPGWB8CGDD0A But if the door details is the worst I can say about the remaster, that's likely a good sign. Looking forward to all the Game Boy stuff too. Funny timing this happened just as I finished consuming the 64 library for the time being.
  4. Finished Goldeneye on 00 Agent earlier. Took me pretty much the whole weekend, in between other things. The joycon controls took some getting used to at first. Stick sensitivity for aiming aside, was mainly weird having ZL to shoot instead of ZR or something, but the regular R button for my crosshair aiming started coming natural with it in time. Had to replay the first level on all three difficulties to get used to the difficulty spike again. Things then started going smoothly until I got to the Bunker 2 level which was worse than I remember, even with the throwing knives strategy. Didn't help that your silenced pistol is locked in a safe, and the only weapon guards mostly have is AK’s, thus limiting your stealth options. The other option was just to power through unlimited enemies, so I did plenty trial and error from room to room. Some of the hardest parts of the game are still when you either have to escort or protect Natalya, but with Bunker 2, still helps to wait till near the end of the level to get her out of the prison cell when the enemies are cleared out. It helps when she has a magnum in the Jungle level at least, having aim bot assist against aim bot enemies. Protecting her while she's on a computer in the level after is still one of the hardest parts by far though. The Caverns level after was okay with how careful I was for most of it, but near the end when you see Travelyan, aside from slowly dealing with the two turrets up ahead, I forgot that infinite guards spawn behind you a few at a time, so you have to get through the rest of the level quickly. Speaking of infinite guards... The Cradle level. Awesome as the level itself still was with the layout, music, and settling the score with Travelyan once and for all, the infinite guards with dual submachine guns at the beginning, middle, and all throughout were the real challenge; having to constantly look over your shoulder each spot before you approach fighting Travelyan, even at the end when you chase him down to the bottom. You can have objective B completed when the level's about to end as you wait to get on the chopper, and some enemy stragglers can shoot and kill you from above. Far as the two bonus levels, I thought I would have a harder time with Egyptian Temple, but it was actually the Aztec stage that was harder. I forgot how much health Jaws had, and when you kill him, you start having to deal with endless enemies that have the moonraker laser. Satisfying as the infinite ammo aspect of the laser is, kinda found myself using the AR33 assault rifle more due to how well it zooms in when you aim. The Egyptian Temple was more straightforward if you know the golden gun puzzle, the times where Baron Samedi spawns, and the routes to get to him that's either quickest or having to deal with the least amount of enemies along the way. The golden gun only really felt effective to use on Samedi himself. While it has the one shot one kill thing going for it, it comes with being pretty slow, and with the guards, found you were better off using the pistol or SMG's against them. Still have some remaining cheat codes left to unlock, where you have to beat a certain level on a certain difficulty under a certain amount of minutes. Challenging as a lot of them are, is still satisfying going for or getting them. I had forgotten how it was to unlock something in a game that isn't something little like concept art or sound test and actually gives replay value. To say the game still holds up is an understatement. Other than that, will see about maybe playing Goldeneye online with people sometime, though don't know who really plays it. Just don't pick Oddjob and we're good. lol Far as the Perfect Dark series, yeah, the first game is still pretty good in its own right; can say as much as one who had it, but the sequel from what I gathered was Perfect Trash. With other Bond games at the time during the Pierce Brosnan era, there was Tomorrow Never Dies on PS1, though it was strangely a 3rd person shooter and not that well received. I did get The World Is Not Enough on N64 however, though don't have it on me anymore. Wasn't made by Rare but some studio under Activision or something that later went bankrupt, but it was pretty good as a game sequel to Goldeneye, I'd say. Newer mechanics for most of the guns, more methods of stealth, added voice acting, AI bots in multiplayer like what Perfect Dark had, etc... A pretty overlooked game for being one of the last good titles on the 64. Not sure if it'll ever be re-released in some form since it wasn't too well known and popular like Goldeneye, but would be nice. Still satisfied though on having Goldeneye again alone, and will try to experience the Xbox version at some point, preferably when it's not locked behind Game Pass.
  5. Just remembered I forgot to post this here before. This is surprisingly gonna be a hell of a 30th anniversary for Power Rangers with how many original cast and characters are returning. Far as the original Green Ranger that was seen, it wasn’t JDF but a stunt person, though he’ll be there in spirit. If what I’m led to believe about Zack and Billy meeting Trini’s daughter is true too, that’s gonna be a real emotional moment.
  6. Reminder that the antagonists in Goldeneye are primarily Russian. There's even a level in the game where you go through Saint Petersburg in a fucking tank based on a chase scene in the film... And we're getting that in a couple days before the new Advanced Wars. Far as Goldeneye, it probably helped that the 007 film franchise is still in a waiting period to find another Bond actor now that Daniel Craig is done, so the suits at MGM/EON didn't mind Pierce Brosnan’s Bond being back in other media for the time being. That aside, just remembered I still have some other remaining games I'd like to see on N64 NSO; mostly on the Rare side. Diddy Kong Racing for instance which hopefully Nintendo and Microsoft could come to some kind of agreement on, seeing as how MS owns everyone in the game except Diddy (Banjo, etc). Get Force Jemini and Blast Corps would be nice bonuses. Perfect Dark's not really needed as much now since there's Goldeneye though; basically Goldeneye in the skin of an original IP since Rare couldn't get the rights to Bond a 2nd time, but if we ever got PD on the service, I wouldn't complain. The rating for NSO N64 is T though, so it would have to raise to M for PD, but shouldn't be a problem if they get the rights to it. I know PD has its vocal fans, who usually say it was better than Goldeneye, but even putting aside my love of 007, can't say I agree with that notion. The soundtrack and level design of Goldeneye stood out far more for me in a vacuum, and Goldeneye was the highest selling game on N64 besides Super Mario and Mario Kart 64, which generally says more on popularity than what vocal fans online say. What's superior in quality is always subjective though, but Goldeneye obviously did something right in becoming one of the most renowned FPS's in gaming. Oh, we still have the Pokemon Stadiums to wait on too aside from anymore potential Rare properties.
  7. In case no one saw this recent post of mine in another thread, I knew the announced NSO stuff was coming sooner or later, so the Advanced Wars thing has mostly been my only concern with Nintendo as of recent, and it begs the question, when will it be released? When world peace has been achieved? (aka never) I've otherwise still been content enough with what I have, so I rarely feel news hungry, be it wanting a Direct or even the thought of another hardware at this time even though it's expected at some point, but the Advance Wars case remains a peculiar topic with how long it's been. I mean the Russia stuff isn't gonna end anytime soon, so where does that leave the fate of the AW game? I'm not even a fan of that franchise particularly, but it's still concerning that it should just go back to being dead due to unfortunate real world timing even though they've had a completed game on their hands.
  8. Maybe it's nostalgia speaking, but the SA-X as a stalker felt more memorable than pretty much any of the EMMI encounters. At least with the first playthrough of Fusion, there was that element of surprise to the SA-X, while each time you entered an EMMI zone, it was just "Oh, here we go again". It helped too that most of the areas in Fusion you already knew when it came to the SA-X, while with EMMI zones, you had no idea where to go at first while they're chasing you, although it does get somewhat more forgivable with replays. Keyword being somewhat because they still have that stupid RNG, where you can like randomly bump into them when going to a next room, even though you were far away from them on the radar in the room you were just previously in. The SA-X is memed on now for its laughably bad AI, but the EMMI encounters have around as many buggy aspects to it, like with that clip example and other stuff. Didn't think I would be going back to a "why I don't like the EMMI much" talk, but when I still see things like that clip, it's a problem. If there's any future stalker type enemies as a successor to the SA-X and EMMI (in a Metroid 6 or what have you), I just hope them or their territories are better designed.
  9. I forgot until recently that I was 10 in 1997, which was also the year that the Pokemon anime debuted in Japan… Which makes Ash a millennial as old as me, except he never aged past the first episode. Not that he was the only one. Team Rocket stayed in their 20’s for like forever, though not as many cared to notice since they were already adults. The anime was the first aspect of Pokemon I stopped following ages ago though; after Hoenn I believe.
  10. Well of course. People (on youtube or otherwise) are gonna wonder where a game that changed FPS’s forever and hasn’t been available in decades is gonna be after its return was confirmed. Still an easier time as a fan of it now though than “It’s never coming back because *insert company you want to blame here*”. Virtua Fighter 2 is a nice addition among some of those others in the meantime, but until I get 007, I’m good.
  11. I guess this isn’t surprising in hindsight, but with David Trueheart in Zeo, turns out Erik Frank had asked for a higher pay rate, and Saban gave him a boot like those before him who did the same. His character had an interesting arc in the show as Tommy’s brother both within the show and in real life. Could he have been considered to be the Gold Ranger at some point? He was another red herring for it at least like Billy, but am still glad Jason Scott got the role in the end with ASJ temporarily coming back. David Yost (Billy) leaving when he did because of the staff and crew homophobia was still unfortunate though. Don’t have too much to say to those last posts, but well said @Irondog666. Am grateful to have heard of your experiences. And yeah, the insensitive (if not bigoted) old people who don’t take mental health into consideration have always been the main problem with religion and it getting a bad rap, even if I believe in God too. I never doubted JDF being a believer though. I had plenty “reverse racism” at my last job, so can relate there at least, as well as a near death experience there, leading me to having the mentioned unholy trifecta as well. Oh, still find it cool that Chris Casamassa, best known for playing Scorpion in the first Mortal Kombat film, was the one that trained JDF and taught him most of what he knew in martial arts. I noticed some similar moves between that Scorpion and Tommy like how they did flips… It all made sense to me then. Chris also gave a heartfelt message to JDF’s passing like the ranger co-stars did.
  12. See, I was one of the people that knew about JDF and Tammi's drama & divorce some months ago, so when he suddenly passed, all eyes were on her naturally. That's fair though; I'll just leave it at that. I actually didn't know that he lost his mom to cancer a few years ago, but everything else I did know of. That's really unfortunate though. I know Austin St John lost his dad just around the beginning of this year. Usually don't like bringing up religion publicly, but since it's related to the topic, another reason I was surprised that JDF took his own life was because I had learned way earlier on that he became a Christian after the passing of his older brother (he had a "Jesus didn't tap" tattoo on him or something), and even with X, Y, and Z he had going on, I thought he would've turned to God or something. I suppose he did at earlier points, but after all his prayers, he just lost it still after everything that happened. Slightly unrelated, but happy birthday to the late Thuy Trang, who today would've been the same age JDF was before he passed. Apparently he helped her get on to the show of Mighty Morphin to begin with, when they was looking for another actor for Trini the yellow ranger.
  13. If Goldeneye and such is released on January or something when I’ll be busy with life again and not over the Winter break when I actually have time off, will be annoying, yeah. On the other hand, I’ve been catching up on a lot of things since my current time off, and whenever I am able to access Goldeneye again, I know I’ll breeze through it (even on 00 Agent difficulty) with my prior knowledge of the game and better controls. So it’s whatever.
  14. Is there a reason we can still get Call of Duty and other big war themed games released during wartime, but not a niche one like Advanced Wars? I was cordial about the situation before, but now, I say they should just release the AW game already which has been done.
  15. Nice. There was like three MMPR games for the system that I recall. One was a beat em up, though didn’t have Tommy, but the other one you got based on the 1995 movie did (well, loosely based on the movie, with a Dracula esque fight with Ivan Ooze at the end being the only thing in common and just Putties and random monsters from the show during previous levels). The 3rd one was the fighting game with different Zords and villains at the time which was pretty good too. Makes me disappointed how little that MMPR Mega Battle digital arcade game in 2017 offered in comparison. Suppose it should’ve been obvious to begin with that it was just a nostalgia cashgrab with it having come out the same year as the MMPR reboot film, but you’d think there would be more beat em ups for classic Power Rangers in general with how TMNT still goes strong there. That aside… Is great you got to meet as many of the original cast as you did. If I had known beforehand that JDF lived in Texas like me instead of just finding out after the fact, I would’ve made more an effort to meet him. Aside from half the original MMPR cast having that season 2 walkout over the pay dispute, I figured the ASJ and JDF beef was just over some martial arts rivalry or something. It got bigger than it needed to be though with hardcore Jason and Tommy fans egging on each other, and sometimes even the actors themselves probably. I am mixed as far as the whole thing with JDF’s wife who left him, and what she said on him after his passing… It does feel like there’s a big part of the story she’s leaving out, and maybe it’s best that way for privacy reasons and so people can best remember JDF in a positive light, but part of me’s still curious to learn the truth of what all happened. I realize we’re not entitled to know all that though or try to be a detective on it just because we watched the guy a lot on TV once upon a time, but if the ex wife really broke what remained of his spirit, I don’t know. Obviously too he’s accountable for his own actions at the end of the day; what all he did beforehand and eventually taking his own life, but I don’t know where to stand on the ex wife, even if she didn’t deserve all the hate she got from Power Ranger fans over the death. All I know is, they went to some hotel together, had another argument of some kind, JDF drove her out of the hotel and locked himself in, she called the police and they eventually got back in, and that’s when they found that he had hung himself. Sigh. Is possible too that both parties were guilty of something that led to all this, but again, perhaps best to let sleeping dogs lie.
  16. Beam Burst is only effective with Metroids I think if you already have the ice beam, and you do get that in Returns first from what I remember, which decreased the extent of which you had to use missiles on them. Yeah, would have to agree that the particular Mawkin tribe in Dread would be similarly doomed in many previous instances in the series due to the ego or arrogance of Raven Beak; sacrificing everyone else to protect himself if he has to, like how he initially handled the X on ZDR. They may have put up quite a fight on Tallon IV though, as I assume the Chozo there that became ghosts were pretty much all Thoha instead of Mawkin. Still, Phazon can ruin just about anyone’s day if not careful since the only thing super effective against the most pure forms of Phazon is… an overdose of itself, though I assume a similarly power weapon (outside of Samus’s non-Phazon arsenal in the Prime trilogy) could still put a dent in such beings. With all the other powerful things we’ve seen in the series at this point, I could no longer go on some no-limit assumption of what Phason could withstand, not that I should’ve to begin with I suppose. And the Ing? Yeah, the Mawkin would need more than just their spears to handle them too. Also a question if they could handle Dark Aether’s environments, where the Ing are at their strongest.
  17. Yes please. Dredd reboot was one of the best films of the past decade.
  18. Was interesting to find out that Kraid’s original intended room was in fact the Omega Pirate room. I thought it was an earlier room in the Phazon Mines based on the posted image of Kraid. Omega Pirate was still a good boss though, with all the Elite Pirate fights having built up to him, but having Kraid as a boss that late in the game (pretty much right before Meta Ridley aside from the artifact collecting) would’ve made Kraid more formidable than ever, in addition to being amped by Phazon. Even in Dread he wasn’t all that; mainly just an updated version of how he was previously designed as an early game boss. A couple things about Raven Beak I realized I forgot to comment on before, did anyone notice that he sported a couple of the aeion abilities from Samus Returns? Namely the Lightning Armor (the initial cutscene with him and phase 1 of his boss fight) and Beam Burst (phase 2 of his fight). I know Dread eclipses SR as a whole, but the aeion abilities remain one of the things about SR that I still champion, aside from having perhaps the best designed Ridley fight. Of course, Dread’s aeion abilities were designed with stealth and mobility in mind (hail the almighty Flash Shift, although Raven Beak had a variant of that too), while Samus Returns’ were designed with durability and firepower in mind. Also too, some of the Chozo statues on SR388 in Returns were that of Raven Beak. They were really building him up before we got to know who he was by the next game, and not just with the Chozo Memories gallery. Makes me even more curious if any of the Chozo statues in Dread are that of particular individuals we have yet to meet.
  19. When I was looking at some more JDF stuff on youtube last night, randomly came across this ASJ interview video from a couple years ago... The part at 24 to 27 minutes in tells why he, Trini, and Zack left MMPR when it was still at the height of its popularity, and also why ASJ didn't like JDF. It lines up with what some said in the earlier posted reddit thread regarding the topic, but good to know still. Back to JDF though, came across this which I guess was either his last video or one of his last videos before he ended his life the day after. Even if he was still alive, I would say this was a video worth sharing for the motivational message it had. Everything he said was spot on, and it hits close to home in hindsight, but I think this video was the last thing he wanted to be remembered for, before he would leave this world the next day as he planned. Reading between the lines of what he was saying in that short video, you could tell he had some things wrong going with him and he kept a lot of things bottled up inside. Unfortunately, that is what's to be expected of men and their emotions, much as society has tried to break that, but after the thing with JDF and his wife, he had no one to turn to it seemed, so he just did that vlog as one last message for everyone.
  20. This recent reddit thread tells more about the JDF and ASJ situation better than I alone could. https://www.reddit.com/r/powerrangers/comments/z1h9ze/why_didnt_jdf_and_austin_st_john_get_along_hasbro/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf The diehard fans of Tommy/JDF who spoke badly about ASJ/Jason Lee Scott because JDF didn't like him and vice-versa always rubbed me the wrong way too. There didn't need to be that kind of division with two of the most beloved original rangers. The only reason JDF and ASJ ever saw each other again after the 90's was because of the Mighty Morphin reunion with the 2017 reboot film. Although that film was a mixed bag (though not as bad as other gritty reboots), the cameo JDF and Kimberly had at the end was nice. As far as the "never meet your heroes" saying, I think that goes for not just JDF (when he was alive), but any ranger or TV actor or whatnot. Seeing them for a few minutes at a comic con I hardly count far as that though, as they're still putting on a show there too for whatever fans they come across. Some other recent videos/links regarding the news worth posting- https://www.reddit.com/r/powerrangers/comments/z113s4/anythings_possible_tommy_oliver_1995/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf https://www.reddit.com/r/powerrangers/comments/z1crzs/ranger_staff_posts_about_jdf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Something I kept forgetting to mention, remember David Trueheart in Zeo? That was not only Tommy’s brother in the show, but JDF’s brother in real life, Erik Frank. Erik died young from an unspecified illness, so I guess to some extent, JDF’s family has always known tragedy.
  21. That was big of him. As kind of implied there and for anyone who didn't know, there was a grudge of sorts that JDF and ASJ had, since they were teens during the original show. It was over stupid stuff because they were essentially still kids at the time, but I became mixed on JDF as a person with some of the things I saw/heard him say about ASJ behind the show/scenes, and it's a shame that they didn't get to bury that hatchet, but in death, all debts are paid. Like Austin said, once a ranger, always a ranger. One other thing regarding the divorce Frank had earlier in the year, it was rumored he cheated on his wife, having an affair with someone else. When I first heard of that, I took it with a grain of salt and decided to wait upon further evidence, like with Austin St John and the wire fraud thing, but I didn't think it would lead to Frank ending his life... Not that that was the only factor. Looked into some other things this morning regarding what happened with Frank before all this, but apparently Hasbro (the current owner of the Power Rangers brand) was distancing JDF from the franchise? Also too, he was pushing for a lot of Tommy centric shows and things to happen, like a show about Lord Drakkon (the alternate timeline Tommy that remained evil and had the Green & White Ranger powers combined) and such, but Hasbro said no to that. I won't forget though this video he did for promoting the character. While we all got to love Tommy during his canonical development of going from evil to good, I can understand the fans that would've preferred Tommy had stayed evil, because the concept of an evil ranger that was introduced with the character was cool and he was cool as the evil green ranger... I still have VHS tapes of the Green With Evil episodes somewhere. I like White Ranger too, but Green had more an impact on me overall, along with the Dragon Zord. But yeah, I imagine JDF being denied more with Tommy didn't help with him; thanks Hasbro. And then there was the repetition for him of going to comic cons... Speaking of, I didn't know until after the fact that Frank lived in Texas where I'm at for the remainder of his life. Not in the same area as me, but a friend from that area said JDF had a dojo that was just a few minutes from where they live. I did know though Austin St John started living in Texas at some point, as do some other former rangers apparently (Adam and Rocky, to name a couple). Something else I read about JDF, he made an initiative to save local comic book stores during the height of the covid pandemic and signed a lot of things to do so. A big name like him really made a difference there. JDF still had a lot of time left, but this whole thing made me remember one thing, that I and we still have a lot of time left too. Life live to the fullest, it's what we can best do to honor his memory. That, and I guess rewatching some of the Power Ranger seasons with him sometime. Rest in Power.
  22. Looking through my old closet, saw that I still had these toys. Not in the best shape now though as you can see... For the Megazord, one horn from the Mastadon part, the head of the Sabretooth Tiger part, and the Power Sword got lost somewhere. The power weapons just got bent out of shape over time. Played with that stuff too hard at times as a kid, but the Megazord can still move and make sounds with the remote control. I remember wanting to get a Dragon Zord toy, but it was usually sold out. I should’ve gotten the dragon flute though at least. One of my neighborhood friends at the time had toys of Saba and the White Tiger Zord. The black ranger (Zack or Adam) was initially my favorite, having had a costume of it, but then it pretty much became a tossup between Jason Lee Scott and Tommy Oliver; not just in Mighty Morphin but Zeo and whatever else they appeared in, though Tommy had more appearances, being essentially Saban's golden child. Black Dino Thunder Ranger was pretty notable too. I still haven't fully processed JDF's death yet. Even now, I occasionally get sad when looking back on Trini (Thuy Trang) and remembering her passing, along with that of others in the series (Mighty Morphin and beyond). This happening barely a week or so after the animated Batman's passing doesn't help either. I am looking forward though to what all touching things those who trained with Frank and his ranger co-stars will have to say on him and his passing, particularly the one who played Kimberly. Oh, aside from something earlier about JDF’s wife (or former wife) leaving him, his step daughter killed herself last year, leaving a 6 month old behind. Looks like they all had a rough time and it was just one thing after another. Wish he had found or gotten help somewhere, but alas.
  23. I might have to consider getting a newer version of the Arkham games at some point now, not that I have that much free time at the moment, but replaying them in Conroy’s honor will give a different feel no doubt. The Arkham collection will probably go up in sales after today’s news. He apparently passed after a short battle with cancer. Hate to say it, but he did look pretty thin and frail in his most recent years… R.I.P. He was the voice of a generation.
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