X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

[jenova_9]

X-Men Arcade coming to XBLA on Dec. 15 as two-month exclusive | Joystiq

aaaah that is so mean! >< It was bad enough they have Harmony of Despair exclusive this year (which I bought a 360 for, but still, that game deserves to be multiplatform on PS3 too for more to enjoy! )

By the time February releases Xmen Arcade, people will already be saving up for other things (unless they have nothing to play and decide to get it.)

oh mew what a boring month this is -.- Duodecim is sometime next year (maybe Q1?) FFXIV is in March or later.
DC Universe Online might be February. Hyperdimension Neptunia in February. Nothing January except Agito FFXIII, Versus XIII full exposure and details. Also more Duodecim info and media. But nothing really new and good to play until Feb-March.

Now 360 is the master of 6 player co-op games for a long time.

[DakAttack]

re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Maybe you should enlarge your scope, a little? I believe there's a decent game releasing every month, starting in January, such as Dragon Age, Dead Space, and Portal.

[jenova_9]

re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Dead Space 2 is next month? Well I know the demo is this month:

Dead Space 2 Demo Terrifies In Time For Christmas

[Neverslip]

re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Correction: X-Men Arcade coming to PSN in North America on Dec. 14, XBLA on Dec. 15 | Joystiq

This whole M$ paying for exclusivity every time something happens to come out on XBLA before PSN is kinda ridiculous... specially regarding arcade titles... anyway... this whole thread was based on false information. Read it and celebrate J9... PSN gets this first.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Well, that's only because PSN updates on Tuesday and XBLA on Wednesday.

And Nintendo updates Monday, its kinda like they got some harmonious arrangement there. To say the least between all that and Steam, gamers are never short of things to look forward to. Or in the case of each system's respective virtual console, something to be disappointed by.

Oh well, WiiWare got Fluidity this month, DSiWare got Cave Story, PSN and XBLA Arcade get some old arcade game that wasn't that good. Arcade version of Turtles in Time (not the remake) and The Simpsons were the better Konami arcade beat-em-ups.

Begs the question, though, why hasn't Capcom done an online version of Final Fight yet? Or Sega with Streets of Rage.

There was a version of Double Dragon, but let's face it, even with the HD sprites that game hadn't aged well.

[Icemage]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Edited the thread title to reflect reality instead of being the reflection off of a tinfoil hat.

---

I have somewhat fond memories of X-Men Arcade in the arcade, but it wasn't one of those games you could ever actually get really good at. This is going to be good from a nostalgia point of view, but like Double Dragon mentioned above, I doubt this will play any better than the revamped TMNT.

Oh well, WiiWare got Fluidity this month, DSiWare got Cave Story, PSN and XBLA Arcade get some old arcade game that wasn't that good. Arcade version of Turtles in Time (not the remake) and The Simpsons were the better Konami arcade beat-em-ups.

You say that like XBL and PSN have been a wasteland. PSN picked up the quite-amazing Dead Nation a couple weeks ago (scoff all you like, but it's an infectiously addictive game, despite being a twin stick zombie shooter), and the quite awesome Auditorium HD the week before as well as Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. XBLA hasn't been quite as active lately, but it's had its fair share of great stuff recently as well (and already had Pac-Man CE).

Begs the question, though, why hasn't Capcom done an online version of Final Fight yet? Or Sega with Streets of Rage.

There was a version of Double Dragon, but let's face it, even with the HD sprites that game hadn't aged well.

Probably a playability issue. Lag is a killer online. Double Dragon has somewhat slower combat than FF and SoR. Maybe there's a technical barrier to making sure enemies on one screen match up with ones on another player's? Granted, today's machines are a lot more powerful and it wouldn't kill them to implement some relatively simply sync'd cross-console enemy AI, but that would certainly impact how the games themselves play, which might kill the authenticity factor.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Well, the key difference being that they're not revamping this one, which is probably for the best. They might have retouched it in places for balance, but its not being built from the ground up like TMNT was. At the very least it shows Konami is learning not to screw with what works.

Well, unless the game is called Castlevania, anyway.

[Neverslip]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Well, unless the game is called Castlevania, anyway

Cry me a river... oh wait ... you already have.

[Icemage]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

Well, the key difference being that they're not revamping this one, which is probably for the best. They might have retouched it in places for balance, but its not being built from the ground up like TMNT was. At the very least it shows Konami is learning not to screw with what works.

Well, unless the game is called Castlevania, anyway.

I don't understand how you reconcile "I want online multiplayer" and "don't screw with what works". Adding online multiplayer would instantly change the chemistry of the game because it would impact how the AI behaves.

Mind explaining?


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

I don't understand how you reconcile "I want online multiplayer" and "don't screw with what works". Adding online multiplayer would instantly change the chemistry of the game because it would impact how the AI behaves.

Mind explaining?


Icemage

X-Men was a multiplayer game by design, lag notwithstanding - and I'd hope the option for at-home multiplayer would be there, too - you're not dramatically changing what X-Men is. Saying this is dramatically changed by being online multiplayer is like saying Street Fighter IV is dramatically changed for being online.

Only difference is no one is physically there next to you, which changes a facet of the fun and the game's flavor, but not the actual game itself.

Castlevania's design does not lend well to multiplayer. These multi-tiered interconnected zones are difficult to convert into something you can keep people on the same page with, which is why they let them go wherever. And with different characters each sporting different abilities, they kinda had to be powered down or Soma, Alucard, Richter and Shanoa would have just raped all. Instead, they're put on the level of Jonathan and Charlotte.

The original design doesn't lend itself well to arcade-style play. That's why I said they shouldn't mess with what works. X-Men isn't messing with what works, Castlevania is.

[Icemage]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

X-Men was a multiplayer game by design, lag notwithstanding - and I'd hope the option for at-home multiplayer would be there, too - you're not dramatically changing what X-Men is. Saying this is dramatically changed by being online multiplayer is like saying Street Fighter IV is dramatically changed for being online.

Uhhhh, that's a terrible analogy. Street Fighter only has 2 players, or 1 player vs. the CPU.

X-Men Arcade had up to 6 players simultaneous plus sometimes a dozen or so AI enemies moving around on the battlefield. Trying to keep that many things tracked in online multiplayer is Really Freaking Hard when you're talking about possible ping times of a second or more between any two players.

The AI no longer "knows" where every player is, or what they are doing, or if one player is currently attacking any unit on any other machine, and that's a big problem. For all it knows, one of the other players may have already killed a unit it's trying to move.

Street Fighter doesn't have this problem - it just has to deal with frame-locking between two clients. Still difficult, but managable.

And I wasn't aware that local multiplayer was off the table (though only the PS3 version could conceivably allow all 6 characters at the same time, since the Xbox 360 is limited to 4 controllers connected at a time while the PS3 allows up to 7 concurrent). Are you just bringing that up as a smokescreen?

Only difference is no one is physically there next to you, which changes a facet of the fun and the game's flavor, but not the actual game itself.

It's a HUGE difference, because that other player next to you doesn't have lag on their inputs which the AI needs to respond to (if only for stun animations, or whatnot).

Castlevania's design does not lend well to multiplayer. These multi-tiered interconnected zones are difficult to convert into something you can keep people on the same page with, which is why they let them go wherever. And with different characters each sporting different abilities, they kinda had to be powered down or Soma, Alucard, Richter and Shanoa would have just raped all. Instead, they're put on the level of Jonathan and Charlotte.

The original design doesn't lend itself well to arcade-style play. That's why I said they shouldn't mess with what works. X-Men isn't messing with what works, Castlevania is.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is good example of why multiplayer online experiences suck without servers when there's more than a handful of players connected to each other. Something always has to give due to the problems of synchronization and balancing.


Icemage

[jenova_9]

Re: X-men Arcade coming in mid-December

oh look! It's coming today! 0.0

Marvel’s Top 5 ‘What the–?!’ Things About X-Men Arcade, Coming Tomorrow to PSN – PlayStation Blog