I wonder, could that have something to do with the game's translation...

Anyway, I ended up loving Breath of Fire II. The "lack of interest" was probably in the game's best interest however, I could just see some religious person getting pissed off about the similarities between the Church of St.Eva and Christianity.

I was a Genesis kid, but the outrageous JRPG prices extended there too - Phantasy Star IV was 75 bucks. It was a steal when I found it in a pawn shop for $35 with the guide. I don't recall what Virtual Racing cost but I know it was exorbitant with that extra coprocessor on the board.

(O_O) BoF II, I got it for $40-50 brand new, in 1995-1996.

Come to think of it, we usually got our games at stores like Babbage's (when it used to be open), Electronics Boutique, and Funcoland. Maybe that's why they were so cheap, perhaps those stores had figured out special wholesale deals with their suppliers? Oh yeah, don't forget Wally Mart.

I LoL.'d (XD)

I always wondered why there wasn't an outrage about that...

Holy thread derailment, Batman.

Conker was standard price ($50-$60), the issue was that when I worked in Electronics Boutique at the time, we had to be careful who we sold it to.

Early in the 32/64 bit lifecycle, I believe games tended to be more, but they came down by the end of 1997 or so. Which is really for the best...I can't imagine most early Playstation games being worth $60-$70 a pop. Although, I can't say the $10 price increase on current gen games is justified either...

S'ry.

But I don't think we'd have seen such a good turn-out on this subject had I created a separate thread...ironically enough...that argument could be yet another thread!

I s'pose Adam could take all these good posts, and do just that...

...

BACK ON TOPIC!

Blistered Thumbs' playthrough on the game makes me actually want to buy it, and sorry that I ever doubted it in the first place: http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2010/12/ … y-returns/

Good to see new villains. I get tired of Nintendo recycling the same villains over and over again...and THAT could also be another sub-topic! Try not to get side-tracked now! XD Okay, okay, relax, I'm not trying to get hostile, or anything...

Yeah, early N64 games, especially third party ones, were very expensive.  I remember War Gods was $79.99 when it first came out, and it's a contender for worst game ever made.

Hmm, I seem to recall Conker being ridiculously expensive, but that may have been just the Netherlands/Europe then...

I disagree... AGAIN! The Kremlings have hardly hit their expiration date. If you want to talk about a villain I got sick of seeing, there is this guy named Sigma you just have to meet. Hell, I can't even say Sigma is a villain I love to hate, I just hate him. However, in hindsight it's not really his fault as much as it is Capcom's.

Have to agree with Ashley here, I would've much preferred the Kremlings making their return.
It's been about 10 years since we last saw K.Rool anyway, so he's hardly overexposed at the moment.

Besides, every popular series ever made in the history of mankind EVER (ever!) recycles villains.

This's probably a discussion we should continue in another thread...I think we'll see a decent turn-out on this subject!

this sums it up quite well for me, besides multiplayer being ace, of course

I didn't have too much trouble with the rocket-themed levels, but he's dead-on about the extra boost/super jump problem that I initially described.

It's promising to hear about the level designs after World 4.  I'm still stuck riding on that damned Mole Train.

I have to agree with what that review says about DKC1 and 2. Something about the first one just seemed off to me; I think it had to do with Donkey and Diddy being a more limited team (ability wise) than Diddy and Dixie. However, I can't really say for sure until I get around to replaying the second one.

Edit: And sorry Berny, "Oil Drum Alley" is my favorite level.

I think the guy is being a bit more negative than is necessary, but most of his points are true, I guess.

I'm at the end of World 4 now, and man, this game is kicking my ASS.
Controls are not bother me as much as people would have me believe.
Yes, they could have been better and more sensical, but they're perfectly accurate to work with (apart from the Super Jump thing). I also expect that the Rocket Barrel controls were made difficult on purpose, I see it more as a challenge than as bad programming.
That Rocket level at the end of World 4 is a TOTAL BITCH though.

In fact, the game has me swearing like a particularly frustrated sailor pretty much constantly.
Retro was obviously trying to emulate Rare's penchant for hair-pulling difficulty, because this game is truly insane.

It's also often just down-right MEAN, which is not the correct way of making a game challenging if you ask me.

I'm at the beginning of World 3 and aside from the secret levels, I haven't found the game too difficult. I'm sure it'll pick up in difficulty before too long. I'm just not really feeling the urge to play it. Maybe I've just outgrown platformers... or maybe it's missing the spark that DKC and DKC2 had. Not sure.

Hmm, the Rocket Barrel's controls are perfectly actually fine to me, had no problems adapting to that unlike the rest (should have mentioned that while posting the link). But yeah, the heavy feeling of the controls is keeping me from spontaneously playing the game as well. Multiplayer is different since I then can play as Diddy who controls better (showing that Retro just went overboard with making the characters' physics affect the controls that strongly while making it impossible to not play as Donkey in singleplayer).

World 4 can bite me.

Yes, that is one of the biggest offenders, definitely.
Some of the later Worlds are significantly easier actually.

I just wrapped up the main game yesterday.
There's some stuff you unlock, especially if you managed to clear all of the hidden temples (talk about HARD), but I haven't looked at it yet.

I sincerely doubt I will go back to get all the puzzle pieces, because this game is WAY too frustrating for my taste.

It irritates me how practically every level involves one of those damned mine carts. I hate those things! And the ROCKET BARRELS? ARGH!

And you gotta love how the check points almost always seem to be RIGHT after the area you've lost a dozen lives at. 

So about how many hours did it take to complete the game?

This thread has encouraged me to spend the $8 on the VC version of DKC. 1h 30m and 50% later (and after watching a bunch of Youtube videos of DKC Returns), I do not regret that decision at all.

I wasn't bothered with the number of mine cart and rocket pack levels at all.
There's not THAT many.

The temple levels tend to be WAY harder, if you ask me.

I've done two temple levels so far and I found World 1 to be infinitely harder than World 2. We'll see how the rest fare.

On to World 5! That mole train really pissed me off.

A lot of people complain about how the villains in this game are just Tiki Masks.

I personally don't mind; I never thought K.Rool had that much personality, anyway, and giving him a makeover according to each subsequent game's theme didn't really do anything, either. Also: Bowser imitation. Why must we always villify lizards?

My guess is that Rare owned the rights to the K.Rool character, and since (1) Rare severed their relationship with Nintendo and (2) Rare got bought by Microsoft, so Nintendo had to create a new villain, right?

I don't think Nintendo has officially commented on that, but it seems like a very reasonable explanation to me.

Along with that theory are the characters from Killer Instinct. Rare has expressed interest in bringing the KI games to the various downloadable services and even doing another game despite no concerte plans; I don't know if they'd be so forward with those thoughts if they had to go through Nintendo to do it. That also might explain why we haven't seen a KI character in a Smash Brothers game as well.

But really, I can't name one game (outside Perfect Dark Zero) that Rare's done since they became a Microsoft property - probably because I'm not too interested in what Mircosoft's up to despite them having a much better game library this generation than last.

Nintendo definitely made a good decision when it sold Rare. IMO, the last good all-new game Rare made was Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64, 2001). Since then, they've done Star Fox Adventures, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the two Kinect Sports games, a whole mess of mediocre portable games, and a few XB and XBLA ports of older titles. Rare was already showing signs of decline before the sale to MSFT, so it's hard to say how much MSFT contributed to that, but losing Martin Hollis, David Doak, and the Free Radical team at the and of the last century couldn't have helped. Once the Stamper brothers left in the middle of the last decade, Rare was effectively a different company.

I REALLY love Kameo and think it's a very underrated game.  I will also begrudgingly admit that Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is a very well game (despite its not being at all what I wanted from a third Banjo title).  That was probably the last real Rare game that will ever see the light of day, though.  I really don't understand why any company would buy a developer with a rich library of intellectual property just to use the manpower and none of the ideas.  Sort of like what Konami has now done to Hudson...

Wow, that's actually a really good point.

So I picked up the 3DS port of Returns, and thanks to the waggle-free controls, I admit I'm having a far more enjoyable time with the game than I ever did with the Wii version. The drop to 30 fps from the original's 60 is a small trade off for a more exacting control scheme.  Plus, the 3D effects are kind of amazing.

Partaking in finding the collectibles -- I mean truly finding them all -- really makes me appreciate the game's intricate level designs.  It's gotten me genuinely enthused as to what Retro will bring to the table for the upcoming Tropical Freeze.

Actually, I have this on my shelf waiting to be played... I haven't even opened it yet. Still, yeah, that was pretty much the selling point to me was the no waggle thing. I should probably - definitely - give this a try because while the Metroid Prime series wasn't perfect I really do like some of the work Retro Studios has done.