Nintendo Commits Some Sins, Xbox 360 Says Goodbye, and Visions of Mana is Due Soon

The blog still exists! (Hence this post.)

But, I’ve been focusing more on the website as of late, adding new areas of exploration (Disney’s Dissed, for instance) while still bolstering the categories of old. In other words, I'm making content content content...and it’s a constant tug-of-war between broadening existing features while creating new ones.

So, yes…in expanding the site I overlooked my humble blog—which I try to update at least once a month. And considering all the topics constantly dropping in, I would have been plenty busy. To compensate, I’ve gathered a quick list of recent events that would have been prime topics for a blog. Now, they’re but sentences of my pithiest opinions. But that's better than nothing, right?

Xbox GamePass is shooting up in price again. What was once a good deal is becoming merely an adequate one.

The historic Xbox 360 marketplace has just been shuttered. Like the Wii U and 3DS eShops before it, this means losing a wealth of digital-only titles. At least Microsoft kept these Xbox Live games around for as long as it did, with some still remaining available thanks to their backwards compatibility.

Nintendo is being criticized for censoring its Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake/rerelease. Certain bits of “controversial” dialogue—like a scene in which some goombas are seen cat-calling another goomba—have been rewritten completely. All this while, weirdly, despite reinstating another character’s transexual orientation (it was altered in the original release). It seems Nintendo itself is a little confused about what it is and what it actually stands for these days.

The Big N’s June Nintendo Direct was largely considered a success by the media despite showing off a variety of second-tier product (another Mario Party), games already known to be coming (Metroid Prime 4), more ports and remakes (another release of Donkey Kong Country Returns), and offering no information on the long-overdue Switch 2. It was a lackluster showing that, nevertheless, garnered lots of glowing excitement from fans.

And in yet more Nintendo news, the company has been accused of forbidding its contractors from accepting credit for the work they do—to the point of even being excluded in a game’s ending credits. This is being blamed on certain depredatory (underhanded?) non-disclosures Nintendo forces these poor souls to sign before being assigned to work on the company’s various titles. Essentially, these people are being paid to work anonymously—ghostwriters who can’t ever claim credit for their efforts, even on resumes. And there’s nothing more devilish than that. Nice, Nintendo.

Lastly, Visions of Mana is but a month away, available August 29. For those unaware, it’s the next entry in the Mana series following 2020’s Trials of Mana, a remake of the Super Famicom game from the 1990s. This release promises to be a brand-new story and adventure…and judging from early previews, it looks promising. I’m not one who usually preorders, but to show support and encourage Square Enix to produce more titles of this persuasion, I’m throwing in my $60. Maybe you should, too?

And that’s my hodgepodge of a blog. Over the next few weeks, expect a bevy of new retrospectives, primarily for Nintendo’s now vintage DS title Super Princess Peach, Disney’s forgotten animated film Mars Needs Mom, and the indie lite-RPG Fairune.

Indeed, there’s always something to watch, play, and review. But never enough time.--D

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has been criticized for censorship. Considering Nintendo just copied and pasted Link's Awakening's script for its Switch remake, the changes made for Mario are a little bizarre.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, along with a number of other ports, sequels, and remakes, was announced at the June Nintendo Direct.

Visions of Mana, due late August 2024, looks excellent.

As of this writing, the Xbox 360 is officially dead. Many a fan, including Youtuber Cobatine here, spent the last hours remembering. And lamenting.