Nintendo Bit Generations: Impressions

[Stupid Fat Hobbit]

Saw this linked on the Namakoteam (http://www.namakoteam.com/) RSS feed: Benjamin Grundy writes up some favourable impressions (http://grundy.vox.com/library/post/bit-generations.html) of Nintendo's new series of retro style games for the GBA, currently only available in Japan.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on dotstream and DialHex for quick review and to be quite honest I came away with that elusive feeling that I had just experienced something "special" in the realm of gaming. The first thing that struck me about both these games was the clean, simple design. Its essentially effective and yet deceptively beautiful.

[Furtive]

These games all seem kinda quirky and fun but until today I was under the impression series one was 3 games on one cart not 3 seperate carts. If we get a comparable price to Japan they'll be $19.99 each. Call me crazy but that seems really over-priced. $24.99 would be a fair price for all 3 though.

[Blade]

I agree. There should be bundles, and they should be cheap. Look at what you get for your $20 with Big Brain Academy...

[Wyrm]

Yeah, but people will buy them anyway. I agree, even 20 bucks is far too expensive for those, I think they should be, like you said, 25 for all three, or 10-15 per game. I'm betting they're trying to figure out what the correct price for these is though so that they can price the next batch accordingly.

Plus, they cost 30 right now to import them, and who knows if they'll actually make it over here. Oh well. Too bad more quirky stuff doesn't make it our way.

[Stupid Fat Hobbit]

I'd like to see them cheaper too, but since the NES Classics series sold as well as it did at $20, why would Nintendo price these any different?

I suppose Bit Generations doesn't have the same nostalgia value, but if people will pay $20 for a game they've already played, surely they'll pay it for one they haven't.

[serioustommy]

These games are "special" alright, the first time I played them.

But I just can't help feeling that it's one of those games that are cool the first time you play it, and then lose interest after 10 minutes and never come back to it again. It's just so simple that there's so little replay value.

[Harlan Hoyt]

I actually ordered Bitstream. I think it looks like a great throwback to simple, abstract gaming. And I'm also pretty stoked about the music. $30 is quite a bit -- I agree that, if they sold for $15, I'd probably not blink and eye about picking up most if not all of them.

[MaiXu]

$10-$15 is as much as I'd want to pay for one of these. Anything above that price seems not only too high, but anathema to Nintendo's goals for bitGeneration. If I'm going to pay more than $15 for a brand-new game, I'd want it to be more than a highly-concentrated gameplay experiment.

[Nessus]

Nintendo should include hooks in these games so that if you play them on a DS you can use wireless single card multiplayer.

[Kamalot]

Isn't Bejeweled $20?

[lockwoodx]

I never paid for bejeweled because that was overpriced too. If they sold all of the bit games for 20$ mabye then I'd consider a purchase.

[shnastybiznastic]

Hey, it seems like I hear a bunch of complaints about the price of the simpler DS and GBA games lateley. Here's a thought, the carts cost money. Games have a lower minimum price when they are released on disc media, but when released on carts, you can't just pay a fraction of a penny per cart.

Not only do these games have higher overhead, but Nintendo's prices are typicaly higher in japan than in the US, and given their propensity to round off at every ten or five dollars, $17 worth of yen translates to $15 when the game comes to the states.

Additionaly, these games are suppoesd to be perfectly implemented simplicity, not some expansive RPG that has 300 hours of play time but bores you to tears halfway through. So assuming they are actually correctly designed, then you are paying for the time spent perfecting the interface and experience.

[destoo]

Here's a thought, the carts cost money.

Then you can do compilations if the games are small enough.
I think dialhex and dotstream are both 128mbits, but nintendo could have fitted all the others on one cart, like they did for some older games. the atari compilation, and recently the 3-in-1 Rugrats + Spongebob + Tak.


I would really like to see multiplayer for Dotstream...

[MrMeatshake]

I actually ordered Bitstream. I think it looks like a great throwback to simple, abstract gaming. And I'm also pretty stoked about the music. $30 is quite a bit -- I agree that, if they sold for $15, I'd probably not blink and eye about picking up most if not all of them.

what did you think of it? i bought dotstream from yesasia.com last week (only took 5 working days to arrive) and so far i love it... though i have found it to get really quite hard rather quickly, it is just so stylish! the music and the looks and everything. great game.

my question now, is, shall i get colouris and orbital? these seem to be getting the best reviews after dotstream of the 7... but i'm aware that dotstream seems to be the best. so how much worse are they, i wonder?