iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 22h

I will always remember this loser for the time he apparently landed a meeting with Masahiro Sakurai and seriously tried to recruit him to make an Oculus game. When you’re rich, you really think you can buy anything.. Anyway fuck this social Darwinism lite bullshit

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Thank you guys for giving the game the respect it deserves. I look forward to it

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don’t understand why people use AI to “accelerate the process” when the clout you gain from releasing a Recomp is not worth much really. And they are DEFINITELY not getting any clout using Claude!

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Reposted by @plaztazm.bsky.social

Linker @linkerarts.bsky.social · 28/10/2024

Marina Liteyears finds a box full of "Treasure" 📦

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

That’s a lot of SHIT on Nintendo’s end that Rare was probably not too happy dealing with. They had just as many good reasons to walk away from Nintendo. It says a lot about brand loyalty that even older Nintendo fans that Know the GC era was a fucking mess still insist Rare was rejected

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rare’s true allies had left Nintendo.. their newest console the GameCube was a failure and Rare was being blamed for its software drought to some degree. Nintendo wasn’t willing to pay Rare any more nor acquire the company. Both sides could not come to an agreement, therefore the company was sold

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is all in addition to Rare’s primary partners at Nintendo (Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa) leaving around 2000 which meant they could no longer advocate for Rare or push for Nintendo to buy them when the opportunity came. Rare was left out in the cold by this and the NCL management change

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rare was put in a position where they supported the N64 late, were given some of the limited GameCube dev kits early on and were basically told “no pressure but we’ll be Totally fucked if you don’t provide us a launch game”. That.. is a really high pressure and somewhat unreasonable situation

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The improved graphics/ performance of GameCube meant it took longer to develop games to take advantage of those features. Which meant the launch window lineup was relatively weak and then there was a big game drought in the first half of 2002.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The GameCube had a very messy rushed development that made life hellish for so many of the involved devs. Companies like Rare that supported the N64 late into its life found themselves scrambling to put games together on time for its launch window.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think it’s interesting how much of the narrative of the Rare buyout in online discussion typically turns into “Rare’s games stopped being Good so Nintendo said No you are no longer worthy”. Implicitly siding with Nintendo and not considering how the parting was very much mutual.

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Reposted by @plaztazm.bsky.social

D.P (LVL UP!! 🎂)✨ @dp-in-the-sky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

NiGHTS iNTO DREAMCAST 🧡🤍 #NiGHTSintoDreams

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I hope that Rare is able to make it through this bloodbath at Xbox Games Studios. Microsoft folding their smaller studios into their biggest ones makes me wonder if the end goal is selling them off piece by piece. Essentially trying to bundle companies together to offload them

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Shoutout to my favorite esoteric genre of Nintendo game: “extendible arm punching simulator”. This category includes Teleroboxer, ARMS and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

An amiibo of Mineru from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, an Amiibo of Min Min from ARMS and a custom figure of Harry, the protagonist of Teleroboxer.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

DK will NOT stand for Slop unless it is delivered by a pig with nipples

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Reposted by @plaztazm.bsky.social

vic-or-squeak!! ᓚᘏᕐᐷ @gizmouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

rare has FORGOTTEN about jinjo

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It’s pretty incredible that within a year and a half of launch, the Switch 2 will have an enhanced port of the first 3D Kirby, an enormous sequel to Air Ride AND the second 3D Kirby game which adopts a more open world collectathon style. Thats a lot of Maxim Tomatoes to enjoy

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Reposted by @plaztazm.bsky.social

Tintin @tintinteal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Shhhh... She's dreaming 🐶🥚🌟 #Art #Fanart #hallabratory #Kirby #PartTimeUFO #Boxboy

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Thanks for doing this! This version of the game is excellent

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It was the first Pokemon generation where the localization was handled by TPC themselves rather than the person who had been doing it since Gen 1, Nob Ogasawara. His absence was heavily felt

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Looks great! A good balance between the original look and an Advance style remake

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Hot take time, I just gotta say it: The Legend of Zelda Is A series of video games Thank you for hearing me out

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I’m glad this seems to mean that a newer entry of a franchise for Switch 2 does not prevent Nintendo from going back and updating its predecessor for the new system. If Nintendo was hell bent on funneling everyone to play just Mario Kart World, they would not have done this

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The thing people don’t understand about getting a new Banjo-Kazooie is that Microsoft would have to actually make a video game. That’s just way too hard! The execs will save themselves the time and effort by firing the dev team in advance.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

That’s a hell of a lot of bumps in the road and requirements that changed drastically over development. It would not be the first nor the last game to have an unexpectedly long and turbulent development that resulted in a game that feels a bit out of date

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

That’s nearly NINE years from planning/ conception to release and in that time the game: - Switched dev companies entirely - Slowed development due to COVID lockdowns - Had to be embellished/ reworked to be an appealing Switch 2 launch window game after spending so long just targeting Switch 1

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

- June 18, 2024: Metroid Prime 4 is truly unveiled for the first time in a Nintendo direct. It was promised for 2025. - March 27, April 2, 2025: Another trailer is shown then a Switch 2 version is announced. The release date is finally given. - December 4, 2025: Prime 4 releases on Switch 1 and 2

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

- Early 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic spreads globally resulting in lockdowns. Dev studios like Retro and Nintendo’s teams scrambled to create an ad hoc development structure from home which slowed development on all their projects.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

- January 25, 2019: Shinya Takahashi announces on behalf of Nintendo that Prime 4 has been restarted under Retro Studios with Kensuke Tanabe remaining as producer. Takahashi strongly insinuated that the game will take some time to appear again. It sure did.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

- 2017-2019: Prime 4 seemingly just does not come together under whatever development structure it was made in. At the same time, Retro Studios made an unsuccessful pitch for a new IP (Project Harmony) that then left them open to a new project

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

-June 13, 2017: Nintendo announces Prime 4 at E3 with only a logo to show. It is very unusual for them to announce a game that has just started development. This could’ve been just a promise that they are committed to delivering a core Metroid on Switch after Federation Force flopped.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The very rough timeline is like: - 2016: Tanabe begins planning/ discussing a new Metroid Prime after Federation Force is complete. The game begins development under a as of now unknown developer (not Retro). They are targeting Switch 1 which is about to come out

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The more I think about it, the more sad I get about just how bad a hand Metroid Prime 4 was dealt. If the game had come out as originally intended around the middle of the Switch’s lifespan, I think the expectations around it would not have grown so enormous

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Beat the DK Challenge and all I got is this screen, wtf

The ending of Donkey Kong Land which consists of a piece of text saying “Congratulations” followed by the staff credits

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I beat the DK challenge. Nintendo, send me my cardboard Kiddy Kong card

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Buddy should be a stage hazard all the players can beat up

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I relate to this a lot. I’m glad it got better for you once you got out. It’s hard for anything to grow properly in toxic soil.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Sony and Microsoft have thrown billions of dollars into the live service game furnace for no return and they did not greenlight enough other games to fill that void. So now they just don’t have Shit to really push

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

So many modern video games publishers seem to want to cut out the whole “making video games” part of the process. Late stage capitalism be like “fuck you, we don’t have to fulfill our obligation to provide you anything of value in exchange for money”

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

There are still staff members at Intelligent Systems and Nintendo that worked on the Virtual Boy and I’m glad their work is now acknowledged officially and with respect. The games deserve to live on alongside Nintendo’s other platforms.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Even once the VB was no longer taboo, it seems like Nintendo was cagey about letting any of their people talk about it, let alone finding a way to finally release Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers. The devs of those games could never talk about them either since they were abruptly cancelled.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

There has been very limited and very careful coverage of the Virtual Boy through official Nintendo interview channels over the years. We never got to hear about it from people like Yoshio Sakamoto who directed Teleroboxer or any of the hardware devs.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I’d like to believe that part of why Nintendo put all this effort into Virtual Boy Nintendo Classics is to pay respect to the developers of those games. For many devs at Nintendo (mostly R&D1 and IntSys staff) it was a whole chapter of their career they could never talk about or celebrate.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I think the GameCube era was finally when Nintendo accepted the fact that crunching games out before they are ready was unsustainable. They started giving Mario/ Zelda more time and actually coordinating their development with their console cycles

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Sunshine was developed between mid/ late 2000 and July 2002 and you can SEE the seams and all the places where there was clearly no time to iterate. Nintendo forced it out because the GameCube was dying and it really shows

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Super Mario Sunshine has this thing going on where it has the graphical sheen of a GameCube game but the jankiness of an N64 game. It’s absurd just how often players clip through geometry

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The game as a whole almost feels like this quiet and beautiful little eulogy for the Virtual Boy. What it was capable of, what it could’ve been, the vision of Nintendo at that moment in time it represents. Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers finally coming out feels like closure in a weird way.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The Dragon Hopper soundtrack by Minako Hamano is unbelievably good. It gives the game exactly the kind of moodiness and magic it needed. This particular song dropped my jaw when I got to it. This is “Virtual Boy ascending to heaven” music.

youtu.be

23. Stage 5: Celestial Road - Dragon Hopper

YouTube video by LuigiBlood Music

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Paper Mario on N64 uses sprites to create similar layers with a sense of depth. They just had the benefit of doing it with the N64’s 3D functionality instead. And using color of course, which makes the effect so much more illustration-like.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Here is maybe a clearer example: in this screenshot from VB Wario land the Trees you see are effectively sprites layered over the real background tiles and given depth with stereoscopic 3D to look like they are actually in front of the back layer. Creates a diorama-cut-out kind of effect

A screenshot of Virtual Boy Wario Land. Note how the trees obscure the background layer. In 3D they appear to be in between the front and back layers.

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