u/low_theory

A few months ago, I bought myself a pair of Wiimotes, gun attachments, and a Dolphin Bar with the intention of using them for lightgun games. I posted about it here and people told me not to bother because it wasn't plug-and-play, the controllers could be finnicky, and compatibility was very limited. I decided to ignore them and proceed anyway. My experience wasn't that bad. Some systems worked well while others didn't, but there were enough playable games for me to have fun and make the endeavor worth it.They were mostly wrong.

After a while I ended up using my Bato SD card on a retrohandheld and by the time I bought a new one there were a few updates. Playing lightgun games the way I mentioned above is way better now. Literally every system I tried playing so far worked just fine, even Saturn, which had issues recognizing off screen shots for reloading. The guns are indeed still finicky and sometimes the tracking goes haywire or becomes unresponsive, but not often enough to completely ruin the experience considering I how expensive getting a proper lightgun that works on modern TVs tend to be. And it is indeed plug-and-play now. The first few times I had to do a little tinkering but this last time it worked right out of the gate. I love it.

If you tried this in the past and were put off by the various issues, then I recommend you pull those Wiimotes out of the closet and give it another try. It's great.

For reference, I'm using the Steam Deck version of Batocera withe the Deck docked to a TV, but I imagine it should work on any device.

I have bad experiences with betas on other platforms. I've had to reinstall SteamOS on my Steam Deck several times due to bad beta releases. Is GameNative better in that regard?

Also, since I'm here I might as well ask. There are a number of games that don't respond to console controls. Is there a way to fix this?

As most of you probably know, there's a new game in the series in the works. At this point we should be through enough of the game to get an idea of what we do and don't like. What are your thoughts for the next game?

Personally, I would have liked to see more open zones with wider sweeping vistas. I think that would look amazing given Okami's art style.

I'd also like to see the celestial brush strokes play a more central role in combat. They did some of that but I think they could do more since most fights turn into you mashing the attack button until the enemy is stunned or in a certain state, then you use a brush stroke on them. I feel like more could be done in this regard.

Any thoughts?

Some of you might not know this but there was a sequel to Okami called Okamiden that is pretty decent. I never finished it, but not because I wasn't enjoying it. I intend to correct this soon.

Being a Nintendo DS game, many of you might not have an option to play it on but luckily I have an AYN Thor that should emulate it beautifully. I'm looking forward to playing it.

Soon I'm going to be inviting a few friends over and I plan to gather a bunch of fighting game romhacks for us to play. I already have one in mind for Smash Bros. 64, but I know almost nothing about my other options. Please help.

I'm mostly looking for hacks that introduce new characters, but anything that spices the game up in an interesting way is good too.