Platinum was one of my favorites of all time, same with HG/SS. I can replay both of those games over and over! Good choices. :)
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- Thread starter Bummer
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I hate it when people complain about a game being to easy due to an option players have and it just resulted in a huge change to minecraft that a lot of people, myself included, disagree with. villagers have long been known as broken, and people have been complaining about it. but now that they have been nerfed, other people are complaining. it seems like mojang have no good options. but nerfing them was entirely unnecesary. if you think they are too broken, that is a valid oppinion. however, there is an option you have that you havent considered:
NOT USING THE FEATURE.
villager trading is an entirely optional feature that you dont have to use. you couldve played the game you wanted all along, but thanks to your complaining, you made the game harder for people that dont want it harder when you could acomplish the same dificulty by just changing the way you play. video games are designed to be fun, and you shouldnt make the game harder for everyone just because you want it harder when you could make it harder yourself.
NOT USING THE FEATURE.
villager trading is an entirely optional feature that you dont have to use. you couldve played the game you wanted all along, but thanks to your complaining, you made the game harder for people that dont want it harder when you could acomplish the same dificulty by just changing the way you play. video games are designed to be fun, and you shouldnt make the game harder for everyone just because you want it harder when you could make it harder yourself.
yea but that’s not optimal
are you playing to be number one in a single player game or are you playing to have fun?
Yes, I understand this probably doesn’t need an entire thread dedicated to what I want to say. I could easily try and cram this into an already existing thread where it would arguably still fit. But that’s the thing- I have a lot I want to get off of my chest right now, and I would appreciate having the opportunity to open up like this. Moderators, feel free to do whatever you want with this thread. As long as I can get a chance to say this, that’s all I can hope for. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank anyone and everyone for taking their time to read this.
Sitting here trying to fall asleep tonight I find my mind wandering again like usual. I was listening to some YouTube videos just now when I stumbled upon someone’s playlist video they made of some classic Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) pieces from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Pretty neat stuff, I have to say… eeeexcept for the part where it reminds me of my own childhood. As great of an upbringing as I had, one thing that was notably missing was actual Internet access, something I didn’t have the chance to experience until the later parts of 2014. Longtime Nintendo fans may find this a bit ironic as the original Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection servers were discontinued in May of that same year, but that’s beside the point.
The reason I want to mention this is because I spent a lot more time being able to appreciate playing games offline instead during this time span, and while in theory I would love to have had the opportunity to play some of my favorite games online like Pokémon and Mario Kart (to name a few) with millions of other players around the world, I also can’t say for certain that I would want to go back and change my childhood if I had the chance to. How can I be certain that if I had the childhood memories I wanted to have for many years, that I wouldn’t be a radically different person because of my preferences in childhood gaming? Knowing what good has come from the 21 years I’ve been alive, is that really a risk worth thinking about?
To this day, I can’t say I’ve found an answer. What I have discovered is that the incredible over-saturation of online content in modern video games absolutely sickens me. Digital distribution was already something I felt a bit iffy on even if I had access to an Internet connection growing up. And then one by one, things just got worse when 2014 and beyond should have been a window of opportunity for me. Microsoft and Sony were the first to make online multiplayer available behind a paywall, and even Nintendo would eventually cave in during the Nintendo Switch era. Yearly releases of many of the most recognized I.Ps on the planet started prioritizing, DLC add-ons, subscription fees, seasonal passes, and rushed content updates in place of base game content worth the game’s initial retail price. For a couple of years I didn’t think much of this, but after a while I started to notice that the companies producing the games I used to love were now starting to fall victim to anti-consumerist practices that placed quantity over quality.
I understand that there are a handful of wonderful single player games on the market right now, many of which are readily accessible and deserve more attention. The problem I’m facing now is that in a time where I’m transitioning into being a working adult and lack the motivation to sit down and actually play games I haven’t tried before since I could be doing other, more useful things, I find myself trying to squeeze out what little enjoyment I can of the online functionality of the I.Ps I once trusted. Suffice to say, that level of enjoyment is very little, and often comes down to me playing for the sole purpose of “someone else wants me to play with them” as opposed to “I chose this game because I enjoy it and wanted to play with other people”. Playing modern day “low effort” games, often the free to play one’s, fills the niche of being an adequate time killing activity, but this routine has come at the cost of souring my views of the video game industry completely. The Internet has become just as much a staple part of the gaming world as the actual games themselves have, from content creation to public forums like Smogon to eSports competitions and everything in between. I understand these factors have their target audiences, but in good faith… I’ve never really been a part of any of that, and I still wouldn’t consider myself a part of any major online communities. Heck, I’m willing to go on record and say that I most likely bring nothing of actual importance to the Smogon Forums community, or at least not nearly as much as I would have liked to.
I want to learn how to ask for help on how to navigate the situation I find myself in. Using the Pokémon franchise as a reference, the combination of single player’s repetitive-ness and the over-saturation of online-based multiplayer content replacing fan favorite content from older installments breaks my heart to see unfold. In 2022, I decided to not bring my PlayStation 4 (there’s no way I’m buying a new-generation console) to college for the entire school year, and you know what? I actually really enjoyed last school year. Going into the new school year starting tomorrow, I find myself wondering how far I want to go in my efforts to eliminate online gaming from my daily routine for good. If other people want to keep playing video games online for any reason, that’s okay with me. Your life, your upbringing is different from mine, and you are all entitled to your own decisions.
If you do decide to keep supporting the online gaming industry, however, I just want to ask you one favor before you keep playing. Please, please, do everything within your power to appreciate the opportunities you actually do have. You never know when something you used to want when you were younger may turn out to become something that’s genuinely bad for your mental health.
Sitting here trying to fall asleep tonight I find my mind wandering again like usual. I was listening to some YouTube videos just now when I stumbled upon someone’s playlist video they made of some classic Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) pieces from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Pretty neat stuff, I have to say… eeeexcept for the part where it reminds me of my own childhood. As great of an upbringing as I had, one thing that was notably missing was actual Internet access, something I didn’t have the chance to experience until the later parts of 2014. Longtime Nintendo fans may find this a bit ironic as the original Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection servers were discontinued in May of that same year, but that’s beside the point.
The reason I want to mention this is because I spent a lot more time being able to appreciate playing games offline instead during this time span, and while in theory I would love to have had the opportunity to play some of my favorite games online like Pokémon and Mario Kart (to name a few) with millions of other players around the world, I also can’t say for certain that I would want to go back and change my childhood if I had the chance to. How can I be certain that if I had the childhood memories I wanted to have for many years, that I wouldn’t be a radically different person because of my preferences in childhood gaming? Knowing what good has come from the 21 years I’ve been alive, is that really a risk worth thinking about?
To this day, I can’t say I’ve found an answer. What I have discovered is that the incredible over-saturation of online content in modern video games absolutely sickens me. Digital distribution was already something I felt a bit iffy on even if I had access to an Internet connection growing up. And then one by one, things just got worse when 2014 and beyond should have been a window of opportunity for me. Microsoft and Sony were the first to make online multiplayer available behind a paywall, and even Nintendo would eventually cave in during the Nintendo Switch era. Yearly releases of many of the most recognized I.Ps on the planet started prioritizing, DLC add-ons, subscription fees, seasonal passes, and rushed content updates in place of base game content worth the game’s initial retail price. For a couple of years I didn’t think much of this, but after a while I started to notice that the companies producing the games I used to love were now starting to fall victim to anti-consumerist practices that placed quantity over quality.
I understand that there are a handful of wonderful single player games on the market right now, many of which are readily accessible and deserve more attention. The problem I’m facing now is that in a time where I’m transitioning into being a working adult and lack the motivation to sit down and actually play games I haven’t tried before since I could be doing other, more useful things, I find myself trying to squeeze out what little enjoyment I can of the online functionality of the I.Ps I once trusted. Suffice to say, that level of enjoyment is very little, and often comes down to me playing for the sole purpose of “someone else wants me to play with them” as opposed to “I chose this game because I enjoy it and wanted to play with other people”. Playing modern day “low effort” games, often the free to play one’s, fills the niche of being an adequate time killing activity, but this routine has come at the cost of souring my views of the video game industry completely. The Internet has become just as much a staple part of the gaming world as the actual games themselves have, from content creation to public forums like Smogon to eSports competitions and everything in between. I understand these factors have their target audiences, but in good faith… I’ve never really been a part of any of that, and I still wouldn’t consider myself a part of any major online communities. Heck, I’m willing to go on record and say that I most likely bring nothing of actual importance to the Smogon Forums community, or at least not nearly as much as I would have liked to.
I want to learn how to ask for help on how to navigate the situation I find myself in. Using the Pokémon franchise as a reference, the combination of single player’s repetitive-ness and the over-saturation of online-based multiplayer content replacing fan favorite content from older installments breaks my heart to see unfold. In 2022, I decided to not bring my PlayStation 4 (there’s no way I’m buying a new-generation console) to college for the entire school year, and you know what? I actually really enjoyed last school year. Going into the new school year starting tomorrow, I find myself wondering how far I want to go in my efforts to eliminate online gaming from my daily routine for good. If other people want to keep playing video games online for any reason, that’s okay with me. Your life, your upbringing is different from mine, and you are all entitled to your own decisions.
If you do decide to keep supporting the online gaming industry, however, I just want to ask you one favor before you keep playing. Please, please, do everything within your power to appreciate the opportunities you actually do have. You never know when something you used to want when you were younger may turn out to become something that’s genuinely bad for your mental health.
What are you struggling to navigate? It's perfectly normal that people drift away from their previous interests as they grow older. It seems like this is actually benefitting you, as you say. If you don't want to play games, don't play them. if you're worried about losing connections over that, find a different way to connect with those people. I think people have a tendency to be overly nostalgic when remembering the past, in the sense that we conveniently forget the negatives of things we remember fondly. You're not the first and won't be the last to feel like the current generation of games doesn't match up to your childhood. Just because something is no longer for you anymore, doesn't mean that other people can't find joy in those things. Either way it's not really worth getting too worked up over how others consume and enjoy media. do what's best for you :)
severely backlogged but took a break from Diablo IV (not to get swept up into all the pitchforks going on over there with that game, still enjoy it), just needed a break from feeling pressed to do everything NOW. So I went back to my Switch to finish up Atelier Ryza (1/3 - i'ma take breaks in between games so i don't get burnout) and maybe play either 1 or 2 (in succession just for the homage) final fantasy remasters before going back to AR or playing Rune Factory 5 (and hell maybe using that as a relaxing game to balance off Atelier which is either cutscenes and small tasks or "holy hell that was more serious that i expected after these hours of essentially life, relationship and story building lol.
As much as I love both Atelier (and Xenoblade alike another fav i need to play) - sometimes them cutscenes get to the "Ayo my guy - it's about 3am here, wrap it up" point lmaooo
edit: completely random but friends and i were talking about games we grew up on at work and I mentioned Okage: Shadow King and it lowkey hurt no one remembered it. That was one of the games that pulled me into the (J)RPG style as much as (well slightly under being honest but still dominated my intial "first getting PS2 run" being the loner but happy being so gamer kid lmao) Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest.
it's also rare meeting people that remember the Dark Cloud series (ps2) and Legend of Dragoon (ps1) and that kinda stinks too lol.
I hate that the Golden Sun games are falling into the same obscurity... I'm hoping (perhaps against hope) Nintendo puts em on the online service, got Fire Emblem on there for GBA - why not?
As much as I love both Atelier (and Xenoblade alike another fav i need to play) - sometimes them cutscenes get to the "Ayo my guy - it's about 3am here, wrap it up" point lmaooo
edit: completely random but friends and i were talking about games we grew up on at work and I mentioned Okage: Shadow King and it lowkey hurt no one remembered it. That was one of the games that pulled me into the (J)RPG style as much as (well slightly under being honest but still dominated my intial "first getting PS2 run" being the loner but happy being so gamer kid lmao) Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest.
it's also rare meeting people that remember the Dark Cloud series (ps2) and Legend of Dragoon (ps1) and that kinda stinks too lol.
I hate that the Golden Sun games are falling into the same obscurity... I'm hoping (perhaps against hope) Nintendo puts em on the online service, got Fire Emblem on there for GBA - why not?
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If I remember right, the first Golden Sun game was shown in the "coming later" section during the announcement of GBA online (it's the only one left of the list that I recall since Metroid Fusion and FE7 have been released). No info I remember on The Lost Age, but it feels dumb to not have it eventually considering how tied it is to the first game.
i believe i had golden sun 2 first and found that way to get the heroes from golden sun 1 in my game. i miss them games hard haha.
thanks for the info though i'll def be on the look out, i honestly only got to play a bit of that via a friend.
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There's something that's been on my mind about stories in roguelikes.
Because a rougelike inherently involves several runs, a large number of rougelike stories focus on stuff like time loops, parallel universes, or an afterlife. This kind of leads to an air of hopelessness about there always being another world to save: the problems are not solved in the infinite number of situations the player isn't there, making the finite number of successful runs irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
The first thing that sticks out to me is that it creates a disconnect with what I would be wanting to feel when playing. Because I like to work through synergies and builds, I sometimes think of roguelikes as a refuge from that gameplay being eaten away (either simplified to make room for a grander story, or optimized out in a highly competitive environment). But then the very game I want to relax in tells me that my preferences are hell, sometimes literally. It makes me think back to the Battle Frontier, where the ability to endlessly battle and reconfigure teams was an earnest reward. And, well, once again I feel stuck tied to what is currently missing.
The second inconsistency to me is that there are plenty of non-rougelike games expressly designed to be replayed a lot (near-everything with an inbuilt speedrun timer, for example), yet I don't feel that these games converge to the same set of themes to explain this aspect in-universe. The games are content with standard stories that don't worry about Game Overs. Many of these have been converted into randomizers or similar modes, but the story doesn't change with them. What is it about restarting from a hub compared to restarting from a title screen that drives rougelikes in this direction?
Because a rougelike inherently involves several runs, a large number of rougelike stories focus on stuff like time loops, parallel universes, or an afterlife. This kind of leads to an air of hopelessness about there always being another world to save: the problems are not solved in the infinite number of situations the player isn't there, making the finite number of successful runs irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
The first thing that sticks out to me is that it creates a disconnect with what I would be wanting to feel when playing. Because I like to work through synergies and builds, I sometimes think of roguelikes as a refuge from that gameplay being eaten away (either simplified to make room for a grander story, or optimized out in a highly competitive environment). But then the very game I want to relax in tells me that my preferences are hell, sometimes literally. It makes me think back to the Battle Frontier, where the ability to endlessly battle and reconfigure teams was an earnest reward. And, well, once again I feel stuck tied to what is currently missing.
The second inconsistency to me is that there are plenty of non-rougelike games expressly designed to be replayed a lot (near-everything with an inbuilt speedrun timer, for example), yet I don't feel that these games converge to the same set of themes to explain this aspect in-universe. The games are content with standard stories that don't worry about Game Overs. Many of these have been converted into randomizers or similar modes, but the story doesn't change with them. What is it about restarting from a hub compared to restarting from a title screen that drives rougelikes in this direction?
imagine a mario tower defence spinoff where you play as bowser
The short answer is that I think it's because this is just the most natural way for a roguelike to have ludonarrative resonance (a story that actually matches your gameplay).
Just over a decade ago it was joked that video games could never have good stories, and that mentality has been completely forgotten thanks to the rise of indie games, increased production values, and (as a result) employment areas like animation and voice acting being taken relatively more seriously. So now there's an increased desire to tell stories in video games. But that becomes troublesome in a genre like roguelikes where the player frequently meeting their end, dying, restarting, and replaying is kinda the point of the genre, so now you need to think about what stories we can tell that give rationale to these concepts. Of course, a lot roguelikes don't really have much of a story (One Step From Eden comes to mind). But for the ones that do, dying, reviving, and parallel universes just makes the most natural sense. But there are exceptions of course depending on how you choose to structure your game, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's stages serve as the "runs", so they try not to think hard about the ludonarrative of dying in a dungeon and just focus on telling their own story.
This focus on constantly replaying is the difference between roguelikes and a non-randomized but short video game: The expectation of a developer is that you are not going to be continuously replaying it and that extensions like speedrunning and randomization are not the core appeal of the game or how the game is meant to be experienced on a story standpoint. Therefore, the story doesn't need to consider the idea of the player constantly dying when forming the narrative regardless of the game's difficulty. That doesn't mean they can't of course. Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga are both somewhat old extremely difficult games that players are likely to die in many times, and the stories of both games are incidentally themed around Buddhist Karma and Samsara. Katana Zero and Undertale also use frequent deaths as a plot element. But games like the Metroid series that incentivize speedrunning also have a very defined plot that you're expected to experience in that first non-speedrun playthrough, because it's probably going to be most people's only playthrough. Even in the old days of games having limited continues and kicking you back to the beginning upon Game Over or turning the game off, they'd still start the story from the beginning because they just weren't concerned about a ludonarrative.
I've been loosely trying to concept out a short-ish game now that I have some free time, and while I have considered adding roguelike elements, I want to stick that into a separate game mode entirely because I think I can provide a more effective gameplay and narrative experience if I expect the player to not be frequently dying and resetting from the beginning and have the ability to control the experience to not have randomness.
finally bought Chrono Trigger despite when it first came out being too young to know to tell my mom about it - then when they redid it for DS just was still in that "i aint got money for myself like that" realm lol.... took till now to finally get it.
we all have games "We missed as kids and meant to play" idk a bigger one for me to finally crack that egg atm - very excited.
we all have games "We missed as kids and meant to play" idk a bigger one for me to finally crack that egg atm - very excited.
The late and Japanese exclusive SNES release of Kirby's Super Star Stacker (or just Kirby's Star Stacker) released on the English NSO yesterday after Japanese NSO has had it for a year and we got Kirby's Avalanche instead. I haven't played it before but decided to complete it since I like both Kirby and action puzzle games well enough.
The core gameplay is relatively simple to pick up, and it's easy to randomly end up with large chains to clear the board since there are only 3 different types of animal-like blocks to match up, compared to the color variety of other games like Panel de Pon and Puyo Puyo. Finding matches and setting up chains intentionally can still be tricky with the sandwich-type gameplay where matches can be made with star blocks betweent hem, and the chains dropping stars mechanic encourages some kind of balanced setup on the sides which is easier said than done. One difference I personally felt was that making large combos didn't feel as impactful to set up since they don't seem to add any garbage in story mode, but it does still help to clear the board out. Each mode plays differently and has multiple difficulty options so there's some variety to go around. Being in Japanese doesn't matter for playing the game unless you want to read the story or tutorials, but it is important to add a new profile in the 2nd option on the main menu first, or else any guest progress will not be saved which is required for stats to be tracked.
The main mark of completion is putting a crown on the title screen after completing various milestones across all the game modes. To get a crown on Kirby, you need to defeat Gryll in story mode, fully complete Round Clear on all difficulties, stack 2000 stars in Challenge mode, stack 200 stars in Time Attack, and win 30 VS rounds. There are a few other achievements that I will cover afterwards. Overall this stat page shows a 3069 score in Challenge on Insane difficulty, 207 in Time Attack on Insane, 100% round clear, Story Mode progress (Gryll) completed in 16:31, and a 30-1 VS mode record.
I started off with Story Mode which was probably a mistake since the difficulty curve hit me hard when I got to the Hard AI and things sped up while I didn't realize things like only 3-chains allowed you to send rows back. Dedede's theme is pretty good though. To fight Gryll, you have to get all Perfect Stars in each fight, which means you have to defeat them in one try with no continues. Fortunately, quitting instead of retrying after a loss counts for this purpose (which is a tip from the official website) and you can still rematch characters after you beat them. The game's plot is nothing big to miss out on (though there is a great English translation patch released a few years ago), but you get to see Meta Knight in the Dream Land 3 style which is neat. It also seems like the credits are only ever shown once.
Challenge is the endless mode and getting 2000 stars is relatively simple to achieve on the lowest difficulty, but just takes a while to see through. The Insane difficulty unlocks after clearing 1000 stars which increases the speed of gameplay considerably. Completing this mode also lets you see a picture of Kirby singing in a bar while Kine is hitting the bottle, which has different variants depending on your score.
I found that stacking 200 stars in Time Attack was easiest on Insane difficulty (unlocked by stacking 150 stars in any difficulty before), because the timer does not stop for animations so you need all the speed you can get, though even when it hits 0 seconds it does let you complete your final chain, so I barely got to 207 with an 11-chain spawning 12 stars from starting the chain at 168.
Round Clear is basically the other main mode of the game where you have to clear a certain number of stars to deplete Dedede's HP and it features 100 levels in total across 4 difficulties. I liked this mode more than the story mode since the prepared boards are a more interesting puzzle than playing against the AI, but this mode does take a long time to get through and it even saves your progress after each level. Insane's 40 levels are only unlocked after completing the first 3 difficulties, and the last few rounds are particularly bad about confining you in a small spot and leaving only the middle columns to start without much room for error. I noticed that they give you the same starting block to make some headway, but afterwards you're stuck with RNG of what animals you have in your current block and the bottom row to match up. Overall I would recommend playing this as your first mode to get a sense of how to best stack stars since the story mode's difficulty curve can ramp up quickly, and after completing each difficulty you get to see the Kirby dance.
For the VS mode matches, there's no CPU option so I just used a second controller and had it idle. Sometimes my AFK controller would get huge chains and once actually beat my other AFK player due to being set on a higher difficulty. As mentioned, only user vs user matches are recorded for the stats and guest matches are not counted. This mode works basically the same as Story Mode matches and you can choose any character to play as, but you can only play as Gryll if the player's profile has beaten them in story mode. The options are for best of 1/3/5 and setting the difficulty for each player individually. Winning 30 matches is also the criteria to unlock Insane difficulty in VS mode.
Beyond getting a crown on the title screen, beating story mode once also allows you to access a hard mode which adds gold backgrounds to the story scenes and higher difficulties for CPU opponents indicated by the insane face icons, and has one dialogue difference after beating Gryll who normally just tells you to play Pro Mode in normal mode. To access Pro Mode, you have to go to Story Mode, select the bottom option to start a new game, and then the bottom option again to select Pro Mode as the difficulty, then press A. This actually takes away your crown until you defeat Gryll again and there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment of Pro Mode in the records.
(Note the differences being the Insane mode faces at the top and the gold background, and the only unique line of Pro Mode in Japanese.)
Stacking 3000 stars in Challenge mode unlocks a unique picture variant with Coo in the bar to complete the trio, which doesn't seem to be commonly documented on the internet or even on the Kirby wiki since most people probably just stop at 2000, but there are 4 variants altogether depending on your score. I recommend Insane mode for this as the animation speed is much faster.
Overall I thought the game was alright for a Kirby spinoff, but as an action puzzle game, it strikes a strange duality where you drop and rotate pieces like Puyo Puyo, but rows incrementally increase from the bottom like Panel de Pon, which is also the garbage mechanic but star blocks basically also act like garbage. Having only three matchable blocks makes it simpler though more awkward to set things up, and the game does seem more built around stacking stars in the Round Clear mode than a dynamic PVP experience, but it's still pretty satisfying to see accidental big chains happen for less effort than the other games in my experience.
The core gameplay is relatively simple to pick up, and it's easy to randomly end up with large chains to clear the board since there are only 3 different types of animal-like blocks to match up, compared to the color variety of other games like Panel de Pon and Puyo Puyo. Finding matches and setting up chains intentionally can still be tricky with the sandwich-type gameplay where matches can be made with star blocks betweent hem, and the chains dropping stars mechanic encourages some kind of balanced setup on the sides which is easier said than done. One difference I personally felt was that making large combos didn't feel as impactful to set up since they don't seem to add any garbage in story mode, but it does still help to clear the board out. Each mode plays differently and has multiple difficulty options so there's some variety to go around. Being in Japanese doesn't matter for playing the game unless you want to read the story or tutorials, but it is important to add a new profile in the 2nd option on the main menu first, or else any guest progress will not be saved which is required for stats to be tracked.
The main mark of completion is putting a crown on the title screen after completing various milestones across all the game modes. To get a crown on Kirby, you need to defeat Gryll in story mode, fully complete Round Clear on all difficulties, stack 2000 stars in Challenge mode, stack 200 stars in Time Attack, and win 30 VS rounds. There are a few other achievements that I will cover afterwards. Overall this stat page shows a 3069 score in Challenge on Insane difficulty, 207 in Time Attack on Insane, 100% round clear, Story Mode progress (Gryll) completed in 16:31, and a 30-1 VS mode record.
I started off with Story Mode which was probably a mistake since the difficulty curve hit me hard when I got to the Hard AI and things sped up while I didn't realize things like only 3-chains allowed you to send rows back. Dedede's theme is pretty good though. To fight Gryll, you have to get all Perfect Stars in each fight, which means you have to defeat them in one try with no continues. Fortunately, quitting instead of retrying after a loss counts for this purpose (which is a tip from the official website) and you can still rematch characters after you beat them. The game's plot is nothing big to miss out on (though there is a great English translation patch released a few years ago), but you get to see Meta Knight in the Dream Land 3 style which is neat. It also seems like the credits are only ever shown once.
Challenge is the endless mode and getting 2000 stars is relatively simple to achieve on the lowest difficulty, but just takes a while to see through. The Insane difficulty unlocks after clearing 1000 stars which increases the speed of gameplay considerably. Completing this mode also lets you see a picture of Kirby singing in a bar while Kine is hitting the bottle, which has different variants depending on your score.
I found that stacking 200 stars in Time Attack was easiest on Insane difficulty (unlocked by stacking 150 stars in any difficulty before), because the timer does not stop for animations so you need all the speed you can get, though even when it hits 0 seconds it does let you complete your final chain, so I barely got to 207 with an 11-chain spawning 12 stars from starting the chain at 168.
Round Clear is basically the other main mode of the game where you have to clear a certain number of stars to deplete Dedede's HP and it features 100 levels in total across 4 difficulties. I liked this mode more than the story mode since the prepared boards are a more interesting puzzle than playing against the AI, but this mode does take a long time to get through and it even saves your progress after each level. Insane's 40 levels are only unlocked after completing the first 3 difficulties, and the last few rounds are particularly bad about confining you in a small spot and leaving only the middle columns to start without much room for error. I noticed that they give you the same starting block to make some headway, but afterwards you're stuck with RNG of what animals you have in your current block and the bottom row to match up. Overall I would recommend playing this as your first mode to get a sense of how to best stack stars since the story mode's difficulty curve can ramp up quickly, and after completing each difficulty you get to see the Kirby dance.
For the VS mode matches, there's no CPU option so I just used a second controller and had it idle. Sometimes my AFK controller would get huge chains and once actually beat my other AFK player due to being set on a higher difficulty. As mentioned, only user vs user matches are recorded for the stats and guest matches are not counted. This mode works basically the same as Story Mode matches and you can choose any character to play as, but you can only play as Gryll if the player's profile has beaten them in story mode. The options are for best of 1/3/5 and setting the difficulty for each player individually. Winning 30 matches is also the criteria to unlock Insane difficulty in VS mode.
Beyond getting a crown on the title screen, beating story mode once also allows you to access a hard mode which adds gold backgrounds to the story scenes and higher difficulties for CPU opponents indicated by the insane face icons, and has one dialogue difference after beating Gryll who normally just tells you to play Pro Mode in normal mode. To access Pro Mode, you have to go to Story Mode, select the bottom option to start a new game, and then the bottom option again to select Pro Mode as the difficulty, then press A. This actually takes away your crown until you defeat Gryll again and there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment of Pro Mode in the records.
(Note the differences being the Insane mode faces at the top and the gold background, and the only unique line of Pro Mode in Japanese.)
Stacking 3000 stars in Challenge mode unlocks a unique picture variant with Coo in the bar to complete the trio, which doesn't seem to be commonly documented on the internet or even on the Kirby wiki since most people probably just stop at 2000, but there are 4 variants altogether depending on your score. I recommend Insane mode for this as the animation speed is much faster.
Overall I thought the game was alright for a Kirby spinoff, but as an action puzzle game, it strikes a strange duality where you drop and rotate pieces like Puyo Puyo, but rows incrementally increase from the bottom like Panel de Pon, which is also the garbage mechanic but star blocks basically also act like garbage. Having only three matchable blocks makes it simpler though more awkward to set things up, and the game does seem more built around stacking stars in the Round Clear mode than a dynamic PVP experience, but it's still pretty satisfying to see accidental big chains happen for less effort than the other games in my experience.
The majority of successful videogames this year have been singleplayer games. Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Armored Core 6, and Baldur's Gate 3, Jedi Survivor, Final Fantasy 16, Pikmin 4, Hi-Fi Rush and more are all primarily about their core singleplayer experience.
Singleplayer games almost always are the winner of awards and companies like Sony shit out Third Person Action Game 99 with like 6 different franchises.
The past also sucked. Yearly singleplayer RPG releases.
Milking the fuck out of people trying to keep up with yearly games was a constant thing in the 80s, 90s and so on. Videogame companies have always done spam, you've just only noticed it when it's genres you seemingly don't like.
Games aren't getting worse, singleplayer or multiplayer; people are just getting old.
"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe contest mode Crota.
"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe my day one raid experience, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled by scheduling with Bungie changing restricted mods on me last minute and refusing to provide confirmation prior to the day of the Raid as to allowed items, losing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and I lost, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not.
I am done with day one contest raiding, and you won't get a fond farewell. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of killing its host. Contest used to have a competitive spirit at their heart (Datto), this has been transplanted and replaced with an artificial organ that feeds on vitriol and mockery from insecure little boys that heckle by the sidelines and tear each other to shreds over scraps of attention(Saltagreppo). The environment we fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it requires acceptance of the harshest reality we all scramble to explain away, that none of the countless straining efforts we put ourselves through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of significance. I would make this the end, but Final Shape is still ongoing, and I would never leave so many great friends out to dry, so I'll suffer through one last Raid for them.
One last thing before I leave you all to react with disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor, before you do everything in your power to minimize my words and thoughts, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your memory, and hope they disappear forever as a stain on your finite time ground to dust. From this moment on, nothing you say matters to me. The foulest insults you hurl with intent to wound will calmly settle at the earth before my feet, and the venom you spit will bring all the pain of a warm summer breeze. You are less than anything you can conceive, while I carry on, brimming with joy distilled from detachment.
Stolen from reddit
"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe my day one raid experience, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled by scheduling with Bungie changing restricted mods on me last minute and refusing to provide confirmation prior to the day of the Raid as to allowed items, losing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and I lost, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not.
I am done with day one contest raiding, and you won't get a fond farewell. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of killing its host. Contest used to have a competitive spirit at their heart (Datto), this has been transplanted and replaced with an artificial organ that feeds on vitriol and mockery from insecure little boys that heckle by the sidelines and tear each other to shreds over scraps of attention(Saltagreppo). The environment we fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it requires acceptance of the harshest reality we all scramble to explain away, that none of the countless straining efforts we put ourselves through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of significance. I would make this the end, but Final Shape is still ongoing, and I would never leave so many great friends out to dry, so I'll suffer through one last Raid for them.
One last thing before I leave you all to react with disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor, before you do everything in your power to minimize my words and thoughts, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your memory, and hope they disappear forever as a stain on your finite time ground to dust. From this moment on, nothing you say matters to me. The foulest insults you hurl with intent to wound will calmly settle at the earth before my feet, and the venom you spit will bring all the pain of a warm summer breeze. You are less than anything you can conceive, while I carry on, brimming with joy distilled from detachment.
Stolen from reddit
Let's go over some of the games that I've played over the past year and a half, since I last did a big post like this:
Pikmin 4 (Switch): 10/10
One of my all-time favorite series, and boy did this entry not disappoint. I was a little scared of the addition of the dog (Oatchi), but he actually fit into the game very well and really was more of a QoL improvement for veterans more than a crutch, albeit still a pretty big crutch for certain boss fights. If you've played any of the series, you can more equate this entry as a successor to Pikmin 2, whereas Pikmin 3 was more of a successor to the original. You're not on a time limit in this entry, and rewarded for more exploration. My only gripe with this one is that there is a lot of features locked til the end-game/post-game, where it no longer has much if any use lol. But, then again, most people are probably not 100%ing areas as they go like I did. I put in a solid 35 hours in this title and 100%ed it, and now I just wish there was more to play. Thankfully, it was significantly larger than 3, but I definitely need more puzzle challenges (Dandori) in my life. Give DLC please. The only part of this game that I did not really care for was the new Tower Defense-like "side" missions (not really side since they're mandatory), but thankfully they didn't eat up too much or detract from the main game-play. Easy 10/10
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch): 10/10
You saw it coming, I saw it coming, no one's surprised. There's very little to complain about here. The map is insanely huge, and yeah it feels a little same-y and empty at times, but at others it feels like you're going insane that after 60 hours you've only unlocked a grand total of 30% of the map. It kept nearly everything that was great about BotW and just made it better. There's really not much to say, or rather, entirely too much that I could be here for days writing how much there is to do and see in this game. Easy game of the year for me, and possibly for life. It feels like a product of love and it's felt the entire time you're playing. The overall theme of combinations is just *chef's kiss* so well done. 10/10
Triangle Strategy (Switch): 10/10
Wow, this was incredible. Played it straight through back to back 3 times in a row to do the splitting storylines and still have a fourth to do. The gameplay is super addictive and rewards actual tactical gameplay. The voice acting is well-done, the art style is beautiful, and the music is great. The actual decision-making aspect of the game is probably the overall weakest part of the game, since trying to convince your teammates to go certain ways just feels like a crapchute sometimes, but that's relatively minor on the whole especially since no storyline is weak. If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics this is an easy must-play. I'm super excited for the sequel.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC (Switch): 10/10
There's now an almost entire game's worth of new tracks with the DLC at this point so I figured it'd be worth to shout it out here. Game play is still the gold standard for kart racers and the new tracks, despite being mostly revamps, do include a number of originals and are just very well done. My friends and I are still having a lot of fun with this one, a testament to its strength after being live service for almost a decade.
Mario + Rabbids 2 (Switch): 9/10
If you've played the first game you'll very much enjoy the sequel. Overall I did not really agree with the change to a more free-form style battle system, as I felt the grid system was much more puzzle-intensive and allowed for "perfect" set-ups and gameplay, whereas with a distance-marked system with free movement, it's not as satisfying to figure out the optimal play paths. Apart from that relatively minor gripe on the whole, the game is still great and retains the spirit of the first. I hated the voice acting they half-assed for this, same as the vein of the Lego games, it loses some of its charm from being constrained by no real dialogue, but I digress. Highly recommend a try if you have not, the demo is still available on the shop, and it has a ton of DLC available that I'm still getting to.
Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch): 9/10
It has been a long, long time since I've been impressed by a Pokemon title but wow. If you haven't played a Pokemon game in a while I strongly encourage you to at least pick this one up. The RPG elements were incredible and very well done here. Performance issues abound, but the art-style kind of made up for it tbh. Game play was fun, the neat spin on the battle system made it feel sleek. The boss fights were surprising and exciting, and even a little tough. Exploration felt rewarding, more than most other "open world" games these days. Overall a great entry.
Overwatch 2 (PS4): 8.5/10
Blizzard drama-aside, the base game play is still pretty phenomenal, and there hasn't been a miss yet in the recent character releases (Lifeweaver was pretty underpowered but he feels pretty good as of the most recent update now). 5v5 feels worse than 6v6 on the whole, but it doesn't detract too badly from the game. The support line feels more powerful than ever. Matchmaking in the game still needs to be fixed to a pretty significant degree unfortunately, and the money-grubbing is starting to wear out on me. Overall still fun, but it's starting to lose its luster after so many years and so little to do outside of ranked.
Tunic (Switch): 8/10
Some would describe this title as a spiritual successor to Link's Awakening, and I'd say it's just a bit more than spiritual lol, more like barely hiding the fact that it's copy-pasting assets. To say it plays a bit like Link's would be an understatement to say the least. All that said, it's a very fun title. Lots of neat hidden areas, good puzzles, fun fights. Very tough though, which may be off-putting to some. You have no guidance whatsoever at any point in the game, which is probably where it deviates the most from Link's, which it itself had very little guidance. Definitely got frustrated on trying to figure out where to go and having to constantly re-fight enemies every time I tried going to new areas, which is the major reason for the knock in score here. Also a very, very large lack in soundtrack, the "ambience" music is basically non-existent which kinda forced me to play my own music while playing.
Tactics Ogre Reborn (Switch): 7.5/10
I love, love tactics-style games, so when this went on sale I knew I had to try one of the OGs. This is mostly down this far because it is hard. Like, harder than it needs to be. Especially considering you can't even grind to beat tough fights, you're level-capped. That said, the artwork, music, and gameplay are all top-notch. If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics or Triangle Strategy, it's an easy recommend to try it out. It's got a ton of splitting paths in it and I've yet to try them all out, largely due to the difficulty, but I'm excited to go back and try it out.
Mini Motorways (Switch): 7.5/10
A very satisfying, unique puzzler. It's pretty addicting to try and figure out the most optimal pathing and resource management. At a certain point the lack of explanations for game mechanics gets a little grating when trying to go for high scores and you can't seem to understand why things work the way they do without being able to like save states and stuff. The weekly challenges are fun and they're still adding stages even 2 or 3 years in on the Switch.
Pokemon Scarlet (Switch): 7/10
It's Pokemon. Performance issues were pretty rampant, but, it's at least a step in the right direction. Not as good as PLA, but the designs are some of the best we've seen yet, with a ton of knock-out hits like Fuecoco, Lechonk, and Smolive to name a few. Was able to go relatively spoiler-free as well for this title, so I had quite a few surprises and really liked the "open" world design. If the game had had level scaling I feel like this would have felt nearly 100% better on the whole, but alas.
Feudal Alloy (Switch): 7/10
Continuing my trend of trying every Metroidvania that exists, I stumbled upon this gem for super cheap on the switch shop for like $5. Very, very much worth the price if you like Metroidvanias. It's rather formulaic, but it has a very fun atmosphere and rewards exploration. I did get very, very stuck at one point and no one on the Internet has really bothered to map out this game in a meaningful way so it took a very long time to figure out where I was stuck, but I did figure it out eventually and 100%ed it. Very few boss fights, and instead had enemy rush rooms that were quite challenging. Combat was quite simple, reminiscent of Hollow Knight, and you don't get much for movement boosts, but it never really felt like I was moving slowly through the game.
Shantae Half-Genie Hero (Switch): 6.5/10
A relatively fun platformer that I feel with some polish could be a truly great game, but for what it is it felt a little subpar. The animal morphing is fun but your abilities feel too constrained. And her base form with the hair whip and magic just feels kind of stunted and difficult to play with. The inability to just revisit levels at any time and to pick where to drop in makes exploration kind of annoying too. Still, there's a lot to like here and would try another game in the series.
Kirby Dream Buffet (Switch): 5/10
A pretty weak racing game / minigame overall. There's fun to be had here, especially if playing with friends, but no reason to play over Mario Kart or Party.
I also watched my BF play the following and would recommend them:
Resident Evil 2 Remaster (PS4): 8/10
Resident Evil 4 Remaster (PS4): 10/10
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4): 8/10
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (PS4): 7/10
Pikmin 4 (Switch): 10/10
One of my all-time favorite series, and boy did this entry not disappoint. I was a little scared of the addition of the dog (Oatchi), but he actually fit into the game very well and really was more of a QoL improvement for veterans more than a crutch, albeit still a pretty big crutch for certain boss fights. If you've played any of the series, you can more equate this entry as a successor to Pikmin 2, whereas Pikmin 3 was more of a successor to the original. You're not on a time limit in this entry, and rewarded for more exploration. My only gripe with this one is that there is a lot of features locked til the end-game/post-game, where it no longer has much if any use lol. But, then again, most people are probably not 100%ing areas as they go like I did. I put in a solid 35 hours in this title and 100%ed it, and now I just wish there was more to play. Thankfully, it was significantly larger than 3, but I definitely need more puzzle challenges (Dandori) in my life. Give DLC please. The only part of this game that I did not really care for was the new Tower Defense-like "side" missions (not really side since they're mandatory), but thankfully they didn't eat up too much or detract from the main game-play. Easy 10/10
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch): 10/10
You saw it coming, I saw it coming, no one's surprised. There's very little to complain about here. The map is insanely huge, and yeah it feels a little same-y and empty at times, but at others it feels like you're going insane that after 60 hours you've only unlocked a grand total of 30% of the map. It kept nearly everything that was great about BotW and just made it better. There's really not much to say, or rather, entirely too much that I could be here for days writing how much there is to do and see in this game. Easy game of the year for me, and possibly for life. It feels like a product of love and it's felt the entire time you're playing. The overall theme of combinations is just *chef's kiss* so well done. 10/10
Triangle Strategy (Switch): 10/10
Wow, this was incredible. Played it straight through back to back 3 times in a row to do the splitting storylines and still have a fourth to do. The gameplay is super addictive and rewards actual tactical gameplay. The voice acting is well-done, the art style is beautiful, and the music is great. The actual decision-making aspect of the game is probably the overall weakest part of the game, since trying to convince your teammates to go certain ways just feels like a crapchute sometimes, but that's relatively minor on the whole especially since no storyline is weak. If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics this is an easy must-play. I'm super excited for the sequel.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC (Switch): 10/10
There's now an almost entire game's worth of new tracks with the DLC at this point so I figured it'd be worth to shout it out here. Game play is still the gold standard for kart racers and the new tracks, despite being mostly revamps, do include a number of originals and are just very well done. My friends and I are still having a lot of fun with this one, a testament to its strength after being live service for almost a decade.
Mario + Rabbids 2 (Switch): 9/10
If you've played the first game you'll very much enjoy the sequel. Overall I did not really agree with the change to a more free-form style battle system, as I felt the grid system was much more puzzle-intensive and allowed for "perfect" set-ups and gameplay, whereas with a distance-marked system with free movement, it's not as satisfying to figure out the optimal play paths. Apart from that relatively minor gripe on the whole, the game is still great and retains the spirit of the first. I hated the voice acting they half-assed for this, same as the vein of the Lego games, it loses some of its charm from being constrained by no real dialogue, but I digress. Highly recommend a try if you have not, the demo is still available on the shop, and it has a ton of DLC available that I'm still getting to.
Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch): 9/10
It has been a long, long time since I've been impressed by a Pokemon title but wow. If you haven't played a Pokemon game in a while I strongly encourage you to at least pick this one up. The RPG elements were incredible and very well done here. Performance issues abound, but the art-style kind of made up for it tbh. Game play was fun, the neat spin on the battle system made it feel sleek. The boss fights were surprising and exciting, and even a little tough. Exploration felt rewarding, more than most other "open world" games these days. Overall a great entry.
Overwatch 2 (PS4): 8.5/10
Blizzard drama-aside, the base game play is still pretty phenomenal, and there hasn't been a miss yet in the recent character releases (Lifeweaver was pretty underpowered but he feels pretty good as of the most recent update now). 5v5 feels worse than 6v6 on the whole, but it doesn't detract too badly from the game. The support line feels more powerful than ever. Matchmaking in the game still needs to be fixed to a pretty significant degree unfortunately, and the money-grubbing is starting to wear out on me. Overall still fun, but it's starting to lose its luster after so many years and so little to do outside of ranked.
Tunic (Switch): 8/10
Some would describe this title as a spiritual successor to Link's Awakening, and I'd say it's just a bit more than spiritual lol, more like barely hiding the fact that it's copy-pasting assets. To say it plays a bit like Link's would be an understatement to say the least. All that said, it's a very fun title. Lots of neat hidden areas, good puzzles, fun fights. Very tough though, which may be off-putting to some. You have no guidance whatsoever at any point in the game, which is probably where it deviates the most from Link's, which it itself had very little guidance. Definitely got frustrated on trying to figure out where to go and having to constantly re-fight enemies every time I tried going to new areas, which is the major reason for the knock in score here. Also a very, very large lack in soundtrack, the "ambience" music is basically non-existent which kinda forced me to play my own music while playing.
Tactics Ogre Reborn (Switch): 7.5/10
I love, love tactics-style games, so when this went on sale I knew I had to try one of the OGs. This is mostly down this far because it is hard. Like, harder than it needs to be. Especially considering you can't even grind to beat tough fights, you're level-capped. That said, the artwork, music, and gameplay are all top-notch. If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics or Triangle Strategy, it's an easy recommend to try it out. It's got a ton of splitting paths in it and I've yet to try them all out, largely due to the difficulty, but I'm excited to go back and try it out.
Mini Motorways (Switch): 7.5/10
A very satisfying, unique puzzler. It's pretty addicting to try and figure out the most optimal pathing and resource management. At a certain point the lack of explanations for game mechanics gets a little grating when trying to go for high scores and you can't seem to understand why things work the way they do without being able to like save states and stuff. The weekly challenges are fun and they're still adding stages even 2 or 3 years in on the Switch.
Pokemon Scarlet (Switch): 7/10
It's Pokemon. Performance issues were pretty rampant, but, it's at least a step in the right direction. Not as good as PLA, but the designs are some of the best we've seen yet, with a ton of knock-out hits like Fuecoco, Lechonk, and Smolive to name a few. Was able to go relatively spoiler-free as well for this title, so I had quite a few surprises and really liked the "open" world design. If the game had had level scaling I feel like this would have felt nearly 100% better on the whole, but alas.
Feudal Alloy (Switch): 7/10
Continuing my trend of trying every Metroidvania that exists, I stumbled upon this gem for super cheap on the switch shop for like $5. Very, very much worth the price if you like Metroidvanias. It's rather formulaic, but it has a very fun atmosphere and rewards exploration. I did get very, very stuck at one point and no one on the Internet has really bothered to map out this game in a meaningful way so it took a very long time to figure out where I was stuck, but I did figure it out eventually and 100%ed it. Very few boss fights, and instead had enemy rush rooms that were quite challenging. Combat was quite simple, reminiscent of Hollow Knight, and you don't get much for movement boosts, but it never really felt like I was moving slowly through the game.
Shantae Half-Genie Hero (Switch): 6.5/10
A relatively fun platformer that I feel with some polish could be a truly great game, but for what it is it felt a little subpar. The animal morphing is fun but your abilities feel too constrained. And her base form with the hair whip and magic just feels kind of stunted and difficult to play with. The inability to just revisit levels at any time and to pick where to drop in makes exploration kind of annoying too. Still, there's a lot to like here and would try another game in the series.
Kirby Dream Buffet (Switch): 5/10
A pretty weak racing game / minigame overall. There's fun to be had here, especially if playing with friends, but no reason to play over Mario Kart or Party.
I also watched my BF play the following and would recommend them:
Resident Evil 2 Remaster (PS4): 8/10
Resident Evil 4 Remaster (PS4): 10/10
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4): 8/10
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (PS4): 7/10
Attachments
abtibe else excited for the nMario Bros Wonder?
Gris (Switch): 7/10
Found this on the Switch shop shortly after my post above for about $5 and felt very happy with my purchase. This is honestly more of a playable music video more than a proper game, as most of the game felt like a walking sim more than anything. That said, the music and visuals are simply stunning, if I had to give a score based solely on that it'd be an easy 10/10. As it is tho, while there was some fun gameplay elements, the actual gameplay is pretty weak. Pick this up if it's on sale for the experience, as it is quite moving and beautiful, but just know I finished it in about 4 hours.
Nintendo Direct thoughts, Nintendo Direct thoughts
I am always really torn on remakes because they often choose some pretty boring picks (i.e. Mario spin-offs) and don't do enough to make them stand out from the originals, but it's always good to see these games get a wider audience. Mario vs Donkey Kong remake is neat I guess, Luigi's Mansion 2 port is very whatever, and the Mario RPG remake is a game that seemed really cool on paper but it quickly became clear that I really didn't care. I feel pretty similarly about the TTYD remake. It really doesn't show a significant improvement in graphics over the original, but I think that's less of Intelligent Systems not putting in the effort and more the fact that the original's aesthetics were pretty timeless. I just wish IS would make a new Paper Mario game modeled after TTYD, but remaking it might be a good exercise for them to figure out how to do that, as well as get more people to play the game given how expensive secondhand copies are right now
Now, what I want are remakes of some REAL deep cuts that aren't connected to a larger franchise. We've seen that with the Live A Live remake, and now the Another Code / Trace Memory remake is absolutely what I mean. I never got around to getting the Famicom Detective games since they were digital-only and don't really go on sale, but I think this remake is getting a physical release so I'll definitely be picking it up. I had a tough time getting into Hotel Dusk and I've heard more praise towards that game than Trace Memory, so while I'm not sure if I'll love this game, I do appreciate the risk and the presentation at least looks like a massive step up from the DS game. Plus the PAL-only sequel getting released is very nice to see :)
What really shocked me was the reaction to F-Zero 99. We've meme'd about this game before, but I think it's really cool to see it becoming a reality. You can say "F-Zero as a battle royale" is a bad idea but like...
Have you guys not played these games, that's inherently what F-Zero is!!!!
X and GX feature 30 riders, there is already a basic combat system in those games, spo death and failing to finish the course is a very real possibility. We've never had the opportunity to have a multiplayer F-Zero with anywhere close to that many players, so going straight to 99 is certainly interesting. And I don't necessarily think Nintendo is wrong in having apprehension on making a new F-Zero. Even beyond the fact that it's been so long and there truly hasn't been any business need, Nintendo hasn't actually developed an F-Zero game themselves since Maximum Velocity (and X was the last one developed by EAD). The other two GBA games were done by a third-party. GX is great but it was developed by Sega lol and was originally meant to be an Arcade game, both facts certainly showing based on its design philosophy and soundtrack.
Also Princess Peach Showtime looks wayyyyy cooler than any other Mario game on the Switch, I'll probably pick that up lol
I am always really torn on remakes because they often choose some pretty boring picks (i.e. Mario spin-offs) and don't do enough to make them stand out from the originals, but it's always good to see these games get a wider audience. Mario vs Donkey Kong remake is neat I guess, Luigi's Mansion 2 port is very whatever, and the Mario RPG remake is a game that seemed really cool on paper but it quickly became clear that I really didn't care. I feel pretty similarly about the TTYD remake. It really doesn't show a significant improvement in graphics over the original, but I think that's less of Intelligent Systems not putting in the effort and more the fact that the original's aesthetics were pretty timeless. I just wish IS would make a new Paper Mario game modeled after TTYD, but remaking it might be a good exercise for them to figure out how to do that, as well as get more people to play the game given how expensive secondhand copies are right now
Now, what I want are remakes of some REAL deep cuts that aren't connected to a larger franchise. We've seen that with the Live A Live remake, and now the Another Code / Trace Memory remake is absolutely what I mean. I never got around to getting the Famicom Detective games since they were digital-only and don't really go on sale, but I think this remake is getting a physical release so I'll definitely be picking it up. I had a tough time getting into Hotel Dusk and I've heard more praise towards that game than Trace Memory, so while I'm not sure if I'll love this game, I do appreciate the risk and the presentation at least looks like a massive step up from the DS game. Plus the PAL-only sequel getting released is very nice to see :)
What really shocked me was the reaction to F-Zero 99. We've meme'd about this game before, but I think it's really cool to see it becoming a reality. You can say "F-Zero as a battle royale" is a bad idea but like...
Have you guys not played these games, that's inherently what F-Zero is!!!!
X and GX feature 30 riders, there is already a basic combat system in those games, spo death and failing to finish the course is a very real possibility. We've never had the opportunity to have a multiplayer F-Zero with anywhere close to that many players, so going straight to 99 is certainly interesting. And I don't necessarily think Nintendo is wrong in having apprehension on making a new F-Zero. Even beyond the fact that it's been so long and there truly hasn't been any business need, Nintendo hasn't actually developed an F-Zero game themselves since Maximum Velocity (and X was the last one developed by EAD). The other two GBA games were done by a third-party. GX is great but it was developed by Sega lol and was originally meant to be an Arcade game, both facts certainly showing based on its design philosophy and soundtrack.
Also Princess Peach Showtime looks wayyyyy cooler than any other Mario game on the Switch, I'll probably pick that up lol
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I actually feel like F-Zero 99 is a lot less like a battle royale than the other 99-type games that people expected, because the goal in each game isn't to be the last one standing since you have a set number of laps to race in like the original gameplay, which also makes each round go by relatively quickly. Surviving and placing high is still an incentive, but you can still fully complete a match and make progress by placing over rivals without having to be #1.