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8 points
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7 pointsPolished this off the other night. I'll pay the game a bit more attentive lip service when I get around to updating my Gaming Diary, but for now: • I loved the ending. • I really, really enjoyed the penultimate dungeon (or what I'm counting as the penultimate dungeon), Eagle's Tower. Did get a little lost once or twice, and not leaving the heavy ball in the right spot only added to a little bit of confusion, but I think it's incredibly well designed and forward thinking. Crazy how many ideas - and well executed ones at that - were packed into a GB game. • what I'm calling the final dungeon (the one after Eagle's Tower)...eh. It was pretty good, but felt like a step down for me from Eagle's Tower, and also just wasn't as interesting mechanically. • final boss fight was awesome. Lastly, this has to be one of the best credits medleys I've heard in a minute: Hit me hard, surprisingly so for a game as short as this, and made me nostalgic for the original game – which I've never played. Wonderful and charming little game
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6 pointsDiddy Kong Racing PAL release: 21st November 1997 JP release: 21st November 1997 NA release: 24th November 1997 Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 90% Pretty much all racing games on the N64 so far have the same problem: there’s not a lot of progression for a single player, and you can do everything in a couple of hours. Some of them focused on being great in multiplayer (like Mario Kart 64) but there wasn’t a lot of choice for singleplayer. Which is where Diddy Kong Racing comes in, as it has a very meaty singleplayer campaign with an adventure mode where you find tracks within its hub world. It’s a neat area to explore, although a lot smaller than I remember it being. You’ll find four doors with balloon requirements (which you get from winning races or finding them in the world), with a fifth world hidden until you defeat five bosses. They start out simple at first: you have to win each race individually then defeat the boss in a race. Do that, and it gets much more challenging. You’ll be tasked with finding 8 coins in each race. However, finding them isn’t enough as you still have to win, and then defeat a harder version of the boss. Diddy Kong Racing is a difficult and brutal game and you’ll need to learn its tricks (such as letting go of the accelerator just before boosting) to have a chance of winning. Once you defeat a boss a second time, you then complete in a tournament across the four tracks. There’s also a key hidden in one level of each world to unlock a battle mode challenge. Oh, and also time trail challenges. Once you’ve done all that and defeated the evil Wizpig, it’s time for Adventure Two. This is a mirror mode version of the game, although the silver coins are now in more difficult places. Of course, this amount of content wouldn’t be anything if the game wasn’t fun to play. And thankfully, it is fun. Levels use three vehicles: car, hovercraft and plane. The car and plane are very easy to use, while the hovercraft is more difficult. When you repeat tracks (or choose to play outside Adventure mode), some levels let you pick your vehicle – with some restrictions on a per-level basis – and it’s great having multiple types of vehicles racing alongside each other. One let-down in DKR are the characters. None of them are bad in terms of a design perspective – and this is the first appearance of Banjo (without Kazooie, although some of his voice clips sound like her) and Conker, but they’re a bit too varied in terms of ability, so the game’s difficulty will vary a lot based on who you pick, with Pipsy being the best for hitting boosts (plus the silver coins). The weapon system sets itself apart from other kart racers. Instead of giving you random items, the balloons providing items are colour coded for specific items. Collecting one of the same type you already have will also upgrade the item. Diddy Kong Racing is still a great game, and the only kart game that’s come close to it for single-player is Sonic Racing Transformed (which also had three vehicle types, but it was specific to the part of the track you were on). It set itself apart from Mario Kart 64 and I actually prefer this one. Remake or Remaster? If not a sequel, then Diddy Kong Racing deserves a remake. It would look gorgeous with a Mario Kart 8 style sheen to it and some updates to the control and balance would be great, with some additional options. While it would be nice for all characters to return, I’d still be very happy with the game even if they had to replace most of them. The Switch seemed perfect due to the system’s portability and how it doesn’t have its own Mario Kart. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Diddy Kong Racing Re-releases 2007: Diddy Kong Racing DS (Banjo and Conker replaced with Dixie Kong and a tall, teenage Tiny Kong, coin challenges replaced with tapping balloons).
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6 pointsFinished Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest today. Really enjoyed this, oddly enough I'm kinda glad I accidentally deleted my save after the first 3 worlds as I was very much on the fence whether it was a downgrade on DKC at that point, replaying those 3 worlds again changed my mind on that. Definitely a better game than the original, the level design is perfect and the music while it isn't as catchy as DKC, it feels more atmospheric. With DKC I was humming the tunes for the rest of the day after playing it during my lunch break, with this, nothing but I get why they mixed it up for the sequel. The boss battles are certainly more challenging, I was struggling with the final boss and his "disappearing act" right at the end of the battle. Eventually I got the pattern and that was that. It's crazy that it's taken me 28 years to play this. Next up in my lunch time GBA gaming and to complete the trilogy - Donkey Kong Country 3
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5 pointsYoshi’s Story JP release: 21st December 1997 NA release: 10th March 1998 PAL release: 10th May 1998 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 86% Yoshi’s Story is an incredibly cute game that just oozes charm. On a quest to save their magical fruit tree from Baby Bowser, the Yoshi’s journey across a book across six worlds, eating a lot of fruit along the way. In each level, your goal isn’t to make it to the end, it’s to eat 30 fruit. Fruit is also health – apart from chillies, which the Yoshis hate (shame, they’re delicious). Getting the 30th one ends the level no matter where you are, so if you’re after finding the super hearts or just more points, you’ll want to hold off. The platforming is great (other than some blind jumps) and there are lots of little secrets to discover. The biggest issue with Yoshi’s Story is the game’s structure. In a similar style to Star Fox 64, you only play a portion of the levels – one from each of the six worlds. So reaching the Baby Bowser (who is ridiculously easy to defeat) does not take long at all if you’re munching up fruit whenever you see it. I feel like it does Yoshi’s Story a massive disservice, and many people will miss a lot of the game due to this. In order to unlock more levels, you need to search the levels for giant hearts – needing to find three each time if you want the fourth stage in each world. There’s also an additional challenge of only eating melons – there are exactly 30 in each level. This all adds to the replayability, but as much as I love the game, I just really hate its structure. Remake or remaster? A remake would be amazing. The different graphical styles (craft, wool, inflatables) would pop even more with added detail and they could provide different ways to play to change the structure of the game. Official ways to get the game. There is no way to buy a new copy of Yoshi’s Story, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak. Re-releases 2007: Wii Virtual Console 2016: Wii U Virtual Console 2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)
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5 pointsSnowboard Kids JP release: 12th December 1997 NA release: February 1998 PAL release: 16th March 1998 Developer: Racdym Publisher: Atlus (JP/NA), Nintendo (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 86% In the tutorial, Snowboard Kids makes it clear that this is a racing game without a brake button – it also lacks an acceleration button. Gravity does all the work, leaving you to focus on turning, items and tricks. It has a charming visual style and nice slopes to snowboard down. The turning mechanics are quite unique to Snowboard Kids, as tilting backwards allows for sharper turns. If you hold A to prepare for a jump, you will be unable to turn until you’ve finished jumping – you can also perform tricks to earn coins. These coins (along with those on the tracks) are used to collect weapons and items, and you have one slot for each. I quite like this mechanic, although I found them to be quite unbalanced – some weapons, such as the parachute, sends people flying into the air and keeps them there for a bit too long. There’s also an unavoidable pan item that squashes all of your opponents. This seems to create a situation where one player will often end up in front, with the other three pelting each other, unable to catch up with the leader. It’s a shame as I do like the game’s mechanics, as well as the levels. Instead of lots of similar looking snow tracks, Snowboard Kids mixes things up with other themes, with the cutesy style managing to not make snowboarding on desert slopes look odd. There are six tracks to start with initially, with three more to unlock. When you reach the end of the slope, a chair lift will take you back up to the top – however, the barrier will only open if a chair is ready. If second place isn’t ready, they’ll bonk off the railing just after 1st place enters and 3rd place can sneak in while they recover. It’s a nice little mechanic. There are a few minigames to try out as well. One has you rushing down a slope quickly using the hard-to-steer fan items, one is a target practice challenge and the last is a stunt run – although that doesn’t work very well. Snowboard Kids is a charming game. It’s not one of the best games on the system, but it’s still worth checking out. Remake or Remaster? A remaster of both games combined would be nice – perhaps even throw in the tracks from the very different DS game. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Snowboard Kids
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5 pointsMortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero NA release: 11th December 1997 PAL release: 12th February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway, Avalanche Software Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 9% Traditional fighting games like Mortal Kombat aren’t platformers. In order to combine Mortal Kombat with a platformer, you’ll need to put in some serious work to bring out the strengths of both genres. Making B turn the character around does not solve any issues with trying to make a platformer out of Mortal Kombat. On top of being ridiculous for a platform game, it also makes fighting a nightmare. With the hassle of using up to jump, levels need to be properly designed around this compromised way of platforming. MK Mythologies doesn’t cater for this, though, instead taking the most annoying tropes of the worst NES platformers and adds some of its own. After you punch up the first enemy, you’ll walk down a corridor and be squashed by a pillar and be instantly killed. Fighting past the first enemy again, you’ll time your run and dash past it – only to be killed by a second pillar. The third time, you fight again and try to stop before the second pillar. It will clip you, but you’ll be alive – but the recoil will send you under the first pillar and you’ll be crushed and killed again. The game is a trial-and-error experience, getting a bit further each time. I used save states pretty quickly but it was still incredibly frustrating. And that’s just the first level – the second is much, much worse. Level two consists of lots of tiny platforms. The screen is too far zoomed in to see much, and the camera doesn’t scroll how you would like, so you have to make many blind jumps. Some platforms will also collapse. Another really frustrating things are platforms that move towards and away from the camera, so you can only jump on them when they’re in “line” with the 2D aspects – which is quite difficult to see. As you slowly progress, you’ll encounter doors that need keys. You’ll need to explore elsewhere in the level to find the keys. Sometimes, these paths are hidden off screen. For example, there’s a bridge that collapses when you stand on it, get past and carry on and you’ll find a locked door. To find the key, you have to jump into the empty space under the collapsing bridge – something that usually kills you. Oh, and sometimes getting to the door before finding the key for it means that you can’t go back to where the key is, so you have to die. Even using cheats, I couldn’t bear to finish Sub Zero. The level layouts are atrocious and there’s really no enjoyment to get out of the game and progression just feels like you accidentally stumbled on the correct path and doesn’t feel rewarding. This isn’t just one of the worst games on the N64 – it’s one of the worst 2D platformers. Remake or Remaster? While making games to expand on the characters of Mortal Kombat is a good idea, every aspect of MK Mythologies would need to be completely redone to have anything decent. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
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5 pointsAnd there we have it! A Partner Showcase coming in at 25 minutes long and focusing on the first half of the year. Notably: this is not a Direct Mini, making it the first Partner Showcase to date to get the "full" (as in, well, not "Mini") Direct treatment. Also: on-demand and not livestreamed.
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5 pointsIt's nonsensical, and I won't be swayed on that! Anyway, that's so 2 generations ago! We're living in the here and now! And by "Here and now", I mean 2002. Generation 3, otherwise known as Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, takes place in Hoenn. It's more of a tropical locale then the first two, but you wouldn't be able to really tell from the starter Pokémon. Being a GBA game, this is the first time a mainline Pokémon game was made with full colour in mind from the start. Treecko is the Grass starter. And it couldn't be any more different to the first two Grass starters. It's bipedal for a start, but more importantly, instead of being a slower, defensive battler, Treecko and it's evolutions are very much glass cannons. They hit hard, they hit fast. Treecko does well against the first gym, which is as good as it'll get in the early game for any starter here, actually. And then there's Grovyle. Behold! This is the second of the starter middle evolutions to not be overshadowed by the other two! In fact, Grovyle may be the most popular of these three. @Julius and @Dcubed already knows why, but for everyone else... The primary antagonist of the second Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games is a Grovyle. The general Pokémon community refers to him as "Grovyle the Thief". I'm not gonna go into the details on it, because that would be spoilers for a game that has a legitmately good story. And seeing as the first PMD game got remade recently, it's not out of the realm of possibility for this game to get a remake. It is the most fondly remembered entry for a damn good reason! I defy you to find someone who prefers Treecko or Sceptile, and if they do, they clearly haven't played this game. The final evolution is Sceptile. And I can only assume Game Freak felt sorry for Grass starter fans, because it's a truly excellent Pokémon on paper. It's stats are highly specialised towards Special Attack and Speed, and it's the first starter to get a signature move. Leaf Blade has 70 power, 100% accuracy, and has a high critical rate. Basically Razor Leaf, but not crap. On top of that, it can utilise TM's to learn a wide variety of moves. But it's that last part where it kinda falls apart for Sceptile. All the good moves it can learn through TM are physical based. So only Leaf Blade uses the Special Attack stat. The other moves use Sceptile's mediocre Attack stat. Despite that, Sceptile still does pretty well in playthroughs. But it desperately needs some support for Grass resistant types. The Physical-Special split in Gen 4 doesn't do it a huge favour, as it makes Leaf Blade a physical attack, but Energy Ball is a better alternative, and it can learn some good special moves through TM's. It also gets the hidden ability "Unburden" in Gen 5, which would make it a surprisingly effective Double Battler once terrain effects roll around The Gen 3 remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, were released in Generation 6, and thus added a number of Mega Evolutions, including these starters. Mega Sceptile is Grass/Dragon, so dear lord, keep it away from Ice attacks! It's Speed and Special Attack are an eye-watering base 145! For comparison's sake, that's only 5 less then Deoxys! This is one scary Mega Evolution! Anyway, Mr. Christmas Tree here gets Lightning Rod (Absorbs Electric attacks, and then raises it's Sp. Atk one stage), which sounds strange, because Electric attacks only do a quarter of the damage against it. But throw this in a double battle, and it starts to make a lot more sense. Sceptile was in Pokkén. Actually, it was my favourite character in that game. But I'm rubbish at Pokkén, so don't take that as proof that it's any good or anything. I wouldn't know. You know, in most other generations, Sceptile would have been far and away the best choice for a starter. But no, it's in Gen 3, which means it's competition is... Torchic is the only Gen 3 starter to struggle with the first Gym in Hoenn. It's not the best of starts, but Torchic's surprisingly high Special Attack (Higher then Charmander's) might just carry you through it anyway if you have a good nature. Worst comes to worst though, you can always just evolve it. Combusken's only notable feature is that it becomes Fire/Fighting. This is an amazing type combination! If only more Fire starters had it... Other than that? Eh, it's a middle evolution. Blaziken is the final evolution and has... EXCUSE ME!? That's pretty much the dream stat spread for casual Gen 3 playthroughs! Doesn't matter what kinds of moves you teach it. Blaziken can do it all! The Physical-Special split of the first three generations is the main reason Pokémon are quite limited in what they are able to do. But because Blaziken has amazing stats in both Attack and Sp. Atk, it can easily use Flamethrower, Brick Break, and Earthquake to full effect. Blaziken isn't good against any of the Hoenn gyms, but with those stats? Who the hell cares!? And well, things wouldn't go very well in Gen 4, as a certain other Pokémon would steal it's thunder. But then Gen 5 came along... Bit of a tangent before I explain Blaziken in Gen 5. So for some reason I can only assume was a fit of madness. Blaziken's Hidden Ability is "Speed Boost". Speed Boost is an astonishingly good ability that raises the Pokémon's Speed stat at the end of every turn! After just one turn, Blaziken becomes as fast as Sceptile, and only snowballs from there! Because of this, Blaziken became the first, and only, starter to be banned to Ubers in Smogon! Sorry to spoil that for all future starters, but Gen 5 Blaziken is the best starter ever. Competitively speaking, anyway. Oh, but it only gets better for our fiery chicken. Mega Blaziken is concrete proof that if a Pokémon is horribly broken, don't fix it! It's the only Mega Evolution that barely changes anything about the actual Pokémon. It's still Fire/Fighting, and it still has Speed Boost as an ability. The only thing that changes is it's stats, which are naturally a lot higher. Dear lord, don't let this thing get momentum, because you will lose the battle if you do! Anyway, on to the next starter... Huh? What's the matter? Oh! That... So, yes. I censored the Blaziken image. I had no choice. I didn't want parents to give my post a bad review. Yes, there is an actual reason I did that. Blaziken's in Pokkén. And when the WiiU version came out, a certain review on Amazon picked up some noteriety. Boy, it's a good thing they didn't see Reshiram... Anyway, here's the actual image. Mudkip is the water starter. What even is it anyway? I look at the Pokédex classification and it's the "Mud Fish" Pokémon... ...OK, sure. Anyway, much like Treecko, Mudkip is great against the first gym. I was hoping to avoid this, but someone mentioned it earlier. So I guess I have to talk about that meme. In case someone here somehow doesn't know of it. The meme @Ashley is referring to is "I Herd U Liek Mudkips". A glorified catchphrase that gained traction in the mid-2000's because the internet is a very silly place. The origins of that meme come from DeviantArt (Hey, the only other site I'm on!), when someone who made a Mudkip based group would go around looking for fanart of the Mudkip family, and inviting those artists to join their group like so. That's pretty much it. It caught on and everyone started posting that phrase everywhere. Geez, that meme is almost 20 years old now. Marshtomp is another middle evolution that has nothing much to mention. It does become Water/Ground, which is great because it becomes immune to Electric, which happens to be the third gym. Unfortunately, it's double weak to Grass now... But Grass isn't a gym in Hoenn, so it's not a huge deal. Swampert is the final evolution here. Unfortunately, it's very much a physical based attacker, which means that half of it's movepool can't be used to the fullest potential. Still, it gets some solid attack options in Water, Ground, Ice, and Fighting. It's quite effective against a lot of gyms, but it's literally half as fast as Sceptile, and doesn't have the insane utility that Blaziken has, so it ends up being the big loser in Gen 3 (It's not much better in the Gen 6 remakes either). It's not terrible, but the competition is that fierce! Doesn't help that the hidden ability it gets in Gen 5 is utter crap. Mega Swampert has clearly been on the roids. It's got an eye-watering base 150 attack! And it gets Swift Swim as an ability! Swift Swim doubles Swampert's speed in rain, which is very much appreciated for such a slow Pokémon. Mega Sceptile is still faster then Mega Swampert, even with Swift Swim, so you need to watch out for that. And that wraps up Generation 3. What's your favourite? I'm a Mystery Dungeon fan, so Grovyle is my favourite. That's, like, the law. Even before Mystery Dungeon though, Grovyle evolving into Sceptile was the first time I was disappointed in an evolution. Sceptile just loses a bit of that sleekness Grovyle has. I still like it though. Actually, I think all the Gen 3 starters are cool designs. Solid Pokémon all round. Swampert's cooler then Blaziken, though.
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4 pointsAnd now... A Jonnas NSO Update Last time, I talked about multiple bad games that... were obviously bad even before I touched them But there are a few games there that I haven't really given a fair shot before, and they're generally well regarded. So I decided to do those next. The NES Classics So I went and tried to play the original Metroid. I knew going in that I never really jived with this game. Yeah, I still don't. Samus feels clunky to play, the environments are monochromatic and forgettable, navigation through the world is confusing... and when I picked it up, the first thing that got to me was that Samus can't crouch nor aim down, meaning she can't even shoot zoomers (the mini-lavos spiky creatures, not the generation). So, she's a slower, less fun Mega Man. I tried my best to play it, but I really did not enjoy any of my time with it. I understand a lot of what makes Metroid Metroid was already present here, but I do not enjoy playing this. I do really like Metroid II, but this one just does not gel with me. Next, it was The Legend of Zelda. I explored the map for a while. Moving around is fun, if a bit clunky (the d-pad from the joy-cons probably didn't help, admittedly), and it is a challenge to clear each screen of enemies... but the fact is that I never really found anything of note, beyond a couple of caves with shops inside. I did die 5 times, however. I also know, from cultural osmosis, that several clues are super cryptic (some relying on the instinct of "oh, maybe this bush/wall can be burned/bombed"), and that the dungeons should be completed in order, despite the open-ended structure. I can see that this is a game that requires a lot of investment on my part, and if I was still the age of drawing maps for pen&paper adventures, I'd likely be more into this. Sadly, not only do I lack the time for that, I never really played video games that way. Furthermore, the idea of exploring a whole big map, only to be told that the dungeons have a set order does not appeal to me. As such, I conclude that this is just not for me either. Next, a game that I thought would capture me more: Zelda 2 - The Adventure of Link. This one's structure is more linear, even if still cryptic, so I thought I'd be able to progress a bit more. Indeed, I played it for two sessions. Took me a bit long to reach the first palace, and once I did... I realized the true horror of this game: combat sucks, it's really unfun. Link feels a tad slippery, and his sword got no range. Not too bad when you're dealing with random encounters in the overworld, but in the labyrinthic palaces? Where it feels more like a gauntlet than a maze? Every single slime I barely couldn't stab, meant another blow onto Link's health, and nobody drops health in this game. Plus, the palace is huge, but there's no map. I had such a bad experience with the first palace (I ended up relying on rewind just to drag myself to the boss), I realized I wasn't going to enjoy this one. I now second anybody who says this game should be remade, just make combat bearable, please. (For the record, I'm not discarding the possibility of revisiting any of the games mentioned above. I just understand I need a specific mentality to handle any one of them) Finally, a strong note to end on: Kirby's Adventure. I had played the remake on GBA, but never the original. I always felt like the GBA game was a simple, but forgettable game, so I was never in a rush to play this one. Well, I can honestly say that the NES game is actually much better than the GBA remake! This is partly due to perspective: a short Kirby game on the GBA is inherently less impressive than a game that pushed the NES to its limit, and did things no other title on the system was doing. But it's also just how much more charming Kirby is on the NES, how the silent storytelling feels more at home on the NES, and just how marvelous some graphical tricks feel here. Taking this title on its own merits, I had a lovely time beating it and trying to 100% it (had to look up a guide for one of the secrets, I'll admit), it was that enjoyable. Unlocked a Hard Mode by the end, but that'll be a story for another time. 5 stars (As a bonus, here's Sakurai's take on his own game) A Party of Marios I mean, I played Mario Party before... Mario Party 4, that is! Plus, a couple of matches from the Switch titles. One thing that I remember from the Gamecube days is that a lot of people kept saying that N64 Mario Party was sooo much better, and I got curious. I certainly have my own set of gripes with MP4, and thanks to the NSO, I can now compare for myself, with a single match of each. No more fitting trilogy for Mar10 day. Mario Party 1 is definitely the first of its kind. Mini-games attribute coins seemingly at random (and sometimes they take coins from the losers), there's no items, and the only real choices you get to make involve branching paths on the board. This party feels anarchic. Mario Party 2 is bonkers. Now there's items, but god damn, so many mini-game spaces! Battle mini-games, item mini-games, Koopa banks abd Bowser collecting random taxes left and right... Compared to MP1, the rules of the game are better defined, and mini-game rounds are more consistent, but it's somehow more insane, I could barely keep up with it. The costumes are cute, though. This party feels reactionary. Mario Party 3 is much more reasonable. Mini-games and items feel balanced, there's fewer wacky events happening all the time, and there's a semblance of strategy now. Also, a Story Mode, but I know that's not fun in this series Anyway, after a match of multiple strategic decisions where I barely managed to eek an advantage in the last 3 turns, the game decided to award 3 stars to the CPU in last place, making them the winner, and rendering the previous 20 turns pointless. This party feels corrupt. General pros: These 3 games are really fast-paced, that's pretty cool. The menus are really creative and charming too; General cons: Mario Party 4 is sooo much better. ------------------------------ And with that, I have officially cleared over half of the N- What's that? Nintendo just added 3 Game Boy games this week? Instead of clearing that threshold, I'm now exactly one game short from clearing half? ... Dr.Mario (Game Boy) is exactly the same game as the NES version, except the pills are white, black, and gray. That's cute. And with that, I have officially cleared over half of the NSO! 120 games down, only 119 to go, baby!
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4 pointsA good tip when starting out is to focus on only a few weapons and constantly upgrading those at every opportunity, rather than collecting lots of different ones and therefore having a bunch of weaker attacks. Garlic is a great choice though, especially if you can combine it with the books that rotate around your character and the holy water. Get those 3 running simultaneously and powered up and you’ll be laughing. For most people (as has been mentioned) getting all the achievements is considered the end of the game. I have 100% completion on my Steam copy with around 50 hours playtime. Not sure if it’s still the case, but they used to add new unlocks/achievements with each update and DLC which would lower your achievement percentage, a lot of people were complaining about that though so it might be done differently now. Personally it never bothered me much and I actually looked forward to unlocking the new ones each time, but obviously some people just want to reach the end and be done with the game.
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4 pointsI still check in often to read the Nintendo board and the Gaming Diary, but I went back and listened to episode 50 when I saw Wacker's post and wanted to say thanks. If you want the first hot take from me in a good three years, I hope Nintendo delays the launch of Switch 2 for as long as possible. I'm good with what we've got right now.
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4 pointsThis was a really fun episode to record. Thanks for bringing back good memories, Wacker.
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4 pointsSo this spiralled unbelievably out of control. I called the doctors the other day, explained that I have tunnel vision and worsening anxiety, and that I believe it's a mental health issue but don't know for certain so would like to discuss it with a doctor either over the phone or in person. They said there are no appointments left for today, which I said is totally understandable, and it's not something I need right away as I have dealt with it for a long time, if they could just book me in for a few weeks time, or even a few months time, that's fine, but they said that's not possible, and the only way to get an appointment was to call every day at 8am and try to get one on the day. A few days now I have tried that but with no luck, so today I decided to try 111, I thought it's a non-emergency and they might be able to just give me advice over the phone. I explained my symptoms, just saying that my tunnel vision is getting much worse whenever I leave the house, then she started asking questions, a lot of which started to point towards mental health. I have had mental health issues and counselling before, and I'm used to being open with my therapists after years of keeping things bottled up, so when asked if I'm suicidal I said "no", but then she asked if I ever had suicidal thoughts, and I said yes, I have suicidal ideation, to which she had a clear tonal shift and said she needs to get in touch with the mental health crisis line and is about to put me on hold, so I stopped her and said "I have suicidal ideation, I have for years, it comes and goes, I know how to cope with it and would never actually do anything, it's intrusive thoughts kind of thing, can flare up when my anxiety is worse", anyway she goes on to put me on hold for 20 minutes, she comes back on the phone and says I need to go to A&E, am I able to get there, and do I think I will harm myself or anyone else on my way there, do I need transport there, and that I need to get there within 4 hours. I again try to explain my situation a bit better, but alas, I go to A&E. I go to A&E and wait for about 3 hours after signing in, and man, if I wasn't sure how to explain my anxiety symptoms, that was the perfect place to put me to make literally all of them flare up to 100% lol, it was super full, screaming adults, screaming kids (obviously no judgement there, just explaining the surroundings) and considering I get anxiety in general public places, somewhere as frantic as that is obviously going to make them worse, and I'm stood basically in the middle of the room as there's nowhere to sit and people leaning on the walls. I'm spiralling in my head a bit at this point, worried about whether they think I'm suicidal and they won't let me leave. I google various things (the number 1 thing not to do in panic mode lol) about what would happen if I left A&E before being seen if it's for a mental health issue (as my anxiety was FULL ON at this point and I just wanted to be alone), , to which I see things that say the police might come to the house and take you back, and other things about going to A&E, having a psychiatric assessment and being kept in some ward. I realise I'm spiralling and put my phone on airplane mode and just read the subtitles that are on the TV, which happens to be Dragons Den (that show is on a real decline, man). I get called into triage and am finally able to explain the whole situation a lot better. The triage person there said she thinks it's a mental health issue, as if it was a physical sight condition my optician would have picked up on it. It's not something A&E can deal with, but she also can see it's not any immediate danger and I'm clearly just having a worse time than usual, and that I should get in touch with my doctors and "demand to have an appointment booked in for a few weeks time". I then explained what had happened when trying to do that previously and she said that I must insist that I get an appointment and that they will eventually cave. Anyway, they said I'm fine to go home and to book the appointment when I can, so thankfully I only ended up spending 3/4 hours there. I'm home now and just relieved to be sat here on my laptop lol. I will follow their advice and get an appointment booked in, and in the meantime just try to relax for a bit and not inadvertently get myself fucking sectioned or something. It's getting myself into situations like this which is WHY I go so long not asking for help, I feel like I can't explain myself to people properly without me downplaying it and getting totally dismissed or not explaining it well and having it blown out of proportion. I'm just glad I got a taxi there and didn't tell anyone at the time, so I haven't had to cause any drama with friends or family over what ended up being nothing. But yeah, instead of getting help for my mental health from 111 today I basically got given a fucking anxiety endurance test lol.
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4 pointsPlastic tat as far as the eye can see! It's my dream, @Ashleys nightmare: https://www.n-europe.com/news/luigis-mansion-2-hd-bundles-announced/ I believe the diorama is the same one that used to be available on Club Nintendo when the 3DS game came out! The wobbly Luigi is brand new!
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4 pointsI’m sure there’s a porn shop or two out there that would disagree with you.
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4 pointsDr. Mario, Mario Golf GBC and Mario Tennis GBC come to NSO on March 12th.
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4 pointsAeroGauge JP release: 19th December 1997 NA release: 30th April 1998 PAL release: 1st May 1998 Developer: Locomotive Corporation Publisher: ASCII N64 Magazine Score: 10% A futuristic racing game, on the same lines of Wipeout, F-Zero and Extreme-G. N64 gave AeroGauge an abysmal score of 10% so I was expecting something especially dreadful from it, but I kind of enjoy it. There are some ways where it’s near enough broken and, like many N64 racers, is light on content, but this is close to being a good game. AeroGauge does have some extreme problems. The AI players are the biggest one due to how they’re essentially “perfect”, from all of them pulling off the boost start to just all doing the perfect route throughout the level. One slight mistake and you’ll spend the whole race in last place. The boost start itself is needlessly complicated (hold A+B before the race starts, let go of B when “go” is said) as well as the in-race boosts (hold Z+A, drift turn, then let go of Z+A and press A), both feeling like cheat codes more than part of the game. These issues fundamentally break playing against the computer. However, the racing itself is just a lot of fun. You don’t drive or hover, you fly through the levels. This separates it from the other sci-fi racing games, and the game managed to be quite exhilarating, even in the fairly pointless time trial qualifying rounds before each race. Oh, and one of the unlockable vehicles is a Nintendo 64 controller, which is a really neat touch – especially as the analogue stick moves as you tilt it. AeroGauge definitely has major issues, but there are some neat ideas here and it really needed a bit more development time. Remake or Remaster? I would like to see another attempt at this. Fix the AI issues to make them more like real people, sort out the various boosts and some more tracks. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play AeroGauge
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4 pointsThere's an old Yamauchi interview from 2001 doing the rounds on Era. The salty PS2 quote and his answer about online gaming are hilarious but the majority of what he says is scary accurate about what we are seeing in the industry today. All hardware being the same, ballooning development costs, diminishing returns on visuals, looks over gameplay, all true today.
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4 pointsFlying Dragon JP release: 18th December 1997 NA release: 31st July 1998 PAL release: 25th July 1999 Developer: Culture Brain Publisher: Culture Brain (JP), Natsume (NA/PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 73% A fighting game that feels like it was built with home consoles in mind. This features a more cartoon style than most and adds RPG elements into the mix in the form of items to equip and upgrade. This is a very promising system, but ultimately the fighting itself lets it down. To progress, you repeatedly play tournaments. You’ll get experience for your items as well as money to buy new ones (which can include new special moves). While some of these include clothing, it only affects your stats, not the visuals of your character. As you play more matches, these will “evolve” into new items. It creates a good incentive to play the story mode repeatedly, even if it does feel the same every time – not even the text dialogue at the start of each match changes. There are a bunch of other modes, such as practice and multiplayer modes, so there are plenty of things to do – it’s just that the gameplay itself isn’t up to scratch for it. But Flying Dragon also includes a second fighting game. An additional mode, called “Virtual Hiryu” is also available as a much more traditional fighting game. This features a different cast of characters in a different visual style – more generic taller characters. This lacks the RPG elements but does have other features such as a “grading” system telling you what to do. The fighting feels very similar and still isn’t very good – this one felt even easier to cheese with button mashing, too. In a way, this feels like they didn’t have enough confidence in their main mode and wanted a “normal” way to play as well. Flying Dragon has some interesting features, and is essentially two games in one – the second containing more features and options than most other fighters so far on the N64. It’s just unfortunate that it’s not that fun to play. Remake or Remaster? In Japan, the “Hiryū no Ken” series that this is part of has many games, so a collection to preserve them would be good. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Flying Dragon
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4 pointsChameleon Twist NA release: 9th December 1997 JP release: 12th December 1997 PAL release: December 1997 Developer: Japan System Supply Publisher: Sunsoft N64 Magazine Score: 70% While Chameleon Twist came out in America and Europe, I played a Japanese copy with an English translation patch. The western versions seem to be based on an earlier build, perhaps sent off to the localisation teams before the game was fully ready. The Japanese version has some more challenging rooms (for example, the screenshot above is just an empty room with collectables in the other versions), the multiplayer powerups added into the main game and some unlockable characters. The story is pretty much non-existent. A regular chameleon sees the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland jumping into a pot and decides to follow, turning into the big headed thing in the game. From there, you go through the levels, killing everything in your path. When you start the game, you’ll test out the moves. The tongue is very impressive as you can move it as it extends. I was expecting lots of puzzle use with it, but unfortunately the game isn’t very inventive. The tongue is used for four moves. The first lets you swallow enemies to spit them out as bullets Then you can latch onto poles, from there, you can pull yourself towards it or spin around. Finally, you can push yourself upwards for a high jump that’s very awkward to use. You don’t gain any extra abilities and it doesn’t have the usage of Mario’s move set to keep itself interesting across the game. Being able to move the tongue seems more like something added just to combat the terrible aiming in the game. The biggest difficulty in Chameleon Twist is the camera. Moving it twists it in really strange ways and it’s very difficult to judge jumps and to target where you’re shooting. The game itself is quite simple – especially due to how few moves you have – although to get the boss rush mode, you have to find lots of the crowns hidden throughout the levels. Chameleon Twist is a nice start for a game. The game needs a bit more variety and a much better camera – hopefully these are fixed in the sequel. Remake or Remaster? An enhanced collection of the two games would be nice. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Chameleon Twist
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4 points… many eruptions of screaming laughter were had at my expense… … worth it
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4 points
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4 pointsGlad to hear someone else enjoying this game. Link’s Awakening DX was my first GameBoy Color game (the first handheld game I ever owned), having bought the console to play this game alone, and I was not disappointed. I’ve finally gotten around to playing the Switch version, having put it off due to how close to the original I heard it was, and so offering very little actually new. I’m entering my 6th dungeon right now, and I agree with what’s been said in this thread, it plays it a little to safe and close to the original. The frame rate really does stutter in a lot of areas. I’m thankfully not too bothered by the drops and it hasn’t affected my enjoyment though. I’ve been a little disappointed in the dungeon maker, but I’m not sure what I was expecting. Part of the joy of Zelda dungeons is in solving its various puzzles and the mystery of what’s coming next. With the dungeon maker you use rooms you’ve already solved or explored, and there’s no mystery because you’ve designed it yourself. Overall though, I still love the game. The world design and how everything ties together and the new items/abilities allow you access to new areas is great. All while keeping the world small enough so that you’re never too far away from the next area, or if you fancy exploring then you won’t have to wander around for hours. Ok, onto the next dungeon. Spoiler-free question for those who have completed it - is it still worth finishing it without dying?
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4 points
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4 pointsJust sat and watched this classic. It's still amazing after all these years later.
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4 pointsAgreed with much of the rest of your post, but my fingers are itching to type an answer to this one. Because boys and young men from ages 10-25 are statistically the most vulnerable audience when it comes to what this industry preys on: free time, escapism, and disposable income. This isn't to say that women or younger children or older folk can't have addictions, or any other myriad of problems, at all, but there have been a LOT of growing trends over the last decade which more and more papers have been published about and has research has been completed on, and it's so scarily obvious why this industry targets this particular demographic. It's late so I'm not going to go for the most relevant or up-to-date findings, just what I can find relatively quickly: Here's an old graph from 2020 showing just how many more women are attending university than men. Here's an article on men's mental health which suggests a bunch of reasons why male:female ratios of depression and suicide are probably inaccurate, and it's largely down to men being more likely to avoid reporting or trying to find a solution to the problem, and being more likely to look for some form of escape. Here's a piece on men being nearly twice as likely to form an addiction than women, and being more likely to abuse that addiction. Men are more likely to be competitive than women. Again, to be clear, I'm not highlighting these articles to say that one side has it worse than the other or what have you, but to highlight that men - and young, developing men, for obvious reasons - are a prime audience to aim your products at if you're a game publisher. More likely to have free, unstructured time (relatively fewer men in and graduating from university)? More likely to become addicted? More likely to be competitive (and thus spend said aforementioned free, unstructured time getting better at something)? More likely to look for an escape than to tackle a problem? It all forms this horrible cycle which makes a certain male demographic a hotbed of potential whales for these companies. This is before we even get into the systems at play (mechanically) in and around (microtransactions) gaming which rewards the players (sweet monkey lizard brain dopamine) in ways which makes certain games so difficult to move on from. There's also now an additional element these days of compulsion and FOMO as games are very regularly updated with new and exciting challenges on an increasingly regular basis. League of Legends, Call of Duty, Fortnite, FIFA, and so on and so forth, there's a reason that they're all as big as they are, and large swathes of the rest of the industry (AAA obviously in particular) is at best guilty of following suit by following their lead and going for the same demographic with the same tactics, or at worst, recognising the vulnerabilities of this demographic and launching at them full force. In most AAA cases, it's probably a bit of both. I simply don't think there's as much money to be made from targeting a female or older audience in particular, and so much of what a younger audience can access is determined by their parents or guardians. I think of it as being similar to how Nintendo marketed the Switch completely right: their ads include older teens and young adults, not children or older adults, because there's that "they're cool, I want to be like them" factor to it (obviously it's an ad and it's effect differs from person to person, but that's absolutely their strategy with their marketing). For the female demo? It's often either a case that girls are included in the ads or there's an air of "I can do that, too. And maybe even better" if they're not, which can persist because of the way in which young women have been raised over the last decade or two in a world with a huge increase in feminist movements, causes and efforts – you don't even really need to target a female audience in some ways (and I don't think you'll win a new-to-gaming female demo over for countless reasons, the first of which being your ad probably won't even get on their radar to begin with). Unless the game is targeted directly at a female demo (which often, unfortunately, falls into some sort of stereotyping), I don't think women care nearly as much about a game not being aimed at them as men might (this is anecdotal, obviously). I've gone on long enough, but basically, well, they're just preying on the statistically more vulnerable demographic. It's disgusting but, well, shareholders mean this kind of has to be the aim for most these days
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4 pointsWhelp! Guess that confirms that the rumours about the Nintendo Partner Direct getting pushed back to make room for the Xbox Obituary were true Ain’t no way that they originally planned to have two separate Direct events within a week of each other. Dare I hope for a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? Or is it time for the Black & White remake perhaps?
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4 pointsMoe/Nintendo by like... In all seriousness though, this is Iwata's warning coming around for a second shot. He warned about high development costs when HD development started, causing many layoffs and developers to close their doors. What we are seeing here is history repeat itself, except this time we have the added bonus of an oversaturation of games on the market. Let's be honest, did we really need the PS5 and Xbox Series X? Not really. Yes, it's nice to have faster loading times but neither of these consoles have justified their existence in my eyes. The fact that so many games are still being made for the PS4 adds weight to this argument. It still feels like these consoles have yet to get off the ground and we have both Sony and Microsoft talking about their next offerings. It's nuts. As someone who was born in 82, I got to see developers push things like the C64 and NES to the limits and also find creative ways around the limitations of these machines. How many of the consoles in recent years have been able to punch above their weight thanks to developers thinking outside the box or creating a game with limitations in mind? Not many and this was probably due to them not having the time to get to grips with the machines before the next one was announced.
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4 pointsSumo 64 JP release: 28th November 1997 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Bottom Up Publisher: Bottom Up Original Name: 64 Ōzumō N64 Magazine Score: 90% N64 Magazine gave this Japanese-only sumo wrestling a rather impressive 90%. Even so, I was surprised as to how much I actually enjoyed this. Unfortunately, there is no fan patch for this game but thankfully Google Lens did a pretty good job at translating the dialogue – it was a bit odd in places, but I got the general gist of it. And, surprisingly, there really is a lot of dialogue, as this has a fully fledged story mode – not just pitting you against other fighters like every other fighting game, but a proper story about you joining the professional Sumo wrestling and your life outside of the ring. You’ll encounter good or bad events based on how you perform in the matches. Each match is extremely short but very fast paced. The game suggests optimal moves, but you can also do your own thing. To be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing most of the time and there was a lot of button mashing, but I did deduce that there was a rhythm to the fighting, and performing moves in time to your opponent’s bar flashing is what triggers your finishing moves. The matches are only on average 30 seconds but extremely frantic and they are surprisingly a lot of fun. As you defeat higher ranked opponents, you’ll gain stars which let you achieve a higher rank, with your goal being to be the best Sumo wrestler. After each tournament, you can also play a minigame. There are five minigames: sleeping, eating, training, jumping and fishing. The first four are short, enjoyable distractions while I couldn’t figure out the fishing at all. They’re a nice, relaxing change of pace for a quick breather before the next tournament. Sleeping has you rolling around a little island collecting stars, eating has a judge calling out food you need to grab before your opponent, training is a “simon says” and jumping has you moon jumping high in the air, bouncing off trampolines and clouds as you pop balloons. Between some individual matches and tournaments, you’ll progress in the story. To begin with, it seems like a bunch of random events as your character interacts with a few different girls (eventually going on dates with all of them), rivals and a few other characters. I am not sure how much your performance in the game affects the outcome, but one girl (Akira) eventually suggests marriage – which was surprising as my main character had stood her up on two dates. On one, he overslept, on another, he forgot and had a date with someone else. The only direct choice was choosing your response to the marriage, although I suspect that saying you want to concentrate on your Sumo for now has the same end result, as if you say yes, Akira suggests waiting until you’re at the top anyway. However, the encounters and dialogue are charming on their own. As you approach the high ranks, the story becomes more plot focused as you get attacked and then discover a “Dark Sumo” illegal gambling ring. You shut it down (you still have no input on this, it’s just dialogue) and the leader vows revenge – which he does on his wedding day as he kidnaps your wife. The ending is both utterly absurd and wonderfully charming at the same time as you have your final fight with this villain and his “ultimate body”. Sumo 64 is a combination of really enjoyable short fighting mixed with charming dialogue (which would probably be even better if it got a proper translation). If you understand Japanese or are willing to point your phone at your TV a lot, this is a surprisingly great game. Remake or remaster? There is another Sumo game in this series on N64, so a compilation of both with a proper translation would be grea Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Sumo 64
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4 pointsMy Disney+ is ending next month and this being the case, over the past two weeks I've been watching the MCU films from the very start and today I reached and finished Endgame. It's been a hell of a ride. Watching all of these back to back highlighted just what a mess everything post Endgame has been. The original phases had a core group of characters (Cap, Thor and Iron Man) that the stories really centered around. You then had the other characters come into the franchise in what felt like an organic and not forced way. Every film and post credit scene seemed to be made with purpose that pushed the main narrative forward. Fast forward to where they are at now and the difference between the phases is night and day. For example, just how many post credit scenes have we got that have yet to land anywhere? Very few of the films seem to connect in any meaningful way. Also, the main characters I mentioned from the original phases popped up numerous times across multiple films. This allowed the audience to get to know them and keep them in their minds. This hasn't been the case with the newer phases. The one thing I disliked about the original run of films was the inclusion of Captain Marvel. This was true when they first released and it remains the same now. She's too OP and didn't really fit with the rest of the characters that had been built up well over the years. Thor was the MVP of the whole thing. Dude is absolutely hilarious but is also involved in my favorite epic moments in the franchise. Him becoming worthy in the original Thor film, his arrival on Earth with Stormbreaker, his hammer going to Cap, his awakening during the end battle of Ragnarok...fantastic stuff. I'm still amazed that Marvel pulled off what they did with these films. 10 years of build up, with very few of the films being a miss, but also bringing everything to a satisfying ending. I honestly can't see me seeing something like this happen again in my lifetime. So many movie studios have tried and failed to copy this formula, Marvel included, and none of them have been able to recapture the magic.
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4 pointsI think you may need to say more.
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4 points
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4 pointsNintendo Direct: Partner Showcase 21/02/2024 Roundup Now up on the main page. Joint effort roundup article, featuring an excellent, detailed writeup by @Josh64 (plus some useful time-stamps for each title in the video) And the usual formatted press release. A decent direct overall.
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4 pointsI look forward to hearing how you get on with it. It does seem very much to depend on your connection speeds. In other news...
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4 pointsWoud like to see: Metal Slug Tactics. Shiren on the reel! Suikoden slotted in. Eiyuuden too. SaGa Emerald Beyond shown to the masses. Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!! comes west, feels good. Jack Black singing a Bowser cartoon into existence. These are not my demands because I couldn't give much of a fig what's shown—I'm already well stocked for games so I'm just content the release calendar will be ticking over. And since third parties have brought the goods on Switch where possible, a Partner Direct is as welcome as anything. Whatever is in it, I'm expecting a good showing (by my assessment, anyway) and anything I want to get from it will be an annoying bonus. Personally, the scheduling isn't ideal, but when is it ever for these? Will go dark and enjoy it after the fact. This would be such a snub to the rabbids. I could see it happening with Nintendo's new movie making partners.
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4 pointsPuyo Puyo Sun 64 JP release: 31st October 1997 NA release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Compile Publisher: Compile N64 Magazine Score: 80% My main experience with Puyo Puyo is Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine – a game I couldn’t enjoy because of colourblind issues, so I was dreading playing this one. However, in the options, you can adjust the colours of the different Puyo, even going as far as completely greyscale and relying on the (a bit too minor when the game goes fast) different shapes completely. With the options set to how I like them…I actually really enjoy Puyo Puyo. It’s geared towards a 1v1 setup, as creating sets of four will send bad beans to the opponent’s screen – but if you score combos, you’ll send a load at once. This creates a risk factor as you can try to set up elaborate combos (something I’m not good at) but wait too long, and your opponents will scupper your plans with some bad blocks. The story mode has you battling lots of colourful characters as you get amusing little snippets before each match, with some nice animation. It’s all very silly, but also quite entertaining – and there’s more swearing in this than Duke Nukem 64 (while the voice acting is in Japanese, a few words are in English, including the swearing). The story mode has you battling lots of colourful characters as you get amusing little snippets before each match, with some nice animation. It’s all very silly, but also quite entertaining, with lots of unfortunate events happening to absolutely everyone. Of course, every problem in life can be solved by a Puyo Puyo battle. There’s also a good amount of different modes. Puzzle Puyo is essentially a training mode, giving you a guide to help you set up combos, and you can then test out these skills in a mission mode, which gives you tasks but you have to figure it out yourself. There are also endless, tournament and versus modes, giving you plenty to deal with. I have not played any later Puyo Puyo games so I don’t know how this compares, but I found this to be genuinely entertaining and it was a blast to play. Remake or remaster? A collection and official localisation of the earlier Puyo Puyo games would be nice. Official ways to get the game. While there are newer Puyo Puyo games, this particular version is not available anywhere. And some completely random trivia - the name of Puyo Puyo Sun in this Saturn Power review - they called it Ijidkijidk Sun, mistaking the Japanese on the box for English characters.
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3 pointsActually, I think this is my preferred solution. I like stages where some characters might have an inherent advantage, it can make the random character choice feel a bit more dynamic. In this case, having a "Safe Zone" for when someone gets a Final Smash or an item that is immensely powerful, but temporary, like the hammer, to escape to, is fine by me. But you do need a Gentleman's Agreement to not bring the pace of the match to an absolute halt by exploiting it.
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3 pointsSeems a good a time as any to revisit the N-E Cafe Podcast and the chance I got to talk affectionately about Mario Golf GBC 😄 YouTube link Thanks @nekunando for your patience and the enjoyable chat back then. Listening back there were some responses I still cringe at, but it was fun nonetheless! Thanks @Londragon too for keeping the chat on the internet!
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3 points
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3 pointsMy anxiety has ALWAYS been an issue, and I have a million bloody coping mechanisms, tablets and breathing techniques to keep on top of it, but after 15ish years I'm just absolutely exhausted with it. I looked on the NHS app and website about booking an appointment but there's nothing on there, so I will look at ringing the doctors on Monday for an appointment. I'm not sure what I will say, but I feel like I need to talk to them as things are definitely getting worse, for example: Whenever I leave the house I get tunnel vision. I know, or I have always assumed, that this is a side effect of my anxiety. This past week it has been absolutely absurd though, there was a day at work that I genuinely felt partially blind as I was bumping into things and not realising when people were stood right next to me. I could not make out faces beyond arms length, and everywhere, at best, looked like Skyward Sword in SD. I do have glasses, and I know my site can be fine, as when I'm at home I can see perfectly fine. I'm really struggling the last week or so to keep going to work, keep getting up in the morning, and to keep on top of things that I took on which I usually enjoy, such as painting/drawing and posting on the front page of N-E. In general I just feel like lying on the floor and giving up with everything lol. Work keep disrespecting my boundaries, and I'm not being heard at all. I hate talking about my anxiety or bringing it up, but I have on a few occasions, in writing and in availability meetings, to say "I need 3 days off a week, it helps knowing I have three days off a week and makes my anxiety more manageable" but consistently they put me in 5 days a week, and they have again for the following 3 weeks. I'm on a 16 hour contract lol, which is part of the reason I took the job, being that it's short hours which I can do extra when I can, so I think I'm well within my rights to refuse or query it, but again, it's just so fucking exhausting having to constantly do it, bring it up, ask for it, when I have gone through official channels to rectify the issue before it comes up. I feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall. And I feel like a failure, inadequate and like I'm letting people down when I have to consistently tell them I need the rota changing because they consistently refuse to listen to my requests. I know doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is a sign of insanity, and so on the one hand I think I should just give my notice in and leave. But I know I'm too scared and too exhausted to find a new job and meet a new set of people. But work is work and I've always been a bit scatty with it, it's the fact that I'm struggling to stay on top of anxiety in my personal life again that is worrying me. I didn't mean to rant lol, but I don't feel like trauma dumping on friends, and I don't know how to express myself well at the best of times, and it has always been easier to explain how I feel on these forums lol.
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3 points
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3 pointsGreat games last night! My secret trap on the R.O.B stage didn't quite work out as I planned: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2079492913?t=0h3m20s That was some seriously quick thinking by @Glen-i there, nicely done. Also, I go and add a floor to the DK stage to make it more difficult to fall off and look at this: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2079492913?t=0h11m22s Evil. And last but not least: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2079492913?t=0h37m24s "That went well"
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3 points
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3 pointsIf it makes you feel any better, Balatro is my personal favourite game for you that you've played this year so far
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3 pointsNo Mother 3, but here are your Earthbound Beginnings icons To make matters worse/funnier/waaaaaaaaaay more cruel, icons for Earthbound are due out for a week from the 29th, and for Mother 3 for a week from the 7th (March)...at least in Japan, don't think we've had full confirmation of what's going on over here just yet (at least at the time of writing), but I would assume it's the same deal. Which makes it potential even worse/funnier/way, way more cruel; are we really about to see Mother 3 icons drop in the West in 2 weeks' time, despite the game having never released over here?
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3 pointsI used to enjoy playing the older games on the Wii. I remember there was a feature on them to play MP3's off of the SD card, so I made a little playlist of water themed music from other video games, like the water music from Donkey Kong Counry and Dire Dire Docks from Mario 64. It should be interesting to see how online mode works.
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3 points
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3 pointsI've been picking away at this since it released and I absolutely love it. I spent a good few minutes just listening to the theme music at the title screen. Beautiful. I'm 7 levels in so far and it's been a joy to play through this again. The precision platforming is something that you just don't really see these days. It can be punishing (made easier in this version due to being able to save anywhere) but also very satisfying when pulling off a series of jumps and climbs. Despite being years since I last played these games, I still remember the technique of slowly walking to the edge, doing a back jump and then running, jumping and grabbing a ledge. Even though the game has been given a lick of paint and runs better with the modern visuals, I'm still playing it with the original graphics setting and lower frame rate. Just feels right playing it this way and is more like how I remember it. The new look does look quite nice and fits well with how the game looked back then but I just prefer the blocky, original look. When playing this I was thinking about the Horizon games and modern games in general and how they handle single play adventures. The original Tomb Raider is a very solitary experience, with Lara being on her own most of the time. Had this been a modern game then Lara would be constantly chatting to herself or pointing things out but that's not the case here. Instead, the player is left on their own to figure things out and to just soak up the atmosphere. This is something I certainly appreciate more now having played a lot of the chatty, modern games. There are a couple of niggles with the game though. the Load Game option is what pops up at default rather than Save Game. This has caused myself and many others to end up loading a previous save rather than saving the game. Doh. The other issue is that sometimes the game's lighting can be a little off and areas appear too dark. I get around this by switching to the modern graphics and then switching back. I know others have had issues with the modern graphics making items difficult to see but seeing as I opted to play with the original visuals, this hasn't been an issue for me. The trophy list is quite the doozy and reminds me of the modern Resident Evil games in that it's going to take multiple play throughs in order to get the platinum. Speed running the game in 5 hours, killing every enemy in the game, breaking every floor that collapses, find not just every secret but every item, saving less than 86 times...yeah, lots to do.
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3 points