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Downloaded this on a whim. I've never been able to really get into Mario Tennis even though I enjoy the real sport and I love the idea it kind if just never happened. I remember there was one Mario Tennis game I enjoyed, I think on the N64 but I never properly bought into the series. I... love Love LOVE this. I've honestly not had this much laugh-out-loud fun playing a game in ages. It's relatively easy to pick up, although I'm hoping in the final game it goes into shot selection a little more and reveals it's almost hidden mechanics a little more, too (like placing your body in relation to the racket hit, shot timing, how taunting benefits you over a whole match, etc,.). I'm sure it will with its single campaign and all, so that's not an issue – I just have high hopes and it looks like I won't be let down. I have a couple issues. Rosalina is a bullshit character. I hate that she floats. It makes reading her shifting momentum frustratingly hard to read and she can curve shot like a mo-fo, which compounds the matter. Maybe I just need to play a few more matches against her but my first impressions of here were that she has an annoying Oddjob advantages to her. Maybe this was just me. Did anyone else have this issue? Second issue, as many of you have pointed out, is the online. It can be good, but it can be abjectly awful (when it's good it's good so when it's bad it feels brutally unfair). I like that you can choose your opponent and avoid really crap connections, but I think I only ever encountered one person with 4 bars – the rest were 3 bars and I rejected anyone lower. So it was nice to have that kind of control, I really appreciate that. But, the connection just shouldn't be that unreliable. And I think without fail, the connection always degraded as the match went on. It never seemed to improve. If Nintendo want to charge for its online, this cannot continue. Ignoring the online issue, I had some super intense and fun matches. Trying to read the opponent was a lot of fun. I ended up in a massive rally against someone who seemed about my level and we basically pulled out every trick in the book. I had a full charge bar but decided to keep it in the pocket and managed to lob him for the point. Felt super satisfying to be a part of. I kind of wish there was a way of communicating in game in the same was as Rocket League or Overwatch. I know you can taunt but I think like a 'Well played' line would be cool, or something like that. (The cynic in me thinks someone would find a way to abuse it.) Anyway, super excited for this. I wish it was out this week. But whatever, it's pre-ordered.

Having finished the game, as well as putting a fair bit of time into the post game island, I figured I would post my thoughts. Last week was a big week for Pokemon fans. There was the announcement of the next big games in the Pokemon franchise in Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, both of which will release this November. But what about Pokemon fans who are wanting something to play on their Switch right now? Sure, Pokken Tournament is out but it's pretty old hat at this point. Luckily the Pokemon Company showed another game at this press event. Pokemon Quest was announced for the Switch and mobile devices and while mobile users will have to wait until June to play the game, Switch owners were treated to a shadow drop, with the game becoming available immediately on the eShop. So, is this free to start game enough to scratch that Pokemon itch or are people best off playing something else? NOTE: Full disclosure here. While the game is free to start, I did pay the full amount (around £28) on the game. Like other FTS Nintendo/Pokemon games, this game has a maximum amount that can be spent on the game. After that you are no longer able to spend any more. The game starts off with you setting sail on a little boat towards a place named Tumblestone Island. It's here where your Pokemon quest will start. Your first order of business is to give your Pokemon trainer a name, followed by picking a starter Pokemon for you to use. Seeing as this game only features the original 151, the starters on offer here include Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Eevee and Pikachu. The addition of Eevee and Pikachu are probably in order to help promote the newly announced games. For my play through of the game I chose Pikachu. The little mascot has always been a favourite of mine and I was happy to have him fighting by my side again. After selecting your Pokemon, the game then throws you straight into action and sets your Pokemon away on its journey. Your Pokemon moves through the map on it's own accord. It will always target the nearest Pokemon and then head towards it. While the player has no control over the movement of his Pokemon, he or she is in charge of what special attacks the Pokemon can do. Your Pokemon will have at least 1 special move that it can use. You do this by either using the control stick to hover the cursor over it and pressing the A button or you can simply press the touch screen to select it, which is my preferred method of playing the game. After using a special move it will take some time to recharge it. While your Pokemon is recharging these moves it will still do normal attacks, which, like its movement, it will do automatically. You can select an auto option which takes care of everything for you but it can be a bit hit or miss at times and I only recommend using it if you are confident your team can take on a stage without your supervision or if you simply want to do some grinding. Poor Beedrill didn't have a chance While fighting your way around the stage you will notice that Pokemon attack you in waves. The amount of waves on each stage is represented by boxes and these can been seen in the top right of the screen. Defeating Pokemon will fill up each of these boxes and once all of the smaller ones have been filled a large Pokemon will appear. This is the boss of the stage you are exploring and it hits a lot harder than standard Pokemon. If you defeat the boss you will clear the map and be able to move on to the next one. Once a boss is defeated you will be rewarded with a bunch of items that will help you out on your adventure. These come in the form of various ingredients and power stones. The ingredients can be used to lure Pokemon to your camp ( more on that later ) and the power stones are used to power up your Pokemon. The stones themselves offer various abilities, such as increasing your health and attack power or powering up the special moves you can do. Each of the Pokemon have a number of slots that these stones can be attached to. The ones that increase your health and attack power are tied to the level of your Pokemon. The higher level your Pokemon the more stones can be attached to it. Once one reaches level 100 you will be able to attach the full amount. The other stones can be attached to your Pokemon's special moves but this depends on the move itself. For example, a move that can increase the stats of your Pokemon can be attached with a stone that will enable this move to effect all Pokemon in your party. Another stone can be used to let you do a double attack but with the caveat that your move will take longer to recharge. These stones can be stacked on your Pokemon and can offer a great advantage in battle. One of my go to strategies was to use a move like Harden but by having a stone that lets it effect my whole team, as well as another that increases the amount time the effect of Harden stays on my Pokemon, meant I got the very best out of a single turn. The strategy on offer here gets incredibly complex as the game goes on but by looking out for these things early on can really give your team the edge. These stones are vital in giving your team the edge After tackling your first map you will be sent back to camp. As I mentioned earlier, you will get ingredients from the battles that you win. These ingredients can be used to expand your team. This is done by throwing them all in the mixing pot and then completing a number of quests. You see, to catch Pokemon in this game you need to lure them into your camp. Pokemon will smell the goodies you are cooking in your pot and after a number of quests have been completed they will pop in and join your team. What Pokemon and the level they are will depend on what pot and recipes you use. You start off with a normal cooking pot that will only attract low level Pokemon. Later in the game you will unlock new pots that will eventually attract Pokemon as high as level 100. The ingredients you use will dictate what Pokemon will visit your camp. There are a bunch of recipes to learn ( or you could look them up online ) and each of them will help you bolster your ranks. This comes in really handy if you are in need of a certain type of Pokemon for the up and coming stages. Need a fire type? Then use the recipe that attracts red Pokemon or fire types. Once the ingredients are in the pot then a number will appear above it. This is how many expeditions needing to be completed before the pot will finish cooking. You can actually fail the expedition and this will still count towards the counter. Also at the camp is the ability to set decorations around the area. These decorations offer a variety of bonuses for the player. Things like increasing the drop rates of ingredients, increasing your experience points from battles or attracting more Pokemon from a single session of your cooking pot. Some of these are earned by finishing the final stage in an area. These usually offer exp bonuses for Pokemon up to a certain level. Once obtained you can then place these decorations in your camp area. You don't actually have to place them ( once you have them in your inventory the effects will kick in ) but it's nice to see them placed around the area. You can also buy decorations but this requires the use of Pokemon Tickets. So, how do you earn these? Hopefully your camp will look much more ordered than mine Pokemon Tickets are the currency of the game. These can be earned by signing in on a daily basis. Every 22 hours the game will dish out a handful of new tickets and a new Pokemon will come visit your camp. There are also a bunch of quests that the game offers which also dish out the tickets. These quests come in 2 different styles. The first is Main quests. These are one time only challenges which usually comprise of beating a stage or cooking a certain amount of times. The other quests are Challenges. These are repeating quests that require players to defeat a certain type of Pokemon or getting a certain Pokemon type on your team. Completing these quests will add to your tickets tally, as well as give you more ingredients. Sticking with the camp area, there is another thing to play around with outside of the battling and this is the Edit Team option. The obvious thing to this is the ability to switch your Pokemon team about but there is something else on offer here. You can train your Pokemon to either learn a different move or level it up some more. Both of these are done by sacrificing a Pokemon for the greater good. First up is the Move Learning section. Lets say that I have a Pikachu that I would like to learn a different move. I could select a Pokemon to teach Pikachu a move but in doing so it would leave my team. If it's the same type as the Pokemon you are using then the move will be learned 100% of the time with a single Pokemon. However, if you use a different type then you may have to use several Pokemon to get the percentage up to an acceptable level. The downside to learning a move is that it is random which one is given to your Pokemon. I found it best to use low level Pokemon in this process, so nothing of value is really lost. The Level Up section works in a similar fashion. If you use a Pokemon of the same type then it will gain a substantial boost in experience. Use a different type and the amount you get is pretty rough and usually not worth the effort. The good thing about levelling up this way is that it is a lot faster than what it takes to level up by doing expeditions, especially if you use a Pokemon that is a higher level than the one you are wanting to level up. Neither Pokemon look thrilled to be part of the levelling up process Phew! I imagine that was a lot to take in but things certainly become very clear once you starting using these systems. With those out of the way, lets take a look at how the game progresses, shall we? The game has 11 areas to conquer, with another few more sets opening up in the post game. The areas start off by having only 3 or 4 stages but eventually these go up to 5 or 6. Each of the final stages has a battle with a harder boss fight than what you've previously fought in a stage. Defeat the boss and more areas will open up. Sometimes there are multiple areas that will open up at a single time. This helps players out because if you happen to get stuck on a certain stage then you can hop to another area and try one of those stages out. I had to do this a few times during my time with the game and it certainly helped me to stop being stuck in a single area for a long period of time. Each of the stages will show the player a recommended power level. This number is what your teams full power should at least be at. This number is calculated by how many of the power stones they are holding. So, the higher the level of the Pokemon, the more stones the Pokemon can hold, which the means the higher their power level will be, which in turn means that the harder stages will be able to be tackled. The harder the stage then the better the rewards. This is the gameplay loop that the game offers and I found it to be quite a fun one. But it doesn't end there. At the area select screen the game will let you know that there is a Type Bonus. This tells you that if you use a certain element type then you will gain a significant power boost for your team. This comes in super handy because you can compensate a lower power level by adding in a type advantage to your team. Have a team that is full of Pokemon with a type advantage and you should be able to tackle it at a level that is a lot lower than is recommended. Here's a small selection of the quests that the game offers Like most type of mobile games, Pokemon Quest hinders the way players can make progress in the game. At the top right of the screen you can see an energy/battery bar. This shows how many times you can play before needing to wait around half an hour for a single bar to fill back up. You can increase the bar with decorations so that you can get more turns before the gauge runs dry. If you don't want to wait that long then you can use 25 of your Pokemon Tickets to fill the meter back up, of course this means you will be using tickets that could be better saved for something else. If you buy the full package then you will gain a bunch of decorations from the start than upgrades the gauge and gives you around 190 tickets a day. This doesn't get rid of the limit altogether but it certainly does increase your play time substantially. Even if you have a bunch of tickets at your disposal it will still take a fair bit of time to get through the game. You will have to take advantage of the type advantages, switch your team up for in order to use certain moves, grind for ingredients to lure in more Pokemon and all of that is before you even start looking at filling in the Pokedex. There is a great amount of content on offer here and I imagine it's going to take a while to see all of what's on offer in the post game area. Conclusion Pokemon is an IP that is very diverse and that once again is shown with this title. If you choose to pay for the game then your experience will be a faster one than those who opt to show more patience. Whether you choose to take the faster route or not, what you will get here is a surprisingly deep game that requires players to think about team composition, base building and time management. I often have more fun with Pokemon spin-offs than I do with the main games and Pokemon Quest is no exception. This is one of the best Pokemon themed games I have played for a while and while I have completed the story mode, i'm still dipping in and out of the game in order to tackle the post game island. The game is free and I encourage everyone to at least give it a try. What have you got to lose?

I feel like we say that every year and every year they do enough to impress but it amounts to nothing. At this point it just seems like they need the next generation needs to hurry up and start for them for a blank slate.

Some are already enjoying this, while others, like me, are waiting for the physical release on 15 June. There's also the N-Europe review by @Vileplume2000! Really looking forward to this. It just looks too adorable, and I love some pinball action.

And we’re taking Welbeck

Yessss... not that I'm a backer or anything... just its finally here.

You wanna be careful though. Do that too often and someone might cop on and then fake you out by aiming the ball right at your face. Leaving you stylishly moving away from the ball. It's also worth noting that if someone decides to do a zone shot suddenly. Trick shots make it even harder to successfully block the ball. I've done that a few times already.

I found a good way to use them was to basically hug one side of the court, giving your opponent good reason to go for the wide open space and then when they fall for the invitation, just twinkle-toe moonwalk (because I'm playing as Waluigi) across the court and bam it back over for a pretty good chance of a winning shot and a nice bit of charge. Some trick shots are easier to pull off than others, too. So it might be worth using it more with some people. I played someone who was Toad who was annoying good at getting their Trick Shot.

Experience is invaluable

I agree with Charlie, go with the job that is actually in the field you want to be in. Because otherwise you might just end up being stuck in jobs you don't like if you don't want to take any risks. I was stuck in a call center type job for what seemed like ages. It was somewhat stable and meant a steady income, but I hated it. A job popped up for a part-time art/design type job, which was a lot more what I wanted to do. But it meant cutting my hours by half, so less money to pay the bills. I went for it though, and after a short time there went from working 2.5 days to 4 a week, to now 5 days a week (earning more than I did at the call center job). It was a risk to take the job, but I am happy I took it.

That's a great idea!

Take the risk and go for the job with better prospects.

*sigh* not more of this "games as a service" talk... and from Microsoft this time as well, the current mantra of the "triple aaayyy" publishers must be sticking. I feel that the Xbox brand would do better with more single player exclusives, which have a multiplayer element which is well-designed but optional. If a lot more developers take a leaf out of Capcom's book, with what they have achieved from Monster Hunter Worlds then, things could be a lot better.

I see Capcom have recently registered domains for Devil May Cry 5 and Resident Evil 2. DMC5 has long been rumoured to have a showing at Sony's press conference and Resident Evil 2 is certainly due a big reveal at this point. If both of these do end up turning up at E3 then i'm gonna be a very happy chappy.

Don’t judge. Just go woth the flow. Hey guys and galls. Fun...no the opposite of that. Horrible fact, salad does not absorb boose at all. Cause i speialed pretty quick last night to the close my eyes and try not to die stage. Im blaming the non absorency status of lettuce fkr that. Booze is best when drank quickly amd time delayed via pizza crust. My run may also have had an effect. Walking today has been....sore typically. But certainly possible. Did i mention yet im unemployed? Laid off. Possible strike imminent. So. I can do thinks like get drunk on weekdays and sleep in. Ill go back to work soon. Or strike iunno or care.

I snapped it up and have put a fair bit of time into it. Here are my thoughts on the game. I often get nostalgic when thinking about the Street Fighter games. Looking back at them sends me though a time warp and I can see myself through the ages, with each new iteration of the game highlighting a certain point in my life. Street Fighter II gets me thinking about playing the game in a local arcade as a kid, usually on a Saturday after a session in the swimming baths with my friends. It also reminds me of the Turbo edition that was released on the SNES. Getting the game in a special edition tin will always stick with me. Fast forward to the Saturn and Playstation era and along came the release of the Alpha series, which to this day remains my favourites out of all of the Street Fighter games. I used to play this a lot locally on both consoles with a friend of mine who still remains my best mate to this day. Lastly, the arrival of Street Fighter III takes me back to when I owned a Dreamcast and the joy that console brought to me with its arcade conversations. As you can see, I have certain amount of affection for the series. Ryu has come a long way since the original game You'll first have to decide on what mode you would like to play. Offline mode offers up things such as Arcade, Versus and Training. Local play allows you to create and join lobbies, as well as the ability to create local tournaments. Online mode lets players play ranked matches, casual matches, look at leaderboards, create lobbies or join friends. You can also select the experience level you are searching for when looking for opponents. As you can see, there are a lot of options and modes for people to play around with. However, not everything is fine and dandy with all of these modes. Over the past few days I have tried having a few online matches and the game seems to be pretty broken a lot of the time.Lobbies have a habit of hanging, meaning you have to quit out of the game, people are quitting mid-match if they are getting beat and finally, and probably the worst problem of them all, is that the game has major netcode issues. The game is VERY laggy a lot of the time, which is baffling when you consider that Capcom have already released a Street Fighter game on the Switch that played really well online. These issues aren't exclusive to the Switch version of the game. You just have to take a look around on the internet and you can see these issues cropping up on every platform the game got released on. Capcom have a lot of patching to do in order to get this in a state that is acceptable. "Do I have something on my foot?" The final mode on offer is the Museum. I love this! In here you can have a look at the Street Fighter timeline, showing when things like when the games, anime and comic books were released. There is also a characters section for you to have a look through. Here you can look at your favourite characters and read their biographies or look at each of their moves that they can pull off in each of the games they have appeared in. The music section has a cracking selection of tunes to listen to. You can go through each of the games and pick which tracks you specifically would like to listen to. The final option in this mode is a Making Of section. There is an insane amount of artwork and design documents for players to look through here and it's interesting to see what the thought process was for various designs in the series. Just one of the many amazing pieces of artwork in the museum Once you have decided on what mode you would like to play on it is time to select a game. On offer in this delightful bundle are 12 games to play, which include: Street Fighter Street Fighter II Street Fighter II Turbo Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers Super Street Fighter II Turbo Street Fighter Alpha Street Fighter Alpha 2 Street Fighter Alpha 3 Street Fighter III: The New Generation Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact Street Fighter III: Third Strike Phew! As you can see, there is lots on offer and something for everyone to enjoy. While most will have their favourite and gravitate towards that, I would still recommend playing through each of them, especially the original game. It certainly has not stood the test of time, unlike the rest of the collection, but it's worth trying at least once just to see how the series began. It's a very different experience! If kind of makes you wonder how the series went from that to the masterpiece that is Street Fighter II. Once the game has loaded up you will be presented with the title screen and it will then go straight into the character selection process. Pressing the + button will load up a bunch of options for you to have a play around with. You can save the game at any point and load it back up if something goes wrong. Not one for the purists but it's certainly a nice addition. You can also change the button layout on your controller or look at how to pull off certain special moves. There are also a bunch of options for how the game will be displayed. You can have it full screen, with borders or widescreen, as well as having a couple of options for filters. These options are available for every game in the collection and can be accessed in exactly the same way. Guy putting his Final Fight experience to good use Gameplay wise all of the games play exactly as they should. If you have played a Street Fighter game then you will be right at home with all of these games...well, expect maybe the original. With these being arcade versions of the games I found them to be a little more difficult than the home console conversations, however, you can actually tweak the difficulty settings. Before you start the game if you hit the Y button you can alter things like the game speed, difficulty and damage levels. These were quite hidden ( especially when playing in portable mode ) so keep an eye out for them if you find yourself struggling. The game has practically no loading times at all, which makes starting and continuing matches very fast. Visually the game looks fantastic on the Switch's screen. The sprite work looks amazing, especially in the later games. Street Fighter III has some fantastic animations that really pop on the console's screen. While I love Alpha 3, the lack of World Tour mode in it is a bit of a downer. It was to be expected seeing as it was a home console exclusive mode but it still would have been nice to have had it in this package. It's a mode that I spent most of my time in when playing on the console versions and i'm sad that it didn't make the cut, even though it does make sense why it didn't. The graphics in the Alpha series have really stood the test of time Playing through each of these games you can see how the series has progressed over the years. More characters were introduced, gameplay styles added and graphics and animations improved. Still, outside of the original game, there is a sense of familiarity while playing each of the games, no matter what version they are. If you are an expert in one of the games then chances are that a lot of your skills will transfer over into one of the other games, providing that your character is available. This sense of familiarity makes it easy to jump between games and get straight into the action, without having to re-learn everything. The game that got every gamer hooked on the series back in the 90's Outside of the online problems, there are a few other issues with this package. Firstly, the game is very expensive compared to the other console versions. You will be looking to pay around an extra £10 for the Switch version of the game. Also, the other console got Ultra Street Fighter IV as a preorder bonus. This is something that is becoming very common amongst publishers and it's sad that Switch owners are having to put up with paying this "Switch tax". Secondly, there is an issue with the controls on the Switch. The directional pad on the joy-con isn't the best for this game, due to it requiring exact inputs in order to pull off your attacks and special moves. I found it really tricky to pull off certain moves when I needed to. This led to a lot of frustrating moments while playing the game. I can't comment on how it works with the d-pad on the Pro Controller ( apparently it's still a bit iffy ) but it seems that the best way to play this would be with either the Pokken controller or with a proper arcade stick. Either one of those should lead to a more satisfying experience. Lastly, there seems to be an issue with the audio of the game. I've been playing the game exclusively in handheld mode and the audio is very quiet in, even on max output. There doesn't seem to be a way to increase the volume, which is very annoying as a lot of the stages in the games have some fantastic music in them. Obviously, you can get around this by simply plugging in a headset but that really shouldn't have to be the case. Conclusion This is a fantastic package for those who want to relive their youth or try out the series for the first time. They are some absolute classics on offer here for players to enjoy and it's a great way of celebrating a series that has shaped the genre for 30 years now. Sure, there are a few issues but, despite these, I still recommend picking up this collection, especially if you have a controller with a decent d-pad. The Street Fighter games are a significant series in gaming's landscape and to have so many of them in a single package, and on a console that doubles as a portable system, is a dream come true.

I'd love to have some counter arguments for the sake of the debate; but honestly I don't think it's possible to disagree too much with your post. It's very easy for folks like me and others to jump up and say about how they're doing down PUBG but at the same time they're also doing lots, as you say, to sustain Fortnite in comparison. The model is intriguing given its fundamental F2P nature as it could be argued they might not make money - but they're currently one of the biggest games in the world so it's clearly working out to some extent. Always easy to turn arguments dichotomous, especially when they're particularly not. I think you've excellent highlighted exactly why it shouldn't neccessarily be done for Fortnite/Epic, either.

Considering that Street Fighter Anniversary Collection is $40 in the US and £45 in the UK? I wouldn’t go assuming that...

To be fair it was always pretty weird. I mean who jumps like this

Been married a week now... url picture We are currently in London for our honeymoon. Having a meal in the Shard tonight and then we fly to Japan for two weeks on Sunday. Cannot wait!!

<sigh> https://nintendoeverything.com/mega-man-11-only-releasing-digitally-in-europe-no-announcement-on-new-amiibo/ I'm importing this. Edit: And I'm sending any import duties straight to Capcom EU.