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Very cool! Interesting that the design language was already set in so early. Would’ve expected it to more closely evoke the Wii U & 3DS considering that this menu design hails from circa 2015-2016.

Day 300 of no alcohol, woohoo!

As someone who thinks Scarlet/Violet are by far the worst titles in the series, I don't see why this game should be the one to do it. It's a completely different genre. Plays nothing like Pokémon. Anyway, yeah. Was wondering when this game would show up here. Suffice to say, not a fan of the blatant theft going on here. And it's even more gross when you see people spouting BS like "They're stealing from Pokémon, so it's fine". EDIT: Was about to post the examples of them nicking from fan creations as well, but @Hero-of-Time had me covered there. It's insulting to all of those talented artists who design Pokémon, and it's also insulting to other games in the "Monster Catching RPG" genre who no doubt poured months into designing their own monsters, and cultivating a artistically distinct style, only for this game to come along and become a smash hit with no artistic integrity what-so-ever. It's disgusting, and it'll set a worrying precedent if nothing can be done.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Three Fairy Spirit Stones JP release: 21st March 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Epoch Publisher: Epoch N64 Magazine Score: 60% Original Name: Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki Doraemon is a very popular anime/manga character. I’ve definitely seen the robo cat’s design before. The first N64 outing took inspiration from Super Mario 64 – to the point that multiple reviewers at the time suggested it was close enough for Nintendo’s lawyers to get involved. While it looks a bit like Super Mario 64 (especially the first level, with trees looking like they were stripped out), but it doesn’t play like Mario. Doraemon is a 3D platformer and is a lot like Mario, but different in many ways. You have access to five different characters (plus a bonus one after beating the game) – Doraemon himself and the kids he hangs out with. There’s a girl that jumps higher than the rest and throws bombs, there’s kid that looks like Tommy Pickles that punches and does more damage, while Doraemon has an arm cannon. Interestingly, the title character, Nobita, is just a poor gameplay clone of Doraemon, so there’s no reason to ever use him. You can swap between them at will, but the game never makes use of this mechanic. Then there’s the actual movement. Mario had a wide moveset, in Doraemon you have one kind of jump. It’s stiff and clunky and to make matters work, your character comes to a complete stop when you land. When the movement of a platforming game is dull, it makes the whole game dull. There are a few minigames thrown in, such as a racing game and a scrolling vertical shooter, but these are similarly boring to control. The story is something I had to rely on Google translate, which baffled me as the first line came out as “Is it coronavirus?”, it turned out that the King’s name is “Korona”. Anyway, an ancient danger has awoken, the princess is sent to get help from another world because Doraemon has a magical pocket. The pocket gets stolen, but you get it back early on, but the objects are missing. Oh, and there are some fairy stones that you also need to collect pieces off to defeat the ancient evil. The stones are simple, as they’re just at the end of levels, but the other objects are hidden in chests across the world. Some are optional, some are required, and you have to do some really random things for some, including repeating previous levels (but only some). Doraemon isn’t atrocious, there’s just nothing good about it. The levels all feel random with no stand out visual design to them, and the gameplay itself is just boring. Japanese speakers who are fans of the show might get something out of the (fairly generic) story and random objects (I’m just guessing that they might be references), but it would still be tedious to play through the game. Remake or Remaster? There isn’t much reason to play this game. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Doraemon

Jesus fucking Christ, the blatant theft going around in this game is insane. Like, you don't even need to look at the 3D models, that's just Meganium's face! They didn't even bother changing the format of its eyes! From an artistic standpoint, this is simply repulsive. And of all properties they wanted to steal from, they went to the biggest IP in the world, owned by the most paranoid-about-copyright company in the videogaming space? They're going to get what they deserve. They would have better luck stealing Mickey Mouse, and I'm not even kidding.

Here are a bunch of examples I nicked from Era.

Nintendo eShop new releases (week 03) The third week of releases. A selection of new titles are now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Check the article for the full roundup. - - - - - Thanks to @Josh64 for the recently posted articles, which include... Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Deluxe Edition Out Now GAME UK Stop Offering Pre-Owned Software Anomaly Agent Releases January 25th! Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Success! Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Announced for Nintendo Switch Fashion Dreamer – New Year's Update Mario vs. Donkey Kong CG Opening Turnip Boy Robs a Bank Out Now! Another Code: Recollection is Out Now! The Pedestrian – Launch Trailer Play Eastward for Free with Nintendo Switch Online! See you next week!

TPC might be getting more concrete grounds to sue. Because yeah, this can't be chalked up to coincidence. VGC article on the matter. EDIT: Also, a list of just over 50 Pals that range from blatant to suspect.

Doraemon was huge in Portugal and Spain (still is, I think)... but not yet in 1997, so this game never came out here I'm impressed that such a substantial adaptation came out so early for the N64. Anyway, that Nobita comment made me laugh Him being useless is pretty faithful to the show!

Makes no difference. I reckon the majority of people still just see a game that looks like Pokémon but with better graphics and superior performance than anything Game Freak has released. The next Pokémon game to be revealed by Game Freak could easily find itself getting compared to Palworld as a result, which has the potential to put some additional pressure on them to improve how their next game will look and run.

Well at least I can still tell the difference when it comes to AI (for now, at least) If nothing else I think this highlights the strength of the designs in Pokémon that it's so easy to pick up on them being an AI/blend of existing designs, but also it's popularity really highlights that while Game Freak get worked to the bone on the main series and don't really get to give those games as much time and polish as they might warrant, there's still a hunger for different takes on Pokémon. After seeing the trailer and footage for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle the other day, I can't help but think back to the research team finding that Mew fossil, and how great an actual adventure game where you're learning more about the history of that world would be. But alas, I'll just settle for watching it back I'm more surprised they haven't included a Mickey Mouse 'mon, seeing as the character copyright ended at the start of the year. Why not go all the way? Let me play this as dual-wielding Mickey! Speaking of, I hope we get an update on MOUSE soon...

Considering the time frame of its release? This honestly looks pretty impressive, especially for a cheap licensed game. 3D platformers are amongst the most difficult types of games to make, but especially in the mid 90s where nothing was standardised and middleware didn’t yet exist. This honestly looks fairly comparable to Croc 1, which is no mean feat. Kudos!

Yeah, the original controls will certainly put a few people off. I'm not sure how the new ones are going to work though. The tank controls did have a degree of accuracy to them which allowed you to position yourself perfectly when trying to make tricky jumps.

One of my favourite levels in FSA. Having a group of people all wander around the place trying to figure out what needs to be done. And there's always that one person whose like "Nah, I haven't found anything" while they're sneakily pocketing all the Force Gems they just stumbled upon... Screw all those Zelda HD remasters people keep asking for! Gimme an online version of this game! It'd be amazing!

[emoji444]What are they feeding you! [emoji444]

You can't have a Golden Sun playthrough without being very immature and posting this classic.

Finally got around to listing what I played last year. As usual, the PS4/PS5 were my preferred way to play my games. There was a lot of usage from PS+ this year, with me often playing through games twice to get the double platinum. There were also a lot of games that I replayed thanks to some of them getting free PS5 upgrades. Looking through the list, I actually didn't buy that many games and the ones I did buy this year were often during a sale. Games that I paid full price for were... Pikmin 4 Kirby's Dream Land DX Pikmin HD Super Mario Wonder Super Mario RPG Remastered Metroid Prime Remastered Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Gargoyles Remastered Baten Kaitos Remastered Fire Emblem Engage Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Advance Wars Remastered Grim Guardians Frogun As you can see, a lot of them are on the Switch and this is because there is no real benefit to waiting as most of the time they stay full price anyway. I did drop a few of them though. These were Advance Wars Remastered, Fire Emblem Engage, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and Baten Kaitos Remastered. I wasn't feeling any of them at the time and so ditched them to play other games.

If we'd put our heads together we maybe would have wondered if it were them because of the Cold Case game on 3DS.

Oh how I miss it so much

I'm pretty sure it's new news: these were developed by Arc System Works! Ya know, the predominantly 2D fighter guys behind Guilty Gear, Double Dragon and Dragon Ball FighterZ?! Didn't see that coming..like, at all! Always love those times I find myself surprised to learn the developers behind a game but seriously, what a get! It certainly seem like an inspired choice, at least when it comes to their approach to the art style; their games pretty much always look great!